As many of you know, Jana Fowler recently traveled to Ethiopia for Project HEAL's first visit to Love for the Children Academy.  She has shared her feelings leading up to the trip and also summarizes her experiences during and after the visit.  I know you will enjoy her story as much as I have. ~ Colleen

"The nights leading up to our trip to Ethiopia, I couldn’t sleep. I would wake up and my mind would start racing. I would be thinking about packing or things that needed to be taken care of at home before I left. But the worst part about it was the lies that kept filling my head. I couldn’t rest and couldn’t make them stop. I would think things like “why are you leaving your four kids and your husband?” or “you will be missing ______ if you go, how could you do that?” These types of thoughts raced in my head and kept me from sleeping several nights.

One night I googled “Ethiopian news” to see what was happening in Ethiopia. Turns out that a lot was going on. There are protest happening in Ethiopia right now and over a hundred people have been killed because of it. Then the thoughts got worse. “Why would you put yourself in that situation?” and “It isn’t worth the risk?” filled my head. I recognized that these weren’t truths, that these thoughts weren’t from the Lord and that Satan was trying to confuse me into staying behind. It didn’t work. A friend stopped by the day before we left and sat down with me for a few minutes. She had been to Africa before and left 2 children at home to go serve. She encouraged me that God had made it possible for me to go on this trip and that He would take care of everything. That my children are really his children and He will protect me. I left the next day feeling confident and resting in the fact that God was in control and not me. Thank goodness!

The entire week, as you probably saw and read, was incredible. I have been on mission trips before. I have seen poor and needy and I have experienced other cultures and languages. There was something different about Ethiopia. Something so special. Maybe it was because I have always dreamt of visiting Africa and have always felt a special place in my heart for the people there. I could go on about each day and why it was special, but I don’t think that I have enough time. I feel like we used our time so well and we were able to spend time serving and loving on the children, but we were also able to experience the culture of Ethiopia.

What Project Heal is doing in Ethiopia is incredible! The impact that they are making on the families in ChaCha is huge and it is just the beginning. When we walked into the school on the first day and those kids saw us, they had no idea who we were. Most had never seen a white person before. By the time we left, we couldn’t keep them from hugging and kissing us. One of my favorite times with the kids was when we called each of the kids back individually to get their picture. If they had a sponsor family, we would show them the picture and tell them about their family. It was such a special time spent with each child. We got to see their personalities shine and even though there was a language barrier, it didn’t matter. There was something more that united us. Love has no barriers. We loved those kids and they loved us.

As mentioned in the past blog, we were able to visit the home of each child at the school. It took us three days to do this and a lot of walking. Going into the homes of the kids brought up so much emotion. You see someone who has so little, basically nothing, yet has so much joy. The kids faces would light up when we would come into their home. They were so proud for us to be able to see where they lived. They didn’t care that their walls were made of mud and they had one room and one bed. They were thrilled for us to be there and to experience their life.

The kids would all gather and walk with us from house to house. We would go in and they would all stand at the doorway as we talked with the family. As we walked to each house, they would hold our hands and walk alongside of us. Some spent several hours walking with us going to each home.

The last day we were with the kids was really tough. We wanted them to know that this wasn’t the last time they would see us. That we weren’t just going to sweep in and out. That this was just the beginning of something. I kept thinking, I wish that we could stay longer, do more, teach more. And then I realized that staying wasn’t going to help do what we had come to do. We did what was needed and now that we had accomplished that, it was time to go. By staying we weren’t empowering them. Leaving them with tools necessary to succeed was empowering them.

As we unpacked the school supplies at the school one day, I came across a sign for the wall that said “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something”. Then it hit me. Had I listened to those lies as I laid in bed restless at night, had I believed that I couldn’t raise enough money to be able to go on this trip, had I been afraid that my presence in Ethiopia didn’t matter, had Dan and Colleen believed that this was too hard or too much work, then there wouldn’t be 65 children in ChaCha, Ethiopia who will have lunch tomorrow. There wouldn’t be 65 children who have a safe place to play and learn when they wake up in the morning. That a little six year old boy won’t be tending sheep in the field, but instead will be going to school tomorrow to learn and be a child and laugh. This is 65 somethings that are everything. 65 lives who are being empowered. 65 lives who are changed because two people said they could do something. I am amazed by Colleen and Dan. I am encouraged and inspired. I can’t stop thinking about what else we can do, what other ways we can help them, and how we can continue to help these kids. God has blessed us with so much. We know the love of Jesus and we can be his hands and feet and show that love.

I am incredibly grateful for those who made it possible for me to go. Whether you gave money for my trip, took my family a meal while I was gone, helped care for my children so Chris could have a break, or prayed for me. I know that this is the beginning of something beautiful and that lives are changed because of you, so thank you! There is still so much work that needs to be done. Colleen and I talked about so many other ways we can help the children at Love for the Children Academy and their families moving forward. If you feel like you want to do something more, please visit www.projecthealethiopia.org. There are still plenty of kids who need sponsors too!"

Day 4

We arrived at LFCA and were greeted with smiles, kisses and hugs...and more sunshine!  We all played outside on the slide, swings and merry-go-round for a while, then we snuck inside to blow up 65 punch balloons to surprise the children.  To say they were a hit is a huge understatement! I think the staff enjoyed the balloons as much as the children. Check out these smiles:

After the balloon fest, we were able to meet with each student individually and tell them about their sponsor family.  We also shared sponsor gifts and Dereje translated letters for the children.  For those students without sponsors, we told them how much they were loved and gave them gifts as well.  We used this opportunity to ask a few students what they wanted to be when they grew up and here are some of the responses!

After our student interviews, we served the children injera for lunch which was special for them.  Right now the students are not coming to school for a full day so they are only receiving one meal.  When school starts in September, the students will arrive at 8am and leave around 3pm and will receive breakfast, lunch and a piece of bread when they leave to go home.

After the children finished their lunches, we walked home with some of them to complete our home visits.  Again words cannot describe how meaningful these visits were for both us and the families.  It is so moving to hear their stories and to be in their homes where you can get a glimpse at their "normal."  While each of our students families has very little, they are so proud to invite you into their homes to share details about their lives.  Their homes are made of a mixture of mud and cow dung.  Many of the fathers and mothers daily jobs include working in the cow pastures curing cow dung for homes and fuel.  Here are some highlights from today's visits:

While walking home from the village, Tara and Jana almost got run over by a donkey.  The woman guiding the donkey was screaming in Amharic and when we asked Dereje to translate he told us she was screaming at the donkey saying "Watch out, watch out, don't run over them, don't hurt them, they are here trying to help our community."  And once again, Dereje told us how the local people believe we were lucky because we stopped the heavy rain and brought the sunshine.  And yet again, I find myself lacking the words to express how this made us all feel.  They think we are bringing good luck and on the flipside, they are blessing us more than they will ever know.  After all of our home visits we went back to LFCA, reminisced about our day, and drove back to Debre Berhan to wind down for the night.

Day 5

We arrived at LFCA to find out we had two new students!  We took information on both children and welcomed them into the school.  After playing on the playground, we brought the children inside and gave them each crayons and construction paper, something they had never had before.

They loved coloring and writing on the colorful pieces of paper and the smiles on their faces were priceless.  We are continuously impressed at the students' intelligence!  Some of them already know letters and body parts in English.  Some students drew pictures of the decorations we hung on the walls, such as a fish, pencil, apple, etc.  We placed name tags on each student's desk and wrote their names in both English and Amharic.  Without instruction, the children started copying their names with English letters - we were completely blown away!  The children love to sing and copy and repeat anything we would say.  They referred to us all as "teacher" and "miss".  The day was passing more quickly then we wanted and as their washed their hands for lunch, we mentally prepared ourselves for a very difficult goodbye.  We asked them to take a photo with us and then walked them into their classrooms.  We showed them artwork we made and hung on the wall with our handprints, names and hearts.  Dereje explained to them that we were leaving and would not be back tomorrow.  He tried to help them understand that this was just goodbye for now and that we would be back again in the near future.  We had him tell the children how much we loved them and then we each went through the classroom and gave them hugs and kisses.  Even the students who had been shy during our time at the school hugged us tightly and gave us multiple kisses.  We said goodbye to the staff and told them how thankful and blessed we are to have them working at LFCA.

I knew saying goodbye would be difficult but never anticipated the amount of emptiness I would feel in my heart as I looked back at the school as we begun driving away.  I lost all self control and tears poured down my cheeks.  I looked back one last time and saw two of our students' mothers outside of our gates with tears streaming down their faces.  I watched them use their brightly colored scarves to wipe them dry.  I will never forget this moment, as right as this time I knew we had accomplished what we came to do.  Dan and my dream had become a reality and we had empowered students and parents alike.  We gave them hope for their futures and while goodbye can sometimes seem like the end, this is only the beginning.  Sometimes our hearts have to be broken in order to make them full.

Since we arrived on Saturday morning, everyone has told us how fortunate we are to see the sun because the rains before we arrived were very heavy.  Now, three days in, people are even telling us we are good luck and have brought the sunshine.  It’s sort of funny because we all feel like we are the lucky ones to be here with all these amazing people.  It has been so difficult not being able to share our daily adventures with you all, but the internet has been non-existent (for the most part) since we arrived due to anti-government protests being arranged by social media.  So here it is…our first three days in Ethiopia.  Starting in Addis, finishing in Debre Berhan/Chacha!  It is my hope that these stories and pictures can give you a true depiction of this journey.  Enjoy!

Day 1

Today we hit the ground running…literally.  From the moment we landed in Addis at 7am (after our 13 hour flight) we got through customs, got our luggage, found our driver from Ordinary Hero and headed to the OH Guest House.  Upon arrival we were greeted by many friendly faces and we caught up over fresh buna (coffee)!  We met our friend and the President of Project HEAL’s partner organization in Ethiopia, Dereje!  He agreed to go out on an adventure with us to Entoto Mountain and an orphanage in Addis! We stuffed some lollipops in our pockets to hand out to any children we saw and got our donations for Kidane Mihret Orphanage (also known as the nun orphanage) and climbed right back into the van!  As the van climbed the mountain and headed towards the top we saw woman carrying huge bundles of wood that were double the size of their own bodies.  We were greeted at the top by about 200 children!  We stayed and played for a few hours and got to help with the feeding program that Ordinary Hero runs with the director, Mesfin.  Mesfin shared the story about how the program got started and it inspired us all.

These sweet children get to come here to this beautiful green space while their mothers and fathers are doing daily work (selling injera, making local drinks, roasting grains, etc.) so that they can earn funds to pay for their rent and food for their families.  The children play in this safe place with their friends, while receiving a meal.  If you want to learn more about this program, or sponsor a child in this feeding program, let me know and I can point you in the right direction!  While there was so much joy at the top of the mountain, I witnessed something that hit close to home for me.  There were many young girls (ages 5-7) that were wearing their siblings (age 8-18 months) on their backs.  This was difficult for me to process.  I try to imagine my 7 year old having that kind of responsibility for an entire day, while I went to work.  Sadly, these families do not have other options.  While visiting, we got to see some beautiful scarves and pottery made by the mothers of these children.  Not only is this program helping the children but they are finding ways to empower the woman as well.  It was difficult to say goodbye to all our new friends, but we had to go to our next stop, the Catholic Nun Orphanage.

 We arrived at the orphanage and knew right away that it was a special place.  The sister who runs the orphanage and the nannies were friendly, loving, and they appreciated our visit as it gave them a chance to take a small break from their extremely busy day.  The most amazing part of the visit was when two teenage boys came in to help hold and love on the babies.  They shared with us that they were cared for at this orphanage until they aged out of the system.  All in all, this was a great first day.

Day 2

We awoke to the Muslim prayer at 3am!  Luckily we were so tired from traveling and day 1 that we went back to sleep for a bit.  After breakfast, we left for Chacha/Debre Berhan.  We were blessed with an abundance of sunshine on the way and only right when we arrived at Love for the Children Academy in Chacha, it did drizzle for a bit.  We were welcomed by the families of our students who were waiting in the play yard.  It’s hard to explain the range of emotions that were flowing through me as Dan and my dream of starting a school in Ethiopia instantly became a reality.  The only thing that would have made this moment better would be for Dan to have been by my side.

We proceeded inside to meet the staff and students. We loved meeting them.  They were so kind and prepared a traditional coffee ceremony for us to have as we introduced ourselves.  Meeting the students brought all of us so much joy, but it was difficult at the same time because most of them had never seen a white person before so it was scary for them. They started to warm up as we helped to serve them macaroni and bread for lunch.  One of the main reasons these children come to school is for the meals.  When the children are at home during the day, they are often alone, regardless of age, and could go a whole day or maybe more without food.

After we left school, we ventured into the village where many of our children live.  We got to go into their homes and meet their families and hear their personal stories.  I do not think there are any words that could come remotely close to explaining these visits, so for now, I will show them to you:

With each visit we learned about our students siblings, parents jobs, and about their current needs.  Of course this made my mind start racing and trying to come up with ways to help with any problems they have and to create opportunities in which we could empower their parents.  More to come on this topic in the near future!

Day 3

We awoke early, had breakfast at the Getva/Eva Hotel in Debre Berhan and drove to Love for the ChildLFCA.  When we arrived the students and staff were waiting for us.  We started the day by giving each child a friendship bracelet- and we showed them that we had matching bracelets.  This definitely help them to feel more comfortable with us.  We also helped them create their name tags for their desks which they thoroughly enjoyed.  We finished our time at the school by decorating the older student classroom and plan to finish decorating both classrooms tomorrow.  When school was over, we got to walk home with them to their village and got to visit 35 more homes. Home visit pictures will be coming soon! Stay Tuned!