To a private orphanage to paint. There are three compounds associated with this orphanage -- one for girls, one for boys, one for a feeding center for other kids. Sami, who is the Christian from India who runs the place, tells us he is looking for designs on the walls. We were expecting to paint plain walls so it is a bit of a shock! None of us claim to be artists!
First group goes to paint at the boys home. Our group goes to paint the feeding center. It is a corrugated metal shack with two cinder brick walls and a roof held up by eucalyptus poles. Stark white. I walk in and immediately see the eucalyptus poles as tree trunks so we start to paint nature scenes. I show the guys how to make butterflies and ladybugs and start on flowers. 25 kids who otherwise don't have much to eat come for lunch every day. I pray for them off and on as I paint.
Wes & Elissa, friends of Levi and Jessie, join us. Wes works with the other team while Elissa tells their story. They honeymooned in Ethiopia and have always loved it here. Her husband got a job two years ago on a farm outside the city raising drought-resistant wheat (with the plan to perpetuate it and share it an expand it to help all over the country.) Six months ago the crazy man in the village hit him in the back of the head with an ax and he just returned from the states where is was treated and given therapy!!! They returned to finish the adoption process for 2 or 3 Ethiopian kids. Everyone here has a story.
Paint we are using is from China, likely lead-based. Toxic fumes for sure!
Sami fixed a traditional meal for us -- including the slaughtered sheep whose head was lying outside the building near the sink where we washed our hands. Learned the phrase, "Lord, I'll put it down if you keep it down." Did not eat much of it, though!
Continued painting and finished!
Walls weren't the only thing that got painted. The paint cans were under high pressure and this is what happened to Chris when he opened a can of green for me:
We did not go back to the hotel until evening, so Chris looked like this for the rest of the day -- through dinner at a restaurant. It was really hard to take anything he was saying seriously if you looked at him. I giggled all evening. What a trooper!
Here are some of the rest of us at the end of the painting:
We had discussions now and then today about our willingness to let our kids do something like YWAM when they are old enough. Would we be willing to let our 18-year-old go around the world to live at a dump with buckets for laundry and no good way to communicate with us back home??? Dinner at ??? -- can't recall. It took TWO HOURS to get our food. We ended up being served in three shifts. The next group didn't get their food until after the first group had finished eating. Wow.
(Kore - the dump) 
The YWAM girls compound
The sewing room 
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.
