View of Kampala

The kids who stared at me when I came to their neighborhood

A Girls Home

Another Boys Home

Another Girls Home--they danced for us!

Our friends' backyard

Lake Victoria!

The sweet girl who requested to escort me to the airport entrance

For over 20 years, I have been hearing about this family who live in Uganda as missionaries and the ministry that they do there.  My parents were friends with them in college.  I’ve always read their newsletters and have been inspired by the wonderful Jesus-inspired work that they do.  So, since Uganda isn’t that far away from Ethiopia and God was leading me to do so,  I decided to come and visit.

It proved to be very timely for me, because the kind of leadership training that they do is similar to what I believe in about minsitry.  They have leadership academies for older high school students.  They take regular high school classes but also learn about the precepts of Jesus and his servant leadership skills.  From those students they get mentors to mentor teenagers in group homes who have been abandoned by their families and or caught up in dangerous behaviors.  They also sponsor part of the students’ university fees with scholarships.  They are expanding into more countries and have been very successful.  I was very inspired by this ministry and was reminded once again that Jesus is beautiful and when we really come to know Him, we can’t help but serve Him like He serves us!

The first year I was here, I worked at a school.  There were two other farenjis (the word for foreigners here) who also worked there that year.  One was my roommate and still really good friend named Cindy.  The other was Matt, who came from America.  Even though he left after one year of living here, I don’t think his heart ever completely left Ethiopia.  He has continued to stay connected with local NGOs and volunteer work, fundraising for them from the U.S.  He’s doing research for his masters’ thesis in Ethiopia and now has an Ethiopian girlfriend.  It was fun to see them both when he came to visit in January and catch up.  Ethiopia has this way of getting into your soul.  It never quite leaves you, it seems and Matt definitely represents that phenomenon.

After I came back from South Africa, it was still Christmastime!  Yes, since Ethiopian Christmas isn’t until January 7th it kind of made me feel like I went back in time : )  At Women At Risk, my co-worker Seble and I organized a Christmas Celebration just the day before on January 6th.  My parents and I sponsored it, but Seble and kids lead it.  Seble gave a mini-sermon on the meaning of Christmas, the kids did a drama of the Christmas story and a song, we gave them difo dabo (really good traditional, spongey Ethiopian bread–Love It!) with tea, and then we gave each of them a gift.  The gifts were meaningful because WAR had not been able to afford to buy backpacks and school clothes for all of the kids, to my parents and I were happy to do it.  So now, every child has a backpack and a school uniform.  Yay!  It’s such a privilege to give!  Oh and Abi was able to come.  He sat on my lap most of the time : )  Fortuna did not come.  But Tariku came with his mom.  He’s a very disabled kid who always has a smile on his face and lights up his mom’s life!

Sleeping Baby

Christmas Cuteness!

Awesome Hair!

In Fall 2010 when I was really sick, I went to a prayer meeting.  There at the prayer meeting, God gave me the desire to go back to South Africa, where I had been four years ago, and hold abandoned babies.  This is the place where God first started calling me into ministry with prostituted women through a testimony that I heard from a friend.  At the time I was so sick that I thought it would be impossible for me to go, so I asked God to confirm it.  He did in some pretty amazing ways.  The next day I got two emails from the organization that I had worked for before and I hadn’t heard from them in over a year.  One of them was about a baby I had taken care of who I was afraid wouldn’t get adopted because of brain damage.  The email had said that he had been adopted and was now living in Europe.  What an answer to prayer for him and for me.  So, I knew that if I ended up in Ethiopia again, at some point I would go back to South Africa.

After I finished teaching my percussion class in December, I had three weeks off.  The organization that I worked for, HotelHope, was going to need volunteers around Christmastime so I had decided to go then.  HotelHope is an organization for abandoned children.  It was started just a few years ago.  They have one baby house where children ages 0 months to 3 years old are taken care of.

I was only there for two weeks, but during those two weeks, a lot happened.  I got to be a mom!  So fun!  I felt like I was a mother of 10 little children, along with other volunteers, of course!  I taught a toddler who had been left in a hospital bed for several months how to crawl.  I went with the older kids to the zoo.  I changed lots of nappies (diapers).  I celebrated Christmas with the kids.  I got to stay in a nice home with a pool, make new friends and visit with old ones.  I got to eat gluten free pasta and rice crackers since South Africa has more in the way of gluten free food available.  I also got horribly sick and read a really good book called Lead Like Jesus.  And I got lots of practical ideas on how to run the day care that I’m helping to start in Ethiopia.

So, even though I was bummed about getting sick, I had a wondeful time being with the kids.  I still miss some of them and wish that I could see them again.  It was a orientation for me to be more prepared for the work I will be doing in Ethiopia!

***P.S.  I can’t post pictures of the kids’ faces for legal/confidentiality reasons.

I spent Christmas Day in South Africa.  I volunteered at the Baby House with HotelHope.  We took all of the kids to church for a very nice kid-oriented Christmas service.  It seemed fitting to be holding babies on the day we celebrate that Jesus came to earth as a baby!  After volunteering all day, I had a lovely South Africa Christmas dinner with my new friends from Malawi.  South African Christmas dinner consisted of chakalaka with pap and brats.  It was delicious.  My friends from Malawi, Isabel, James, Moses, and Gracie lived in the house behind the one where I was staying and looked out for me the whole time I was there.  They are lovely, caring people and I’m so glad that I got to meet them!  In spite of being so far away from home, it really was a lovely Christmas Day!

I had never been to a traditonal restaurant before.  It’s considered traditional when there is Ethiopian music and dancing involved.  It was my roommate’s fiance’s birthday, and we decided to go somewhere special and take in a real Ethiopian experience.  Here are some pictures of the music and dance.  Ethiopia has several different tribes which were represented in the performances that we saw.  You can usually tell which tribe the music is from by the beat.  For example, the music from the Tigray tribe has a beat that sounds just like a heart beat.  Traditional dance is not considered acceptable for Protestant Christians or Muslims, but it is okay for Orthodox Christians.  We were a group of Protestant Christians, so we had a good time and tried not to be too rowdy : )

I randomly got invited to a wedding.  It was the wedding of a woman who I met briefly at a Bible Study.  She’s Canadian Ethiopian and her husband’s Ethiopian.  It was nice to go and hang out with friends.

And my roommate recently got engaged to an Ethiopian guy who is perfect for her.  They are a really good match.  And I’m excited that I get to be in the wedding!  I haven’t been in a wedding since I was a flower girl at my aunt’s wedding in 1986!

Catherine and I

Farenj means “foreigner” in Amharic and Shimagilay is a term of respect for those who are older than you.  Here in Ethiopia, Shimagilay vouch for your reputation, are considered your superiors, and people you might go to for advice or help.  I have two women in my life who I am getting to know who I sometimes go to for advice, prayer, and just to talk generally about life.  One is Marsha, who leads the BSF group I go to and the other is Catherine, a new friend from San Diego (so nice to have a friend who knows San Diego!) that I just met.  I’ve known Marsha ever since I first moved here.  I sometimes refer to her as my Addis Phone Book because I often call her for information and phone numbers for things that I need here in Addis.  So, here they are!

I’m really behind on my blogging, but I thought I would post something about Christmastime here, nonetheless.  The Christmas Season in Ethiopia lasts a bit longer than it does in the states.  Ethiopian Christmas is January 7th so we are in Christmas mode from about the beginning of December to the middle of January.  I like how Christmas is less materialistic and more focused on Jesus here.  People can’t afford tons of gifts for each other here, so Christmas gets boiled down to celebrating Jesus, eating a meal together, and enjoying one another’s company.  The other thing I love about Christmastime in Ethiopia is that it’s sunny and you can wear your flip flops and even go swimming!!!  It’s lovely!!!

I decorated our apartment for Christmas with my Ethiopian nativity set (except I’m missing the third wise man), my fake tree and tinsle.  My other roomies added some lights.  It made it feel more homey and Christmasy which is good, because it always feels a little weird to celebrate Christmas in another country without your family.

Other Christmasy (is that a word : ) things I did was play the piano for a Ladies’ Christmas Tea at church and accompany the high school choir at the local diplomat school on the piano.  The Christmas Tea included Christmas songs in different languages (English, Amharic, and French) with dancing.  It was great and so moving to watch people celebrate Jesus’ birth in the heart languages and styles.  Hope you enjoyed the pics!

This is my Bible Study Fellowship Small Group.  They’re a lovely group of women from Ethiopia, other African countries, and America.  We meet every Saturday and currently we’re studying the Book of Acts and cooresponding Epistles.  It’s been nice to be in the Word with a group of women from all around the world.  BSF is an international organization which just recently started meeting in Ethiopia.  We follow the same study as all of the other BSFs that meet all around the world, so even when I visit the U.S., I’ll be able to keep up with it which is really fun!

Our study is very heady, and we don’t have much time to share details about our lives which is frustrating at times.  Ethiopians tend to not open up about their lives very much, which is sometimes difficult and lonely for me.  On the other hand, we are really digging into the Word which I really appreciate.  It’s good to study the Word in a way that is theologically correct, since sometimes that is missing from the churches here.

So, that’s BSF!