Dehina Nachioo,
It’s Katie here, time for another blog update. The past two days have been fun and busy, full of many new experiences and challenges. As you probably already know, the students that we are going to be teaching are taking their national exams this week. Since we won’t be in the classrooms until next week, this week we get to spend time with many of our other projects that will be ongoing for the next month (or two).
Monday began a little behind schedule but after a yummy breakfast of French toast we were off again in our faithful taxi. We first dropped off Susan, Karen, Stephen, and Josh at the HOPE school in Addis where they spent the morning working in the wood and metal work vocational schools. Joe, Victoria and I then headed to the HOPE headquarters where the breakfast and lunch feeding programs take place. This experience was one of my favorites from last year and this year proved to be the same. We enjoyed spending time with the children during breakfast and shared some songs and the Bible story of David and Goliath with them. The highlight for me was listening to the children sing “Jesus Loves Me” in Amharic. One of my goals for the trip is to learn this song (in Amharic, of course). The lunch program serves both children and adults, and many of these people are physically or mentally disabled (which is true for 10% of the population). It is hard to see these disabilities but I am always struck by the joy and peace that these people have despite their suffering. Joe had the opportunity to preach to the people before their lunch and shared from Luke 16 about the beggar and the rich man and their eternal rewards. The Holy Spirit was definitely evident in that moment and it was a cool experience to see these people (as well as Pastor Matheos) touched by the words that Joe shared.
After lunch, we headed back to the Addis school to meet up with the rest of the team. They went home to shower, probably because after they finished painting they had to wash their hands with gasoline. In addition to painting, Josh had spent the morning making doors, Karen had shown her aptitude for metal grinding, and Stephen was bending metal for chairs. Joe got hard to work, continuing to bend metal and Victoria and I began painting in the rain. No wonder that Karen and Susan had to spend so much of the morning sanding rust off of metal objects. The items made in the woodworking and metal shops are later used as desks and chairs in the HOPE schools.
Today we began our Amharic lessons, which were difficult but well enjoyed. We learned many greetings and some simple commands and nouns. For example, if I say “asayoo t’erep’aizah”, that means (of course) “show me the table, please”. As you maybe can tell, this language is going to be a challenge but we are all eager to try out our new Amharic on our taxi driver and hosts.
This afternoon we went to the ceramics studio, another HOPE ministry that provides opportunities for former street women to develop their ceramic skills and sell their products for income. This upcoming Saturday, there will be a craft bazaar with many charitable organizations (NGOs) selling products, and these ceramics will also be sold. We are going to be helping these women load up all their products for the fair but were able to do some personal shopping before they packed.
We are looking forward to having our whole team at the breakfast programs tomorrow and are excited for several other ministry opportunities that we will investigate over the next few days. We thank you for your continued prayers and would appreciate prayers for each ministry that we will work with and for our Amharic studies.
As far as the interactive part of the blog, today we will test your Amharic skills. Please post your translations of the following:
Gidgidah=?
Mets’ihaf=?
K’ooch’beloo=?
If you can translate 2 out of 3, you are very gombez! Good luck!
Igizeeabiheyr Yimesigen!
Dehina Waloo,
Katie (and Susan, Victoria, Karen, Stephen, Josh, and Joe)
