Love Does

These would be our last hours in Africa.

Kim and Doug woke up with the early morning chanting to take Averee to the airport. You see our dear “jesus juker” had to leave early to make the journey to Zimbabwe to see her future husband for the first time in 18 months. (Averee, i hope you and Donald are having a blast!) A few of us went to the gym to try and release as much energy as we could before the dreaded 30+ hour trip home, while others spent most of the day finishing up last minute packing details and milling around the home with the hopes of delaying the inevitable.  After a coffee ceremony and a few hundred pictures with all of our great new friends at Amazing Grace Guest House, we were off to catch our chariot home!

Now I remember signing up for today thinking that i would have a lot of life changing stories full of introspect, deep meaning, and thought provoking answers to life’s big questions. But as the hours that i’ve been home now start to tick by, i find that i’m at a loss for words. Something that doesn’t happen too often. Some of it has to be the fatigue from all the travel, being away from the team, and dealing with the “shock” of being back in our culture. But mostly i think the lessons learned from a trip like this are learned gradually after we start to piece together a life that in some aspects was shaken up and torn down. A life that once defined itself by putting its value in one thing is now defined by something all together different. A shift form material worth to relational richness! This is probably the simplest way to put it. I’m afraid that if i try to put many more words to it right now i’ll just mess it up in garble anyways. And as for the “thought provoking answers”…have you ever found that the more you search for the answers, the more questions you’re left with? Yeah, well just TRY spending 16 days in Africa and coming out with more answers than questions. I think Isaac Newton made a law about it a long time ago, im not sure how it goes but i remember him saying it’s impossible.

Anyways, i’m sure that everyone on the team is facing a couple inevitable questions. So for those of you that wont have to chance to hear it from us personally let me do my best:

What did we do? We taught and we learned, we worked and we played, we broke a lot of bread and drank a little wine, we laughed and there were some tears, we served and were served, we touched some lives and hundreds touched ours!

What was it like? It was awesome…it was life altering!

God Bless Abyssinia,

Colin

 

 

It’s an unusual day when you kill a goat before breakfast and dance on stage after dinner. This was one of our most eventful days in Ethiopia. The 5 goats we obtained yesterday spent the night at Great Hope Church. Early in the morning we drove to the muddy yard, and with reverence, dispatched them to heaven with a large knife. Breakfast of french toast, oatmeal and pancakes followed for us while the goat meat was prepared. When we returned to the church, the kids not only seemed to have doubled in number but were extremely excited at the prospect of a meal with meat. The boy sitting next to me said he had last eaten meat 2 months prior. Mass chaos ensued while we tried to teach and finally the meal was ready. We served enjira with meat sauce and the kids ate quickly. Any reservation I previously had about tying the goats to the car and subsequently killing them was gone when I saw the urgency with which the children ate. Tearful goodbyes all around after lunch. We drove home in silence wondering if we would ever see our new friends again. We arrived home to a fierce rainstorm. Initially, we huddled inside wishing it would stop; however, we soon realized there was more water and water pressure falling from the sky than our shower could provide. Shoes off, soap out, we headed outside into the storm for the best shower of the entire trip. Feeling cleaner than usual, we put on our best (and least smelly) clothes and headed out to a traditional Ethiopian meal. We shared food around two small tables, ate with our hands, and enjoyed local honey wine. During the meal, traditional Ethiopian music was performed live and we were encouraged to come on stage to dance with the performers. Smiles and laughter all around as we danced with them and enjoyed our last night together in Addis.

Melissa

We can’t believe we only have another 48 hours here in this beautiful country. We all feel our time has been well used and that God has done some amazing things in both the people of Ethiopia as well as in our hearts during the 2 weeks we have been here.  So about today…..

This morning we awoke to another fantastic breakfast of over easy eggs, toast with peanut butter and jelly and fresh mango juice. I sure wish we had mangos this good in the States. We then got ourselves ready and headed over to buy some goats for the kids for the final goodbye lunch. They children here rarely get protein so we followed in the tradition of past teams and bought 5 goats for the final lunch for the children

                When we arrived at the open field where all of the goat sales people hang out we stayed in the car while our driver, Tsegaye, and our interpreter, Yosi, went to haggle on the price of the goats. They knew that if we got out of the car the goats would automatically be way out of our budget. So they finally got the price down….we now had our goats.

                As we sat in the van we watched as the salesman tied up the feet of all of our goats. They then carried the goats over by their legs to our car. We then proceeded to hoist each goat…one by one…onto the top of the van where Tsegaye strapped them down to the top. I suppose this is fairly normal but I think it just about made all the girls throw up. It was horrific. The goats were yelling and looking over the side of the railing at us like “please help”.

                Well we all made it to the school, the team and our goats. The goats were then passed off the roof to Colin and the rest of the boys where they were transported to the holding yard for the night. Tomorrow will be the true test of our stomachs. At 7:30 we get to all go and watch all of our American boys kill these 5 goats so they can then be seasoned and cooked for all the little angels in the summer camp.

                So alas the summer camp began. Today we started with a lovely round of Amazing Grace with me singing and Doug doing a fantastic job on the guitar. I then pulled Maddie up for the loudest found of Hallelujah I had ever heard. The kids love these songs. Then we broke into some hang man, Bible story skits, Learning manners and Simon Says. We then fed them lunch which consisted of plain white rice and a half a piece of break. Then the most fun of the day…..pictures. I have to say that today was the best day yet. With the teaching of the manners, most of us were able to demand a “please” before taking every picture. We will see if it sticks through tomorrow.

                The team then sat down to a much deserved lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tuna sandwiches and bananas. Then we went to the orphanage. I think this was some of the most fun we have had on the trip yet. Their story was amazing and the best part was the children. We got to meet all the older children then they took us to the baby rooms. I think all of our love buckets were filled to the brim. After many hugs and kisses we headed to our favorite restaurant, chocolate, for a nice round of coca-cola and macchiato. We have all become coffee addicts. It is so fantastic here. It also gives the team time to debrief. We then ended our evening with some rest and recuperation at the guest home and a wonderful dinner. I guess this is all for tonight. We will keep you updated on the goat killing and wonderful meal tomorrow. Good night Day 13.

-Jesus Juker “Averee”

I wish this trip would never come to a close. I wish I could just keep wearing my stinky, dirty, unwashed clothes over and over and just stay. To stay in this place where everyone’s eyes have light in them and where I haven’t seen one smile that didn’t melt my heart would be a dream come true. I’m trying to focus on the trip rather  than the end. I’ve learned so much, and these people have filled my heart right over the brim. Going to Korah gets harder and harder each day. It feels like, as time ticks by, that we’re going there to leave, bonding  more each day before we disappear in two short days. On Wednesday (our last day), we’re going to kill and cook five goats for the children of Korah to eat. I’m pretty stressed about it, but I know that the ends justify the means in this situation. I’ll miss the mornings spent at the summer camp, packed into the church with all those smiling faces, singing, playing games, and telling Bible stories with a few extra tons of enthusiasm thrown in to keep them entertained. The bonds and friendships formed on this trip mean the world to me, and the fact that God had this all planned out ahead of time? Mind. Blown.  I can’t believe that in less 5 days I’ll be in school. Maybe I can, but I don’t want to. This trip has changed my life, and it’s not over yet. Please pray that the next two days continue to be packed with adventures and experiences. I know I’ll be back, but until then, this is my last time blogging on the Ethiopia blog. Thanks for reading!

-Mads

So when Ethipopians have church, they have themselves some dang Church! We attended Beza international today and if you took Journey’s best sunday and shot it up with some steroids and no countdown clock ( the service went 3 hours) add a dash of southern baptist prechin’, you get the service we experienced. The preacher spoke excelent english and would finish an empowered sentance with ” Are you hearin’ what I’m sayin!” Everyone was most deffinatly hearing what he was saying, his message was excellent, and we sat near the front, so at the decibles he was preaching his sermon through the microphone, the sound system used was not really needed.

After the service we had lunch at the Golf Club, which was quite good but felt very odd to be eating in such a fancy place after having our lunches last week sitting with feet in the mud at Korah. The evening was spent at the guest house, which is becoming more fun to play games with the staff than touring around the city. Colin, Maddie, and myself took a walk  around the nieghborhood and attempted not to notice the stares as we made our way up to Chocolate, the best eating place in the area.

It’s fun to observe the bonds that each person has made with different staff members, as well as with each other here. I will truely miss it when our journey here ends.

-Douglas

Today we went and saw a palace up on a hill. It looked nothing like an american palace rather it looked more like a motestary all made of wood with a walk way all the way around it. There was a church right next to it painted beautifully in the eithiopian colors of green yellow and red.  We then went and saw lucy the skeleton at the ethiopian muesem. Now we are hanging out at the guest house Collin and Maddie are having an intense ping pong match outside Doug is drawing and Thayer is playing soccer with some of the kids that live by the guest house.-lizzy

They tell us we are sick because of the cheeseburgers, because of the changes in the weather, because of the children…we can’t be sure. But we do know that a combination of Cipro, Zofran, Tylenol, a huge pile of soft Ethiopian blankets, 12 hours of restless sleep and the prayers of everyone around you seems to be the treatment. The worst part? Missing an entire day with the children in Korah. The children at the camp know we have been ill and each day take note of who is missing from the team. Their compassion in spite of their living situation is profound. This is the little note that a young boy sent home to me the day I was out.

 “I hope this letter finds you the better of health as you leaves me. I am very sad when your child told me that you are sick. I will pray for you and hope you become normal and may God cure you. I love and miss you. Your’s child David”

 The team thinks the part about me “becoming normal” tends toward the miraculous. But who knew we would be receiving Get Well cards in Ethiopia.

The staff at the Amazing Grace Guest Home has been wonderful as well. They tend to us tirelessly. They have lots of “traditional” treatments like a drink of sugar, lemon and water that you can’t decide if it is delicious or unpalatable. I drank it and I am better. Their best medicine though is kind words and attention to our every need.

 Despite our fevers, chills, aches and nausea we managed to pull off an awesome rendition of Amazing Grace with Doug on the guitar today. We sang it only about 15 times in hopes that they will remember it on Monday. The highlight though was a reenactment of David slaying Goliath. Guess who was Goliath?

With almost everyone on Cipro we are hoping for a healthy weekend and the opportunity to explore Mt. Entoto tomorrow.

So blessed to be right here, right now. Kim

First of all, amesegënallô (thank you) to all the people who made it possible for this team to make it to Ethiopia this time around. We have a great group of people involved with this trip and everyone really adds something special to the group dynamic. First off, I think everyone has really enjoyed the trip so far, not to mention benefitted from it. We are having a really (besides a few people being sick) all round great time.

Today, we spent our third day at the Korah camp. You can really see the relationships forming between everyone and the kids. On day one it was interesting to see how everyone would react to all the activity and attention but everyone handled it just fine. By now everyone has their own children who all coming running once we arrive in the van.

My group (Kasshun, Deareg, Donies, Fwadu, Abraham, Tesfya, and Mikyas) are my favorite. Every day I arrive to the church, without a doubt, there my little “clan” waits for me. The greeting consists of them waiting in the same spot every day, followed by handle holding and a special handshake we created on the first day. The day follows with a group session in the church continuing into separate group sessions. Today we played hangman and Simon Says (A BIG HIT). We then all feed them Injerra (a pancake like bread) and wot (sauce). After lunch we can do whatever we want with our kids whether that is just sitting and talking or playing soccer. Unfortunately, the rain has kept us at bay with the whole soccer playing so we resorted to playing in a mud pit. So today we sat around and told stories about soccer instead. These kids sure do enjoy soccer.

Today was supposed to be the day where the group was to pick out five goats to be slaughtered and fed to the kids. So after all the activity settled down, we jumped in the van and headed to the local goat market which happened to be on the way back to the guest house. Our guide, more like great friend, Yose jumped out and tried to make a deal for the goats but it turns out that the prices of goats have jumped up to about 60 dollars per goat compared to about 20 due to the Ethiopian holiday of Buhe, a childrens holiday. The plan was to hog tie the goats, strap them to the roof, and slaughter them in the back yard of the school. Talk about a cultural experience. But with the prices so high, that is going to have to wait until next week.

We returned to the guest house to find a gathering of children outside of our gates. Not having enough of activity for the day, we quickly found a soccer ball. By the time I knew it, we had two goals made up of piles of stones. 4v4. Game on. These kids are good. The next hour that followed would turn out to be the highlight of my trip and one of the best experiences I have had in my life. Playing my favorite sport with Ethiopian children under the African sun.

What. A. Day.

 -Thayer

FYI: Packing an alarm clock  for a work trip to Ethiopia during  Ramadan is not essential. Around 5am every mourning, the call to prayer wakes us light sleepers up from dreamland, much to my displeasure.

We started our day back at Korah today with more of a game plan to entertain the kids. Our three activities were coloring, pasta nacklaces, and a David and Goliath reenactment… you can guess which character Colin was cast as. However, when it rains here it can put more of a damper in perfectly laid plans, for upon our arrival at the church we discovered less kids than the day before, due to the fact that many were at home around their fires just to stay warm. We scrapped the play to save for a larger crowd, and split up to do our respective activities. Another fun fact for future teams to log away in the ” don’t do this”  memory bank is to use food as jewelry… wow, we were not thinking. Half the kids were stringing it on the cord like instructed, while many were eating, then stringing, then eating, then stringing, then shoving in their pockets, then stringing again. Our efforts to save some for the next group of kids were foiled as well, since more than once an older child would run in the “classroom”, scoop the pasta off the table into their shirt, and run off. The extra bag of pasta was hijacked as well. Melissa, Cody and I weren’t sure what to try to do, how do you tell a hungry child that the pasta is for making jewelry and not for taking home to your sister so she can have a lunch? Needless to say, little was left fo the second group of kids, so just tying the remainder of the string around small wrists and necks had to be good enough.

 A few games of hang-man on the chalk board managed to keep the attention of the second group a bit longer, but as our organized activities  continued to decend into choas I had a revelation. These kids cared less about what they were doing with us, and more about just being around us. It was only our second day, yet every one of us has a specific group of kids that attend to us and know our names. My little snuggle buddy Mellat, who is maybe 25 lbs and all 2 foot tall, is very protective and will try to full on slap other larger kids who try to hold my hand, though I’ve been trying to teach her to share me with others. After the we managed to help the church staff feed the kids lunch, I had to try and fullfill my promise to play soccer with some of the older boys. Everyone was just kinda relaxing with the kids after their meal, and since the sun had come out I got the ball from the office and asked where the field was. I was told the field had a fallen tree on it so we could play here… and the staff proceded to open the gate to a connecting area that was a larger dirt area. Well, it would have been a nice dirt area during the dry season but since it’s the rainy season, we proceeded to play a small soccer game in a mud pit, complete with pools of stagnent water on each end to keep things interesting. Lizzy cared for the smaller kids and kept them from falling neck deep into the mud while myself and a few hardcore boys played some keep away and juggling. Another ” go ahead and pass on this idea” for future teams, don’t play soccer in the mud pit. My suspicions about the mud’s unusual consistancy was later confirmed when we were told the run off from many outhouses made its way to this very mud pit. So since the soccer was my idea and I had followed it through, I took the responsisbilty to clean the poo-mud off the ball and put it away.

We departed after having our own lunch in the church and instead of touring more of the city, went back and spent our afternoon relaxing with the staff at the guest house. Card games and ping-pong were the preffered forms of entertainment and the hours ticked away as we enjoyed the company of our hosts.

Did I mention the people are rediculously attractive here? I mean like realy hot, man. Both in appearence and heart, I have met few Ethiopians that aren’t genuine and from Sashemene to here in Addis, the quality of service and care from these people has been five star. I’m particularly fond of our driver Tsegay ( Si-guy) who not only has avoided countless collisions with other cars and pedestrians, but seems happy to see us every mourning and gladly braves the streets to get us to our destinations. I’m in love with this experience, and though our trip is half over, Pray for more amazing encounters as this country continues to pour into and grow our team. 

-Douglas

    Today we went to Great Hope in Korah in the middle of Addis to begin our work at the camp. When we pulled up to the church there were twenty or so kids standing around the van and the second we got out they swarmed us bursting into incredible smiles their whole faces lighting up and grabbing our hands to hold them and touching our skin and hair. They asked us our names, our ages, and where we from in accented english so that each question had to be repeated sevral times.

       We were introduced to Kayla and her friend from New York they were working there all summer running the camp. They asked if we had any plan about what we wanted to teach that day at the camp which of course we did not. They just laughed and guided us into the sanctuary. The kids grabbed at us and guided us to places to sit delighting in our smiles and attempts at amharic. We began a game of guessing where Doug drew a picture on the chalkboard up front and the kids tried to guess what he was drawing many of the things that got easily such as monkey and house other things only a few of the older kids knew such as ocean. When they began to tire of the guessing game we switched to singing which Maddie and Avery led up on the stage with animated hand gestures. We sang Jesus Loves You, Row your Boat and then the kids took over the song selection singing some english church songs and many amharic songs. When they ran out of songs Avery told Bible stories saying two or three sentences then Yosi would translate. Some of the kids listened others asked us questions. I had three girls all nine or so braiding my hair they would make a braid then promptly take it out, one girl had a hair clip which she took out of her hair and used it to brush through my hair. Kim had like five three year old girls playing with her hair. The kids seemed confused by Mellissa’s hair which is very short they could not seem to decide wether or not she was a boy or a girl. Mellissa would put her hat on and she would ask boy girl boy girl and then pull it off and yell GIRL and the kids would double over laughing.

      When Avery finished her bible stories we headed outside and just played with kids. Maddie rocked a clapping game with many of the seven and eight year old girls while Collin weight lifted with children. Thayer had a clan of boys surrounding him all learning the hang loose sign from him. Avery never stopped taking pictures. Doug had one little girl Mellat who would not let him go she turned him into a jungle gym climbing all over him. We ate our lunch at the school then headed to market. Collin and Doug both purchased a “man scarf”. From the market we headed to a cafe then home to the guest house.

lizzy

Today was our day to start our work at the school. As  I have learned everything operates rather slowly here in Ethiopia. Our scheduled time to start was nine o’clock in the morning but we finally got going at noon. While we were waiting, some of the local kids took us for a short walk. It was less than 200 yards from the school, but it was an amazing sight; one of the best waterfalls I have ever seen! After the hike, we began our work which consisted of replacing cabinet doors, sorting rat infested matresses, and cleaning the womens restroom. The matresses were in very poor conditon and were almost all not worth salvaging. The cabinets were all put back into working order with new hinges and latches. Our biggest success, by far, was our effort on the restroom; we painted and scrubbed making it look virtualy new. After the work was complete we went into Hawassa for dinner. Yosi, our guide, took us to a resort that would give the Ritz Carlton a run for its money. What a feeling, to go from living in some dorms and really “roughing it” to seeing this massive resort in the middle of town. It was right on the lake with a really nice pool, marble floors, piano, bar… etc. In most instances I would have not even thought twice being in an establishment like this, but after our first few days I felt extremely out of place. It really humbled me to see people fighting for thier next meal just outside the gates of the resort. This expierience was really the first time it hit me, as it was much easier to see what were used to, right next to the average citi,zen of this country. We left the resort, all with somewhat confused looks and headed to dinner. We enjoyed another great Ethiopian meal, and some amazing ice cream.  It is so rewarding to see the  smiles on everyones face here, they are so rich in faith, it blows my mind. God is everywhere and it inspires me to invest more in my faith, and attempt to become as rich in spirt as the people I have met here. Since we got all the work done at the school we are heading back to Addis tomorrow. I have never looked forward to a real toilet and a warm shower this much. I am really enjoying the trip and look forward to what is to come in the remaining time. Much love to all of you!!

-Cody