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!