Sponsor visit Day #2 - Part 2

After visiting Hanna, we were able to visit Rahima, our last sponsor child.  (Oh, I forgot to mention that Ethiopia celebrates Christmas this coming Tuesday.  We asked each family what they would do for Christmas, and Hanna's family indicated that they didn't have any money to do anything differently, so they would just pretend it was an ordinary day.  How sad!!  I'm all about Christmas and I can't imagine having to skip it because of lack of funds!!)

Rahima's family is Muslim so we knew they wouldn't celebrate Christmas and weren't sure how the visit would go as they know we are a Christian family.  Rahima's mother and young baby sister were home and they welcomed us with open arms.  Rahima was very shy, like Kidist, but sweet and smiley like all of the sponsor girls.  They spoiled us with kolo, popcorn, freshly baked cookies, other snacks, pop, and a coffee ceremony.  Those just never get old!

Rahima's family was very nice and very hospitable.  We enjoyed our visit a lot and did the usual question/answer and sharing of the backpack.  We tried to get her to speak some English and then made our girls speak some Amharic.  It is always very entertaining!  Rahima's house was a room in a small compound, and as there was a courtyard we were able to teach her frisbee.

The sponsor visits were amazing and we are so thankful for all of the work and coordinating that CCFC did for us and does for these families.  It has been a lot to digest and take in.  We are about to have supper and it will be interesting to debrief with the girls and get their feedback.  I will try to share some of their thoughts on our trip so far the next time I post.

Tomorrow we are off to Soddo - a 6 hour drive.  It feels like we are spending more time in the car than out of it these days, but it has all been worth it.  Thank you so much for those of you who have told me you've been praying - it means so much to us.  The kids have been doing great and haven't gotten carsick and although this trip has been exhausting, it has given us many life lessons!

Now for some pictures...

The owner of the compound had a baby goat she was feeding with a bottle.  So cute!

Rahima, pouring us some delicious coffee

The girls enjoyed all of the snacks and pop

Presenting the backpack

She had the best reactions - so fun to watch her!

Playing frisbee

Rahima, her mom, baby sister and our family

On the way we saw at least 20 of these stands, loaded with watermelon and pumpkin

We stopped in an amazing restaurant on the way back for lunch

Christmas is on Tue and many places are decorated, although it is incredibly tacky!

That's a coffee tree they are standing next to

Banana tree

Coffee cherry - the fruit is edible, and inside is the coffee bean.  Too cool!

E liked these sparkly rocks

My mom, enjoying the fresh fruit drinks

Our gang - driver is in front, CCFC staff on the other side of M

Tibs which came with it's own little stove

Just goofing around.

Sponsor visit #2 - Part 1

Well, today started out a bit differently than I had hoped.  I woke up with one of my bad headaches, and if I don't do something fast it gets bad really quickly!  I took an advil on an empty stomach, which is never a good idea for me, but I wanted to get over it before we left at 7:30.  It got super bad, and then I got super nauseous, and then it was time to go.

What a miserable first hour of driving!  We were stuck in a crazy traffic jam in Addis, breathing in diesel fuel, starting and stopping for what seemed like forever and I was wishing I had stayed back.  I had come to the point where I was going to have the van stop in Debre Zeit and would find a hotel and stay there in misery until they came back and got me.

Thankfully, the headache pain went away as the advil kicked in, and eventually the nausea subsided and I felt good as new.  I am sooo thankful that I am healthy again and that we all survived the food we ate yesterday!  :-)

Today we drove about 2.5 hours to Adama (Nazret).  It was a much more pleasant drive than yesterday, as we actually had paved roads the whole way.  Either the road has gotten a bit safer, or there wasn't as much traffic, or I just got used to it, but I didn't find that we had as many near-head on collisions as we have had on that road in the past.

We finally arrived in Adama - it is quite a nice city and looked to be a bit nicer to me than Addis.  We again got a tour of the CCFC offices (these are much nicer) and then drove to go see our first sponsor child of the day, Hanna.  We ended up driving to a market, and parked right in the middle of it.  We weren't sure if our hosts were going to buy something there, or why we stopped, but they came around and opened up the door.  It turns out that each of the little stalls has a home behind it - who knew?

Hanna and her mother greeted us and treated us to a coffee ceremony with popcorn.  She told us that we were in her uncle's house as hers was too small.  Her uncle's house was basically one "big" room with a curtain in the middle to separate the bed from the rest of the room.  Interestingly enough, the living area had a small fridge and a TV and a nice dresser.  We had a nice question and answer period with them and were thrilled to know that Hanna liked football (soccer), knowing that we had put one in her backpack.

She was excited to open her backpack and it was fun to show everything to her.  She is in Grade 6 and the same age as G but looks at least 3 or 4 years older.  At the end of our visit we were able to see her home, right next to her uncle's home.  I was very shocked - her home is a tiny square hole in a wall, with a single sized mattress and dresser that filled the entire space, and you couldn't even stand in there.  I will show pictures below - their "home" was smaller than any closet in our house, and the communal kitchen was tiny as well.

Other than the shock of that, it was interesting to see that Hanna was like a typical teenager.  Her mom struggled to get her to do chores, and Hanna just wanted to hang out with her friends and have fun.  That sounds so familiar!  :-)  Of the 3 sponsor kids we visited, Hanna had the least and seemed to have it the hardest as she had access to the TV at her uncle's and knew what else was out there.

OK, I'll see if I can post some pictures before I move on to the next sponsor visit.

E presenting Hanna with her backpack

Excitedly looking through the backpack.  You can see the TV and fridge behind and the curtain which divides the bed area from the living area (this is her uncle's house)

Her mom, looking through some pictures.  This is the other side of the room

The girls

G taught her how to play the recorder - she played her Grade 6 Christmas concert song and it was stuck in our heads the entire day!

All of us...don't judge my look -  I had a rough start today!  :-)

This is Hanna's house.  All of it.  She shares the bed with her mom

The communal kitchen, outside

The pots in front are what Hanna's mother sells.  Their house is directly behind this in the market.

A few Addis pictures

Enjoying our amazing breakfast at the guesthouse.

Pancakes and an Ethiopian dish - tomatoes, onion, a bit of spice on somewhat of a biscuit.  Yummy!

Spices for berbere, drying in the sun.

Some cute kids at the scarf factory.

The scarf factory - I'm pretty sure this is the exact same guy from 2.5 years ago.  Our guide told us that they make 2 scarves a day, which are sold for about $4 or $5 each....not sure how much they pay the workers but it can't be a lot.

These are the donations we spent all afternoon buying for the orphanage.  Oil, onions, tomatoes, teff flour, potatoes, soap, toilet paper, etc. etc.  This was about $500 - thanks so much for those who contributed so generously!

This is the view from our van - we often have to slow down for animals.

This pictures shows a bit of the countryside with a donkey on the road you'll see in the next picture.

Yes, there's a donkey under there.

CCFC office

At the school - we had about a hundred kids crowding around us, talking, yelling and laughing.  I have no idea what they said but I hope it was good.  :-)

The childcare facility sponsored by CCFC.

Meeting Kidist

We had to remember how to properly greet - seemed like it was 3 kisses for ladies, and 3 shoulder bumps for the men?

Coffee ceremony

The feast they put on - coffee, kolo (roasted wheat), popcorn, injera, noodles, rice, wat (stew) and more

Arvid was asked to say a blessing and cut the traditional bread.

Presenting the gifts

I presented a gift to her mother (notice the backpack from 2.5 years ago still in use and hanging on the wall)

Kidist immediately put on the sweater, sunglasses and headband

The girls, teaching her how to play frisbee

Universal language of skipping rope

Kidist's mother showed us how she fixes tires on wagons and carts - this is her job.

All of us

We thought we were done but they insisted that we go inside and eat.  This was great food - I just hope we don't get sick.  G was thrilled to have curly pasta (rotini, her favourite - who would have thought?) and I couldn't believe they managed to get Coke and Mirinda (orange pop) for us as well.

Our girls and their girls

Our amazing CCFC coordinator, Mekdes.  She is AMAZING!!

What an amazing day - Sponsor visit #1

What an amazing day - it's hard to put it into words.  I was concerned about G so much yesterday, but she woke up this morning and declared she was hungry and I nearly fell over with shock to hear her say that.  She found enough food to eat for breakfast and then we were off by 7:30 am for the long drive to visit our first sponsor child, Kidist.  I gave both G and E gravol and they weren't car sick at all - a HUGE answer to prayer.  E sometimes declares that she gets carsick on the way to school, (which is around the corner from our house), so the start-stop, diesel smelling, bumpy road was a real test.

Our sponsor kids are with CCFC (Christian Children's Fund of Canada), and their representative came with us today.  She is such an incredible woman - she kept the kids entertained today for probably 4 hours in the car, telling them stories, giving them riddles, etc.  I would like to take her home to Canada with us - she is so amazing and her English is impeccable.

Anyway, it probably took about 40 minutes to get out of Addis due to traffic.  Once we got out of Addis we drove on a nice road for about another 30 minutes, although there was a lot of truck traffic and starting and stopping due to traffic/people and animal crossing, etc.  After we hit Debre Zeit we drove on a very bumpy, rough road for about another 45 minutes.  We couldn't have been going more than about 5 or 10 km/hr on the bumpy road - it was crazy.  As this was a road going into the countryside we were able to see very interesting scenery - cacti, loaded donkeys, lots of cattle, wheat, etc.

We finally made it to the CCFC regional office and they showed us where they work and the file on Kidist.  They said that they have 7 social workers (with degrees or masters) and each social worker has 200 kids in their caseload.  Unbelievable!  They have to visit the children and organize programs for them - they are incredible people.

They then showed us the school and community initiative that CCFC is providing.  It's kind of a daycare so the mothers can work and generate an income.  The kids there were so cute and sang us a song in full throttle African style.  We also saw a tap water supply that CCFC has provided the village.

After this is was time to drive to see Kidist.  She lived a little bit further in the countryside and came out to greet us carrying flowers.  Arvid and I had been able to visit her on our last trip to Ethiopia, but we had limited time on that trip so our visit was very fast as we then picked up Mebira from the orphanage that afternoon.  Anyway, this trip was so different and amazing.  There were so many people there - her parents, her sisters, her grandparents, as well as some neighbours and relatives.

The family went all out (thankfully, CCFC provides some money to these families when sponsors visit, otherwise I would have felt terrible) and lavished us with a coffee ceremony, followed by a bread that is only served for very special occasions like Christmas and weddings, followed by a full on Ethiopian feast.  They were so thankful and appreciative to us, and both the father and the grandfather blessed us.  We were a little terrified to eat the food, to be honest, but it all tasted great. We didn't want to offend them, so we ate as much as we could by avoiding some of the more risky items like tomato salad.  We prayed a lot while we ate and really hope that we will not be feeling any negative effects later today!

G presented Kidist with her backpack, and Kidist presented Grace with a hand crocheted doily - so amazing.  Kidist had lots of fun pulling out her gifts and put as many of them on as she could.  The girls all went outside and tried to teach her frisbee and played with the skipping rope.

After some pictures together it was time to return home...a looooong drive and the first stop for a bathroom was in Debre Zeit on the way home.  The girls were such troopers and did so well.  I'm so proud of them.

We are back in our room now, enjoying some downtime.  The trip today went so well and was so meaningful and amazing - we are so thankful that we were able to go and share it with the girls and my mom.

I'll try to post some pictures next...hopefully it doesn't take as long this time!

Our first full day in Addis

Wow - it feels so much better when you actually sleep at night!  We all woke up feeling much better and enjoyed a delicious breakfast at our home - GT Guesthouse.  After showers we felt even more human and by 9 we were ready to meet Solomon, our contact at the orphanage.  He was kind enough to arrange a driver for us, and we used Marcos as our guide for a day of shopping.

We first went to the scarf place by Entoto and bought some nice scarves there.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there G wasn't feeling well and said she was car sick.  We walked over to the market to buy traditional clothing for M and a few people, and by then G was whiter than white and sick at the side of the road.  Thankfully, I had packed a number of "motion sickness bags" from the airplane in my purse but we were quite the spectacle.

G needed to go home so we drove all the way back to the guesthouse.  We were all so disappointed because there were a number of stores that we all wanted to go to and didn't want to have an adult and G miss out on it.  We ended up leaving my mom home with the kids and Arvid and I went to buy donations for the orphanage instead.

Wow, do I miss grocery stores.  I complain when I have to do Superstore and Costco in the same day!  We went to the market to buy a bunch of things, had to go to different stalls for different items, then drove to a different store to buy flour, a different store for sugar, and said we were done before going to a different store for meat and eggs.  We came back to the guesthouse to pick everyone up (Arvid stayed with G) and we went to see the new KVI orphanage.  This is the same orphanage where M was from, although they have since moved buildings.

We dropped off all of the donations there and had a tour of the building.  It is quite nice - about 15 older kids, 6 toddlers and 6 babies.  The babies were ADORABLE, of course.  In case any of you were wondering if we would adopt again, it's looking like Ethiopia will be shutting international adoption down or slowing it down considerably.  It's not even much of an option anymore, and KVI orphanage has been doing lots of fostering and local adoptions instead, which is great.  (So the answer is no, in case that wasn't clear enough)

Anyway, by the end of all this we were quite pooped so we just walked to a local restaurant for supper.  G was feeling good at this point so we all went, but halfway through the meal she turned white again and so I took her home.  I'm like a seasoned African now, crossing the busy street (actually more like playing frogger), walking down a dark, gravel alley at night with nothing but my tiny green-stripe tae kwon do daughter to protect me...

So that's our day...tomorrow we have planned to visit our first sponsor kid.  She is so sweet and her mother is so nice - we were able to visit her on our last trip and I would be sad to have two of us miss out on that.  I REALLY hope she is better tomorrow and that this is just from being run down.

I will hopefully post more pictures tomorrow and update on the girls' thoughts of Africa so far.  But it's nearing 8 o'clock and I think that will be my bedtime tonight!  Good night!  :-)

A few London highlights in pictures

The internet connection isn't too bad here but really slow with uploading pictures.  These are mostly from London (no sightseeing yet - that will be on the way home) and a few from Addis.  I'll try to get some pictures of Addis on in the next day or two.

We've given the kids free electronics time on travel days.  Here they are at the London airport, soaking it up!

This is actually in Addis.  We were soooo tired, just trying to make it until 7 so that we could go to bed.  I think M is an elf - she can live on about 15 minutes sleep a night!

We went for a walk in London.  It was sunny and warm and we came across a playground.  The girls loved playing on the tire zip line.

I always love going to stores and seeing the different food and packaginh.  These bottles of pop in London are so different from ours - long and skinny, in the shape of a bullet.

I asked the girls to put their clothes out before we went swimming.

M is reading her favourite archie comics with my mom.  So glad to have my mom around - and extra pair of hands has been great!

No one said we traveled lightly...there ARE 5 girls and only 1 guy.  Actually, most of the 8 suitcases are donations - so happy to get those away and travel lightly on the way back.

Arvid was a nice dad and swam with the girls twice at our hotel in London.  I took one for the team, sat on the lounge chairs and took pictures.  :-)

First one to bite the dust.  Arvid got a cold and zonked out on the couch in Addis.