Pictures

A pic that Helen took of Dibabe and Benjamin. I think this picture makes Dibabe look old as it appears she has graying hair. But I just thought it was a great picture and captures a bit of the story behind her and her baby. She was raped by her father, and hence Benjamin is a result of incest. Her father is in prison now, but nevertheless, it's a miracle she even looks at the boy.

I picked up Benjamin one day to hold him. I guessed I squeezed a little too tight on his bum, because this is what squirted out onto my arm!!

Steff can hold two babies at once!! Balditu did not fall, though she looks like she's hanging on for dear life!

We are not the only one's with sick kids, I swear! We found this girl in the village and told her to come to see the Nurse at our clinic to get her eye looked at. The poor girl hasn't shown up yet.




AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I'm really sorry, but I accidentally erased my last post by trying to edit in the pictures for this one!! If anyone has been printing this blog out (Mom?) could you hold onto my last post (Galatomi, Galatomi). I'd like to keep it for journal/documenting reasons! Thanks!!

A few questions answered

Mom emailed me with some questions that family and friends have asked, and perhaps I have not been too clear about certain things in previous posts. So here is a friendly q & a session:

Who exactly are Helen and Steffanie?
Helen is the Kennard's daughter. The Kennard's are the American founders and CEO's of Village of Hope. Helen came to Ethiopia this April with her mother and is staying until July to help at the village and visit her biological family. Helen was adopted by the Kennard's 13 years ago along with her five siblings from the very village where Village of Hope is located.

Steffanie is an American. A very good friend of the Kennard's, she decided to come to Ethiopia nearly two years ago to help set up the Village of Hope and get it running as a non-profit organization, register with the government and all the other details. She is a volunteer, spends money from her own pocket to be out here. She is absolutely amazing and Helen and I are looking for some single 30 something man that has an interest in humanitarian work, has a graduate degree in something, loves children and will cherish Steffanie for the rest of their lives. Please submit potential applicants for Helen and I to review. Steffanie will most likely move back to the States after October or so, once the whole Village of Hope is in the hands of local Ethiopians.


Are they other students, where are they from, how long have they been there, how long will they continue to be there? No, there are no other students out here.


Are there other adults besides? No and Yes. There are many Ethiopians that work for the VOH, but no other volunteers/Americans that are here. The Kennard's bring out expeditions every few months which consist of either Doctor expeditions or just volunteers from the states that come for about a week and help with building/planting/health care projects.


Who takes care of the children when the three of you are away/together? That is left up to a few women that work at the VOH during the day. At night there are three teenage girls that live a the compound that we have left the responsibility up to. Usually there is some clean-up work to do once we return, such as messy diapers that need washing, and making sure that the kids really did eat.


Why are the children so Beautiful? (as opposed to emaciated, starving, children in ill-health).
Ethiopians are just biologically gorgeous people, and in my opinion, some of the most beautiful people on this earth. None of the children at our compound are emaciated, starving, etc. because they live with us and we feed them three square meals a day and address their medical needs as fast as we can.

Do children just get abandoned, or are they removed from their homes because of neglect, or other reasons like in the US?
All of the children that we have at the compound have different reasons for being with us. Examples:
One girl was raped by her father and ran away. She refuses to return home.
One girl was abandoned by her mother and left at a restaurant and raised by the owners until Lon Kennard found her and brought her to the compound.
Three children live with their grandparents as their parent's have died. Their grandparents can't financially afford them and therefore they were not being fed well or sheltered.
There are two families of kids (three kids from one family, three kids from another) where the mother's are just un-fit. They are local prostitutes and have up to six children all from different men. The kids get neglected and left to roam the streets during the day while their mother is away.
And NO, there is no policy like Child Protective Services in Ethiopia. If children are abused, neglected, etc then they are succumb to survive off of the services that the local community or their extended family offer. Police reports can be made on abuse, but rarely are they followed through.

How much funding and/or other support do you get from the Ethiopian government? None. Village of Hope is an NGO meaning Non-Government Organization. It gets its funding strictly from donations, and from sponsors giving money to support the kids education, food and living expenses. If you or someone you know would like to sponsor one of the children please contact me immediately. To sponsor a child it is $50 a month or $600/year. My email is jenelletittelfitz@gmail.com


Are you in any kind of danger from civil unrest, or do you feel threatened by virtue of being American??? Not at all. I am registered with the American Embassy and if there is any sort of terrorist threat or threat to American citizens I will be contacted immediately. There are general threats to myself for a) being a woman and b) being a foreigner
I feel that I am very well informed on how to deal with these matters. The best defense I have is that I speak enough of the language to know what is going on around me and to ask directions and where to go when I need help. I had a few things happen to me last year that I walked away from without a scratch, but those only made me more aware for what I was getting into this year. Also I am in a pretty rural area. There are generally never enough people around to pose any sort of threat. I never travel alone either. Either Steffanie, Helen or one of the employees from the compound is with me at all times when I leave Village of Hope.

How did you get so darn cute? Why is it that you are smiling so much when you are under such primitive conditions?
Well, I guess you could thank good genes for my ridiculously good looks.
About the smiling- A smile is the light in the window of your face that tells people you're at home. All I can say is that I love what I am doing, where I am, and the people I am with. How could I not smile?

Have you grown attached to any particular children? How many are you planning on bringing home with you in August? I love all the children. Helen, Steff and I laugh because we are somewhat like proud parents, and when we are away from the compound we talk about all the children, their little quirks, the fun things they do, and also the annoying things they do. I won't be bringing any of them home, unless an adoption goes through right when I leave and I might be able to travel with the kid(s) to America. That would be fun, but not very realistic as all the kids that are under the adoption process right now will probably take months, if not a year to go through.

A Little rank, dank, and some stank

We're in Addis right now for the weekend as there was a tri-Branch conference today that we all wanted to attend and Steffanie has to meet with a potential donor on Tuesday that is flying into Addis. We're seeing this as a good opportunity to get away from the kids and see what happens while we're gone. We're thinking the babies will be dressed up in doll clothes, will have been fed pebbles mixed with mud that the little girls fed them as play food and that the house will have burnt down? one can only imagine. . .

We ate at the Sombkes house today, a family that the husband works at the Embassy. It was like walking into America at their house. They made strombolli and we had ice cream and salad. Us three girls had a competition with the missionaries who could eat more. We definitely won for desserts. They were a little offended by our pride though, bragging on and on about how much we could eat, and then I think they were a little disgusted by how much we really ate. Sister LePrey, the missionary couple sister here, kept making comments like "you're kidding me" "good heavens girls" when we kept getting more plates full of food. It's kind of sad that I've only been here two weeks and already craving farenji food. But got to stock up now before we go back out to the village!


The pic above is one that Helen took. She found a cool feature on my camera where only green's, yellow's and blue's stick out. That was when I was making the mobile for Benji.


Here's Helen with Margitu after a few days without showering. Then there's me with Benji (Benjamin). That's three days without washing the mat of hair on my head and just a little sunburnt from being sensitive to the sun from my Malaria meds.

Little Balditu on Helen's lap to the right. She's doing so much better now after having girardia. She's smiling and being a baby again!

So on Tuesday the electricity went out at the compound because of some faulty wiring. Therefore the pump on the well shut down and therefore no water or light. . .for three days. Helen and I didn't take showers and were becoming a sore sight to see. Just look at us in the pictures. . .not too shabby? We didn't change our clothes either because we are always having the babies cloth diapers leak through onto our pants or babies throwing up on us, so what's the point of going through five pairs of clothes a day?
I made a mobile to hang over Benjamin's crib and Balditu got a hold of it and ripped it to shreds, so much for that.
The youth group that Steff started had it's first official activity on Thursday. We first met and had a general meeting and they picked a group name (Youth Service) and designed a logo that we are going to try to get printed on shirts while we're here in Addis. They also played volleyball and I was asked to step out for excessive cheating (actually I stepped out at my own free will- ha!)


This is a comic strip I cut out of the paper before I left. Though I hope this is never me, I thought it was pretty funny. If you can't read it, it says, "Any last requests?"
"Can I put one last entry in my blog about this?"

It's been nice to be in Addis for the day and to cruise around and show Helen and Steff around MY territory since I was here all last year and Steff has always lived out in the country in Kersa Ellala. BAD NEWS- on the bus ride to Addis yesterday morning Helen got her passport, money and immunization card stolen. Her dad's coming out her next week so she is going to survive off of my money for awhile and we called the embassy and they're getting her a replacement passport on Monday. She was pretty upset when she first figured her things were really gone, but only hours later we are joking about it.

Doro Wot, Doro Wot!

So Sunday night the older girls were in charge of making Doro Wot, a traditional dish made with chicken and boiled eggs. Two chickens were bought and literally sloughtered at the Village of Hope by the guard! Helen and I had fun taking pics of the older girls and helping stir the very spicy stew that the chicken is simmered in.


Longaley (15) liming the chicken

Stirring the wot!!

Mariama, one of our little children has gillyworm and the eggs have started to burst from her head. In order to keep her clean she had to have her head shaved. She cried and cried, but after Helen gave her some gum to chew on she seemed to do fine. Emuti, another little girl here really wanted her head shaved and was screaming "yes, yes, yes" the whole way to the barber. As soon as both girls got home with their new do's the kids ridiculed Emuti and she cried the whole night. It shouldn't have been funny, but with how ironic the situation was, Helen, Steff and I now have a running joke, "Yes, Yes, Yes" "No, No, Nooo!!" I've been playing miss nurse, and last night I tried to soak Mariama's foot to coax the worm out. It's head broke out but I was too aggressive and it retreated back into her foot. Helen and Steff are fine with my interest in parasites, and Helen and I are fine with Steff taking on diaper duty for the twins since their mom was asked to leave.

Mariama!!

Balditu, the twin that has been pretty sick, is doing much better and has been keeping down her meds. That's her in my arms. Last night we played night games outside ane everyone had a blast. In the pic: Chaltu (13/14), Me, Balditu, Teyeba (8), Helen, Mariama (7/8), Ayisha (12/13)
This is cute little Benjamin. I mostly put this pic on for Sister Lee to send to Nicole Brouwer. He's 7 months old and so adorable. He's left out of most pics due to his inability to walk and lack of desire to cry for attention, he is so well behaved.

A Rush of Blood to the Head!

Wow, it's been quite the week here! I have so many exciting things to tell and share! The Village of Hope is incredible and the 15 (now 14) kids here are so much fun and I love them all! There are 14 because, unfortunately, there were a lot of behavioral problems with the 18 year old mother of the twins here and she was caught beating the girls, so she was asked to leave. The twins are still with us and are going to be adopted soon by a family in Utah. We're working on starting a "primary" and "mutual" group for the VOH kids as well as village children and Steffanie and I have been busy busy busy trying to organize how to coordinate 60 kids at once!! Helen is here, the Kennard's daughter for a few weeks until her dad comes out for an expedition and then she will leave me. She's been great to have around. She was adopted here as a child and so every Ethiopian wants to teach her Oromic, the local language. I am trying to pick up some Oromic as well, as I learned Amharic last year and so I have to start all over again with a new language! It's fairly easy and my favorite words so far are "Da Duffi!" (quickly) "Ko-sha-sha" (Dirty) and Doo-gaahh (kiss). The kids seem pretty entertained. I took Teyeba (the little girl in blue with thumbs up) to the clinic this week because she has hook worm, and just about all the kids have a cough. A few kids have ring worm as well as Steffanie. One of the twins has girardia and has been vomitting up her medicine. We've given her a Oral Rehydration Supplement and are feeding the kids Atmit, but she just doesn't seem to be getting much better. Steff and I are headed into Addis next week for a church conference and wants to take the baby into the hospital. Bad news too. President Duke, the mission president for the Uganda Kampala mission, which covers Ethiopia as well, just passed away this Thursday from a car accident in Kampala. His wife was with him in the car and survived. My condolences to the family. The missionary couples in Addis are taking it pretty hard, as well as the missionaries. Guess what, just my luck. The first week here and I caught typhoid fever, despite the fact that I had an immunization last year for it. One night I got a very high fever and the next day I woke up and Helen told me that my face looked like I had gotten my wisdom teeth out. My hands, arms, shoulders and ankles swelled up and I couldn't walk. I was very sick to my stomach and the fever got higher. Everyone was saying it was malaria, but I just prayed it wasn't. Steff got me to the hospital and her friend who is the director there took a look at me. When we went to get my blood drawn I was "This" close to passing out. I could feel it coming on but I told Steff I was going to fall over and so she has them stop and wait until I could sit up on my own. Whewww! What an experience. I am fine now, taking some good meds and seem to be doing just fine. I also got a blessing today at church from Emmanuel and he seemed glad to have the opportunity to give a blessing since there are all of five members out here (myself and Steffanie included). We washed the kids clothes in the new washing machine that Abu (a workers at VOH) bought for us as well as a new fridge and stove. The kids clothes were so filthy. I had to take a rag and scoop mud out of the bottom of the basin!! We decided the kids will be washing their clothes on a weekly basis since Steff can't remember the last time they did it on their own. Here are some of Helen's pic's since I forgot to bring the chord for my camera today. The twins (above)

the kids goofing playing around one night after Helen and I introduced them to the jams of "I like to Move it, move it" and "Hey Ya" (Steffanie is there buried under the kids)
Teyiba (8) thumbs up for having hook work!
dirty hands after unloading the new washer, fridge and fruit trees for the garden (Steff, Dubabe (16), me, ?, Longaley (17))

me sleeping on all the kids clothes we folded one day (the same day that my fever started) hmmm, an early sign?

Did you say ONE carry on?

I have made it! Hoorah, Hoorah! I forgot how lonely traveling alone can really be, especially 24 hours of sitting on a plane by yourself! The first leg from SLC to JFK I can't really recall at this point. The British Airways people at JFK were very rude though, or maybe it was because I had such great service from them last year I held them to such high expectations. What can I say, I don't like being told how to check myself into my flight by some women breathing down my neck. Anyways, sat in the JFK airport for six hours for my lay-over, got some good reading in.
Red eye to London. Slept very comfortably in fact. The BEST article I brought on this trip thus far has been my down pillow. And guess what? It doesn't count against you as a carry on! In London I discovered that security has reduced your carry-on's to one. I therefore shoved everything from my backpack into my messenger bag and had one, very heavy carry on, in addition to my pillow, which still did not count against me! London to Addis was nice. Not very many people on the plane so I got to stretch out on my own row. I tried to sleep as much as possible so that I wouldn't have horrible jet lag. Drank lots of water too. As soon as I got off the plane in Addis Ababa the distinct smell of Ethiopia hit me and floods of memories came back from last year. There is a certain smell for Ethiopia, and not necessarily a pleasant one at that. The best I can describe is dirt, spoiled milk and body odor all rolled into a smooth distinct fragrance that permeates from every building, body and bovine in this country.
Steffanie from the Village and the Woodruff's, the new charity missionaries from Alberta, Canada were there at the airport right on time to pick me up. I must say it was quite different from last year when I waited around for ten hours to be picked up by perfect strangers. We drove out to their house on the eastern outskirts of Addis. They live in a very nice house for Ethiopian standards. It has multiple bathrooms with flushing toilets, showers, sinks and they even have a MICROWAVE! We had pancakes for breakfast which is something I should not even think of getting used to because it will be Ethiopian food from here on out. Steffanie and I are staying one more night here and then we'll drive out to the orphanage tomorrow after she has finished some business here.
I love you all! God bless!
Jenelle