In My Mother's Honor

What I am about to write about brings me so much joy!

This summer while I was in Africa I would text home everyday where my mom and Neil were taking care of the children.  On the day I texted Neil about wanting to leave my sneakers for Teshome, I knew something interesting was going on in my mom.  I texted Neil about it because he had just purchased me those shoes, but when he read the text aloud to my mother, her immediate response was to leave them and she would replace mine before I even got home.  Now, my mom is a generous person, but this quick response made me think, "could Africa possibly be stealing my mother's heart as well?"

 

Coming home and starting to share stories, my mom wanted to hear every one of them.  One afternoon after retelling some stories at her kitchen table with her neighbor, they came up with an idea to sew dresses for the girls in Africa.  She texted me to see if I knew somewhere they could send them, and I was thrilled beyond belief!!!  I sure did know where!  The village of Busega in Uganda had me wrapped around it's finger and I thought of the children wearing ill fitting clothing, tattered clothing, and some no clothing at all.  The wheels were set in motion, my mother's sewing machine started smoking pumping out all these beautiful dresses, and the two friend's vision In My Mother's Honor was born.   

 

Miracle after miracle started happening.  People stated donating money for sewing supplies and eventual shipping, donating fabric, and even dresses they made themselves.  After every phone conversation I would have with my mom about this, we would just be in awe of what God was doing.  It started with a brainstorming session at my mom's kitchen table and ended up with these beautiful dresses for the girls in Uganda!! 

Total: 108 dresses and 40 pairs of short... all handmade and in about 4 months time!!

 

In this picture above, two things stand out to me personally.  The dress in the front with the bird on the pocket was made by my wonderfully talented sister, Monica.  She was the only one paying attention while my mother was sewing and what a beautiful way she chose to express her love though this dress on this sweet baby!! The second thing is the girl in the second row with the light color flower print dress.  This is our sponsor daughter, Vanessa.  Vanessa lost her mother a few weeks ago and is now an orphan.  My mom was able to bring sunshine through her talents to Vanesssa just like she does for my boys here in the states.  She's a good grandma :)

 



Pillow case dresses were the way to go.  Easy to sew, or so I'm told since I can barely replace a button, and super cute.  They can also grow with the children since the ties are adjustable.

This is one of my favorites.  Think you don't have money to give to big organizations so you can't help?  All you need to do is exactly what God had already given you the talent to do!  In fact you can use what you already have on hand to get started.  These beautiful dresses were made from my mother's curtains... how Sound of Music is that?!!!  Melts my heart.

Girls are girls all over the world.  A new dress that makes them feel pretty will also make them a bit giggly.



Okay, it doesn't get much cuter than this picture!!  Don't you just want to scoop these three precious babies up?  

Here's one of the most precious parts of the dresses.  Each one has a tag saying "Made just for YOU by Jeannie" (or whoever made the dress).  My mother and her neighbor had read some articles about children being kidnapped for the sex trade.  In the article it talked about children looking like they belong to a group greatly diminishes their chances of abduction.  Dresses of the same style and same tags are one step closer to this.  What an awesome idea they had!  Instead of placing the tag where the children could not see it, the loving hands put the tags on the front, near the bottom, and facing up toward the child so they could read everyday that someone had made their pretty dress just for them.  It's important that they feel someone cares what is happening to them...that they are not forgotten. 

 

Since receiving these pictures this morning and posting a bit on facebook about it, more people with big hearts and a talent for sewing are offering to join the cause.  I hope to personally take the second batch to the village this summer.  I can't wait to see what God does with these next few month and the newly energized Jeannie.  I have always had so much respect for my mom, but I am so truly HONORED to be her daughter now!

 

What talent do you have that could be used to touch another corner of the world?

What a Difference a Year Makes

What could it look like if you follow God where he is telling you to go?

This time last year, I had just about finished my fundraising to go on my first missions trip in June 2011.  The thought of going to Africa both excited me because I had always dreamed of going and also terrified me because it was so far away and so unknown. 

To say I "picked" a missions trip would be such a lie, it picked me... or better yet God laid it right in my path for me to trip over.  After reading about the organizations we would be working with and researching them a bit, I fell in love with P61 and decided to sponsor a child.  When Neil and I received our information and picture of Teshome we thought he was so handsome and were thrilled to hear he was living with his mom, dad, brothers and sister.  I was also excited that after a year of supporting him to go to a local school, I would have the chance to meet him and his family.  For Neil and I this seemed an easy sponsorship, much like the ones everyone else I know participates in.  Send money, get a letter each year, feel good about helping.  It felt "hands on" but in actuality was so "hands off". 

Once I got to Africa and met Teshome, I was SHOCKED to feel such love for him only moments into meeting him.  I probably embarrassed him something awful because I just couldn't stop hugging him.  Then it was time to visit his home.  That's when the walls of our "easy sponsoring" came crumbling down.  The information we had about his family was all wrong.  An intern with P61 had interviewed Teshome about his family and to him his parents and siblings were still his family even though his reality involved none of them.  He lived with his aunt and uncle whom we met and had a coffee ceremony with but all along felt there was something strange about the situation.  The mood in the home was much different than what I was experiencing everywhere else in Ethiopia.  I knew leaving Ethiopia that we were more important to this young boy than we had first realized.  It wasn't until I was home that I learned of the abuse going on and that the good people in Korah were able to get him out of his home, into a safe shelter, and eventually into a boarding school.  Now we were his family.  What if I hadn't gone to see with my own eyes?  Here was a shy boy who wouldn't want to bother others with his situation.  He needed help, but didn't believe that help was there for him.  He needed to see how loved he was before he would ask for help.

There was never a question of "if" we would support him more...he was one of the family now and nothing we do for him feels like a sacrifice.  Would sending your own child to a safe school seem like a sacrifice?  No, it would feel like parental joy to be able to do this for your child.  I was shocked at how deep our feelings have become for Teshome and can't wait to wrap my arms around my child on the other side of the world again.  Leaving Africa felt like abandoning my child, but it has tested my faith in God and trust that he loves Teshome even more than I do and that He has been caring for him every step of the way.

Okay, after Ethiopia my team traveled to Uganda.  To be honest I was feeling like God had just asked a lot from my family and was just beginning to open our hearts in new ways.  That kind of stretching made me cry out to God for a little break emotionally.  I knew taking on another sponsor child was too much for me at that time after all I had just experienced, so when God introduced me to Vanessa I quickly put spiritual ear plugs in and tried to move on from my day spent with her.  However, eventually those ear plugs came out.  It wasn't until after I was back in the states and could not stop thinking and dreaming about her that I contacted Pastor Samuel to see if she had a sponsor.  She did not and my husband and I decided this was what God was calling us to do.  Happily we signed up for an "easy" sponsorship.  Vanessa lived with her mother and we would provide for her school and medical.  We looked forward to praying for her and getting our one letter a year. 

Apparently God had bigger plans again.  Just last week I received word that Vanessa's mother died suddenly.  It has shocked her community and tipped Vanessa's world upside down.  It's making me confront God on new levels again.  Why do children who have almost nothing have to lose the most important person to them?  This time I watched the progression of a child become an orphan.  It breaks my heart in new ways. 

Today I wonder, what if I had not gone to Africa?  What if I had instead used the money spent on the trip to sponsor 50 kids?  I have no doubt that those 50 kids would be thankful for a change in their situation, but what about my two kids that needed a deeper sponsorship... and emotional sponsorship.  My own heart would not have been broken in new ways and I would not see the world through this new filter that has brought me more joy than I ever expected.

Since this time last year, my heart is more broken, I love deeper, I trust God more, I know that saying yes to Him comes with hard things but those hard things are seriously the best things in life.  I know now that when people here in the states see me walking with my kids they see a mom of 3, but when God sees me He sees a mom of 5. 

"Going" could be Africa, Haiti, the shelter down the street, or the local foster care classes.  If God asks you to go, don't be held back by fear of the details or the unknown...GO!  I promise He has big and beautiful things to show you! 

Sick With Myself

This is what makes me sick today.

In anticipation of a move coming up in the next 45 days or so(dates and place are still a mystery), I started to pack some boxes today. I started easy with things we don't really use or rarely remember we have. I packed three boxes that I bet are in all of your houses, too.  "Extra blankets", "extra bedding", and "stuffed animals".

After taping them up and being confident I will not miss these for a couple months if not longer, I stacked them in my kitchen. I was immediately uncomfortable looking at them. Not so long ago, I spent time with families that could fit all of their belongings into these boxes.  Some would have had a box or two to spare.  Me? I have so many "extras" that once I move these boxes to storage my husband won't even notice I have removed anything from the home.

Literally sick to my stomach. What am I going to do about it? I don't know, but I think this move might be painful and also liberating if I can do it right.

My mission now: Find as much stuff as I can that I don't need to hang onto for "someday" and put it in the hands of someone that needs it now. My problem is, if I don't know where to take it I will just give to Rescue Mission.  I would love to know of some other organizations that need items. Any of you know some good ones? My guess is that I will have a little of everything.

Shashemene Here He Comes!!

Today is Monday, the start of the new week.  I made breakfast for my kids, checked facebook, watched a little Curious George, and put the kids down for their naps.  Plans for the rest of the day are some grocery shopping and cleaning my bathroom.  No big deal, just another Monday here in America.
Well, today was not just another Monday in Ethiopia!  Today, Teshome got on a bus and left dusty Korah for the paradise setting of Shashemene boarding school...pretty much every kid's dream when you live in Korah.

It was on the plane leaving Ethiopia this summer, that I composed my first of many emails to P61 expressing my desire to get T into boarding school.  The school was full... really full, and if a spot did open up it would go to the children that were in most need.  Well, Teshome had a home and that's a big step up from other kids.  This was going to have to be a God thing.  After I visited his home where he lived with his aunt and uncle, I knew something was very wrong but I was not sure if it was just my lack of cultural knowledge.  Turns out my gut was right and his uncle had been abusing him badly.  The great men at Great Hope pulled him out of his home after he came to Sammy badly beaten with his face swollen.  He spent the summer living at the shelter in back of the church with some other boys from the community.
 After a wonderful phone chat with my friend Kari today, I got to hear more about Teshome's summer and his heart. Kari and her husband Roger spent the summer in Korah with a group of boys and Teshome was lucky enough to be counted among their group.  He faithfully attended their bible study each day and went on amazing adventures around the city while learning to DREAM BIG!  The people of Korah are beautiful, but the streets and buildings sometimes don't reflect what is in a person's heart. It's so appropriate that after this summer of living in the shelter and healing, he should leave these crumbling and broken homes and head to a place that looks more like how his heart feels today.  A beautiful, sturdy, life giving place.

Teshome and I spent two awesome days together in Korah and he completely captured my heart.  The longing to hug him is just as strong now as it was day I left him.  For now, the beauty of this school is going to have to be enough of a "long distance love hug" for him.

Today while I am doing all my "Monday" activities, I can't help but imagine Teshome's face as the bus pulls into the school grounds.  Soccer fields to the left with real goals and lush grass everywhere.  Getting out and walking through the canopy of hanging vines and shady branches. The little paths lined with gorgeous flowers and mango and avocado trees.  In my mind he does not smiling all day today, and so in turn neither do I.

Since I have visited this school, I can picture right where he will be whenever Manchester United is playing.  I can almost imagine him in the amphitheater jumping and cheering for Rooney! I love that he will sit in this cafeteria eating all his meals EVERY DAY!!

When Teshome and I were in Korah together, the best places we found to play were very different from any place I had spent time.Walls of dirt, dry dirt ground, laundry hanging, stray puppies, and in the middle of a construction sight. 

                   The last time we walked hand in hand together was down these streets of Korah.

 

The next time we hold hands might be on this beautiful path at his school.  With tears in my eyes I joyfully think of Teshome heading to dinner tonight on this very path.  I know starting to sponsor a child seems so small because there are so many children who are in need.  It's days like today that I'm reminded that I don't have to change the world for every child, but I hate to imagine if I hadn't started small with a simple local school sponsorship a little over a year ago.  God has used this experience to change both of our lives.

I love you, Teshome, and I can't wait to see what this year has in store for you!!

Africa: Part 11 "Karamajong Tribe"

Waking up on this second to last morning in Africa, I have to be honest that I was ready to go home.  I was ready for a hot shower and time to sit and relax.  Today was sort of a "half day" which is good because the team was really starting to fade.  Mama Rebecca made us a wonderful breakfast, as usual, and then we were off to shop at the market and eat at a cafe called The Source.

The market was a lot of fun to shop at because we could barter, although I am sure we still paid too much.  I was missing Henok, our guide in Ethiopia, who went to the market with us there and would help us negotiate.  There were lots of fun instruments, jewelry, and art work.  I had already purchased most of my gifts I could from the ministries we were visiting so I knew that at least my money was going to a good cause, however, I did find the most beautiful painting in the market place and can't wait to have it framed to hang up! When we were shopping, it always seemed  rushed so there was little time to think about which stuff was the really great stuff to get at the time.  I know now for our next trip, the shop with these paintings is where I need to go.  After figuring out that the exchange rate and realizing that it was about $5, I kicked myself for not buying more.

We had lunch at The Source, which apparently is code for "where the Americans eat".  We met lots of Americans who were living in Uganda now and apparently this was the internet cafe to hang out in.  After lunch, we were off to visit our last ministry.  Pastor Andrew has been working with the Karamajong tribe in Uganda and the ministry is really still in it's infancy.  We only visited one village of this tribe, but as soon as we arrived we quickly saw this to be what you think of when you think poor living conditions in Africa.  It looks like those infomercials with the naked kids with bloated bellies and terribly unsanitary living conditions.  No place we had visited had been good living conditions, but this was the worst.  The other ministries we had been with were more established and had been around for a while so they had rules for the children and had worked really hard to teach the kids manors.  All of the ministries had a focus on teaching the children not to beg and as a team we respected each leader and followed their direction when handing out candy or other goodies.  At a lot of places, we gave our donated items right to the leader to hand out at another time so we were free to just enjoy our time with the kids and they didn't see us as only a means to stuff.  These were big steps for the children and for us Americans.  I write all of this to say that I know a goal of Pastor Andrew's is to bring these children some of these same values, but they were not there yet.

This part of the Karamajong tribe is an outcast group in Uganda and there is much prejudice against them.  It's difficult for them to find what little work there is because of their position in the tribe.  There are no schools these children are allowed to attend, so Pastor Andrew is working on building them.  They are starting with a preschool, which a friend on the trip is raising funds for.  We got to see the beginnings of the construction while we were there, and our friend was able to bring the first installment for the building project.  That was a wonderful sight.

When it came time for us to break into two groups, one to stay with the women and one to go with the children, I chose to go with the children.  It sounded like the other group had a good time meeting with the women and doing manicures.  Those of us with the children did not have it quite so easy.  The children one on one were sweet and affectionate, but as a group were unruly and aggressive.  We were given instructions to just pass out our items and since this was our last stop we brought everything we had left.  There was one teacher there that tried to make a line for the children and we tried to help her keep that line, but it was no use.  It was intense and at times a bit scary.  After a few minutes and breaking up some fights in line, we quickly passed stuff out and got it over with as fast as possible.  The leaders of the other ministries had told us how hard they had worked with their children from homes with no father, many children, and little constructive discipline.  I had not realized what an amazing job they had done until now, but I also saw such hope for Pastor Andrew because I had seen that the children could still be taught.  Without these skills, there would be no chance of attending school with other children and no opportunities of finding good work as they got older. 

After this crazy time with the kids, we headed back to join as a group again.  Some of the older children put on an AMAZING show for us displaying their tribal dances.  It was one of the greatest treats of the trip!  I was regretting not purchasing the bells that go on your legs in the market earlier.  I didn't quite understand how they worked until I saw them in action.  The dancing was unbelievably beautiful as were the people.  After the dancing it was almost time for us to go, but first we wanted to purchase some necklaces from the women because this is one of their only sources of income.  Like I said before, this tribe is still rough around the edges and each woman sells for herself, so we had to buy an equal amount from each woman so as to not cause problems.  Our group only had enough to buy one from each woman because there were quite a few women.  A much better place to buy necklaces than in the market though.

This tribe was the hardest group for me to be with and a bit exhausting especially at the very end of our trip.  I wonder what my feelings would have been if we had visited them on the first few days of our trip.  Instead of being in a bit of shock of what I saw, maybe my heart would have broken a little more for them.  I think I will have to visit them again someday and see them from a different view.

Back at Canaan's, I used our free time to pack.  With my bags ready to go, I was able to enjoy a delicious dinner and sleep happily for my last night in Africa. 

Africa: Part 10 "Church Like I've Never Seen"

School room where we had Sunday school

Sunday!  I know a lot of us had been waiting for a day of worship for a while now. Our days had been so busy there was little time to debrief as a team and devotionals were almost nonexistent.  We started today with a wonderful breakfast and then headed off in groups to teach Sunday school before church.  Sunday school and church were open to the community, which is almost exclusively Muslim, so we were excited to see who would show up today.

I was with the teenage group and we were teaching the same "Gold" message we had brought to each group we ministered to along the trip.  The group was mostly boys and from their facial expressions seemed very uninterested in what we had to say... until we asked them to share.  These boys heard our message loud and clear and were more honest about their feelings than our other groups.  To hear them talk about how it makes them sad that nobody knows the real them was heartbreaking and also a universal feeling here in Africa and all over my local high school back home.  I could tell by the answers they were giving they are getting a solid biblical education at Canaan's and for that I was grateful.

After Sunday school we headed over to church and settled in.  As with everywhere we went, we sat in the plastic chairs up front with the wooden benches lined up behind us. I was in the last row of chairs before the benches started and the room was packed so there was almost no space between the ladies sitting behind me and my chair.  As the worship started we rose to sing and dance with the crowd.  The only problem was we didn't know any of the songs.  I was a little sad because I was ready to sing and found it hard to join in, but to watch the room worship with such zeal was awesome.  It went on and on, and as we neared the middle of the worship time I started to hear some commotion behind me.  I didn't want to be rude so I didn't look for quite a while.  Soon it became too much for me not to look as someone started kicking my chair.  When I turned around, I was surprised to see a woman thrashing on the floor yelling and screaming.  There were about five other women trying to contain her, but she was strong.  I had never seen for my own eyes anyone that was possesed, but I was pretty sure that was the case and after speaking to the pastor later that day at lunch I found this to be true.  As the women were lifting her by her limbs to carry her outside, she turned to me and began spitting on the back of my head.  Well, that was something new.  I've been spit up on in church before, but never spit on... and certainly not by someone who is possesed.  I'm not going to lie, it freaked me out a bit.  I found out later that she was carried outside where they performed an exersisim of sorts and now the woman is okay.

 This church was full of new experiences for me today.  Watching the hearts pouring out during worship was moving, and the way they take offerings was interesting.  There were a few offerings taken and with each one they would ask members (not us guests) to bring the offering forward.  If they didn't have it with them, they could run home now and get it, there was time... this process took a while.  If they didn't want to go home, they could come up and sign a paper saying they would bring it back later.  I liked the way they gave every opportunity to tithe.  There would be no excuses today other than not wanting to give anything.

Pastor Isaac 

Pastor Issac, who's life story could be a book and probably should be, gave a message about bringing all of us together (the American's and his congregation).  I liked how he call all of us out on our stuff.  He called the Americans out for being, well... Americans, and he called his people out for sometimes viewing foreigners coming in as nothing more than money.  After this time he gave us to *ehem* humble ourselves, he asked our three men to come and "preach".  The first guy to get up is a teenager who just graduated high school, but he has seen more life than a lot of us.  He spoke beautiful truth about how God loved him through all the years he walked so far away from Him.  The next man that got up spoke from personal experience about how it's never too late to come to know Jesus.  He was a man who strayed from his family and divorced his wife.  After finding God, he came back to his family and remarried his wife... a powerful message to this community and to our own communities back home.  The last man from our team to get up was a man I had admired this whole trip.  He and his wife had been a constant bright energy every single moment of the trip.  I had seen him be humble and kind to everyone on the team, play soccer with the boys until he might collaps, and always knew the names of the people carrying our bags or dishing up watermellon.  I was not prepared for the Greg I was about to see on the pulpet.

Greg stepped up on the stage and I was prepared to hear another testomony, but that is not the message God had for him to share today.  He continued along with Pastor Issac's message about coming together as one group in the eyes of God.  In the middle of sharing scripture and preaching God lead him to abandon his message and he asked us all to stand and pray for one another.  With in minutes, he had us push chairs and benches aside and called whom ever needed prayer to come forward and find one of our team members so we could pray for them.  Now, had this been day 1-5 I would have been nervous and wanting to run out of the room to avoid something like this because it was not comfortable, but it was day 11 and I was more flexible now to go where the spirit was leading.  The first few women that came to me, I laid hands on them and prayed as best I knew how.  My prayers were not fancy or even well constructed, but they were honest.  As the time was wrapping up, a teenage girl pushed through the crowd and fell into my arms.  At that exact moment, I kid you not, I literally felt her pain as if it were my own.  Imediately I burst into tears blubbering some sort of pray that was probably half sentences because this pain was so intense. I have no idea how long we were together because all sense of time was lost in that moment. We embraced and cried until our time was up.  That prayer for her was probably the purest time of prayer I have ever had.  I have never cried out like that before and never been so sure I was being heard.

Church wrapped up and we headed to lunch before our group was going on a Nile boat tour.  I will add a few picture of that because it was beautiful, but it was just a bit of sight seeing and not as interesting as the other stuff we were doing.  We went to the source of the Nile, that was neat, and then had another 18 hour long dinner.  Okay, it wasn't actually 18 hours, but in an African resturant it just seems that way.  There is no order to how your order is taken or delivered.  You could order and wait 45 minutes for some food to start arriving and people could be done with their dessert before your dinner has even made it's way infront of you.  The last person to order might even get their food first. Not my favorite part of Africa :)

As we made our way back to Canaan's, I still couldn't get my mind off the spit that had sprayed the back of my head that morning and without proper showers was probably mostly still in there.  While talking with my leader, what I knew to be true in my heart was reiterated in prayer for me.  While this was something new for me, it had no more power than I was willing to give it.  So that night as I lay in my bed, my prayers took away all power that experience had to scare me.  Another peaceful nights sleep in Africa. 

Africa: Part 9 "First Night at Canaan's"

Evelyn in blue

 The evening after our home visits with Return Ministries, we loaded onto our bus driven by Abus and headed to Jinja where Canaan's Children's Home is.  We still had two more ministries to meet, but this was to be our last place to settle in and call home. This had been the place our teammates that had been on previous trips had talked about since day one and to be honest that was the reason I wasn't as excited about it.  I guess my YL camp advice about not talking so much about previous trips was true.  It deflated the balloon for a lot of us on the trip to hear about Canaan's from day one as we were all trying to stay present and take in each day as it came.  Never the less, we arrived in the evening after a long day and were met by warm friendly children while we settled in the best we could to our new home.   As with the other places, the children chose their people as soon as we stepped off the bus.  I was chosen by two older girls but only Evelyn stayed with me the whole time.

 It's a good thing this was the end of our trip and we had seen a lot and were pretty much exhausted because it really was the toughest place to stay.  The accommodations would have seemed much more unreasonable if I was not so drained.  Health-wise I was feeling better at this point and now the exhaustion was settling in.  The things that would have made me cry if it had been the first day simply didn't phase me and looking back that is a miracle in itself.  The bathrooms were located in the back of the little house we stayed in, never had hot water, and there was no electricity in them.  Each stall had a "shower," toilet, and sink, but since the showers were actually just a spray head into a small basin with no curtain they left water all over the dirty cement floor and Mama Rebecca insisted we not wear shoes in the house.  Sigh... at this point I didn't care about dirty feet.  I hadn't felt clean since we entered Uganda and knew now that was a dream that could only be fulfilled once I was home again.  My roommate and I did luck out with the best room seeing as another rooms had some sort of snail creature growing on the wall and the teens had about 1 billion gnats and mosquitoes die over night in their room. NO JOKE, they had to get a broom to sweep them away and be able to see the floor... they COVERED everything.  Here's the thing I had realized by now though, the people who put us up here were giving us the very best of what they have.  None of the people we were serving, including the couple running the children's home, lived in such luxury as we were bunking in for the next few nights.  For this reason, I stayed grateful for my bed and didn't look around in dark corners for things I didn't want to see.

Back hallway to bathrooms

Path between our house and dinning hall

Beyond the conditions of our living area, this was emotionally the hardest place to stay.  On the other days, we would minister to a group and then go back to our guest house to rest up before the next day.  At Canaan's we stayed right on sight at the home.  We were awaken with the children singing outside our house and when you opened the door there were no shortage of children sitting and waiting for you.  Often after a meal or in the morning I would walk outside and find Evelyn waiting for me.  I would feel guilty for taking so long eating, texting with Neil in the dinning hall, or taking my time getting ready in the morning after seeing her waiting patiently for me.  I was exhausted after these days and found it very difficult to give of every moment I was not eating or sleeping.  You could tell who the very strong team members were or the ones that had been waiting the whole trip to be here because they would be up very late playing outside with the children and would rise early to go join them again.  I am a bit ashamed to say I was not among this crowd.  Much of me wanted to be, but I was conserving energy at this point and selfishly I was missing home and Ethiopia a bit.  I spent some free time looking through pictures, journaling, and starting to pack for home.  Poor Evelyn, I wondered if she regretted picking me that first day.

All of our shoes by the front door 

Going to bed that night, I was looking forward to a bit of an easier day ahead of us.  Tomorrow was Sunday and we would have church and our Nile Boat tour the next day.  It probably would have felt like a sabbath if we were staying anywhere else, but it was what it was.  I had no idea the morning that I was in for!