Going Away!!

AHOPE does a really nice going away party. Jen and I had ours together the night before she left. Abebe and Galila spoke about our volunteer work and one of the older boys had the kids sing. Then we each had to say at least 20 words in Amharic. The kids were so nice and tried to help me but they just made me forget the ones I already had in my head. I can't believe I forgot wolfram... it's my favorite word!!! Then we each got to speak, I couldn't get out all I wanted to. We got cards from the kids and scarves from AHOPE and Charlene. We ate food and hung out, it was a good party.

A soon to be family, keep in your thoughts.

Two of the older girls, have a referral placement. Well, the younger sister had an appendicitis and went in to have her appendix removed and there were complications and she lapsed into a coma. Thankfully, her soon to be adoptive mother was contacted and she flew out about a week after surgery. She stayed at our guest house. Our little girl is
doing better but still has a long way to go and she cannot go home with her mom until at least September due to the new TB test regulations. So, her mom who is amazing and I am so glad I got to meet, had to go home last week and just has to wait. Tigist, our nurse
reports that they are supposed to start physio and hopefully she will be able to be transferred to a hospital that can do more rehab. Her big sister is really being a trooper but it is scary and I want everyone to keep her in their thoughts.

The watches come out!!!

Okay, first of all, watches are a huge hit at AHOPE. They want to wear your watch, play with the buttons, reset it-- very fascinated.

Tuesday night, Big AHOPE had awards night for improvement in school this semester, after school English class and hygiene. The kids who were honored got to go up front and receive a package. In most of the packages, were watches from our watch collection!!! They were very
excited about their watches and were wearing them proudly.
Then us volunteers, Carly, Marissa, Jen and I put on a marrionnette
puppet show that Carly put together. It is an African story about a chief and his daughter-- it went really well. Carly is a teacher in NY from a Waldorf school and amazingly creative.

Alert
Alert is the Leprosy hospital and training center and you can walk
there from our house. They have a craft workshop with patients who
weave, embroider and knit. But the amazing thing is that many of these
people are missing fingers. But such beautiful work and a very serene
setting in the woods.

A Walk To Beautiful

Fistula Hospital/A Walk to Beautiful

We finally got an appointment to tour the fistula hospital, that is
featured in A walk to Beautiful. We had such a good tour guide who was very knowledgeable about birth injuries. They have a craft workshop for women who are not able to be healed completely, so they can learn a trade. They have formed four outreach centers to reach women in rural Ethiopia. It is a beautiful facility with a garden that looks like it belongs in a botanical garden, which apparently is run by Dr. Hamilton, herself, who we saw on the premise. The facility is very clean and the women look well cared for. They are given literacy and numeracy classes as well as skills training, physio, and emotional counseling. Very moving day.

Gladney Part 2

Travis picked us up at the guest house and we headed across town to the Gladney foster care centers. Once Gladney feels that they will be able to find a family for a child, they move them to their centers. They have one for 0-6 months, two for 6months to 3 years and one for the older kids. We got to pick up some of the Gladney adoptive families from this week. This is the day that they bring their kids back to the care centers to say goodbye to the nannies. Each child has a special " Mama" or "Papa who has really bonded with the child and
they buy them a special traditional outfit and they dress them to sort of present them to their new families. The families that we met were great and varied from adopting babies, to twin toddlers, to an older sibling group to one young lady who I am guessing is close to 17!! The ratio of caregivers to babies is amazing . When we went into the baby room, a nanny handed me a baby to hold. They were really beautiful and happy babies. Then the kids in their adorable outfits had to say goodbye to their caregivers, who were crying. One special "Papa" was very attached to the little boy twin. They brewed coffee and made popcorn and the families got to talk and then we went to lunch with them. It was a very happy day!!!

Making Suns and Singing at the CDC
At the CDC on Thursday, the kids had clearly been practicing with Girma, the nurse-- You are my sunshine and did a great job. Then we had the big kids make suns and the little kids make hearts, faces and clouds. I hope they use it for their family day. Then they sang all kinds of songs they know including Make Bananas which is this funny song all of AHOPE knows. Girma the nurse is great!!! I spent time talking with the oldest girl there, she is simply beautiful and wants to be a doctor.

Sodere- the Hot Springs
After our trip to Vera's, Jen decided that she wanted to sponsor a field trip so we took the Big AHOPE kids to Sodere, the hot springs resort on Monday. It is about 2 1/2 hours away and we rented a big bus so we all fit well. To keep the kids occupied, we brought material for
friendship bracelets, and Carly taught them finger knitting. We stopped for snack right before we got there in front of a World Vision site and ate the most delicious bread that is baked in some leaf. Sodere has an olympic sized heated swimming pool. Most of our kids
changed into suits and jumped in the shallow end. I was the only volunteer who would go in the water and it was so much fun. Sassy loved that I could swim with her skinny little body attached to my neck. I tried to help some of the older girls to float and kick their
feet. They were so very impressed that I could swim from one end to
the other. There are also all these little monkeys all over Sodere, just hanging out, stealing your things. After swimming, all us girls headed to the hot showers, oh my, I lasted like minutes. Then we ate a great big lunch and ice cream.

new posts

Hossana
Abebe mentioned that he needed to go to Hossana ( a small town about 2-3 hours away from Addis) last Sunday but was sort of vague as to why, but he invited us. Jen got sick but I went. When I got to Little A, there was a van full of people going. Doctor, who is apparently the
AHOPE doctor and is the pediatric oncology specialist at an Addis Hospital, three male friends of Abebe's, a female friend of his and the driver. So we take off and the countryside is very pretty. We stopped at a very local place for lunch-- I had shiro as the rest of
the group were eating tibs(small pieces of goat). Doctor had to go eat somewhere else because he is Muslim. After tea, we got back into the car, and the two guys in the back bought chat and proceeded to chew that for the rest of the day... I will blog about chat at some point, but suffice to say, it would be like chewing a plant, doesn't look appealing. But they had to stop two more times that day for chat. So we are back in the car and it is already maybe 2pm and suddenly they yell, here it is. They had been talking about some organization
Mothers to Mothers, so I thought maybe we'd be stopping at an agency, but no we stopped by a hut on the side of the road. No idea how they knew we were at the right hut. There is a pregnant woman there who has been making pottery and a slew of kids. Abebe asked me to start taking pictures. I took a ton of pictures of the kids who loved it and then they asked me to take pictures of some of the kids with malnutrition and other ailments for the doctor.Then the moms wanted their picture taken, so cute. We are maybe there 45 minutes and no one but the doctor and Abebe speak to anyone. And we leave, random... I am still not sure why we went but it was a fun day and great to be out of the city. Of course, coming home, we had to stop for coffee and so the doctor could pray... but I am getting used to having no idea what I am doing or where I am going.

Hyenas

After a full day of driving( I will post about the trip soon), we
arrive in Harrar. We stop at our hotel and get ready to meet the hyena man. We drive into the walled part of Harrar after dark and stop and get out. And there they are, about 9 hyenas, medium sized I guess, not that I am an expert. The man has a bucket of meat and a stick. Now, I was a little dissapointed that our hyena man did not feed them with his mouth. He did put the stick in his mouth and feed them, but still. The hyenas ignored us and our huge headlights and we stood about 6
feet from them taking pictures. Then it was the audiences turn to feed them and there were about 8 of us who took turns feeding them with a stick. You hold the stick out and the hyena man sort of signals them and then they come up and jump up and eat it off the stick. Sometimes they end up with the stick in their mouths as well. I fed about 3 or 4 pieces of meat to my hyena, who really look like homely dogs. It was a great experience and I am very glad I went. Plus I thought I'd be more aprehensive but I wasn't.

Sholla part TWO

Since our trip got postponed, we headed to Sholla Saturday morning. I needed to give the kids the books from our book fair I forgot last time and wanted to read some of the penpal letters from 207. The kids were watching this really bad movie about an American girl who goes to a UK boarding school. The special project manager sat down with us and
the girl who does hygeine. We came up with a list of supplies and then she took me to a small market and a stall and I purchased two big boxes of laundry detergeant, 6 jars of vaseline, 10 bottles of hair
oil and 9 combs. We came back, I shared my pictures of the Goodwin kids, read a book, and read some of the letters. The kids raised their hands and answered questions about what they wanted to be when they
grow up, what they wanted our kids to know about Ethiopia, what books they like and what fruit they eat. They were an excellent audience. As I was leaving, this beautiful, smart little girl asked for my email
and gave me hers. I am so excited to have my kids write to her. The kids followed us out and walked us to the mini bus. I may come back with more hygeine supplies if I have time. I love the Sholla Children's Library and Ethiopia Reads!!!!!

I hate Ethiopian Airlines!!!!

I came home from Game Night at Big AHOPE, all ready to shower and go to bed, then get up early for our flight to Harrar. At about 9:45pm,
Jen came back into the house with bad news. Ethiopian Airlines called
to say that our flight was cancelled, not delayed, cancelled!!!! We tried calling the tour company but of course couldn't get through. So we got up and went to the Hilton at 7am-- but of course the girl working at the tour company couldn't possibly help us without her manager-- even though we said that a driver, her driver was supposed to pick us up at the Harrar airport at 8:30am. So we went to Ethiopian Airlines where they told us we were rescheduled for Sunday at 4pm.
Less than 2 hours before we were due to return to Addis. So we went to the pastry shop to drown our sorrows in chocolate crossaints and hot cocoa. When finally our tour manager(mind you, she couldn't figure out how to use the credit card machine when we made our reservations) arrived, she was like "yes, my branch manager called to say your flight was cancelled, but it is too late because I paid for your hotel and the driver rented the car and went to the airport(HELLO WE WERE IN YOUR OFFICE at 7AM!!!). So we would lose 50% of our money for cancelling. So we went back to Ethiopian Airlines to see if we could
get out Saturday AM and save part of our trip, but no despite the fact
that there were 3 flights between the two days, we were on the Sunday afternoon flight. Yet they were confused when we tell them we want a refund. So now we had to decide what to do, so we went back to see about a driving tour of Harrar at another tour company. We ended up booking with them for a three day driving trip next weekend. All in all, we had to spend 6 hours at the Hilton, Jen says "oh well, this is Africa" but I think it is ridiculous!!!!!

You are my Sunshine!!!
We were asked to work with the kids at the CDC on something for their family day. I decided we could teach them You are my Sunshine. I didn't realize Melaku, the social worker there meant we should work with all 70 of them, but he did so he and Girma, the nurse gathered all of the kids and we started teaching them the words. Have I mentioned that I am fairly certain I am tone deaf?? And we have to keep singing alone so the kids could get the tune. The kids actually giggled the first time we sang. But they learned the words pretty quickly. Next week, we will make crafts to go with the song.

Castelli Restaurant
We went to a great Italian restaurant in Piazza on Friday. It is
called Castelli, white tablecloths, red roses, very fancy, quite the
date night dinner-- Jen and I were laughing about that.I had homemade raviolini that was spinach, some filled with cheese,
some with cheese and spinach, delicious crusty bread, a creamy tomato sauce with Italian mushrooms, a glass of local red wine and hazelnut gelato. YUM!!!!

Addis Ababa Restaurant
Thursday night, since we were already in Piazza, we thought we'd try the Addis Ababa restaurant which is written up in both Lonely Planet and Bradt. We walk into a packed place and everyone went silent. Patrons just stared at us and eventually started motioning for us to sit with them. We got seated finally and ordered fasting food for me and tibs for Jen. It was clearly a local establishment, there was even a wedding party there having their dinner. And our entire bill
together was $7 USD.

Ethiopia Reads or Sholla Children's Library

I probably could not tell you where the Sholla Children's Library is located, our taxi driver had to call the Library twice and then the manager had to walk to the main road and walk us back, but once I got there, I absolutely loved it!!!! There are two covered tents with tables and chairs with kids reading in them, a reading garden with 4 big tables with umbrellas, trees, flowers and kids at all the tables with books. Inside there are three rooms with books, labeled by category and call number. Lots of tables, lots of books, and plenty of young people. There is a conference room, offices for the staff, a media room and posters of all the previous Ethiopia Book Weeks and their themes. In the back is storage and a hygiene room. This is so cool. The kids can come bring their laundry and do it in their new washing machine. They have a man who cuts the boys hair and a woman who styles the girls and even a little barber chair with a mirror. This happens on Saturdays.

Many of the books are older, so they could certainly use new books, it kind of reminded me of the kids section of the DG library from when I was a kid. Sintayehu, the Library Manager showed us around and explained their program. He is great and so enthusiastic. He kept asking me if I knew Yohannes Gebregiorgis, the founder and one of last year's CNN heroes. I know "of" him, but no I don't think I'll be giving him a call when he is back in country next week. Sintayehu
reports that they really could use good quality new books from the US
as well as hygiene items for their Saturday program.

We stayed and read with some of the groups outside(I went with both of my housemates, Marissa and Jen). The kids read in Amharic and some of them tried in English. One group of grade 8 boys were excellent in their reading to me and told me that I read very fast... gee I suppose I sound like I'm talking fast as well. They added about 20 words to my Amharic notebook. Oh and they also wanted to know why I was not married at my advanced age of 34... yes, I told them my mother wonders that as well. :) Sintayehu asked if I would come back on a Saturday when they have their largest group of children, read to them and read them some of the Goodwin kid's penpal letters. I also got contact info for the Donkey Mobile Library in Awassa. Ethiopia Reads and Sholla were the recipients of the Goodwin School penny drive this year. We raised $503 and then my friend Amy's school, Irving School in Oak Park raised money during their spring literacy event and donated $900.

What can you do to help??
My friend Wendy mentioned suggesting ways our at home readers could continue to help. Today, I am suggesting you check out Ethiopia Reads,
www.ethiopiareads.org, where they will take both cash donations and
donations of new or gently used books, they give you ideas of what
kinds of books on their site. And my other suggestion today is Kiva, www.kiva.org, the group that does microfinancing. While last time I looked, there were no
opportunities in Ethiopia, but I really think micro financing is a smart and successful way to help people. And the cool thing is that once your loan is repaid, you can reloan it to help someone else!!!

Blog Fame
A couple of days ago, Abebe called Jen and I as we were leaving the
guesthouse to go to Big A and said he had some friends from Chicago he wanted us to meet at Little A. When we got there, we realized that actually it was this very nice family from Virginia who had stumbled upon my blog. Scott, Jennifer and their 6th grade daughter Evelyn brought donations for AHOPE after finding my blog while doing research on adoption and Ethiopia. They are also planning on visiting the fistula hospital with donations to deliver as well. Great family with a great desire to help. They have a blog that I will link to when I get home and put up a picture with my newest blog "fans". It was a very nice surprise.

Happy 4th of July
I want to wish everyone a very happy 4th of July in America. I will be spending my 4th in the walled city of Harrar, visiting the hyenas. I will post when I return. Thanks for all the emails and Wendy, thanks for calling the other morning(your evening).