Due to some circumstances beyond our control, our mission activities for the day were put on hold. So we took things into our own hands and decided to give the cooks the night off. We planned to prepare an American dinner for all of the children and orphanage staff. Almaz was thrilled, so Brian and Chris went shopping with her to buy all of the ingredients.
Here are some random photos from the day:
I love this painting that hangs in the children's house at HH:
Stone with the woman who was his special mother 2 years ago:
Emma getting in some quality baby time:
The garbage "truck" that we saw in the street:
Looking left down the street from HH:
Looking right:
First time I've ever tried guava:
A common sight at HH. Everyone must take their shoes off before entering the buildings.
Shana got her hair braided by one of the special mothers today:
In the afternoon, the R family from Texas (Derek, Kim, Barrett, and Brooklyn) arrived from the airport and joined our team. They will be spending all of next week here with the L family doing mission work. I wish we could stay a second week as well, but our flight leaves late tomorrow night. We really do need to get back home to our kiddos.
When Almaz, Brian, and Chris got back from their shopping trip, we got to work. They had purchased the ingredients to make pizza from scratch, lettuce salad with lots of fresh vegetables, melon, fried okra, and ice cream with chocolate syrup, crushed Oreos, nuts, and cherries. What a treat for these kids! Ice cream is expensive here, so is not something that they eat. Chris said that when he told the lady in the coffee/ice cream shop that he wanted 50 scoops of ice cream, her eyes about bulged out of her head! Chris also bought roses for Almaz and all the special mothers, and we had fun passing them out. The ladies were thrilled, and gave us big hugs.
Almaz, the director of Hannah's Hope, is such an amazing woman. I just love her.
Making pizza dough:
Emma was my great little helper:
Chris chopping vegetables, which we had to disinfect first to make them safe to eat:
Our little dishwasher:
Little M was a wonderful help, too!
Paige, Chris, Adrian, Derek, and Brian prepared the ice cream sundaes:
All of the children, special mothers, and other workers came to the guest house to eat. Mathewos invited two of his kids, and Almaz's niece and nephew came as well. We had a full house! I wish you could hear the prayer that the children said before they ate.....so precious! Some of the kids weren't too sure about American food, and some learned what a brain freeze is, but everyone had a great time. Afterward, we collected all of the scraps from the meal and took them out to the street, where several passersby had dinner that they otherwise would have missed.
The middle boy got a brain freeze:
Shana and Mathewos were buddies all week. Shana kept telling him how good homemade ice cream is, but Mathewos assured her that in Ethiopia, ice cream and chocolate are just for women. So Shana fixed a sundae for him and made him eat it. He agreed it was pretty good! She also gave him a container of Oreo cookies.
Front row: Stone, Adrian, Shana, Mathewos' daughter, Paige, M, Emma, Bailey.
Back row: me, Chris, Mathewos, Mathewos' son, Brian, Ginny, Almaz.
We stayed up late visiting with the L's and the R's again. All of a sudden, there was a sound outside and lights shown in the window. Wass and Geb were back from Gambella! We were amazed, as they weren't scheduled to arrive until late the next afternoon, but they had decided to drive straight through! It usually takes about 2 1/2 days to drive to Gambella, but they had made it in 15 hours, and hadn't slept since Tuesday night. Danny always tells us, "Wass is crazy!" And Almaz told Chris, "You have ADD, but in a good way. Just like Wass." Yep, Wass is a pretty amazing guy.
Wass and Geb came into the guest house, where we heated up all the leftover pizza for them to eat. Danny and Tomea came and joined the party. Wass showed us photos of baboons he had taken on the drive back, and told us that he had gotten arrested for about 10 minutes in Gambella when a federal policeman caught him taking a photo from the bridge over the Baro river. Oops! I didn't know it was illegal to take photos from the bridge....I snapped several, too! I even have one of a federal policeman standing on the bridge! Apparently, they just asked Wass for his phone so they could delete the picture, but when they couldn't figure out how to do it, they gave it back.
Off to bed - tomorrow is our last day in ET!
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