Photos from my trip…

It’s been a great adventure that is winding down… I’m looking at my last 48 hours in South Africa, before heading home.  Home to Ethiopia that is.  I’m actually ready to get back so I can get to work.  I miss my friends and my home.  I met up with my cousin, Greg, in Johannesberg.  We spent the night and quickly headed off to Madagascar.  We masterd public transportation and were crammed into busses with the majority of our stuff loaded on top.

Our desintation was a huge park which holds a secondary and primary rainforest.  There we saw 3 or four types of Lemers, lots of birds, chamillions, gekos and georgeous frogs.  We would start our explorations in the morning, and even did an evening walk to see the chamilions in their full glory. It was nice.  It poured on my birthday, but it made it a greater adventure hiking through the forest.  When it came time to leave, the airlines wouldn’t let us because they overbooked, so we got a free night at a nice hotel and were routed through Mauritius the next day.

We arrived in Mauritius, made it through customs and found our gate. Just when we were to be boarding we were told that there was a problem and our flight would be canceled.  We were excited because that meant we would actually be able to leave the airport and see some of the beautiful island.  A few hours later, we were on a bus and being carted away along with all the other passengers.  They took us to a 5 star hotel… let me tell you we spent that night in luxury… eating a feast, looking at the beach, and enjoying a luxurious room… I felt like a queen.

Finally 2 days later than planned we arrived in South Africa.  We rented a car and drove directly to Greg’s good friend’s house.  I’ve been relaxing, and seeing some of the pretty countryside.  I finally got to see Greg’s house and the area where he spent so many years- that was a gift.  One night I saw 2 rhinos on the road and a puff adder snake(which later died and was skinned).  We also spent a day exploring the indiginous forest through a canopy tour (zip lines).  Which was an exhilirating adventure.  And just got back from seeing the Drackensberg Boys Choir… which was amazing.  Tomorrow we’re heading off to Durban to play at the beach and soak up the sun on my last day here.  Then I’ll fly to Johannesberg and by evening I’ll find myself in Addis Abeba.  It’s been a good time and I’ve had a good chance to see how life works here in South Africa.

I have posted some photos from my trip to Madagascar

Click Here

Here are pictures from South Africa

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Expect the Unexpected

This is something I live with everyday as everyday I never know what I’m going to run into or experience. Today I went with my boss to talk for a minute with my landlord. Becky, from Heartland Church is comming in a few days and I wanted to give my landlord a heads up. My landlord wasn’t there and so we talked to his wife who is very pregnant. She said that it wasn’t a problem to have a guest (if I had been talking with Eyasu it would have been). Then she said that we needed to switch houses on Saturday. Panic slithered down my spine. I knew we were going to be switching houses, we had talked about it last week, but I had been told that it would happen in a month not this weekend. I said it wasn’t possible because I was going to be in Addis picking up Becky. she said no problem have your houseworker do it for you.
Just picture this– one single lady moving my bed, cabinet, my oven, my little fridge, my sofa, my clothes=— everything!!! That picture just doesn’t work plus 1/2 of my stuff would be stolen and the other 1/2 would be in the wrong spot. I suggested the following Saturday. She said that wasn’t possible, they’re getting a ton of stuff (to fill up my current house) on Friday. So we settled on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after I return to Zeway with Becky.
This is going to be interesting….

 

Twister!!!

No I’m not talking about a tornado but the game: Twister. My parents brought it with them to give to the project. We introduced it during the Saturday Program at the office. During the Saturday Program, children come to play and socialize with one another. They play soccer, jump rope, sing, and play other local games. Well, the kids knew that we brought something with us because our plastic bags were bulging—we pumped up new soccer balls & volleyballs then broke out the new game. It was great as no one (including the social workers) had seen a game like this before—in fact manufactured games have almost never been seen. So I explained in my crude Amharic and stretched myself across the dotted playing map. Then we drew a big circle in the dirt around the mat and chose 6 kids to enter the circle and play the first round. It was loud and crazy and nearly impossible to choose children to play. But we did and they played and it was great.

Explaining the new game

We’ve also got some new games at the projects that some previous groups brought. Just last week I had the opportunity to distribute the games with the social workers. We talked about the importance of play for development and socialization then we played each of the new games ourselves. It was fun to have the social workers acting like kids as we played twister, uno, and memory. Now all the games have been divided up between our 5 sites but we still don’t have enough—as we’ve got 5 sites and 2,000 kids in the program.

This is where you come in!!! Please send us more games. My number one request is for Memory—it’s a great game that needs little explanation or supervision but is good for all ages. Here’s the list:

• Memory
• Uno
• Twister
• Cards
• Crayons
• Connect 4

You can send them to:

Kristen Damron

PO Box 470

Ziway, Ethiopia

*you can take memory & twister out of the box & put them in a plastic bag to save on shipping weight.

Thanks…. From the Project Kids!!!

 

Something to Think About

I found this in Into the Depths of God, by Calvin Miller. In this chapter, the author was talking about materialism and tried to show what steps it would take for a westerner to truly identify with the developing world. I think it gives some insight into life here:

First take out the furniture: leave a few old blankets, a kitchen table, maybe a wooden chair. You’ve never had a bed remember?

Second, throw out your clothes. Each person in the family may keep the oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. The head of the family has the only pair of shoes.

Third, all kitchen appliances have vanished. Keep a box of matches, a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a handful of onions, a dish of dried beans. Rescue the moldy potatoes from the garbage can: those are tonight’s meal.

Fourth, dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, take out the wiring and the lights and everything that runs by electricity.

Fifth, take away the house and move the family into the tool shed.

Sixt, no more postman, fireman, government services. The two classroom school is three miles away, but only two of your seven children attend anyway, and they walk.

Seventh, throw out your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, insurance policies. You now have a cash hoard of $5.

Eighth, get out and start cultivating your three acres. Try hard to raise $300 in cash crops because your landlord wants one-third and your money lender 10 percent.

Ninth, find some way for your children to bring in a little extra money so you have something to eat most days. But it won’t be enough to keep bodies healthy- so lop off 25-30 years of life.

This hits a lot right on the nail. Just imagine what life would be like after you’ve taken these things away. I’d like to make a few changes…. You can take away the kitchen table and replace it with a mattress (made of straw or thin foam). Don’t forget to take away your health insurance… it is no more. And lucky you… in Zeway you get to keep your electricity!

 

It Adds Up!

Women of a Savings Group in Adami Tulu

Awoke cutting the special bread

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a unique celebration. For those of you who get my newsletters a while ago I mentioned the kickoff of our savings groups. Well these groups are now going full force. We have 15 official groups all organized and headed by women whose children are in our program. Each group has its own bylaws and standard of saving from 1 birr a week to 5 birr a week (remember that one US dollar equals 9.5 birr). Things are going well and I was invited along with some of my co-workers to the official opening celebration for one of the groups. Although they started their group back in December, and have been saving since then, they had a big celebration to kick of their “real” beginning. We ate homemade bread and spinach and partook in a coffee ceremony. It was a happy celebration as the 22 women came together to celebrate the 345 birr that they had saved together. Soon they will begin to give small loans to the members of the group, charging small interest rates. Together they will not only save, but watch their money grow.

 

Bulbula Elementary School

One of the half completed classrooms in Bulbula slated to be completed in the comming year. The community began construction and ran out of funds to complete the buildings. There is a 1/2 foot layer of dust on the ground. The school officials have been keeping the doors locked because the children have been using these unfinished classrooms as toilets. Currently there are around 130 children in each class.

This is a latrine which is currently being dug at the school. The old latrine is falling apart and at least 25 years old.

 

Most recent guests

I thought I’d share a few pictures of some visits that we’ve had recently. Morris, has been out to visit our project at least 5 times. This time around he brought a good friend, Rick, and his friend’s two daughters. Much of Morris’s heart is here and he has a great passion for the children in the area- it is beautiful to see. One of our major areas of focus is building up the capacity and quality of the schools in our project sites. Many don’t have latrines, enough desks and have few classrooms, many of which are poorly constructed.

 

2 Months at a Glimpse

Jerry & Jim from EVBC Church came and visited the project at the end of February/beginning of March. They did a number of home visits but also spent teaching a study on the Beattitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). It was a great time to hear some good Bible teaching and wonderful to have guests at the project.

I celebrated yet another birthday on February 20th!!! I baked cookies, cupcakes & a cake to celebrate. My favorite part was playing musical chairs with my co workers. Also I received more bars of chocolate for this birthday then I ever had— should I be worried?

The children who are receiving food as a part of our Developmental Support Program are periodically weighed. Previously in my blog, I’ve show pictures of a food distribution where wheat, peas and oil are given out.

Mimo came out to visit me. It was nice to have her for the week. She hung out with me at work and also cooked me some great food! I don’t know if you can see the dark blob in the background but that’s one of the hippos who live in Lake Zeway

The end of January brought me my first training. We spent the day talking about social work and listening skills. It was a great success and I look forward to teaching more.

 

Santa Claus??

In Zeway I went to a Christmas celebration at my neighbor’s child’s school. There I saw Santa Claus. Here is he called by his older name Father Christmas. Children sat on his knee and he gave them candy. Take a close look at his face- he’s wearing a mask– rather scary if you ask me.

Since I was the only foreigner there at the celebration I was asked to say something at the end of the program. The program included a fashion show (with girls strutting their stuff), drama, singing, and poetry. I spoke in Amharic, saying how wonderful the event was and I wished everyone a merry Christmas.

 

Simply Amazing!!!

I take 2 minibus taxi’s to reach my house when I stay in Addis Ababa. They’re both pretty short with the first one being maybe 3 minutes (depending on traffic) and the other one being about 10. I have a small change purse that I use for quick access to money when I’m using public transportation. Well, yesterday it wasn’t in the pocket I thought I put it in, it was at the bottom of my stuffed bag.

When I got on the first taxi, I realized the little change purse wasn’t where I thought it was so I pulled out my wallet- I had one birr in there (for the fare of 65cents). Whew. Then I realized I needed to find some change for the next taxi. I started digging around- and put my wallet, phone and some other stuff on my lap (the taxi was nearly empty). I found some change in a pocket but a 50birr note flew out of my bag and went under the seat in front of me. So I climbed down and reached and reached and finally got the birr.

By the time I found it, we were at the bridge which was my stop. I quickly shoved all of my stuff back into my bag. By the time I my 2nd taxi arrived at our destination, I had this sinking feeling that I left my wallet on the other bus. After I got out I checked and I did forget it. I sped walked all the way home– brewing over my stupidity, forgetfulness and my keen ability to do things too fast.

I shamefully told Mimo, Mulu, and Aynalem what happened. And was told I was careless. I agreed. I knew I would never see my wallet or money again. The bad thing was I had a credit card and my new debit card for an Ethiopian bank in the wallet. I prayed that the cards would be safe until I could report them missing.

This morning I recieved a phone call from my Ethiopian bank. They had recieved a call from a girl who had found my bank card. They gave me her number and told me to call her. She spoke only in Amharic, but I understood that she had my wallet and possibly everything that was in it. We agreed to meet in the afternoon. I traveled to an area called Arat Kilo- which is where the Universities are in town. She said to meet me at the post office there. I began to get worried that this was some sort of a set up or something, but it wasn’t. I called her when I arrived and she was there the moment I hung up. She asked me for my passport, and I gave her my Ethiopian ID–so she could varify that I was who I said I was. And she handed me my wallet with EVERYTHING in it!!! I gave her some Thank-you money, took her to tea and she asked to be my friend. I thanked her and thanked her and thanked her.

Now just think to yourself how difficult it can be to find a lost wallet or purse in the US. You never know if you will get it back, or what will be there. Now, here lost stuff is simply that lost– something that you will never see again. In fact in some ways once you’ve lost it, it is no longer considered yours but now belongs to the one who found it…. something only belongs to the person who has possession of it.

So many people here, have such a great need for money- my wallet was brand new and could have been sold as well as my cards. I had nearly 200birr (about $21) in the wallet- which would be a nice find for anyone. So really and truly, the fact that my wallet was returned “untouched” is an absolute miracle in itself. I am blessed beyond words.