Ethiopia Day 1

The day before I left for Ethiopia, the message at church was about how God had told someone (sorry, I can't remember who) to go somewhere and how it felt like God had abandoned him just as he was preparing to go. Well, I could relate to this message. I had surrendered to go and had spent the last six weeks fundraising and working out the details so that I could go and safely leave my family behind. But with one day to go, I was still NZ$1000 short and I hadn't even packed. I started to doubt whether or not I was meant to be going or whether, once again, I had made this thing happen for my own selfish reasons and that God was not even going to be with me on my way or worse still - when I got there!

I prepared to go the day I was set to leave. My nerves were debilitating, I could hardly pack my bags. So when my husband got home, he packed them for me, we picked up the kids from school and set off for the airport. After a long check in, I only had a few moments to say goodbye to my family. My aunty was there and slipped me some money, as well as my sister, who said that God had told her to give me all her savings. Kathy has come such a long way in her Christian maturity and I was so proud that she would do that. So after kissing my babies as many times as I could and crying at the thought of leaving them for 13 days, I walked through the gate and onto the plane - not believing that the day had finally arrived where I would see my dream come true. The day where Ethiopia would no longer be pictures on a screen, but where it would become my reality. Only God could have made this dream come true for me.

After two long plane rides, I arrived at Dubai airport at 5am. I had two hours wait before the rest of my team from America and Canada would arrive. Dubai was unbelievably beautiful. It was there that I saw names of places I had only read about in the Bible. I could see images of the Middle East that were a world away from where I lived. It was evident that I was on the other side of the World. So I sat, had a nice cold frappacino to cool me down from the heat and keep me awake for the next three hours till our plane left.

After circling the airport many times, with my heavy bag on my shoulder that carried a tin of formula I was to take to the orphanage, I finally saw this pretty American girl waving at me as I approached the departure gate. I was impressed by my team. They all looked so fresh and good. I was most impressed by 16 year old Julia who was on her second trip to Ethiopia and just had a countenance of maturity that over-rided her age.

This was it! We were finally going to Ethiopia! We arrived and I still COULD NOT believe it! We got our $20 visas and proceeded through the security conveyabelt where we had our first "T.I.A" experience - which our translator Surafel would explain to me - This is Africa! We were subjected to a lot of unnecessary questioning about our gear and asked for tips for putting bags on the conveyabelt. I don't know, being a kiwi, how or when tipping is appropriate, but for me, this just seemed a bit too much. Anyway, unfortunately, our photographer Canadian member was forced to leave his camera at the airport and had to spend the next two days and $150 to retrieve it.

We were disappointed when we went through the gates and our team leader was not there waiting for us. Little did we know that someone was there however. While waiting around for Geoffrey, an Ethiopian man approached me about whether or not we were waiting for a man called Surafel. I had no idea who this was at this stage so I quickly brushed him off as another person trying to get our money! A few minutes later however, he would ask again more specifically for Julia. Julia knew Surafel and was happy to hear his name. Samson explained that he had asked me and I said no. Samson was our translator for the next two weeks, asked to assist by Surafel who had translated for Julia and her group the year before.

So we boarded our Ethiopian decorated bus that had tassles inside on the ceiling- our chauffered limosine for the next two weeks - and headed through the town of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. I sat next to Jen and as we were hit with the sights of an undeveloped nation, tears starting flowing. To say that it was a culture shock would be to say the least. My heart broke to know that people lived like this. The buildings that were being built had scaffolding around them made out of Eucalyptus branches. The pavements were half clad with cement blocks but mostly consisted of the mud that lay beneath the rocks. And there were people EVERYWHERE! So many many people, just walking all over the streets - literally, on the streets, in the middle of the road. The traffic system did not exist. There were lanky horses driving carts, 12 seater taxi vans that were more like buses, full to the brim with people. Tall buildings next to tin sheds that acted as the local store. People living on the street with not much more than a blanket. Just sitting on the side of the street while people walked passed unaware. Children lined the streets, ready for the next person to go past to ask for money. Children carrying children on their backs, trained to ask for money and knowing that the "ferenji's" - us, would most likely, have more money for them than the local Ethiopian. Stalls lined the sidewalks of mud with freshly cooked corn or coffee for sale. There were obviously no hygiene or food permits required to sell this kind of food. Addis was a busy, crazy city. We pulled up at a Pizza place to have our lunch and I was happy to be away from the craziness for those few moments.

From here, we settled all our things in at the guest house and drove to Big AHOPE. This orphanage was home to around 50 8-14 year old kids living with HIV or AIDS. It was too my amazement that these kids just looked like your ordinary kids. They did not have tubes coming out of their noses and did not mope around like their lives were about to end. They joyfully played together and lovingly approached us. The biggest hurdle here, and we would discover would be so for the next two weeks, was the language barrier. Fortunately some of the children knew a bit of English, and if things ever got too difficult, we could call on Samson.

I was so impressed with these children. They were having afternoon tea while we were there and I grabbed a broom to sweep the floor out of just sheer not knowing how to relate. The children insisted that they clean up and they didn't complain about it. They didn't complain that they got one measly plate of popcorn for afternoon tea and they just got along so well with eachother. The hit with them was our cameras. The cameras were now in the hands of these precious children and they took photos non-stop. They loved to see their images in the camera. The boy who had my camera was Immanuel. He was so cute. he also ended up taking my sunglasses. We only spent two hours with these kids and we had not come prepared to do much more than just hang out as we had expected to be visiting little AHOPE that housed the baby and toddler orphans. It was not quite the experience I had hoped for and felt sad that I was too tired to give more than we had. One of the little girls names was Mareta. She held my hand quite a bit and had the cutest dimples. She asked me if I was coming back and I could only tell her- not today. I pray that I will be able to go back and spend a bit more time with her.

That night, Geoffrey, our team leader and employee of 963 missions who organise these trips, wanted to take us to a traditional Ethiopian Restaurant. Apparently, it was going to be a mind blowing experience. I just wanted to put my mind at rest on a bed and pillow. Nevertheless, we went and were introduced to food, Ethiopia style. Injera spread wide with various toppings was on the menu. Injera is the Ethiopian staple that is made out of a grain related to millet. It in only heated on one side and steamed on the other. It looks like a sponge and tastes bitter. I assume that it is an acquired taste, but after not feeling too well, I wasn't about to acquire that taste any time soon. The mind-blowing part of this experience was seeing the live entertainment. One of the ladies that were dancing swung her head around extremely fast so that it almost looked like she lost half her head in the process. Amazing!

We walked out of the restaurant and headed back to our home for the night. Here we saw a calendar reading 2001. Now eight years is a long time to have a calendar on the wall! Later we were to discover that Ethiopia is 8 years behind on the calendar. They are also eight days behing, their clocks are set six hours behind so that the day starts at 6 in the morning but it reads 12am. They also have 13 months in the year- 12 that have 30 days and 1 that has 5. There are some random fun facts about Ethiopia for you. Sleep time!