I Love Lucy

WE SAW LUCY!!! You know those bones they found some years ago that were really important in the study of evolution?  Turns out it was in Ethiopia, and a couple weeks ago they “brought Lucy home”, put her in the National Museum, and we got to see “her” on Friday! It was weird because Lucy’s someone I’ve heard about since Mrs. Gleason’s class in 7^th grade biology, and “she” was sitting right in front of me.  It’s was one of the biggest discoveries EVER in science, and she’s just chilling in Ethiopia.  Pretty cool.

Our day with Urjii was AWESOME.  She and her brother took us to 2 museums, and then we got to go to their house.  Her mom had spent 4 hours cooking Duro Wat (a traditional chicken dish) that is a lot of Ethiopian’s favorite food.  I’m constantly humbled by how welcoming people are here.  I had spoken with Urjii earlier in the week, and naturally, our conversation turned to food.  I told her that we hadn’t tried Duro Wat (her favorite food) and Brittany and I really liked adventuring, and the next day she had coordinated with Kes Cimdii to invite us over to her home.

In Ethiopia, feeding each other is a sign of affection.  Husband’s feed their wives the first bite of every meal, and from what I’ve gathered, sometimes friends and family members will do the same thing.  So, Brittany and I decided in order to continue in our quest to become Ethiopianized, we had to do the same thing. 

I had no idea she was going to feed
me at the same time...

FIRST CUP OF COFFEE!! 

AND I consider my Ethopianization almost complete because I HAD MY FIRST CUP OF COFFEE!!! Apparently it was really strong, but I had nothing to compare it to.  I put 3 spoonfulls of sugar in (because that’s what I see everyone else doing here) so I think I drank half a cup of sugar, but it definitely didn’t take away from the coffee taste.

The big church

This morning (Sunday) we went to visit an Orthodox church with Mezalu (the Gleason’s housemaid)’s daughter Hewitt.   It’s the oldest Orthodox Church in Ethiopia (Orthodox is the largest religion in Ethiopia) and it was beautiful.  My favorite part was that we had to take our shoes off before we entered the church (I know, super insightful).  

The smaller church, on the same campus

There was a separate door for men and women – they sit apart during the service.  It looked pretty similar to a Catholic church with stained glass and paintings on the walls/ceilings, but apparently there are a couple significant differences between the Catholic church and Orthodox church.  I don’t know enough about either of them to draw any conclusions/make any generalizations, but I really enjoyed seeing the  church.  

Hewitt and I! 

Mezalu, me, Britt, and Hewitt

Mezalu invited us to her house afterwards to eat, where I had the BEST scrambled eggs I’ve ever had, a mysterious looking/tasting cheese, grilled veggies, AND my second cup of coffee.  Our driver also came in to eat with us – his name is Teshale and he rocks.  Photo credit of the 4 of us is to him.

We also got to visit the Burayu clinic on Friday (so yes, we actually did something other than sightseeing).  It was bigger than I expected (I also expected a 1 room deal), but it was still pretty low quality.  Part of a family’s sponsorship funds their trips to this clinic, so we thought we might as well check it out to see what kind of healthcare they had access to.  Things we found out:

-          The biggest need is equipment.  They don’t even have the equipment for an IV.

-          The clinic can diagnose treat HIV and other major STD’s, diagnose and treat TB , birth babies and perform abortions, and give prescription drugs and birth control. There is no place to stay overnight, so women who have babies leave the same day.

-          It is fully funded by the government.  When the government runs out of HIV diagnostic tests, so does the clinic.  They’ve currently been out of stock for about 3 weeks, and while they still have the treatment for HIV, they have no idea when they will get a new set of HIV diagnostic kits.

The Emergency Room, Changing Room, and TB medication combo

-          The emergency room, changing area, and room for taking TB medication is the same.   Brittany asked how they sterilize the room to prevent the spread of TB (it’s super “spreadable”), and the guy pointed to the window.  TB patients stand outside and are handed their TB pills through the window so that they don’t infect any of the patients in the clinic.  The health care officers do not wear masks when delivering the medication.  Doesn’t sound super preventative to me.  There was also a cow tied up outside the window where the patients come.  Berhanu (the manager) offered us fresh milk when we were leaving, but we politely declined.

It was eye opening to see, mainly because it made me realize how advanced healthcare is in other parts of the world.  There were 2 rooms for patient care, 1 for pediatrics (ages 0 -5) and 1 for adults (ages 5 and up).  The waiting room did not have a TV to watch Toy Story in, separate “sick” and “well” rooms, or unlimited magazines as the doctor’s offices that I have grown up do.  Instead, there were benches lined up outside with people waiting to pick up prescriptions, to see a health officer/nurse, or to get treated for HIV.  There was no fresh paper to pull over the bed to sit on, swivel chairs to sit in as you waited between the nurse in the doctor, or drawers with lollipops waiting for you as you left the office (yes, I still go to my pediatrician).  Instead there was a desk, a “bed” for the patient to lie on, and a sink in the back with a bowl full of tubes for blood testing.

So next time I want to complain about healthcare being such a big issue or having to go to my yearly check-up or about how my on-campus health center doesn’t have the most quality doctors or how I have to wait 45 minutes for the dentist to come do a 3 minute check on my teeth, hopefully I’ll remember the Burayu clinic and be grateful that I can receive care that the majority of the rest of the world doesn’t have access to.

Random pictures:

The well where the clinic gets water (and Kes Cimdii pulling it up).  It’s also the first well I’ve ever seen – no wonder there are so many stories about people who get stuck in them and can’t get back up!

Brooklyn's a reindeer!

This is supposed to be a video... in the probable chance that it didn't upload, you get a quality picture of Gomichez.

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.

Hope

Yodit is one of the Burayu guardians.  Her daughter is named Elshiday (God Almighty… all the names in Ethiopia have meanings.  It’s cool.  And an easy conversation starter).   She has been the group leader for the group Tokuma (Unity) for almost 3 years now, so she’s a ways into the program.  Tokuma has started a spice shop business, but it isn’t as successful as they had initially planned and Tokuma has experienced a LOT of conflict.  We had a “conflict resolution” meeting a couple weeks ago with them – it was a 4 hour meeting that consisted of giving everyone a chance to say how they were feeling about the program/group dynamics/business… we pretty much just forced them to talk to each other. Although it didn’t solve everything, it got a LOT out that needed to come out, and a lot of the women wound up apologizing to each other and coming together to figure out how to move forward.

So that’s the backstory.  Yodit is AMAZING.  Over the 3 years that she’s been in the program, she has moved three times, each time to a smaller house (for different reasons – the land owner randomly significantly increased the rent, the owner of the compound decided he wanted to tear her house down and build a bigger house for his family, etc.) She now lives in a room the size of my closet with a bed, dresser, and enough space to squeeze between the two to get into bed (literally, you walk into the house and hit the bed).  When she was first handed the keys to Tokuma’s business, she said she the verse that immediately came to her mind was Nehemiah 2:20 “The God of heaven will make us prosper”.  She wrote the verse on a sign and hung it up in her shop as an encouragement to the rest of the group.  Since that moment, everything has kind of turned to shambles.  Her group started falling apart, the business was anything BUT successful, and she was in the middle of moving yet again. 

But Yodit has INCREDIBLE hope and faith.  She said that as her house gets smaller, her hope that the Lord will redeem her gets bigger.  She came to Ambo with us to teach beads to the guardians last Weds. and spoke at their meetings to encourage them, both in Christ and in the program. 

I was humbled and amazed.  Here I am, getting discouraged at the slightest setback.  The second I feel like my faith is challenged, or something I’ve invested in fails, or I pray for something that doesn’t immediately come to light, I’m like “God, where you at? You’re obviously not real/not who you say you are/I’m making all this up”.  And I look at Yodit, and in the back of my mind I think “How long is it going to take, or how many times are you going to have to fail, before you just give up?” But it’s AMAZING because she doesn’t.  Because Yodit understands what it means to hope in Christ.  What it means to see her group falling apart and to wake up the morning before their meetings and pray for each one of them, even those who aren’t speaking to her, by name.  “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) – that verse is REAL to her.  Yodit understands that this world is going to be HARD.  But that she has an unfailing hope in Christ (“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is IMPERISHABLE, UNDEFILED, and UNFADING, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  IN this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. 1 Peter 2:3-7)

Yodit’s faith is tested EVERY day.  But as she pointed out when drawing an analogy to what her group is going through, it is being tested by fire, so that in the end it “may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ”.

Thanks to Yodit (and lots of the other guardians) I’m learning that hoping in Christ doesn’t mean that we’re hoping that life is going to be easy on this Earth.  It’s clinging to the promise we have that He has victory over this world.  And that even though it’s hard and the physical circumstances might not ever get better, we have Christ and NOTHING can separate us from His love (Romans 8:35 – 37).  Yodit rejoices in her sufferings because she knows that God is with her.  It’s a kind of faith that I don’t see often but that I’ve been overwhelmed with this summer (mainly through Brittany, Yodit, and Kes Cimdii).  It’s also one of those things that I can listen to sermons on/preach to myself/read about, but it doesn’t actually mean anything until I actually see it.  So I’m still praying for that kind of faith because I hope in a whole lot of other things (getting to eat 3 meals a day, good grades, being successful in my involvements, being recognized) that when they fail, are big setbacks both emotionally and in my faith.  And I’m thankful that I have the opportunity to see people who have taken hold of what it means to actually hope in Christ.

 “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” Romans 5:3-5

Sorry about the lack of posts... the 1st of the month means we have to reset our internet, and that's just a whole bunch of complicated.  More to come! 

There's no such thing as solving for x

It’s been a solid couple of days.  And by solid, I mean I’ve been humbled, encouraged, frustrated, excited, dreadful, joyful, overwhelmed, surprised, homesick, and emotional at the thought of leaving.  I guess a “bumpy” couple of days would be a better description. BUT here's me trying to explain what we're doing!

MONDAY highlights

 Britt and I found a smoothie place down the street from ICS (the International school).  I had a strawberry banana smoothie AND a peanut butter banana smoothie (yes, we went twice in the span of 4 hours).  BEST. DAY. EVER.

We had a 4 hour team meeting on Monday night to talk about the program.  It’s tough, because there’s no such thing as “solving for x”.  It was really interesting to see Katie and Rudy working together as a team – to lead the groups to success, Rudy breaks everything down into the “business plan model” (income – expenses = profit), while Katie is much more on the “we have to encourage the guardians and bring them together as a GROUP”  (Rudy is an engineering professor, Katie has a Ph.D in developmental psychology.  Some things just make sense).  But it was neat because BOTH inputs are crucial in helping these groups move forward.  It’s tough because there’s not a right answer and things will always go wrong.  This program is different because it focuses on helping the guardians to be independent instead of forcing them to be dependent on outside aid, but that also comes with a lot of room for failure.  I can only imagine the pressure of feeling the weight of the lives of these guardians on your shoulders – Rudy and Katie started Because of Kennedy and have taken 200 families under their wing – it would be SO hard feeling like you were responsible if they didn’t succeed.  So the night was full of a lot of circled conversation and people trying to prove their points and arguing and laughing, but it was REALLY cool to see the genuine heart behind the program.

My first bead! (Katie taught Britt and I how to make paper beads so that we could help lead guardian training on Weds.)

TUESDAY highlights

-          GIRLS TRIP TO THE MERCATO (the biggest open air market in Africa) to buy supplies for the necklaces.  It was insane – people everywhere, the most RANDOM things I’ve ever seen for sale, and the most BIASED forengie prices.  When we asked Tsion (the nanny) to take us to the Mercato, she looked at Katie and went “Go to the Mercato? With 3 white people?”  When we got back in the car to leave, she turned around and said “You guys are coming with me every time from now on.  That was hilarious!” Lesson learned: forengies make you popular.

Almaz and Meseret.  They made me rings out of
candy wrappers! The other kids just wanted in
on the picture

-          At the guardian meeting in Burayu, we had a long discussion about the difference between SVO/BOK and Compassion.  One of the women challenged the program (she wanted to know why her child wasn’t being given as much as the Compassion kids were) – it was amazing to watch as other guardians stepped up to defend the program.  They are so adamant on making this about leading towards self-sufficiency instead of increasing dependence.  It was just a cool testament to watch women stand up and speak to each other on behalf of the program because of what it had already done in their lives. We didn’t have to say anything.  Another woman brought up how her child didn’t have an individual sponsor yet, and wanted to know if that would ever happen.  It’s the first time I’ve ever heard someone bring up the fact that their kid wasn’t sponsored.  I got to see that it’s more than just the $$ that these families desire.  There’s something powerful about knowing that someone specifically chose you and is praying for you and cares for you.  We assured her that there were random people praying for her family and giving $$ (the random donations are how she’s able to participate in the program) and that we were working hard to get her son individually sponsored so that he (and she) would have a personal relationship with someone  who deeply cares for them.  It was just neat – I’d never really thought that people who weren’t individually sponsored cared because they were still getting the financial benefits (through outside donations), but it’s so much more than that.

-      

     WEDSNEDAY highlights

- AMBO TAKE 1: Teaching how to make paper bead necklaces.  Each of the guardian groups is working towards starting a business.  Every member of the group contributes 5 birr a week towards their group’s savings account.  Most of the groups have saved about 8,000 birr, but they need about 20,000 to start a small business (one group estimated their starting cost at 120,000 birr.  At this rate, they’ll be starting in 21 years.  We’re working with them to “re-evaluate” their short term vision, but their long-term one is AMAZING).  In order to increase their savings accounts faster, we’re teaching them how to make necklaces out of paper beads.  We’ll buy the necklaces from them and then sell them in the US.  Half of the $$ will go directly to the guardians who make the necklace, while the other half will go into the group savings account.  This way, the work they put in helps supply food for their family NOW, but there’s also a long-term benefit.  The necklaces aren’t meant to be a sustainable business; they’re just a step to help speed up the process of getting to where each group is able to start one. 

I've never been so excited about seeing someone cut in a straight line.
When the first woman (Firewot) succeeded, I held it up, made everyone
clap for her, and gave her a HUGE hug.

We had to start teaching from the VERY basics, because most of the guardians had never used a ruler or scissors before.  Katie led the main instruction with a translator and then we split into groups to work individually.  I’ve always taken for granted how to draw a straight line with a ruler, but there are so many things you have to make sure you do! (line the ends of the ruler up to the marks, hold the ruler down as you run your pen along the edge of the ruler, etc.)   I’d also never thought about how to teach someone how to cut without creating jagged edges.  Since my group didn’t have a translator, it was a lot of hand-over-hand demonstration (you should try teaching someone to measure in a different language.  It’s way more fun than in English).  Once one person mastered a skill, he/she would stand up and explain it to the rest of the group! It was a BEAUTIFUL picture of international teamwork.

The necklaces are also a really good way to teach the guardians to work together.  While most of the groups developed “specialists” in each skill (cutting, measuring, drawing lines, and rolling), they were all really excited to teach each other. 

Abavech, Alam, Abebu, and Diribe with their first beads! 

Mulu!! (I don't know if you can see this, but the bead is on
top of her head) 

Abebu and Firewot

Diribe laughing at me – I’m trying to memorize all of the Ambo guardian’s names, so I’ve been taking their pictures and writing their names down.  I gave Diribe a hug and said “Denanush” (hello) , and then one of the other women said “Salamnachu, Foto?” (“What’s your name?”, “Photo”?) and they all laughed (it’s my natural progression of meeting them: “Hello, What’s your name?, Photo?”).  BUT even though they laugh at me it’s totally paying off – I’ve gotten a few of their names down, and it’s WAY worth seeing their face light up when I’m able to call them by their names. 

This is Feraol.  I’m proud to say that I got him to take his first selfie EVER. He’s laughing at me (it’s become a common trend).

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY (other than getting to make beads with men and women who I can laugh with and learn with and spend time with even though we can communicate a maximum of 10 words with each other) was watching 2 of the Burayu guardians (Buzi and Yodit) come and teach the Ambo guardians how to make paper beads, and then lead the self-help groups in the afternoon.  The Burayu program is a year older than Ambo so Buzi and Yodit have been involved in the program for a year longer than the Ambo guardians.  It was SO cool to see them sharing their testimonies of how the program had affected their lives and give their advice to the Ambo guardians.  I’ve never seen the guardians so engaged during a meeting – it’s just really powerful/affirming to hear from someone who has walked the same path as you encourage you.  AND it was cool to see the unity between people who had never met, but who were all fighting poverty together.

Feraol and Amansisa.  They were my "guadenyas" ("friends".  I don't know if it's Amheric or Afan Oromo, but I know what it means!) They both ROCK.

Sost Sou

Saturday was our first official adventure day with a local! (And it was the 22^nd, which means I have exactly 1 month left here).  Since everyone likes stories with pictures WAY better, here’s a summary of the day in pictures.

To start the day off, we took our FIRST TAXI!!! (yes, this is a selfie in a taxi.  I REALLLY wanted to take a picture but I REALLY didn’t want to look like a tourist, but then I realized that people could tell I was a tourist by looking at me, and I’d rather remember my first Ethiopian taxi than care about the impression people get of me in a 20 minute taxi ride.  So we took a picture).  At first I thought Brittany and I would be able to figure out the taxi system to get places by ourselves…. Most definitely not.  To catch the taxi, you stand on the side of the road and wait for one to pull up.  You have to push past all the other people who are standing next to you in order to get INTO the taxi, and then you crawl in the van that seats 12 but holds 20.  There’s a guy who “operates” the door, and the taxi starts moving as he hops in, and you’re usually up to a decent speed before he closes the door.  Then he starts collecting $$ from everyone as they tell him where they want to go.  We definitely would have gotten ripped off if Meti weren’t with us, so she was the “forengie protector” of the day.  Most people were REALLY nice, and they laughed at me when I tried to speak Amheric.  One guy even gave me lessons during one of our taxi rides! We ended up taking about 10 taxi’s that day – because they’re “group taxi’s”, each one only goes between a couple locations.  So it’s kind of like a mini-bus system, but you get to tell the driver where to stop in between the locations.  Apparently a “private” taxi is 300 birr/ride: we made a maximum of 6 birr/person.  P.s. “Sost sou” means “we are 3” (that’s what you tell the $$ collector when you pay in order to pay for 3 people).

Stop #2 was at the lion zoo! Meti asked last weekend what my expectations of Africa were, and I told her I didn’t have any.  Except when I picture Africa I don’t picture cities, I picture safari land and lions.  Somehow we got across that I’d never seen a lion (I forgot about the ones at the Atlanta zoo), but she got really excited and said she would take me the Lion Zoo! It’s exactly what it sounds like – a zoo with the main attractions of lions.  And then about 10 monkeys, and this old man bird (his hair is graying and everything).  I told him he was ugly and I think he got offended because he squaked at me, so I took his picture to make him feel better.  The zoo here was a LOT different than the Atlanta zoo (go figure).  We walked around this one in 20 minutes max, and there was zero effort to even make it look like the animals were in their natural habitats.  The lions just sat in cages all day with a little room to pace – some of the monkeys had a tree to climb on, but that’s about it.  If I were an animal, I would DEFINITELY rather be American.

Stop #3: Addis Ababa University! We couldn’t go in because we didn’t have student badges, but this is the Technology part! It’s almost like the entrance to GT… 

Stop #4: LUNCH!!! We stopped at a restaurant across from the university, and it might have been my favorite part of the day. Mainly because I felt like a local because it’s where a lot of the college students eat! And we got to eat lunch traditional style (aka with our hands and all off the same plate).  It was a lot of fun.  Weirdest thing ever happened to me – I was CRAVING Shiro (mashed up beans).  Like, that’s all I wanted to eat.  I think Ethiopianization is happening faster than I thought.

Stop #5: Mt. Entoto! Some Americans I met at the international school told me a lot of people go running/walking on Mt. Entoto, and Meti had never been before, so we decided to give it a try.  It was kind of a bust.  I don’t know what she was expecting, but she’s definitely not a hiker.  It took us 4 taxi’s just to get up the mountain, and then when we got to the top it was just a little country town in the mountains.  I LOVED it, and I hope I’ll get some time to come back and bring a book and just walk around/sit on top of the mountain and read.  The view must have been beautiful, but I think I was the only one who wanted to hike to find it, so we kind of just walked around for a bit and then went back down the mountain.  It was really cool to see the rural community that was just functioning by itself.  There was a beautiful Orthodox church on top of the hill, so Brittany and I might try to go back one day and explore a bit. 

Stop #5.5 Sugar cane! On the way home we passed somebody selling sugar cane, so we decided to try it.  I’ve seen a lot of kids eating it, but it’s WAY harder than they make it look! You have to rip off the skin with your teeth, and I couldn’t even bite into it! We got lots of funny stares and chuckles when people saw forengies trying it in the middle of the street… whoops. 

 Stop #6: Waiting for our ride home.  We waited for Katie to come pick us up at a café, and Brittany and I decided we would try to be different.  I ordered the “peanut tea” and she got the “pineapple tea”.  We thought it would be tea flavored with peanut/pineapple.  Turns out it’s just hot water with flavored powder in it.  Mine tasted exactly like hot, thinned out peanut butter. It was really good at the time, but I don’t think it’ll happen again.

 Random picture of a lamb in a window.  We went to a traditional restaurant for lunch yesterday, and I was walking down the stairs and this guy stuck his head out at me.  I thought it was really funny that they would be keeping a lamb inside a seemingly abandoned building.  When I was taking a picture, Kes Cimdii walked up, laughed, and said “Tibs!!” (Tibs is their traditional food).  All of the sudden, the lamb in the building wasn’t so funny anymore :[

Overall it was an AMAZING day.  I loved getting to know Meti better and was so thankful for the way she just laid aside her day so that she could show us around the city.  It was really good to get out and feel like we were taking advantage of Ethiopia, and I loved getting to see things from a local’s perspective. 

p.s. random thought #2 – we’re trying to start small groups in the youth program, and trial #1 was yesterday.  Deep relationships aren’t really valued here, so it’s a pretty new concept that not a lot of them are used to.  Usually I would be against trying to “change a culture”, but I’ve seen SO much come from the ability to be vulnerable with my friends, so I actually think if we can model how to open up to each other, it could be something really cool for their community.  Yesterday we lead Zenebech, Gamede, Liquitu, Simbo, Bontu, Abezu, Sena, and Lensa.  Prayers for openness/fellowship/our ability to be open and vulnerable with each other would be greatly appreciated! 

"One Camera"

"One Camera" is what the kids say when they want you to take a picture of them. Or "YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU!" I keep trying to tell them my name is "Marnie", but for some reason they keep getting me confused with someone named "You"

Anywho.... here are some photos! Enjoy! 

Lunch at the church! 

This is Turri and his family (he has a set of twins who are in 2nd grade: Leilo and Lelise).  We got to visit his home on Weds - he is AMAZING. His wife took 1 child and left to go to an Arab country to find work (she's been gone for 3 months and hasn't sent any $$ back), and he chops wood every day to support his family.  He is an incredibly hard worker and has a lot of faith, but also gets beat up by life almost every day because of the struggles of making it by.  Prayers for him and his family would be really appreciated.

Africa has turned me into a mass murderer.  Mosquitos... beware.

Guardian meeting in Ambo 

My helpers for the Abraham skit (Abraham is the one with the hat... we ghetto-fied him) 

Meet Marta.  If I had favorites, she would be one of them.  She's in KG (Kindergarten) and EVERY day when we get to Ambo, she's one of the first ones that SPRINTS up and gives me a hug. 

Sinjaleta (I love you) in sign language.  Rudy taught the kids on Friday. (No Carey, this isn't what you think it is)