Friday, March 21, 2014

As said at dinner during our "Glums & Glows," today was overall a "glowy" day.

It started with the usual: waking up way too early, way before any of the other girls. Throughout this week, a Breakfast Club has formed, the cast including myself, Matt, Orvs, Amy, and the guard who comes in to make tea at exactly 7:00 A.M. After my 6th cup of to-die-for-Ethiopian coffee, we eventually loaded the car and battled our way through Addis morning rush-hour traffic to a different location of the Hope Enterprise Soup Kitchen.

When we first arrived, women were grouped together around the tables with children on their backs and at their feet. The gap between us and them was quickly bridged when the kids ran up to us, grabbed our hands, and smiled up at us. Before I knew it, I was sitting on the hot gravel with one in my lap, one playing with my hair, one holding my hand, and two others teaching me how to count to 100 in Amharic with rocks. Abraham was a perfect teacher, Mercy kissed my hand, and Isaac gave me a rubber band to wear as a bracelet. As time passed without even noticing, I was told the car, which had the food, broke down but would be coming soon. In our case, it was a blessing in disguise because if it had been on time, the beautiful moment with the children would not have been one of the many glows of our day.

Spoonfuls of soup and many You're Welcomes later, we went to eat lunch before visiting Berhan Yehun for one last time. While all the food we have eaten has been amazing, this restaurant was on the top floor of a building, overlooking the city. After the stunning view, strawberry-banana pancakes, and two cappuccinos (coffee count of the day: 8 cups), we drove to my favorite place in all of Addis.

Since I could write a novel on all we have experienced with these amazing children, I'll try to fathom some into words and summarize it up. First I should start with mentioning that I was married off on the first day to a cutie named Joel. Ever since our spontaneous marriage underneath the blue tarp and next to the dry-erase board, I have referred to him as "my husband" and I "his wife." As soon as we walked through the gates, I was greeted by my husband grabbing my hand, Wendu grabbing my other, and them begging for my GoPro. The boys recorded videos while the girls played with my hair and we talked about our day.

To explain the best glow of all, I have to first start with some back story: On the first day at Berhan Yehun, I quickly bonded with a 5th grade sweetheart named Meserete. She had grabbed my hand to sit down next to her and our conversation led to her explaining she wants to be a pilot, her dream being to fly anywhere in the world and travel. Before leaving, I noticed her toe was bloody but did not think much of it. On the second day, she told me she was sick and showed me her toe, which was completely black and made her limp when she walked. In complete shock to how quickly it had gotten worse, I asked around for any help but all I was told was she will be fine. Today, however, I was able to have my first doctor experience abroad. Although it was more minor of a procedure than I wish I could have performed, I carefully wrapped two band-aids around Meserete's toe and gave her two extra to change them out with. With her toe all bandaged up, we exchanged letters we had written for each other (thank goodness she reads English because my Amharic is pathetic) and we were all forced to say our goodbyes (for now at least).

Long-tangent later, today was filled with smiles, hand-holding, hugs, "will you be back?", and heavy hearts. Even though I would do anything to not get on the plane tomorrow and stay in Addis forever, I cannot think of a better way to end our time with the konjo (beautiful in Amharic) children at Berhan Yehun.

P.S: Shout-out to Mom and Dad, let the gap year and study abroad conversations begin!

- Meg Cooksey, '14

Thursday, March 20, 2014

This morning I woke up with the intention to shower as I usually do, because if I shower in the morning, my hair will not have those annoying folds and cricks in it that sleeping on wet hair causes. Evelyn and myself quickly discovered that the house's water was not working. After the previous night's dance lesson/party, I was not smelling too fresh so, in vain, I attempted to clean my body with a face wipe. Not my brightest idea, admittedly, but I didn't get any complaints so I guess it worked well enough! After my pathetic wipe bath and a delicious home-made cinnamon bagel, we all piled into the van to head on our 3(ish) hour journey to the Ethiopian Grand Canyon, Debre Libanos.

Last night after the dancing, Relia, Carson, Ms. Turlington (Turlz), Ms. Wahlstrom (Wally), and Mr. Orvis (Scotty O), and I were having another great late night chat. Turlz informed me that the van has a USB port so I could make a playlist for the car ride to the Ethiopian Grand Canyon. I immediately got to work and created what I believe to be the best car playlist ever made with songs ranging from Beyonce to Fall Out Boy to Hall and Oates and, of course, a huge dose of Bieber. This morning I was SO excited to show off my hard work to everyone else but my worst nightmare came true when the music wouldn't work so nobody got to hear the pure genius which was the "Ethiopia Car Swag #teamscottyo" playlist. Luckily for them, they got the next best thing as me and Carson sang each song (very well I might add) from the back of the van. After about 3 hours of driving through absolutely breathtaking country side, we arrived at the Ethiopian Grand Canyon. We went on a hike deeper into the Canyon to find beautiful grottos, dried up waterfalls, and cliffs overlooking never ending country side. The whole experience was so incredible and definitely one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen... if not the most beautiful place I've ever seen.

On the car ride home, everyone fell asleep except for the driver, of course, and Scotty O, as he was taking thousands of pictures to attempt to capture the beauty of the country side. When we got back into the city, we got to use the ice cream money that Ms. McGlohon generously gave us before we left the States at a place called " I SCREAM YOU SCREAM WE ALL SCREAM FOR igloo ICE-CREAM" which tasted heavenly (Thanks Ms. McGlohon!), especially to Carson as half of her sandwich at lunch was stolen out of her hands by some sort of giant bird of prey. Biniam (Beans) came to meet up with us at the ice-cream shop to eat with us and let us know that the water was still not working. I was a little worried considering my face wipe bath had most definitely worn off by this point so I was smelling real bad. We all piled into the van after we finished our ice-cream and awaited the news of how we were going to handle the water situation. Turlz let us know that we were going to go home and grab our shower supplies and then head to a so-called "day spa", and considering many girls had used holes in the ground as restrooms that day, she warned us it might not be very nice. To our surprise, we pulled up to a high class spa featuring a hair and nail salon, a hot-tub, sauna, steam room, and three lovely stone-tiled showers with rainfall shower heads. Our group got the run of the room which featured the hot-tub, sauna and steam room, an area full of massage beds, and the showers. Relia and I could hardly contain our excitement and nearly cried tears of diva joy. Carson, Relia, and I made use of the sauna and then transitioned to a relaxing lounge on the massage chairs and then ended the evening with warm showers. We all left feeling extremely zen and refreshed.

When we found out that we were having fajitas and guacamole for dinner, I thought that Carson would never stop talking about her deep and meaningful love of gauc. She ended up being right however - the gauc was so delicious especially with the homemade chips we were using to dip. Overall today was one of the best days we have had for sure and I know that our last two days will only get better. We will be going back to Berhan Yehun tomorrow and it is going to be hard to sleep through my excitement tonight! With a delicious meal and a spa trip under my belt, however, I should probably be able to fall asleep somehow! (also as promised, shoutout to Maddy. miss you homie!) Ciao!!

- Kayla Gwaltney, '15

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

I woke up to find out that our first event today had been changed to a visit to Destiny Academy, a fairly good private school in Addis. Destiny Academy has three campuses, a kindergarten, a elementary school, and a middle school. The Academy does not have a cafeteria or a dining hall, so students all bring their lunch from home. Mrs. Turlington, Meg, Relia, Eve and I visited the elementary campus first. Eve and I sat in a math class with the 1st graders, who were learning rather complex addition. There are always two teachers in class at the same time - one is the teacher of a specific subject, the other is the assistant teacher who takes care of the students and helps with grading. It was so cute that they began their class with a song which the kids sang with all their might and passion. Also, every time the teacher posted a question, almost every kid shot up their hands at once, standing up and leaning on the desks, eager to answer the question. The small classroom has educational posters, pictures, and class rules all over the walls.

After playing with the kids during recess, we went to the kindergarten campus. According to the coordinator, there are around 150 children there ages 3 to 5 in this one-floor building. Each small room has more than 20 children. Lastly, we hopped in the van for a short ride to visit the middle school. The photos and information of the Parliament Candidates were the first thing we saw as we entered. From the group photos of each class on the wall, I'm guessing that each class has around 25 people. The headmaster showed us their library; it only has two bookshelves and the room only allows one class at a time. To my surprise, I found some English learning books that were from China. The headmaster specially pointed out a book about Ethiopia's victory over Italy to me, and said that he hoped we would like to read it sometime. I can see that Ethiopian people are really proud of their country and the fact that they have never been colonized. The headmaster also showed us their simple Lab, and computer room.

After lunch at Sishu, a modern and trendy restaurant, we rested a little and went on to the after school program Berhan Yehun. This time, we took a different route so we could actually see the landfill area on our way. As we were getting closer, we started to see little sheds and shacks built out of tin board and shabby tents on the variegated hills of garbage. We spotted people going through the trash, looking for food and things to sell.

At Berhan, we watched a video about the landfill area in Addis, and gained a closer look at people's daily lives in the "landfill district". There was a woman who begged in order to support her family. For food, she usually spends 1 birr for injera in market. But when she doesn't have money, she can only get injera from other beggars but for 3 or even 4 birr with her credit, and pay them back when she has the money. A disconcerting problem is that because their terrible living conditions, many of the people get addicted to smoking and alcohol which are the only things that can provide them some warmth. They have to swallow their scanty meals in complete darkness since there is no lighting anywhere in the area. Their kids are able to go to public schools. However, they generally do not perform well in school. People started to notice that most of the kids from the "landfill district" had poor health and empty stomaches; some of them even fainted in class. The mission of the program is to provide the kids with necessary nutrition and tutoring in order to help them do better in school so that they will be able to change their lives through knowledge.

After the kids came in from school, we divided into groups to give them a little tutorial before playing with them. Eve and I took out the animal pictures everyone drew last night and tried to teach them animals' names in English. For the penguin I drew, I tried to explain to them what it is like and where it lives. The kids learned really fast, and we soon ran out of things to teach. Eve and I also taught them about body parts. When we realized that they already knew the things we were trying to teach, we taught them geometry they were about to learn in school. The kids were such great little teachers; they taught me numbers in Amharic and tested me repeatedly so I wouldn't forget. I taught them numbers in Chinese in return, and they were so happy to learn.

After dinner, we had an amazing African contemporary dancer to teach us some Ethiopian dances. I had a hard time but everyone else was doing a great job. :) The dancer then performed for us with his fluid and amazing moves.

Today has been a wonderful day! We're all looking forward to going to the Ethiopian version of Grand Canyon tomorrow. And if this goes on for any longer, probably no one will want to proof-read for me... Ciao!

- Evelyn Qin, '15

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Selamno!

After cinnamon buns for breakfast, which were yummy :), we watched a movie about women with fistula called "A Walk to Beautiful". Because of the lack of medical help during delivery, these women leak urine after complicated childbirth. Then, their families just abandon them and hate them being around. These outcasts have to build shacks away from people and simply wait for death. This is so sad that there is not any support after they lose their babies and most of them are so young, only ten to eighteen! Fortunately, a hospital was built by a pair from Australia to provide proper treatment and to help many of the women recover after surgery.  The most sweet story was that a girl at the age of only seventeen decides to help HIV orphans after her recovery.

Afterwards, we went to Hamlin College for Midwives in Desta Minder. Many girls around seventeen to eighteen from different regions of the country are educated there to help deliver babies in order to prevent fistula. We visited the campus with the headmaster. There were several girls in the computer room doing research. They also have a library, practice rooms and labs.

Then, we had lunch: chicken and lamb pot pies, and quiche. Of course we did not forget Macchiato! In the afternoon, we had an hour long ride to Connected in Hope, the Former Women Fuelwood Carriers Association, where people weave scarves for living. Each scarf is two meters long and it takes a person a hour to finish. The people earn 35 birr per scarf, which sells at 70 birr ($3.50 only!) We bought a lot of these pretty scarves for ourselves and friends! Then, we took another ride to a preschool for the children of the women workers at the scarf workshop. This preschool is for children ages two to seven. There are six rooms for 51 kids. The women workers pay about 60 birr per month to the school for their children's education. It is so exciting to see these kids to have a beautiful school to go to!

On the way back to the host house, we began to get familiar with part of the city. We saw lots of kids in same color school uniforms on street and they were so happy to see us and waved at us. We also met so many "random" cows, sheep and donkeys! There were even two donkeys crossing the street in front of our bus. Meanwhile, Carson and Kayla were having their special concert at the back of our bus all the time as our radio. After a short nap, we had waffles and sliced fruits for dinner! Then, we prepared for the tutorial tomorrow for the after-school program.

Today was so much fun and I cannot wait for tomorrow!

- Eve Tong, '15

Monday, March 17, 2014

Well... let's just say I woke up this morning a little sore. The harsh reality of being a common white tourist after my short episode of fame last night really hit hard. By fame, I am referring to my time on stage dancing traditional Ethiopian dances like a champ (look out for great vids). I would also like to point out that numerous locals came up to me afterwords and wanted to shake hands with me/ touch my face.

After breakfast came our briefing of the history of Ethiopia paired with a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony performed in our living room. A kind Ethiopian historian named Nahu recited the full history of Ethiopia dating back to 2000 BC (in perfect English, I might add). Meanwhile, the stone pit crackled in the background as our coffee beans were boiled down for the coffee ceremony.

A quick shot of macchiato later, we were headed towards our first destination for the day: Hope Enterprises' Soup Kitchen. We immediately jumped into various chores: washing dishes, putting injera (spongy bread) on plates to serve, pouring soup, etc. This was a tough morning for all. We witnessed extreme poverty; one token for a plate of injera and bean soup costs around 50 cents. We served around 900 people.

My job was at the serving window of the kitchen. I collected tokens and served the corresponding number of injera plates (one token=one plate, etc.). It was hard to keep it together as I held out dishes to blind people, people on crutches, and people without legs. I remember one person in particular who came in the middle of a huge rush when I was hurrying around to get plates to everyone. I stuck out her dish impatiently, waiting for her to grab it; then I realized she didn't have eyes to see I was holding out her plate. Embarrassed at my lack of patience and compassion, I placed the dish directly on her hands.

After each round of people came in, the coin collecting box was pushed aside and replaced with a bucket and a huge bowl of water. Dish-washing time! The dirty plates were knocked a few times into the bucket and then passed to me to rinse off before I sent them to the next washing step. The bucket of food scrapings brought a series of people to the serving window. These people brought baggies to gather as much of the leftover food from the bucket as they could carry. It really hit me: these people are eating the food that their friends basically scraped into the trashcan.

(On that note...) Then came our lunch- pizza and sandwiches- followed by more macchiatos at the Ethiopian equivalent of Starbucks Kaldi's. Next we set off for Berhan Yehun, an afterschool program which serves to tutor, feed, and play with kids from the "landfill district." As the coordinator pointed out, the food the kids receive at Berhan Yehun is often the only nourishment they receive all day. From their smiling faces and quick-to-laugh attitudes, you would never guess these cuties live in what can only be described as sheds.

We had a blast at Berhan. First, we played some praise songs with a random guitar Biniam handed me. The kids sang some nice songs back and then we made bandana bracelets. Talking with the kids was great! I learned (and subsequently forgot) the number system in Amharic. I also had some great beatboxing sessions with several kids. My favorite part would have to be the fork bracelet that a child named Tulu gave me!!

Today was really great for the group cohesiveness as well! Everyone now has a nickname and we have had a lot of hilarious moments. I would try to explain inside jokes but at this point it's getting late and this post is becoming a novel. Ahmasaygenalo (look it up!) for reading this huge post if you made it all the way through! Ciao!

- Carson Clay, '15

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Today was amazing!

We began our day with breakfast, chocolate chip banana bread, and then left for church at St. Matthews Anglican Church. Unlike church in America, this church was extremely casual. We wore workout pants, t-shirts, and jeans. When we walked into the gates of the church, there was a beautiful garden greeting us. Before the service began, the congregation just talked and welcomed us outside. There were great big trees above us which provided shade. After a good 15 minutes or so, we made our way inside the church. The sermon covered the topic "Is Jesus too small in your life?".  Before we listened to the minister, we sang a couple very long hymns. The notes/tune of the songs were not listed, so we were all wingin' it and trying to follow along. Some of us were not very good at guessing the notes. :) After we sang, all the children went to the front and were taught about Jesus always being their friend. It was hard not to laugh as one child kept walking around waving paper in his hand. Then, the minster talked to us. He focused on the fact that we live a life that may not involve Jesus. The life that Jesus gave us and died for, we do not always include him in it, and it got me thinking. "How much do I really let The Lord in to my life? Is he a big factor? Or a small one?" Personally, I haven't recently thought about that until we went to the orphanage.

After we ate an American lunch, consisting of Cheeseburgers, fries, and pizza, we went to the orphanage, AHOPE. The orphanage was within a compound with a playground inside. When we arrived, the children were sleeping, but we were able to take a very quiet tour. The kids were separated into rooms by gender and by age. The boys who were about 4-8 were in one room and then the same with the girls, then there was a room for 0-2 year olds as well. We arrived at 2:30, but their nap didn't not end until 3:00. We began to kick the soccer ball around and, to our surprise, the boys walked outside before their nap was scheduled to be over. They jumped right in!! The soccer game was no longer two people passing the ball, but 20 kicking three balls all around. Some boys instantly became attached to some girls in the group. If it meant copying their every move, or holding their hand until dinner time, they stood by our sides. After about 10 minutes the girls came out. There were definitely more boys than girls but that did not stop the girls from jumping into the game. We asked some if they wanted to play soccer, forgetting that they call it football. After an hour of playing, we learned a little more about the orphanage. The saddest information I heard was the fact that the kids we were laughing and playing with were not only abandoned but they also have HIV. The kids were some of the happiest people I have ever seen. When we went back outside after our information group, we sat in a circle and sang some songs and dances like the hokey pokey, duck duck goose, rise and shine, and more.
After we played soccer, sang, blew bubbles, and danced, it was time for the kids to go inside and eat. The two hours we were there most definitely got to all of us. It seemed like as soon as we went back to the house the majority of the people were either journaling or talking to each other about the child that followed them everywhere. We were only at the house for about an hour until we left to eat dinner.

Dinner was not just sitting down and eating meal, but it included Carson and me being pulled up on stage having a dance off with the Ethiopian dancers. Carson broke down and showed them up on stage; I, on the other hand, am not a dancer. It was an experience none of us will forget. As we sat and ate traditional Ethiopian food, they sang and danced up on stage. After about a three hour dinner, we went back to the house. Everyone is now ready for bed and either journaling or asleep. Today was an amazing day, and I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I am so excited for what adventures come tomorrow.

- Hannah Thompson, '14

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Sorry for the delay. The internet has been having trouble connecting.

First of all, lets talk about the all-nighter a few if us pulled Thursday night in order to try and sleep on the plane.  The idea was that if we stayed up then we could treat the 13 hour plane ride as our nighttime and feel rested when we landed in Addis Ababa at 7 am.  It's safe to say it was executed flawlessly.  Way past the point of exhaustion, we loaded the bus to head to RDU.  A big shoutout to Ms. McGlohon for waking up at 3:30 to drive us to the airport in the freezing cold; not to mention our first bus wouldn't start which meant unloading and reloading all of the luggage.  The time at RDU is a blur of checking what seemed like hundreds of bags and dosing off while waiting to board our flight.

After our quick flight to Dulles and a sit down breakfast, we were ready to board our 13 hour flight to Addis.  We boarded the plane and were awestruck by how big the plane was.  Each seat had a pillow and a blanket, and flight attendants handed out packages with socks (to keep your toesies cozy), eye masks, toothbrush, toothpaste, and ear plugs.  Our flight took off on time and everyone was enthralled with the fabulous movie choices (including Frozen!!!) and most of us passed out immediately.  There were some prime pictures of people sleeping with their mouths wide open... Anyways, the flight was quite comfortable, especially for such a long international flight.  The time difference through us all for a loop since we were in a completely different day than people in America for a few hours.  Finally, we landed at around 6:45 am, Ethiopian time so about 11 pm New York time.

We all headed off the plane in a groggy state, despite the all-nighter experiment, and went to get our visas and go through customs.  We stood in the line for a short time, telling stories, until we all got our hand written visas and passports stamped.  We grabbed our bags from baggage claim (all 10 billion of them) and put them through the x-ray.  Amy and Bini (our local Ethiopian guide) met us outside of the customs/baggage claim area and we were all interested to see all of the local Ethiopians staring at us, especially since a few of us had blonde hair.  We loaded the bus and headed for the Cherokee House, which is amazing by the way.  It was so cool to see animals wondering around the grass lots and near the streets as we drove by.  The pigs, goats, and cows made all of us smile despite our exhaustion.

After learning the lay out of the house, we all took a short rest where people showered, rested, rehydrated, checked in with family, and told some hilarious jokes (just ask Carson about it).  Before we left for lunch, we had a little pow wow about the Ethiopian culture as well as some dos and don'ts of the house.  We all packed our shoulder bags and loaded in the van to go eat some traditional Ethiopian cuisine at Yeshi Buna.  I'm not gonna lie, I was a little scared at first but we all tried it and it was actually quite good.  When eating there were some traditional rules like only eating with your right hand, feeding each other as a sign of endearment, and not licking your fingers.  After our meal, we ran a quick errand about our itinerary and then went to the bank to exchange our money.  In case you didn't know, the currency comparison is about 19.6 burr for every 1 dollar.  After the bank we all went to get a little caffeine in our systems with Ethiopian macchiatos, which were delicious.

After our energy pick-me-up, we split into small groups to ride the public transportation and then walk back to the house.  I was with Carson, Kayla, Mrs. Turlington, and Bini on the bus and we actually met another America woman from New York!  She has been here for 8 months and is working at refugee camps around Ethiopia.  We said goodbye to our new friend and walked back to the house just in time before the rain started.  Tishu, another one of our guides, then taught us a short Ethiopian song which we could sing to the children we will be visiting.  The real challenge though was writing our names in amharic since the characters are a little difficult and there are SOO many different letters, much more complicated than our regular 26 alphabet standard.

Overall, the city is amazing to be in, although sometimes sad to see because of the poverty.  I noticed how there were tiny shops lined up together in what looked like tiny tin shacks.  The culture shock was strange since we are so used to the American way of life, but its so cool to be able to see a completely different culture from our own.  There are many beggars in the city who will come up to the van or while we are walking.  It was an awesome first day, despite the tiredness caused by jet lag.  We're all about to crash even though its only 8:30 (around 1:30pm in America!).  We're all looking forward to visiting the orphanage and going to church tomorrow, but thats all for now.  Ciao!

Fun Fact for the Day: Ethiopia was never colonized so they have a very unique culture.

- Relia Monk, '15