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

NGO's are great?

This week has been a surprising one. First off, Lon has arrived (the founder) along with Helen’s sister Kidist and her friend Calli. I could see the anxiety on Steff’s face when everyone arrived- what will all the girls do while they’re here, what can Steff give them as responsibilities to do? Also there are some underlying issues regarding founder’s policies, expectations, what has really been happening and just mixed feelings all in between regarding everyone that works for the NGO. Though I am not an official employee Steff has sat down with me and I have gotten her to talk through some issues and put them into a clear format of speech so when she sits down with Lon things can run more smoothly. Don’t get me wrong, NGO’s are great, especially this one, but behind every great thing there is a lot of man power, organizing, governing and negotiating.

Steff and I have been on a pretty consistent schedule this week: working with the kids, working ourselves and then we’ve been jogging about 6 km each night. Last night we got totally thrown off our routine though. Margitu’s been having a runny nose and fever and generally under the weather. She was asleep last night after dinner and I wanted to wake her to feed her. She felt really hot and I took her temp. It was 105 F. We immediately packed up the bags, threw a cold towel on her and booked it to the street to catch a minibus at 8pm to get to the hospital. Luckily we flagged down a car that one of our worker’s was in and got a ride to the hospital. Steff went on into the village to wake up Lon in his hotel room and get him to drive his rental car back to the hospital and take us home when we were done. The hospital’s here are so scary and so unsanitary. I was standing with Margitu in my arms in the hallway, the lights flickering above my head looking down the long dark hallway at a line of people wheezing, hacking and waling from their pain. I heard a lady say, “oh God, there’s a car accident”. I was afraid of what I would see next: two bodies brought in, bloody and bandaged. Just then I saw Steff come in, helping the people from the accident (she’s such a Saint I tell you). All I could think is ‘it would be horrible to die in a place like this’. Two hours after we arrived we left the hospital with the diagnoses of Typhoid Fever and a box of medicine, half of which I looked up after we got home last night and is complete crap that the doctor’s recommend and the pharmacy sells to make money. We got a Vitamin B12 supplement for Typhoid Fever. Please explain to me how that makes any sense?

I was telling Steffanie that if there were Social workers that actually worked in hospitals here they might question why VOH keeps bringing in our kids with illnesses, and question if we were really a good NGO doing our job. It is true, we do have a lot of sick kids, and even Steffanie and I question ‘what is going on here’ that there is always someone sick. We try our best to implement clean hygienic and sanitary practices, but some traditions and practices just die very hard here. Sara and Nicki came yesterday to teach our kids about germs and to wash our hands. It was a darling lesson; Nicki put honey on her hands (an analogy for wiping your butt with your hands) and then went and shook the kid’s hands and touched their faces. They were all squealing and making “ewwww” noises. It made a very good point though, that germs are invisible but can get anywhere.

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!!