Water Balloon Fights and Laundry Day

     I hope you are all having a great weekend. Yesterday the weather was rainy, but we definitely needed it because our water was very low. School is finally out so I don't know what we will be doing to fill our mornings. I hope we will get to go on more home visits. I love getting to know the kids in the program personally.
    Thursday the tutor kids came over after school. While one of the missionaries was working with them on math me and Sonia (another missionary) filled up a few water balloons to surprise them with. However, the kids found us before we were ready and a few water balloons turned into an all out water war. Thankfully it was the hottest day since we've been here so it felt nice. Brant, stayed dry, while I of course was soaked. The kids had a blast and it was a fun way to end the year.
    Today (Saturday) was also a wet morning. Brant and I did laundry. I don't think anyone in Ethiopia own a washer or dryer, all laundry is done by hand. I will never complain about doing laundry again. We spent an hour washing and rinsing all of our clothes and then we hung them up on the three clothes lines at the guesthouse. Unfortunately one of the lines broke so we had to rewash about 1/3 of the clean clothes. It was definitely an adventure and I can't say that I'm looking forward to laundry day next week. Brant and I both walked away with a few bloody knuckles due to the plastic buckets we had to carry. Their edges were surprisingly sharp!
     Yesterday was the last day of school for the kids. We went up to the school to play with them on their break and had a lot of fun with them but man did they wear us out. As soon as you step outside you are surrounded by kids trying to climb on you and touch your hair or swing on your arms. yesterday, we got to the school while the kids were in class so we enjoyed some peace and quiet for a few minutes. When we sat on the bench outside two little boys came and sat on each side of Brant. They were probable about 3 and 5 years old. They never said a word but they were very ticklish and loved playing with and holding Brant's huge hands!
    God is teaching us so much and I am so in love with the kids here. They are so precious and super friendly. I am excited to see what will happen next week!

Exam week

So far we have spent most of our time this week at BCI academy. It is so funny to see the difference in the kids at school and when we visit them at home. They barely say a word at home and then when we go to school we have to pry the kids off of us as we leave. They really like to touch our hair. One boy climbed up the window to reach Brant's head. One of the missionaries here has an Ethiopian friend named Sam, and he asked Brant if his hair was real. HA!
The third grade girls at school have taught me a few of the games they play. I am much better at the hand clap games than the foot/dancing games. They asked me to dance with them and when I tried they all bent over laughing at my terrible dance moves. they still told me I was a good dancer, but I think it was because they wanted me to dance more with them.
We are having an awesome time and in the evenings we get to relax. It is really strange to sit around and not do anything. In America we can pull out our computers, or turn on the TV or put in a movie really easily where as we can't really do that here. It's kind of nice to just relax. We have noticed that the people in this culture are very chill. They are rarely on time and most of the time when you ask them what's on the agenda they don't really know. This is hard for me because I love to have everything planned and scheduled out far in advanced but I am getting used to it and learning to just go with the flow (which Brant is already a pro at).

Hope you are having a great week!
Praise the Lord that Karen is feeling better! Please pray for the BCI staff as they begin to make plans to move ahead with an add on to their school. They met with the mayor and have been given more land to add a high school and preschool to the BCI program.

41 hours in Germany

What an interesting trip we've had so far. For those of you who don't know there was a volcano acting up in southern Ethiopia so our flight to Addis was canceled while we were in Germany. So after 2 flights canceled and barely making it on the 3rd and 41 hours in Germany we made it to Ethiopia. While we were stuck in the German airport Brant and I learned what it means to be truly bored, stressed worried and exhausted all at the same time. We spent a lot of time playing cards, walking around in circles and reading.  while we were waiting to be re booked for the third time we talked to an old woman who has traveled all over the world and was living in Munich during World War 2. She was so fun to talk to and she helped the two hours of waiting go by fairly quickly.
    Ethiopia is Gorgeous! I had no idea that the area we are staying in is surrounded by mountains. They are covered in green. The weather here is almost perfect, it is between 70-80 almost everyday with cool evenings and little to no rain. The only downside is all of the smog. The air here is not good at all and the smog is so thick that we can't see the stars at night : (  Thankfully there are two girls in the house who have been here for four weeks and they are showing us around before they leave in two weeks.
    The Capital city is so full of people and very very busy! It was hard to take everything in on our ride to Debre zeit. In order to go anywhere we have to take a taxi or a bajaj. A taxi is like a van crammed full of people 15-20 and is only like 10cents. A Bajaj is a tiny tiny car that you cram three people in the back seat and the price depends on how far you go.
    School is still in session thiss week so we were glad we got to go to the school and see all the kids. They are all so smiley! During an English class the teacher had them ask us questions in complete sentences. Most of them wanted to ask Brant questions and the best one was "Do you like food?" and "What is your favorite planet?" After we went to school we toured all the churches BCI partners with. One of the churches we visited has 500 adult members and 360 kids!
Yesterday we went on two home visits. The first one was very sad, the boy has no parents and lives with his elderly aunt in a one room (about the size of our laundry room) and the social worker had to tell her the boy's bad bevaior has caused the principal to reject him from the school for next year. Even though we couldn't understand the woman I could tell this was very hard for her because she has given up working and making a living to take care of her nephew and she wants the best for him. Something else that amazes me about This Country is their willingness to give. Everytime we enter someones home they offer us coffee and a mixture of seeds/nuts and it is extremely rude not to eat everything put in front of you. So here we were sitting in this tiny house with a woman who has no money and she was giving us coffee and a snack and wanted us to eat/drink it all. It was a very humbling experience.
    Our second home visit of the day was different. the atmosphere was much brighter and the two boys in the house were so adorabel! They were both seven and one of them asked us a lot of questions and then asked the translator to tell us he loved us : )
 We have learned a few Amharic words, but the one we hear the most is the word for White Person, I don't know how to say very well so I am not even going to attempt to spell it. Every time we walk somewhere and there are small kids around they love running up to us and grabbing our hands. Some of them will say the only English word they know--Money Money Money. The people here are so beautiful and I am broken for many the children who have nothing. In the next few weeks I am going to do my best to love them the way Jesus would.

Please pray for Karen, she is a missionary here from Canada who is very sick and hasn't eaten or drank anything for several days. Also pray for me and Brant that we would learn as much as possible from the two interns here before they leave so we will be ready to get around town on our own!

The Time Has Come!

The big day is finally here! If I could put into words how amazed I am at the amount of prayer support and financial support I have felt this past week I would. The Lord is so wonderful! He has not only blessed Brant and I with the $8000 we needed for our intial cost but he has given us enough to take some money from generous people to use to bless the people we come into contact with!

I am so pumped for this journey. I know I will learn a lot about myself, brant and about life in a whole new culture. I am extremely nervous abour traveling. I haven't ever traveled this far in my life and I haven't ever traveled on a plane without my parents. This is something I am definately trusting the Lord to help me with.

I don't know when I will be able to update again. Brant and I should be leaving on our first flight at 1:00PM tomorrow (sunday) and landing in Ethiopia at 1:00PM Monday. Pray that travel is smooth and complication free. Pray for our parents and friends that we are leaving behind; pray that the Lord would give them peace of mind about the safety of their babies : )

Thank you so much for supporting this adventure!

I love you all!

Abby

Romans 12:21 "Do not be overcome with evil; overcome evil with good"

Shots Shots Shots!

I feel like the abominable snowman! I have been vaccinated for Polio, Yellow Fever, Typhoid, Hepatitis A and I have medicine to take for malaria prevention. Brant and I also have some intense bug spray to keep as many mosquitoes away from us as possible.

Shots are not the only thing we have been preparing for. After receiving our trip kits I realized there are several things I needed to be sure and get. The first being packaged meat. Meat in Ethiopia is extremely rare and very expensive so it is much cheaper and safer for us to bring packaged meat. We are required to bring at least 7 cans of meat each so after hunting around Sam’s Club I bought 10 cans of chicken and 8 cans of tuna. I also bought a huge box of fruit snacks and two boxes of crackers. These snack we will take with us when we got to visit the children in their homes. I am looking forward to taking the books I have bought and reading to the kids while enjoying a fun treat.

Brant and I get four 50lb bags each and these bags of luggage can’t exceed 50lbs. This has been quite the challenge for me because I am a heavy packer. However, I have learned over the past couple of days how to pack lighter. The only thing left to pack are last minute items and clothing.  J

We each also recieved our trip kits which included a shirt and plane tickets and a book that has a page dedicated to each child in BCI's program. I have not even met these children and yet my heart is already borken for the hardships they have had to face early in their lives. I know the Lord is watching over them and I am so excited to be the hands and feet of Jesus to these kids!

Please continue to pray for safe travels. Brant and I have never traveled without at "grown up" before let alone had to take three flights and find our way through two foreign airports! Also pray that the Lord would continue preparing our hearts for all the things we will be experienceing over the next 6 weeks : )