Friday Jonah had a Birthday. Our Cousin Ansley who had arrived from Chad to volunteer as Head Matron at GAH also had a birthday April 10. We had a fun Birthday party for the two of them. One of the games we played was Ethiopian Piñata. Farangi staff donated candies sent to them by loved ones and soon we had a nice little box full of “Carmellos” (as they call them here in Gimbie) to batter blind-folded with a stick.

Sabbath morning during church Jonah snuck in quietly to the kitchen. Unbeknownst to his parents, he found the beaten up Piñata box on the table. He discovered it still contained Carmellos. He stuffed his pockets with them. Showing his age- he kept quiet. At two, he would have showed what was in his pockets the next minute. But now he is three, and apparently, his we are in for a whole new world of parenting.

Soon it was nap time. Quietly and happily Jonah went to bed. Not a request for a drink, not a need for the bathroom a second time, nor the plaintive yearning for a favorite stuffed animal, no, none of the usual. His naïve mother went back to listen to a sermon next door, walkie talkie in hand, and not a peep was heard from Jonah. She felt a sense of accomplishment as she commented on what a good little boy he had been to his father. Maybe three would be easier? After all, wasn’t he out of the so called “terrible twos”?

But alas, an hour later, his unsuspecting mother found him fast asleep in a large pile of candy wrappers, blissfully covered in stickiness from head to toe.