Amharic (and Happy New Year!)

Happy 2010, folks! If I were the reporters on T.V. I would say something like: "Well, a lot of people had a really tough 2009, and we are all looking forward to 2010 being a very promising year for the economy" because they say that every year, and it's usually true. But, since I'm not on T.V. I'd rather say something like: "God is faithful last year, and God is faithful this year. Praise Him." Because that is sure to be true.

So, I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but this year (or last year, I guess) I began studying Amharic--- the official language of Ethiopia. I felt very convicted that the Lord was calling me to learn this language, because let me tell you, otherwise I would have quit months ago. I'm still just barely beginning, but it is certainly getting easier now. The biggest problem is that they have a different alphabet, which makes translating take two steps: translating it into English letters and then translating the actual word. Oh, and this isn't just any old different alphabet, no, it has 251 letters. Yeahhhhh. I about cried when I found that out. To give you an idea, here is a picture of the traditional Amharic Fidel (alphabet).

The other thing is, there isn't a very consistent way to translate from Amharic to English, and not many learning tools for it. I'm homeschooling myself in this course, but I'm sure it would be far easier to just live there for a while and pick it up.

Frustrating? YES.

But when I think about this face:

And this one:

And this one:

I know its worth it. :)