February 24, 2014
We are ending our first day in Addis Ababa, and it has been a very rewarding day. We went to Embracing Hope Ministry this morning, which is an adoption prevention ministry. Jerry and Christy Shannon, who now pastor the International Evangelical Church here, started this ministry in 2009 and have recently entrusted the directorship to our former guesthouse host, Alayu. Embracing Hope is a daycare for children of most-often single moms (there are a couple of fathers and uncles, but they are certainly the outliers) which allows mothers to work and keep their children with them as a result of this ministry providing child care, education and essential nutritional and medical care for both the moms and children. They have 122 children and are applying for approval to expand to having a capacity for 180 children. One fact Christy shared with us is that basic nutritional and medical care before the age of five can be the difference between life and death for these children, so there is a dramatic emphasis put on both of these aspects when children and mothers are admitted to the program. The program also requires the mothers to comply with two very basic rules - no prostitution and no begging. The program has grown dramatically since we were here in 2011. Today, we were able to observe the school classes and then participate in their corporate music class where they were singing and dancing and running up to us for hugs and high fives. They were beautiful and uninhibited. It was AMAZING!! Feel free to check out more of what they do at embracinghopeethiopia.com.
After visiting Embracing Hope, the director Alayu (our friend who hosted us last time in November 2011 at his guest house) took us out to lunch to welcome us to Ethiopia. We ate outside at an Italian restaurant, and it was great. The weather was perfect (70 and sunny, I would say), and we caught up over some pretty tasty food.
From there, we traveled to Alayu's home, where we reunited with his wife, Kidist, and their adorable 2 1/2 year old son, Emmanuel, and mother's helper, Alam. They were thrilled to see Doc and I again and excited to meet Brieanna and Brittany. Kidist had an entire coffee ceremony set up for us in their living room, and she honored our visit with a traditional coffee (buna) ceremony. She roasted the coffee beans, boiled milk, made popcorn, and served us coffee in beautiful tiny china cups and saucers. The coffee was fantastic! While we watched her make the coffee, Emmanuel warmed up to us and entertained us by rattling off in Amharic at his father and mother, dancing, and tossing a ball we had brought to him. When they mentioned that we would have to leave at some point to him in Amharic, he immediately stood up and went to his father and started crying. It was touching. Another touching moment was when both Kidist and Alam came out from the bedroom wearing the shoes we had brought to them from the States - they were thrilled with our gift, despite the shoes being quite simple. Kidist put on a pair of sneakers we also brought to her and repeated "so pretty so pretty" and she was so happy she hugged me and said "God bless you all. Thank you so much." It was a special afternoon, and we felt like honored guests in their home.
Today was generally interesting because we were able to see much of the city, as our guest house this time is across town from Embracing Hope and where we stayed before. We recognized the contrast between the more wealthy areas and as we got closer to Embracing Hope, which borders Korah (the slums next to the dump), we could notice the deterioration and poverty. The homes were more crude, the people more simply dressed, and the roads more bumpy. Despite this, the people we met were gracious and seemed happy. We encountered school children leaving school in their uniforms, and they sheepishly giggled at our "hellos." We also experienced our first traffic jam in rush hour in what we thought was Central Addis (we don't really know :) - we saw more people in half an hour than we've seen the whole time we've been here. Very interesting simply to observe the happenings around us.
So long for now, as we head south tomorrow to visit our completed water project in Arsi Negelle. It will be an overnight trip until Wednesday, when we will visit villages for potential future water projects. We'll try to be in touch upon our return. Keep the prayers coming for continued safety, health and adventure! Amusah genalo! (Thank you :)
We are ending our first day in Addis Ababa, and it has been a very rewarding day. We went to Embracing Hope Ministry this morning, which is an adoption prevention ministry. Jerry and Christy Shannon, who now pastor the International Evangelical Church here, started this ministry in 2009 and have recently entrusted the directorship to our former guesthouse host, Alayu. Embracing Hope is a daycare for children of most-often single moms (there are a couple of fathers and uncles, but they are certainly the outliers) which allows mothers to work and keep their children with them as a result of this ministry providing child care, education and essential nutritional and medical care for both the moms and children. They have 122 children and are applying for approval to expand to having a capacity for 180 children. One fact Christy shared with us is that basic nutritional and medical care before the age of five can be the difference between life and death for these children, so there is a dramatic emphasis put on both of these aspects when children and mothers are admitted to the program. The program also requires the mothers to comply with two very basic rules - no prostitution and no begging. The program has grown dramatically since we were here in 2011. Today, we were able to observe the school classes and then participate in their corporate music class where they were singing and dancing and running up to us for hugs and high fives. They were beautiful and uninhibited. It was AMAZING!! Feel free to check out more of what they do at embracinghopeethiopia.com.
After visiting Embracing Hope, the director Alayu (our friend who hosted us last time in November 2011 at his guest house) took us out to lunch to welcome us to Ethiopia. We ate outside at an Italian restaurant, and it was great. The weather was perfect (70 and sunny, I would say), and we caught up over some pretty tasty food.
From there, we traveled to Alayu's home, where we reunited with his wife, Kidist, and their adorable 2 1/2 year old son, Emmanuel, and mother's helper, Alam. They were thrilled to see Doc and I again and excited to meet Brieanna and Brittany. Kidist had an entire coffee ceremony set up for us in their living room, and she honored our visit with a traditional coffee (buna) ceremony. She roasted the coffee beans, boiled milk, made popcorn, and served us coffee in beautiful tiny china cups and saucers. The coffee was fantastic! While we watched her make the coffee, Emmanuel warmed up to us and entertained us by rattling off in Amharic at his father and mother, dancing, and tossing a ball we had brought to him. When they mentioned that we would have to leave at some point to him in Amharic, he immediately stood up and went to his father and started crying. It was touching. Another touching moment was when both Kidist and Alam came out from the bedroom wearing the shoes we had brought to them from the States - they were thrilled with our gift, despite the shoes being quite simple. Kidist put on a pair of sneakers we also brought to her and repeated "so pretty so pretty" and she was so happy she hugged me and said "God bless you all. Thank you so much." It was a special afternoon, and we felt like honored guests in their home.
Today was generally interesting because we were able to see much of the city, as our guest house this time is across town from Embracing Hope and where we stayed before. We recognized the contrast between the more wealthy areas and as we got closer to Embracing Hope, which borders Korah (the slums next to the dump), we could notice the deterioration and poverty. The homes were more crude, the people more simply dressed, and the roads more bumpy. Despite this, the people we met were gracious and seemed happy. We encountered school children leaving school in their uniforms, and they sheepishly giggled at our "hellos." We also experienced our first traffic jam in rush hour in what we thought was Central Addis (we don't really know :) - we saw more people in half an hour than we've seen the whole time we've been here. Very interesting simply to observe the happenings around us.
So long for now, as we head south tomorrow to visit our completed water project in Arsi Negelle. It will be an overnight trip until Wednesday, when we will visit villages for potential future water projects. We'll try to be in touch upon our return. Keep the prayers coming for continued safety, health and adventure! Amusah genalo! (Thank you :)
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