Thursday, July 14, 2011

Ethiopia Day Five

We've been without internet for the last few days. So, here are the posts I had typed ready to go :) This was from Tuesday!

"An awesome day today at Korah! Korah is a village that literally means, “cursed”.  This is where the people with leprosy are sent when discovered they are “demon possessed”. The homes are made of sheets of metal, trash, and mud. It is typical to have a small pathway that leads to a small one room house. Homes are one right after another with no yard. We delivered sheep yesterday to families that were considered “land owners” even though Americans would consider their land to be able the size of our small front yard. We had the priveledge of experiencing buying 45 sheep to feed the children at Korah, and to deliver to families that could use 2 sheep to start reproducing. While purchasing the sheep, we asked how we would get these sheep to Korah. Much to our surprise, these sheep were hauled on top of our vans! All 45 of them were bound by their feet, and tied to the top of the vans. I asked Busy if he had ever been driving down the road, had a sheep fall off a van, and fly through his windshield. This was all in good humor, but Busy said, “No, they will not fall off the van. I don’t think. I’ve never thought of that. Now, I’m scared.” ☺

Upon arrival at Korah, we went to the church of Korah where the children attend summer school. We were divided into groups and I was in the fourth and fifth grade group. We were asked to work on teaching them how to communicate in English in a social context. Many of these children knew how to say, “Hi. How are you. My name is …” and many of the other main sentences in English. So, trying to teach them other questions or sentences when you don’t speak their language was a little difficult. Ultimately, we broke into groups where we sang songs, played uno, and taught them how to say, “I like to….” where they filled in the blank. It was a great time to spend some small group time getting to individually know 5-6 kids.

We then had the opportunity to help feed them lunch. Their lunch consisted of rice, and a half  of a loaf of bread. I was amazed how well these children sat, listened, and obeyed their  leaders. They were very well behaved children, and I thoroughly enjoyed them!

After lunch, the children left the church to mingle with us in the yard. This is when we really got to individually get to see some of these children’s personalities. I became extremely attached to a 13 year old boy named, Kasshun. From the moment we went to the church to work with them, Kasshun was there being polite, considerate, and helpful. He wanted to know everything there was to know about my family, and learned their names as I showed him pictures. Kasshun lives by himself with his uncle in Korah. He has no parents, siblings, or cousins. It is him and his uncle. To my understanding, his uncle works are a laborer doing construction. Kasshun will be in eighth grade this coming year, and is one of 65 children who still needs sponsors so he can attend high school. I knew Kasshun was a boy I wanted to help have a future. When I told him that I would sponsor him, he looked at me and smiled. He said, “You sponsor me? Thank you!” I gave him a picture of my family to have, and he asked if I was going to come back. I told him I’d be back on Friday. He held my hand and said, “Okay. I see you Friday. I love you.” And went off to school. I was touched by how well this uncle is obviously doing with this young boy. I couldn’t have been more impressed with his manners, sweet smile, and happy disposition. I’m praying that Friday I will have the chance to see Kasshun again, and maybe be given a glimpse into what his home is like.

To end the day, we went to the restaurant, Island Breeze. When we got home from dinner, we worked for over 2 hours sorting the donations into more manageable and organized groups. We’ve learned throughout the week many things that need to be changed on a daily basis to help us be more efficient.

We will be visiting an orphanage two hours out of town today. This orphanage is run by an elderly man that had a heart to bring in the orphans in his village. From my understanding, this is a very poor orphanage. We are looking forward to clothing all of these children, providing a meal, and telling them about Jesus. It’ll be a good day."

No comments:

Post a Comment