Face Painting

 On one of the first afternoons we were there and before we started home visits, we had the foster home over for dinner.  Before we got dinner, Jonnett had face paints that a sponsor had sent.  We decided there was no better time than the present to have a face paint party with the kids at the foster home.  We had serious painters and not so serious painters.  No one was exempt and even the guard got in on the action!

Joy very patiently let me paint hers and I graciously returned the favor.  She was very proud of her masterpiece (my face).

Home Visits

Starting on Wednesday, our days we very similar.  We got up between 7 and 7:30 unless we were on the schedule to make breakfast.  If we were making breakfast, we were up about an hour before that to fix whatever is we had planned to fix.  We had several good cooks amongst us; and as we found out, there is not much that we can make that tastes bad.  We had eggs, french toast, baked oatmeal with fruit, muffins, banana bread, and even pancakes.  At 8:15, the social workers would show up and someone would lead us in a short devotion and morning prayer.  Then, we would split up into groups of 3-4 and go visit families in their homes.  

Home visits are hard to describe and sound a lot more difficult than they really are.  We could take several modes of transportation to get to the home.  Our options included walking, Bajaj, taxi, and horse buggy.  Once there, the social worker would tell us the family history and some of their story.  Often times, the child or children were living with guardians because their parents had died.  Sometimes, the moms had jobs but most of the times they didn't.  Several families were affected by HIV either in the parents, kids, or both.  They have experienced much heartache, sorrow, and scary circumstances.  Many times, a family would be split up with children living with different relatives because it was too hard to care for all them in the same home.  Small children are forced to grow up quickly because they need to take care of younger sibling or sick parents and guardians.  We only visited one home that had a 2 parents but both had HIV.  However, despite all this they were not broken people.  They are beautiful, courageous, strong, God loving, and Christ praising individuals.  We tell them the bread is good and they praise the Lord. We ask them for prayer requests and parents ALWAYS talk about their children and not themselves.  They have nothing but offer us coffee, tea, and bread anyway.  They trust in Him for their basic provisions and know that He will provide even when they give their last piece to strangers.  

We always took gifts for the families.  The social workers would tell us the ages of the children and pick out some of the shoes that would fit.  We would take balls, toys, clothes, hats, coloring books, crayons, pencils, and children's books.  We would share them with the kids and spend time playing with them and laughing with them.  There was language barrier, but it doesn't seem to matter when you kicking around a soccer ball or playing monkey in the middle.  

Many times, neighborhood kids would try to peek in and see what was going on with white people.  They usually weren't too intrusive and the kids were always nice to share.  We had to be careful because one you gave something to one you had better have enough for everyone and then they would just keep coming.

It's amazing how much families and neighbors will look out for each other.  Often times, a child's guardian would be someone from the compound who took him or her in after the parent's death.  Or if a parent had to be at work, the neighbors would take a child to the doctors and watch out for them at home.  Without smartphones, internet, TVs, and computers, they are dependent on real human relationships to pass the time.  Conversations, friendships, and games with sticks and ball are how they pass their time.  It's something we should try to do with more purpose because it's what really matters but is too often overlooked.

Tuesday

Whoops.  Sorry for the long break.  I was in Michigan and then in Wyoming avoiding this oven that is Illinois.  Now that it's cooled off to more reasonable temperatures, I'm back for the long haul.  Hopefully, I can finish this up in the next two weeks and haven't forgotten too much already.

On Tuesday morning, we got up and took a hike up Couch Mountain.  This mountain overlooks the city of Debre Zeyit.  It's not a huge or extremely difficult mountain to conquer but the thin air did get to us pretty fast.  We made it to the top and spent several minutes looking out over the city while Mussie pointed out a few landmarks.  We saw a pig farm and I think the main road.  It was hard to really understand when we had only been there 2 days.  There were skinny cows grazing along the side and a few skulls being bleached in the sun.  After catching our breath, we took some time to prayer over the city and our upcoming time there.  It was a really neat and special way to start the trip.

After we made the much easier climb down the mountain, we went on a church tour.  BCI works with 5 different churches.  There is a social worker that works through each church.  The churches are all fairly big well established churches in the city.  Many of them have outreach churches and church plants throughout the city.  The one below is one of the nicest buildings of the five.  It was built with money from a Dutch missionary.  The rest are mostly open air with tin roofs and canvas sides.  They all have wood benches and most have rock or gravel floors inside.  However, it doesn't stop the people from filling the aisles and pews every Sunday.  The church we spent the most time at was one called Zion.  It is located on the same street as "prostitute row."  It is across the street from the many bars where men can go in and order a drink and woman.  The pastor and his wife have been there from the very beginning and have a very strong sense of purpose in where God has put them and their church.  They have several outreaches there including a bible study, healing service, teaching crafts, and a cafe.  They are serving Christ just as Jesus did among the "least of these"and making a huge difference for Him in a place most people would avoid.  It's a special place to visit.  The first picture is the inside of Zion and the second two are the inside and outside of Misgana.  I didn't have pictures of Emmanuel and there will be more of Lem Lem and MKC later.  

After visiting the churches, we had lunch at the Ethiopian Air Force officers club.  It was on a really pretty lake and was considered very upscale.  After we ate, we went down to take a few more pictures of the lake and some Ethiopian teenage girls came up and wanted pictures with us.  We were white celebrities. Haha!

They laughed and laughed and laughed at us as we used our 2 days worth of Amaharic to try to communicate with them.  Mostly we just kept saying "Konju" or beautiful trying to tell them how pretty they were.  Teenagers in America and Ethiopia really aren't that much different.

Monday

Each day at the guest house starts out with devotions led by someone on one of the missionary teams or a social worker.  It's an 8:15 start which really wasn't too bad for anyone in our group.  We had a schedule that had us cooking breakfast for each other every morning.  Throughout the 2 weeks, we had pancakes, french toast, baked oatmeal, eggs, oatmeal, banana muffins, and banana bread.  It was all delicious no matter what the cooking expertise was of the cooks in the kitchen.

We met the social workers, principal of BCI, and academy director.  The social workers were busy working on sponsor letters so we weren't to spend the day with them like usual.  Instead, we headed out to the school to check out BCI Academy.

The school is grades 1-7 but they are completing construction on additional rooms and a cafeteria which will allow them to have K-8 next year.  They were in the last couple of weeks of their school year and just as ready as any kids to be on their summer vacations.  Michelle and I had visits with our Compassion kids so we were only at the school to say hi and get the tour.  The rest of the group got to teach sport, art, and music because the TiaTia family was still out of town.  More on the Tiatia's later.  

After a quick tour at the school, Michelle and I went back to the guest house and met our kids that we sponsor through Compassion.  The two translators that came were the 2 that I met on my trip last year. It was fun to see familiar faces from before.  I started sponsoring Yonatan after we got back last year.  He is only 5 1/2 and pretty small for his age.  At first, he was pretty scared but it wasn't really explained to him what was going on.  I felt bad that he was scared but after we started going through the backpack of gifts I brought him he quickly cheered up.  His mom and the social worker from his project were with him.  He lives in Northern Ethiopia and had to take a plane to get to Addis the previous there.  He was promised cake and orange pop for being brave on the trip and he got both at the restaurant for lunch. 

I had brought him some new clothes, match box cars, bubbles, and soccer ball.  We smashed cars on the sidewalk for almost an hour before going at it at soccer very seriously.  He has a great smile and takes his soccer playing very seriously.  He goes after the ball 100% every time.  He's going to be great as we gets older and has more practice.  His mom also gave me the beautiful scarf in the picture below. We had a great time playing and getting to know each other.  I loved his little smile and big personality.  It was hard to say goodbye but hopefully there will be other chances to see him again.  

 We had home church in the evening and an early bedtime to try to continue to catch up on our sleep and get adjusted for all the things still yet to come.

Sunday

Sunday, we got up and split up into groups of 3 to go to different church services around Debre Zeyit.  I was with Will and Robin and we went to a small outreach church just around the corner from the guest house.  Choo Choo walked us there and back.  We met the principal of the school and his kids there too.  Ethiopian church takes long services to a whole new meaning.  It's usually 3 hours with praying, singing, preaching, announcements, and more preaching.  In fact, at our service the evangelist spoke and then the man who was introduced to us as the pastor got up to speak.  The people translating for us turned and said, "He's saying the same things."  They repeat things a lot apparently.  They repeat it when they speak and then they hear it again from someone else.  However, that doesn't seem to lessen the value.  It makes it more valuable.

When we first got there, the service hadn't quite started yet but we could hear music being played and practiced.  We asked what it was and they took us behind the tent to a small room where high school aged young men and women were singing.  It seemed like it was worship practice for the service, but they did a lot more in the hour of practice than they did in the service.  I think they were just enjoying singing and worshipping together.  It was really fun to hang out, watch, and listen.  I have a lot of videos I want to share but I'm having issues uploading them.  For some reason it won't work through iPhoto.  I'll have to redo them straight to my hard drive and try again.  There is one of them practicing but I'll keep working on it.

The rest of Sunday was spent figuring out our meals, relaxing, meeting the kids at the foster home, and a quick stop to the Internet to tell everyone we had arrived safely.  The Foster Home has 2 mom and 9 kids.  The goal of the foster home is to have the kids placed in church homes and families in Ethiopia.  They have had a few adopted to the states and 2 are in the process of being adopted by the missionary coordinator (Mussie) and his wife (Jonnett).  Mussie and Jonnett live at the guest house and have only been married a month and a half.  They have great hearts for service noted especially by the fact that they are living their first married months in a house with constantly coming and going strangers.  Playing with the foster kids was definitely a perfect way to start off our time in Ethiopia.  Who could resist these smiles???

Ethiopia 2012-Our Team & Organization

Well, I have returned from my latest venture to Ethiopia and am sitting on the White Lake front porch ready to do a series of tell all posts about this year's trip.  It's tempting to start at the end because that's what happened most recently, but I suppose it will make more sense to start at the beginning.

I was dubbed the "fearless leader" of our group because I was drafted into the position after we returned a year ago.  There were 8 of us who went and 6 from my church in Champaign.  1 college friend who knew I went last year and wanted to go on a trip so she picked mine and a woman who went on one of WRCC trips last year and knew someone on this year's trip.  I knew most of them from my small group here and of course Michelle from college. This is us minus Michelle who met us at OHare because she was traveling from Iowa where she has a law internship for the summer.  From left to right, we are Nancy, Mark, Will, Robin, Larissa, April, and Jessica.  Will and Robin made our t-shirts and they generated several good conversations in airports about who we were and where we were going.

We left Friday at noon for OHare and had an 8 hour flight to Frankfurt.  In Frankfurt, we only had enough time to chug our water bottles empty, go through security, (at which the security guard looked at me and my empty bottle and said, "water or Schnapps??") and board the second plane.  We landed in Addis Ababa Saturday evening and met our ride to go to Debre Zeyit.  We were tired and ready for a bed even if the barking dogs were determined to keep us up.

The organization we worked with is called Blessing the Children International.  It is a child sponsorship program that is only in Debre Zeyit, Ethiopia.  They have 150 kids in their program and 5 social workers to manage them.  They have a foster home and a growing private school.  BCI is a great organization with some wonderful people working to make the lives of children and families in Debre Zeyit better.  Check out their website, sponsor a child, and go on a trip to visit him or her.  You won't regret it.  www.blessingthechildren.org

Leaving

I'm leaving for Ethiopia again today.  I've had a full week off to hang out, get ready, and try to stifle boredom.  I'm more than ready to just leave and be there.  I've packed 49.2 lbs of my 50 lb limit plus a computer bag without a computer (hey, it's bigger than my purse!) and a backpack.  We've been blessed with so many donations that we are going to look like we are leaving for 6 months instead of 2 weeks.  Our team is a little anxious and nervous but mostly just excited.  Excited to see what God has planned. Excited to love on a lot of people and kids. Excited to learn more about each other and our own walk with God.

On Monday, I get to meet the young man who I sponsor through Compassion International.  He's a 6 years old and just finished his first year of school.  I can't wait to meet him and just show him how much he's thought about an ocean away.  The language barrier makes things challenging but I'm bringing a soccer ball so rest assured we'll probably get along great.

I'm not taking my computer but Mark is and he writes a blog here http://www.aardsma.com/.  He'll be posting some so you can check to see some of what we are doing there.  We are also going to send some email updates to our families so if you really can't wait until I get back and have a chance to put stuff here, email my mom and she can forward you some updates.  Thanks so much for the prayers!! And remember, I might be the one leaving the country right now but our lives aren't to lived one overseas mission trip at a time.  Your LIFE is a mission trip.  Make the most of it.