Our Trip to Ethiopia, Day 6

 Tuesday, March 14, 2023

This morning after breakfast, Gecho picked us up and drove us to Ordinary Hero, the guest house we normally stay at. It was so good to see Fray and Kalkidan again, and we were able to give Fray some things that we had brought for her baby-on-the-way. 

I love the view from the back windows of Ordinary Hero:

We visited for awhile, and then walked the 20 minutes to Fili Coffee, where we enjoyed drinks and French fries. (I actually ordered watermelon juice, but the waitress thought I said chips (a.k.a. French fries.))

When we got back to Ordinary Hero, we went with Fray to Gabies, her give-back business. She employs weavers who make gorgeous, soft, traditional Ethiopian cotton blankets. For every blanket purchased, one is given to poor people. We watched the weavers for awhile and purchased some towels and blankets. 

We had lunch at Chanoly Noodle, one of my favorite restaurants in Ethiopia. Our friend Wass met us there, and it was good to visit with him again. After lunch, we dropped Wass back off at his office and headed to Korah, the city trash dump. There is a community of over 100,000 people who live in the dump and pick through the trash, looking for food or items to sell. The conditions are heartbreaking to see and my mind still cannot begin to process what we saw there. The flies, smell, and vultures surrounding the place are unreal. Many people who were raised there were the children of lepers or blind people, and they were considered to be the outcasts of society. We have several friends who grew up in the dump, and their testimonies are incredible. One such friend is Tesfaye, who is an absolutely amazing man with a huge heart. He again shared his story with us, and then offered to help us distribute donations that we had brought. Tesfaye told us that the people of Korah view the trash dump "as mother, as father, as a friend because it provides food for them. They are always thankful to God for the trash." 

Malia had decided to sponsor a family who lives in the trash dump through Prayer Buddies, and Tesfaye matched her with a family that we got to meet and spend time with. Their story was absolutely heartbreaking to hear, but I'm thankful that Malia has so many amazing supporters who can help her with this opportunity.

We walked through the community and visited several homes. The children there are always so happy to have visitors, and they love to hold our hands as we walk. 

This home made of plastic tarps was so tiny, and housed 7 people. There was barely room to turn around inside.

  

When we left the dump, we headed to a school near Korah that my friend, Shimeles, started. I met Shimeles last summer at the International Evangelical Church, and saw him again at church the other day. He invited us to see his school. Shimeles told us that while he was growing up in the trash dump, his favorite spot to look for food was the site where the airport trash was dumped. The food was usually old and rotten, but at least you could find something to eat there. Then, when he got older, he got the chance to fly to Kenya. He thanked God over and over because he was actually given FRESH airplane food on his flight! He couldn't get over the fact that he went from eating rotten airplane food to fresh. Malia leaned over to me and whispered, "And we always complain about airplane food!" Shimeles would love to have more students, and is looking for sponsors for the children if anyone is interested! 

And who did we randomly run into in Shimeles's classroom? Ryan B. and his wife, missionaries who moved to Ethiopia last summer a few weeks after we went. We met them at our hotel in Chicago before we flew out last July and took several large totes of their household items with us to Ethiopia. Turns out that they do a Bible study with Shimeles's students every Tuesday afternoon. On this trip, we kept running into people we knew in a city of 6 million people. We met the travel agent (twice!) who booked our very first flight to Ethiopia back in 2011, a boy from Gambella who lived with the twins at their orphanages, and the man who first searched for and found the boys' birth family for us back in 2012. 

When we got back to the guest house, Darci cooked us dinner. I got to go out in the rain and pick lettuce for our salad. We ate in our apartment since there is more room. 

Later, Tesfaye sent me some photos of some of the kids in Korah after they received our donations. Some little boys from our church had donated coloring books and crayons, and the Korah kids had a blast with them!

Have you ever seen someone so excited about a bar of soap?!