Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Our day started off quite similarly to the previous days, so I wont elaborate too much, but we all had a delicious breakfast including eggs, fresh fruit, banana bread, yogurt, and muffins which happened between 8:00-9:00am. After getting changed and packing bags for the day, we gathered in the living room to watch a documentary called, “A Walk to Beautiful” which explained the hard lives of young women with fistula, a problem that develops from complications during childbirth for women who do not have proper medical care. I found the documentary to be incredibly interesting and I was immediately inspired and wanted to meet the patients. Luckily, that is exactly what we were about to do!

We put our shoes on and moved the party outside to the van which took us to a place called Desta Mender, which is a college and a rehabilitation facility. The facility is a place the patients can go after having surgery. The patients stay in the hospital for about 2 weeks to make sure all went well, but then all go their separate ways. Many of them are often rejected by their families and friends and therefore don’t feel comfortable traveling back home.  This center puts some of them through a four-year school curriculum and training to be a midwife to help provide medical care for women in the future. The campus was very beautiful and, although still not conditions to standards we have all previously held, I thought it was respectable and definitely a “step-up” from the lives of kids we have seen in the city. We took a tour of the campus with a guide who talked probably the quietest I have ever heard a person speak (while still producing sounds) and really got to enjoy the scenery. After the tour, we walked over to a little building where some women who have had the fistula surgery cooked us lunch. Our options were vegetables and rice, chicken/beef pot pie, or chicken/beef goulash. I had the chicken pot pie which was very, very good and I’m pretty sure everyone was more than satisfied with their meals as well. After lunch, I went to speak to some of the cooks with Senait as my translator from English to Amharic and then Amharic back to English :) because I wanted to know more about them and how difficult their lives must have been. Obviously, this is a pretty hard topic to talk about with people directly affected, so it was slightly awkward. Right before leaving, we went outside to take a picture and then headed to the cars.

On our way to Connected in Hope, we had possibly the most rambunctious car ride ever. We pulled the windows down in the van and blasted music from Caroline’s phone via an aux cord. Not only was it fun to hang out the windows and sing really loudly, but it was also fun to see peoples’ reactions. We saw everything from confused to so excited and happy to see new (and very strange) people!Connected in Hope is an organization that helps transition women from being a fuel wood carrier to being a weaver. (To show your support for this amazing organization, do some shopping and buy some cool things at www.connectedinhope.org!) These women carry things heavier than you and I can carry starting from the age of 6 (some even from ages 2-3). We all bought many many scarfs from the women because a) the scarves are beautiful and b) we loved supporting these women.

One last quick stop was to the market at Shiromeda where we looked at/bought blankets and pants (*cough cough* Ms. Turlington *cough*) [Edit from Turls: my pants are amazing!] We headed home, had a wonderful dinner of stir-fry and ended the night with yay duck/yuck duck and some lively conversation!

Fun Highlights!

-       Visiting Connected in Hope and splurging on scarves

-       Finding Abi (our driver) a girl o the side of the road – still working on that, but well keep you posted!

-       Hearing about Senait’s proposal and her video!

-       Sam got “petted” by a child because they liked her light skin

-       Dougie’s entrance

-       The landscape!
-    On the Ethiopian calendar, it's July 20, 2008... so it's Ruthie's 10th birthday! HBD RUTHIE!

Dehna ederu!! (Good night in Amharic!)

-       Zoe Johnson, ‘16

Monday, March 28, 2016

Hello everyone!

So today was another awesome/packed-full day. We woke up around 8:30, and got breakfast (Andy made me some delish scrambled eggs and along with that I had yogurt and coffee). Around 9:30, a local historian named Nahu came and talked to us about Ethiopia and its history…it was pretty interesting. I think one of the things we all noticed was how lucky we are to have a government like ours. Though there are so many things that Americans feel need to be fixed, Ethiopians are not even allowed to voice their opinions about their government, and that’s just one of the things that they are forced to put up with. After our history lesson, we went to lunch at a place called Savor. The atmosphere was very nice, and I thoroughly enjoyed the natural light it provided. I think most everyone was satisfied with their meals; I ordered a margarita pizza, which I rated a B- (details to come next week on @janespizzapilgrimage). After the meal, we all got gelato, which was very satisfying in my opinion. Aside from the actual lunch, we learned that the girl who owned it actually graduated from NC State and was there while Ms. Turlington was there! She and her family are originally from Ethiopia, but they now live in Durham. She is now back in Ethiopia running her restaurant.

Following lunch, we headed over to an organization called Youth Impact for street boys. This was started by a man who initially befriends boys that are living on the street, then eventually brings them in to a place where they can sleep, eat, and go to school in a much more nurturing environment. Before this, the boys involved were on the streets for lengths of time ranging from 3 months to 3 years. The main objective of this is to pry the boys away from their habits of living on the streets and have them hopefully discover a passion, or something that drives them to make something of themselves. If you consider the traumatic events and conditions of their former lives on the streets, you know that it would be nearly impossible for them to come up with motivation to get out of their homeless situations since they were never taught that their lives could go any differently.

It was so amazing to imagine that scenario, then witness such a supportive group of friends where most of the boys seemed so optimistic about things and had futures that they wanted to fulfill (i.e. artist, mechanic, baker – my favorite). Another thing that impressed me was how well some of them could speak English. Some had only been there for a couple of months with one English class a week and had a perfect introduction of their name, age, how long they were on the streets, etc. All we were able to do was say our names, and I’m pretty sure we all said it incorrectly. We then exchanged questions; overall, we just compared the differences in the homeless situations with our country to theirs. I think it was odd for them to hear that that our government (mostly through the school systems) makes the effort to ensure that minors who are homeless do get enough food and shelter in one way or another, whereas no one here is accounted for in going to school or whether or not they are in the proper living conditions. It’s one thing to hear about it like we do at home and feel sorry for these people, but it is another thing to come face-to-face with those who have dealt with it.

We reluctantly left this home and headed on to an afterschool program, Berhan Yehun, which did not disappoint in entertaining us. As fun as it was, it was equally as heart-breaking. The first thing we did there was watch a video on the area that these kids in the program come from. It focused on how these families live off the landfill that was located nearby; the landfill is now moved but now the families are trying to find ways to live without having that there. They would eat food from the landfill, drink water from its puddles, as well as find things to sell in hopes of providing for their family. Not one of us can fathom how extremely difficult their situations are, yet we seem to be 10 times unhappier and more ungrateful than any of those we watched in the video and especially the kids we got to hangout with. We played a couple of games and danced with them, and even though it’s hard not to want blame yourself for having so much, yet not being able to fully help these people with so little, it’s nice to think that you were able to get their minds off of any hardships, and at least give them something new and (hopefully) enjoyable. We were definitely not ready to leave, but we get to go back Friday and hangout which we’re all very excited for!!

I’m wrapping this up so I don’t go on forever!

Today’s highlights:

·      Listening to the boys at the Youth Impact Hope House sing their song and how much pure HAPPINESS it brought on

·      Having Solomon, the cutest, most smiley little boy run up to me and hug me so I could pick him up :’)

·      Berhan Yehun!

·      Bini and his contagious smile!!

·      Jenni crying from having to pee so badly

·      Belted Legally Blonde broadway in the car

·      Andy (almost) met the love of her life

·      Seeing how happy people were/us realizing that they are so happy with the smallest things that come to them

·      How significant God’s role in people’s lives is here and how that faith seems like one of the only things that keeps them going

·      Other things I forgot!

-       Jane Dodge, ‘16

Sunday, March 27, 2016

(or Megabit 18^th, 2008 if you’re using the Ethiopian calendar… look it up…)

                                                              

Happy Easter everyone!! It is day 2 of our trip to Ethiopia (or day 11 depending on if you count how long the flights to Ethiopia felt). Everyone should know that we are all doing really great! We woke up around 8:30 this morning with varying levels of rest obtained from the previous night. I slept like a baby on the bottom bunk below sweet Allie Swanson in our glorious penthouse room. We all got dressed for our first full day here and made our own breakfast in the house kitchen. I scrambled some fresh eggs for some of us and other people enjoyed yogurt and fruit. After breakfast, we gathered in the living room with our host Amy and a new friend named Duggy (Dagim) who gave us a little info on Ethiopian culture. We learned some basic phrases and greetings as well as the day’s itinerary. We learned that we would be going to an Evangelical church, getting lunch, going to an orphanage, getting dinner, and then dancing! We then gathered our belongings and hopped in the van for church. The church we went to is called International Evangelical Church which has a mixture of Westerners and Ethiopians. We stood in the balcony where we sang and listened to the service. Jane, MK, and Zoe made friends with a cute little girl who the played with throughout the sermon. I enjoyed listening to the sermon in which the pastor spoke about the last line of the Lord’s prayer and how it concludes the prayer by directing our attention back to God. I thought the message of how our actions should not be about us or for our glory was very relevant to our trip here. It was also very cool to be worshipping with all different people in one church, on another continent, praising the same God.

After church, we drove to Sishu, a ferenji (foreigner) restaurant, where we ate burgers and tofu sandwiches which were very good. We also played with some puppies outside of the restaurant. (don’t worry we did not touch them…) It was great to have some non-airplane food and we were feeling very satisfied after eating.

We then headed over to the orphanage, Sele Enat. I am not sure what I was expecting, but I was surprised by what I saw. My preconceived idea of an orphanage was a tall, grey building that was multiple stories high and fluorescent lights. Instead, we entered through a bright blue gate into a courtyard with many surrounding buildings. We were greeted by a few kids and adults and were led to the rest of the children. This is when the fun began. We all split up to various parts of the compound and naturally, I headed to the basketball/soccer court. I played a little one-on-one with a ten-year-old boy named Tariku (who would soon become my closest pal of the afternoon). After we played basketball, I was feeling a little tired but the kids did not care. I was quickly pulled into a game of soccer with Tariku, Caroline, and another little girl. It was fun and more people joined in until we had a full fledged game going. I have to give it to the kids, they were pretty good and I was tired out pretty quickly. The next few hours consisted of playing with balloons with different children, seeing Tariku’s bedroom, blowing bubbles, and holding the babies. It was very neat because all of us had our new friends that we made a strong connection with. It was fun and lighthearted to see the kids playing with the balloons, enjoying the dum dums, taking pictures with our cameras, and just enjoying being with us. There was one boy who stood out to many of us with some developmental disabilities. He would often let out a high-pitched scream and grab one of our hands. He would seize our hands and take us where he wanted to go. He would pull out a chair for me, gesture for me to sit, take a seat in my lap, and then wrap my arms around him. He was precious and just wanted to be loved and have someone with him. Although he could not speak, his love for us was apparent and it was nice to be able to give him the love he wanted in return. No one wanted to leave but we get to go back on Wednesday which is exciting!!

After the orphanage, we went back to the Cherokee House where we were welcomed by Ms. Floyd who made it to Addis safely!! It was great to see her and get the chance to rest before we went to dinner. Again, I had my own idea of what dinner was going to be like. Again, I was wrong.

None of us will ever forget the dinner we had tonight. We went to a place called Yod Abyssinia where we enjoyed traditional Ethiopian food. You pick up this sponge-like bread (injera) and grab the various food types with the bread in your hand. It was interesting to try the food and have the waiters come around with water kettles for us to wash our hands. What really made dinner great though, was the performers. We watched some incredible entertainers play, sing, and dance traditional Ethiopian music. And not only did we witness a very cool Ethiopian boy-band wow us, we got to dance as well! It all started when Buffy (Ruthie) was pulled up on the stage. The rest soon followed and we all were laughing at our poor dancing skills and the fun moves we were forced to come up with on the spot. We were all enjoying ourselves and could not contain our happiness. :)))))

Some highlights from the day:

-When two puppies untied both of Jane’s shoes with their teeth. (Very cute)

-Jenni and I getting our hair braided by one of the girls at the orphanage.

-The cutest, chubbiest baby (nicknamed blubber) who brought joy to all of our lives.

-Seeing Ms. Floyd again! And her telling us about the beautiful view of the Arabian Peninsula that she got to see on her flight.

-When we spent twenty minutes trying to figure out the character in High School Musical who has the brown hair and falls in love with Kelsey and finally Caroline remembered it was Jason! We all gave a solid fist pump in the air after that brain teaser.

-Mary Powell being called up onto the stage and forced to free style in a competition with one of the dancers. She won when the cartwheel was executed perfectly.

All in all, it was a very awesome day. We have had a great time making memories with each other and experiencing both difficult and wonderful things with one another. We are so excited to see more of the city and do more memorable things tomorrow!

We love you all!

-       Andy Smithey, ‘16