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.

Sponsors going once, twice, SOLD!!

Little Alemetzi! She is so tiny! This picture doesn't do her thinness justice, because the shirt covers her up pretty well. When we were at the Doctor's her arm is about as thick as one of the twins'.
Washing the village children! Craziness I tell you, craziness!!
Emuti and Mariama got into the chalk the other day! You can't help but just laugh and be happy with these kids!
The youth group plowing the onion field!

So something quite amazing happened the other day. Steff had been meaning to go visit an orphan in the village that someone in America recently decided to sponsor. When we went to the house to visit her this little scrawny girl came out of the house. Her name is Alemetzi and she is nine years old and probably weighs about 35 pounds. It is quite scary to see her. I immediately became concerned with her weight, and the grandmother told us that she has been vomiting the last two days. We took her and her grandmother to the doctor the next day and she is now getting injections to stop the vomiting because she is loosing so much water. Her sponsor in reality saved her life, whether they know it or not. Because they decided to sponsor this girl her medical bills are covered and she will be going to school this coming year. She really is the sweetest little girl and it's just proof to me that God works in mysterious ways!

If anyone reading this would like to be a sponsor to the local village children, we are currently working on individual children's forms where you can pick a child to sponsor. It should be up on the website within the next month and I'll keep everyone posted. But basically you can sponsor a child for $50 a month which covers food, education and basic health expenses. You can look at the website right now if you like at http://www.villageofhope-ethiopia.org/!!

We also have more new about the new child coming that Lon found. It is actually a little baby girl and it is quite a sad story. The baby's mother was approached by a farenji some time ago and was offered 200 birr if she would have sex with him. Later she got pregnant but thought it was her boyfriend's baby. However, when the child was born it had white skin. The baby is considered an "evil eye" by the Muslim people there and the fact that the baby won't breastfeed is only further proof to them that the child is possessed. If Lon hadn't agreed to take the baby, it would most likely be killed by the village people. She should be with us this next week and we are so excited to have four babies (yes, there is a little sarcasm there, but in all honesty, we're happy).

On Thursday the youth group got together to do a service project for some selected families in the village. We went out to this man's onion field and the youth plowed the field! It was so great to see them get together for a great cause! They are all such amazing young people and they are really going to make a difference in this village! Steff is so excited about them and the group's future and we cannot wait to get the shirts that my mom bought for the group! They will look so sharp when they all have matching shirts with the group's logo on them!

Helen, Kidist and Calli also decided that they would have the local village mothers bring their children to VOH to show them how to properly bathe their children. The only problem is that word spreads like wildfire and while the girls were only predicting about 30 mother showing up, we had about 100 mothers and children show up. We actually had to have the guard shut the front gate because there were about 50 more outside waiting. It was a complete fiasco! I helped for about an hour but then had to take Dibabe and Benjamin into Negelle to get the last set of Benji's shots. I happily left! Steff and Abu got upset by the whole event because they're afraid that now VOH is going to be accused of unfairly giving away clothes and soap to the village children, when certain mothers and children did not receive the same thing! We also had mothers cutting in line to get their children in there and get a new set of clothes. I also caught mothers stripping their children of the new clothes we already gave them and putting them back into the line to get washed and changed into a new set of clothes again. I can't blame them for being dishonest, because hey, if you're poor and you can get an additional set of clothes for your kids, a bar of soap, washcloth, etc. why not be dishonest? I'm not condoning this behavior, but I just can't say it would be fair for me to get upset about it!

Yesterday I made all the kids "going-away" bracelets with some nice glass beads and string that were left behind by Sarah and Nicki. The kids go so excited to pick their own beads. I think they got a little too excited because they got quite possessive over their bracelets and were trying to rub it in each other's face how nice theirs was! Kids are kids the world around!!

We are headed out today to take the kids to Lake Longano as a final trip before they head home to see their families for three weeks this coming Monday! It should be so much fun and hopefully we don't have any drownings, stubbed toes or contagious diseases to come home with!

P.S. Benjamin is looking much better! Hopefully all the kids that go home for three weeks won't come back with diseases and illnesses as well! We are going for 100% healthy kids here!!

Don't cry for me. . .

Cute little Mariama! I tried to get a little artsy with taking pics of the kids. This is the first time Mariama let me take a pic without making a horribly goofy face!
Margitu loves to stand at the window and chew on the bars. I stuck my hand out the window and got this pic of her. She is the funniest little baby. Her new nickname is "Monkey" because she makes 'ooh, ooo, oooh' sounds all the time and scratches her head like a monkey.
Fatuma, Margitu and me. Hanging out in the house. Fatuma is an 18 year old girl that is orphaned and comes to the house to make injera. She is very nice and sweet and loves practicing Amharic with me!!

Last night Benjamin's temperature got up to 105 and he has not improved. Steff had Fayisa, Daro and Dibabe take him to the hospital and they got yet another diagnoses- allergies. Allergic to the medicine, perhaps, but we are all just baffled at the number of things doctors tell us. Even Daro didn't believe the diagnoses. We are just trying to keep the kids healthy and well, and Benjamin seems to be doing better this morning.



Steffanie and I went to a funeral for Abu's uncle yesterday. It was a Muslim funeral so all the men and women were on opposite sides of the house. People would come screaming through, wailing and crying and it just go to be so much that we both broke down giggling. Daro and Abuka were on either side of us and started giggling as well. I told Steff that sometimes the family will hire professional crier's. We thought we were being pretty discreet about our giggling, but later a man that knows us from the village asked why we were laughing- whoops, blew our cover. I guess as the only white people at a funeral all eyes were on us. Anyways, you have to have stuck around for three hours to be granted the privilege of going in and looking at the body. Steff had work to do and decided to leave. I don't think we'll go to another Muslim funeral if we're invited, I don't think we will want to spend another three hours in a day to sit around and fake cry.



Lon has been gone for the past week to Arba Minch with Helen, Kidist and Callie (Helen's sister and friend). They found Emuti's birth mother and got the paperwork signed so that now Emuti can be adopted to a family in Utah! Mariama is being adopted by the same family and she should be leaving for the States within the next month. The twins adoption process is almost complete and they should be leaving by September or October. It will be so hard to see those kids go, but it's nice knowing they will be in Utah and close enough that I can see them again.

I interviewed Chaltu, the twins mother and got a really nice history on her. This girl has been through a lot and shared some very personal stories with me. I hadn't thought that she liked me at all while she was living at the compound because she had been ignoring me and wouldn't speak to me. After this interview, it is easy to see that while she lived at the compound she was under a lot of stress trying to take care of those babies. She was quite passive aggressive in her behavior and when she didn't get what she wanted she would take it out on other's by arguing and being rude. I have gained much more respect for her as a woman and mother, especially when taking care of those twins. They are a handful, but their cuddling, smiles and laughter are so worth it!

Measles, Typhus, Typhoid = apparently the same thing

Benjamin's diagnoses was not enough to convince anyone at VOH that he was okay, so again he was taken to the Doctor. This time I think we actually found a competent doctor in Arsi Negelle. The children actually have Measles, who would have thought?! But it's a relief actually, just like we thought typhus was good news instead of typhoid, so measles is better than typhus. As the babies haven't actually been immunized it makes perfect sense and measles cannot be detected by any blood work, just signs and symptoms. Benjamin still looks like "crap" (in Steff's words), but he is slowly recovering. Balditu is doing better and we've got the babies on a dose of Vitamin A.

For everyone's information I never had Typhoid either. That was another misdiagnoses. Apparently if I did have typhoid I would have to prove that I was rid of the disease before I could even get out of the country to leave for the States. Also Typhoid is horrible- you have to burn the person's feces, they have to be quarantined from everyone/thing and you have horrible pea soup diarrhea. What I did have was a parasite that I cannot honestly cannot remember the name of it. I have yet to gain faith in the health care system here, but I have a hope that no matter what our kids are misdiagnosed with that hopefully some Emox will recover it.

This week is the kids' last week of school before they go home to visit their families (though most of them are orphans they will go to see grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc). We will be taking them to Lake Longano this Saturday and all the kids are super excited. It will be sad while they are gone, but maybe we'll actually get some work done?

Cheers,
Jenelle

Addis in a nutshell

The kids had a sleep over in the big house a weekend or two ago. They all lined up their mattresses and watched a slide show Helen and I made out of pictures of themselves. They loved it!


Baby, Dogmawit, Myself and "Anate" in Addis. I love this family!! Anate's a little preoccupied with talking to me rather than smiling for the camera.
At Yod Abysinnia. One of the traditional dancers. This is a traditional dance from Arsi Negelle, the village right next to us. This girl was shaking her head so fast it is absolutely crazy! Nicki's little flute flirt is behind the singer.

Hey Friends and Family,

Sorry for the delay in posting a blog. Apparently the government has finally caught onto free speech here and any website posting “free speech” for people to read online is blocked. Luckily email is still considered an acceptable means of communication, but apparently even some emails can be read by the government. I finally broke into the blog, but there may still be more complications in the future!

I finally made it back from Addis Ababa on Wednesday afternoon. The male interns never came to Addis with us because they decided to stay in Debre Zeit. They decided that Addis Ababa would be even more boring than staying in Debre Zeit with nothing to do (?- I don’t understand college aged men sometimes). So Sarah Nicki and I continued into Addis with our seat belts in tow.

We were going to make it to a soccer match in Addis, but Ethiopians run on their own time and we didn’t make it to the Stadium until the game was half over, so we decided just to drop our stuff off at the office and then go site see. I took Sarah and Nicki shopping and then we stopped back up in Shiro Meda so I could show the girls where I lived last year. The boy I lived with last year, Tesfa has grown over a foot since I left and now truly looks like a young man. He was so shy and embarrassed to see me and just kept saying things like, “oh my gosh, it is true” in reference to the fact that I had actually come back to Ethiopia. We then stopped and saw the neighbors-a very nice old couple that have their two granddaughters living with them. The wife is so sweet, I called her “mother” last year because I didn’t know her name, and I honestly still don’t. She was so shocked to see me and asked why I didn’t call her from America! All the street children remembered me as well. Their nickname for me last year was “kiwi” because a mentally unstable man that lived in my neighborhood starting calling me kiwi one day and all the kids caught on to it. They honestly didn’t know why they called me that, but I don’t think they cared. As soon as they saw me they started screaming “kiwi, kiwi!” and it brought tears to my eyes that they had really remembered me even though I have been gone for over nine months.

Later that night I took Nicki and Sarah to a nice restaurant called Yod Abysinnia where they have traditional dancing and a very nice musical show with traditional musicians and singers. Nicki had been looking for a traditional flute to buy for her father, and eyed up with the flutist and did some silent flirting. She then walked up to him during a break in the music and asked if he could give her a lesson and would sell her a flute. He said he usually sold them for 100 birr each, but for her, someone truly interested in the music, he would sell her two flutes for 100 birr! Being a girl sometimes really pays off! We had such a nice time and I think Sarah and Nicki loved seeing the dancing.

Sunday we went to the local branch and my rivalry with the missionaries resumed. Their pride was still hurt over my previous contest with them and the fact that they could not stand up to a girl!! The culture here in the church is so very different and yet the same in the States. Gossip is a huge problem among all the branches and being down right rude to each other is another problem. This cute little woman gave her Relief Society lesson and was just shaking she was so nervous. She finished her lesson about 20 minutes early and so Sister Woodruff asked the women if they would like to talk about anything. The women immediately started to complain that the woman that gave the talk hadn’t given the right one in the manual and that she had said things wrong, she had added her own personal thought and didn’t read word-for-word out of the manual. Some women even said that they could have taught the lesson better than her. I was in complete shock at what was being said, that they could possibly be that forward and rude. Sister Woodruff looked at me and said, “Jenelle, would you like to say something to the women?” I think I turned red right away and stood in front of the women and gave them some sphill about how everyone has talents and that we need to all develop our talents and support each other. Sister LaPray broke in with a scripture and some words of advice. If looks could kill, we would be dead because those women were so rude to each other and probably thought, “who does this farenji think she is, coming in here and telling us what to do!?”

Monday we just dinked around town and the two girls got some major souvenir shopping done. By the way, Nicki and Sarah have been removed from their project in Arsi Negelle and are most likely leaving for the States this weekend. There have been some problems and it’s too long of a story and it’s unnecessary for me to explain it to friends and family at this time.

Nevertheless, I am back in Kersa Illala with the kids, and it is so good to be back with those kids, especially the babies. When I got back on Wednesday Steff had actually left that morning for Addis to get some stuff mailed out, so we had actually crossed paths. When I got back Balditu and Benjamin were both very sick. As soon as I arrived everyone was like “Jenelle, you have to take the babies to the hospital” Apparently they had been sick for two days already and Steff told everyone that if they were not well by that afternoon when I returned that I would take them to the hospital. I was so stressed out and didn’t think I could take both babies in a minibus to the hospital. It looked like they both had typhus (which is what Margitu had) and Benjamin looked worse, so it was decided to load up Debabe and Benjamin and get them to the hospital. It was the scariest experience of my life because Benjamin had a very high temperature and kept slipping in and out of conciousness. The first doctor hinted towards signs that Benji had a brain tumor, and the other doctor thought he might have leukemia. I was so freaked out that I started to cry. Debabe looked really confused and I actually walked out of the hospital and went outside and started crying and praying that Benjamin wouldn't die. I composed myself and we got the blood work done. The last doctor that saw us said from the blood work he could rule out a number of things and that most likely Benjamin had an URI that had moved to his head (hence the fever, loss of consciousness, bloody nose, etc). It was the scariest day of my life and I can honestly say I hate the health care system here. Balditu was put on a prescription of Emox so that even if she has typhoid, typhus or a parasite the Emox will take out whatever it is.

Last night both babies were up crying all night because they were running fevers and couldn't get comfortable. Steff and I honestly got three hours of sleep. We just sat with the crying babies and watched the Andy Griffith show on DVD all night. I finally went to sleep around 7 am and when I got up at 9 all the staff was calling me lazy and laughing saying that I sleep all the time. I just laughed because it's such the culture here to point out everyone's flaws even if they have no idea that I had gotten no sleep the night before. Steff on the other hand is a maniac and has been awake all day getting things done.

Misdiagnoses!

Sarah and Mariama during the hygiene course they tought last Friday. Mariama is holding a picture of parasites (trying to scare the kids with creepy pictures of germs)
Jamilla and I before our nightly run.
Tayiba coloring her "Scary Germ"


Good news! Sarah has rediagnosed Margitu and she has . . .TYPHUS, not typhoid fever. And why is that good news, you may ask? Because Typhoid is highly contagious and we have two other infants in the compound that share clean diapers with her (bowels are highly contagious and even after washing and sanitizing diapers typhoid can still be spread). We are pretty sure she got typhus from rat fleas. . .yes we have giant mutant rats in the house that sneak through the rafters every night and their fleas do jump everywhere, no matter how clean we may think we are. She is improving very well thanks to accurately diagnosed medication and some TLC from Steff and myself.
This week has been busy organizing the youth group and creating sanitation and hygiene lessons to teach the women who work at the house. We seem to be having problems with them picking snot off the babies faces and then flinging it at the wall and not washing their hands, filling bottles with additional formula without washing them (I found mold in one), shutting off the hot water to conserve the bill and hence NOT washing dishes, themselves or bottles in hot soapy water, not drying dishes, etc. The list seems to go on and I've had it. The kids keep getting sick here and I'm trying to be culturally sensitive to the traditional practices that the women here practice. But once kids keep getting sick the farenji ideas take presidence and my "Western ideals" will take over!! haha





Also, I have discovered that the oil that the cooks are using at the house is Olean. What is Olean? Well Olean is an oil (saturated fat) taken off the market by the FDA in America because it makes people have oily discharge, incontrollable bowels, etc. We have all had cramping, bloating and even diarrhea. So we are going to buy some olive or vegetable oil and perhaps we will start being regular and maybe start losing some weight. Afterall, we have been working out and eating a limited diet of potatoes, injera and wot.





I am leaving for Addis Ababa tomorrow, possibly, with Sarah and Nicki. They are going up with their NGO for a weekend to see a soccer game. If we can cram the three girls and then three guys (the other interns) into their jeep then I will go. If not, then I will stay. And yes, we are concerned about seat belts and safety. . .kind of. There are not seat belts in cars here and the minibuses that we ride into town should only fit 12 but I've been in some where there are 26+ people crammed in. It will be nice to get into Addis and visit friends from last year and visit the branch again.

Cheers,

Jenelle