Dear ECS: It has been a minute

Dear ECS,

Hey honey, it has been a minute since I wrote to you (almost 2 months!).  Sorry about that--it has been pretty busy per usual for the entire Korol family and I haven’t been able to carve out the time to write.

One big development since I last wrote to you is that you have started at your new school.  Classes are taught in Amharic and French, which is quite a challenge for an adorable three year old whose life outside of school is entirely conducted in English.  I don’t really speak any French beyond the requisite “ca va?”  It is a challenge that you are making look easy thus far, happily counting in three languages, and switching pretty seamlessly between them within a moment.

We have also had plenty of playdates – sometime you with your friends and sometimes your friends and my friends in tandem. 

We have also enjoyed having visitors over the last couple of weeks, a treat here on the other side of the world with long, long flights required from the States that cost an arm and a leg.  We hosted so many people in the Bahamas; by my count 80 visitors stayed the night in our townhouse there in the two years we lived there (well you lived there like a year and a few months technically). 

One joy of having visitors come to your city and house is that you get to show them the things you like – be it the trails we enjoy near the house, or our favorite restaurants and shops, or the best day and/or weekend trips outside of Addis.   Seeing and hearing about these delights reinforces the qualities of the city and country that we enjoy, in effect seeing the familiar again through new eyes. 

This process is a microcosm of seeing the world again and renewed through your eyes as a parent.  An example from last evening was seeing the shine in your eyes and wonder in your voice while we looked at this massive bird of prey, a kite, perched on a tree branch high above our flower garden before it swooped elsewhere.  That bird was stunning and powerful and special, but I would have probably not focused on this moment of beauty without you showing me the way.

What else have we been up to?  

Predictably it has involved lots of airports and airplanes – luckily two of your favorite things.  Your ability to travel well is amazing, and that same excitement you had on seeing the huge bird last night at our house is replicated a multitude of times on our numerous trips, be it a UNESCO castle or a cave church from the 10^th century.  Right now, you are super curious and want to understand the why behind pretty much everything.  Why is a great question to ask when traveling, and the answers often are so revealing of human nature and nature broadly.  I try as much as I can to engage each of those ‘why’ questions as an opportunity to share some little nugget I have learned in my time on earth.

Some of our trips this last many weeks have been with you, and some have been solo parent trips.  I visited friends in Paris and then did a boys weekend in Lisboa--both of which were sublime.  Mom was in Paris a week ago for a Duke girl’s weekend to celebrate her fortieth birthday (looking and feeling great @ 40 Mu!).   

We also met up as a family-visiting friends in Cairo – a city that was charming and steeped in millenniums of human history.  Then we have done some long weekend trips inside Ethiopia.  So a lot of movement and amazing places in the last couple of months. 

love you honey - mais amor,

dad