Today was our third, and busiest day at the clinic - we saw
150+ kids. I had so much fun learning thier hand clapping games and they loved singing "Jesus Loves Me". The kids said I have to learn how to count to 10 in Amharic before we come back - they did lots of laughing at my attempts.
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| Children waiting to see the doctor and dentist |
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| Ruth & a sweet little girl that lived near Onesimus |
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| Nati with his million dollar smile! |
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| Mati |
Here is a picture of fire ants that crawled up my leg. Needless
to say, I did a crazy ants-in-pants dance until I got all of them out. The kids thought it was hilarious! :)
The women at Onesimus were so gracious to prepare a
delicious lunch for us to share together.
They did this a number of days that we were there – making everything
from traditional Ethiopian food to spaghetti. The friends we made were so warm & inviting. Like greetings…I’m not sure why we
don’t do more hugs & cheek-kisses when we greet each other in America? We need to! Ethiopians give the best greetings with lots of hugs &
3-sided cheek kisses. I’m
definitely a hugger, so I ate it up.
My friends & family reading this are probably laughing right
now. I can definitely make you
uncomfortable if you’re not a hugger. :)
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| Injera, baguettes, spaghetti & marinara, and greens |
We were exhausted by the end of the long day. We rolled out of Onesimus and went to a
little shopping center down the road to look at souvenirs. I found some really neat handmade Ethiopian
gifts to bring home for the kids.
After doing our shopping, we headed on to the Paradise Garden restaurant
for lasagna, fried chicken and Asian spring rolls. :) Strange menu, but it was good! Dinnertime was hard for me – a new level of thankfulness for the blessing of having a third meal for the day.
Giving thanks always
and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ -
Ephesians 5:20
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Thursday, October 7th
Today was our last day at the care center. Penny (my mom), who is an RN, did a first
aid and wound care clinic for the Onesimus staff. She worked so hard preparing and did such a great job
presenting all the information. Jill
and Carrie continued on with the dental clinic, to serve the kids who still
needed dental work done. If we
could have stayed longer, the line would have never stopped. The whole dental team worked so hard
this week to serve as many people as possible. I jumped in the chair at one point to help hold the
kids hands and hand off instruments.
Let’s just say I’m not quite cut out for seeing lots of blood. I quickly gave Carrie her job back, and
instead, took the spot of holding little hands, and at one point, holding a
little girl’s head while she had teeth extracted. This precious girl had just lost her dad, and had to have
almost all of her baby teeth pulled, so needless to say, her emotions were high
and she was scared. I hope that
she looks back one day and knows that we were there to be a blessing to her.
After the wound care class and dental clinic ended, we joined
the staff for a lunch feast and going away ceremony. The women at the care center worked hard all day in the
kitchen to serve everyone a beautiful banquet on our final day. It was an array of traditional
Ethiopian dishes that were so delicious.
The staff presented Jill a gorgeous Ethiopian dress and scarf for her
birthday, as well as a birthday cake to celebrate. It was also another little boy’s 2nd birthday, so
we celebrated his big day too.
The staff also gave each of us a traditional Ethiopian shirt, and
Bethlehem (the 10 year old girl I mentioned in a previous post), gave us each a
beautiful drawing. This is
one of many examples of hospitality and generosity of our Ethiopian friends
that we made. I miss them so
much.
These are the pictures that Bethlehem drew for us. The one she drew for me is about an Ethiopian story that has been passed down to her.
The story goes…
“There was once a bird that found a tapered vase with water in it. Instead of giving up on being able to
reach the water, the clever bird dropped stones into the water in the vase
until the water rose to a level where the bird could drink.” This is a story of determination that
is such a reflection of many of these sweet kids’ lives.
In the picture below, are three girls that I got to know on
our second day at the clinic. They
came back to the clinic on our last day to say goodbye & brought me a hymn book
as a gift. Their
thoughtfulness meant so much.
After they gave me the hymnal, one of the girls hand-fed me a bite of
the birthday cake that the three of them were sharing. A little background on this – in
Ethiopia, this is tradition to hand-feed a guest or loved one out of a showing of love. These girls were so precious.
The picture below is the Onesimus staff that we had the
privilege of serving with.
After we
gave lots of hugs & said goodbye to the staff and kids, we left the care
center and drove to visit orphans at a few of the city orphanages. The first orphanage we visited was
Kebebe Tsehai, which is a private orphanage that houses young babies and
children. The second orphanage
that we visited was Kechene, which cares for older girls. Unfortunately we didn’t get to visit
Kolfe, which is an orphanage for older boys. Kolfe orphanage will definitely be on our long list of
places to visit when we return to Ethiopia.
Visiting the orphanages was by far the hardest part of our
time in Addis. It was beyond
difficult knowing that these children didn’t know the love of a family (and for
most of them will never). It was
even harder hearing children tell their stories of a family they loved &
lost. I met a young girl
who lost her entire family (parents, grandparents and siblings) in a car
accident. She told me that all she
wanted was a family & asked me to pray that someone would adopt her. Not a day goes by that I don’t think
about these precious kids.
We decided not to take pictures or video while in the orphanages. If you want to see other people’s video's, there are quite a few on YouTube. Unfortunately, there are more children now in Kebebe Tsehai
than shown in this first video, as well as an updated statistic of approximately 6 million orphans in Ethiopia. Again, these are not our videos, just links from others videos on YouTube.
Video of Kebebe Tsehai. Video of another Ethiopian Orphanage.
After visiting the kids, we drove back to the guesthouse (on
what seemed like the longest drive of my life). Once we packed up our bags, we were treated to a traditional
Ethiopian coffee ceremony. The
coffee was roasted over coals, ground and served black with sugar. The popcorn was freshly popped, tossed
with sugar and passed around to eat while waiting on the coffee.
After the ceremony, we loaded up the cars and drove to the
Beer Garden restaurant where we enjoyed our last meal with our friends, Yosi,
Nega and Emu. Then, we headed on
to the airport for our long journey home.
Our time spent in Ethiopia was life changing. It bonded me to brothers and sisters
across the world, and reminded me to appreciate God’s blessings, and that these
gifts from Him are not to be just kept to myself. The time there passed too quickly. I miss Ethiopia & our friends very much, and so look
forward to the day when we can be there again.
Speaking of going to Ethiopia again… The James Initiative
will be scheduling a few mission trips in 2012 - we would love for you to join one
of the teams going.
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