Sunday, January 8, 2012

I have been out of internet contact the last day and a half, so I just keep getting further and further behind on my updates.

On my last update I forgot to talk about the bucket bath. The water here has not been working right; it started a few weeks before I got here. That has made things pretty interesting. I really don't mind it at all. It does make things a little more complicated, but I feel like it gives me a more realistic view of life here. I am glad that things are somewhat challenging so that I get the real missionary experience, not a watered down version of it. I have been brushing my teeth and washing my hands with cups of water. We haul water upstairs to fill the tanks in the toilet for flushing. On the first day here, after the day and a half of flying, I felt pretty dirty. I got to take a bucket bath. We boiled a couple of kettles of water, mixed it with some cold water and I used that to wash my hair and body off. It was FREEZING!!!! Anyone who knows me knows that I do not like to be cold. I think I mentioned in my last update that though it gets warm outside each day the nights are cool and the house stays really cold because it does not get hot enough to warm the concrete. I know Larry would love it. I could go out and get warm and he could stay in the cold house. I had a pretty good attitude about the bucket bath, but it was not my favorite. I opted out of taking a bucket bath for the next couple days. I just put in extra deodorant and put my hair in a pony tail. I understand that is just kind of how it goes here.

The second day I was here, my first full day, we got up and had a pretty laid back day. We had planned to go early to the Shannons house and look at the project they run, Embracing Hope Ethiopia, but ended up hanging around the house due to some other things that needed to be taken care of. The way things go, plans are pretty loose around here. Nothing ever really goes as planned or in the timing planned. I did wake up at my usual time about 430. I guess that is really where I left off the last one. I got to read a bit and journal and just relax. That must have been what God knew that I needed. After all the other stuff was taken care of we headed off to the Shannons'. I got to meet Christy first and just as I knew I would totally loved her. We got to visit a bit. After a little bit of visiting, we headed back out to come home. I got to drive by the project and see it in passing. My heart just felt so drawn to it. I was so sad that we could not stop. I really felt such a connection to that part of town. There is a visible change as you head to the part of town where Embracing Hope is. It is in the Korah village which is connected to the land fill. You can see the poverty in the buildings and in the way the people dress. I felt such a draw toward the people. I could not wait til the next day when we could go back and spend some real time at the project.

Levi and I left about 830 am the next morning so I could be dropped off to spend the day at EHE (Embracing Hope Ethiopia). I had packed up the photo printer prepared to take pictures of the kids so we could print them and give them to the mom. On the way over, I realized that I did not have the picture paper to print the pictures on because it was in my suitcases. That morning was the first morning that I was really kind of bothered by the fact the I didn't have my suitcases.

I have to end here b/c the battery is about to die on the computer and everyone has gone to bed. I will pick up more tomorrow.

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