Negative Five Star Hotel

Why did we not have a blogpost yesterday? Well, we were in a town called Ambo and the Germans overtook the good (and apparently only decent) hotel in town. Germans have a history of overtaking things.... but in the case I wish they could have waited one more day.

Tonight's our last night in Ethiopia and some people have already left. Tomorrow we have church with the students from the youth development program and then some time for shopping before our 11:30pm flight. We will be picking out our gift for one commenter. The name will be drawn from a hat on the way home:)

Currently, the young girls are upstairs crafting it up and eating melty chocolate. We can hear their laughter and it is wonderful that they have bonded so well. Halley and Anna are already planning their return to Ethiopia.

We had some wonderful visits at the orphanages yesterday. Today we went to one place expecting 140 kids and there were 300 kids along with their mothers and siblings! We had to get creative fast with some fancy footwork and only half the supplies! I will post more fully about that later as it is already midnight here. We have some great pictures and stories.

For now. Here are some photos of our scary hotel. Where would one even start on the trip advisor review!

Thanks for prayers. Our Wisconsin team is currently good. Sadly one mother and daughter missed the last two days due to illness but we were very thankful they weren't on the bus!

 I need to add a few additional details to complete the picture.
The water in the hotel tub didn't work (but not like we were really thinking of going in there.) We now have a whole new appreciation for what can be accomplished with wet wipes and all vowed never to travel without LOTS of them!
When we woke up and saw our view of the concrete brick wall out our window.We pressed our noses closer to see outside we noticed a door to a house down the long alley and right before us was what appeared to be designated "bathroom." Obvious because it was "in use."

Korah.....

We started today early in the morning gathering for packing up our bus and eating breakfast so we could have an early start to head back to Addis Ababa .
Just as we gathered in the hotel lobby at 6:15 the power went out. And just as we said, "well at least no one was in the elevator," we heard loud pounding and yelling. It was Haley and Heather trapped in the elevator. Now there's an experience. Stifling hot and confined in such a small space. Poor heather was already not feeling too good. Now this! Quickly others took action and they were able to free them within a few minutes. Whew!
We finished breakfast and began our long journey. Unfortunately, we made frequent stops due to two team members having serious "cookie tossing" issues. It was not a good scene. Dusty roads filled with people and traffic crowded our drive while we made slow progress towards the city. We had many quick and unplanned stops.
Korah is the garbage dump city. The organization we went to participate with is called "hands for the needy." It ministers to around 200 children with HIV and aids. We were blessed with serving them through a Feast provided by one of our team members serving them a meal that took three days to prepare. We then had stories, played games and did a planned small group activities.
Korah was started by a young man who came from the dump city. He has an amazing story. I posted a link on Korah early on but you can google it if interested.
The kids there were amazing. English was great, they shared, participated, patiently waited to be served and many latched in to each of us and would follow us all around. I met a grandmother and her handicapped grandson. look for her picture. We discovered we are about the same age.
Here are a few pictures of many moments of our day. I can't put comments up by them working on the phone as a computer but they speak for themselves.
We appreciate your prayer. Our north woods team has been hit hard with illness. All are bravely carting on amidst the setbacks of compromised health.

Meeting Sponsored Kids of Chapa

What a day. It will take some time to process this day. Right now after a very full day and a blog post that after an hour of writing suddenly vaporized I am spent. Currently, it's 12:30am and we are getting up at 5:30 am in order to have an early start on our six hour drive back to Addis Ababa tomorrow.

A few special moments to share for now in photos for my family and friends to enjoy. There are so many from this day.

Oh Happy Day!

Coffee! Oh, how I have missed you. But it is clear this morning we are not in Wisconsin anymore.

Breakfast. Then off we go.

Contest! Interested in a gift from Ethiopia? I will be selecting something special for one lucky follower . I will see to delivery if you are in the continental USA. If you are elsewhere i will hold it until we see each other next! Just comment! We will have a drawing at the end of the trip. Each comment gets your name in the hat !

Ethiopia!

We have just arrived after an eternity of travel. Starting at 4am waking up, meeting, driving to Chicago, missing an exit, panicking and needing to miss the stop at my brothers and sister in law's house to drop the car and instead meeting them at the airport, flight to Amsterdam in a sardine can, met our Colorado team mates, Amsterdam to Kartoum, then it got tricky. Our intercom system stopped working so we couldn't get fuel until it was fixed. They called it a "no go problem" which means you no go. After another hour at least we were cleared to go and we eventually landed in Addis Ababa where we then waited 90 minutes at least for our visa....and just so ya know they are still making carbon paper somewhere cuz they are using it here! Eventually we made it out of the air travel vortex and even had all our bags which were each 50lbs and two suitcases of just supplies. We are now are safely stowed in our guest house for the night. We will be heading out to the country tomorrow. Awassa and Dale and Chapa to meet the kids are ahead on our agenda.

So we are all safe and sound! Here are a few pictures of our day.or our days of travel.