Day 4 in Ethiopia

Dec. 21, 2011

Hello everyone,

Just waking up: day 4 in Addis Ababa.  We have spent the past two days meeting the beneficiaries of MIC.  It’s been a wonderful past few days, getting to better know the two families we’ve been giving money to, hearing their stories of loss and love, assessing their needs for the future. 

The first woman we met was Alem. She lives in a dark, dank room with crumbling mud walls, one cot (that she sleeps on with her younger daughter), two chairs and a jumble of pots and baskets.  She was lovely, vibrant smile, light eyes, hospitable.  The abridged version: abused by her husband, she eventually left him.  She has grown a painful infection in her kidney, but the state hospital won’t treat her or give her a referral to see a specialist. Now she’s a domestic slave, making 100 birr p/week ($17), which isn’t enough to pay her rent—900 birr p/month, ($50).  This is the lowest rate to pay, which is why many live on the streets. Her monthly expenses (food, rent, school fees) are around $200/mo and she brings in $68/mo.  The fallout in this is going hungry or being kicked out of her shanty by her slumlord, which would land her back on the street, begging. She has three kids—one son (age 19) in Gov’t School, one daughter (age 20) in the army (very dangerous and lowly here—more women opt for prostitution than the army) and one in 4th grade. Her 4th grader makes all A’s in school and all three of her children are her pride and joy.  When we ask her if she has dreams the only thing she says is to have better future for her children.  She needs to get on an antibiotic for her infection, and purchase an injera machine to generate revenue.
 
Beneficiary number two: Adiem.  Her story is heartbreaking.  She was pregnant with her third child and her husband made her get an abortion.  She got HIV from the abortion procedure and her husband, disgusted with her, left.  She went to school to do hair but now with HIV, nobody will hire her.  Her situation seems hopeless: her slumlord won’t let her make injera because of the smoke it produces for the neighbors.  She’s very talented at making baskets but no one will buy them from her because of her HIV status. Basket making involves needles and possibly pricking herself.  She was once a very striking woman and now her face is filled with boils and pocks.  Also, she’s in denial of her HIV status and desperately needs counseling as she is depressed and rarely leaves her home, which is hardly a home!  She is also a very skilled at crochet and the three of us commissioned her to make us 12 dishtowels that we designed, which was fun.  Her face lit up with the possibility of work for fair payment.  Her hope for generating income is to have a small business of selling tomatoes and onions on the street.  We are hoping to help this be a profitable business for her.  Also, we are working with Feven to design pillow covers that the women could make and sell to foreigners.
Relief: rehabilitation: development: this is our three step approach in the aid we’ll be offering our beneficiaries.  We are hopeful that with the help of our community we can help these two families create better futures for their children.  They are incredibly grateful for the prayers and financial support we have offered thus far.  We all shared tears in the gratitude exchange.  As we move into the development stage of our project we’ll continue to add families.

There’s so much more to tell.  Soooo many funny things, tender exchanges and Ethiopian goodness.  I think this quote by Feven sums up the Ethiopian attitude that we’ve all come to love, admire and long to emulate:  “When I loose something I just take a deep breath. If I don’t find it, I just leave it there.” 

Peace and love,
Angela

PS: Sending this from a few days ago.  Getting on the internet has proved to be quite challenging!

Landed In Ethiopia

Dec. 12, 2011

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Ethiopia!  The first day was a good one, landing in sunny and warm Addis Ababa at 8:00 AM with Feven, our Ethiopian friend/business partner, collecting us (and our NINE bags) at the airport, with the trademark Ethiopian good humor that Missy and I have grown to love.  Her parents had a coffee ceremony waiting for us upon our arrival to their family home. This ritual is becoming a favorite of mine: Everyone sits in a semi-circle of chairs. The coffee is roasted over a small collection of burning coals then hand ground with a mortar and pestle and dissolved into a small spouted clay coffee pot with hot water.  It’s very strong and served in miniature saucers with a spoon of sugar and scant cow milk (unpasteurized, boiled and skimmed in prep for the coffee).  Each person’s cup is filled three times.  So naturally, for the sake of propriety, we each drank three saucers full of thick, rich coffee. A pretty sweet deal for three jet-lagged Americans with jacked-up biorhythms in the middle of global time negotiations, no?

We made a “surprise” visit to four orphans Mothers In Crisis is currently sponsoring. With caffeinated enthusiasm we took them to lunch. It’s always refreshing to be around children that are delighted by simple pleasures, like going to a restaurant, or opening a new box of crayons and bright, new construction paper—and watching them color with such deliberation. I’m reminded of Mocha Club’s wonderful slogan: I need Africa more than Africa needs me.  Of course this is relevant on myriad levels but a child’s delight over ordinary things brings it straight home. So simple and spontaneous. (Before I get too sappy and esoteric here I must also say that all the snazzy iPhone apps—Zombify-your-face, for example—were a big hit too!)
All four of these children are without parents, living meagerly with distant and impoverished relatives. Two of the four children we were with today are HIV positive. Feven tells us that if (hope against hope) they get adopted they will have a shot at proper medicine and, in turn, life.  If they don’t it is likely they only have a few years left before their immune system is totally compromised. More starkly: before they die.  Both of the girls are 11 years old and impressive artists. Today it is our intention to buy them some paint and canvases to create art we can bring home and sell for them.

Missy and Kristen are still in bed.  I’m on African rooster time: popped up around 5:30 AM.  I’m enviable of my bed partners as they are still dead to the world right now, 7:36 AM.  And a bed partner is an apt description.  We are staying in a miniature compound with Feven’s parents.  Our room is a cinder block square with two twin size beds.  Missy, by virtue of being sick, is sleeping alone (lucky sap!).  Trent, don’t be jealous that I’ll be spooning with your wife for the next week. 

The bathroom is around the corner of our cinderblock room, an outhouse with a porcelain toilet and no water or toilet paper. The journey is this: grab one-ply of our three-ply tissues (can’t put too much in the toilet), walk around back with proper shoes (sudsy water from the earlier washing is always in the middle of the pathway), grab a pitcher and fill it with water from the nearest bucket, do bathroom business, and pour the pitcher of water into the toilet, sort of like the “flush.”  Think campsite meets homestead.   Campstead.

Today we meet the two families we’ve been sponsoring with MIC thus far.  We will be in business meetings all day with Feven as well, brainstorming and creating a sustainable structure for MIC. The efforts of MIC feel so small at this stage in the game.  I often wonder if I’m biting off a bigger piece of the world than I can handle, with goals as lofty as “keeping families together.” But I do know how encouraged I feel with Feven at the helm.  Her desire and drive to improve the welfare of her country is fierce, even though her financial resources are meager.  She is quickly becoming an inspiration to us all (Missy, Kristen and I) and we are excited to be partnering with such a kind-hearted, strong-minded, business savvy woman.   I’ll keep you posted.

Thank you friends for your emotional, financial and spiritual support in this endeavor!

Peace and love,
Angela

First Phase

In December 2011, we are going to Ethiopia to launch our project.  This includes working with our team on the ground to set up the resources that promote success for each individual family—financially, academically, mentally and spiritually.  Anticipated needs for these families include: basic nourishment, employment training, medical and academic expenses.  With our Ethiopian partners, we will prioritize what a potential MIC sponsored family may need and set up a reasonable monthly support opportunity for Western donors.  This monthly amount will be determined on our trip.  Donor commitment for each Ethiopian family will be two years.

 
To help launch our project we need your money, prayers, endorsement and talents!

If you would like to donate your craft (particularly in the fields of website designing, logo building, accounting, legal fields, artistic endeavors and fundraising) please let us know!

We will be matching donors and families in the near future.  If you’d like to be on the waiting list to sponsor a family, please send an email to micethiopia@gmail.com describing your family, your interests and any particular “heart calling” you may have. We will try and match you up with the perfect family to sponsor.

Contact: micethiopia@gmail.com

Tax exempt donation: Make checks out ot St. Bartholomew's with MIC written in the memo and send to:
Mothers In Crisis 
PO Box 120322, 
Nashville, TN 37212

Or to make a donation online go to http://www.stbs.net/give/ and put MIC in the note section of the form.
  

In December 2011, we are going to Ethiopia to

Our Mission

BRINGING FAMILIES TOGETHER

Mothers In Crisis believes that a strong family can empower and encourage people to endure in crisis and tragedy, while helping to foster strong morale, personal development, and academic success. We want to help families thrive and learn how to think differently about setbacks and obstacles.

Every family in poverty has a different story, characterized by both the individuals in the family, and the specific needs that have affected their journey together. Unemployment, starvation, sickness, and death are among the conditions that many poor families face. One of the worst casualties of poverty is when a family can no longer afford to be together, especially when children have nowhere to go but an orphanage.

Every family not in poverty has a story as well. We believe that bringing families together that would not normally connect, due to global, economic and cultural differences, is important. Being in community with the disenfranchised and helping people in need is a valuable commitment for any Western family. It is our desire to create a forum for families to both give and connect with families in need.

Our vision for MIC is that it will create and enhance global community among families. Our mission is twofold: We want to provide a way for families in poverty to stay together, to have the resources they need to address urgent needs, and to grow spiritually, relationally and psychologically. Secondly, we want to give Western families an opportunity to deepen their understanding of where poverty meets humanity, by connecting them with families in need. We hope to do this through video interviews between donors and recipients. In providing a means to share family stories and traditions we hope to create a way for us all to cross the divide, edify our experience of global community and grow more in compassion and love.

WHERE DO WE START?

Ethiopia. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, we are friends with a small community of locals that have the same goal as ours. They have set up a board of directors and are committed to helping the single parent families in their own country. We will work with our team of Ethiopian friends to understand the needs to which our resources can be best put to use. They are committed to helping facilitate the process, on the ground.

“When all you’ve got is all you’ve got, all that’s left is to be yourself and you can only receive. And that, in a sense, is why the poor are blessed, because they know what really matters.” - Mother Teresa

“We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” -Mother Teresa