Hey everyone
from the peeps in Ethiopia! Today was another wonderful day filled with lots of
games, laughter, and excellent food. The day started off at 9:15am, which allowed
for some nice sleep in time. We had a fantastic variety at breakfast with
cereals, homemade bread, tea, and the outstanding coffee. After breakfast, we all
headed out to Sele Enat, an orphanage.
When we arrived
at Sele Enat, Leann instantly made a connection with an adorable dog. Next, we
broke up into two different groups. One group went to see the babies, while the
other group went to see the toddlers. Personally, I went to hang out with the
toddlers first, and they were honestly the sweetest kids. We brought balloons
for the kids to play with, and they were such a big hit amongst them all. As
soon as I sat down on the ground, a girl in the cutest yellow skirt and bright
pink shirt came to sit in my lap. The kids were running around the room,
hitting the balloons back and forth or kicking them. The smiles that were created
from a single balloon made me realize how fortunate I am for everything I have
in my life.
It soon came
time to switch groups and that meant it was time for me to go hang out with the
babies. Holy goodness! I was not prepared for all of cuteness in that room. We
played with the babies with rattles and a variety of toys, trying our best to
keep them awake before their naptime. We all made some extremely great
connections with different babies. I had a few highlights of holding babies for
a long time but getting to feed one baby food was a special moment. I was also proud
that my baby was the first one to finish all his food out of all the SMS people
getting to feed them because the struggle was real for some of us. It started
drizzling outside, and lunchtime was fast approaching. This meant the hard
goodbyes were about to become a reality and putting down the baby I fed was
difficult for me.
We pulled up at
a converted warehouse for lunch, and the inside of the restaurant was
beautiful. It was called Sishu and I would highly recommend it. Honestly, this
place turned out to be a major hit and was possibly one of the best meals I
have had here. Everyone ordered a variety of drinks such as soft drinks,
pineapple fanta, and ambo (a fizzy carbonated water). Most people ordered some
type of burger but three people in the group ordered BLTs with avocado or a
tofu sandwich. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger, and what made it was the special
sauce, like thousand island. The fries were so delicious as well, and they
reminded me of McDonald’s french fries which I think are some of the best ones.
After an
amazing lunch, with a very full stomach, we headed out to run some errands. The
first stop was a local supermarket to buy some traditional Ethiopian snack
food, kolo, which I think is delicious. I could not believe that the food was
so cheap with the conversion rates. Next, we went to a local coffee shop,
called Tomoca, to buy bags of coffee beans and some people got coffee to drink
right then. We had some more time to kill before our afternoon activity, so we
took a second trip to Igloo, the ice cream shop. I did not get any this time
because I had plenty of food at lunch. Some people did though, and we all enjoyed
chatting and hanging out at the tables outside.
Ms. Turlington
and all of us kids, went back to Berhan Yehun. Ms. Rundles, Mrs, Chernin, and Dani
went to a history museum, while we all went to visit the kids again. When we
arrived, the kids were not there from school yet, so we ended up playing with
the bubbles and balloons we brought for them. Once they got there, we started
integrating ourselves into various games with them. On Tuesday, we had brought
them some balls which they quickly pulled out to play with today. There were
multiple games of keep away and some were much more intense than others. We all
sat down in a U shape to hear about the plans that they had made for us.
The first thing
that they had planned to do with us was sing a song for us, and I must say it
is always a pleasure to listen to them sing, while smiling from ear to ear. I participated
in a game they had planned in place of Mary Ashburn because she has a fear of
hearing balloons pop. The game was basically tying a balloon to your midcalf
and running around trying to pop another person’s balloon, before yours is
popped. Needless to say, one of the Ethiopian boys won against Suzanna, Julia,
and me. Next, a group of people played musical chairs which our competitive
Suzanna won. We took some group photos and then said our goodbyes to the sweet
people at Berhan Yehun.
Our ride home
was filled with lots of traffic, which made our ride a little bit longer than
normal. When we got back to the house, dinner was prepared as usual at about
6:30pm. It was an exciting combination of rice, chicken, steak with peppers,
steak kabobs, and eggplant chip things. I was happy with the amount of meat at
dinner, and it was fantastic. We waited for Bini to arrive to do Glums and
Glows from the day, and it is a great tradition that we have been doing every
night.
We have a
special house guest who has been with us since yesterday evening. She is here
for adoption, and she had a lot of us teary eyed tonight. She got to meet her
son for the first time today, and she showed the group a video of them together
during Glums and Glows. That made my day. I am so happy for her and her new
family member, and I can say on the behalf of us all, we wish her well over the
next three months of finishing the process here.
Today was an
excellent day of the trip filled with so many great memories. I cannot believe
this trip is coming close to the end, but I am so excited to see what is left
in store for us. Shopping sounds like it will be so much fun tomorrow, and I
cannot wait to have another great day!
Peace out from
Addis,
Langdon
-Langdon Kennedy, ‘17
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