With the good, comes the bad.

I realized I have only blogged about the things I love about Addis… So I am going to fill you in on some of my not so favorite things…

1. The dust. It is hot and dry here, and there is dust everywhere. On my feet mostly. but breathing gets hard when it is windy, and I am pretty sure my lungs are red (because the dirt is red). You have to wear sunglasses when walking outside, or else dust gets in your eyes. 

2. The hot sun. It burns you VERY easily. I am a peeling mess, and the nannies at the orphanage were very concerned as to why my skin was coming off. Don't worry, beautiful black skinned women, I am white, and it happens very often! 

3. The lack of running water. Oh how I miss you! I have not had a shower in over a 

Sidenote: While sitting in Lime Tree, in walked an American couple with the CUTEST Ethiopian babies! They passed embassy, and are flying home tomorrow! YAY! I <3 Adoption! 

Anyway… Showering… It has been over a week since I have had a proper shower. We are making due with water bottles, but I am really missing the feeling of being totally clean. No matter how hard I try, it does not seem to happen. 

4. Toilet paper. I miss charmin. And toilet paper in public places. If you go out here you need to remember to bring some with you (which I never seem to remember). But even so, the toilet paper here is like a paper bag. Not soft. 

5. The beggars. I hate when kids come up asking for money. I want to keep them! It is so sad. 

Anyway. I did not want to pretend that everything here is amazing, and great. For the most part, it is ;) But not always! 

A blog of randomness.

Nothing big to report, so I am going to fill you in on a lot of little things!

We got pick pocketed yesterday…Well Deanna did. We were walking to lunch yesterday, and a couple of boys came to us asking for money, which is not unusual. We told them no, but they kept walking with us, and asking. Again, not unusual. We told them "senteem yeleem" "I don't have change" (note: Any amharic words on my blog are just sounded out. I have no idea how to spell anything) My bag is very pickpocket proof, and is pretty impossible to get into, unless it is off of my back. Deanna had a purse with her, it was closed, and she had it close to her, but a boy boldly reached in, and tried to take things! She of course pushed him away and told him no, and made sure she had everything of importance (wallet, camera etc) When we got home she realized her headphones, which was in an open pocket, were missing. So, lesson learned. She has since switched to carrying her backpack, and we are now wearing our moneybelts (a flat fanny pack that goes under our clothes). Do not worry… we were perfectly safe, and there were a lot of people around, who would have helped if needed. We are in a city, and with any city setting, comes the chance of "sneaky stealers"! 

Deanna and I are still getting along. We have not had one disagreement, and she is basically the perfect travel buddy. She is not to crazy, and does not want to do scary things, but she does not want to sit at home all day either. I am in charge of the alarm clock, and we wake up at 7am, but I usually wake up before then, and lay in bed for a while. Deanna sleeps as long as she can. One night, apparently she had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I heard her get up, and I woke right up too! I sat straight up and said very cheerfully, "Wow, your up before me today?!?!" Deanna looked at me like was crazy and told me it was the middle of the night, and to go back to sleep. We had a good laugh in the morning. Also during the night I apparently have been talking in my sleep… Dundee, the owner of the house lives in the compound. His room is on the other side of the wall as ours, although he has a separate entrance. He has told me that he can hear me talking, and laughing in my sleep. Embarrassing? Yep! He thinks its the funniest thing ever. 

The kids at the orphanage tried to braid my hair today. Smooth hair is very unusual around here, lots of people like to touch it. I wish I could keep it cleaner ;) I think I am going to ask them to cornrow it ;) Good news though! I have heard we have running water at the house!!!! I may get to shower today! For the (do NOT judge me!) second time since I have been here!! We have been keeping clean, don't worry, but bottled water is not a shower! 

My heart hurts :(

Oh my oh my! We had our first day at the orphanage today. I can't even begin to tell you the emotions that I felt today! I got to hold sweet little babies from 0-6months all day. It made my life. Until one of the nannies told me the the 2/3month old baby I was holding got left in a toilet by his mother when he was born. Then my pleasure turned to heartbreak. Who could throw this amazing little baby away?  

It was a lot of fun today, but it was a weird kind of day. As much as we loved and kissed on the kids, it still was in the back of my mind that this is the extent of their love. They stay in a room all day with random people coming in and giving them kisses and snuggles. It is great that they get that! Don't get me wrong. The nannies really do love the kids, and I would much rather them be in the orphanage than in the streets like millions of other kids, but there is no way to recreate the love of a family. You can just tell something is missing when you look at them. It kills me. I want to keep every single one of them, or at least bring them back to the States. I know a lot of people who would fall in love with them, and give them amazing forever families! I decided today that I am going to have a ton of kids. What better thing can you give a child than real, unconditional love? I can't think of anything. 

We are going back tomorrow. I am excited, and dreading it at the same time. I just wish I could do more for them. Just meeting their basic needs is not enough. I need to do more! Speaking of basic needs… They are barely being met. There is a HUGE need for anything and everything child related. Just in the infant room, The bottles were used, and had to be washed so the next baby could use it. There was one pacifier for all 5 kids. They use cloth diapers, but don't have enough, so some babies got baby blankets wrapped around their bottoms. And clothing wise…any color and any size goes. They are so short on clothes, so it does not matter. The babies all laid on a crib mattress that was on the floor, and had to share the two toys that was in the room. A set of toy keys, and a little ball that does not squeak anymore. If anyone would like to send thinks, email me(kpcs2002@gmail.com), and I can give you details. Seriously, do it for the kids! I can't stop thinking of the nursery of my church in NJ, and how many toys ect there were, I bet there are more toys in that one room than the entire orphanage…and just for one day a week! We have no idea how good we have it in america. I bet if an Ethiopian woman saw the amount of clothes I own she would be disgusted. I can't even come up with a good reason of why I have so much, especially since I hardly use most of it. Anyway…back to the point. Mail me things! Also school supplies are a need at the school. Any kind! 

My heart is heavy, and so are my eyelids… Time to go to bed! Please pray that all of these kids (not just the babies!) find forever families! They are to perfect to not be loved like they should be! 

Thank God for wifi!!!

It's a Girl!!! For those of you who don't know, my bff is Kalene, and she happens to be pregnant with her first baby :) And I am super thrilled. She had her ultrasound today, and I made sure I was able to get on the internet to Skype! Best news ever! Little Penelope Kendra (yes, KENDRA!!!) is going to be spoiled by this lady! I know of some nice African things I can buy her already!

In other news… I am still loving Africa. Even more so now that  I have found an internet cafe with free wifi! After school today, a friend of Deanna's friend who happens to live in Addis, came and picked us up, and took us to Lime Tree. A very nice and cute cafe in Boli (pronounced bowl-ie). We have decided it is going to become our new hangout. I am 98% sure I can figure out the minibus to get there, and back, so it will cost less than 5birr to get there. (which is 29 cents). 

A lot of people have been asking me to describe Addis, so I am going to try! It is hard to put into words though! And no matter what I write, it will be nothing compared to actually being here. My recommendation is to come, and quickly! 

The weather has been great so far. In the morning it is a little chilly, so a light jacket is needed, but it gets into the high 80's during the day. The sun is always shining, and the sun burns you way more easily than it does in America! The air here is for the most part clean, and refreshing. I had heard before I came that it smells here, and it sometimes does! the cars/busses let off a lot of exhaust, and the animals and people peeing on the streets is a bit gross… but going for a walk is usually really nice and enjoyable. I am still getting used to the altitude. I get winded easily, and am drinking TONS of water. It is really easy to get dehydrated! 

The food has been really good as well. At the guesthouse, Tigist is a rockstar, and always has every meal ready and waiting for us. She is such a nice lady! We eat traditional Ethiopian food, although she tries to make it as nonspicy as possible. She is not sure if we like spice :) All the food is cut up, or mashed so we are able to eat it with Injera, a pancake like sourdough bread that we use instead of a fork. We have been eating a lot of lentils, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes. Never meat. There is one dish she made with eggs and tomatoes that I did not like, but I don't like eggs, so it had nothing to do with the cooking! At the restaurants you can find any type of food. Burgers, pizza, pasta, sandwiches, anything really. It may not be exactly like in America, but pretty close! 

The clothes that people wear is all over the map! You see a lot of people wearing traditional Ethiopian clothes, middle eastern clothes(head coverings ect) and jeans and t-shirts. The majority of people never match, and wear anything they can find. It is not uncommon to see a boy in pink, or in girl shoes. If the shoe fits I guess… It is also not uncommon for people to wear the same outfit for multiple days. The smell of body odor is  also pretty common, unfortunately.  

People really have no sense of personal space here. But not in an uncomfortable way. It is hard to explain, or maybe I just don't mind. For example, today I was in the Minibus, and it was a bit crowded, and a lady was balancing on the very edge of a seat, and held her hand on my leg to steady herself. It was not weird, or inappropriate, just a good place to hold onto! Men walk around holding hands all the time. and people will walk up and want to shake my hand. Or if they are walking next to me they will give my arm a little squeeze. Not hard, but just like a little hello :) I like to think of it as a little sign of love!

I added a few pictures to Facebook, and hope to add more soon, and hopefully videos! Now that I found wifi it will be easier! Tomorrow we are going to an orphanage that we will be working at a few days a week. We love the school, but don't want to spend all of our time teaching! We are excited, and will take lots of pictures! I hope my heart can handle it, and I will be able to leave them at the end of the day! A few boys asked us for money today, and told us their mom was dead. I almost offered to be their mom! It is probably a good thing that it is illegal to take home babies, who knows how many I would try to keep! 

xoxox

Kendra

Biggest Market in Africa - They're not kidding!

I was lazy yesterday, and did not write a blog! So this is two days in one. Sorry, I am sure everyone is holding their breath, waiting for my long blogs!

Yesterday was Friday, and the kids get a half day on Fridays, and the time that they are there they get to play and do a little Bible study. It was so much fun! I started to teach them a little song, but it happens to be much harder than you would think! Those kids are smart, but I guess singing a song in a different language must be hard. They sang a bunch of worship songs in Amharic, and it was SOOO cute. They yell as loud as they can, and some close their eyes, and are so into it, it is amazing! To see little kids Worshiping to God... Ugh! Talk about faith like a child! I love them! When is was time to go, some shook my hand and said Ciao. Others kissed my cheek and gave me big hugs. I soaked it up! One little girl lives near us, and held my hand while we walked home. She kept looking back at her family ang giggling. She thought it was the coolest thing ever. And so did I. :)

After school we went to what we thought was a young adult small group held at the International Evangelical Church (ICE). But really it was a planning meeting for the people starting the group. Oops. It was a little boring, but we met some nice people! After, we met some of Dundee's friends at Kaldis, and got some more coffee :) Then we squeezed 6 people into the car again, it was crazy! All the friends made fun of us for laughing so much, which is basically none stop with Deanna and I! We dropped the extra people off, and got a nice tour of the city. We were SOOO tired when we got home, we went straight to sleep.

When we woke up this morning, I looked at the time on my phone, and could not believe that we had slept in until 10:00! We got up and got dressed, ate, and waited for one of the guys to take us to the Marcado. Which is the largest outdoor market in Africa. Once we were on our way, I looked at my watch and told Deanna that it was 9:30am. It took us a while to remember that my phone had never changed time since I left Chicago! HA! We were really thrown off then, and figured we had really woken up at 7am. We rode a couple of Minibuses, and got off at the begining of the Mercado. It was pretty crazy! Imagine chinatown, but bigger, busier, and WAY more insane. There were people everywhere, selling anything you can imagine. There was so much food, spices, clothes, ANYTHING. And the people! I think I just saw about a million people today. And hundreds of donkeys, and goats. And Chickens. That were alive. And hanging upside down just wait for people to come eat them. Eww. Someone asked me if I can cut my own goat in America. I was like, ummmm we buy it at the store... They looked at me like I am crazy. Nope, just American! Deanna and I both bouht a pretty scarf. It is a handmade traditional Ethiopian one, and is pink! Woohoo! Sidenote- We start taking Amharic classes on Monday! Dundee found someone who will teach us an hour a day, for 50birr/hour. Thats about 3USD/hour. So 15USD a week for 5 hours of language class. And we will be the only students. So cheap! And so worth it! I am basically fluent already.

Words I can say (but not spell, so I won't):

Water, two, thank you, How are you(to a man, woman, or group) I am fine, yes, no, hello, Monday, goodbye, And lots of places around the city that I need to say to the conductor to make sure I am on the right minibus.

I can't even describe the feel of theis place. I really hope that everyone gets to experience something like this someday. Most of these people have little to nothing. They live off of less than one american dollar a day, and they do so happily, and with such joy. It just raidiates from them. Even if you cannot communicate or speak the same language, you can just feel the love of Jesus through them. It is so amazing, and I hope that a little bit of that will rub off onto me!

Xoxo

Be still my heart!

Man oh man. Day 2 in Addis. I did not think that I could fall more in love with this place than I was yesterday. But when I woke up and breakfast was ready and waiting, I did! Just kidding. Although that is a nice way to wake up! We walked to the school after we ate, and met the teachers and the kids. Oh my goodness. I can not even begin to describe how cute and adorable these kids are! When we walked in they grabbed at my hands right away, and asked me what my name is. Now all I hear during free time is KENDRA, KENDRA in little Amharic accents. I met my class, they are upper kindergarten. So they are like 6 or 7. I will be teaching them english, math and science. Except on Fridays. It is a half day, and Bible study day. I get to teach them childrens Bible songs (so if you know any good ones let me know!) and read out of the English Bible. I am a little nervous about teaching them. There is only one book, which the teacher uses, and a very small white board in the classroom. How is that going to work?!? The classroom is SO small! Smaller than my bedroom at home, and has long tiny metal tables with mini chairs squeezed in between them. there are almost 30 kids in my classroom. During class they are all SO silent, and pay attention 100%. If one of them even rests their head in their hands the yeacher will nudge them or something to snap them back to attention.

We played outside for over an hour with them, The outside is a fenced in (the fences are metal slabs set next to each other) dirt yard with piles of rubble everywhere. And tires for the kids to climb on. There was a metal slide, although the kids did not use it, I think it was to hot, and 2 swings. But the kids still had a blast! Then we did "sports class" which was just doing streches in the yard. It was to hot to do much, so we just sat in the shade, and the kids played a game similar to 20 questions, although it was in Amharic, so I just sat on the swing talking to the teacher, and getting sunburned. Oops. I guess if you are in Africa you should wear sunscreen. After it was lunch time, and I think my teacher could see I was tired, since she said I could go home for the rest of the day!

So, we went to Kaldis's! My first time figuring out the minibusses without help, and it was a success! The poor conductors (people who ride in the back of the bus, calling for more passengers, and collecting the money) have a hard time understanding my accent, but we eventually got it worked out. I always get a good giggle when trying to say thank you in Amharic. It's a tough language! Since our water is still not working (ugh!) we went to take a shower at a gym (which was super fancy!) our first shower since leaving America! Baby wipes and hats can only cover so much, so we paid for a shower, and let me tell you... it was worth it! We then went to Kaldi's, got some yummy coffee, and then went to the internet cafe, and I got to email some of my peeps! Email is the best way to stay connected, since even facebook is a lot for the internet here! So if you want to email me (and you should! I don't want to get lonely!) my address is kpcs2002@gmail.com. I expect many new emails next time I log in!

We came home, and rested a bit. I am soooo tired. This day feels like it has been really long! We chatted with a few of the workers here. One of them is from Cali, and is staying here for 2 years! She is the only American we have met so far. Hopefully we will meet more at the International Church on Sunday!

Well, it's almost 7:30. This girl is going to bed!

xoxo

Donkeys, and Lions, and Goats! Oh My!

We have done SOOO much already! I love love LOVE this place! the people are SO nice, and all they want to do is help...And they are beautiful! I can see Jesus shining in everyone. It seems like I am going to have a hard time not falling head over heels for these people. Especially the beautiful babies! As I type this the daughter of Tigist our housemaid (yep. Housemaid!) is giggling and being adorable. I love her.

We flew into the airport a bit late, and had to wait forever for our visas (although we went straight to the line, Jill!) Once we got our visa we sailed through customs and money exchange. We got all of our bags piled onto a cart and met Tamrat and Dundee who were holding signs with our names on them. (Mrs. P, you will be happy to know that not one person asked us to ride with them!) Also with Tamrat and Dundee were two boys from Switzerland who are also volunteers with Love volunteers. So me and Deanna. Tamrat and Dundee. And 2 Swiss boys. Thats 6 people. And when we went to Dundees car I almost died. It was SMALL! We were able to squoosh 3 of our 4 giant suticases into the trunk, and the 4th went on the floor of the passenger side. Then the 4 of us volunteers piled into the back seat and held all of our carryons. It was a vety tight squeeze. I am still shocked the doors did not fly open while driving. Luckily it was the middle of the night, and not one person was out. Apparently do not leave their houses afer 9pm. Then it would have been a SSCARY first ride! There are NO traffic laws here! I don't know how they figure it out, the only system I understand is that the biggest car goes first!

We stayed up a bit late last night (until 5am) we unpacked a little, and wrote in our journals a bit (thanks Carey for the awesome new journal!! xoxo) then went to sleep. We woke up at 9:30am and got dressed and Tamrat was waiting for us, and breakfast was all ready and wating for ud. I think I am going to get a bit spoiled here! We had cereal with milk from a bag, a very think bread, and peanunbutter and jam. Then we got a brief synopsis of what we were going to be doing and places that we would probably like to visit. Tamrat told us to be aware of "sneaky stealers" (aka pickpockets) but otherwise we will be totally safe. After that we walked around and saw one of the schools that we will be working at. It was empty since the kids are still on holiday. Christmas here is on January 7th. We met an american about our age who works there, and has been living here for 6 months, She already knows a ton of amharic! We also saw a bunch of donkeys, ox, sheep, goats, and cows... in the streets. Walking around outside you definitely feel like you are in a 3rd world country. The road our house is one is basically dirt with rubble on it. The "main" roads and sidewalks have HUGE potholes that make the ones in Jersey/NYC look smooth. And the people, I cannot even express how much I love them! The kids will run up to you saying "faranje" their word for foreigner. If I smile at them (which of course I do) they giggle and get shy. When I give them a dumdum, they look so cute and run off to show off their gifts.

Then we rode a minibus. Holy cow. I thought NYC was crazy driving. I was dead wrong! Minibus is just a fancy name for large van. They are all 12 seaters, but I don't think I saw one that had less than 15 passengers, and even saw one that had to have at least 23 people in it! We rode it first to a building that is kinda like a mall. We got some coffee at Kaldi's, Which is delish, and has a logo that is basically a starbucks logo, except the desigh in the green circle is a bit different. On the way there we walked past a cow head. Just the head. After we came home and lunch was ready and waiting, again! Tigist made some sort of Ethiopian food and rice. it was good! Then another worker (I can't pronounce his name) took us to the National Museum, and the "lion cages". The museum was pretty cool. It had a bunch of artifacts, and things about the Ethiopian royalty. Usual museum stuff. The "lion cages" were exactly that. Poor lions in small itty bitty cages. Just concrete floors and metal bars. There were also some monkeys who were in the same kind of cage, and there were people teasing one poor little guy, and he got so worked up he jumped around the cage for a bit, rattled the door, then got all sad and curled up into a ball. I wanted to take him home.

We took 3 different minibuses home, and now am writing this since we have some down time, and will post it as soon as we have access to internet. We have to have an internet stick, and Dundee has one we can use, but we all have to share it. Apparently they are expensive, but there is also an internet cafe next to Kaldi's we are going to test out soon.

The prices are amazing here! It is 17 Birr to 1 USD. My macciatto was 11 Birr- less than 1 USD! The museum was 10 Birr, and the lion cages was 20 Birr. The minibus is 2,5 Birr for a 10-15 min ride. That is like 1.5 cents in America. Ummm CRAZY? And it is SO easy to know your way around in the minibuses. Or at least I get it. Tamrat kept testing me all day on the names of our stops, and I always got them right! I totally feel ready for us to venture out on our own! Although until our Amharic improves they don't want us to go further than Mexico alone. (HA!)

I really need to take a shower, but the water is a bit tempermental, and only works sometimes. Deanna and I have our own room, and bathroom, with a big gerry can full of water for the toilet when the water is out. We are really in Africa! It is almost dinner time, so I am going to go clean up, as much as possible! I miss everyone back home, but am pretty sure I am going to love it here!! xoxox.