Day 3 Recap

I'm way behind updating this blog on our ET trip. Aside from travel and busyness related to Chris's Ironman (yes, my husband is a total bad ass) my latest excuse is my fried computer and Dell's delay in shipment of a new laptop. I'm using Chris's computer right now.

I'm looking over my notes from Wednesday, May 27, wondering where to begin, wondering how so much happened on this one day. I can't share it all here without rambling but will try to hit the highlights.

I awoke in Ethiopia on my birthday. Seriously I could not have dreamt up a better gift. I still can't believe I'm here and that I get to be a part of this project. Plus I get to begin each day with the most delicious Ethiopian macchiatos (or 3-4 throughout the day).

We spent the morning playing with children in Bulbula, a village near Zeway. These children are part of FHI's child development program. The children are incredible, inspiring, strong. They are financially poor beyond our limited American imagination yet they sport the most dazzling smiles and infectious spirits.



They taught us their version of the duck, duck goose game --- wow, our version is so lame.

Next up we visited a child in the Child Head of Household program (CHH). Pictured below in the denim jacket is Meko (age 12) and her sister (age 17) who have lived on their own for 3 years. There is an obvious affection between them. The older sister quit school to care for Meko. She cooks, knits crafts for income, makes sure her sister gets to and from school on time and completes her homework each day. I'm in awe of this big sister who has been "mom" since age 14, and continues to love with a level of selflessness that I can only hope to emulate.

Kasim, Meko's FH social worker, is in the photo on the left. This guy radiates big time joy. Chris and I could not help but laugh and smile with Kasim around. His passion is contagious. After asking him about his typical day and wondering how in the world he fit so much in a 24 hour period, I asked him - "how do you recharge, do you get a day off???" He looked at me with great confusion and replied that he has the best job in the world. I began to realize our own culture of evenings and weekends off...does not occur here yet there seems to be no "burn out."

Next we met Leul, one of the younger kids in the CHH program. While foster families and adoption by non-relatives are uncommon in Ethiopia, Leul is one of the CHH children who has been placed with a foster family. He is now attending school regularly and excelling.

We also met Mieso today. After his parents died he went to a more rural area of Ethiopia to live with his grandmother. However because there was not a nearby school FHI helped to find him a foster family in Bulbula where he can now attend school.

The biggest thing I prayed about before coming on this trip was that I would see the hope. I felt anxious about coming here, meeting these children, catching a glimpse of how they live and then having to walk away, get on a plane and return home, knowing they were still orphaned, struggling and alone. Truly, with each home visit, in spite of the incredible poverty, I have seen great hope -siblings, caring neighbors, foster families, school attendance. I'm sitting there in these tiny mud huts and as bizarre as it might sound, I'm seeing hope. I'm so excited to be a part of this project and to have the opportunity to see change for the better and to see these kids SMILE.

And to top it off, sweet friends sang happy birthday to me at Lake Zeway. Beautiful, beautiful day.