HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMURICA

So there are 2 problems with celebrating the 4th of July in Ethiopia.

1. According to Ethiopian calendar, it's only June 27th (they are 7 days behind us and a lot of years - technically July 4th, 2013 is June 27th, 2005 in Ethiopia) 

2. Ethiopians don't care about American independence day

My 4th of July looked a LOT different than it EVER has before (taking pictures of 100 guardians and their children for their US sponsors all day and then going out to eat), but it was still an amazing day.  AND Brittany and I were able to manage to be as American as possible - we got a philly cheesesteak, went to ice cream afterwards (GREAT decision), and ate chocolate chip cookies when we got home (WE FOUND COOKIE MIX AT THE SUPERMARKET. It was the best day ever). Because that's my major life update (OH. and we have the FIRST ENGAGED MEMBER OF JCGSFF!!!!!!!), I'm pulling a Megna and giving the rest of my updates in pictures.  And if each picture is worth 1,000 words, that should amount to the length of my normal blog posts. 

Ordered the carrot juice because it was on the "list of things to do before leaving Ethiopia".  It's now on the "list of things never to order again"

"I spy.... sheep standing on top of a moving bus" 

SIMBO!!! Ethiopian friend #2.  She took us on another adventure around  Addis - we went to get pizza (it was the BEST pizza we've had in Ethiopia.... hence the reason the 3 of us were able to finish 2 pizza's) and then took pictures at some photography place (it's what she and her friends do on special occasions).  My favorite part was that it felt like we were becoming friends.  We didn't go out with any specific goal/determined to see something we'd never seen before, we just spent the day with our new Ethiopian friend.  She also speaks really good English, which helps a lot. 

I didn't get to go to Ambo this week so I stayed in Burayu and got to do home visits with them.  Here's Nathanial opening his present from his sponsor in the US! New rain jacket!!! When it rains 4 hours a day (at least) every day during the summer, it will definitely come in handy.

Tatilu!!! Misganaw (SVO director)'s wife.  She doesn't speak a lot of English but she is AMAZING. 

Buze (Nathanial's mom, one of the guardians) invited us to stay for chai (tea) and bread! Usually it's culture to share coffee together, but she knew Katie and I didn't drink coffee so she made us tea instead :]  

Home visit to Desii's home (she is on the far right).  Desii has 4 kids - 3 are biological and the oldest is her sister's, who she took in after her sister and the husband died.  She just had a set of twins, but one of them passed away (she's holding the newest member).  During her most recent pregnancy her husband left, leaving her with 3 kids, 2 (so we thought) on the way, and no way to work.  She has to move out of the house she's living in within the week (the family who is renting it to her needs it for storage) and is struggling to find somewhere else to live.  She works in her group's shop (they have started a business) 1 time a week (and brings the baby with her), but that is the only source of income she has (which is MAYBE $1/week.  The shop has just started and isn't making a profit yet).  Morale of the story... Desii's really struggling.  I'm really thankful we visited her home, because her biggest thing right now is trying to be independent and fix her problems herself, because she feels like a burden on other people.  It was cool getting to explain to her how THAT is the purpose of the program, to give her people she can reach out to and lean on when she needs help.  I was able to speak into her a little bit about asking other people to carry your burdens because it's something I'm REALLY bad at, but in the past year I've seen how much I need people.  So, the visit was definitely purposeful. But really tough. She was the 2nd home of the day we visited where the guardian had recently lost a baby, so we spent a lot of time grieving with the families and offering comfort in any way we could.  There's just not much to do in those situations except for BE and pray for strength.

We're having all the kids fill out "All About Me's", mainly so their sponsors can get to know them better (and we're tying it to teach English so we're killing 2 birds with 1 stone).  Yesterday we were getting some of the left over kids and it was SUPER hectic.  The older girls were AMAZING. The kids would come to me and get their incomplete paper, and then one of the older girls would grab the posters (they have the English words to fill in for each category so that the kids can spell the words), take the younger kid, and sit with the kid and help him/her fill it out.  The girl in the read sweater (Bayise) is a Compassion kid and isn't even in the SVO program, she was just INCREDIBLY helpful.  I most definitely couldn't have done it without them.  And I LOVED seeing the kids serve each other.

I FOUND A KITTEN AT THE CHURCH!!!!!! I decided it was TOTALLY worth the risk of fleas/whatever diseases it carried and pet it.  Turns out the language barrier has NOTHING on my ability to bond with kittens.

Gurum and Nathanial (both kids in the program).  They're rockstars.   We have about 25 pictures on my phone of us making different faces... they were loving it.

Traditional Ethiopian garb (I forget the name...) that Yodit (see previous post) and her group made!! Kes Cimdii and Aworke (the project coordinator in Burayu) had a fashion show for us - it was HILARIOUS (these are what women wear).    

Forengies becoming Ethiopian.  We drew quite a crowd at the church when we put these on - there was a lot of laughter and LOTS of pictures were taken.  But at least we were the right gender...

"When you give a kid your camera"... you wind up with 202 pictures, about 20 of which are quality.  But, totally worth it. (p.s. if you look at the kid who's trying to take a picture of us... the phone he's using is still on the home screen.  I don't know what homeboy is doing, but he's not taking a picture) 

Elshiday (Yodit's daughter)!

GIRUM!!!! She was my helper with the All About Me's, my photographer (except when she wanted to be in the picture), and my Amharic instructor for the day ("Cat" = "demmit" in Amheric).  It would be an understatement to say that she's amazing.  It was also REALLY tempting to make this my prof pic, but that would be too cliche, so I just made it extra large on the blog.

FIRST OFFICIAL SELFIE THAT I DIDN'T HELP ANYONE TAKE!!!! I found this on my phone later... mission accomplished.

This week has been WAY different than I expected (I was expecting to be in Ambo making beads all day long and sitting through guardian meetings in Burayu on the off days).  Instead I got to spend a lot more time at Burayu, connect with a few AMAZING kids, and today we're going to the clinic in Burayu and GOING ON ANOTHER ADVENTURE THAT SOMEONE INITIATED AND WE DIDN'T EVEN ASK FOR!!! Urjii, the Compassion director at the church, is taking us to the National Museum and then to her house, where her mom is preparing duro wat, a traditional dish.  I'M SO EXCITED.

This is Urjii. Photo credit to Girum.  Megna you would like it here... things look trendy without even trying.

Prayer Requests:
- Our team dynamics
- Brittany and I are leading the Youth messages for the next 2 Sundays, so that we would discern what God wants them to know instead of what we want to tell them.
- That Desii would find a house this week
- Divine comfort for Bije, who lost her newborn last week
- That my parents would understand when a kitten pops out of my suitcase when we get home ;]
THANKS for the prayers, emails, and all the support. It means more than you know.