We are excited to report on another successful trip to Ethiopia!  We hit the ground running on Friday September 1st.  We landed at 7am, local time in Addis Ababa, and headed to the Ordinary Hero Guest House in the Lafto area of Addis Ababa, where we were greeted by many close friends.  After taking a quick walk to rejuvenate after 14-16 hours of travel, we organized our donations and school supplies and hopped in the van with our good friend and driver, Getachew (aka. Gecho). As usual at this time of year, the rains were falling and we faced a great amount of traffic on our ride into the countryside of Chacha, Ethiopia.  We still made it to our hotel in Debre Berhan in just under three hours and were at LFCA in time to see the students before dismissal!  It's amazing how each visit the students become more and more comfortable with our presence and it's almost as if we never left.  In addition to seeing the students it was so nice to see our staff members and we were welcomed by them with a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony complete with popcorn!  

A highlight of this day was meeting with our student Debebe's mother, Yeshi, to share in person the details of the two major spinal surgeries that her son has undergone in Ghana.  We gave her a photo album with pictures of Debebe, that included pictures from the day we met them over a year ago, as well as pictures from Debebe's time in Ghana.  She is so grateful for the progress Debebe has made and understands that none of it would be possible without the involvement of Project HEAL's donors and supporters.

Our second day at the school was even more full than the first! On Saturday, we asked the students to come to school, so that we could have a full day with them.  Nothing gives us more joy than to distribute sponsor letters and pictures to our students. With the help of LFCA Director, Dereje, we were able to give the students updates about their sponsors and tell them how much they are loved from afar.  Our sponsorship program is crucial to our program and it becomes so apparent when we are at the school.  Without it, we would not be able to provide these children with education, healthcare, and nutrition on a daily basis.  Together we are empowering them now and giving them hope for a brighter future.  It is so rewarding to see our vision come to fruition.

After another coffee ceremony made by assistant teacher, Tigist, we took a walk to the site of our new academy, where we met with our contractor and some of the builders.  Overseeing them all was Endashaw, LFCA's committed advisor.    Endashaw and Dereje have been working closely together to push the construction along so that we can move the students to our new building as soon as possible.  The students will take a 1-2 week break as the rainy season comes to an end and they will return to school after the start of the new year in Ethiopia (2010), on September 11th.  Our hope is that the students will move into the first structure completed on our land, which is the kitchen, guard house, and storage building.  This will be a temporary classroom for all of our students until our second structure is complete, which will include 4 classrooms.  The rainy season has set us back a good amount and we are praying for the rains to let up, for the land to dry and for our contractor to work diligently to complete our plans as soon as possible.  

After our site visit, we visited the home of our new student, Daniel.  To our surprise, we were welcomed with another coffee ceremony, but this one was extra special as we were sitting alongside Daniel's mom for each step of the ceremony.  We watched her roast the beans, grind the beans, and pour them into the coffee pot ("jebena") with boiling water, which rests over hot charcoal.  The result was the most fresh and perfectly balanced coffee we've tasted.  The best part is in a traditional coffee ceremony, the recipients each get three small cups of coffee ("buna")!  We finished up our house visit with some music and a dance performance by Daniel.  

Day 3, Sunday, we again asked the students to join us at school so we could spend more time with them.  We started the day by introducing new centers focusing on manipulative and fine motor skills.  It's amazing to see how quickly they catch on to the various techniques of learning.  

After serving the children lunch, we ventured into the village with them and visited a few homes. One of the homes we visited was upper class student, Nardos. Nardos lives with her parents and four siblings. When we got to her home, Nardos was helping her mother wash barley. With each step, we had a larger crew following us through the village.  Once one child spots a white person ("firenje"), the news quickly spreads and everyone comes running to be a part of the adventure!  Our village visit came to an abrupt end as a very big storm was quickly upon us!  

On Monday we arrived at the school and handed out additional sponsor letters to children who were absent during our original distribution.  Seeing the smiles on their faces was priceless and the students worked on some projects to thank their sponsors for their support and love.  We are so excited to share those with you all soon!  On this day we also shared letters and pictures from our kindergarten and first grade pen pals from Pearre Creek Elementary School in Franklin, TN.  The students loved seeing their drawings and hearing about what they like and dislike about school.  It was neat to hear that the weather in Franklin, TN was rainy at the same time we read the letters in Chacha, as it was rainy there too - SIMILARITY!  The students worked diligently on some projects for their pen pals and we can't wait to share those as well.

After school we went furniture shopping in Debre Berhan!  We got to pick out new desks and benches for our classrooms and also some shelving units to store all of our school supplies.  Wow, furniture shopping in Ethiopia is definitely different than it is in the US!  We were able to negotiate some great prices and look forward to seeing the new items in our new buildings.

Our last day at the school was Tuesday and the students welcomed us with their traditional flag ceremony.  The sun was shining and there were very few clouds in the sky.  It has been so rainy that the school yard has been flooded, so we were fortunate to be able to partake in this special time with the students and staff before heading home.  We once again setup centers and stations for the students to participate in and we also had a small dance party for fun!

It's always difficult when we know our time is coming to an end, but knowing this is just the beginning of a life long journey for these children is incredibly rewarding for us.  During this visit, each student had a glow about them...their faces bright and eager to learn.  Their positive energy, focus, and determination was evident each day.  We have no doubt they will accomplish great things in life.   

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”

— Nelson Mandela

It's been a busy few months in Chacha and in Tennessee!  At the beginning of the rainy season we suffered some setbacks in Chacha.  We lost our kitchen, our classrooms flooded and our entry bridge collapsed.  Luckily, despite these challenges, we prevailed.  We merged our two classrooms and turned the back classroom into a kitchen, so that we would not lose the ability to feed the students.  Our meal program is one of the most effective aspects of Project HEAL's efforts in Chacha. With teamwork, we still managed to move forward and overcome the rest of these obstacles. We are glad to report that a majority of our upper class students "graduated" to the next level during a graduation ceremony held at a local government high school at the end of June.  The staff at LFCA did an incredible job helping them to grow more confident each day.  Academically, both classes exceeded any expectations we had for them throughout the school year.  Another praise to report is that our meal program has helped our students to stay strong and healthy during the colder, rainy months of June, July and now August.  Our in country Director, Dereje Yeshidinber has been quite busy in meetings discussing the design plans for our new academy building.  We are really hoping to break ground over the next few weeks and cannot wait to share pictures and updates with you.

This summer we have also been very busy here in TN with fundraising events and planning for the upcoming school year!  We had an event at Paddle Dog Adventures in Franklin, TN with TigerMeat which had a great turnout!  So thankful to the Mattox and Abrams' families for making this possible.  Most recently we attended the Nashville Sounds game and will be having our a fundraiser with Noonday at the end of the month.  Our big fundraiser, the Second Annual MFC (Music, Food, and Cornhole) will take place October 7th in Franklin, TN.  Stay tuned for more details about these and more exciting upcoming events!  We are always looking for ways to spread awareness to other areas, so if at any time you want to plan an event or get more involved in fundraising for Project HEAL, please send a message to contactus@projecthealethiopia.org.

Lastly, we are excited to share that a mini team will be traveling to Chacha at the end of the month to check in on our students and their families, as well as our staff.  We will address any medical needs we see during our time in Chacha and will make any necessary arrangements to continue the wellness of our students.  We will also be overseeing the building progress and will have the ability to weigh in on decisions for the new Academy.  Sponsors, please be on the lookout for an email about this upcoming trip and your ability to send letters and pictures to the child(ren) you sponsor.  We are excited to be able to share new pictures and most importantly to provide an update on your sponsor child(ren).

Finally, enjoy the below pictures highlighting the past few months with Project HEAL and LFCA!

All the best,
Colleen and Dan Taylor

As we were sleeping last night, Dr. Rick Hodes and 20 of his spine patients arrived at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa and boarded a plane to Ghana!  LFCA upper class student Debebe Alemayehu is one of the 20!  His mom, Yeshi, was able to travel into Addis on Saturday to give him lots of hugs and pray over him as they said their goodbyes.

I woke up this morning to a message from Dr. Rick who said he had a successful meeting with all 20 patients and their relatives where they reviewed their program and what to expect going forward.  They ended the meeting in prayer and at 5:30am, all the patients piled into a van and headed to the airport!  Love for the Children Director, Dereje Yeshidinber, was at the airport to support Debebe and told him that he has many people praying for him and following his story.