The Ethiopians have a company here called Ethiofoam. You guessed it, they make foam mattress. It is so firm, it must be made from the lava rocks that spewed from the volcano that erupted a few years ago down the road from where we are staying it is so dense. I think they must be endorsed by chiropractors as a money making investment. ‘Nuff said about that.

There are a number of very interesting birds here I will need to research when I get back for I have never seen them. We did get to see vultures though, but not able to get clear pictures as they seem to startle easily. Maybe because they have never seen white people before either and they think we are ghosts and that frightens them…lol

Our friend The Henchman had the pleasure of having a bone ripped from his skull today which will no doubt improve his disposition. Ha! Time will tell.

We had French toast for breakfast that was…um…interesting. While there were good intentions, I can see this trip being a bit of a weight loss plan in action.

Today we did some painting of the classrooms to bring them back to looking clean and fresh again. I managed to get paint in my hair but we completed it in good time with all the help we had. Alynne helped rub paint off the bum of my pants with baby wipes as I somehow bumped into a paintbrush.

We learned that the key I had been toting around for the room as the key master could be not only used to keep people out, but to lock people in too!!! Three of us left the room, and so I locked the door behind us pocketing the key. We joined the group and we were waiting for Dick to join us before we started our next activity and he wasn’t coming…and wasn’t coming…until Bisrat came to ask me if I had the key as Dick must have been in the bathroom when we left and locked the door, making him a prisoner in his own room!

Alynne, Lee and I have decided there is merit in having my sister rent a minivan to come get us in so we don’t need to risk having bugs in my van that could cause a problem for not only our family, but for my carpool friends and anyone else who rides with me in the week following our return. We have been advised to keep our bags outside or in the freezer for a few days to kill whatever may come back with us. Seems like a good idea given the number of bugs I have run across to far in this first week.

I saw my first banana tree with a banana flower and it was beautiful! Can’t wait to show you the picture of it!

Supper was the mais corn, potatoes and a meat that could have been ox, goat, sheep or hyena….not quite sure which. I did learn however the reason that bulls are castrated. I always thought it was for reproductive control. Turns out it is to reduce the testosterone in the animals as that hormone makes meat tough and stringy. Married to a farmer and I had no idea!

Off to bed. Be well.

Well, we are less than an hour in the air before we land in Ethiopia. It has been 11 hours and 50 minutes in the air. We have been fed three times, I have watched several movies, napped, stretched my legs and now sit here contemplating my navel.

We are half way around the world. Half. Way. Around. All we needed to do to accomplish this was step on a plane. I was asleep before we took off and awoke some time later shocked at how smooth it was. Nothing like a King Air 200 let me tell you.

Surprisingly, even though I didn’t have an emergency aisle seat, there was more leg room than I expected and luckily the chair reclined a bit which helped. The food has been lovely, but the bathroom has not. At the beginning of the flight it was fine, and we have had no turbulence, so I cannot understand why there is garbage everywhere and urine on the floor. People can be gross, no matter where you are in the world. I wondered why the airline gave us all socks, and the prevailing thought it that it is so you can put them on and since they are yellow, you wont notice the urine soaked in them….then when you land you can put your shoes back on and have clean feet.

During one of my stretching sessions and water breaks in the rear galley, I spoke with several people who have been to Africa many, many times before and they have all said it isn’t somewhere that you only go to once. Malawi is being portrayed as both beautiful and lovely to go see. There hasn’t been much feedback about Ethiopia, which has my spider senses tingling.

I asked one man what advice he would have for me, given this is my first time being here, and the nature of the work we are here to do, and after a few moments pause for thought, he said, “Just watch, look, listen and learn. Don’t come with the attitude that you are going to fix everything and everybody, and that your way is the best way to do things. I am ashamed to admit it took me several years to learn that. Don’t make my same mistakes. You will love it, AND you will come back.”

I am obviously still without any reality of this place as I type this, and I can’t help but wonder as I look around the plane, what the stories are of all these people around me. If we are headed into such abject poverty, how are all the people who are on this plane making it? Surely not everyone on this plane is visiting. Some must be coming back home. What are their stories??

The need to stow my tray table and return my seat to an upright position has arrived, so I will bid you adieu and check in again once we have gotten settled.

Be well.

If any of you would like any clarification on a post…leave it in the comments and I will reply.

We arrived at Addis Ababa and went through the security/immigration/customs section of the airport before we collected our bags, and each of us had a different immigration form. Some were in English, some were in French and no two were alike. When we went through and got our passports stamped, there wasn’t anyone who wanted to collect our forms after we figured out how to fill them in! Lol

Waiting for us were our two drivers, Ketama and Gaetu who expertly navigated through the three lane roads that were being driven four cars wide. There are roundabouts galore, horns tooting, pollution so thick you could chew it at times, cars burning bunker oil and pedestrians who knew that they didn’t have the right of way. There were herds of goats spray painted with pink paint to mark them for their owners in lieu of branding. The goats have ears and tails that perk up and the sheep have ears and tail that flop down. These herds are usually contained along the more major roads, however, along with the horses that have been abandoned once they are too nag-like and need more care than they are worth investing in anymore, they roam the streets finally in charge of their own destiny.

We arrived at the home we are staying at after a twenty minute drive to be greeted with a lovely two story stucco house with marble floors and red hardwood. There was an immediate nap mandated, and three hours later I was roused. The rule of outside and inside shoes to reduce the transmission of e-Coli etc due to the lack of sanitation here was instituted right away. We quickly unpacked and sorted our donation bags and then set about inventorying all the medical and dental supplies so that we have greater ability to dispense what is needed when the time comes. Soon enough it was ten o’clock and everyone hit the hay!

Morning prayers at the mosque broadcasted over the loudspeaker at 0500 was my alarm this morning!

More Ethiopia facts…

1. Homosexuality is punishable by prison time, although same sex hand holding is acceptable.
2. Indemina dursh is good morning to a female.
3. Indemina Durk is good morning to a male.
4. Namasaganello means thank you…and I SUCK at remembering it. Seriously. Nearly every time I come up with something different to say as I butcher it.
5. The ditches in the streets are not to keep crocodiles in as moats once did. Seriously. They are for the raw sewage to float down the road. I think that might work better than keeping crocodiles in them to keep people from going in the moat. I practically saved Lee’s life tonight as he nearly died in one of these such Pooh moats. We exited the van in the dark and as I flipped the van seat forward so he could get out, he stepped down and backwards only a mere centimetre from the edge of the moat. He was ready to step back, fall into the moat, snapping his leg with an open compound fracture, and then have to swim for his life in the Pooh canal while tying to keep his mouth closed and hope he was tall enough to not have it go up his nose…. Needless to say, as I saved him from certain doom and infection that would definitely require amputation, I have won best travelling companion award in his books!!!

The morning was spent learning how to teach suturing to the doctors here. Interestingly enough we were taught this in medic school, and I have NEVER used it since. So, we went over the simple stitch, the running stitch, a locking stitch or mattress stitch, the deep mattress stitch and a purse stitch. We had boards, nails, tourniquets and towels to set up our stitching stations. Now you will all be able to trust me again for all your stitching needs!! Pants and shirts not included. Tomorrow we head to the medical centre here to do the teaching to them.

After that we sorted all the donations for the various centres and put them into duffle bags for distribution when we go to them. Once that was done we had lunch and headed out to Kirkos for our home visits and doing the medical and dental procedures for those kids.

On the way to the centre, we stopped at a clay and pottery factory where we had a tour of the women hand making BEAUTIFUL clay items. In Canada we have the rule of you break it, you buy it. Well, Annie in a clay factory has a similar policy…I was looking at come candle holders and didn’t realize there was a apiece that wasn’t attached….SMASH was the next thing I heard, so now I am the proud wonder a beautiful candle handle with a corner missing…..

We left there to go to the centre and set up home visits of some of the kids in the program.

When I said we were doing home visits, I mean home visits. We went right into the slums to see the homes of the kids at these centres and how they live. We were doing site assessments to evaluate them for safety, to see how their child being in the program has helped not only their child, but their family.

The streets here have no names and they are a labyrinth to get through.

The first home we went to had a mom, her husband, her daughter, and her niece. The mom worked selling vegetables that she was cooking on the side of the road to support the family. Her husband had mental health issues and couldn’t work, so she was the sole supporter of the four people living in a 10×12 plastic tent with sticks and tin home. She was worried about the two girls getting taken advantage of the young unemployed men who sit around chewing CHAT, their local hallucinogen drug. It is a green waxy leaf that is quite addicting, but at least is grown naturally, so definitely a healthier choice than meth (right Courtney?!?!).

The second home we went to had a woman who was so absolutely grateful to have her son in the program she was falling over herself to say thank you. The inside of her home was painted PuRpLe!!! Every single surface. Lovely woman.

The third home we went to, had been burned down, along with sixteen others, just the week before. It was government housing, and as such, the government relocated the woman and her two daughters as well as eight other families into a business warehouse until a decision as to what to do next would be reached. There were 22 people living in a tarped building about 15 x 30 in size. The mother was afraid of the other people living in the building that they would rape her two daughters, aged 14 and 12. There was a man there that legit made Alynne and I creeped out. I feel her fears were valid. Hopefully something can get sorted out sooner than later. They took us back to their burned home to see it, and the smell of smoke was still rank. The neighbours were still living there and having a fire department with hoses is not something done here. It was up to the neighbours to keep it from spreading. The reason for the fire is still under investigation … rogue candle or arson by the government so they could evict the people to sell to foreign investors were to two working theories.

In fact, Alynne was called to by some kids as she walked by…”China!!” There is so much Chinese foreign investors here, China is the name they call ALL foreigners now.

We went back to the centre afterwards even more sober than before and did the medical and dental assessments for the kids there and ironically went out for Chinese food for supper. Real cat meat Chinese. I wondered if since it was real, REAL Chinese food if I would be hungry an hour later or not…lol

It was the best sweet and sour dog I have ever eaten. Imagine, I had to travel to Africa to eat delicious, authentic Chinese food. The restaurant was patronized by all the Asian persuasions, including (I am pretty certain) Kim Jong Un. I was sitting with my back to him and his henchmen, as they prepped their fat cigars to smoke right there, with cigar cutters stained with the blood of those unwilling to talk until one or two fingers had been removed as motivation….It was hard to hear everything they were saying as the plumes of smoke pert near sent me into a choking fit as my larynx spasamed from all the smoke, but they were talking about Jayden Alvarez massaging his schedule to accommodate their next drop headed for Canada…. Every time they popped another cork of champagne behind me I jumped out of my seat. We three girls dropped a trail of fortune cookies behind us as we made our way to the bathroom. The restaurant must have used the same city planner to design their layout as I got lost coming back to the table.

Back to bed for us after another long day.

Ciao!