July 4, 2008

At 3:15am we finally land. I am in Ethiopia, Africa!! We wait in a line to get our visas. After everyone has gotten through, we go get our bags. Thank God all of the bags made it. Geoffrey picks us up from the airport. Waiting for our luggage to be loaded on to the van we have our first experience with a beggar. I just ignor her because if I don't respond she will probably walk away.

We arrive at the guest house at 5:30am. We only have a few hours to sleep before we need to get up. Those hours passed very quickly. We are up and getting ready before you could even feel rested. For lunch it is peanut butter and jelly crustless and toasted with french fries.

Barrett and his wife Rachel come to have lunch with us. Afterward, we talk about how we all found out about the trip. Then they both told us about the work they do. Barrett then told us some info to know about Ethiopia.

Then we went to The Light and Life Study Center in Kechene. It's a study center for youth in the community. On our way there we got our first real look at Africa. The poverty was unbelievable and we were told this was the richer part of town. I tried to block out most of what I was seeing cause I was not prepared to have a breakdown my first day. The scary part was I didn't have to try that hard---this stuff was just not affecting me. I feel like I'm such a horrible person, but Geoffrey assure me it will come. The overwhelming feeling of sadness for these people will hit me eventually.

At the study center, I was really nervous at first. I started playing with the children. They wanted all of us to play with them and they were so eager for us to participate. Their favorite game seemed to be pick-up-sticks, but I soon realized that is most likely because they really didn't have any other toys. They had about a half container of Play Dough and very worn cards that had to be years old.

I was playing cards with one little girl and it was the best part of my day. I taught her how to play memory and she was getting good at it. She even learned some of the numbers in English. We played a group drawing game then left because the children had to go home.

We then went to an internet cafe to email family to let them know we were safe. We then walked to dinner. On our walk a little boy came up to Geoffrey looking for money. He had a shirt and a scarf on only. There were some type of rashes on his legs and face. And still I felt nothing--there has to be something wrong with me!

We are off to Ambo tomorrow for a couple of days to work in a school and bring lunch to street kids. I still cannot believe I'm in Africa. I want to be blown away on this trip and am very much looking forward to it happening. I'm so humbled that God chose me to come to Ethiopia. This last year and a few months of falling in love with this country through reading I hope transforms into a love through seeing.