{Ethiopia}

There are photos at the end of this post, not many. I haven't had much time to do a lot of editing but I promise I will have more photos up soon along with more detailed stories from my trip!

I have to apologize for the late blog on my trip to Ethiopia. I have been extremely busy with wedding season and Holiday card photos so I am a little behind. I also wrote a full page on my trip and it somehow mysteriously disappeared from my computer so here we go… As many of you know, I spent about a month in Ethiopia this past summer. I was fortunate enough to be able to join a missions team from Vanguard University here in Costa Mesa. Although I have been out of college for 3 years, the team made me feel extremely welcomed and right at home! There was also another girl who is about my age that joined the trip as well. All together we had 14 people on our team and we were so blessed to have 2 local Ethiopian pastors (Belay & Tsegaye) join us for the month as well. They were so helpful with translating and getting around town and they became dear friends of ours!!

We spent the majority of our time in the city, Addis Ababa, and we stayed in an area called Mekanisa. We stayed in a couple of different “guest houses” which are basically large homes with bunks in the bedrooms, kind of like a homey hostel. We loved the guesthouse that we stayed at the longest, it became our home!! We also loved the guest house owners who were so sweet and welcoming. So I want to tell you everything about my trip but I will keep it brief and give you an overall look at the trip and I can blog specific parts and events down the road. For the most part we spent our time at an orphanage called A Hope, which is an orphanage for HIV positive kids. There are two separate orphanage houses located about a mile apart, Little A Hope (kids infant-7) and Big A Hope (kids 8-18). We spent most of the time at Big A Hope where I was able to connect with many of the kids but 2 little boys in particular. Their names are Abdilazizis and Metasenute. We played with the kids almost everyday (they love soccer and basketball), sang songs, did crafts and danced!! Then we put on a “VBS” (vacation Bible school) and an Olympics. On our final day with them after being there for 3 weeks we took them on an AMAZING field trip to a town 3 hours away called Sodere. Sodere has hot springs and a huge Olympic size pool and also a shallow pool that are naturally heated. All of the kids went swimming in the little pool and we swan with them, I tried to teach the boys how to swim J, and we spent the whole day in the sun. It was so amazing because the kids really don’t get to leave the orphanage except to attend school so it was a big deal to them. They also don’t have many swimming pools over there so to see a pool and get to swim is something that many Ethiopians never have the chance to do. It was this day on the bus ride home, with a little 9 year old Abdilazizis curled up on my lap taking pictures with my camera out the window, that I had an ache in my heart because I didn’t want to leave and I new our flight home was only days away. Everyone at A Hope put on a goodbye show for us, which included songs, cookies, big smiles and really sweet notes that some of the kids wrote/drew for us. I think of these kids daily and pray for them and I miss them so much!!

When we weren’t at A Hope we were keeping busy doing many other things. We put on a 3-day VBS for another group of kids that have families but come to a childcare-like center. We also spent a Saturday at a place that offers care for HIV positive children that are “half-orphans” which means that they live with extended family. These kids were so fun to sing songs with and act out plays from old Bible stories. I fell in love with the youngest boy there. He is only 3 and he might be the only chubby Ethiopian I saw on the whole trip! He won me over when I saw him approach the van as we drove in. He was running up limbs flying, with a smile from ear to ear and dressed in baggy jeans, a lime green t-shirt and an amazing jean vest!! His name is Mohammed but they call him “Do Jo” which I think means chubby J. He was awesome and he became my buddy for the day! I hated having to say goodbye when I knew we would not have another chance to visit that particular place. Meeting new people and kids and then being forced to say goodbye became a trend that I was not a fan of. That was probably the hardest thing about this trip. I would connect with certain kids, young women and ladies that ran the orphanages and then I would have to say goodbye and this pattern was paired with many tears on both sides of the goodbyes.

We visited one other orphanage called The Joshua Academy, which was 2 hours out of the city in more of a desert landscape. These kids did not have HIV, but they also don’t have families for many different reasons. There were many kids at this orphanages and the orphanage was set up with small houses (more like apartments) which all had housemothers. I really connected and spent many hours talking with the Esther, the woman who runs the Joshua Academy and oversees all the housemothers. Esther is the sweetest lady and she has been blessing to those kids. She is Ethiopian but had lived in the US for many years with her daughter. She felt God tugging at her heart to travel back to Addis and work for this orphanage and so she did. She left her home, her daughter, her grandchild and followed the path God laid out for her. She encourages me to sacrifice things I may not want to in order to head in the direction God has for me even though it may not be the path I have in mind. I am so thankful with my time spent with her. I of course spent tons of time with the kids too and once again one of the boys and I became good pals. I think God is insisting that I go back and adopt 10-year-old boys once I am married and ready! But this boy Oschalo he found me. We were taking a walk around the orphanage and somehow I walked into some bush and got about 30 thorns stuck in my pants and it was itching instantly. This quite timid boy who had been following me on the tour, and which I might add didn’t speak a lick of English!, stopped me and started picking out each individual thorn. He smiled at me while he did this and it was like we were having a conversation without words. It was a moment of kindness that was so amazing. So naturally for the next 3 days we played soccer together, took pictures and had sprint races! Which led to every boy there wanting to race me as well. So needless to say I got some good workouts in!

One of the other places we went about 3 times was a place called the Debora house. I saved this for last because I am dying to go back there. Debora house is a home where about 20 girls live. They are mostly about age 15-21 and they have all come from the streets or have decided to run away from home or they don not have families anymore. They have a housemother that lives there and they all work or go to school. It is really just a family that is created in that home. The housemother is a Christian and most of the girls are as well. It is incredible hearing their stories and how they came to know the Lord and how he has saved them. The girls are so smart and beautiful. They are close in age to me (well, kinda… 26 is close enough to 21 right?), which made it easier to relate with and understand where they are coming from, what they like and just talk as friends. Saying goodbye to these girls after spending about an 8 hr day together and night out at dinner followed by singing, dancing and just hanging out was so hard to do. I really don’t think I have tried to hold back tears more than I did that night. As the housemother prayed for our safe return home one of the girls was griping my hand so hard and I could feel her tears of sobs falling onto my hand and it just made me so sad that our connections and friendship was so short lived. I pray that those girls keep pressing on and continue to learn and grow and become strong Ethiopian women that can be examples to other young girls out there.

I know I need to wrap this up or no one will want to read this post! Basically God really blessed me with this trip and it has opened my eyes up to so much more than I could have ever imagined. I do plan to adopt down the road. I do plan to head back to Addis, God willing. I am praying that I will have tons of weddings booked in spring and fall so that I can leave the end of July and all of August open for a trip back to see all my new friends J! The kids I met there and the special people I connected with all have a permanent place in my heart and I think and pray about the daily. God has his hand on those people and that nation and they are so special.

Thank you for stopping in! Have a blessed day! PHIL. 4:13