Day 23 Wednesday, July 13th 2011

Woke up. Rainy day. Found out later today in a news paper that Ethiopia is in a major drought...... and it's the rainy season right now. We all felt pretty bad finding that out for a couple of reasons 1. We have been complaining or making comments about the water being off in our hotel rooms, making it impossible to take showers or poop in the toilet with a good conscience. 2. We've been here for a month or however long it's been and not even known or realized the emergency water situation and emergency food situation. Ethiopia is so poverty stricken it's ridiculous. I don't think my writings about what I've seen do it justice to explain all I've seen and experienced. And that's what I'm worried about when I return..... nobody will understand.... nobody will care.... and it's true, some people will care a little bit but not enough to do anything or fully listen/read about it. Not many people will care too much, except maybe a couple of people, and that's what I'm scared about.... the amount of important people in my life that will just not care.

If you're reading this and have that feeling of needing to do something good in this world besides what has become of your comfortable life filled with comfortable living and situations....... come to Ethiopia. Do good. Get out of your comfort zone. Strengthen yourself. Full fill your life with their joy and serving others. Get off your butt and stop bringing up the financial issue you think you have. Get up and go. Go make a difference to yourselves and those who need you. It's totally worth it.

Breakfast, same place. Got the cornflex this time (yes, cornflex, not cornflakes). They bring out hot milk for the cereal too.... weirdos. As we arrived to the W.A.R. facility the women seemed even more excited to see us. Yesterday they were pampered and today you could tell they were looking forward to see what we had in store for them today. It's really cool to see these women accept the Love we have for them and discover that there are people out there that LOVE. This is what I love to see... People that don't know what real love is and discovering it. Such a beautiful experience.

We were all exhausted. We have been going almost non-stop since day one. Not much resting going on here. But, you know what? That's what I'm here for... to exhaust myself of love to those who haven't seen or experienced it. Jesus hardly ever rested and was continually exerted for his love. We only have a short little while to show these beautiful souls God's love. Jesus only had a short little while to show God's love to the world. He is our example, my example to live my life.

Though, through Jesus' ministry there were times he made himself rest. Rest is important. We were not only exhausted but burnt out in general with ministry and each other. Being burnt out of ministering is not a good thing, and I think Danielle realized that. I'm pretty sure we all looked partially dead. At least I did! So, she decided as we were there that we would just do a half day. Whew! What a relief! That totally made my day! That news was much needed.

So today we just did a craft of making necklaces and bracelets with beads and thread. Some of the women made beautiful pieces. Some other team members and I just sat down somewhere going to town on some of our own. The women loved it, and I think it was quite therapeutic for them as well. Of course i could be just speaking for myself. It's one of those activities that I can just zone out and think. Though, I tend to zone out at times I probably ought not to, as many have already noticed here.... and make fun of me for it. All my close friends at home know this quite well about me and are probably laughing in agreement as they read this.

I made a few braided bracelets and then went on to a breaded bracelet. I grabbed a box of beads that weren't being used and put it in my lap as I threaded on these tiny gold beads. They sure took a lot of time and patients to put on. Soon a swarm of women come up to me and started searching through everything in my lap. I didn't mind it for awhile... but then.... I got there. A familiar feeling swept over me. It got me once again..... That wolverine in me was about to come out. Just like in Korah when those precious out of control girls only wanted to braid my hair. Only this time it was about 5 women crowded around me with both hands waving in front of me searching for clasps and metallic beads in my lap. I think what made it worse was that they were all chattering away in my face at each other in Amharic, not understanding a lick of what they were saying. I had enough patients to finish my work of art and then...... Ahhhh!!! I had enough and tossed the box to Surafel. I was done in more ways than one.

We all left after everyone was done with their jewelry making..... and had the rest of the day to relax and do whatever. Yes! Relaxation! what did we decide to do with our time? We searched for wifi and a good lunch spot. Wifi search was a failure. I didn't care though.... Internet hasn't really interested me much over here. Plus I'm going to be home in a few days.... Woah, that's weird to realize. I'm really not ready to go home. I'm not ready to be thrown in American culture again. Friends? Work?.... yes.... and no at the same time. I'm not ready for the bombardment of questions. I'm going to need some major space and time to process and ease back into regular life. I hope people understand.

As we were on our wifi search (me, Danielle, Christy, Michael, Emily, and Heather) we did however discover this awesome hotel (called the Executive Hotel) with a great dining area. Did we eat lunch there? You betchya! It was great.... but, we did ask for our check about 20 times (not even joking, we counted) before Michael went to see what the heck was the hold up. Apparently the power went out and they had to write out our check by hand. We were there waiting on our check for about an hour until we got it. At what point did they finally start on working on our check? I don't know.... but we were glad to finally get out of there. I think we were there for a total of 2.5 to 3 hours meal and all. It was good food though! I think we are going to try to get dinner there some night.

The "rest of the day" we just chilled out until dinner back at Rift Valley. I just got cereal since we had just eaten 3 hours ago. Whatever. The day was ended as usual with a group meeting saying our highs and lows of the day and then going over what we are going to do tomorrow. My high of the day was definitely getting my hair washed. Christy, Emily, and I helped each other wash our hair after lunch. The water was freezing so all we can do is our hair. I could barely even stand that. I felt like a million bucks. Christy had a blow dryer and Emily had a straightener, so we were all set! Aaahhhh it felt so good to have normal hair again! Such a treat. Danielle went for a run with Michael. Nazaret is still up there in the altitude so she only lasted 3 min. Running here hasn't bid well for our athletic abilities or egos. She came in after her run and we washed her hair too. The excitement on her face for the rest of the night was priceless. It's amazing what a little bit of pampering can do to a girl.

Day 22 Tuesday, July 12th 2011

Another beautiful sunny day. I slept a little better last night. Still woke up in the middle of the night a few times though. But over all better than the night before. Out from our bedroom window you can see the city of Nazaret and the mountains in the near distance. It's beautiful during the night with all of the lights and during the day it's interesting to watch the people walking to and fro from where ever they are going. Horse and "carriage" pulling people along and Bajaj's (pronounced Ba-judge) buzzing around taxiing people where they need to go. Bajaj's are hilarious. They're basically go-cart buggy's on three wheels. We got to ride one after lunch today.

This is the view of Nazaret from my room.



After breakfast we headed over to the W.A.R. spa day! We washed, scrubbed, lotioned, and painted the women's feet and hands. Mannys and Pedis! They loved it! It was so great watching them get pampered and loved on. Having lived such hard lives I know it was nice to have people loving on them in the way they needed to be. The way they deserved to be. They were all just so excited. I painted nails and some of the women wanted their nails clipped. Gross!.... the selfish part of me pretended to ignore the request, but in the end I got suckered into it. Some of those nails were DE-SCUSTING! I know they needed it and the last thing I wanted them to see was me being descusted by their feet. So I grinned and bared it.

Lunch was at Sister's Cafe. We had spaghetti there. It was alright... I would be okay if I didn't have spaghetti for the rest of the year. I feel like we've had it a lot.... It's funny thinking back to my last meal before I left to come here... Susan cooked me spaghetti :)

After lunch some of us rode the bajaj's. In mine it was me, Michael, and Abi the bus driver's assistant/bus guard. I'm not really sure what exactly Abi does but he's always around, and he's not that big of a guy to guard anything. In fact... he's not that much bigger than me. He is friends with all the translators though. Michael got to drive the bajaj down one of the roads. Somewhat a scary experience, but fun non the less. We rode the bajaj from Sister's Cafe back to W.A.R. It as a blast. So fun! I did however think that we were going to die a few times, or run into a horse or roaming goat (that had street smarts), but all was good.

When we got back to W.A.R. we started the next activity for the day. Washing hair!! Su, Hannah, Julia, and Emily washed hair. I put in the olive oil lotion designed specifically for their type of hair. Danielle helped me with that. Some of the women had weaves in their hair and made it harder to rub it in. I kind of had a hard time not laughing at that whole situation. Christy and Brittany did facials for the women. We all joined in on the facial fun as well. Such a fun day.

Some of the women weren't there earlier today for the manicures and pedicures so we did all that for them as well. I painted one of the ladies toes and nails, and after I was done she wanted to do mine. It was a bonding moment. So sweet. She was loved and pampered and wanted to give back. All these women are so special and loving. I am just so proud of them for making the steps to have a better life, not only for themselves but for their precious kids. We see their kids everyday as well at the W.A.R. facility. Some of them cling to their mom all day. We play out in the facility yard with them while their moms are dong fun stuff with us and getting pampered.

It was a great day, but very exhausting. We all went back to the hotel and chilled out until dinner. Dinner was at the usual place, Rift Valley Hotel across the street, we found out that the Rift Valley had internet access. I checked my email a little but that was it.... Oh yeah, and I looked up Project 61 to see if I could find Deborah on there to sponsor. They didn't have a list of kids to be sponsored but they did have an email to contact about it. I am going to look further into in when I get back home. I don't really want to get on the internet anymore while I'm here. I just don't feel the need for it much anymore.

Sammy getting his facial.

The kids joined in on some of the fun.

Surafel washing hair.

Alex being claimed by one of the ladies :)

Day 21 Monday, July 11th 2011

It's weird to think that by this time next week I'll be back in the U.S. It's our last week. The closer that time comes the more I don't want to leave. I really don't.

I woke up not very well rested and in a bit of a bad mood. I kept tossing and turning and waking up in the middle of the night from my ribs or butt hurting from the rock hard beds. So... no much sleep. We all went to the hotel across the street called Rift Valley to eat breakfast. This is where we will be eating most, if not all, our meals. All the orders kept coming out at different times and wrong as well. I think this set the tone for how it will be for the every meal. I'm sure the waiters and waitresses were frustrated as well. Even with translators around the table there seemed to be a big language barrier.

I got french toast which tasted like fried cake heaven and sat in a pool of honey. Thank you... thank you... yes, it was a great breakfast choice wasn't it? Even though breakfast seemed to take forever (mmm... bout 2 hours or so) it was nice sitting outside with the beautiful weather, having fun chats throughout my table area. This was a funny morning.

After breakfast we all went back to the hotel and gathered our jackets or bags for the day and headed to the Women At Risk center. There was a new group of women that had entered the program whom we are going to be hanging out with all week. They had just come in a month ago, some two weeks ago, and a couple of them it was their first day. These women have had some hard lives and today we just hungout with them and got to know them and some of their stories. All these women were prostitutes right before they came into the program.

In the program the women are taken care of financially while they go through it, but the first month they don't get any financial assistance. They do this because some women will drop out within the first few weeks. So, it's sort of a weed out time frame to see who will stick with it. It kind of made me sad though, because some of the women still go out and prostitute so that they can still pay their bills and rent. They have to completely stop when the program starts to take care of them financially. It really made me sad to find out that a few still did it, but I understand why they do and I also understand why the W.A.R. facility delays their support for awhile. BREAKS MY HEART!!

When we got there we all just introduced ourselves and talked to them. We didn't really know what to expect in wether or not they would want to talk to us and let us hear their stories since there were girls there that had only stopped two weeks ago.... and then the ones that I found out were still doing it to make ends meet. But they seemed to be very open about it and a lot of them were open enough to share their stories. At the end of the day I think they were pretty excited we were there.

For lunch we all went back to the hotel we ate at for breakfast. I sat next to Kat. LOVE that girl! I'm so glad she came with us to Nazret even if she's only staying for 3 days. Wish it was the rest of the week. Lunch was pretty good. I had the Chicken Kabab plate which came with green beans. All of you that know me know I was excited about the green beans. Stupid comments were heard around the table from certain people as usual. Sometimes I'm completely floored by people's attitudes and cultural stupidity. Ugh...

After lunch we went back to W.A.R. to hang out with the ladies more. They are so sweet and welcoming. Some of them are super shy. They youngest was 17. Can you imagine that? 16 and already a prostitute for years. A child already in her lap. Come of the women came from the country and apparently it's pretty common that they don't know their age. A few of them only guess how old they are. The oldest one there is 30. When we were done for the day (@ 4) we headed over to "Sister's Cafe". Sister's Cafe is a cafe that the women who have graduated from W.A.R. program. We all got coffee. I didn't know they already sweetened their coffee so I added more sugar before I took a sip. 1. It was definitely too sweet and 2. It was definitely just steamed milk. Our orders are always wrong anywhere we go. If you come to Africa.... EXPECT IT! There are so many things that we say that mean something completely different to them. Oh well.... that's the African life when you're a furengi (Amharic for white foreigner). I had the waitress bring out a shot of espresso to add to my milk. Much better.

Not much really went on after that besides dinner, hanging out in each others rooms chatting and going to bed.

.....oh wait! yes. After dinner Michael wanted to practice on all of us women folk and paint our nails. Tomorrow we have a spa day with the women and he needed some practice. HAHA! Let me just say this... it was so sweet and cute that he wanted to do that, and watching him, but Lawdy Mercy! what a terrible nail painter he is. Horrible. He's going to need some practice.