No electricity when we wake up but it is soon on.
We get a tentative schedule for the rest of the week from Jessie before we leave the hotel. Still appears that we will be doing more sightseeing and eating than mission work.
(Kore - the dump) Head to the dump again to meet and work with a YWAM (Youth with a Mission) team there. They have an after school program to teach English and sewing skills and Bible stories to 14 girls who used to work in the dump (as in picking through trash.) Started with 13 girls who each have only one parent and added another girl who is an orphan with a worthless older brother. (Most of the boys got sent to a boarding school and the five who are left do not yet have any kind of program or support.)
The YWAM girls compound
The sewing room The guys are tasked with pouring a concrete floor in a part of the house that was never finished and add a rubber mat to another room. Sounds easy but there isn't a Home Depot and it took quite awhile for them to round up the supplies. The girls all work on making charades/pictionary cards for a game later with the students.
Our driver didn't come back to take us to lunch so Jessie & Melody from YWAM walk to a store for noodles and tomatoes and we have a sort of pasta meal. (Turns out the driver got in a fight with his girlfriend, left to go see her, and turned off his phone. He showed up later and got sent away. The DFW people found a new driver with a better vehicle, more courtesy, and better driving skills.)
The girls arrive, have a meal, clean up, play jump rope and Chinese jump rope. They introduce themselves and many are age 16 and in grade 4. Wow. We introduce ourselves and start playing the game. 
AMAZING girls. Funny, smart. They let me in and I am blessed by the experience beyond what I can put into words. God broke my heart for what breaks His. I cried all the way to dinner and off and on the rest of the night.
Helen. I love that girl.
The girls with YWAM volunteers Corey and Melody and puppy Luna. 
We are invited to visit the school the DFW kids attend, the best school for Ethiopians in Addis and only a short walk from Rich & Melissa's. 750 students, 60 on scholarship. Kids are taught in English but learn Amharic. Learn that school from first grade on is free, but you must go to Kindergarten and you must pay to go to Kindergarten. Get to see a bunch of kids at recess, including some of the DFW kids. They recognize that we are there with their people and they are possessive about us. The little girl who befriends Eddie pushes any other child out of his lap. 
DFW kids are easy to recognize because southern Ethiopians have much darker skin than the people from the Addis area. 
They have a farm and sell produce, a green house and sell plants, cows and sell ice cream (Ethiopians don't drink milk.) The grounds are beautiful -- flowers and trees all over, well kept. The kids live in a "family" of 25 kids and 2 parents in one house, with a large outside play area and small garden. Very nice.
There was an English copy of a book the Director's mother wrote and I bought a copy for about $2.50. (I finished it while there. Tells of the family's move from Switzerland to Israel, and ends with their move to Ethiopia. I am so curious about the rest -- how the Director got adopted and such, but the second book is not available in English and I don't read German! Bummer!!!)
This is Rich & Melissa's compound. As you can see, there are no yards to speak of. 
Getting the 21+ bags for all 8 people was an adventure! They got loaded on top of a van for the drive to Rich & Melissa's, one of the Drawn from Water couples. 
We were invited to participate in a coffee ceremony. (Roasted and brewed right in their living room.) Tradition holds that the coffee is drunk before any serious conversation takes place. So we start with the basics on Drawn from Water ... and then learn that DFW has been cut off from the Ethiopian part of the rescue effort and orphanage so we can't see the kids -- and have no plan for the week! 
To Sishu for lunch. Excellent grilled burgers. To Kore, the dump. People live in corrugated metal shacks all around it, with no running water or power. Meet Jerry & Christy, a couple who live by the dump and are starting a mission of providing child care for women who work at the dump (collecting metal, food, etc.) so they can get better jobs. Two of our pack-n-plays and lots of formula and diapers are donated to them, which is actually an answer to a very recent prayer of Christy's. They just got the final approval to open the day care and needed to start getting supplies and knew that cribs would be hard to acquire. Praise God! Go on a walking tour of the area. Words cannot describe it. To dinner at Lime Tree. Power goes out just as we get our food. As the firenge (foreigners) we are provided with candles before the rest of the customers. Long awaited shower and bed at the hotel. 3rd floor room is actually the 4th floor because the floors are ground, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. 60 steps and no elevator. At this elevation it is a tough climb! Eddie & I have a room with a separate living room and bedroom. Shower has a head that comes out of the center of the long side with no shower curtain and an electrical outlet on the short side. So you can take a shower and dry your hair at the same time???? No hand towel or washcloth. (Glad I brought my own.) Lots of street noise and light, which we aren't used to at home, but I take two Advil PM and hope for the best!
Here we are on the plane with Nicole and Flat Emily. This isn't our Emily, but the daughter of a good friend. We are thrilled to be taking Flat Emily along so that non-Christian kids at a public school can see how we became the hands and feet of Jesus. Slept for a bit on the 12 hour flight. Watched Unstoppable, which was a great action flick, and the Hereafter, which was slow, long, and tedious! Ate a sandwich in the dark. Don't know what it was, but at least it was good.
