Note-I wrote this before I left and post dated it to post today on the blog. I will update once we are really home how everything is going. :)



I also wanted to share a post on my reflections of just being in Africa again.

Even though I had been in a third world country, my trip to Addis in February hit me hard…it really made me reflect on my life and my priorities and all that I have been blessed with.

This time I was prepared for what we’d see…the poverty, the suffering, the complete lack of almost everything…the pollution, the traffic, the crowds, the begging…the beautiful people, the amazing sites, the heart breaking scenes…

And yet I was still caught off guard on several occassions…while Belane fussed in my lap in the cab this afternoon, I looked out the window, and on the side of the road, a mother sat in the dirt with a young girl, very close in age to Belane. The little girl was fussing, and trying to get comfortable on her mother’s lap and in the dirt, and the mother was doing her best to comfort her, and yet had a very defeated and hopeless look…not just because of her bare feet or her ragged clothes, but the look in her eyes.

And I looked at my daughter, and the water and animal crackers and Magnadoodle that I had to help distract her from her fussing, and my heart hurt for the mother on the side of the road, whose child was most surely hungry, and she was unable to comfort.

But please don’t think that Ethiopia is all sad scenes. It is a beautiful and wonderful place. Here are some of the things I love about this place

The hand holding- I love that women, men and children walk down the road holding hands, as a sign of friendship.

The smell- It’s not always good smells…but all mixed together it just smells like Ethiopia to me and I love it. Josh pointed out that is sort of smells like “stuff burning”. To me it is coffee and car exhaust and spicy food and animals and foliage…and stuff burning.

The traffic- I love that you get more of an adrenaline rush than you do on any ride at any amusement park when you go through a traffic circle in downtown Addis and realize you’ve made it out alive.

The beautiful people- If you’ve never been here, it is hard to describe, but the people are just beautiful…the women, the children, the men…the old and the young…the well-off and the poor…they are just beautiful.

The eating with hands- Where else can you eat with your hands and have it be considered good table manners?

The way they treat kids- I notice a lot back home that adults, sometimes even the parents, tend to treat kids as a nuisance. Not here. Here, everyone from the waitresses to the armed guards outside to other passengers waiting at the airline desk, all stop and say hello to the kids and take a moment to play with them. At the doctor’s office while we waited, the parents toted their kids around proudly and just spoke to them in a voice and tone that I don’t hear enough of back home. Here, they treasure the children.

The sounds- I really love the sound of Amharic. While I can only speak a few key toddler phrases and a few pleasantries, I really love the sound of it.

The goats- I just like the goats. And the donkeys. And that one camel I saw. I love the way that they walk the goats down the road…holding on to their two back legs like that “wheelbarrow” game we played as kids.

The reminder- I love the reminder to remember to think past our own little “bubble” in which we live. I love to see how happy people are with so little. I love to see how much hope they have, even when there is little to hope for. I love to see the genuine kindness that most people treat each other with here. I love the reminder of how blessed I am in life. I have a friend that lives here most of the year, that we asked if we could bring him anything when we were coming over, and his reply was that after living here for awhile, you really just how much stuff you don’t really need.

So, while I am more than anxious to get home and desperately want to leave, I do truly love this place. I will always love this place.

And this time when I get on that plane, instead of my heart aching for a little girl left behind, my heart will be full with the joy that she is finally coming home.