Thursday, March 23, 2017

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Editor’s Note: Apologies for the late post. We lost power last night and it wasn’t restored by the time we left the house this morning. All is well!

Greetings from Addis Ababa! This morning we had an earlier wake up call that put us out the door at 8:45am. Before leaving, we had a terrific breakfast of coffee and coffee cake that put all of us in an excellent mood. After breakfast, we all hopped into the van and bus that we had for the day and headed to Destiny Academy to spend the day with the ninth grade girls.

After arriving at Destiny, we went into their library to watch a documentary on Fistula. The projector took a little while to start working so everyone went around the table and said their name, grade, a fun fact, and the meaning of their name or where they got their name from. Everyone had very interesting explanations of the meaning behind their names and where they got them from. After explaining our names, the video was finally ready to play. It was a PBS documentary on Fistula, which is a birth injury that affects women in rural Ethiopia after being in prolonged labor. This documentary was very emotional and had most of the room crying. The video showed stories of young women who suffered from Fistula who then went to be treated at a hospital in Addis Ababa. Most of the women who have gone to the hospital have been cured of Fistula and their lives have been permanently altered for the better. The women who had Fistula would often be divorced by their husbands and then would isolate themselves from their communities due to the side effects of the injury. After finishing this documentary, Mackenzie informed me that some of the fifth grade girls who I had met on Monday wanted to see me and greeted me as I was walking out the door of the library. The girls were so sweet and asked me so many questions. I only got to talk to them for a few minutes before having to say my sad goodbyes as I got on the bus to go on a field trip with the ninth graders.

On the bus, I sat next to two girls named Redit and Heven. They were both so sweet. We became really good friends and got to know each other really well. They introduced me to some of their friends and I became really close with them as well. To entertain ourselves, we played each other worship music from our different countries. Our first stop was the Addis Ababa Golf Club where we ate lunch. When we got there, we learned that lunch would not be ready for thirty minutes so my new squad and I found a playground to play on and took squad pics on the swings. We then went back to the room that lunch was in, sat down at our table, and talked about our life plans. We had a buffet for lunch that featured traditional Ethiopian food.

After lunch, we got back on the bus and headed to an animal reserve outside of Addis called Born Free. On the ride, we saw many fields and pretty views. At the animal reserve, we hiked for a long time and saw lions, cheetahs, turtles, and baboons. Everyone loved seeing the animals and learning about how the reserve rehabilitates and cares for the animals there.

After our long hike through the reserve, we got back on the bus to go to the Fistula rehabilitation center, Desta Mender. While we were there, we were given a tour of the center and saw where the Fistula patients heal. We also saw Hamlin College, the school for midwives. We saw a few of the patients knitting a blanket and saw beautiful baskets that were woven by some of the patients. We also saw a farm that the patients run to make money to help support them when they return home after being cured. After the tour was over, we went to a café and shop area where we could buy some of the goods that the patients created. We then got back on the bus and headed back to Addis to drop the ninth graders back off at Destiny Academy.

On the bus ride back, I continued to have some great conversations with my squad and we exchanged contact information so we can keep in touch. The girls who I became friends with were incredibly kind and smart and had very high aspirations for themselves. It was very interesting to see how similar we are despite coming from very different situations and cultures. When we arrived at Destiny, I said my sad goodbyes once again and then we headed back to our house. We got back to the house later than normal today and sat down for dinner shortly after we arrived. Dinner tonight has been everyone’s favorite dinner yet and featured chicken, rice, beef kabobs, and ground beef. At dinner, we all shared our glums and glows of the day. Bini and Dagi told us that they would take us to get coffee afterwards so we all quickly finished our dinner to head out for our night on the town. We ended up going to a café called Tuba where we all got macchiatos which we poured tons of sugar into to make for a nice nightcap. Everyone really enjoyed the coffee and we are sipping up every bit we can get our hands on while in the birthplace of coffee. After finishing our time at Tuba, we returned to the house for some showers and a long night’s sleep after a very adventurous day!

Sending all my love from Addis,
Julia


                                                                                                                                                -Julia Bell ‘17

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