Wednesday in Awassa

Our first full day in Awassa was crazy, blessed, and absolutely FILLED with kids!

It was amazing, exhausting, overwhelming, and rewarding all in the same moment.

Everyone told us before coming here that Africa was unlike any other place in the world and that there really was no way to accurately describe it until you were actually there for yourself.

Well guess what?


These girls followed our van for over a mile to come and see us after this picture was taken!



I'm here and finally understand what they were talking about! :)

But for those who'd like a little re-cap of our days, I am attempting to put a few words with the hundreds of pictures I have taken. Don't worry, I am not posting all of them... well, if the internet was faster I just might try to post a few hundred!

This morning we had a great breakfast here at the hotel we are staying at and then headed right out with the vision team towards the first unsponsored community we planned to see. In case you were wondering what that is about, our Ethiopia team consists of 16 of us total, but there were 6 of us that went on the vision part of the trip with our country director, Tefsa and the other 10 went to Tullo Kebele school to help pour concrete and minister to the kids over there. 

Matt- our Hopechest trip leader, Tefsa- in country Hopechest coordinator, and Paul-our church's mission pastor

Both teams were in for a surprise when we got to the carepoints, but I know our team had absolutely NO CLUE how much of a surprise that would actually be! Well before we actually reached the carepoint, we stopped a few times.

This picture was taken when we were stuck in the mud and there were about 30 guys trying to push the van out! Before we knew it, kids just started coming out of no where. I asked if I could take their picture, and then it was all over from there- I would take it, show them the image on the screen, they would bust up laughing and then ask to take another one! Over and over and over!

We made it to the first carepoint and had been told that there were about 150 kids here, but to expect a few more to show up because they would see us coming. And as we got out and looked around this school and into the classrooms completely stuffed with kids, we couldn't help but think that it had to be more than 150-200 kids.

Doesn't this look almost exactly like the picture I posted  last week? It is the same school and the same crowded classrooms

Oh yeah, there were more than that! Try 410 registered school kids and probably close to 75-100 more that who just showed up from walking down the road! So if you are doing the math, there were 6 of us who showed up thinking that we would play with maybe about 200 kids this morning, only to get there and have almost 500!!!

The kids were released from their classrooms and the sheer chaos began! You think I am joking. Ask the 5 others- it was madness. Hillarious, beautiful madness! We were totally mobbed!

We had brought little stickers to pass out and balloons and balls to play with the kids

and this is about how it looked the entire time! It's a good thing Randy is so tall!

I tried teaching a few of them (yes this is only a few from the larger crowd!) some songs in English. Here I am singing the "Higher Higher" part of Cast your Burdens onto Jesus. They caught on pretty quickly and mimicked everything I said or did! 

Ok, so I had about 10 more pictures to upload to this post and much much more I wanted to say.

But the internet is really slow and it is much too late now, so I will come back and share more later! Today was loaded with kids and loaded with blessings and we are just in awe that we are here experiencing it all.

Goodnight from Awassa!