Arrival in Addis

I never thought I would say that a 27 hour trip "wasn't too bad" but my travel to Addis Ababa went much better than I had imagined. (If you count the time from when I actually left Bloomsburg, it was actually 32 hours!) Thanks to everyone who donated toys and funds for the therapy supplies that I brought with me. My suitcases were filled to the weight limit! Each and every item I was able to carry has been appreciated beyond anything that you can imagine.
Yewoinshet met me at the airport Thursday night and early the following morning took me on a partial tour of Hope For Children. The Head Office houses a conference room, 2 play therapy rooms, a secretarial office, a small nurse's office, supply rooms, etc. Space is very tight but the loving atmosphere is huge! Ethiopians are some of the sweetest and most welcoming people you could imagine.

I also visited one of the group homes where 8 children of various ages and two adults live together as a family much as you would find in a typical Ethiopian household. There are 12 group homes and while they are very simple, they are bright and nurturing.
HFC is building a school and at this point has classes for preschoolers and for kindergarten children. With very little prompting the children burst into Amharic and English songs for me. A few blocks away there is a Youth Center for the older children after school and during vacations. The focus there is on improving the childrens' English (very important for getting a job or going on to college), teaching computer skills, sewing and other skills that will help them survive once they reach 18 and their funding ends.

Yewoinshet has touching stories about each child and how they came to HFC, but my favorite so far is about a sister and a brother. After the death of their parents, they were separated, taken away by two different families and had no idea where each other had gone two. On the very same day, Yewoinshet received a phone call from each family asking if the child they were caring for could live at HFC. They were put into different group homes because she had no idea they were related. Days later they both happened to be in the Head Office at the same time and were overwhelmed to have found each other again. They both say it was the best day of their lives!
This morning we went to the Saturday program and you can see from my picture that I was immediately surrounded by elated children. They were so eager to see the pictures that I was taking that they kept pulling my arm down before I had a chance to take them. Needless to say, lots of the pictures are a bit blurred.

I have also begun some informal training on trauma therapy for the staff, but I will leave those details for my next entry.

Dorothy

PS I have been trying all day at four different computers to post this entry and have not been very successful. Therefore, I do not know if I will be able to post again. If not, I will catch up when I return on April 7th.