Well, my sister has officially stated that I am very behind on my blogging! I had actually started a post last week, but I was having a difficult time putting my recent experiences into words. A couple weeks ago, I had yet another incredible opportunity to see another part of God's world! I travelled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia under the mission organization All God's Children. There were seven of us on our team. The team leaders, Chris & Erica Manz, have previously adopted twins from Ethiopia and continue to do so much with the work down there! The others were Richard Manz, Jessica Wenninger, and Kristi Baran. We flew out of the Indy airport early Saturday morning (the 10th), we had a short layover in D.C., then had a LONG 14 hour flight to Addis!....(although actually this one was shorter than the 17 hour returning flight....) Needless to say....[and might I add "I thought I would never say this"]...but I do believe I have gotten my fill of flying and have no desire to hop back on a plane....for a few months anyway! :)
The time difference in Addis is 7 hours ahead of Indiana, so we arrived Sunday morning. We unpacked, took a short nap, then loaded up all our donations to bring to the AGCI office. After doing that, we went to a lady's restaurant, where she served us coffee. We all sat in a large circle on stools as she brought out the cups, spooned in the sugar, and then poured the coffee. It was delicious!! It also gave us a little extra boost to get us through the rest of the day!:) We then drove up a really tall mountain, where we had a great overview of the city and got to take a tour of a very old Orthodox Christian church! Afterwards, we stopped at the National Museum (which actually holds Lucy "the missing link between humans and monkeys"). It was interesting to see the exhibit on Lucy and also the historical exhibits of Ethiopia! Oh, and we went to a Lion "zoo", where they had several cages with lions in them. So even though it would have been way cooler to see a wild lion, a caged one will have to wet my appetite for now...:) The funniest part of going to see the lions, was the fact that we became more of an attraction than the lions! People were trying to "secretly" take pictures of us white people....it was rather humorous....:)
Monday we went to Kechene (an all girls orphanage). There we started painting in the middle age girl's dorms. One of the first things I learned is that they add water to their paint to make it go farther. So it is really messy! Another thing, the rooms were packed with bunk beds. We couldn't simply move the bunk beds all to one side to paint half of the room...we had to move several beds out before moving the rest to one side. There are so many kids in each room! We really have absolutely no reason to complain about our living arrangements in the states! For lunch, we went to Lucy's which was a restaurant near the orphanage. I got a traditional dish called Tibs Wot, which is beef tips in sauce served on Injera. Injera looks a lot like a pancake in consistency and thickness. It has a bit of a sour taste to it. It is made from a grain called Teff. After lunch, we went back to Kechene and painted the middle age girls' cafeteria/hangout area. After finishing up, we headed to a coffee shop and got mocchiatos.
Tuesday we headed back to Kechene, where we worked on painting the younger girls' dorm and cafeteria. We once again had to do a lot of maneuvering of bunk beds in order to paint rooms. While we were painting our first room, a big rat suddenly popped out of a floorboard, did a couple laps back and forth (enough to get a little excitement going), then went back to it's hiding place. We went to Lucy's again for lunch and this time I tried Gomen Besege (I think that is how you say it). It was cabbage and meat severed with Injera. I think this was my favorite Ethiopian dish that I tried!! After lunch a couple of us finished painting, while a few of us played with the girls. They were delighted to show us around, do our hair, sing songs, teach us how to dance.....:)...., and we may have taught them some dance moves too. Majestic dances such as the chicken dance. :) For supper that night we went to Makush, which is an Italian restaurant that also sells a lot of Ethiopian art.
Wednesday we went to Hannah KG which is a large school. We knocked out (well mostly a couple Ethiopians) a couple walls to adjoin three rooms to make a library for the older children. We carried out the debris from the walls and dumped it over the side of the building (we were four flights up....and no one was very willing to go up and down the stairs with debris...) For lunch we went to Caldi's which is similar to Starbucks (at least in logo:)). I got Sambusa with veggies, which is like veggies in breading deep-fried. Very tasty!! We went back to the school after lunch we moved a lot of the debris that we had thrown over, to build a little "road" by the gate, after a truck had gotten stuck there.
Thursday We went to Kechene again. We handed out bracelets and suckers to the girls and also got things ready for painting. For lunch, we went to Lucy's again and this time I got sizzling lamb. It was delicious! And...they happened to have a piano in the room we sat in that day, so I got to play a couple tunes!!:) After lunch, we did handprints in the younger girl's lunch room. We painted their hands white and then had them put their painted hands on the wall. It is amazing how difficult that can be!:) By the time we were done....there were handprints on multiple objects other than the wall.:) After painting, we spent the rest of the time playing with the girls. That evening we went to Dimma, which is a cultural restaurant. Here we met up with several Ethiopians who used to work for AGCI, who knew Chris & Erica. We ate the traditional way, where they brought out a large pan of injera and placed the meats on it, then everyone eats off the same plate. They had dancing and music from some of the different tribes throughout Ethiopia performing on the stage. I am mesmerized every time they dance....the control over their muscles and the way they can move their bodies is so fascinating! One lady came out into the audience and danced with different people...then she walked up to me.....well knowing I would regret it later if I didn't try....I tried to dance with her........... I have to admit, I have tried multiple times in the bathroom mirror to get my shoulders to move the way their's do......no success has been achieved yet. :(
Friday we painted murals on the outside and inside of one of the kindergarten buildings. On the outside we painting the alphabet, numbers, crayons, shapes, etc. Then on the inside we painted a globe and underneath it a row of children of different races holding hands. The children turned out great! The globe turned out pretty well...although there are several discrepancies in it....:( That is what I get for trying to guess how the earth looks....I did have a blurry picture of a map to go off of, which did help a lot.:) The most unfortunate thing about this day, was I got sick...the good news it wasn't until supper time and I pretty much just felt extremely uncomfortable until I upchucked at some point of the early night.....I did feel much better, even though I still would almost prefer to feel horrible longer than throwing up and feeling better. That is how much I despise it!
Saturday we went to African Orphans. They had somewhere around ten kids, who were mostly between the ages of two months to four years. We just went to play with and hold the kids. It took them a while longer to warm up to us since they were much younger. And white people are very scary!! I got to hold this absolutely beautiful two month old girl most of the time!!! Afterwards we went to meet up with a group of people who used to be in a sponsorship program and were now graduating into an income generating program. A couple people from AGCI spoke to the group, then after the meeting they went to a restaurant for lunch. We went with them to the restaurant for a little bit, but then left and went to an Italian restaurant for our lunch. After lunch we went to souvenir shopping.
Sunday we went to church. We had gotten a few boxes of Bibles in Amharic, which we brought with us to give to them. The church was incredible!! They had a choir that sang a few different songs...and let me tell you, they were worshipping God with their whole body (jumping up and down, clapping, yelling). There was one time that one of the guys translating the sermon for us leaned over and said they were singing about being dependent on God. It just really make me think, because many times I don't think of depending on God as something to be excited and joyful about. Yet it was something that thrilled them! After church, some of our group went back to the market to do a little more shopping (one of our team members didn't get to go Saturday due to being sick). The three of us that stayed back, walked to Caldi's and got macchiatos. Once the rest of them got back, Wass (one of the AGCI employees) took Shana and I on a Bajaj ride!! These are like little taxis...it is easier to show a picture of one than describe it.:) We got all packed up, went out to eat at another Italian restaurant, then were dropped off at the airport. Our flight was at 10:00PM and we loaded..ready or not....for our 17 hour flight back to D.C. We did have to stop in Dublin, Ireland to refuel, but the most dreadful part was that we couldn't even get off the plane! I mean if I am going to land in some place that sweet....I would have loved to at least step foot on their soil!:)
Monday We landed in D.C. at 8:00AM eastern time, went through customs, found our gate, and relaxed. I have never dreaded a flight more than the flight back to Indy. It was only an hour and a half, but it felt like WAY to long! Partially in part to the fact that I once again was not feeling well...and if you have ever tried to sleep on a plane...or just sit on a plane for 17 hours....you are simply going to be sore and stiff and tired..... Kristi and I finally did make it all the way home by 5 PM. I laid down just to rest and was completely knocked until 11 that night. I climbed into bed and promptly fell back to sleep until 8 the next morning!
So that is the basics of the trip!!!:) I could talk about all sorts of things if you get me started...:)
Now the part you have all been waiting for......(said in an announcers voice)
Arriving in Addis!
Sunday afternoon coffee
The old Orthodox Christian Church we went to
This is just a really cool picture of one of the curtains inside the church.....credit to Kristi
One of the many paintings inside the church.
Lions....:)
Wass, Shana, and I on our bajaj ride!!
Playing some football before work:)
Tibs Wot (Beef tips) on Injera. (I don't remember what the orange mix was...)
Macchiato
Best coffee I have ever had!!! It isn't bitter at all!!
Jess enjoying her coffee
Childlike at heart...:)
Kristi & Shana
Yep...the new library was being put in on the 5th floor...
You don't understand the stress your body takes climbing those stairs!! Addis has such a high elevation that any light exercise leaves you out of breath!
One of the guys starting to knock out the wall
When there is a sledgehammer around and something being destroyed....there is like this magnetic pull inside me to take part.....:)
Another cool pic:) This was Jess working her muscles
Kristi styling her sunglasses, sledgehammer, stance, and strength
The make shift road we built out of the debris from the walls.
After the walls were knocked out.
Cleaning out the water ditch after we dumped the debris over the side. Wass and Richard were racing to the center.....Wass won.:)
The Ethiopians who were working on knocking down one of the condemned bathrooms....
There was a girls soccer team that was running around the school grounds...so we jumped in and ran with them.
Honey wine....literally made from honey! It was actually very good!
Kristi, Jess, and I at the cultural restaurant
A few of the bracelets that the girls gave us at Kechene
Before our meal, they brought out a wash basin, gave us some soap, and then poured water while we washed our hands.
Our meal that night. We ate traditionally, so everyone just dug into the dish.:) It was all very tasty!
One of the kindergarten buildings
Shana preparing all the paint trays
Erica in action
Our audience...they finished their job way before we finished ours....so they sat and observed...and voiced opinions....."where is India?" Trust me....it is there....I just reshaped it:) Ok...so there are a lot of discrepancies in my globe...
The girls
Our team (minus Kiersten our team leader)
The finished project:)
A bajaj from the back
Jess joined in on a soccer game some boys were playing
