The Village of Hope

It was great to see Everett sitting on Alyssa's shoulders the morning we arrived here at Addis after an all night flight from Rome. We headed straight for church at 10. What a sweet gathering we found there. Members with the light of Christ in their eyes and the church with beautiful flowers and grounds too. Testimonies were humble and sincere. Missionaries, including a humanitarian couple were fun to visit with. I had one slight trouble there- I almost fell off my seat in Relief Society when jet lag overtook me. A Sunday nap and I have since tried to ignore the 10 hour time difference.

Monday morning March 8th had me trying to email my kids to let them knowof our safe arrival. I wrote three newsy letter without success in getting them to send. Around noon we were told that we had permission to go with Carolyn & Celina down to Shashaminy and the Village of Hope where Alyssa & Wes' five children they are adopting were living about 4 hours away. 30 minutes later we were on our way. What an intriguing journey it is to travel the roads of Ethiopia. It's not an experience you'll soon forget- It's eye popping! Just getting out of town was difficult with road blocks, diesel pollution and not much order with traffic in the city. Alyssa said there are only a couple of lights throughout the whole city. Once out of the city, the sights change but continued to amaze my senses. People walking, laden donkey carts, goats running into the road, busses stopping in the middle of the road as we weaved between and around them all. Honking your horn is different here too- people give little honks to let others know they are planning to pass or to get out of the way- a type of communication that seems doesn't seem especially rude. We passed huts and villages all along the way.

We arrived at the VOH much to the children's surprise. They were more than happy to see us. Fourteen children living in a compound built to meet their needs of home. Alyssa's children came running to greet us. It was very heartwarming. Beautiful, delightful children! What a treat for us to spend the week getting to know them and experience their life with them. Alyssa and I enjoyed playing games with the children- hopscotch in the dirt, organizing a few books, and making a pinata. Val helped fix the lights and toilets- unfortunately he spent one sick day at the village too. Everyone we meet including staff are extremely gracious and friendly.

I ate some real Ethiopian dishes here- Injera is an everyday staple and is eaten by most Ethiopians every day. It is like a large sour dough crepe and is eaten with other food- You tear off a piece and scoop up your food in place of silverware. They have special Injera stove and I learned to cook them. Some of the tasty dishes we ate at the village were cookies that were like doughnut holes which they fried over a fire, goat with lots of biberi a popular spice, potatoes,carrots & cabbage in a tasty combination, & beets. One dish I didn't try was green beans with intestines cooked in. The VOH also has a milk cow which produces much more milk than most cows here. Friday morning found us at the market- lots of beautiful things to buy. I found it fascinating to watch people building a cobble street road one stone at a time. Friday afternoon we found it hard to say goodbye to the staff and even harder to say goodbye to the children.

I said goodbye to Val too. He was invited to drive with Paul out to the farm- he had quite an adventure coming with several people & some break downs- The roads are terrible so it takes twice as long as it should- 18 hours to get there. Val saw lots of animals & countryside while Alyssa & I went back to Addis so we could finish up shopping before heading to the Alyssa farm.