Ethiopia Trip Journal Entry #2

6-26-2009

Today was our first full day in Ethiopia. Yesterday we landed and it was a great relief to everyone, because it signified the end of our travels... for the time being, anyways. After we made our way through visas and customs, we made our way to baggage pick-up. However, half of the team was missing at least one bag (myself included). We then went through the whole routine with the airport staff. After said routine, we were then informed that that our bags were not lost, but that they had just not made it off of our last flight. Instead of leaving the flight like us, our bags continued on to Entebbe, Uganda (our bags have now seen more of Africa than us). Long story short, we were able to pick-up the rest of our luggage this morning, which was a great thing (in our missing bags were not only clothes, but also toothbrushes and the like).

After arriving yesterday and dropping our bags off at the guesthouse we are staying at, we stopped by the orphanage that we will be working with. We arrived at the orphanage after a grueling (90 ft.) walk, and were greeted with a lot of semi-shy children. We stayed for a few minutes and then made our trek into town to stop by the other orphanage that we will be working with. The orphanages are run by the same people, but cater to children of different ages. The second orphanage was for the younger children and they immediately took a shining to us. We played with them the entire time we were there (soccer turned into monkey-in-the-middle, which turned into catching them jumping off of a short wall, which turned into piggy-back rides, which finally ended in me carrying one child on my back and one child on each of my arms). We sadly left and made our way to a pizza place for dinner. After dinner we rested some and then a few of us once again went to the first orphanage (with the older children). Those that went were expecting shy kids again, but we got the exact opposite. Those kids were ready for fun and games; we played with them for about 2 hours non-stop. They were so much fun, and just couldn't stop laughing or smiling. The guys I played with really liked balancing games and arm-wrestling type games. These games started out fair until they discovered that they could beat me easier by making me play 2 of them at once or by attacking me with tickles. The latter is what really sparked the rest of the night. It soon became apparent that they really loved tickle fights (not everyone for themselves, but rather them vs. me)... quite the mismatch. Inbetween the tickling, I was responsible for throwing them onto Josh's or Zach's back (leaching, if you will). It was just an awesome time, some of the guys even helped me out by wiping my face off of sweat. It was truly a blessing to see them having so much fun... it's hard to put into words how great it really was, but it is something I'm sure will stay with me forever.