Laughner's Journey to Ethiopia

Hi all, Hard to believe it's been a month since we were in Ethiopia. The jet lag wasn't too bad this year (thank goodness, since I had to teach the morning after we returned). Thank you for all of the very nice comments about my blog. I enjoy writing it, even when I'm forcing myself to stay awake back at the hotel after a long day with the kids. Your affirmations keep me going! :-) One of the things we learned on this trip is that because one of the care points (Grace Baptist) is not at 50% sponsorship, it is difficult to provide regular food to all of the families. The care points try to make sure that all of the families are getting at least some food, so it seems that the staff are at times dipping into their own pockets to make sure everyone gets care. Thanks to the generosity of many people, we are now at about 40 sponsorships. If we could get just 10 more, all 100 of the children would be able to count on regular food deliveries to their homes. The cost is $3...

So how does a small group of eight pull off a Vacation Bible School for more than 250 kids at two care centers over over four days? Lots of teamwork, lots of flexibility, and people here in the U.S. who did an amazing job of organizing everything. Preparations for our annual week in Kombolcha starts months ahead of the actual trip. A few weeks after we return, tentative dates are established for the next visit. Fundraising is now a year-round event, so we are continually logging checks and cash that are given to us for various needs. Over the last couple of years, we constantly monitor the political situation there to make sure there will be no issues with our travel. The heavy preparations begin four to five months before departure. Candy Tennant will send a notice to all sponsors about the upcoming trip. We notify our church and friends about the dates. Hopefully, we have an idea of the team by early-December. While we usually end up with a team of 12-15, this year we had a team...

I interrupt the description of our time at the care points to talk about our trip from Kombolcha back to Addis. What was supposed to be a quick thirty-minute flight turned out to be anything but... Our flight was to leave Kombolcha at 9:30 this morning. Being such a small airport, we didn't leave the hotel until almost 8:15 for the quick trip. We didn't have bags to check as Tesfayeye (Tess-fie-ay), our driver had left at 5:30am with our suitcases. We only had our carry on bags. The first sign that this was going to be a different kind of day was when we got dropped off. We had to show our passports before we could enter the terminal compound. I reached in to where I had kept the passports all week and could only find my passport. Michael's wasn't there. I frantically emptied my backback (I mean I had everything spread out on the concrete ramp.) Then I started going through my camera bag. I had put the passports in the camera bag during one of our visits so thought...

Saturday, March 17 It's 9:15am on Saturday, March 17. We're sitting at the Kombolcha airport, waiting for our flight back to Addis Ababa. The flight is supposed to leave at 9:30 but we just learned it's been delayed 90 minutes. The extra time is giving me a moment to reflect on this past week. Our time here is spent with over 200 kids at two care points in Kombolcha. One of the care points, Meserete Baptist Church, serves the kids with whom we've known the longest. I first met them in 2009 when a group of us came to Ethiopia and visited care points to determine which one we wanted to work with. We've watched them develop and mature, experience hardships and joys. Some of them are off to college, some of them have started their own businesses, and one of them was recently married. As they've left, new children have come into the program. The second care point is sponsored by Grace Baptist Church. Here, another 100 children, come for care and assistance. Wh...

The care points we visit are located in Kombolcha, located about 157 miles northeast of Addis Ababa. The drive here is amazing, as you start in the highlands of Addis, weave through flatlands and then begin a slow ascent into the mountains. As you gain attitude, the air becomes brisker and the hills steeper. Small towns provide a brief change in scenery as people scatter across streets carrying baskets, encouraging livestock, or waving down taxis or buses. During certain times of the year, if you keep an eye out, you can see water cascading down a cliff face. If you're not in a town, you see farmers tending their fields on tiered hillsides, most likely shaped centuries ago. You see kids herding animals, primarily goats and cows. Kids hang out at the doors of their huts. You keep driving higher, being able to see mountain upon mountain for miles and miles. If you're lucky, you'll see baboons playing on a hillside. About four hours into the drive, there's a tunnel. It...

March 14, 2018 If you pay attention around here, you'll find there are subtle and not so subtle differences between being in a country like Ethiopia and the United States. Buildings are constructed differently, people greet each other differently, driving patterns vary. The list goes on and on. However, if we were to really pay attention, you would notice that we are more similar than different. Today, we again spent time at each of the care points. The first stop was CHDA, which has mostly younger kids, most under the age of 10. Meserete Kristos is the care point with the kids we've spent most of our time with going back to 2009. They're older, most of them are in high school. A couple of them are now enrolled in a college or university. The routine at the care point this week is to give the kids a Bible story, then simultaneously deliver care packages from sponsor families, let the kids do a craft, and give them a rec opportunity. Today they made masks out...

Tuesday, March 13 I didn't mean to make her cry. I thought it was a straight-forward question, but once again I was reminded of the power of words, even when the intent is innocent. One of the most appealing aspects of the philosophy of Children's Hopechest is their work to help the children and their families become self-sufficient so that the kids of the current care point participants won't need such a program. Education has been a key part of that, with sponsorship money helping to pay for schooling as well as any obstacles that might get in the way of going to school, such as food and school supplies. Sponsorship can even continue once the child has left the care point as long as s/he is attending a college or university. Recently, Children's Hopechest has started to develop an IGA (income generating activity) program. This program provides grants to families wishing to being a business so that the up front costs don't get in the way of getting started. ...

Lori and I first came to Ethiopia in 2008 when we were preparing to bring Daniel home. We arrived here late at night, deer caught in the headlights as we tried to figure out how to navigate all of the changes this action was going to have on our lives. (Note: what a great decision it was!) Much of that first night is a blur, but I remember driving through Addis Ababa, dark at night, trying to absorb everything we were seeing. It wasn't the first time I'd been outside of the United States. As a child, I'd lived in Okinawa. My parents would frequently take us off of the base to walk around the local shops and to nearby parks and beaches. In high school, my father worked in Saudi Arabia, so again we were often in town. However, both of those countries are relatively wealthy. There was a rumor while we were living in Saudi Arabia that the government had found gold while building a new airport runway and decided just to build over it rather than mining the ore. All that I...

It's great to be back in Ethiopia. After coming here every year since 2008, we took a year off because of the political unrest. There has been dissatisfaction with some of the decisions being made by the ruling party, a party of which it is not necessarily clear represents the majority of its citizens. In 2016, government troops fired into a crowd of protestors, killing over 200 people. Another riot resulted in several killed when the crowd panicked and started a stampede. Then, a woman, a graduate student from Berkeley, was killed when she was hit by a protestors rock while on a bus. The U.S. Embassy warned visitors that their staff was not allowed to leave the capital, so if something happened to American citizens while they were outside the city limits, they would not be able to help. While things aren't completely settled, there seems to be progress towards a resolution. The Prime Minister released thousands of political prisoners and himself resigned. (A new Prime Min...