Footsteps

Life Goes On...

2010-09-27T14:11:00.002-04:00

So if my life here in CT is suppose to be the setting of a novel....I'd advise everyone that this is going to be the most boring novel you have ever read lol. Sorry. Now, don't get be wrong, there is nothing wrong with my life here, except that it's pretty boring. My days consist of sleeping in, watching movies and tv on my laptop (they don't get any tv channels at all), getting ready and going to work, working for around 5-8 hours, coming home and watching more tv or movies on my laptop, and going to bed and doing it all over again the next day. And the next day. And the next. So yeah, really really boring novel. Sorry guys.

I've been spending the weekends at my grandparents house in Mendon, MA and working on sewing projects with my Gramma. I've gotten a pretty good head start on some Christmas gifts and not I'm tackling a huge, grueling project. Crochet. I'd forgotten how bad I am at crocheting until last night where I attempted to relearn. Grams had bought me a "Learn To" book, a hook and some yarn and I sat down and starting following the directions. It didn't work. If you know anything about crocheting you know that after you make your base chain, you then have to make stitches into the base. I fail at that. I can't tell where one chain starts and the other ends and which chain I've already went through and which one is the next one, and it just turns into a big mess. Unfortunately, I've gotten it into my head that I want to make an afghan, so I guess I'll have to keep at it. Maybe it's because I'm left handed and the directions aren't is the reason I'm messing up? I dunno.

Other interesting facts you should now. Did you know know that when the oil light flashes on a Volkswagen Jetta and you hear a beeping noise it means you are REALLY REALLY out of oil (as in it doesn't even read on the dip stick)? Did you know that said Jetta takes 5W-40 oil but if you don't have any of that available (because most places don't carry it) you can use 5W-30 instead? Also, did you know that the lever to pop the hood of said Jetta is camouflaged to look exactly like the interior so that you can't find it and is actually on the left side under the steering wheel by the door? I learned all of this on my way home last night. I ended up having to pull into a gas station, call my dad, and read through the owners manual in the glove box to A. figure out how to pop the stupid hood and B. figure out what type of oil I needed to buy. I would like to now proudly tell you I have checked a car's oil and added more all by myself.....with my dad making fun of me on the phone the entire time. So if anyone ever needs to check their oil in a Jetta, I know how.

My Connecticut Adveture!

2010-09-03T15:21:00.003-04:00

So, I've started a new chapter of my life....the one called "After College", otherwise known as "I now have a degree, but I still have no idea what to do with my life". So as my new adventure unfolds, and my future plans seem to change quicker than I can keep up with, I've decided I need to start blogging again. Also, I've been told that my current situation is the perfect setting for a novel and that I better write down all that happens or else...

So to catch people up to speed in case you are not aware of all the constant change in my life, I graduated from Appalachian State University this past May with the plan being to intern with Camps Crusade for Christ in Apex for a year doing event planning. I spent the majority of my summer at home, working on support raising for my internship, just to get to the end of the summer and not be anywhere close to my goal. At this devastated point in my life I realized that God must not want me to intern with Crusade (because He did not bring in the funds I needed), but must have wanted me to go through the process of meeting and talking with people for a reason. Earlier in the summer, a friend of mine told me about an internship she was applying for with this group called Safe World Nexus, where they were trying to get a group of interns together to try and stop malaria, starting with a certain 9 villages in Uganda. These interns would travel the country talking to people making them aware and getting them involved in the fight against malaria, and then would actually bring groups of people over to Uganda to implement malaria preventing tools. When I first heard about it I thought it sounded really cool and like something I would love to be a part of (especially since they were looking for some people with photography skills), but I was currently committed to Crusade. Well, when the Crusade internship fell through, I asked my friend for more information about the Safe World Nexus internship and looked into it deeper and decided that this might be where God would have me go. So the plan as of right now is to apply for the Safe World Nexus internship and move to Bristol, TN (where they are located) in January and work for them for a year.

What am I doing until January? Good question. The first plan was to get a job (or two) in Raleigh, live at home, and save money for next year. But.....I couldn't find a job at home (at least not in a timely manner). My Aunt and Uncle who live in Putnam, CT own a cafe, and earlier in the summer had offered me a job there. I really didn't want to move to CT at first....it's so far away and none of my friends are there....but after thinking it over and talking to my Aunt and some other people, I decided to do it. Once the decision was made (a mere two weeks before I actually left) I started getting excited about it. So now, here I am, living with my aunt, uncle, and two cousins (girls ages 15 & 10), and working at their cafe 40 hours a week (I can now make you whatever type of coffee beverage you would like). I arrived this past Monday, worked a double shift of Tuesday (for which I had to be at the cafe at 5:30am), spent all day Wednesday working on web design for the cafe and the town, worked a shift on Thursday, and worked again today (I have been dubbed officially trained at the cafe). Nothing to exciting has happened so far, but like I said, apparently this is the perfect set up for a novel and something exciting always happens in a novel so we'll see what happens.

Kechene

2009-06-26T06:52:00.003-04:00

The school is located in one of the poorest sections of Addis Ababa and the kids are all either orphans living with relatives in the community, from destitute families, or from families whose parents are HIV/AIDS positive. The kids are all in either K1, K2, or Grade 1, although some of the kids are a little young or a little old for the classes. They are still allowed to come because otherwise they wouldn’t have anywhere to go.

The kids are given two meals a day- breakfast of a banana and a roll, and then lunch of either injera and dorro wat, or rice with potatoes, carrots, and onion in it.

All the students' uniforms are ripped and torn and falling apart, but thankfully a former volunteer gave money for new uniforms. The school now has these new uniforms, but they are waiting until after the rainy season ( July-September ) to give them out.

The kids' school supplies are very skimpy. They all seem to have some tattered semblance of a notebook and then some form of writing utensil. Their writing utensil might be a stub of a pencil that is less than an inch long, or the inside of a pen- the part that actually holds the ink. They are very good at sharing erasers and pencil sharpeners with each other, which is good because otherwise there wouldn’t be enough. I brought a bunch of packages of pens and pencils with me for the school, and I am slowly seeing the kids and teachers start to use them. They will use a stub until you can’t possibly use it anymore, but then it is replaced with one of the brand new pencils I brought. That makes me glad and thankful that I brought these things.

Most of the time, the school does not have power, but even if it does, it is only used in the office for the computer and printer. There are never any lights on in the 3 classrooms, meaning they rely completely on natural light coming through the windows and doorways to see. This can make it extremely dark inside. The floors are dirt, the desks are little metal frames with wood seats, the chalk boards are old and chipped and broken in places making it difficult to write on them. The teaching style is to write information on the board and have the students copy it.

There is no running water inside the buildings. There are a few spigots outside where they get their drinking water and the kids wash their hands, but because of the lack of rain lately, they have been drying out. One day, the school had to bring water in from somewhere else, so that they could cook and so that the students wouldn’t go thirsty. The problem was the only method they have for carrying water is in old plastic oil jugs. This meant the water given to the kids to drink was tainted with oil.

But even though they have next to nothing, you’ve never seen such joyful, fun loving kids! They love to play and learn and their faces light up with joy when they see you. Their favorite games are futbol and susie (which is a long circle of rope the girls play with where 2 girls hold the rope tight and another jumps in and out of it doing tricks and such) and they all love being called on in class. You see kids fighting all the time , but if one kid is actually crying and hurt, the other kids try to take care of him, comforting him or getting a teacher to help. These children have some of the biggest smiles I have ever seen. And they all crave affection. They all want to give you a hug or a kiss (or multiple kisses), or to shake your hand. They love to come just sit next to you and pull your arm around them. Like all children everywhere, they just love to be loved and to give love.

Day 25: Summer school

2009-06-26T06:50:00.001-04:00

June 25, 2009

Thursday

The kids got their grades back for their finals today. It kind of gave me a reality check for some of the kids. When I sat in their classes it always seemed like everyone was learning the material and understood, but so many of the kids failed their test, especially their English one. It surprised me. One of the teachers told me they would probably do tutorials with the weaker students during the summer. Even though classes are over, the kids will still come for a half day everyday so that they can still get fed breakfast and lunch and play and have some sort of class/tutorial.

Day 24: Stickers and Ziplocs

2009-06-26T06:42:00.003-04:00

June 24, 2009

Wednesday

“We live by faith, not by sight.”

2 Corinthians 5:7

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

2 Corinthians 5:21

Last day of exams at Kechene. I helped hand out the Art exam for Grade 1, which was a list of about 5 things they had learned to draw and they had to draw each one. The format is different than what you would think of for an Art exam back home. The items are bulleted like normal exam questions, all on one sheet of paper, so the kids have to use either their pen or pencil and draw each item in the little blank space given.

I also handed out stickers to the Grade 1 class, which almost turned into chaos, but I had Johannas tell the kids they had to sit down and wait for me to come to them. Plus, lunch was starting to be served so they didn’t have a choice but to sit. I let them each pick out the sticker they wanted and most of them put it on their forehead.

The ziplock bag I use to hold my PB&J (which is what I eat everyday now) has become a hot commodity in the Grade 1 class. Monday, one of the boys asked for the bag, so I gave it to him and he put his pencils and pens in it. Yesterday, Henock, another one of the boys, asked for the bag and I gave it to him too. I also had an extra one in my bag from the previous day, and since I was eating lunch with Mekdas, one of the girls, I gave her the extra one. Well, then everyone wanted one! I had purposely not given the bags out in front of everyone, but Henock went and made a big scene over it in front of everybody so they all came running to me. Once I got across that I didn’t have anymore, half the kids started telling me “tomorrow” and indicating that the bag from my lunch the next day should go to them. I tried to tell them no, that I could not promise who would or would not get the bag, but none of them really listened to me.

After school I sat in the Pink Café again, except they didn’t have power, so I had a Pepsi instead of a macchiato. Then when I go home, Blair and Allison and I headed over to the Uma Hotel to try and use their wireless (the hotel is within walking distance of the house), but their power was out so we sat there for a while and I read and then we headed back to the house. On the way back we found a little jewelry store that had a sign saying that all the jewelry was made by women trying to support their families. There was some really cool stuff there and I bought some bracelets and a keychain from them.

Day 23: More Exams

2009-06-26T06:39:00.002-04:00

June 23, 2009

Tuesday

Exams were happening again today so I took pictures of the kids (which got a little frustrating because some of the kids are very pushy and grabby) and sat in on the KG1 science exam. The whole exam was written in Amharic and all the instructions were in Amharic too, so even though I was the “helper” for the class, I really didn’t help much. I kind of just sat there and helped pass out and collect the exams. The exam was very hard for the kids. For some reason a lot of them couldn't grasp the concept of multiple choice, so Azarat had to keep explaining it to them over and over again.

After lunch at Kechene, I headed back to Tor Highluch and went to the Pink Café down the street from the house and sat in there for a while drinking a macchiato and writing letters.

Day 22: Final Exams

2009-06-26T06:36:00.001-04:00

June 22, 2009

Monday

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

“Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all- he is the greatest.”

Luke 9:48

Exams started today at Kechene, so it’s still half days. Each class has 2 finals a day for 3 days. I helped with the Grade 1 math exam, meaning I helped pass out the exams and collect them again at the end. After lunch, when everyone had left, I headed over to Asco again to hang out with Blair and Allison. All the kids there were resting in their dorms though, so we just sat around reading until it was time to go.

Day 21 : Sunday

2009-06-26T06:32:00.002-04:00

June 21, 2009

Sunday

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is , there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the spirit.”

2 Corinthians 3:17-18

The worship at church (International Evangelical Church) this morning was fabulous. I love being able to sing as loud as I want with fellow believers and the songs were really good. The sermon was very basic and simplistic and I didn’t get much from it, but maybe that is the kind of teaching someone else in the church need to hear that morning .

After church we went to this restaurant called The Melting Pot (not at all like the US Melting Pot). It gets its name because it serves Ethiopian, Mexican, Chinese, American, and Italian food. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries and even though it wasn’t as good as an American cheeseburger, it was still pretty good. The rest of the day was spent chilling around the house.

Day 19: Visit Kolfe Orphanage

2009-06-22T07:19:00.003-04:00

June 20, 2009

Saturday

Third day in a row with power! Whoot whoot!

This morning JT went with me to visit Kolfe Orphanage. This is the older boys orphanage that my friends, the Mestases, visited when they were here last year, and where Solomon and Haptomu, their "unofficially adopted sons", live. You can read their description here and here, and see a slide show of Kolfe here. When we got there, we met Haptomu and he told us he had been playing foosball, so we joined him and a bunch of the other boys in playing. Then Haptomu showed us around a little bit. I had my camera out and got asked multiple times by Haptomu and the other boys to take their picture. They are a whole lot less pushy about it than the kids at Kechene, but they wanted their picture taken just as much as the little kids do. I was more than happy to oblige. Solomon was not there when I was visiting because the boys said he was at college classes still. So I’m coming back on Friday afternoon to hang out and the boys said Solomon should be there then. One of the best things that Haptomu showed me was from his own personal trunk. In it was a mailing envelope addressed to him from Mom and Pop Mestas. He very proudly showed it to me and you can tell it meant a lot to him.

Once JT and I got back to the house, I left with all the girls to go shopping. We went to Bole, to one of Brianna’s friend’s jewelry store called Salem’s. It had a bunch of gorgeous, cool things in it so I bought a lot of gifts for people back home. Brianna also asked me to take some picture of the merchandise because she is helping Salem with a business plan and wants some images to use for display and advertising.

For dinner we acted like true Americans. We asked our friend, the taxi driver Haptomu, who drives for Cherokee, if he would be willing to drive to a restaurant called Island Breeze, order pizza for us, wait for it to cook, and then deliver it to us at Cherokee House. Delivery pizza. Haptomu graciously granted our request, which in NOT his job at all, and we were very thankful towards him.

Day 19: Sport Final

2009-06-22T07:15:00.003-04:00

June 19, 2009

Friday

A normal day. At Kechene this morning I taught Ethics to the Grade 1 class again and told the stories of David and Goliath and of Josh and the Big Wall ( Veggie Tales is great inspiration for telling Bible stories to kids ). They had “sport final” today as well, so all of the Grade 1 and KG2 kids were outside and they had to stand up and do a series of exercises one at a time - standing at attention, trying to do a split, running in place, doing somersaults. It was pretty cute to watch and I also took my camera out to snap a few pictures.

I spent the afternoon at Cherokee House checking up on email and such and talking to Brianna, and then in the evening just hanging out with everyone in the house.

Day 18: Corn Rows and Salsa

2009-06-22T07:09:00.002-04:00

June 18, 2009

Thursday

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.”

1 Corinthians 16: 13-14

Another half day at Kechene. I taught KG2 English then Grade 1 Ethics where I talked about the Good Samaritan and the 10 Lepers. The kids gave me back the math problem worksheets I had made them so I graded them and put a sticker on each one and gave them back. The kids were thrilled. I ended up making another batch of worksheets and handing them out to almost the entire Grade 1 class.

When I left there I caught a bus from Piazza over to Asco, to the Mother Theresa Orphanage where Blair and Allison work. I hung out with them and we visited the 4^th grade class at the orphanage during art class. Some of the girls asked me if they could do my hair like theirs (meaning cornrows) and I told them they were more than welcome to try. So now I have cornrows on the top of my head and everyone says they look good, especially the Ethiopians I know such as Asni and Hanna. I think they’re fun so I’ll keep them in for a while. It hurt a little when they were actually braiding my hair, but now they don’t hurt at all.

This evening we went salsa dancing again and it was so much fun! It was our group (minus Kate and the younger girls) plus the Gladney girls, plus some of the girls from Destiny where Brittany works, and then some Young Life people Rachel, Allison, and Blair had met when they visited a Young Life meeting earlier this week. I danced these two line dances they have, one which is very similar to the Electric Slide, a few dances with JT, and then a bunch of dances with other girls in our group. Most of the time when us girls were dancing together I’m pretty sure we were not doing anything remotely close to what actual salsa dancing looks like, but we had fun with it. Near the end of the night, they played one song that sounded more like a hip-hop song than a salsa song, and since most of the other dancers had already left and it was just our group, a bunch of us jumped on the dance floor and started dancing "American style". At one point we made a circle on the floor (because we were the only ones on it) and people would step out into the middle to “show off”. It was all very silly and extremely fun.

Ethiopian Facts That You May or May Not Know

2009-06-19T08:34:00.002-04:00

More than 80 languages are spoken by different people groups in Ethiopia
Ethiopia has the second biggest population for an African country
One of the ways Ethiopians say “yes” is to gasp in air
One of the ways Ethiopians say “hello” is by raising their eyebrows at you.
The capital city of Addis Ababa is split into smaller sub cities (like Cherokee House is in Tor Highluch and I walk to Abenet in the morning and take a bus to Piazza and then to Kechene)
Because of the half a** job done when building the dams, the reservoirs have more silt in them than water, causing the government to ration power. Power goes out about every other day depending on where you live in the city.
Butcher shops associate with either Christians or Muslims by painting either a red cross or a red moon cresent on the outside of their store and only those of that respective religion will buy meat there
To say “thank you” in Amarhic, say I’m-a-suck-an-olive very fast.
The more money you have (or the more money you are perceived to have) the more money you are expected to give away and be generous with
Seeing white people is rare and special here so everyone wants to talk to you and try their English out on you and to shake your hand
Ethiopia is one of the only African countries that was never colonized by whites (hence the lack of white people here)
EVERYONE in Ethiopia loves Obama
Mini-bus operators overall will not try to rip you off and overcharge you just because you are white. Contract buses and private taxis are another matter though.
There are no traffic laws here (at least there doesn’t seem to be)
It is the year 2001 here right now
There are 13 months in the Ethiopian calendar. No month has more than 30 days. Those few extra days are put together to make a very short extra month.
Time is kept differently here. 1pm+7. I’m sure there is an explanation for this, but I just don’t know what it is.

Math Teacher - Me???

2009-06-19T08:29:00.002-04:00

June 17, 2009

Wednesday

“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

1 Corinthians 15:58

Today I got to talk to Azart some about the school and he wants me to make math teaching aids to help the kids. Then during Grade1 math class I sat in the back and gave Sekrides some math problems to do while the class did their competition. JT was right about her being smart and quick as a whip. She only got 2 or 3 of the many problems I gave her wrong. Mekadas was also showing me math problems, so during lunch I made little math worksheets to give them but Amun, and Tirfe and a bunch of the other kids saw me doing them so I ended up making a lot more and handing them out. It turned out it was only a half day of school (which I didn’t know till the kids started to leave) because the teachers needed to work on making final exams for next week, so I headed back to Cherokee House and took a nap and a shower and read for a little while before everyone else got home.

Rachel had the 4 girls she works with at Gladney over for dinner, and it was taco night and soooo delicious. After dinner and our guests left, the rest of us sat around the living room in the dark (no power) talking.

Full House at Cherokee

2009-06-19T08:24:00.002-04:00

June 16, 2009

Tuesday

“So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.”

1 Corinthians 14:15

Played with the kids at Kechene during sport and then sat and read the rest of the time. It started raining in the afternoon so I went and sat in the KG2 class to hang out and it was just pure chaos in there. Twenty some kids in a small room screaming and running and fighting and laughing and arguing can get pretty overwhelming pretty quickly, especially when the teacher steps out (because I am not seen as an authority figure AT ALL).

Four new girls got to Cherokee House today. I got to meet them after I got home and they got back from touring the city. One of them, named Caitlyn, is a friend of Rachel’s and goes to NCSU, and the other 3 girls are all friends and are 17 and will be seniors in high school in Greensboro. Their names are Mary Chambers, Katherine, and Kaley. Mary Chambers was here two summers ago with her sister, but this is the first time abroad for the other girls. There are now a TON of people living in this house. 14 people total. It’s pretty insane.

Photos Coming Later!

2009-06-16T14:21:00.003-04:00

For those of you who are wondering why the photography major is not posting any photos - I will have TONS of pictures to share after I get back to the States. But it is too difficult to send photos from Ethiopia. I am emailing my journal updates to my mom, for her to post on this blog. The pictures will be coming. :-)

Day 15: I Love Our Cook!

2009-06-16T14:17:00.002-04:00

June 15, 2009

Monday

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not rejoice in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

1 Corinthians 13: 4-8

Not that exciting of a day. Kechene this morning was ok. I helped with Grade 1 English and then I spent the rest of the day either playing outside with the kids or sitting in the Grade 1 classes reading. Back at Cherokee House we all just hung out and talked about our days and Asni made an incredible meal of fried chicken for dinner. I only had peanut butter crackers for lunch because I can’t take the food anymore at Kechene, so I was starving and the fried chicken and mashed potatoes hit the spot.

Day 14: Sheep say " Eat More Burgers!"

2009-06-16T14:13:00.002-04:00

June 14, 2009 (Sunday)

This morning I got up early and watched the sun rise over the lake at Wonchi with Allison and Brittany. It was beautiful and very peaceful. When our driver came back to get us at 9am, we went back to Ambo, stopped at a hotel and got some food. I had a cheeseburger and though it wasn’t an American cheeseburger per se, it was still delicious…esp. since we did not have dinner the night before!! They wanted to kill a sheep for us, but we said no and opted for the snacks we had packed instead.

Then we headed back to Addis Ababa. The rest of the day was spent showering, resting, talking to Brianna (who had just gotten back from Rwanda) and JT, and meeting JT’s brother, Casey, who is now here.

Day 13: Trip to Lake Wonchi

2009-06-16T13:52:00.002-04:00

June 13, 2009 (Saturday)

Lake Wonchi, sitting outside a hut (no lie)

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all it’s parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.”

1 Corinthians 12:12

We decided to take a trip this weekend and JT suggested Lake Wonchi so we called up Girum, our Ethiopian friend, and asked if he wanted to come with us and then this morning we packed up our backpacks and caught a mini-bus to Abenet. From there we found another bus to Ambo, where our Ambo driver said he could take us all the way up to Lake Wonchi. We’re staying in these little huts - 2 with 2 beds and 1 with 1 bed. The beds are pretty small and we will be sleeping 2 to a bed. Let the cuddling begin.

Lake Wonchi is a big crater lake and our huts are at the top. We hiked down to the bottom and then some of us rode horses back up. Apparently a good tip here is 33% (or at least that is what our horse guides tried to make us believe) but I only had a few small bills so that’s what I gave him. He had insulted me earlier anyways, so I didn’t feel bad about not giving him an enormous amount of money. The lake area was very beautiful and it’s nice to get out of the city and breathe clean air and see something other than buildings and road destruction (!) and to just enjoy nature and relax.

The evening at Lake Wonchi was an experience! First when we got back from our hike/horse ride, we got some sodas and then went into one of our huts .We played a game called Fish Bowl (in the dark, mind you, because there was no electricity) which is a combination of catch phrase & charades, with one word answers and making noises as hints. It was hi-larious!! Definitely a game worth repeating. Then there was a campfire made for us, so we sat around that (because it was cold here!) and talked and played Never Have I Ever. There were like a gazillion stars out and it was just so amazing to look at them! When bedtime came, Allison and I were in one bed and Blair and Kate in the other in our hut. The beds were real little and scratchy, so Allison and I started out on top of the cover with her hammock under us, but part way through the night we were freezing so we got under the covers. The funniest thing that happened though, was as we were getting ready for bed, we were trying to figure out our door handle (because it was broken on the inside), so we had Allison go outside to see if she could open the door form that side when we unlocked it. But as we were trying , the inside handle came all the way off and Blair, Kate and I were stuck inside while Allison was stuck outside and we couldn’t get the door open! We started thinking we would have to crawl through the window to get out, but eventually Kate was able to reattach the handle on our side and Mark and Girum came and helped Allison on her side and we got it open. We ended up sleeping with the door slightly a-jar with a small table in front of it, in case someone tried to open the door while we were sleeping.

Day 12: Half Day of School

2009-06-16T13:44:00.002-04:00

June 12, 2009 (Friday)

“Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.”

1 Corinthians 10:24

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

1 Corinthians 10:31

Friday is only a half day of school at Kechene, so my 3 classes for the day were all very close together and then after lunch we went home. I taught Ethics twice today and that is by far my favorite class. I tell Bible stories to the kids and talk about how obeying God and His laws are the best way. The kids love it . They always have many questions after each story and they always ask me to tell more stories. So far I’ve told the stories of Rack, Shack and Benny, Daniel and the Lion’s Den, Easter, and Jonah.

Since today was only a half day, I got back to the Cherokee House a lot earlier than everyone else so I got on the internet for a while and then went and read. I’m reading "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks right now because I finished one of the books I brought and this one was in the house. For dinner, the boys went over to Aaron’s, so us girls had a girls dinner and talked about emotions and feelings and all sorts of "girly stuff".

Day 10: Dance Fever! Fun Night with New Friends

2009-06-12T07:54:00.000-04:00

June 10, 2009

Wednesday

“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.”

1 Corinthians 9:19

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”

1 Corinthians 9:24

What a fun day!

Kechene this morning was good. I taught KG2 English again and we went over consonants and vowels, and then I helped with Grade 1 math. After lunch I had free time so I went into the teacher’s room and read for a little while before helping with KG1 sport.

This evening all of us at Cherokee House got all dolled up and went salsa dancing (that’s right…salsa dancing in Ethiopia) at a place that JT goes to over in Bole. [JT is the other Program Manager who lives at Cherokee House along with Briana] It was soooo much fun! There were 6 of us girls and only 2 guys (JT and Mark) , so we girls didn’t get to dance all that much, but it was fun just to watch some of the amazing Ethiopian dancers. And they were amazing! Who knew Ethiopians could salsa? JT had taken salsa lessons here so he was teaching all of us. I ended up dancing the merengue with him, which was pretty fun.

It was funny though because on the way there, we went to Tor Highluch bus stop to get a private mini-bus to take all 8 of us and a bidding war broke out. JT was negotiating the price with various drivers while the rest of us stood in a circle waiting. We were quite the spectacle, 8 ferengi (the Amarhic word for foreigner which I probably spelled wrong) standing around, going out late at night (which apparently women in Ethiopia do not do). Blair commented that she felt like we were on display while all the drivers argues with JT over price. Then on the way back we got 2 private taxis (which are smaller and only fit 4 people max) and Mark, Rachel, Brittany, and I had a dance party in ours because the driver turned on some really fun music and we just went to town. When we got back to the house (no power again) we were all still so hyped up that I turned on The Cupid Shuffle on my ipod (we had a battery powered ipod player) and we all danced. Then Blair put on some hip-hop that we all danced to, and then Mark put on some shag music that we danced to. It was just a fun night of dancing.

Day 9: It's Getting Easier

2009-06-12T07:49:00.000-04:00

June 9, 2009

Tuesday

“The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.”

1 Corinthians 8:2-3

It was a pretty uneventful day. Getting a mini-bus to Piazza was so much easier from the other spot I walked to. School today was pretty boring and uneventful. I had Sport at 9:15am (which is recess) and then nothing until 2:00pm when I had Sport again and then Ethics right after that. In Ethics I talked about the first five of the 10 Commandments and then also told the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. Lunch today at Kechene was injera and doro wat (chicken stew). I said I would like a little so that I could try it but they gave me a WHOLE LOT. I couldn’t finish it all and the teachers were making fun of me, telling me if I did not clean my plate that I would be punished (like the children are if they don’t eat all their food). I still couldn’t eat it all and I felt really bad for wasting their food.

No power today so we had dinner by candle light again at Cherokee House, and Asni had made this incredible meal of tacos with homemade chips with all the fixings and it was amazing. It was definitely my favorite meal thus far.

Day 8: Crazy Transportation & Finding a Husband

2009-06-10T10:35:00.000-04:00

June 8, 2009

Monday

“What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Today was an experience. First off, I went to and from Kechene all by myself. Going there was…interesting. I walked to Tor Highluch and waited for a mini-bus. And waited. And waited. Finally a cab pulled up and I pushed my way on (which is what you have to do if you ever want to actually get onto a mini-bus during rush hour), just to find out it was going to Mexico and not Piazza. So I had to get back off. Then it happened again. Bus pulls up, I get on, and then have to get right back off again. Finally a guy took pity on me and pushed onto a bus to save me a seat. After I thanked him, the bus pulled away from Tor Highluch and I realized this bus wasn’t going to Piazza either. So I got off and walked back to the road I knew the Piazza buses traveled down and caught a mini-bus there. At Piazza I got on a bus to Kechene and waited for it to fill up, but as soon as it pulled out, the bus died. So I had to get out and find another bus to Kechene. Finally I got to Kechene two and a half hours later. It was a trip -literally! I almost came to tears but kept it in.

The second experience of the day was at Kechene and a man in a suit came out of the office, so I went over to him and introduced myself. His name was Jacob and he is an Ethiopian pastor. He was very talkative and like the fist thing he asked me was

“Are you Christian?”

“Yes”

“Are you Catholic?”

“No.”

“Are you Protestant?”

“Yes.”

This made him very happy and even more talkative. He then asked me,

“Are you married?”

“No.”

“Why not?” (said as an accusation)

“I’m 21 and still in University.”

“But you want to get married?”

“Well yes, someday.”

“Well Ok, I’ll pray for you then that you find a husband.”

And then he actually stopped and prayed for me out loud that I would find a husband. I was laughing so hard, especially because my quiet time this morning was on 1 Corinthians 7 and marrying instead of burning.

Day 7: Day of Worship / Day of Rest

2009-06-08T11:29:00.000-04:00

June 7, 2009

Sunday

“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.”

1 Corinthians 6:11

We went to church this morning at IEC, International Evangelical Church. It was Rachel, Brittany, Allison, Blair and myself. Mark didn’t want to come and Kate left for the weekend to travel outside of Addis Ababa with a family adopting through Bethany. The church was big and could have easily been a church building in the U.S., but the best part was the worship.

It was A-mazing!

We sang songs like Come Thou Font and Mighty to Save and a lot of other ones that I really like. They had a full worship team with guitars, drums keyboard and singers and it was just awesome. The pastor who got up to preach had just returned, apparently after being gone for 10 months. His name is Vic Anderson and he had brought a team of students with him from Houston Theological Seminary, in Texas, where he works. It was just wonderful to fellowship with such a diverse group of believers and to be able to sing praises to God as loud as we could. The rest of the day was spent much like Saturday, just lying around the house, talking, napping, reading, and eating.