Sr. Donna's Girls

I got the nicest Thanksgiving note from Sr. Donna in Awassa. She spent the day cooking for her girls, who normally cook for them-- enjoying food coming from their gardens. Her girls are making rosaries to help support their new home-- Heartland Girls. This is a picture of one of them. Sr. Donna is sending me examples of some of the other girls' work as well as lots of information about them and her organization. I will post about it when I get it.. unfortunately Addis is the only place with a post office that can mail out packages according to Sr. Donna.

Neighbors.....

Each day when we would walk to Little A(which I've just found out has moved...hopefully I will have details of the new compound soon), we would pass two moms and their babies, sitting by the side of the road. I'm thinking about these two moms because recently I have been getting stalked by the men at the side of the road who try to "clean" your windshield with questionable liquid, despite you shaking your head no and have been stopped on the L with several very questionable stories always ending in asking me for money.

These moms never once asked me for anything. They would sometimes say "Selam" and sometimes have their babies wave hello, but they never asked for anything. These were moms who had nothing but their gorgeous babies and their pride. I will tell you that I did give them money, food and each little one got a tiny baby doll, sent to Ethiopia with me by my friend Silvia. Each time, I got a big smile and a thank you. When I asked if I could take their pictures, they agreed and gushed over looking at it on my digital camera. I wish I would have printed them out for them before I left.

Yummy food in Ethiopia.....AKA I ate my way through Ethiopia!!

Planting at Big AHOPE

One day, when we were shopping, Carly said that she'd like to plant some things at Big A.. so we found a little outdoor nursery and she bought a bunch of plants, including some vegetables and herbs. Then we went to Big A to plant them. They were a hit. Several of the boys brought out a shovel and hoe and then the girls wanted us to let them plant some in the "garden" under their window. One of the girls, K asked me if they could have more vegetables for the girl's garden. She even wrote down the words in Amharic for me.
My last week I got my driver to find me a seed store and bought seeds for carrots, tomato, basil, radiches, gomen, and cabbage. My last night, I stopped by after going to the CDC, and went into the girls' bedroom and gave them their seeds. They were truly excited and appreciative. I really hope something grew!!!

The pictures are of flowers at Big A and Marissa planting some of our plants.

Visit with Carly....

During my stay this summer, there were three other volunteers at the guesthouse with me. One of these was Carly. She is a school teacher from New York. She works at a Waldorf school and brought amazing craft projects with her. She had volunteered for 2 weeks last year and came back for two weeks this year. I really enjoyed getting to know her.

We've kept in touch and this past weekend, she and her son were in town to visit her brother. He is currently in Jersey Boys which is playing in Chicago until January(I think). So we got to meet for lunch and then went to the show. I highly recommend the show and I had a wonderful time visiting with Carly.

Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera, but this picture is from when we did a puppet show at the Awards Ceremony at Big AHOPE. Carly is on the right.

Funny Story....Life is sure different in the States

We were heading back from Sodere, the hot springs where we took all the Big AHOPE kids swimming for a field trip. We were in a big bus and I was sitting up front with big sister, one of the kids who was being adopted to America. The staff yelled to get my attention because they knew I wanted to take pictures of any animals... and suddenly in front of our bus on the road is a huge herd of camels... probably close to 50 or more. So I grab my camera and as I'm snapping pictures, big sister says to me, "are there no camels in America?" So I said, "well, in the zoo, but no not on the road.".. she replies, "oh, no pretty camels in America." sort of sad... but I wanted to say that you will have so many wonderful adventures in your new home and I hope you will also come back to Ethiopia one day...

Just outside Addis....

A story from my trip to Awassa....

Once I got off the bus, I started walking and keep walking and couldn't seem to find the hotel that I was looking for from Lonely Planet, so I keep walking and eventually I stumble upon the Post Rendevous restaurant which was written up in LP. So I decide to stop for a juice and figure what to do next. While I'm there, I see an older woman, clearly a foreigner with this great big bag speaking English with the waiter. So I wait until she's done eating and ask her if she knows where the Pinna Hotel or Mountain Snack(where the donkey library is supposed to be) and she says "I know both and you are lucky because I have time to show you." So she helps me pay my bill and starts talking. Her name is Sr. Donna Frances, originally from California, here in Ethiopia starting an orphanage for HIV+ teen-age girls outside Awassa, in rural Southern Ethiopia.

She showed me how to take the little bushots(3 wheeled cabs) and we went to Pinna 2 where the owner says that "due to graduation this weekend, there are no rooms." So we go next door to Pinna 1, where we get the same answer which is starting to freak me out, but Sr. Donna just calmly asked if I needed to be in such a nice place and starts asking if he can call other hotels. Now mind you, the hotel she says at has squat toilets-- so I'm hoping for something in between. Well, lo and behold, he finds a room at his hotel, when faced with being asked to start searching down a room. I book that, which is only 98 birr, or about $9-10 USD. Sr. Donna shows me her information for Heartland for Girls, which has great long term transition plans. She hopes to be fully open by January.
Next she shows me Mountain Snack, which is a little hotel/cafe right next to the Awassa Reading Room, where we go meet Hidar(librarian) and make plans to meet to see the DML in the morning. Then Sr. Donna and I go next door to have a coffee and cake. We go in and we bump into a Peace Corp volunteer and a VSO volunteer that she knows and join them. Sr. Donna invites me come see her compound if I had time(sadly I didn't this trip) and we talked about partnering with my school. Mr. Peace Corp invited me to pizza and beer that night with the rest of the volunteers.
It was a wonderfully divine meeting... and I am so grateful that I met Sr. Donna, and she was so helpful in me having such a wonderful time in Awassa. And kept me from having to hang out at a cafe all night!!! Apparently there is a college in Awassa and everyone had their families in that weekend, there really were no rooms.

SPARK VENTURES

Thursday night I went to the most amazing fundraiser. It was for an organization called Spark Ventures. They are an not for profit that supports Hope Ministries in Zambia. It was founded by three friends after they went on a trip to Zambia. One of these co-founders is college friends with my friend Sally. They formed this organization barely three years ago and have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The fundraiser was at the Chicago Cultural Center and was super swanky. There was a signature cocktail(the name of the night was Spark Blue), a silent auction of items from Zambia, the Mighty Blue Kings played and they put on a great video/slide production explaining their vision and partnership. Their goal is to provide leadership development and sustainability.

Check out their website, I'm not going to do it justice!!! www.sparkventures.org

I'm Back....

Okay, I've decided to start writing again.. I have lots more stories from this summer -- sprinkled in with whatever new comes to me.. I doubt anyone is still reading but if nothing else it will help me to remember.

Oh and sorry about the music... I can't figure out how to take it off the blog. I put the song on literally like the day before I left this summer and then I didn't have access to the blog all summer, poor Claire was posting for me. But now that I'm back on it, wow, didn't realize how quickly Toto could start driving you crazy.