Hello from Ethiopia!!

Hi everyone. This is Sherridan again. It is Saturday night here. We just returned from dinner at Tivoli's where we had a variety of both American and Ethiopian foods.

Today started with a return trip to Korah Misgana Church. Yesterday, as Melissa mentioned, we toured the area. I will try to explain what we saw, but also I know I truly can not justify it with only words. The streets are unpaved paths of rocks. Few cars ever travel down these roads and no shock absorber could last a day here. The streets are lined with a trenched sewer system and gate after gate which behind are homes. The street is the playground and the children are everywhere peering out from doorways and corners. Trash is everywhere. In the street, the bushes, stacked up against the house. This is their way of life. They collect the trash to either use or sale. Further behind the streets is the dirt path and bridge that leads over the river to the actual trash dump. the smell hits you as you cross the bridge, but later we find out that that smell was mild compared to in the middle of the dump. Yes, we hiked up into the dump! We stepped over and on garbage the entire way up the hill. We even stepped around animal carcasses. People started gathering around us and each of the guides and interpreters told us several stories of the people who actually live up there. Each story as devastating as the one before.

But back to today. Today we arrived to the sound of childen singing and clapping as they sang songs of praise and wroship. All of course by memory with no overhead visual aid or hymnals and also much longer than what we are use to our own children singing.  We listened for a bit and then began our day. The children were divided into three groups ranging from 20-50 in each group ranging from 2-12 years old One group  made drums from formula cans. The second group included Bret, Andrew, and myself and we enjoyed some recreation. The area was very small so recreation did not include running games. Instead we blew up balloons and played "Keep it in the Air". Then we did "ring around the rosie" with small groups at a time. The third group was led by Tina, Nora, Clarrisa and Maggie helped children bead necklaces. Later, a group of 85 older children gathered to make Frisbees out of lids from gallon ice cream buckets. We finished the morning with a story about Daniel and the Lion's Den and songs with hand motions.

The elders served us a traditional lunch followed a coffee ceremony then we started work on the ceiling. It was an all day job and it is still not quite complete. We left around 5:30 and the workers started up again. Tomorrow we return for church service. Hopefully they were able to complete it.

That is it for now. Thanks so much for following.
Sherridan