A wonderful Addis day with Alex

When I was in Uganda last year I wrote a blog post titled: "A wonderful Kampala day".  Well now its time for: "A wonderful Addis day with Alex.

 Alex arrived at SIM just before 9.30am, as planned. (Did you know that that was 3.30 Ethiopian time?) The plan was to visit his carpentry workshop and then go to a disability workshop for me to buy some gifts and cards to take home and then to be at YFC for lunch before English classes.

We began to walk.

First stop was to visit Alex's girlfriend Tsehay who is staying with her sister, Ganet. Here are the sisters at the gateway to their compound.

Ganet runs a restaurant just outside their home

 

 and we were invited to stay for breakfast.

SO good.

 

Ganet does most of the cooking herself

 but does employ a couple of young ladies to help with cooking

and washing the dishes.

I have come to know Alex quite well during my time here with YFC and it was great to meet his girlfriend

and have opportunity to get to know her just a little bit.

The next door neighbour wanted to welcome this newcomer into the compound

and gave me this cup of coffee - VERY Ethiopian and such a friendly gesture. This dear lady wasn't to know that I decided to give up coffee 35+ years ago because I didn't enjoy it. 

From here we caught a little local taxi bus to meet a real estate broker because Alex was ready to move house. We met him, walked to the house, found it had already been rented out and so walked to the next possibility. Alex took that one. We walked to the hairdressing business of the lady who owns the one room and Alex paid one month's rent.

Next stop, Alex's workshop where he employs 6 carpenters. Alex too is a carpenter.

The guys asked if we would join them for lunch. Unfortunately we had told YFC we'd be there in time for lunch and had to decline this very nice offer.

Alex had bought some soccer pads for the guy who owns the property he rents, so before we moved on he had to pass those on. Alex has a HUGE heart.

Continuing with our walk

past the local inhabitants

and market stalls

we stopped by his good friend who fixes mobile phones. Can you see all those phone parts on his chair and on the shelves? Imagine keeping track of all those phones, backs and batteries! 

Here we were invited to join them for coffee. So nice. Same reason to refuse. We were expected at YFC for lunch.

Our final stop was the Meschel Centre where people with handicaps of all sorts make craft items - woodwork, cards, table linen, furniture, bags and much more. So very clever. I was able to find some interesting gifts to take back to Australia.

Then it was time to keep our lunch date at YFC. Well, we were pretty late. Everyone else had long since eaten, but they did keep some for us. Alex and I had walked most of the time from 9.30 to 2pm and I was pretty tired, but thankful that my knees didn't give out.

Had a great day out with Alex seeing and experiencing a whole lot of things through the eyes of an Addis Ababa local.

'A wonderful Addis day with Alex'

Karen, Ruby and Shamida

I have a young Aussie friend who lives in Addis. 

It has been wonderful to connect with Karen

 and her daughter Ruby at weekends.

I became friends with Karen when she was working at Bible Society with Mal 20 years ago. We have been friends ever since. Karen was at our wedding in 1998 and when she was back from Dubai to visit family in Sydney in 2009, she flew down to Melbourne for a few days and was able to farewell Mal when he was in the hospice.

Karen trained as a lawyer in Sydney and practiced in Dubai for eight years before adopting Ruby and then moving to Ethiopia.

I've stayed with Karen and Ruby a couple of times at weekends since I've been here and time with them has been a special gift to each of us.

After Karen adopted Ruby four years ago she knew that her future was in Ethiopia helping to bring hope to orphaned children and giving them the possibility of a loving family, an education and a future.

She's started an orphanage in Addis Ababa.

It's called Shamida. You can read more about it here

 It's a place where kids are wonderfully loved

 and cared for as they wait to be adopted

 or as they live with disability.

Shamida is light

and open

and really well resourced

thanks to Karen and her amazing team of friends, family and supporters in Australia, US and UK.

Karen and the nannies obviously enjoy what they do

 and care beautifully for these kids

who seem to be thriving here.


This place looks nothing like my image of an orphanage!

Karen is doing an awesome job of giving these little ones possibility for a bright future.

On my way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Feeling pretty rested after the 14 hour flight from Melbourne direct to Dubai. I'm really thankful for a fairly unfilled aircraft and a whole row of seats to lay out on to sleep. Got to watch  the movie 'Spotlight' that had been on my 'to view' list. The Qantas staff were outstanding.

 Right now I am sitting in Departure Lounge 21 waiting for my next flight to Addis Ababa. I'm chatting with some young people and learning how to greet Ethiopians in their language, Amharic. If I want to say 'Hello' to a female I will say Selamnesh. If I am greeting a male I will say Salamne. I have no idea if the spelling is anywhere close, but the young people I'm chatting with don't know the English letters to correct me and Google Translate is not helpful. I did find a blog that has helped me with 'Thank you'. It's amaseganalehu. It might take me a couple of days to get my tongue around that one, but I'll need to master it.

The young guys I'm sitting with are soccer referees who have just been to Mauritius to referee the game between Mauritius and Ghana and right now they're on the Hillsong website listening to music. Good company, but our languages are not overlapping a lot :) Good practice for the next three months!

Just in case you're interested in the weather in Addis Ababa, just click on the blue link. Seems like mid-twenties during the days and cooler at night. Think I can manage that as I think of my friends and family back home in winter temparatures .

My free hour on the internet is about up so I'll hope and plan to be back here in a couple of days.