Day 2 in Ethiopia - Life in a landfill

Our second day in Addis was one I had been kind of dreading to be honest. Kelly told us that we would be visiting this place, and for some reason I just couldn't get excited about it. All we really knew was that there was a village, a community of sorts, that had been built in the dump of Addis. We knew a lady named Sumer had visited it recently on a trip similar to ours, and came home and sold everything she owned, and moved her family there. She started an organization that was helping to get these kids out and sent to school. This was all I knew, but it terrified me, it gave me some anxiety. I think it was because I had an idea in my mind what an orphanage would look like, smell like, what the kids would be like... and I couldn't picture this dump, I could NOT imagine the smell, the thousands of kids, the lepers, the poverty. I couldn't wrap my mind around this place to prepare myself for it... I didn't want to go there. I don't know how else to explain it.

As our gift to this community, we picked up some goats on the way there to bring to them. It was interesting to say the least to pull our van up to the street where goats/sheep are sold. They negotiated the price for 4, tied their legs, and threw them up on top of the van, alive. Weird...

The dump is really kind of in the center of the city, but all the sudden the view out the window was very different. I was anxious to get there and get this day over with. We pulled in and everything changed. Kids everywhere, coming out of the woodwork, literally, running towards us with open arms, cheering clapping and smiling, SO happy to see us there. We walked into the little church they have and listened to the end of a bible story that the kids were being taught. Immediately a little boy named Heynock came up to me and started translating. He was such a little sweetie, and loved practicing his english with me.

When the bible study was over, we split our group into 2. One group was going into the actual landfill area, where these people find food in the trash and find things to sell, and the second group which I was in, went around to do some home visits with families living in the community in extremely dire circumstances. If you want some first had accounts from the team that went into the dump with the other group, click here, here and here. My group visited 4 families and saw what their living conditions were like. They told us their stories of their struggles and at every home my heart broke again for their poverty. I cried a lot this day. We prayed with each family before we left them, and left them with as much clothing, food, and birr (Ethiopian currency) as we could spare. One of the saddest situations was a family of 14 we visited. Their home was built of mud and sticks, and was very muddy and wet, it being the rainy season. It was an elderly woman with her daughters and grandchildren, many of them HIV+, sharing a space about the size of my master bath and closet. They told us how they can't afford to send the children to school, so they send them into the dump to find food. They have to sleep in shifts because there in not enough space on the floor. When it rains hard and floods, no one can sleep on the floor because of the water. They are sick. They are starving. The amazing thing, they had hope. They said we were angels and cried over us for being there to help them. We collected 3 months worth of rent money for them, and they wouldn't accept it until we prayed over it. First they prayed in Amharic, then we prayed in English. It was pretty amazing.

After the group reunited, we took to the small streets of the community. Kelly and Shane had a meeting with Sumer and a few others who are helping her run her program. We literally spent hours hanging out with the kids, doing whatever they wanted. It mostly consisted of us holding, snuggling, kissing, holding hands, with as many kids as could attach themselves to you. It was awesome, but also very very draining. It got a little claustrophobic, but we would take a few breaks and feel ready to go back in for more. It was madness. After the meeting, it was time to slaughter 2 of those goats we brought them for lunch. They made a meal and we helped serve it to the children. After the meal we walked down to these soccer fields (really just a big open space down by a river) so we could have some soccer games. I didn't bring my camera because it was a long walk in the rain, but as soon as we got down there I wished I had. It was a huge open space under a canopy of enormous trees and a little cliff with a huge river flowing on one side. It was awesome. Since I'm not a soccer player, let alone one to play in the rain and mud, I got my hair braided by 100 ethiopian girls and learned more hand clapping games they loved to teach me.

After playing soccer for a few hours, it was time to hike back up to the bus to go home. It had been a very long day. It felt more like 3 days actually. We were really sad to say goodbye to the kids we had grown attached to, and they were so sad to see us go. We knew that it wasn't on our agenda to come back to this community, but I think we all knew when we got on our bus that we would be back. I think every member of the team felt like we had more work to be done there, and no body wanted to say goodbye to those kids for good. Turned out we were right. We ended up going back two more times.

A follow up post will come - how you can help this community build a well and more about Project 61, Sumer's program to get the kids out of the dump and into one of the best schools in the country. Just wait... this is only the beginning of Korah's story.

These pictures are totally backwards of the whole day. But if you ever want me to finish blogging the next 8 days of the trip, then you won't expect me to take 5 hours to fix it. : )

this is where we played soccer (these pictures above are not mine, but a fellow volunteer who happens to be a very talented photographer)

they loved to chase our bus as we left

waving goodbye from our bus windows

two of me and Stacy's favorites, the sweet girl on the right taught me a bunch of Amharic that I forgot immediately.

the killing of the goats, lovely

the madness on the streets while we played with the kids

a typical home in Korah

the streets of Addis, near where we bought the goats

loading the live goats on top of our van

where we picked up the goats to take to Korah

short video clip of my mad clapping skills, this one wasn't that hard, but happens to be the one caught on tape. later I learned a much trickier one and the girls were so impressed!

A video Kelly put together, several minutes long but totally worth your time. I can't watch this video without a huge smile, these kids make me so happy. What I wouldn't give to hear these kids singing in person again...

Ordinary Hero~ A day in the trash dump in Ethiopia from Kelly Putty on Vimeo.

And now I need a nap from this blog post. I'm exhausted.