Saturday, January 29, 2011



So I was at the orphanage last week and I started talking to a girl hadn't seen there before. She was older--about 17--and obviously not one of the orphans at AHOPE. Her English was hard to understand but we had a fairly long conversation during which she apparently invited me to visit her English class the next Friday. I didn't really make any commitment but yesterday at around 6:30 I was getting ready to leave Big AHOPE and go make dinner at the guest house when she suddenly showed up claiming that we had an "appointment" together and I had to come with her.

I was confused and hungry, but I had apparently agreed to this, so I followed her, not really sure where exactly we were going. We walked a few blocks and then entered a building and climbed to the third floor, where we stood around in an empty hallway, obviously waiting for something. People started showing up and waiting with us, and I got a lot of weird looks and a few scattered questions about who I was. Then at around 7:00 people started filing out of a door next to us, and the people in the hallway started filing in, my new friend and I included.

It was apparently an evening English class for adults. We sat in the very front row and I studied the notes on the board; apparently the previous class had had a "Free Speaking" session, and there was a list of assorted topics of conversation. I kept looking at my watch, not wanting to be rude but feeling guilty because I had been expected for dinner at around 7 by the other volunteers. I tried asking my friend if it would be rude to leave halfway through, but my question fell on deaf ears.

The teacher walked in at about 7:15 and announced that instead of the planned "Free Speaking" class, they had a special guest who was there to answer questions in English for an hour. He motioned me to the front of the classroom. I was totally unprepared and had not expected this at all, but I ended up standing in front of about 40 English students from the ages of around 15 to 45, and they asked me an assortment of questions for literally a whole hour.

Their questions were very interesting; they asked me everything from what I'm studying in school to what I'd look for in a future husband. They asked me about my family, about my religion and "life philosophies," my opinions on gays, how I find Ethiopia, and they asked me to sing an "American song" for them. They asked me if I'd had any "Hard or wonderful" times in my life, and what they had been like. They asked me "If God were to show up tonight and tell you that you're not going to be alive tomorrow, what question would you ask him and what would you do with your remaining time?"

I was exhausted by the end of it, but I ended up talking with a bunch of them afterwards and was amazed by their open, honest curiosity and their lack of expectations. Ethiopians in general are a very open, friendly group of people, and I felt if I am being welcomed into their culture with open arms.



Our daily schedule is so far pretty repetitive. We usually get up between 7:30 and 9, and go to Little AHOPE in the mornings. We two or three hours just playing and goofing off with the childre, before they have class from 11-12. At 12 the children have lunch and we usually stand around outside or play with the infants, before eating with the staff around 1. Lunch at Little AHOPE is always a traditional Ethiopian meal of njera, which is a flatbread rather like a thick crepe, except not at all sweet, together with some kind of meat or vegetable sauce. You're supposed to use the njera as a 'scooper' and you eat with your hands. There is always coffee served after. Ethiopian coffee rocks.

After lunch we usually go back to the Guest house for a few hours to rest. We stay there until about 4:30 before walking up to Big AHOPE, where we stay until it starts to get dark. After that we walk back to the guest house, cook some sort of dinner and watch a movie or two.

Tuesdays and Thursdays we go from Little AHOPE to the CDC, which is daycare center about a half-hour drive from the orphanage. There are lots and lots of children there, and they are always extremely full of energy and ecstatic to see us. Those days are usually the days when we actually take naps after lunch.

Again, sorry about the infrequent updates! Hope you find this interesting!

All my love!


Saturday, January 22, 2011

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update, but unfortunately you guys are just gonna have to get used to these rather infrequent updates. The internet here is irregular and difficult to find, and also costs me 25 cents a minute.

I got in on Monday, three hours later than I was supposed to arrive, after two consecutive overnight flights. Thankfully the driver had waited patiently and delivered me straight to the guest house, where I slept for two hours before going to the orphanage that afternoon.

The guest house is like a 5-star hotel compared to what I was expecting: It is surrounded by a tall wall with a large gate which you must knock on and be let through by a guard, all of whom are extremely friendly. The house is three stories tall and looks like it is straight out of Europe. There is running water--we even get hot showers, as long as they are short and are taken about an hour apart!!!! There is a woman who comes in every day to make us breakfast and do our laundry and is like our angelic mother away from home. For the first few days, it was just me and one other volunteer from Israel living in the guest house, but on Thursday another girl arrived from Colorado,who will also be staying until April. We eat lunch with the staff at the orphanage every day and at night we usually cook our own meals, the supplies for which usually come from the small market/grocery stores around the corner.



AHOPE Ethiopia is comprised of two children's homes, as well as a Child Development Center, or CDC. Little AHOPE is home to the children ages 0-7, and is also where the office is. Big AHOPE is about a ten-minute block from Little, and houses the children ages 8-15. Both are within walking distance from the guest house. The CDC is like a daycare center where children receive tutoring and medical care, and I have yet to be there.

They have put together a makeshift schedule for the volunteers, which is followed fairly loosely. Three days a week we will be teaching grades 1-4 spoken English for an hour in the afternoons, and two days a week we will be at the CDC in the mornings. Most of the rest of our time will be spent at Little AHOPE. I will, of course, carry my camera with me at all times!



Addis Ababa is a large, very hectic city. The streets are lined with mud or metal houses and shacks which are mostly small shops or marketplaces. One of the first things that struck me was when I noticed a building obviously under construction: the scaffolding was literally made of wood--literally narrow tree trunks without branches. It's pretty hot here--usually getting to 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit every day, and the sun is extremely strong. The streets have few traffic lines marked, which are rarely followed anyway. Apparently only about 50-60 percent of the drivers here actually hold a legitimate drivers license. The taxis are large blue vans from the 70s which hold about 10 to 15 people at a time. My first ride in a taxi ended after about 2 minutes at the top of a steep hill when the van stumbled to a stop because of a flat tire. It is not unusual to see a scene like designer bag, a begging cripple, a lonely, small child and a brand new Isuzu Trooper equipped with a GPS system all within about 50 feet of one another. The sidewalks are crowded and Westerners are quite a phenomenon, and we frequently receive catcalls and whistles and are called "Foreigner," in Amharic, but it is rarely meant negatively; on the contrary, most of the time they only want to say Hello and ask us how we are doing.



The children are absolutely adorable and amazing. At Little AHOPE they are full of energy and games and will literally fight each other for our attention. They love to play soccer and climb all over each other and the volunteers. In school they are learning how to say various parts of the body in English, and how to multiply numbers by 2. They are cheerful and full of laughter, and a delight to play with. At Big AHOPE, the children are obviously more mature and eager to make more of an emotional connection, and they have just as much, if not more energy to throw around. I brought embroidery thread and showed them how to make friendship bracelets, which was a huge hit; I already wish I had brought more. These are the children I will be teaching English, but they reciprocate by trying to teach me Amharic. So far I have learned how to say "Hello" and "Good bye," "Thank you," "Bread", "Coffee," how to count to ten, and a few other words. I feel like an expert.

I'm sorry if my entries are scattered and not very well written--I will be writing most of them in rather a hurry. I hope, however, that this gives at least a bit of insight into the amazing things I am experiencing over on this side of the world.



In case anyone wants to call me, I did get a cell phone: the number is 0912193761. The code for Ethiopia is +251, and then you must drop the first 0. I'm not sure if I've gotten it to work yet, but the guest house also has a landline, and I'm usually home after around 7 p.m. (11 a.m. in New York). I don't have that number on me at the moment, but I can post it next time, and if anyone wants to call me there before then, you'll have to contact my parents! I'd love to hear from you!

Till next time! All my love!