These are some pics I took out in Kersa Ellala right before I left, so you can see the surrounding area where I was staying.

Here are a few pics Sister Woodruff took at her house with the twins, Zenabu (a member of the church) and her grandmother. These were taken back in July when Steff and I went to visit.

On my way home

Friends and Family,
I am sad and happy to announce that I am coming home early. What was thought to be the mumps had progressed into something much worse. The symptoms weren't proving to relate to the mumps and white patches were starting to grow on the back of my throat. A visit to the doctor confirmed that it wasn't the mumps but tonsillitis or perhaps strep throat, a culture cannot be taken and would not be accurate so a perfect diagnoses is impossible.
Nevertheless, the medication has not improved the situation at all, and I have been in so much pain recently that I cannot swallow, let alone barely breath. I have had many sleepless nights, where I have maybe fallen asleep for 20 minutes but the second I swallow in my sleep I am awoken by the pain. I have also been battling a fever and the chills. Yesterday I woke up in so much pain Steffanie suggested I just go home. I packed my bag up and went and said goodbye to the children. Needless to say I cried really bad leaving those kids. Dibabe was the hardest one to say goodbye too, but indeed she was the strongest. She didn't cry but said, "It's okay, you need to go".
I stayed with the couple missionaries yesterday. They took me to an American Doctor that's recommended by the embassy. He said there's nothing more I can do, but it might be better if I go home. I didn't want to leave yesterday because I was in so much pain I didn't want to fly. I woke up this morning not feeling much better and decided it is better I fly home now and perhaps get a great painkiller or my tonsils removed rather than waiting through the pain. We went down to the airport and British Airways said they could get me on the next flight tomorrow morning at 7:30 am, with a hefty cost attached. I called my parents at what was 5 am their time. My dad was so amazing and told me not to worry about the price, and that him and my mom would take care of my domestic flight from New York to Portland. I should be home by Saturday.

This past week has been filled with great memories though, despite being ill and not feeling up to par. Sunday was my last week with the small branch I have been attending for the past three months, all six of us were there (Emanuel, his three sons, Steff and I). How I will miss the closeness felt in such a small branch. Emanuel's son is looking to go on a mission soon and I wish him the best.
Longalee was hospitalized because of her lack of fluids. She was released Tuesday and is doing much better. She had malaria, typhoid and typhus. She is such a brave soul. I would have hated to sleep in the room she stayed in for five days! She had plenty of guests though!
Monday and Tuesday night I went out on walks with Andre and then Fayissa. I got some beautiful shots of the village and the scenery. It had just finished raining both nights before we went out and it was so nice to see the green land glisten after the rain. God has truly made Ethiopia one of the most beautiful places on earth!
The new house mother has proved to be great. She has got those kids up and going each morning and just has some great values that both Steffanie and I really appreciate. It makes it nice for me to leave knowing that she is there, and even more so for Steffanie when she finally decides to head back to the States.
There's so much more I feel I could say. I will post again sometime next week with more conclusive thoughts and additional photos that were not included in past posts!
Cheers,
Jenelle

Mumps, Bumps, Lumps, and Grumps

I took this picture to send to the twins adoptive-mother-to-be. She apparently is a very health conscious woman and does not want the girls eating any sugar. There was some candy that the expedition had brought and Steff and I got a little sweet tooth one night. The twins helped out, and Balditu just looked so cute with all the trash around her!
We put Mariama and Emuti in a duffle bag and took them for a swing. They thought it was great, but were a little nauseous after the game was over.
I am quite embarrassed to post this pic, but I wanted to prove that I really do have mumps! This is how big my eyes can open due to the swelling, and it looks like I got my wisdom teeth out, but really that's how big my mouth and throat is swollen. Thanks Steffanie for telling me that each day my face looks worse!


I have neglected to take many pictures this week. Mostly because I have been sick and have not taken out my camera very often. I have caught the mumps and have been suffering from a severely swollen face and a mild fever for the past two weeks. The virus is supposed to pass within the third week, so hopefully everything will pass by the time I make it home!

This has also been another week of medical scares at the compound with the children. On Tuesday Longalee was still complaining of a high fever and headache. Our local nurse suggested she be taken to the hospital. She was loaded up for the doctors and her diagnoses- Malaria and Typhoid! She did not understand what that meant, so the doctor had to explain to her what was going on inside her body that would make her so sick. She has been refusing to eat due to the lack of energy and the lack of interest in food. Steff and I are very concerned, and yesterday Bonzo, a nurse, finally inserted an IV into her because she is so dehydrated!

When the medical expedition was here last week they looked at Dibabe and Benjamin. Due to her history, the doctor suggested that she and the baby have an HIV test. Steffanie and I talked to her on Tuesday night and told her I would be taking her the next day to get the test done. We talked to her about confidentiality, that no matter what the results were only her, myself, Steffanie and Abu would know that she was going to the doctor and about the results. She agreed to have the test done. Wednesday I took her into Negelle and the Doctor sent us to a clinic that was about a half hour walk outside of the village. It was such a hot day and my fever was slowly rising on the way out there. I was so nervous for Dibabe. She had to receive counseling first from a nurse before they would draw her blood- telling her about unprotected sex and that she needed to use a condom. I just thought how stupid the counseling was seeing her situation. When the nurse was drawing her blood I got very light headed and then *bleep* passed out. I was holding Benjamin at the time, and luckily was leaning back in my chair and had a very tight grip on Benji. The next thing I knew Dibabe was taking Benjamin out of my arms and telling me to sit on the floor. I sat there for about 15 minutes while they took Benji's blood and waited for the results- they are both negative!!

I felt the impression to go and visit Caltu (the twins mother) with Steffanie earlier this week. She had been earning some money by washing the babies diapers at the compound on MWF. She was fired about three weeks ago though because she was caught stealing some baby blankets. When we went to visit her it was at night and she was sitting on her mattress that rests on the cement floor in her room. She weighs about 85 pounds and was shivering and shaking, even though she was wrapped in a blanket. I asked her if she had stolen the blankets because she was so cold at night, and she said yes, that is why she had taken them without asking. I asked Steffanie if it would be alright if I gave her a quilt from our storage closet, and she agreed. We went back up the big house, but Abu was there talking with Fayissa. We knew that if Abu saw us leave with a giant blanket he might question what we were doing and try to stop us. So while Steff stole the blanket and snuck out the back door and distracted Abu by asking him if he wanted to try my yoga ball and was showing him how to do stretches on it. He never saw Steffanie! Our little plan worked!

A new house mother has been hired! I have been going over the New Employee Orientation list and have organized and planned a three day training that will go this coming Monday to Wednesday for the new House Mother and the four other female employees that work there now. She begins work on Monday! It will be so nice to leave VOH knowing that those kids will have someone that really loves them and knows its her sole responsibility to look after them!

I am departing in T-minus 8 days. . .I am happily putting off the thought of leaving those children at this time. This coming week will be a very sad departure indeed.

So this past week the medical expedition was here! It was so much fun, and so much work at the same time!
There were three doctors from the Provo area, one nurse and one surgical assistant. They were a great group of people to work with and so much got accomplished!
Over 715 patients were seen. I wasn't with the doctors at all during the week, as I was on the other side of the house dressing children and doing ATMIT and ORS.
They said that most of the people they saw had parasites and malaria. There were a few emergency cases in which a very small baby and a woman nearly died while they were at the clinic because they were so severely dehydrated. It just makes me wonder what would have happened to them had they not come to the clinic that day.
One may had a stroke and half of his body was temporarily paralyzed. His family brought him in on a donkey cart because he couldn't walk. There is a picture of him above with Dr. Victoria massaging his legs.
Another woman had given birth the night before in the hospital and was sent home without the placenta coming out. Therefore she had excruciating pain and when she heard about the free clinic had her sisters carry her to get there.
One woman had an extremely large goiter and would have to go to Addis to have surgery to have it removed.
One baby was born with an extra venous colon (I think that's the right word- her colon was on the outside of her body) and the doctors couldn't perform surgery, but gave their money to have the parents take the child to have it done in Addis.
I was in charge of dressing children after they had been washed and treated for scabies. Some of those kids were in bad shape!! They all looked so cute with their new clothes, and boy are my ear drums pierced from screaming children who had to be doused in freezing cold water and then stand underneath a fan while I dressed them!
I also made ATMIT and gave it to the mothers with severely malnourished children. I have seen some of the most amazing people this week and am so exhausted but happy with the work that has been done!
An amazing thing also happened on Saturday. A woman who had heard we were looking for a new house mother showed up at the door for an interview. She interviewed great and we gave her a tour of the compound this morning. She will begin work on Wednesday. It is such a relief to know that there will be someone here that is competent and caring enough to raise these children!

The Farenji's have arrived!!

I finally got a pic of Benjamin smiling!
My little Balditu. She's had a cold in her eyes (why her eye's are so watery). She's so cute during the day, but I tell you she is horrible at night. She wimpers herself to sleep and without fail wakes up at 2:30 am, crying, and doesn't go back to sleep until 5 am. Her new adoptive mother is going to have so much fun with her!

My Fabulous Ringworm!! Allelujah for the Clinical expedition that brought some medication to treat all of us! Me, Margitu and Benjamin all have had it for about three or four weeks now.

Fayissa, the Ethiopian cowboy and my Ethiopian crush. The nicest, most humble and honest man you'll ever meet in the WORLD, honest.
An attempt at group photo. Balditu decided her half eaten sponge would look great in the photo.
Emuti and Mariama on the swing. They have really grown to be good buds in the past three weeks while all the kids have been away with their families.

This has been quite a week. Steffanie's cousin, Carolyn arrived last Saturday and has been staying at the compound for the week working on some additional research for her Master's Degree. The three of us have been busy working on the youth group and finalizing some policies for the manual. The youth group also had 200 square km of land "donated" to them by the Kebele, the local town government. Fayissa drew up a plan already to have a soccer field, track, volleyball pits and a vocational training center built. We are all so excited!!

Most of the week slipped by pretty quickly. The Youth group did another service activity, plowing people's fields in the village again. Tuesday we had a really fun activity where we had "mini-Olympics". We played a sponge relay game, had a three-legged race and some other fun games. The Youth absolutely loved it and it reminded me of a summer camp in America. They are such amazing young people and Steffanie has been so excited by their successes thus far and how well they have been supported by the local village people!!

The expedition arrived Friday night. There are 12 American's here for the medical expedition, three of which are doctor's, two nurses and some other people that have come

along to help. The whole group brought along 42 suitcases and rubbermaids full of supplies. It was absolutely insane to unpack it all yesterday!! The storage closet and pharmacy are now packed to the brim!! It has been quite busy with everyone there and all the patients, but it is so great to see so many people that have been sick for who knows how long finally get an accurate diagnoses and free medication to go along with it. Yesterday I helped with the scabies wash and dressing the kids. We only have freezing hose water to wash the kids with and those kids screamed and screamed- probably because a) they had never seen a white person before and were scared to death and then b) because the water was so cold. I can already tell this coming week is going to be exhausting but I am so happy for all the people that will be treated. I tell you it is the most rewarding to see someone improve in their situation almost immediately. When a sick person receives hope that their sickness is treatable, or that they can get free medication their face just lights up and it makes everyone feel so rewarded by the experience.

We took the whole expedition to church today at Emmanuel's house. I don't think there had eve been so many people in his living room before. We had women sitting on each other's laps, people sharing chairs and other's sitting on the arms of chairs pushed together. Three of the adults were our "speakers" today giving spur of the moment testimonies, and then everyone asked Emmanuel to share his story of how he found the church. Apparently a friend of his had received a copy of the Book of Mormon about 5 years ago from some missionaries he had run into in a train station in London. The friend didn't have time to read the book and so passed it onto Emmanuel. He read it after a year and contacted the church, who further put him in contact with the branch in Addis. Him and his family were baptized about 3 years ago, and continue to be in the only members within 250 km of where the branch is located in Addis. He is so amazing and until today I had put aside in my mind how truly inspiring his story is and that he is very strong to keep going like he has, even though his wife has left the church, he keeps his three sons going!!

Tinahyestalin (Welcome) Helen!

Margitu, Helen and Callie. I'll have to post another pic of Helen once I take a few more. But as you can see, she's about the same size as the twins!
We took Emuti and Mariama to juice at the Rastafarian's bakery. They loved the place, but didn't really like the juice!
Mariama, myself and Emuti. Practicing our ugly faces and contemplating how kids can look so cute making this face whereas I just look scary.

Helen has made it to Kersa Ellala, and no, not Helen Kennard, but the new baby, ironically named Helen, which sent Helen Kennard into 7th Heaven to have the new baby share her name! A trip was made down to Arba Minch to secure paperwork signed by her mother that would release her into our care. Additional paperwork still has to be completed that would enable the baby to be adopted, therefore relinquishing all the mother's rights. It is amazing how trusting people can be here to give their children to complete strangers.

I thought the baby would appear to be white, but upon first seeing her, she is completely Caucasian! We are thinking the father may have been Asian because of her facial features. I wrote about her story a few blogs back, but just to refresh:

The mother was offered 200 birr to have sex with a foreigner, and when she gave birth the baby was white. The baby was thought to be an 'evil eye' and would have been killed had she stayed in Arba Minch. Helen is actually 10 months old, just a few weeks younger than Benjamin, but is close to twice his size. She is about the size of one of the twins and can crawl and has a huge appetite! What is interesting to me is that I thought that the staff and other children wouldn't take to the new baby so well because she is white. Quite the opposite has transpired though. Abuka has taken very fondly to the baby, and rarely lets anyone else hold her or feed her. Emuti and Mariama fight to play with her and all the men love to hold her.

This week has been busy meeting with the employees and revamping the VOH Operations Manual and HRCC programs. I never thought it would be so difficult to meet with the employees to get them to talk about what things work and what things don't. What we thought would be a good collaborative meeting where everyone put in their input turned out to be a tattle-telling session. The women here constantly complain about each other not doing their work properly, yet they sit around idly with each other and gossip behind each other's backs. Steff and I talked about how the women here probably gossip about us all the time, but in my opinion I don't care what they say about me- I only want them to focus on what they're doing right or wrong and change that.

Lon, Helen, Kidist and Callie left for the States on Wednesday. There were tears for about 30 seconds and then the kids ran inside to eat their lunch. It was a little anti-climatic. Callie sat in the car crying; she really easily attached to the children, especially the new baby, and apparently it was harder than she thought it would be to leave.

Steff's cousin Carolyn is here for a week. She lived in Kersa over a year ago teaching at the Adventist college, and she's back to work on some research for her Master's Degree. It was a strange experience picking her up at the airport because I got those airport jitters- like right before you're going to fly and you're so excited to go somewhere. In a way I suppose I'm excited to travel home in about a month, but I am already having attachment disorder, I love the kids here too much that I know that I'm not going to have even a semi-easy time leaving.

I met a man this week in the village that has an incredible story. He is a friend of Abu's and is a preacher for the local Adventist church. He used to preach out on the streets in a village south of where we are. The local men decided that he was too outspoken, in their opinion, and that they were tired of hearing him talk of God and His plan out in the open. One day they charged the man and beat him over the head with a metal pole and bound him. The man became unconscious and they threw him in a pit 18 m deep. He came to two days later and had no idea where he was. He had a huge gash in the back of his head, and it was a miracle he hadn't already died from bleeding to death. A man that knew that he had been thrown in the pit thought he was dead, but when he heard him moving around he threw him down a rope and told him to crawl out of the pit if he wanted to save his own life. Needless to say, he survived and now has a huge dent in the back of his head as living proof of his survival. The man is still preaching to this day- what a man of God!

Bittersweet

Emuti got ahold of Steff's bra at Longano. She kept asking what it was, but somehow knew perfectly well how to put it on? Such a squirt!
All the girls burrying Hussen. Hussen is the president of the youth group, and Steff invited him to come along for the day. I think he enjoyed all the attention!
All the kids in the mini-bus we rented for the day!

Well, we made it to Lake Longano safely and back- no bruises, cuts, drownings or other mishaps. The kids had a great time and it was a fun way to spend time with them all before they left for three weeks.

There was a bit of a mix up before we left. Steff told me to open up the closet where we keep donated clothes to get some shorts out for the kids, because they don't have swimming suits. Well pretty soon Daro, Abuka and Fatuma were all standing around wanting tshirts and shorts as well. I thought they didn't have anything to swim in and felt bad, so I gave them shirts and shorts. Then all the little kids wanted shirts and shorts. I was so confused and just figured they all didn't have stuff to swim in. Boy was I wrong. The teenage girls freaked out when they saw everyone with their new clothes. Basically everyone thought I was giving a free handout. I was upset at myself for being the cause of such a scene, and mad at the adults that work here for basically making me give them clothes, when they knew that they didn't need them. Steff was mad at the teenage girls for being selfish and ungrateful because just the day before she had taken them to Awassa to go clothes shopping. What a mess! For FHE the next night our lesson was on Gratitude. It was supposed to drop a silent hint to the kids about being grateful, but Fayissa didn't know he was supposed to drop a settle hint and let the ball drop, saying specifically that if they are given clothes they are to say 'thank you'. The girls were silent the rest of the night.

Monday we drove all the kids to their homes. It was sad to see them all go, they were all crying, but it's nice to know they'll be home in about two weeks now. It was so amazing to see what kind of homes they came from. We took Abate and Ayisha to their grandmother's house and it was about an hour drive over dirt roads and through cactus fields. Their grandmother lives in a little mud hut in the middle of a scorching onion field. Steff and I talked afterwards about what home's they've all come from and how they are so blessed with clean food, water and nice clothes as well as an education and an actual bed to sleep in at night at VOH. Simple things that we take for granted everyday. BUT at the same time, those things don't really matter to the kids when it comes to family. When there is love at home, the children would probably much rather be with family living in the dirt with nothing to eat, than everything in the world with no one to love.

This week Steff went to Addis to work on the logo for the youth group t-shirt design. She was going to go for only a day, but they needed more time so she ended up being gone until Saturday. I had so much fun staying with the girls and the babies! Steff and I found a recipe online how to make bread, and so Emuti and Mariama and I had so much fun making it three times this week. The little girls liked making little animals and cutting the dough with scissors to make strange creations. The twins have gotten to be real pills lately. They have hit that toddler stage and are getting into everything! The little girls get very frustrated with them when they are playing with their toys and the twins come crashing through wanting to play and rip everything that is in sight. There really are no baby toys here or a good playpen that they can stay in. The single mother that is adopting them is really in for a surprise!

So my two months anniversary of being here has come and passed this weekend. It is quite bittersweet to think of the time I have been here and the short time I have left. In some ways I want to stay here forever and never leave these kids. At the same time there is only so much I can do, and these kids really need parents, not a farenji that barely speaks their language, but loves them all the same. In other ways it will be nice to get back to the States, because there is so much to still learn, and then turn around and apply to future humanitarian services. There is also a lot of progress to be made at VOH and in some ways I want to be around to see it happen, but in other ways I know how slow things take with an NGO and I would seriously have to be around for another year or two to see all the goals of VOH come to life. I admire Steffanie for her dedication to VOH and how much those kids love her!

I have also thought about the kids and their relationships with the people that come and help at VOH. It is easy for a foreigner to say, 'sure, I'll come out to Ethiopia, have my humanitarian experience and then go home to my plush life in America'. And so often these kids have seen it. There are three or four expeditions that come out every year for about a week with Lon or DeAnna, helping with health expeditions or the like. Seven days later they pack their bags and go. There have also been a few American females like myself that came out and helped at the compound for a few months last year. We get really close with these kids and then we up and leave. How fair is that to the kids to expect them to love us as much as we love them in return for us taking off after a few months?

Yesterday Steff and I took Emuti, Mariama, Dibabe and the babies into Awassa just to have some fun. We bought some stuff for PB&J sandwiches and then went to a hotel on the lakeside. There were these monkeys there that were seriously too close for comfort. They were jumping onto our table and stealing our food. It was nerve raking having a baby in your arms and monkeys jumping in front of you, potentially willing to jump on you in order to get food. Steff kept sticking her arm out at them to shew them away, but they only thought she was feeding them so they would grab for her arm. It became quite hysterical because she would scream and jump out of her chair with Balditu in her arms! Dibabe looked on in complete embarrassment, here she was with two farenji's who had made a complete spectacle out of themselves and all she could do was sit there and wonder when it would be over?

Steff and I also took the twins back into Awassa today to go to church. We decided it would be nice for Abuka and Daro to get the day off from watching them while we went into town. They both fell asleep on the bus and we had to carry them about 6 km to Emanuel's house. Margitu also pee'd through her diaper and onto my skirt, so I had to walk the whole way with a HUGE wet spot on me. Danni, Emanuel's son, was so cute playing with the babies. I think everyone enjoyed having the twins to gawk at while we listened to an April 2006 Conference talk today. Today is also fast Sunday, so it was such a bad idea to decide to carry around two 20 pound babies with our backpacks on in 90 degree weather with no food in our stomach's. Why we do the things we do, I question it myself sometimes. But only then is it too late!

It's been quite the day to be fasting too, in some ways perfect. It's been such a great experience being here, and in some ways I take everyday that I'm here for granted. Steffanie says that it is going to be harder for me to leave than I think it will, she can see it in my face whenever I'm with the kids. And I know it's true.