Korah Children Singing Before Lunch

Day 12 Saturday, July 2nd 2011

Got to sleep in till 10. It was AWSOME! We all needed it..... or at least I did for sure. We treated ourselves to french toast for breakfast after having a full week.

We used this day to relax, really. Not much happened. We did go to the W.A.R. (Women At Risk) factory again to show the other teammates, and then go to "Home Depot" to get supplies for the factory project this next week. But Home Depot is closed Saturday and Sunday apparently, so we ended up not doing that.

We went to get lunch instead at Island Breeze. I got a chicken quesadilla. It was SO good! Just what I needed, something that actually tasted good to me. I really haven't been all that impressed with food here. Only a couple of things. Lunch took foooorevvvver! The power at Island Breeze kept going out and coming back on. Very common for that to happen around here. The city runs on Hydro-electricity, so when it doesn't rain for awhile the power is likely to go out. It rained Friday early morning but hasn't since then. It's their rainy season so it's expected to rain pretty much everyday.

After lunch we went to the internet cafe and then back to the house again just to chill. Michael, Christy, Emily,Hannah and I walked down to the little shop down the street to get a few groceries. I got a couple of mango juice packets to chill in the refrigerator and drink for later. They ended up not tasting that great, but they satisfied the sweet tooth for a little while. You can't really find many sweet things here. Ethiopians don't really like sugar or sweets. My personal opinion?.... They haven't found out how to make good sweets yet. I got a few Ethiopian chocolate candies to try and see what they would taste like.... expecting to like at least some of them. Big mistake. No wonder they don't like sweets! All of them were bad. I looked a little closer at the wrappers.... and read "Chocolate flavored...." yeah, all the chocolate over here is pretty much fake chocolate wax. gross.

Left overs were for dinner. Then I wrote in my journal and went to bed. It was the perfect relaxing day.

Emily, Christy, and I relaxing on the "comfy couch" in the guest house living room.

Day 11 Friday, July 1, 2011

Today is the first of July! Crazy.

Last night I went to sleep very feverish. My fever must have broke while I was sleeping because I woke up feeling SO much better. This was good because today was going to be a big day. At the Korah orphanage it was registration day for 300 children for the next school year. We were going to be there for crowd control. We took the regular 60 children we have been teaching everyday this week and did the regular routine while the other children were in the registration meeting. Today seemed a bit off. Even the kids seemed to be having an off day.... We were all just exhausted. The kids during english seemed to be having a hard time understanding the sentences today. Carrie wasn't here today to help me because she went to go tour a school near by, so I was glad when we were finally done with all of our classrooms.

This is Carrie and I on our first day in Ethiopia. Carrie is a 6th grade teacher

back in the U.S. I teamed up with her to teach english while we are here.

These are some of my students in Korah. This is the classroom

that is behind the church outside.

I was just completely exhausted from this week. While all the children played I just sat down with Deborah in my lap against the classroom building where all the children eat lunch. Soon a few other girls came and sat with us eventually wanting to braid my hair. What the heck, go for it... As long as I didn't have to play double double this that, or patty cake another time and just sit there and let them braid my hair. I was completely ok with that......

until... there were four or five little girls braiding my hair pulling it this way and that way. It felt as though they were playing double double this that with my hair!.... or worse! Jump roping with it! From being tired from being sick I chilled out and stood it for a little bit (because lets face it I didn't have the energy to tell them to stop), but when they started getting loud and sounding like they were fighting over my hair, I could feel the limit in me rise into frustration and anger. I felt like I was going to rise up from sitting and transform into the Wolverine with sharp metal claws to slash them away from me. I was picturing the whole scene in my head.

Danielle saw the ridiculousness and asked if I was alright.... "Yeah, I'm alright...... actually, I've had enough. Can you get them to stop?" I'm pretty sure that I heard and felt one of the girls spit in my hair. Sometimes they do that if there isn't a hair tie to keep the braid together, and sometimes they use snot. Gross. Sorry! Not of white girl's hair! Oh no you didn't!

Thankfully Danielle got them all off of my hair. She told them all I was sick and not feeling well. Whew! Glad I didn't turn into the Wolverine! That was not going to be a pretty sight, and I'm pretty sure I was one molecule of anger away from turning into that. Roaring and slashing all the little girls around me. Now that they were all away from me, I was back to just sitting there in the warm sun with Deborah on my lap.... Speaking of warm sun, It has been so cold here! I definitely didn't pack as well as I should have for this trip. The highs have been in the 60's low 70's this week and rainy. I was prepared for the rain but not so much being cold all the time. All of you that know me, know I get chill bumps when it starts hitting in the low 70's. Especially when it's gloomy outside. If it's sunny....I'm fine. It felt nice to finally be sunny today and just sit there soaking in the warmth.

I fed my old leprosy man again his lunch. It was my last time to do that for him. When I was done feeding him I found Deborah and said my goodbyes. That was a little sad moment. Today was our last day with these children. I gave her kisses and said "ciao". She gave me kisses back and said "ciao." That was the tender moment of the day. As I was leaving and about to head back on the bus, one of the girls I bonded with on day one pulled me aside and sat me down to talk to me. I forgot her name,.... it's something hard to pronounce and easy for me to forget. She is 15 and had one of her friends with her. He was a street boy and was in desperate need of a sponsor. They were trying to get me to sponsor him. It broke my heart. All I could say was "I'll see what I can do..." that's all I COULD say for right then... I just didn't know what else to say. I don't remember what his name is but it means "blessed" in Amharic. I made sure I got his name before we left, or at least the meaning so I could later possibly find him again. Who knows, maybe I could do something for him or find someone who can. What do you say when you are faced with something like that? When you see the sad desperation in their faces?

Before we started to leave, I pulled out a gift for one of the older boys who draws. He is very talented and has a lot of potential. His name is Ebenezer. He pulled me in their bunk bed room and showed me a note book of all his drawings. They were very good! They were all of flowers. I told him he should be very proud and that he is very good. I could see in his shy smile he was excited to hear that coming from another artist. Earlier this week the older boys pulled me aside when they found out I was an artist and made me draw for them. I drew a still of one of the water bottles I had been drinking out of. They all Ooooed and Aaahhhhed over it and Ebenezer gave it a try. He did a very good job and soaked every minute up. It was good to see all their excitement throughout that time, and they all have a special place in my heart. I hope that Ebenezer finds his way with his artwork because he has a lot of potential and talent. We are all very proud of him. You can even see how proud all his peers are of him as we were drawing together.

All of us women folk on the team got on the bus to go back and rest while Sammy, Steve, and Michael stayed to play soccer with the kids and another trip team from N.C. (who just arrived the day before). I don't really know who they are with... probably a church mission trip. They'll be here for 9 days I think they said? It was kind of nice to see some new American faces but they were kind of quiet and didn't really talk to us much. They seemed a bit uncomfortable to be there. There were a lot of young teenagers and I think they were out of their comfort zone a bit. I know coming here must be a real wake up call for them.

Getting back to the house to rest was much needed for a lot of us. I finally got a "shower" after days of not showering. I'm pretty sure Christy was glad as well since I'm rooming with her :) While chilling out I found a note from Michael that really spoke to me and made me feel better about my low the other day. My low of not really being sure if I could do this kind of mission work for a long period of time. I won't go into detail about it but his note did a lot of good in me. Thank you Michael. God has used you in big ways and continues to do so.

After resting and the guys coming back home, we headed out to the market to do a little shopping. The last shop I stopped in, this man had a collection of stuff on one of the shelves. I picked what looked like an old book. I opened it, and it was a really old Ethiopian Bible dating 100 years! He was selling for 250 U.S. dollars, which probably meant he would sell it for much cheaper. It was really cool to look at and pretty frail. I was with Selam and she got a little upset at the man for selling it. I'm pretty sure the guy was on some weed or something. Selam told him "Do you know what this is?! This should not be sold! This should stay in Ethiopia! Don't sell this! You can't sell this!" She was right, but I kinda wanted it and knew she would have gotten mad if I bought it. I didn't have that much money to blow anyways. How cool was it to find that though?

We went to dinner at one of Surafel's brother's restaurants. I don't remember what it was called but it was the nicest restaurant we've been to yet. Very club-esque. They even had one of those big screen TV's you see at bowling alley's that played MTV music videos. It is Steve's last night with us and Surafel had made a sign for the table that said Bon Voyage Steve!..... or something of that nature.

Steve leaves in the early morning for his flight to Kenya to visit his friend Michelle for three days before he leaves for good back to the U.S. After we all got back home after dinner we had our nightly team meeting. Surafel stayed with us that night since he was taking Steve to the airport in the morning. Alex shared her life story to where she is now in life. I really do admire that girl. She is the only non-Christian on the trip and is one of the only ones (some others do, but not a lot of us) who will volunteer to pray. What do you think that says about the majority of us who claim to know our God and Father yet don't cry out to him when asked to? The other day some men where in the church in Korah at the orphanage and were praying. They were all crying out to the Lord, and It donned on me that we don't regularly do that in America... or at least it's not often seen. Then the other day I was reading a verse in Hebrews that just confirmed my thoughts about the matter and how we need to actively CRY OUT to Him. Hebrews 5:7 "While Jesus was here on Earth, He offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue Him from death. And God heard His prayers because of His deep reverence for God." Not only do we need to cry out to Him but doing so only if and with deep reverence for God. How do you think we reach to that point?

After Alex shared, Surafel shared his testimony. What a story. I had heard bits and pieces.... the first of his story. But tonight I got the whole story. Some things became clear to me that I was blind to and bits and pieces were able to be put together. It's funny how when you meet someone and you notice or see things about them, but when you hear their whole story (if they allow it) you can understand them better and put the missing pieces together. I've been debating on wether or not to write out his story and have decided to let that be for him to tell. That's his life story to tell. I did learn though (among other things) that the dancing that night at the restaurant we went to one of the first nights, was dancing they do in witch craft. If I had known that I would not have wanted to go. It would have creeped the Hell out of me! Surafel left before all of that started and I understand why now.

When we were all done, Steve had the bright idea to affirm everyone going one by one to everyone in the room saying cool and nice things about them. It was really nice Steve, thanks..... Then Emily and Michael sang him a going away song. Good song but I thought it was weird choice in a going away song. It was "Wedding Dress." Whatever. They did a good job. I went to bed after Steve did his last confessional on Emily's camcorder, because I was exhausted. A lot of the others stayed up and hung out with Steve. I really didn't get to know Steve that well during this trip..... and I can't say that I'm really actually honestly going to miss him.... like the others have been saying. It's sort of like life stages to me. Just moving on to the next stage. Something different. Not that we didn't get along, it's neither's fault, it's just the way it is. One of those people that pass by in your life. I'm sure I was that way for him. Just passer bys.

Day 10 Thursday, June 30th 2011

Woke up feeling better today in hopes that, that feeling would last the whole day. Went back to Korah doing our classroom routine. The children are really doing well with English and today has been our best day yet! The last classroom we visited, which is usually pretty chaotic was extra good today. So quiet and obedient! We put a bit more rules to the prizes this time and their behavior was much better. Kids are so much cuter when they behave well.... haha...

Speaking of cute kids. There is one kid here that has completely engulfed my heart. Her name is Deborah. Deborah is four years old and is the size of a two year old. Everyday our bus arrives to the orphanage in Korah and I get off, I see Deborah searching through the crowed of children and my other teammates looking for me. It's really funny to watch her while she is running around looking through the crowed to find me. As soon as she sees me she runs up to me with a big smile and arms open wide reaching upwards for me to embrace her and pick her up. What a HEART MELTER!!! UGHHH!!!

I carry her around all day with me as I go from class to class teaching English. She's my baby. My little black baby. I wish I could take her home with me. Her mother actually works there at the orphanage/school, so she is not an orphan. She just hangs around the place as her mother works. If she didn't have a mother to look after her I would seriously consider adopting her. I'm a little selfishly sad that she has a mother.... I want that kid.... Isn't that horrible! oh man.... I'm terrible...

Anytime Deborah sees me holding another child or holding another child's hand she comes up and beats off all the other kids away to get to me. HA! One time I was holding a girl, Deborah comes up and slaps her on the legs and tries to pull her down. I finally put the poor girl down and pick Deborah up for the other girl's sake. That girl stood their with her arms reaching upwards to be picked up again.... crying... (oh my heart was so sad!), so I decided to hold Deborah on one hip and the other girl on my other hip carrying them both around. Big mistake... Deborah was not happy about sharing me. She knows hardly any English and doesn't talk much but when a kid attempts to take me away from her she'll yell at them with her tiny Amharic voice. HAHA! I love that little kid.... .....This is me and itty bitty Deborah. If you see my pictures on facebook that I've been tagged in she is in a majority of them.

During lunch time I got to feed my old leper friend again. Every time it does my heart and soul good. And Every time he thanks me by saying a blessing for me. I never understand what he is saying because it's in Amharic (not all the time there is a translator near by), but my soul and heart understands and appreciates it. After he's done I always give him a kiss on the head to let him know he is loved and that I appreciate him as much as he appreciates me.

After lunch we split up into two groups to do house visits again. The family we visited today had a little bit better place. It was one room made of mud walls painted white with a metal roof instead of a tarp roof. A lot of the homes with tarp roofs have holes in them... allowing rain to pour in when it monsoons. The room was smaller in size than my room at my apartment. They had two twin sized beds that slept the entire family of 6. While we were there she made us a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony, which consists of popcorn and three rounds of tea glasses of coffee made from roasted coffee beans ground up using her pistol and mortar (is that right? is that what their called?...). We got to see this whole process from the washing of the beans to the roasting.... to the final product of hot coffee, all while we are in this tiny room sitting on the beds watching her. As she was going through this whole process we got to hear a bit about her situation ( with the help of translators), while seeing her children outside peeping in on the company, smiling and making faces at us... sticking out their tongues. So funny!

There was also a cow right outside you could hear mooing and peeing during the whole visit. HAHA! The cow is their land lords. Their rent is 200 Burr a month (divide that by 16.75 and it = the U.S. dollar amount). She makes cotton thread to sell, which only makes enough for soap and a little bit of food. She also searches through the dump for wood to sell. Her husband was an officer in the military and lost a limb. He is retired and now begs for a living. The government doesn't take care of him because he was in the military while they were under the communist government. I'm not sure wether or not they even take care of their veterans now. If you lose a limb or your life, tough noogies for you and your family! At least for the veterans of the past government, I really don't know what it is for their veterans now.

I asked Sammy if it was possible to support an entire family in Korah. You can. That was encouraging to hear and something I am seriously considering. If I could just cover their rent every month that would take so much pressure off of them! 200 Burr is almost 12 dollars a month! SERIOUSLY?!..... uh yeah! I can do that. I wish I could just take care of everyone in that community. Solve poverty. But I can't solve poverty, and that is saddening to me right now seeing all this and feeling and knowing I can't solve it. How do I go back home to my everyday life doing my everyday job, living life comfortably while they are struggling to even make or beg enough for one meal? Sometimes they don't even get to eat for an entire day.

After the coffee ceremony, we asked her what we could pray for for her.... protection and health.... so I did just that...and lead our group in praying for her and her family before we left. We thanked her for her hospitality as we left. That was the best coffee I have ever had. They do it right over here. We met up with the other half of the team and headed back to the house. Michael wanted to go for a run when we got back with Christy and I. I was still feeling drained from being sick but agreed to go anyway. I needed some sort of exercise and thought I could run this cold out of me...(seriously? I'm an idiot. I blame it on my rowing coach from college.) Just FYI, we are 8,000 ft. above sea level. What do I live at in Charleston? 3ft. BELOW sea level! Michael had been exercising everyday since we got here (how? I have no idea!!) so he was use to it by now. Christy and I? We lasted 4 minutes. Were we dying? Yes. Did we push ourselves you ask? Yep!.... This is stupid.

When we got back from our run I gathered my clothes and washed them in the kicthen sink using warm water from the bathroom shower. I went back and forth with one of the pots, filling up the sink. Danielle lended me some laundry soap. Thanks Danielle! After I was done my forearms were so tired! I was also starting to feel a LOT worse and was debating on whether or not to even join the team for dinner. I went anyways and thank goodness because they had soup at the salad bar. Just what I needed and wanted. The salad bar was free with our meals we ordered. I ordered fish "breaded with herbs and lemon sauce." WORST FOOD DECISION YET! The fish was literally (not even joking, I wish I took a picture of this thing!) paper thin! All it was, was the breaded part. No lemon sauce and it came with "French fries", which were fries without the potatoes in them.... This meal was a joke. Sammy even raised his eyebrows in disbelief. At least I had soup. That's all I really needed. Warm soup. I couldn't even eat lunch today because of how sick I've been feeling. I'm pretty much wasting away right now. I weigh about 112 lbs. now. How much did I weigh when I got here? mmm....bout 123 lbs. yep. A lot of it is from being sick all week and dealing with everything here. I had to borrow one of Christy's belts to keep my pants from falling down.

After dinner we got coffee at Kaldi's again.... lot's of Kaldi trips here... and used the internet cafe next to it. I emailed Susan and my sister to send out an update. I also looked at some pictures from when family visited in Charleston before I left. It was so good to see some familiar things and touch base back home. As the night progressed I kept feeling worse and worse. I definitely had a high fever. When we all got back to the house we told Danielle about our night (she stayed back to get some alone time before Steve, her co-leader, leaves us Saturday) and then, like every other night, we had our team nightly meeting telling everyone our highs and lows of the day.... and then someone always tells their testimony. When it was my turn for highs and lows I started balling because of how awful I was feeling. I was totally dreading this moment... I knew it was coming... like a bomb ready to blow.... I thought I was getting better the last couple of days but then today was a sign I was only getting worse. Was I ever going to get better?!... it was just disappointing and I had kept how horrible I was feeling today in so long that it just came out in tears. I finally composed myself and told my high of the day... haha... My high today was Deborah.. and how she just continues to run up to me everyday and is by my side the whole day while in Korah. In the end, it's not to bad of a day (even if you feel like absolute shit) when a child seeks you out of a crowd everyday running up to you to be held.

*Other Notes*

-Emily and Danielle shared their testimonies. .... Let's just say there was a lot of crying going on tonight.

AHEMMM....... Emily. :) ....oh yeah... and ......me.

Day 9 Wednesday, June 29th 2011

Today was a hard day for me. I felt as though I have hit a low. I woke up feeling a good bit better from being sick and had some time to spend with the Lord.... sort of.... mmm maybe not really. I read some in the World Harvest book called "My Luggage Is Not Heavy" a couple of my friends gave me.... So that doesn't really count. It's actually disappointing to me how little I've been able to spend with the Lord in quiet time. I am constantly with teammates or out doing stuff during the day with the children. There is never a good time where I can just say "hey I'm going to go off by myself and just spend time with the Lord...." Is it enough to say that I see Him throughout my work here? Is it enough to say that I spend a lot of time with him through my daydreams? Is that a tool He has given me to get through the day with Him? When Jesus was teaching he was constantly being asked to heal, being tugged and pulled on. People all around him. Even in trying to find places of solitude he was bothered. Bothered to feed 5,000 people with two loaves of bread and 5 fish. Boom! a miracle! Jesus is bothered (I'm sure not in His mind it was bothersome) and He answers them by feeding them and preaching to them.

I can sort of relate to His tiredness and still wanting to give back, although I am sure it is not as graceful as Jesus himself. Just being tired trying to spread your attention to so many children is mentally and physically exhausting. Yet you forget about how tired you are while your in that moment, because of the overwhelming compassion you have for these children.

When we got to Korah today we all settled into our routine. English was a lot better today. I think the children enjoyed the sentences they were learning a lot better this go round.... and I think they actually learned something. Score! We had them write out sentences and fill in the blank with their answers..... 1.My favorite subject is_______. 2. I like to play_____. 3. When I graduate I would like to be_____. 4. The Pet I would like to have is_____. or The pet I have is_____. Not only were they doing much better, but it was a lot of fun to listen to their answers. A lot of the children were saying english was their favorite activity today. Whoo Hoo!

The last class we went to was a bit more chaotic. After the lessons we gave out prizes to all the children and one received a medal. We gave out glow sticks to all the kids, and in my mind totally out weighed the medal in awesomeness. They loved them! and in the last room the kids were grabby and very impatient. Even having a translator wasn't any help in getting order with the kids. Lots of the children hid the prizes in their pockets and would come back up pretending like they didn't get one. A lot of these kids are beggars so I can't really blame them for how they are, but sometimes I think that they don't get the discipline they need because the excuse "well they don't have much, and we feel sorry for them." I'm sure it's different during the school year when it's not just ferengis (white foreigners) teaching them. Today I did not feel sorry for them.... this class was getting on my nerves.

After the regular routine today with "school" we hung out with the kids playing with them, singing, and etc. until lunch time. They always wait for lunch in one of the classrooms singing songs, clapping and drumming. So fun! I got to feed my old man again :) I just really love being able to spend time with him...... even though not much is said back and forth. I was less messy feeding him today because I had injera to scoop his food instead of just picking up rice it's self with my bare hands. He blessed me again after feeding him and I gave him a kiss on the head. He is a quiet old soul. The other men that Christy and Michael fed where quite the talkers..... singing songs and being picky with how big their bites were. It was hilarious glancing over at them hearing what all was going on.

When the children were done with lunch we hung out a little bit longer and one of the girls who is sponsored to stay there, took me by the hand to show me her room, which she shares with seven other girls. She was 14. She sat me down on one of the beds and handed me a small book of pictures with pictures of she and her family, and her sponsors. Her family photos look like her family wasn't that bad off and confused me a bit to why she was even here. I guess her parents died (possibly from HIV/AIDS) and she had no where else to go. I'm not really sure though.....

A little while later our group split up into two groups of five. We were going on house visits to a couple of the students at the project 61 orphanage/school. Not all the children are orphans that are sponsored. Some don't have parents but they have guardians looking after them. The home we went to was right by the dump field and stunk like no other. They were so excited that we were coming to visit. That is something I admire about the people in Ethiopia. They are very hospitable and are not self conscious about what their homes look like. They are just happy to have people come visit and have company.

We had a couple of translators come with us as well as a couple of the orphanage workers. The mother of the boy's home we visited was there and welcomed us in. She told us how glad she was that we came to visit, and told us about her family and how they got here. She was from the country and moved here to try to have a better life. Her rent is 150 Burr and I think her family barely slides by to make even that for the month. That is not even 17 us dollars. She searches through the dump to collect wood to sell for burning, which a lot of the time they can only find plastics and use that to burn instead of wood.

They use to allow people to visit the dump to minister to the people in there, but now they don't allow outsiders to go in because they are ashamed about their poverty. They don't want people to see how bad it is, but their government isn't doing anything to help them. Maybe they can't... I don't know... I doubt it though. You can always do SOMETHING! Maybe they look at other countries and see the "richness" they have and get caught up in trying to catch up. But in the end looking at those "rich" countries you have to realize the facade of it all..... Like America, we are so far in debt... TRILLIONS to be exact. We've blinded ourselves to what true richness in life is. Here in Ethiopia they live true richness of life, yet some don't even know it.

Sometimes I think God has given me a pare of spiritual glasses that see things some people can't.... seeing some things the way God sees it. Those that do live in unbelievable poverty literally scraping the dirt to get by, have such a bigger potential to flourish in the Holy Spirit than those who crowd their hearts and minds with the things of the world with the amount of success and trying to make more than they need. I see that in the people of Korah who live at the dump. They don't ask for prayer for a better house or for more money. When you ask them what they need prayer for, they ask for good health and protection over their family. Of course I'm sure their are the ones that live there who are angry with why their lives are the way they are. I just have yet to meet them. That is one thing (out of many) I have learned from Korah.... what I knew I would learn here... how much they rely on the Lord. How much they HAVE to rely on the Lord, and how content and joyous they are in the Lord.

Just to give you more of an idea of what the area setting is like.... When you walk down the streets it's not a bad idea to wear rain boots. Since we've visited Korah it's been pretty gloomy and with that.... rain.... and with rain.... mud. The streets are just paved with piles of mud and rocks and a lot of the puddles of water could just as well be puddles of urine from roaming goats and donkeys. Scraggley dogs and cats running to and fro to where ever they are going, or sometimes we'll just pass by them sound asleep in the road not budging even for cars. Street venders line up the main road with their fresh produce covered in dirt, waving off swarms of lazy flies. Flies also cover their own clothes and faces not even bothering to shoo them away. All the fence walls are made of metal tin. Most are rusted and some have holes. These metal "walls" are seen everywhere throughout Addis.

As we were walking to the house we were visiting, we got closer and closer to the dump. The stink in the air got more and more potent, and could eventually see mountains of trash in the distance blurred by a cloud of smog. It looked similar to something you would see in a holocaust movie. Like scenes when people would be sorting out the mountains of clothing or the scenes of still shots of the mountains of bodies covered with clouds of moving smoke/smog, not allowing you to quite make out what you were looking at. The whole setting... and just how that seemed to connect in my head.... ugh... I can't even describe other than deep sadness I felt. My spirits hit real low today.

How do people live like this day in and day out? I've visited Korah for less than a hole week and am already feeling down from the whole experience. I at least have a way out in the end. A plane ticket back to the U.S. in a few weeks, home safe and sound in my palace of an apartment. In my own bed with a cloud of down feathers for a comforter. All things which these people don't even know exist. They don't get any break from this lifestyle. Summer, who moved here from the mid-west U.S. and works at Project 61 in Korah, sees this everyday for the past year and staying for two more years. H does she do it? In my heart I hoped that I would be willing to do something like this full time, but now I am discouraged of thoughts that I don't think I can. I can't. There is no way, and that saddens my heart. Why does my heart want to follow God and give everything up for Him, yet in selfish desire I am not able to because I want to be comfortable. My heart weeps for these people, yet I am not willing to give up my life in the U.S. to physically help them. Oh Lord, I am so broken! It's very discouraging to come to this point today, having a heart to help and love people for my life's work, yet realizing I don't know if I can do that here. Or anywhere like this where it is needed most. Wow, what a low... what a rock bottom low today.

*Other Notes*

-Heather shared her testimony tonight. what an incredible and strong soul. Very moving

-Julia also shared her testimony. Turns out she was the Bean Queen of Michigan and knows more than she should about beans... (Julia, you HAD to be the real farter from last night during Steve's testimony).... nickname dubbed "Beans"

Day 8 Tuesday, June 28th 2011

Cereal for breakfast. Cloudy and gloomy for most of the day except for the first part of the day in Korah. Today was a good day. We started out the day dividing the children up into classrooms by grades. I went into each room teaching two different groups english with Carrie. We each took a group and then switched at the halfway mark. I taught colors making them tell me what color I was holding up (using markers) and then eventually making them speak in sentences using their color they received saying “This color is....” and then teaching them the difference between “This and That.” I got a little discouraged thinking that I don’t know if they were getting anything out of it. Sometimes (most of the time) they didn’t seem to understand what they were learning. After the last class I taught, I asked them (using Selam as my translator) “So, was this easy for you or hard for you?” They all chimed in “easy.” Well, they sure fooled me! It was encouraging to see more enthusiasm out of these kids than from Little/Big AHOPE, yet it was because of the fact that this was a rare thing and a privilege that most in the community don’t have. They understand more the value of what they are learning and I think they actually enjoyed it.

During the school year they are taught english, but from Ethiopian staff. So they were excited to try their english in conversation while we played with them. Having us here to talk to also improves their pronunciation. A LOT of the kids had a really hard time with the word purple and brown and graduate. There were times it was hard for me not to laugh. All these kids live in the slums of Korah and all these kids are so happy. They all wanted to play, joke around, hang on all our arms and legs, be picked up and hugged and kissed. Precious babies. Precious stinky happy babies. Ridiculous.

We fed them for lunch again and while they had their lunch Surafel needed some of us to feed some of the old men who had leprosy. Some of them were unable to feed themselves so we had to hand feed them. Today they had yellow rice and bread for lunch. They don’t have utensils so I used the bread as much as it would go, and then straight up used my hands putting them in his mouth to feed him the rest of his rice. I was a little grossed out, but that just didn’t matter to me. He was so grateful for me to feed him. The whole experience blessed my soul to be able to do that for him.

When he was finished, he took my hands and kissed them, saying something... I got Sammy to translate for me. He said that he was blessing me and blessing me for a long life of years and prosperous life. Oh my gosh! Seriously?!... What a blessing to have been able to do that for him. I hope I get to do that for him tomorrow as well.

When we were done there (about 2-2:30) we headed back to the house. Everyone ate lunch on the bus while I was still playing with the children outside. I apparently didn’t get the memo about lunch on the bus, so when we got back I fixed a PB&J sandwich. Not too long afterwards Surafel, Danielle and I went to the new Women At Risk factory in Addis with Barrett while everyone else stayed at the guest house chilling. Barrett had asked for me to come and look around at the factory building (where some of the women weave scarves for the Fashionable line Mocha Club has) and outside area to see how and what we needed to do to make the place beautiful. He knew I was an artist and wanted to get an artists input on the situation. This is a new building they built for the women in Addis that are Women At Risk who make the scarves for “FashionABLE.” Inside the building, it was pretty cramped with looms everywhere! I don’t think I’m going to be able to fix the cramped-ness of the place, but making it Beautiful won’t be a problem. I’ve got some exciting plans for that place. Our team is going to be working on it sometime while we are here. I’m pretty stoked about it.

When Barrett dropped Danielle, Surafel, and I at the house, everyone looked bored out of their minds. We were gone for a good bit because Barrett had a buisness meeting while we were there as well. So, when I was done looking around and making plans for the factory, we just sat in listening to their conversation. Barrett was using Surafel to translate for the meeting. It was super interesting to just sit in on the meeting and listen. Usually that would sound super boring to me, but it totally wasn’t. I think it was interesting because it was a meeting on how to make this business grow and profit in a way to make things better not only for their business but for the workers as well..... among other things.

We went to dinner shortly after we got back, and went to this place in the city that seemed really nice. Ridiculously nice for what we are here in Ethiopia for. Again. Body odor. Even in nice restaurants the waiters reek of pit stank. You can’t get away from it. That is one thing I appreciate about America... clean air and nice smells. When I first arrived in Addis and got off the plane the smell was overwhelming of curry, spices, exhaust fumes, and body odor. I ordered beef burgundy and was a bit disappointed in my decision after I got it. Something I seem to be doing rather frequently. It had marinara sauce that was no good, but the meat was good! I was totally coveting the fish Heather got. She let me taste it. Off the chain good!

When dinner was over we headed to Kaldi’s coffee shop for after dinner coffee and ice cream. I would describe Kaldi’s as the Starbucks of Ethiopia. Except their coffee isn’t disgusting. It’s actually quite the opposite. Coffee here in Ethiopia does not keep me awake, so I was able to go straight to bed when we got home. Before bed Steve shared his testimony and we talked a bit about our plans for tomorrow at Korah.

Every night someone shares their testimony and then we always go around saying our highs and lows of the day before we all go to bed.

Day 7 Monday, June 27th 2011

Today’s write up might sound a little blurry since I’m writing it now. (Tuesday). Sunday night I had skipped dinner because of feeling under the weather. This morning (Monday) I felt a tad better. I had all the same symptoms except I didn’t have the chills or aches anymore. So I felt as though I would at least make it ok throughout the day. To start out the day, after devotion time we headed out to the town of Korah.... Just two minutes down the road. Driving through the town just set the tone for what we will be dealing with this entire week.

The main road was mud and ankle twisting rocks, making it quite the smooth ride. Certain parts you would see piles of bones on the side of the road scattered everywhere, some knowing exactly where on the body it came from.... of whatever animal it was. Sometimes seeing dogs sniffing or chewing on some..... A dog’s paradise. Full spines, skulls, femurs, etc.... you name it. All of that mixed in with thick mud and swarms of flies. We passed a strip on the way where people were lined up selling the “freshest items on the market” with mud and flies covering the produce (and anything else) and the sellers constantly waving the flies off their products as well as themselves. THIS is the poorest part of Addis Ababa.

We arrived at Project 61 with children curiously staring at our bus as we attempted to make a 3 point turn that turned into an 18 point turn. We finally parked the bus next to the church (in the church “yard”) and got out to children swarming around us holding onto our arms and legs (depending on how little they were) with smiling dirty faces. Beautiful faces might I add. It was very muddy outside... so I wore my rain boots. It rains almost everyday in short strong spouts leaving very little room for sunshine in between each spout. The children were so excited to see us and followed us everywhere we went as Summer was giving us a tour of the orphanage. We first went into the church to let her explain a little bit more about the place and what we will be doing this week. The church was covered by a tarp, which is apparently a luxury to have. Beside the church was a small building big enough for one classroom with one window. It was maybe the size of a standard bedroom..... maybe a little bigger. Very dark inside, even with the one window open. No lights. Another classroom was located behind the church outside. All it was, was a roof and gravel..... and a little bit of tarp for “walls”,

Next there was the third classroom across the road. These roads are only about 15 feet wide. This classroom was much like the first one. A building in it’s own. It’s also where they feed the children. The last classroom was in a bigger building that had a porch on it. You walk into the classroom which is about the same size as the other ones but has another room a tad smaller attached to the side... No doors. That room is a storage area (an empty storage area). Going through the storage area, to the right, there is a tiny room with 4 sets of bunk beds. That is where the girls sleep. Their roof was a tarp... we saw the rest of the place (cooking area and etc.) but I feel as though I have already recorded too much info.

After the tour we started to work on moving the benches in the church into some of the classrooms along with chalkboards. When the children saw that we were cleaning up and getting the classrooms into order, they started swarming to help us. So little they have yet SO eager to help and just be around us! A big truck came by and stopped in the road at Project 61 and dumped a big load of gravel. The gravel is this red volcanic rock which we spread throughout the orphanage, into some classrooms and outside areas including the road it’s self. The rock will help with the drainage and mud when it rains. We lined a bunch of it along the tin walls to fill the gaps between the ground and the bottom of the walls. Hopefully that will help during monsoon rains.

Next, we helped pass out food to the children for their lunch. It was injera with this chickpea sauce called shiera. Injera is an Ethiopian food that acts as a utensil as well. It’s like a very large flat spongy pancake.... almost as thin as pita bread. They pour their food on top of the injera and as they eat they tear pieces off using it to pick up their food. Everything is eaten by hand. When someone feeds you, you are considered their friend. and depending on how big a bite they give you determines how good of a friend you are to them. A lot of the children offered to feed me and I ate from two who seemed to befriend me. Another child offered and I had to leave the room knowing more kids wanted to feed me as I was passing them food. I almost gaged the second time I was fed. The smell of the community it’s self made me want to gag, so incorporating food, whiffs of the trash dump near by, and body odor from some of the children reaching puberty.... didn’t help with the gag reflexes.

The body odor here is pretty bad. So many stinky stinky people! The people in Addis Ababa as a whole stink (although our translators don’t stink....?... our bus driver totally does!), but the community of Korah is located in the dump. Most of the people in Korah, if not all of them, spend the day searching through the dump for wood, food, etc. Most of them search for wood to burn and sell. Sometimes when they can’t find wood they use plastic. There are a lot of random fires that occur in the dump and the people come out covered in ashes. When Summer came back to Korah to start Project 61 she named it after Isaiah 61:3 “To all who mourn in Israel he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.” This verse describes the people of Korah to a “T”.

Later, after having lunch ourselves, we came back to P61 and walked to the near by Leprosy hospital founded by the Germans. There, they just showed us where some of the lepers work and make fabric and weave grass mats. We didn’t see the actual leper hospital part, but we got to meet and see some of the lepers working, making threads and fabric. Some didn’t have fingers or other parts of their bodies. The leper hospital here in Korah is the nicest leper hospital in Africa. They get many patients here from all over Ethiopia and other parts of Africa everyday. Korah, was made up of a colony of lepers 75 years ago and is now made up of their descendants. Many have leprosy and are still considered outcasts still.

For dinner we went into the city to a restaurant called Lime Tree. They had “American” type food and i made the mistake of getting a cheese burger. It wasn’t that it was bad or anything, but with your standards of Five Guys being a really good burger, I just set myself up for disappointment. I just wanted something to taste like I wanted it to. It was a good meal none the less. Today was just a bit draining.... and we didn’t even get to the worst we would see yet. I actually got a “shower” tonight so that was good!