Today is Christmas Eve...again! The majority of the Christians in Ethiopia are Orthodox Christians which is why Christmas is celebrated on January 7th. Ethiopia also follows its own calendar. It is currently the year 2007 here. Another thing to get used to is the difference in time. What we would call 8:00 is 2:00 here. Ethiopians consider the start of the day (7:00am) to be 1:00.
We started our day with our normal breakfast on the balcony in the bright, warm sun mixed with time of devotions and sharing. The sun feels especially nice after the cool night in our unheated rooms! Days are perfect here...sunny and 75 degrees. At night the temperature drops to around 30 degrees. Yes we are in Africa, but are at an altitude of around 7600 feet in Addis Ababa. The altitude hasn't bothered us much...luckily we don't have to climb many stairs!
Our morning was spent with the children of Kids Care orphanage. This is an extra special place as team members Alison and Kellie adopted children who once lived here! We were given a warm reception by the children and were able to play games with them and love on them! We are not able to post pictures of the children in orphanages so you will have to look at pictures of our team again. Bummer! Wish we could show you their sweet faces! Thanks to the donations received before we left, we were able to donate 48 cans of formula for the babies living at Kids Care! The staff was so thankful for this life giving gift! Thank you!
In the afternoon we returned to the America World transition home to decorate for Christmas! We brought a tree and lights and all the supplies needed for the children to make their own decorations and ornaments! It was fun but got a bit crazy as you can imagine!
Here is the story of one of the children living at Kids Care:
Hi, my name is Belachew. I am 16 years old, and I live at Kids Care orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I have lived here 3 years now. I grew up in an area outside Addis. My mother died. When I started having conflict with my father, I ran away to Addis and lived on the street. Then some people came and asked us if anyone wanted to come live in the orphanage and get an education. I was quick to raise my hand. I love education, and I love soccer. I plan to help children when I become successful.
I am the oldest child living in the orphanage full time. There is a boy older than me who sleeps here at night. He has a job, but he does not make enough money to support himself, so they are letting him stay here.
Then there is "William" (that's his new adopted name). His parents are here in Addis now waiting on the adoption process to be completed. They are from Washington in the U.S. and he will be their twelvth and youngest child. He is 10. He is my friend. I am happy that he is getting adopted, but I will miss him when he moves to the United States.
Today is the day before Christmas. So much happened today! A group of people came in a van. They had lots of formula to donate for the babies that live here. There was a little boy with them-I heard he lived in this orphanage when he was a baby, and now he is adopted and lives in the United States. The ladies started hugging and playing with the little kids right away. They all looked so happy, and the little kids were all excited. I just watched for a while. They jumped rope and kicked soccer balls. Then this lady came up to me and asked my name. I couldn't really talk to her, but we tried to communicate. She smiled a lot and worked hard to pronounce my name the right way. She had a hard time getting it right!
The visitors went in to see the babies. I think they liked them, because they stayed a long time in there, and even when they came out, they kept going back in over and over. They especially seemed to like Nati, a boy with a really big head that can't walk and can't talk much. He was sitting outisde in a walker. They gave him a maracca to shake. He was a little scared of them at first, but then he was smiling.
The lady who talked to me played basketball with me for a while. We don't have a basketball hoop, and I like soccer better anyway, so I traded one of the little kids for a soccer ball and played with that instead.
Then a whole bunch of high school students showed up. They had come for a tour since it is Christmas Eve. They had collected a lot of donations for the orphanage. There was a big party, with bread and cookies and candy and popcorn and bananas and bottles of soda. It was fun to watch the little kids trying to eat everything at once. We don't usually get all those treats!
Lots of happiness here today. I will remember it for a long time. And I will remember what that lady told me. She said I am special. She said she is happy I am not living on the street. She said I should work hard and that I can succeed. She said she would be praying for me.
Merry Christmas from Kids Care orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Note:
Belachew gave us permission to write his story. We were able to take his picture, but are not permitted to share it on the internet. Visiting the children and babies was bittersweet; it was fun to play and smile and hug and see the joy it brought them. But, every now and then, we would start to think about the reality of their situation, and choke back tears.
There are strict rules about which children are "adoptable." The adoptable children will be referred to an adoption agency and matched with a waiting family. The others will live in the orphanage until they turn 18. Typically at that point they are on their own. Sometimes that doesn't work out so well - on Saturday we met Tarikwa, a young single mother who grew up in another local orphanage. When she turned 18, she worked as a prostitute until she became pregnant. Now she and her 16 month old daughter Bemenet live in a tiny one room home, with no furniture but a sleeping mat. No windows, lots of dirt (water costs money, so it's difficult to keep things clean), a pile of belongings in the corner. Tarikwa's dream is to get more education, so she can take care of herself and Bemenet. Right now she works as a day laborer.
So many stories. It's overwhelming. But we want to hear the stories and love the individuals. They each matter. Jesus told us that our Father knows when even a sparrow falls to the ground. He knows Belachew and Nati and Tarikwa and Bemenet. And He loves them. Because of Him, we too can know them and love them. We can touch them and hug them and tell their stories. We can pray and give what we have.
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