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
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
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