Ethiopia Tuesday update

Day 4, Tuesday:

Prayers are clearly being felt as everyone in the group is not only sleeping, but healthy! No one has been sick (except for the fleeting nausea of altitude sickness.) The boys are incredibly active with the kids and with the hot sun and altitude, it can make for a worrisome condition for this trip leader! But thanks to many bottles of water and “time-outs” every so often, everyone has been able to stay in good condition!

This morning we headed out in the morning for Kind Hearts with a list of errands to run. This is where your mind must make a specific change from “Run 1000 miles an hour like an American” to “This is Africa, what’s the hurry”??? There is no Wal Mart to run in and out of, no row of stores next to each other where you can park your car and quickly complete your list of supplies. In this city, “stores” can be blocks if not miles from each other, and conversations are very lackadaisical. To purchase books for Kind Hearts, we first went to “Mega Book Store”. The store front consisted of an 8 x 8 corrugated metal shack with books piled high to the ceiling. We requested to see curriculum books and children’s books, and as the clerk went through yellow trash bags full of books, soon our pile began to grow. (**Sidenote--every time we are in public, in this case four women--Delora, Kelly, Tammy and myself--we have almost a secret service of sorts from our three male guides who also act as our translators. They are such good protectors and surround us so our backs are always shielded from any thieves or other people who might not like our presence. I don’t even realize how much I rely on them to keep us safe--they are so careful and protective of us and I know they would do anything to keep harm from coming to us--we LOVE them.**)

Our large pile of books, which included everything from science to phonics, etc...cost a whopping $62. I had prepared myself to spend thousands of dollars and was SHOCKED that it cost so little in American money! The guides from the Kind Hearts school were thrilled with our purchase. 

Next we headed down the street to yet another bookstore that had more children’s books. In all we purchased more than 100 books in Amharic for the kids. We also bought board games, alphabet/number games and textbooks. This time we spent close to $500...again, amazing for us to comprehend! Our pile was enormous!

One wish shared to us by Fikre, our guide, was see if we could purchase a DVD/Cassette player to play Amharic/American music for the children. We headed to an electronic store and checked out “ghetto blasters”  you might remember from the early 80’s. So for $40, we purchased that and headed on! He said the kids would be so happy to listen to music during the day! Next we headed to a bakery to purchase bread as a surprise treat for the children. One more stop-to pick up the bookshelf we needed to finish the library at Kind Hearts-and we could finally head to the school. You might think this would have only taken an hour or so--but 4 1/2 hours later--at 12:30...we finally arrived. Thankfully one van had gone straight to the school to play with the kids, and when we finally rolled into the compound, they were thrilled for a break and a hot piece of bread! Yep, it’s errands--Africa style.

The afternoon consisted of playing games with the kids, finishing murals (each classroom now has an adorable, colorful mural in it!) and taking a walk to the well site.

The well site in on a flat piece of ground where engineers have determined the most water can be obtained from the site. It’s also the most beneficial location for local farmers! Our Kind Hearts guide asked if we could bless the site, so Danny led our group in prayer that this water could be turned into LIVING water and bless everyone that came into contact with it. Precious.

The group wanted to see where the stream from the alcohol factory and tannery factory collided--where black water meets dark brown water--and forms into one black thick mess. The smell caught us all off guard and was sickening...a cow grazed nearby and was headed to the water for a drink. It’s so un-natural for humans and animals to be expected to live with water conditions such as these! Soon, clean water will be available, praise the LORD!!

Tomorrow we will tour the Fistula Hospital and then our guides are taking the boys swimming and bowling for some relaxation time--they deserve it! Everyone has been such a hard worker and dedicated to the small amount of time we have here to work. I am so thankful for each one of them and their joyful attitudes and they have made this trip so much more fun than I ever could have imagined!!