Seesai's Wings

I met a new friend today in the poorest part of Addis Ababa.  I don’t

know how you actually spell his name and if I used Amharic I’m not

sure I could even find the right letters in their 200+ symbol

alphabet.  Since we pronounced his name Seesai, that’s how I will

spell it and if he ever reads this I’m sorry for the name butchery.

At any rate, we met Seesai through our friend Yemamu (and yes that one

is right) when they showed us their new center.  Now when I say center

I don’t want you to think in American terms where a center might mean

big parking lots leading into a shopping plaza with a Starbucks on

each end.  Think more along the lines of a metal enclosed patch of

grass which has four small buildings: one will be a library, one will

be a dining hall/activity room, one already is a guard shack (metal

enclosure that a person lives in to guard the center) and the fourth

building already is a shower.

I say the buildings will be these things because as they stand right

now it is just corrugated metal on top of eucalyptus tree logs.  The

library has gone a step further and added a plastic tarp lining to the

walls and ceiling of the 22 by 10 foot building (by the way that’s not

as big as some of your bedrooms).  As of now the books can fit in a

box the size of a microwave oven and consist of a wide variety of

outdated material from Windows 97 to a fifteen year old dictionary.

But this is just what it is.  What it’s going to be is a whole other

story.

Yemamu and Seesai  grew up in a place called Kore (sounds like Koray

or maybe Korah).  If you have seen the movie Slum Dog Millionaire

where the kids are living on a trash dump then you may have gotten a

small taste of how these two and so many others grew up and are still

living.  The noticeable difference here is the addition of fire as the

trash is burned in the exact same place these kids and people are

living.  The smoke was so bad today that we couldn’t actually go into

the dump because our friends said you can’t breathe and couldn’t even

see the person next to you if you were holding their hand.  The kids

from the dump are outcasts, so much so that they aren’t even allowed

to use the public taxi system which is sketchy at best.  They get

their clothing from the trash and eat whatever the dogs and hyenas

don’t get to first.  The idea of three meals a day and medical care

for simple, treatable issues is as much of a joke for these kids as

the thought of being allowed into a school.

One thing they do for fun is to hide in the garbage at night until

the hyenas get very close and then jump up, screaming and yelling and

laughing as they chase one of Africa’s most dangerous animals away to

scavenge elsewhere.  When we tried to explain to our friends that

hyenas were super nasty and dangerous (according to Nat Geo TV of

course, but they don’t exactly show them in a trash dump I guess) they

just looked at each other, then at us like we were the crazy ones and

said, “Noooooo! Not in Ethiopia!”  The saying goes that if a hyena

sees a man, he goes away.  If it sees a woman, he waits.  And if he

sees a child, he laughs.  Sounds to me like the kids in Kore get the

last laugh on this subject.

For the last two years our friends have been working on getting other

activities for these outcast kids to be involved in and finally a week

ago they got permission to have this patch of grass and few metal

buildings to start their center.  Like I said what it is and what it

will be are two separate things.  Later this week we get to see them

open their doors to 150 kids who will get a chance to shower, to eat

three times a day, and whenever volunteers are there or donations are

available they will have the chance to learn and to receive medical

care.  The admission criteria are simple; worst come, worst served.

The kids who are the most needy, alone, sick, and desperate will be

served first and the hope is to quickly raise the total number of kids

from 150 to 300.

According to Yemamu, Kore, the dump, and the attached leprosy village

called Alert were made in the 1940’s when there was a lack of

understanding about leprosy and the king/emperor of the time didn’t

want the disease to spread.  Out of sight out of mind may have been

the idea, but now there needs to be a new light shed on the issue.  In

a country where the unemployment rate is well over 40% and diarrhea is

one of the main killers of children these kids aren’t even being

counted.  There are zero resources being put into this community aside

from city waste and the people like Yemamu, Seesai, and another friend

named Alex are left carrying the weight of their families, friends,

and many others.  What’s strange is that our friends who live at the

dump and in the leprosy village invited us over their houses and to

walk through their part of town and I haven’t felt so safe, loved, and

welcomed anywhere else in Ethiopia.

Seesai has two tattoos on the back of his neck.  When we get back to

the states I will post a picture for sure, but until then I can just

describe them as one wing on each side.  When I first saw them at the

beginning of the day I thought to myself, “probably to fly out of this

place”.  But as the day went on and he was going out of his way to

take Kelly and I to an easy place to catch a taxi home, Seesai was

sitting in front of me.  I kept looking at his wings and re-evaluated

what they were to be used for.  Now I’m sure I have it right.  He’s

going to use those wings to fly every kid in that dump to a better

place where they have an equal shot at life.

Broken

It seems as though if I don’t keep up with my blog day to day, I’m
overwhelmed by the amount I have to update. This weekend we went to
Kechene and Merkato on Saturday and Kebebtsehay Saturday and Sunday.
There have been SO many changes at Kebebtsehay. There is a HUGE new
amazing two story building on the campus that most of the kids have
moved into. The babies and toddlers are on the second floor with some
of the older ones on the first floor. The two old buildings are
currently being remodeled to house the oldest kids at Kebebtsehay. It
was almost eerie going into the old baby house. It was still painted
blue with the old dresser missing a couple of drawers but had dust and
debris everywhere. It was silent. I explained the old set up to Nick;
what everything looked like, where it all was.
This new building feels like a fresh start, in a good way and in a not
my favorite way. All the toys we brought before are somewhere unknown,
the dry erase board with the schedule for the babies and toddler is
also gone. I haven’t given up hope yet; since it was the weekend, the
director wasn’t there and neither was Alex, so tomorrow I should have
some more information.

There are a lot of new kiddos with special needs at Kebebtsehay;
seven, actually. I haven’t had a chance to spend much time in their
room yet except to know that a few of them are very sick. Tomorrow
I’ll meet with Alex and the director to see what our objectives are
for the next two weeks. I have some high hopes of getting all the
kiddos who need physical therapy on a set program with Alex with the
ones who are appropriate set up with the stander, donated from the
AMAZING company Kaye Products. Seriously, check them out. What great
people. Because the building is so new, there is some great space in
the first floor and an outdoor patio on the second floor that the
caregivers are open to having us create into a playroom to encourage
some developmental stimulation. The outdoor patio is tricky; it
technically has a cover on it, but the walls are open to the outdoor
elements which is obviously not good for the rainy season. It also has
a metal railing that surrounds it, perfectly inviting little ones to
stick their heads in or try to climb. Also not so great for
encouraging safe development through play and toys. Ideally, we’d love
to set up the first floor because it’s really an amazing space, it’s
not realistic for the caregivers to carry all the babies and toddlers
down there every day, so we can pretty much comfortably say that isn’t
going to happen. We’re brainstorming the patio and will keep you
updated, of course!
I also have been asked to present our caregiver education program
again because so many new caregivers have been hired. We’re looking at
doing some re-working of the information and trying to condense a
little because I just don’t think we have the time to pull it all off
to the same extent this time around. My mind is swirling with some
ideas of creating it as some sort of training program that all new
employees of the orphanage must complete. Perhaps making it into a
manual with great pictures and resources. Of course this also needs to
then be translated into Amharic. Ekk. The babies and toddlers would
really benefit from being back on a schedule again, so we’ll be
revisiting that part of what we had done last time, too.

I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed with all I want to get done in my
short time here, but I’m working as much as I can to get things up and
running.

Today we helped a team of 30 complete another shoe distribution. It
was an amazing experience to have had the opportunity to put tons of
new shoes on kiddos which can prevent diseases and improve overall
hygiene. Today really was one of those breaking point days for me
during this distribution. I prayed a lot before this trip asking God
to sincerely break my heart for what breaks His. I wanted to deeply
feel what he feels for the orphan and the least of these. I desired to
be SO moved during this trip and I KNEW that with how much spiritual
warfare I experienced prior to leaving, something amazing was going to
happen. Don’t get me wrong; I had a wonderful two months in Addis last
time, my life was changed and my heart was changed. Something felt
off, though. I have a hard time describing it, but it was just a
distant feeling for some reason. God has absolutely moved mountains in
my life this trip. I have so many overwhelming emotions and literally
wept today because of it. I just literally felt my heart BREAKING. I
was so broken inside; eyes open, heart in pieces and really felt like
I was seeing things from God’s perspective. How broken we as human
beings are and how profoundly short we fall from His glory, yet He
blesses us anyway. I will never forget today; for the good, the bad,
the amazing and the life-changing. God allowed me to change today. I
prayed for this and prayed to feel what He feels, and although I’m so
grateful for the opportunity, it sure doesn’t make it easy.
I’m taking some deep breaths tonight, trying to calm my mind and
prepare for tomorrow which will be another busy day. Thanks for all
the prayers and support; this journey is seriously unreal and I’m
blessed you would want to share it with us.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Today was the day to head further into Dahley and set up for the

largest distribution of shoes. It took no time to get all the sizes

lined up considering we’ve been doing it all week, so we spent the

rest of the morning playing soccer, hackey sack and sitting around

with the kids. It’s kind of amazing that even after hours of being

around, they still can be mesmerized by staring at us. Dahley is in

the Oromo region of Ethiopia which means a new language apart from

Amharic for us. We learned basic Oromo words from some of the children

and teachers and now Nick is beginning to get the two languages mixed

up when he’s trying to think about them.

Tom drove us outside of Tafo, away from the city to a small line of

pottery stands next to the street. Between the five of us, we bought

something from each family because it was so cheap and we just wanted

to evenly distribute the income if we can. Nick picked up something he

really likes and we also have something we have no idea what we’ll do

with, but it was more of the principle for us. One of you lucky

readers may just be inheriting a lovely piece of clay pottery when we

get back home! :)

Dinner tonight was at the purple restaurant and although we had a hard

time ordering, we got for the most part what we ordered. Nick and I

both had scrambled eggs and mine came with bread while his came with

injera. The eggs seem to have more flavor than ours in the States and

I’m not sure why.

It’s weird to think that tonight is our last night here. Our lives out

here have been completely different than they will be once we’re in

the city. Our guest house is, as I’ve said before, in my old

neighborhood so it shouldn’t take me long to pick things back up of

how to get where we need to. The biggest thing is figuring out how

much it should cost us per taxi ride because I know taxi drivers are

sometimes looking to take advantage of us since we don’t speak Amharic

well, so as long as I get that down, we should be okay. I’ve enjoyed

the quieter side of live in Ethiopia but am looking forward to getting

some of the Kebebtsehay projects going. My first mission is just

really to check out the environments and kids themselves to see where

things are today so I have a good idea of what the needs are. Tomorrow

Tom is taking us into town and we’re heading to Kechene, Kebebtsehay

and the Merkato for a few supplies. It will likely be a pretty busy

day and something I’ve been looking forward to since I left Ethiopia

in 2009. I really don’t know what to expect because from what I’ve

heard, things have significantly changed. There is a new building at

Kebebtsehay, a lot more kids at each orphanage and most of the kids I

knew have gone to different places. I’m not sure how I’ll process it

all once I’m in the environment, but I’m excited either way.

Since we’re checking into the guest house tomorrow, we should

theoretically have internet! Who knows how reliable it will be, but at

least internet will be much more accessible once we’re in the city. If

you are still reading this (by the way, 8 pages later), I commend your

endurance to get all the way through! I realize I haven’t put a lot of

emotion into anything yet but I’ve felt more like this was just to

keep up with what we’ve been doing. Perhaps as I’m able to post more

frequently I’ll be able to better describe what I’m feeling as opposed

to just what we’ve been doing. Time is going quickly but we’re not

close to the end, so it’s not something I’ve thought too much about

yet. Next time you hear from me, I will be set up in the city. Looking

forward to it!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Busy day! We distributed 400 pairs of shoes at a school with a lot of

older children (grades 5-8, which can actually include children into

their 20’s) and then took a tour of their school. They have a library

with no books and a science building with no equipment. We were told

we were the first white people to have ever visited that school.

Although I know we’re in a more rural area it just seems hard to

believe. It’s so hard here because we are able to provide some

assistance in a specific way but because everyone needs so much, they

ask us for books and supplies and computers and desks. Of course we

would love to provide all these things for everyone but it just never

feels like it’s enough to make an impact. We just keep reminding

ourselves that we are giving everything we can while we are here and

that we are doing some good.

During the distribution, an Ethiopian told me I sounded like I have

lived here and have spoken the language for 5 years. Yessss. Too bad I

am now proficient only at Amharic words that involve something

surrounding shoe fittings. Ha.

We are getting pretty efficient between the five of us during the

distributions so we finished pretty early. Hallelujah, one of Sally

and Tom’s Ethiopian friends, took us into the city on public minibus,

our first of the trip. We almost drove over a cliff and it broke down

with smoke streaming from an outside vent. I suppose we were broken

into Ethiopian public minibuses quickly! We walked to the next stop

and made into town to lunch. We were near my old neighborhood/stomping

grounds again, although everything still looks so different. Yemamu

met us at lunch and it was so good to finally see him again! It was

like he and Nick had already known each other because I’ve talked

about them so much. He looks the same but it sounds like a lot has

changed in his world.

We were close to Gladney’s office so we stopped into the Kechene girls

shop first. Ang and I are hoping to have them knit a few laptop covers

while we’re here so we can take them back to the States and send them

to a few companies who may carry them. Our end goal is to have the

Kechene girls making a few things that are REALLY marketable and

modern that appeal to Americans that can be carried by a company. This

takes out the requirement of us having to do all the marketing and

selling back in the states ourselves and creates a continued business

relationship for them. We’ll see if it all works out.

We walked around a bit and caught up with Yemamu and headed back by

contract taxi to Tafo. We made it back here by dark which is always a

plus. I’m still feeling pretty sick and keeping Nick up at night while

I’m blowing my nose but I’m making it through.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I woke up in the middle of the night really hot. It wasn’t long before

I knew I was actually feeling sick and when my alarm went off at 7, I

got out of bed. I have continued to feel hot, feverish and

lightheaded. My throat is sore and it’s hard to swallow and my nose is

stuffy. I feel like I’m allergic to Ethiopia because this same thing

happened last time. My stomach is fine and I don’t feel like I picked

anything up here; more like I picked something up in NOLA or on the

airplane and it’s finally manifesting. Here’s hoping it won’t last

long.

We’re waiting at RoPack for Tom to head over and pick us up for the

second distribution. I’m thinking about taking a nap and hoping I can

sleep some of this sickness off.

Back from distribution number two. Today was another school of younger

children. Everything was set up by the time we arrived because Tom

needed to make two trips; the first with Hayley and shoes and the

second with the four of us. We started with four fitters, one “runner”

(the person who gets the shoe sizes we think we need, which happened

to be Brian), Hayley was writing registration numbers in shoes, and

five Ethiopians helping with registration. Two and a half hours later

and 200 shoes later, all the children in the school and one from the

community who didn’t have shoes were showing off their new kicks. We

were much more efficient and have worked out some of the kinks from

the first distribution which will make creating the plans for future

distributions much easier.

We finished up with some late lunch and headed to the local market. It

was a nice change of pace to check out some different things and Ang

and I both picked up a scarf. We exchanged a little more money and

once we got home (back to RoPack), we took a walk and grabbed a

macchiato. We’re finishing up a few things around the house before we

head to bed and do it all again tomorrow! We’re set for a third

distribution of 400 kids and we’re pretty excited. I realize that I

really haven’t explained very thoroughly the shoe distribution process

and all that goes along with it, so that’s definitely my agenda for

tomorrow (or soon).

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

No distribution today because it’s a holiday. Monday night the Muslims

read the moon to determine if Tuesday would be a holiday or not. I’m

not sure what they needed to see (or not see) in order for them to

declare it a holiday, but it was. Tom picked us up from RoPac and we

headed to their house closer to the city. Our main objective for the

day was to sort and organize the shoes we needed for the distributions

Wednesday and Thursday. We will be doubling the size of school and

community outreach each day, so the number of shoes gets larger and

larger. We had a pretty efficient system and it took less than a few

hours to sort and pull out another 800 pairs of shoes from the

original delivery. Our school on Wednesday is mainly younger children

again, so we learned the first time around that we will need very few

larger sizes. Thursday’s school, however, goes up to eighth grade

which we learned will include people up to their 20’s.

We headed into the city to pick up a phone and a SIM card. Once we’re

in the city we’ll need a phone to coordinate meetings and times and we

figured it would be beneficial to have it now because as I’ve learned

from my first trip, things are never as easy as you think they’ll be.

We found a phone (used, but a phone) that they were willing to sell me

for 400 birr (my limit on how much I’m willing to spend) and tried to

get our SIM card. They wouldn’t sell it to us without two Ethiopian

picture IDs. We don’t even have one. We though perhaps Tom would be

able to purchase it with his Ethiopian driver’s license, but no dice.

I called Yemamu and asked him to pick us up a phone and SIM card. No

problem, he says. He’ll get it in the merkato and bring it to us on

Saturday. We also stopped by our guest house to see if we could check

in a day early. Also no problem. The guest house is on the street I

lived off of last time. I chose the area because I know how to get

from everything from there and it would be much easier for me. It took

me a few minutes to recognize, though. Things have changed SO much

since I was here only a year and a half ago. The area where the

government was trying to take back their land, where the wood shop

disappeared from our first trip, has been successfully wiped out from

the once-thriving business area. What used to be a big open space is

how surrounded by high corrugated tin walls. A few things were

familiar and I smiled at the memories I have from my first trip. It

was good to be in familiar territory.

We walked to a pizza shop close to Tom and Sally’s and snagged some

pizza for dinner. We just had the marghireta pizza but Ang ordered

French fries. Literally, we watched the woman peel the potatoes and

cut them into fries. Everything was fresh and delicious, particularly

because hadn’t eaten since breakfast which was just multi-grain

Cherrios in soy milk. Meals are kind of funny that way here. You just

are never on a schedule and you eat when you can eat and are pretty

ready for the next meal.

We spent the evening in Sally’s living room talking about all sorts of

things. Ethiopia, adoption, life, climbing. It was fun to connect with

someone who I met just briefly my first time here and whose journey I

have followed throughout the year. We got home late and I was

exhausted, so all plans were out the window and I headed to bed.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine’s Day! Tom picked us up from RoPac and we headed over

to the first school. We set up in a small school room and prepared for

the children. They came in about four at a time and we each sat on the

ground in front of a chair. When we were working most efficiently, we

called out a size and whoever was standing would grab it. It, of

course, was a trial and error with sizing. The language barrier was

interesting and what made it even more difficult to get the correct

fit sometimes was that some of the children wouldn’t even look at us.

They have obviously had very little interaction with foreigners and it

was, I imagine, pretty scary to have us there in this overwhelming

situation. We did our best; “telickino?” for “too big” and “tenishno?”

for too small. Of course, “ishy?” for “okay.” We put the shoes on each

child and once we found a good fit, we took them over to registration.

We had three people who were giving children their registration

information which included a number and taking some basic intake

information (where they live, information about their parents, etc).

When TOMS shoes has a giving partner, they don’t just provide shoes

once. They provide shoes for these children three times per year. This

time around, our main goal is to have each child return for the second

distribution in June. Once they return , Tom and Sally will be

providing some health education to each child. How amazing is it that

not only children that didn’t have shoes before will have a pair, but

that they will receive a pair three times per year?! It is such a cool

thing to think that this project we are helping to initiate and

organize will be ongoing and continue to grow. I love that we are here

for this initial distribution. It really allows us to have a lot of

input into what this looks like in the future. We will be continuing

to improve on the way we run things this week and hammer out a manual

for distributions later that will make it extremely easy for

Ethiopian’s to continue once we’re gone.

After we fitted each child in the school, we opened up the

distribution to some of the children in the community. I fitted kids

with no pants, dirty babies whose families obviously did not have the

resources to buy them shoes and children who were probably not in

school because in order to be in school in Ethiopia, you have to buy a

uniform and have shoes. Not only are we providing shoes to children in

order to improve health and sanitary conditions, but we are also

giving them a way to access education by having this new pair of

shoes. I know how long it took Sally to get everything together for

paperwork and how hard the process was to be approved as a giving

partner, so this initial distribution was an emotionally overwhelming

experience. It’s hard to really grasp the impact you were able to have

in just a few hours. As I’ve said many times, Nick and I are SO

blessed to have the opportunity to be here, doing what we are doing,

because of the hard work of many other people. THANK you for your

support.

We grabbed some lunch and walked over to the grain mill. Sally needed

some corn for corn bread, so we went and got two kilos of corn. We

sifted it first to get some of the finer dirt out, then sorted through

each kernel by hand on a grass weave platter looking for bigger debris

like rocks. Once we’re finished, we wait in line and the corn goes

through a grinder than makes it into a very fine, almost flour-like,

looking substance that Sally can use to make corn bread.

Tom took us over to Dahley so we could see the community they work in.

We met some of the children enrolled in their afterschool program, had

a tea ceremony at one of their friend’s mud huts who had a baby one

week ago, saw the library and health center they built and the land

they work. This was such a neat time to meet some people in a more

rural Ethiopian setting where people live without running water or

electricity. They have little food and have to walk a long ways to

retrieve water. Nick and Brian helped some Ethiopians move a

horse-pulled cart full of Eucalyptus trees (it was a VERY funny sight-

perhaps he’ll add a little of his own experience here, but I’ll

definitely include some pictures when we’re home). Sally and Tom feed

the children in their afterschool program three times per week. It has

been amazing for them to see the transformation in these kids, who

went from skinny, dull children to those with personality and a

brightness in their eyes.  Would you believe that for children who do

not have food to eat that three meals per week would make their lives

completely different? That it would allow them to develop their

personality and grow and experience the world with a excitement they

had never experienced? I don’t know any parents in American who would

find it acceptable to feed their children three times per week, but

here, it is a blessing and literally means these children will

SURVIVE. It’s really hard to understand what that looks like as a

parent to be unable to provide the basic necessities for your child to

live for a year, five years, then eight years. There is a staggering

statistic I heard and I’m sure I’m going to be off by a few, but

something like one in five children in Ethiopia will die by the age of

five. These children are dying from things that would never be

life-threatening in the US, yet we complain about how much hospital

visits cost when really, we’re fortunate to have a hospital to go to.

Despite these dire circumstances, these kids are happy and thrive with

interaction and attention. They are just like children born in the

United States but with less resources, less opportunity and a greater

chance at failing. How can we not intervene and provide basic needs to

give them the chance to live? I’m so glad I am able to be a part of

this.

Monday night was an early night, too. We needed the sleep and needed

to process all that being in Ethiopia means. Nick surprised me just

before bed with a Valentine’s Day card. Although he doesn’t love the

Hallmark holidays, he was so thoughtful to have brought a card from

home to celebrate Valentine’s Day.