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.
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