The day started out with corn flakes and some kind of chocolate cereal Danielle got at the grocery store the day before. I’m actually a little disappointed in the lack of Ethiopian food we’ve been eating but hopefully that will not be the case as more time goes on. I do know that Su is cooking for us tomorrow night, so I’m really excited about that.
We went back to Big AHOPE to do some more activities with the children. The English lesson went a bit better this time. I was with a group of kids a little older than yesterday and Steve (one of the co-leaders of our team) teamed up with me. We all got in a big circle and kicked/threw a soccer ball around to each person. When each person got the ball they had to answer the question of choice, in a full sentence. The kids that were with me this time were more excited to participate in the activities.
We came back to the guest house to eat lunch and it started to rain outside while we were eating. When we came back to Big AHOPE there was a river of rainwater and mud outside the gate to the orphanage. Thank goodness I had brought rain boots on this trip. As I was stepping on the bus to go to Big AHOPE the translators were pointing and laughing at my rain boots speaking to each other in Amharic (the Ethiopian language). I knew they were making fun of them..... haha.
When we got to Big A. orphanage and saw that river of mud water, two translators Hannah and Selam understood why I was wearing the rain boots. They were both wearing regular shoes and asked to borrow my rain boots after I got into the orphanage. So Christy, who was also wearing rain boots, ran back and forth from the bus to the orphanage carrying my rain boots to Hannah and Selam. HA! Who has the last laugh now! :)
This time we planned on doing centers with the kids instead of doing everything all together. Everything went a lot smoother this time and I think it was great for the kids because the ratio of kids to one of us was a lot better than getting one person to explain the activity and having a lot of helpers afterwards. We decided to incorporate my origami box as one of the centers this time. It went a lot smoother than yesterday because I explained Christy how to do it so that she could help me. It also gave each child a chance to learn how to do it in a small group rather than a rally of kids playing survival of the fittest.
To give you an idea of what these two orphanages look like (little & big AHOPE)....... They king of remind me of the YMCA in Alabaster (my home town in Alabama) minus the pool out back and with additional buildings beside it (all in the same compound) made out of rusty time walls and roofs. It was a very well kept orphanage (is what I had been told by Danielle) compared to the one we will be going to next week. I’m trying to prepare myself in what is to come next week. I was told it is going to be a difficult week. I am preparing to see children naked covered in dirt or mud with runny noses and scabs with only sticks and rusty walls for shelter and having only a mud field to play in. It will be interesting to see how accurate or inaccurate that assumption will be.
After we finished up at Big A. we headed over to Little AHOPE. That was our last time to visit at Big A. I stayed at Little A. with the group for about ten minutes until Su, Danielle and I went to the store to go get food for dinner and the next couple of days. I volunteered to cook dinner for everyone tonight with curry chicken and rice on the menu. One of my favorites to make.
After we got back to Little A. we only had a few minutes left to spend with the children and it looked pretty hectic when we got there. So I snuck into the toddler room which is basically a closet stuffed with colorful baby beds and a little block of crawling space for about 6-7 two year olds and under. When I came in the room and all the little ones saw me, the ones who were able swarmed up to me reaching up with big dark eyes in a look of desperation to be held and loved on. Picking up one, another would cry in disappointment that it didn’t get picked up. Completely heart breaking.
Michael, one of the only males on this trip, Looks like he could pass as Ethiopian. He said that yesterday he went into the toddler room for awhile and some of the babies called him Papa. Oh the starvation for a male figure in their lives! It is so heart breaking knowing what they don’t have, yet heart fulfilling to be able to show these little children love that they deserve if even for just a short while. One of the children that I held in the toddler room pressed his pretty little lips and chubby cheeks to my right cheek and gave me a big long kiss. That was the sweetest moment of the day by far!
After a minute or two he noticed I had a raincoat on and tried to take it off of me so that he could put it on. I helped him out and rolled the sleeves up on his arms to where he could move his arms around. It was so funny because of how huge it looked on him. He giggled at himself in it and soon it became as much as a bad idea as the first attempt of the origami box yesterday. They took demanded turns trying it on. Not very long danielle came in to get me because we were leaving to go back to the guest house and cook dinner. It was sad to leave because I only got to spend about ten minutes with them before we left, but good to know we were coming back tomorrow.
When we got back to the house I pretty much started on preparing dinner in which Michael helped. He was an excellent su chef and it was a lot of fun getting to know him during that time. Some times the kitchen is the best place to get to know people. Michael is 24 and from Oregon, half black half mexican, and has a speech impediment that makes him sound Jamaican or from some other country. It’s a lot of fun hearing him talk and sometimes it takes more concentration than normal to understand what he is saying. He went into the military at age 17 and stayed in for 6 years. He did some college work while in the military. He’s only been out for about 6 months now....I believe. Now he works with mentally retarded people helping them to live life on their own or as best they can and be happy. Michael is a very fun and interesting friend.
Everyone loved dinner and afterwards I took the best hot shower I’ve had since I’ve been here. Probably the first shower since I’ve been here... After my shower we all sat down to talk about the day, our highs and lows, and listen to Michael’s testimony. He had pictures to pass around from back home in which I completely forgot to bring when I share my testimony. After all that, Christy went to take a shower and as soon as she started to rinse the soap out of her hair the water throughout the entire house shut off, leaving her with shampoo all in her hair. It never turned back on..... Welcome to Ethiopia!
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