First Day in Addis

June 1, 2009

“For in Him you have been enriched in every way- in all your speaking and in all your knowledge- because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gifts as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.”
1 Corinthians 1:5-9

Today has been a good day so far. This morning we slept in until around 8:30 (though we all woke up a lot earlier because of the call for prayer and yelling in the street outside our house) and hung around Cherokee House until Briana (Cherokee program director ) got back with two new people, Brittany and Mark. We girls are staying out in the bunk house, which is a building separate from the main house with one room with 3 bunk beds and a bathroom.

After they arrived, the five of us (minus Briana because she had meetings and things to do) were picked up by Demi, and taken to a party/lunch gathering thing for a new orphanage that is just starting. It is run by an Ethiopian man named Peter,who also helps run the Kechene School where I will be working , and he was kind enough to show us around the building. We ate lunch there and had real Ethiopian food - injera, which is a flat bread that is kind of sour like sourdough bread, some sort of meat stew, salad that had vinegar dressing on it, and rice that had some spicy sauce on it. You put all the ingredients on top of the injera and then use it like a scoop to eat. It was very tasty. After we ate, all the kids started coming up to us. First a bunch of the girls attacked Rachel’s hair and started braiding it, and then all the kids discovered that we had sunglasses on our heads. We took them off and gave them to the kids to wear and they were ecstatic. There was one little girl who shyly came over to me and sat down in my lap and then she wouldn’t let go for the longest time. She wouldn’t say anything, but kept hugging me closer like she was afraid I would put her down. She was so precious and I was ready to take her home with me right then. Alas, the children had to leave and then Peter gave us the tour of the building. We also learned that Peter had worked for Young Life in Ethiopia for the past 10 years and that Young Life is HUGE here, with hundreds of kids showing up for the weekly club meetings and thousands to their bigger meetings.
At this lunch we also met a couple who are adopting an 18 month old boy through Gladney. Wes and his wife (whose name I cannot remember) are from Houston, TX , where he is a singles minister at a church. Rachel and I were talking to the woman and she actually follows Ms. Eileen’s blog, Job’s Daughters, and knew who she was. The lady told me they and gone to visit Kolfe orphanage, which is the older boys orphanage, where Ms. Eileen’s unofficial son, Solomon, lives. She said they did not get the chance to meet him, though they had wanted to, because he was out at the time they had visited. She said that all the other boys though kept saying they wished they were Solomon and could have a family to love and care for them just like Solomon has the Mestases.

After visiting Peter’s orphanage, we went to one of Mother Teresa’s homes for the dying and destitute. Rachel had worked there with the boys with handicaps and disabilities when she was here two years ago, so we went back to visit. The people and children were overjoyed to see Rachel because they remembered her and the boys were so happy to see all of us in general. There were lots of smiling faces and hugs and kisses and lots of noise and laughter about the boys' antics. One boy kept crawling on all of us like a monkey and we were all afraid we would drop him! Another kept running around yelling jokes in Ahmaric that we didn’t understand, but he liked to hold our hands and give kisses and jump up and down.

After we left there we made a quick stop at Moses Orphanage where Rachel had also worked two years before, so that she could see the older girls she had worked with. They were all very shy towards us, but the man that runs the place came and gave us a quick tour. He said there are 8 girls and 12 boys who live there and he and Rachel were telling us how smart all the boys and girls were. Now we’re back at the house, exhausted and waiting for dinner. We don’t have power at the moment because apparently the government turns the power off every other day, so we all might be going to bed early tonight! I don’t think any of us will complain.