Almaz in Ethiopia

Many of you may know Almaz, a fabulous woman and former roommate of mine who followed God's call a couple years ago to begin working with orphans in Ethiopia. I visited her in January 2007, and at that point she was just getting started so we spent a lot of time furniture shopping for cribs and little toddler chairs. This time around, operations are in full swing at Hannah's Hope, a home for children waiting to be adopted through All God's Children International.

Over the last two and half years, Almaz and AGCI have placed over 200 children with adoptive parents from the US. There are currently about 25 small babies and 35 toddlers and older kids living at Hannah's Hope as their adoptions are processed.
I actually got to see as four sets of parents picked up their kids- it was very emotional on all sides, as it is a long road for both the children and the parents. Besides adoption, the agency also has a sponsorship program to support poor families.

Almaz expressed that she sometimes feels she is 'getting eaten up' by the job, with its heavy demands and responsibilities. However, she also said that the story of any one of those 200 kids makes it all worthwhile!

Besides helping out feeding babies and playing with the older kids, I also just got to enjoy some fun with Almaz. We got a lot of coffee and Italian food around town, took a little weekend trip to a resort/lake south of Addis Ababa, went running together (just like the old days), and just generally enjoyed some good laughs and girl talk. Needless to say, I am very very proud of my old roomie!

Pics:
Just another day at the office for Almaz!


Running buddies reunited


Lots of mouths to feed!


Baking banana bread with the older kids

Tanzania/Zanzibar

Group capacity building in Mbale

On my way to Tanzania in mid May, I had the opportunity to stop off in Mbale, in eastern Uganda. Aida, my colleague from Buddukiro, had asked me if I would be willing to travel there to visit a few projects that her friend Joseph was working on. I stayed at Joseph's place in the village, about a 10 km boda ride from town. We had a whirlwind Saturday where we met with a youth group, a women's group, and a church group one after the other to take them through some strategic planning. Here's a few pics:

Youth Group - Because a lot of the youth are out of school and/or unemployed, delinquency can be a problem. This group was formed to give the youth around Mbale a productive outlet for their time an energy. They've done a lot of dramas to educate the community about HIV/AIDS, and have several income generating projects to raise money for schools fees for their members and other needy youth in the area. These include things like raising chickens and cultivating seedlings. As with each of the other groups, I took them through an exercise to identify the main accomplishments of their group so far, the areas of needed improvement, and their goals for the future. We then identified some key goals and made a more detailed workplan to flesh out a strategy for achieving them.


Women's Group - These 40 ladies gave me pretty much the most energetic welcome of my whole life when I arrived to the field where they usually meet- singing, dancing, hugging... the royal treatment! They were so excited to have an outsider show interest in what they've been doing- who can resist the urge to show off a bit when you've been working hard?! They formed to save money together and do income generating projects. They've also had some other training, such as in the production of energy efficient stoves.


Church Group - Joseph is the pastor of this awesome little village church. Though small in number and themselves poor, they have started up a project that helps dozens of orphans in the area. One of the things we discussed with them was their desire to build a bigger henhouse to house their chicken rearing project. They are also trying to build a new church, so we hit on the idea of focusing first on building the new church, and then using the old church as the henhouse. It was a special experience on Sunday worshipping with them in that little mud building, listening to the African drums during worship. After Joseph finished his sermon on 'Who is God?', I got to deliver a little 'word' myself about 'Who am I?' (basically about how we very beautifully and wonderfully made, and loved by God, the maker of the whole universe!)


Building God's House - Sunday morning after the service, the pastor asked the whole congregation (about 40 adults, kids and babies), to help out with the new building by helping to move the brick pile over to the building site. Even the little ones got their hands dirty helping out!

Rwanda/Burundi Pics

Gisenyi, Rwanda - A nice view of Gisenyi, a small resort town a walkable distance from the DRC border/Goma. It's about a three hour ride from Kigali through beautiful winding green hills. In the background is the very active volcano that sometimes disrupts life there!


Southwestern Uganda - Amie standing outside the bus around 6:00am. We were waiting in a line of traffic for a few hours for an overturned truck to be cleared so we could make it to the border with Rwanda. Unfortunately, the accident caused a backlog at the border, which made for a hectic immigration experience. The buses will leave you if you take too long, and unfortunately we had to deal with an insane number of blatant 'queue jumpers.' Amie is usually the confrontational one, but I shocked even myself by raising quite a stink after like 10 guys in a row cut us at the front of the line on the Rwanda side. It started with my blocking the line with my body, escalated to me getting in their faces in French and yelling, 'back, back, back' as I gestured to the back of the line with my thumb, and culminated in Amie, me, and a Ugandan lady teaming up to cut all of them back! (After that move by us, the line pretty much disintegrated all together!)



Kigali, Rwanda - Overlooking Kigali, which is basically sprawled around hills overlooking a valley. It was an incredibly clean, orderly city with great roads, which I think can be partly attributed to all the reconstruction work following the genocide. I could hardly believe it's been 15 years since that was going on, and could hardly believe that it went on in these very streets. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to visit the genocide memorial this trip- perhaps next time.

Here's a few pics from my trip to Rwanda/DRC/Burundi. I went with a Amie, not only a great roommate but a great travel buddy as well!

Goma, DRC - Me standing in front of Lake Kivu in Goma. That's the UN compound behind me. It was a bit of a weird place- physically beautiful, but an odd mix of big NGO houses and vehicles, and incredibly poor people and evidence of the conflict that is still ongoing in many ways. Having just applied for a job with World Vision in Goma, I was trying to get a vibe for the place, and get a sense of whether I could see myself living there. While there, we stayed with a friend of a friend who works for Diane Fossey Gorilla fund, which was pretty cool! (This hilly border area between Uganda, DRC, and Rwanda is prime gorilla habitat). Sadly, that ubiquitous blue shirt I'm wearing in the photo was lost to me forever when I accidentally left it behind at the 'Sky Hotel' in Kigali :(


Bujumbura, Burundi - Here's a view from where I sat chillin' on the shores of Lake Tanganika in Bujumubura. You can see that I approve of the view! I liked Burundi- it was full of beautiful green hills and amazing produce (including strawberries!). There were also bakeries, and a more relaxed vibe than Kigali. I enjoyed dusting off my French as well!

The last leg

I cannot believe it is currently June 8, 1 day before my departure back to the U.S.! Where has the time gone?! I thought I'd better post a few updates before (yay!) seeing many of you in person later this week. My departure from Masaka has been happening kind of gradually over the last month. Here's a rundown of what I've been up to since my last post:

Wrapping up: I officially ended my World Vision internship at the end of April, and wrapped up a few loose ends with my other projects shortly thereafter.

Moving out: At the end of April, I moved out of the room that served so well for the previous three months. I've been a bit of a nomad ever since, sleeping either in hotels, on buses, or at Jenipher's place (during my stops back in Masaka).

Hitting the road: Because I wanted to focus on project activities, I kind of saved up my remaining travel for the month of May. The last 5 weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind as I've been to Rwanda, DRC (Goma), Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania (Zanzibar), and Ethiopia. Some crazy travel stories to be told, for sure!

Holding babies: For the last two weeks of May, I visited Almaz at Hannah's Hope in Ethiopia. This is a home for orphans in the process of being adopted by American families through All God's Children International. We had such a great time together, and it was so inspiring to see the developments since my last trip, when things were just getting started.

Looking ahead: I have been giving a lot of thought and prayer to where/what God's leading me to next. I'm thinking that I'd like to be in Africa again next year, and also that I'd like to earn a salary so I can begin paying down my grad school loans. I've applied for a couple jobs so far, including a position with World Vision in DRC. I've had a few phone interviews with them so far, but still waiting for the final decision. If that doesn't come through, I'll be more than happy to job search from the comfort of my parents' home as I cuddle my new nephew Caleb!

Saying goodbyes: The last several days have been a whirlwind of goodbyes. I'm feeling mixed emotions as I prepare to move on from Masaka- excitement to return home and see friends and family, but sadness at the thought that this chapter is closed, and it's now time to leave behind all the great people I've met here. Praise God that it is a bit painful to go, because it's a sign of how deeply He's blessed me with friends and meaningful work to do during my time here!