Dear Family and Friends,
We all arrived to Addis safely! Well, I guess not all of us. One of
my bags is still in Frankfurt. Of course it's the bag containing my
clothes, not the donations. It was a carry on but the gate attendant
made me check it because the flight was full. Hopefully I'll get it
tomorrow!
I was reunited with Selam, our housekeeper, this morning. I was wide
awake at 5 am because I couldn't wait to see her. I think she was just
as excited! She made a great breakfast of crepes and tea. :)
I saw most of my Ahope kids today. They didn't know I was coming and
the looks on their faces were priceless. The big kids were at Little A
practicing for their Christmas program on Sunday. K, the girl my
parents sponsor child, braided half of my hair before it was time to
leave. I'm sporting quite the fancy hairdo! Most of the little kids
were surprised when I knew their names and didn't show much
recognition of me. As soon as I said my name, it was like a light bulb
went off and they remembered SO much about my last trip. One of the
boys, A, is still trying to teach me more Amharic. I hope he's
impressed by what I remember.
There's lots of new kids at Little Ahope. One little girl loves to
say, "anchi!" (you) and then I reply "enni?" (me?). She always laughs
and says "ow" (yes). Then we switch roles and repeat a million times.
She's hilarious.
Lots is going on here as it's almost Ethiopian Christmas. Tomorrow
at 9:30 am we're wrapping 200 gifts for the kids at Little Ahope, Big
Ahope, and the Community Development Center. The Christmas program is
January 2nd and Christmas is January 7th. January 8th I'm taking the
kids to Sodere, the hot springs again. Can't wait! We're also going to
be doing game night on Wednesdays with the big kids. Glad we have lots
of ideas! :)
Overall it's been a great day! I'll keep you all updated!