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!