Day 3

The electricity is off today! We heard everything power down while we were in the lobby this morning and our waiter shook his head, shrugged his shoulders and gave us a big smile. Hopefully this will get to all of you--we will see!!

Here’s our day in a nutshell: First of all, I need to go over our breakfast buffet this morning: another fried beef pastry, hard boiled eggs, bread, and cantaloupe. The food has been really fun to try-thankfully none of us have been sick!! Today was a really productive day for our team and everyone had a great day of work.

Here’s a breakdown of what we did:

Cheryl, Hannah & Laurie: headed to the Opportunity House (the special needs facility) just down the street from Layla. Tomorrow, Wednesday (***PRAYER REQUEST***) we are taking 17 special needs kids on a field trip to the Hilton Hotel to swim in the hot springs pool. This will be not only the first car ride, trip to swim, but honestly the first time these children have been out of the Opp House. Please pray these children will be calm, enjoy themselves, and that the pool would be therapeutic to their muscles-some of which are quite rigid. We also pray for guidance for our group, patience and wisdom in this difficult-yet hopefully rewarding-experience. We will take them for about an hour to swim, but we plan on taking the entire morning to prepare them to go there, and then to come back.

Mardi & Delora-these two are the Craft Queens--extremely organized, efficient and proficient in handling many, many children all at once. Most of our crafts have a Christian theme, and the kids are very receptive to hear about Jesus. The kids get slightly out of control when presented with a lot of craft items--some of them, instead of using them for art, shove them in their pockets to horde items for themselves. It takes a lot of direction and perseverance to get the kids to listen and obey during crafts! One girl asked ,“What is your religion?” Delora said...I love Jesus”. The girl replied “I do too!” These moments make it all worth it! Rocky spent her morning in the medical clinic at Layla, observing and offering her input when needed. One baby came in today for an entire battery of tests who was abandoned at a local hospital, and just arrived for placement at Layla. Kids come throughout the day with colds, fevers, sometimes broken bones, and more. The staff was THRILLED with the medical supplies we brought--especially the ointment, bandages, cold syrups and tylenol.

Grace, Kelly & Natalie: Ivy (the school director) requested a mural in the dining room that was bright and cheery. So, after purchasing paint-not your regular paint, but an oil based paint-they tackled the dining room and after two coats, it looked much better!! Grace took on the kindergarten boys room where she painted trucks, instructional murals (Left & Right)-(Up & Down) and labeled (window, door, etc). They did a great job working with lots of fumes and needless to say they have sore arms. Grace also had the chance to teach a health class today (at the last minute!) and we are counting on her expertise as a teacher this week.

Joey-I looked at the 33 totes staring at me in the main office and decided it was time to go through them and separate them into a more organized system. We brought enough to share supplies with Little AHOPE (the HIV orphanage for kids up to 7) and Big AHOPE (7 & up). I was overwhelmed at the amount of hygiene products, school supplies, books, medical supplies and toys we were able to share with the children of Ethiopia. The smiles on the kids and caretakers faces makes it worth all the effort--It is really priceless.

Tonight we’re going to an authentic Ethiopian Dance Restaurant called Yo Abysinnia. The dancers have a fantastic reputation of being incredible showpersons! We’re all excited for a chance to be together and wind down. Please remember to pray for us as we take the special needs kids to the pool tomorrow. We hope it will be a wonderful memory for them.