Africa Week 1

We have been back from Africa for almost a week and we have been running nonstop since our plane landed. We are in Vegas (a drive from...) yet are still in a hotel as we are still waiting one final signature to go through on our home (frustrating) so I decided that I would write a little about our Africa trip. It was such an amazing experience, very humbling...and it made me very grateful for the things that we have in America.

The first week we spent in Ethiopia-we stayed in a little town outside of Addis Abba called Deberezet. We were very lucky and got to stay in a hotel (due to the likely hood that someone would be getting sick they thought it better to get sick there). Every morning we would drive out to a little village (about 30 minutes away) and help. Depending on what you wanted to do, but they had ALOT that needed done- clinic work, fixing their schools, building stoves and potties, and a lot more.

I spent the first two days at different schools, the first school was inside the village itself with three classrooms and 1700 students (no not a typo)! School was only about 3-4 hours long and then they would have a whole new batch of students come in. The first school they were busy testing and the "headmaster" of the school didn't want the students disturbed so we met with the head teachers and offered them gifts to help their classrooms (maps, posters, games, etc). The second day we drove even further into a VERY remote village to visit their school. We met with the head teachers and all the fathers of the village to offer them gifts. Then went and saw all of their classrooms (3)...how humbling to see a classroom with dirt floors, and the walls made out of dung and straw. The students spoke English very well and could even communicate with us. Although at the second school they were very cautious of us...the schools are having problems with "bandits" coming in and stealing the children for marriage or labor purposes, hence the fathers being at the schools with guns to guard the children. (very sad!!)

The third day I helped in the medical clinic...wow. We had three doctors on our trip with us so they needed help diagnosing patients as to whether it was a trauma situation or if it was "normal". I know there is a big thing going on right now how vaccines can cause all sorts of things in our children like ADD etc...after seeing the diseases that those vaccines prevent I would rather prevent those diseases. Normal for the clinic were things like malaria, tuberculosis, aids, leprosy, scabies, and those were the normal things!! I mean, have you seen what TB looks like when it has "fully infected" a child?? There were so many eye infections due to the children being in a nonventilated area while the mother is cooking. And the Aids...the sad thing was that alot of the people-no most of the people just didn't understand, they would tell us that this child with me is not mine. She is an orphan, both of her parents died awhile ago. We automatically knew that she was an aids child and would not live a really long life. It was gut wrenching... I was in there until Thursday when I was helping clean out a donkey bite (gross) and almost lost my lunch so then I headed outside to "play" with the children. Make the wait to see the doctors a little bit more enjoyable.

On Thursday night I got a little sick (not too bad) more than likely just accidentally drank some of the water somehow. But Dustin got REALLY sick. They still aren't sure if he had cholera, typhoid fever, or ecoli. Wonderful right? So we stayed back at the resort on Friday while I tended to him and kept him well hydrated.

Anyway, it was a great week in Ethiopia...we spent the next week in Kenya but I will wait to blog about that when I have those pics (our camera died after Ethiopia so I will have to get pics from my parents.