Another Day in ET

Our original plans for this day fell through, so we spent the morning at the market. Then the decision was made to divide the group and go to 3 different places. One group went to an orphanage with a bunch of newly adoptable kids in need of families, one group went back to Korah - the dump I told you about, and one group went to a transition orphanage. My group went to the transition orphanage, which is basically an orphanage that takes the kids that have been matched with families and are waiting for court dates or visa's and other necessary paperwork so they can go to their new home and families. I was happy to go, but felt like it was kind of a waste, since these kids were getting out. They had food and water and families in other countries paying for their medical care and sending them clothing and such. I didn't feel like they really needed our help, but they wanted us to come, so we went. I was so glad we did, because it was SO fun, and such a nice surprise to see the flip side of things in Ethiopia. These kids were not like the other kids we had met, and this orphanage was not like the others we had seen. The kids were clean, pretty healthy looking, smelled good even! The house was in the best shape we had seen, with a real toilet! The nursery actually smelled like a real nursery, and the nannies were so loving to all the children. The kids that were old enough to understand that they were being adopted were so sweet to talk to. They would tell us (in their little English) about their families waiting for them. They knew what state they were going to, what their siblings names were and things like that. It was sweet. I kept thinking while I held and snuggled and played with these kids "this is someone's daughter. Some family has worked hard and probably prayed even harder for this child. I wonder how they would feel if they knew we were here, loving them and giving them one on one attention?" I thought this all day. Any adoptive parent would understand that this would mean the world to them. It made me happy. It was also a good thing that these kids were definitely "taken" because I fell in love more than once that day.
Here are some memories from this day.

So when the group spilt up, it was a little chaotic. We obviously had to take 3 different vehicles as we were all going to 3 different parts of the city. The five of us going to the transition home were ordered into what we thought was some random taxi with an Ethiopian who did NOT speak english and we did not recognize (we had regular drivers and escorts from the Guest Home, so this was weird). We got in, waited to see if someone else from our team who knew wtf was going on was getting in with us... but noooo, this guy just took off and we all looked at each other like we seriously just got kidnapped in Addis. We took this picture after we stopped being scared and started thinking it was actually pretty funny. Of course this guy knew where we were going (and it turned out he IS a regular driver for the orphanage, not just a random taxi driver). But man, that sure felt like an adventure there for a minute, right?

We took our arts and crafts with us to play with the kids. Stacy and I face painted (like the professionals we came to be!) while others made bead necklaces and colored. These kids all had stories too of course, of how they came to be there. The best part about hearing their stories though was that we knew they got a happy ending. This little girl I'm holding below, she was part of a sibling set of 3. They came from a village on the Sudan border where they have suffered from a long famine. These kids (and apparently most kids that come from this area) were severely malnourished. They had super swollen bellies, this little girl was probably bigger around her abdomen than I am, and she is 2.5 years old. I felt connected to her because she was Boston's age. She was silent, never made a peep or cracked a smile. She also can't walk without the help of holding your hands. Heartbreaking, right? Luckily they get decent medical attention here and her and her siblings were being treated for the malnourishment. The transition home has a full time nurse on staff. I could just imagine the family taking these 3 kids into their home, giving them all the food, water, and medicine they need - and on top of that, bonding and attaching to them - and I could see this little girl thriving. I know she will. All these kids could.

This little girl was hilarious and SMART! She was Naomi's age and was developmentally right on track, which is pretty amazing for a kid in institutionalized care. She was cracking us all up. When she would string a bead on her necklace she would say "TA DA!" Every few minutes we would also notice she would repeat some of the english words we were using. I can't remember where exactly she was from, but supposedly a lot of the kids from her tribe are really smart. I believe she was being adopted by a single woman. She is going to make her so happy. I could have taken her home with me.

This little boy was a crack up. He looks about 3, maybe 4, and acts like a 9 or 10 year old. NO joke. They have no idea how old he really is, for sure he is not 3 or 4 though. He is smart and funny and super mischievous. He also head butted me really, really hard, but I forgave him. Look at that face!

This baby was precious. I called John that night and told him he should be thankful this little girl had a family already. (But honestly, I felt that way about ALL these kids.) I was obsessed with her. She was so sweet and so gorgeous. Look at those lips!

This day was fun and happy which was also a relief. Like a breath of fresh air. I could go home that night and think about how lucky those kids were that they had families waiting for them. They were living in decent circumstances. They were fed. They were warm. Their lives had hope not just because someone taught them to, but because they had real reason to! At the same time though, it was sad. Adoption is a beautiful thing, but it's always born in tragedy. These kids had come into the world in the worst circumstances. They had been hungry. Some had been abandoned. Some had seen their mothers murdered. A happy ending doesn't negate their sad beginning. A new family doesn't replace the family they had to lose. In the end they not only lose their original family, but their native country, language, culture, and sometimes siblings. This is a sad reality, but a true one, and one I think is important to point out. So often I read stories (particularly adoption blogs) that are just full of smiley faces and exclamation points, painting the picture that adoption is always happy and easy and positive for everyone. It's just not very often that you get the details of the tragic events that led up to that placement. I'm definitely not trying to be negative, or say in any way that a family should share details of what led to their childs placement (in fact I believe the CONTRARY!) but I just think that people should recognize more often this side of the story, respect it.

A day or 2 later, I got to see with my own eyes, the reality behind a mothers choice to place her son for adoption.

You won't believe this story.

Day 3 - A learning experience

The way this day started off ended up being sort of an omen for how the whole day would be. We got lost on the way there, and had to practically drown in mud to get to the exact location we were trying to reach when the bus could go no further down the really treacherous roads... It was going to be an interesting (and dirty) day.

So it's a little redundant to call this day a learning experience, when every single minute of every day really was - but this day and this specific situation we were in was eye opening, in not the best way. We were going to a place north of the city. I was really excited to see some of the Ethiopian countryside. I had heard over and over that if you go to Ethiopia and never leave the city, that you never saw Ethiopia at all, so I thought it would be a great day. It happened to be sunday, and the place we were going was a ministry, a Pastor who had supposedly formed a ministry in his small community in the countryside, where he led them in Christian worship and helped them in their dire circumstances. I don't really see the point in sharing every detail about this day, but basically we went, and right off the bat got a weird feeling there. The Pastor kind of rubbed me the wrong way, and said strange things in his sermon, and treated the kids oddly. I was keeping all my observations to myself until after 3 or 4 hours went by and I could tell by the look on others faces they had the same strange feelings. Unlike the orphanage on day one, and the trash dump on day two, where we felt overwhelmed with love and hope for the people we were serving, I felt depressed here. It felt like a total lack of the spirit, almost evil. I don't know what other way to describe it. The kids were acting like animals, probably because they were treated like animals, and many of them were afraid of us instead of dying for our affection like the kids at other places. The parents of the children were wary of us and didn't want to look us in the eye. We kept asking the pastor how we could specifically help them, buying them seeds or goats or even a cow to feed themselves and bring in some more money, but all he wanted was money. It was strange.... I did learn a lot that day though. I saw the contrast of giving service to those who welcome it with open arms and show their appreciation for your efforts, a lot like the last 2 days, verses serving the needy like Christ would even when they don't thank you or show you any respect or appreciation. I was happy to be there serving them after I realized that it doesn't matter if they love us for what we are doing here to help them, we are just trying to do the right thing, the Christlike thing, no matter how they respond. In the end, I know they got a great meal that day, lots of new clothes and toys and a little more love and affection that probably most days. Needless to say I didn't take a lot of pictures this day at all. I don't mean to make it sound like a miserable day, it definitely wasn't. There were some sweet kids, and it was great to see the ones that were really excited about their food/clothing/shoes and toys.

Stace and I, starting the Sabbath off on the right foot, looking like Sister Missionaries. But then we lost some shoes in the mud, it was downhill from there...

The Pastors sweet wife insisted on cleaning our feet.

The team in front of the banner we made with the kids.

waiting to serve a meal to the kids

cute kids waiting in line (this was one of the chaotic places where if there wasn't TONS of structure in how we passed out donations, we would have been ambushed.

fitting this girl with some new clothes.

So, all in all, I learned a lot about truly selfless service that day. I still think about these people a lot. We left there that day with heavy hearts and really, really muddy feet.

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.

One day at a time...

I'm going to go ahead and force myself to write about this trip. It is difficult to explain, but for some reason, my head has not really allowed me to process all that I saw while in Ethiopia. The realities are hard to face, and I thought I was prepared for them! It was all heartbreaking, but the sliver lining is that there was hope everywhere in Africa. These people have far less than you can imagine. It's hard for me to face, sitting here in my air conditioned house, on a comfy couch, healthy kids, with access to clean water and Dr's... etc. I could go on and on. So now you know why I have been home a week and haven't even looked through all my photos yet. I have been in denial of the cruel reality that so many are living with.

But, that wasn't the purpose of this trip. I wasn't supposed to go, see poverty in the most extreme cases just to come home and convince myself it wasn't real. I went to experience it with my own eyes, use my own to hands to make a difference for someone, no matter how small, and I went to tell people about it. Not everyone goes to Africa, and I did, so I feel some responsibility to share what it was like. I'll start at the beginning - feel free to skip my poor story telling skills and look at the pictures.

I had never traveled around the world before, and I severely underestimated how miserable it would be. We flew from SLC to DC where Stacy and I met our team for the first time. Everyone thought we were sisters (some for almost the whole trip, and it didn't help that we packed a lot of the same clothes accidentally) and we became known as the girls from Salt Lake City. Almost the entire team was from Nashville, with 2 from Arizona and one from Chicago. We got to know each other for a few hours and then flew direct from DC to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital city. We stopped for fuel in Rome, but didn't get off the plane. This was certainly not the highlight of the trip, so I won't elaborate, but Stacy said it best when she said "seriously, this flight is one of the worst things that have ever happened to me." Dramatic, yes, but I fought off a few serious panic attacks, so it was no joke. We we so happy to get there, and have ALL our luggage make it as well.

A lot of you know this already, but we were all encouraged to bring as many donations as possible. My brother Landon made it his eagle project to collect over 2900 toys for Stacy and I to take. It was so wonderful and we packed over 200 lbs to give away. 3 days before we left, my mom came out with the toys and Stacy and I packed our suitcases full to the very last ounce, weighing and re-weighing our bags. Thank you so much to anyone who donated to Landon's project, I wish I could adequately describe how special it was to hand these toys out personally to kids who have nothing else to call their own.

So, after our 30+ hours of travel, we arrive in Addis and load up on a bus in true Ethiopian style. They threw our team of 22 people and probably around 88 pieces of luggage into and onto a bus and drove us to the Ethiopian Guest House where we stayed. "Took over" might be a better way of putting it though. The entire first floor reception area was full of our 50+ bags of donations that we pulled from every morning - for the entire 10 days. That poor staff just cleaned around our stuff everyday. Surprisingly, the jet lag wasn't bad at all, and we got in bed for our first night knowing we had an exciting first day in an orphanage in the city in the morning.

Coming soon, day one in Addis Ababa and a slap in the face with reality.