Okee Dokee, this is a direct copy/paste from an e-mail from Carmen herself. I don't think I have anything to add...
I arrived in Langano, which about 4 hours South of Addis Ababa.We got to the compound in the afternoon and got settled. The compound there consists of a medical clinic, dealing mostly with births, pre-natal exams, infections, crisis feeding program, vaccinations, and malaria (there are a few more things then that,of but it is not anything like what you would invision as a medical clinic). A new place Called Mana Abdii, or house of hope. This house deals with babies in crisis ( having lost their mother or having health problems). At this time there was a mother there named Kufto (koof-too)( about 20ish years old) and her baby. Kuftu and her baby came to clinic workers as they were administering Extended Outreach System (A Unicef project to find cases of malnutrition, administer vit. A, and treat for worms) in the near by villages.Both she and her child were experiencing sever malnutrition ( her husband had abandoned her and left her with no support system) and were entered into the Crisis Feeding Program and the Dawe Langano Clinic.
After a couple of weeks it was evident that both of them were in need of more intensive care so they were admited to Mana Abdii. After you drive past the clinic and past Mana Abdii the road turns toward Lake Langano and leads you to the "Beach House" where we stayed. Jen and I took a tent. we were there all week for Christmas. The nature there was totally amazing, I was able to see 3 kinds of monkeys and about 20 different kinds of birds. It was amazing. I was able to talk to one of the gaurds, Even though I never saw him again it was encouraging to see someone going to school and learning english, He was about 25 with a grade 7 education. We were able to decorate the Beach House and have tons of food for eveyone staffed there for Christmas Day. The day before Christmas I was able to witness a birth. It was amazing. She was about 16, circumsized and having her first baby. She was lucky to have a live baby boy and to leave with little tearing. Christmas day was a blast. but a little wierd. It was warm and sunny, we went swimming...all the stuff a Canadian girl isn't us to. We clebrated with the staff and had a really awesome day together. The next day we were going to spend with a family that had come on the 24th to visit for Christmas from Alaska. Instead we happened to be there for another birth! This one was much more personal for me, I was able to help and hold her hand the whole time. Again she was circumsized, maybe 16, first baby. She was amazing, and although she tore really really badly she came out fine with a healthy baby boy. A custom here that seems harsh, but is understandable; basically the mother is to show no emotion towards the baby. Sometimes this last until they are 5 years old. The main reason for this is that the fatalitly rate in children and infants is massive here, and therefor the mother does not want to be too emotionaly invested in the child. This is the harsh reality. Another thing that this Clinic does is go out into the community and vaccinates children for basic things like polio, rabies, and measels. Polio is still a problem here. While vaccinating they also check for malnutrition and when they find it they enroll the child into the clinic feeding program. If the child does not show improvment in that program then they are admited to Mana Abdii. Basically this whole program has opene my eyes to a lot of truth and reality. I can only hope that the rest of my time here is so amazing. Well, That is all for this week. Thank you for your prayer. Please keep in mind continued health and just the ability to hear God's voice through the next weeks. Until next time.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Friday, December 21, 2007
Update!!!!!!!!!!
OK, so this is a general update by your resident CarmeninEthiopia correspondent ThatDude.
Carmen has officially landed, and has been settling in quite nicely. She's gotten everything she needs for her time there, and with all that shopping, our favorite genius has already started to pick up bits and pieces of Amharic.
In her own words: "Its so weird, the moon is upside down here! I've found the most amazing birds here too, just wait till i show you pics! we went shopping today, and i only spent $100.....sounds like a small amount, but it really came to $1000 of their dollars. Its ridiculous, I got everything i needed and more. We hired a guy to come with us, he carried the bags around and followed us to make sure we were OK and that no one harassed us. he was very good, and really polite. i felt really weird though, I'm not used to being very rich, and here I'm totally loaded. Its hard to not feel bad. There are many beggars, some who are beggars because they cant work, but a lot are fake beggars so that they don't HAVE to work. Its so hard to tell the difference. Women actually "hire" or rent babies so that you will give them more money for being a homeless mother."
This next week the updates will be sparse, because she's going into an area with no Internet at all.
She's doing well and is enjoying herself thus far, however, she's somewhat worried about going to Gesses. Apparently it's a place that the natives call "The Devil's Seat", so she's asking for added prayer for herself while she's there (which I believe is for most of the trip, although I give all of you permission not to quote me on that).
She sends her thanks for all the prayers of everybody so far. She says they can be felt by everyine there, and they are having real effects in their lives. She sends her love to everybody as well.
Carmen has officially landed, and has been settling in quite nicely. She's gotten everything she needs for her time there, and with all that shopping, our favorite genius has already started to pick up bits and pieces of Amharic.
In her own words: "Its so weird, the moon is upside down here! I've found the most amazing birds here too, just wait till i show you pics! we went shopping today, and i only spent $100.....sounds like a small amount, but it really came to $1000 of their dollars. Its ridiculous, I got everything i needed and more. We hired a guy to come with us, he carried the bags around and followed us to make sure we were OK and that no one harassed us. he was very good, and really polite. i felt really weird though, I'm not used to being very rich, and here I'm totally loaded. Its hard to not feel bad. There are many beggars, some who are beggars because they cant work, but a lot are fake beggars so that they don't HAVE to work. Its so hard to tell the difference. Women actually "hire" or rent babies so that you will give them more money for being a homeless mother."
This next week the updates will be sparse, because she's going into an area with no Internet at all.
She's doing well and is enjoying herself thus far, however, she's somewhat worried about going to Gesses. Apparently it's a place that the natives call "The Devil's Seat", so she's asking for added prayer for herself while she's there (which I believe is for most of the trip, although I give all of you permission not to quote me on that).
She sends her thanks for all the prayers of everybody so far. She says they can be felt by everyine there, and they are having real effects in their lives. She sends her love to everybody as well.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Counting Down
OK,here we go. I'm down to my last 4 days in this country, and crunch time is here. (I do tend to be one of those people who plan ahead, and yet manage to get nothing done until the last moment possible). All the important stuff is done, this is my first "adventure blog", dull as it may seem.
For those of you who are going to be keeping track of me throughout the next couple months this blog will be my biggest form of communication (hopefully). I don't know how much internet access I'm going to be able to get my hands on, but I'll try to keep you updated as much as I can.
My plans so far are not very concrete, and for those of you who don't know the reason or way I'm going here you go: I am NOT going with a team or technically under any mission. I am meeting up with a family that I have come to know and love very much: John, Phyllis, Jeni and her adopted twin sisters, Amy and Abby Coleman.This amazing family have been missionaries in Ethiopia for 3 generations now. They work with SIM ( Serving In Mission), particularly in Gumuz and Langano, Ethiopia. I am going over simply to help with what I can and soak in the culture. Africa is somewhere I have always longed to go, and so when the opportunity came up I jumped at it as soon as I could. Everything has worked out so well, there is no doubt in my mind that this is going to be an mind blowing experience and that this is where God has called me.
I will be leaving here on Saturday (hopefully my VISA will arrive before then), and then be in London for a day, and then leave the next morning for the other half of my 16 hour flight. After I get into Addis I believe the plans are roughly as follows: I go down to Longano for Christmas with the staff that work for the newly built clinic called the hope house. (This is a clinic Jens' mum, Phyllis, has been working on for years and years. It is dedicated to infants who are ill and/or who's mothers have died. As you can tell, it's a very difficult area since many people do not even try to keep the babies alive if their mothers have died. This new building provides better safety, bigger facility, more food, and in the end strives to save more lives. I have heard that now even more mothers are bringing their children there....pray that this works out to the glory of God.)
After this we are headed to a wedding...who's? I have no clue, but it's going to be a blast anyway! After that we are planning on heading to a Spiritual Life Conference that i believe will be about 4 days long. After that I think we are heading back out into the bush back to Gumuz. All things after that are unknown to me...but again, I will try to keep this updated and such.
If any of you do feel the need to email me then by all means have fun! Just don't get too offended if I don't respond right away.Also, when emailing I cannot receive any pictures, or funny fonts, or add-ons...so you will just have to stick with the dull, normal, black and white emailing system. If you want to send Jeni or any of the other family a hug through me, I'm not complaining!
For anyone who wants to know more about the awesome Jeni I am working with you can visit her blog at: http://mythirdculture.blogspot.com/.
Look forward to telling you all about it!!! Thanks to all of you who are praying for us and supporting me! I couldn't do it without you!
God Bless.
For those of you who are going to be keeping track of me throughout the next couple months this blog will be my biggest form of communication (hopefully). I don't know how much internet access I'm going to be able to get my hands on, but I'll try to keep you updated as much as I can.
My plans so far are not very concrete, and for those of you who don't know the reason or way I'm going here you go: I am NOT going with a team or technically under any mission. I am meeting up with a family that I have come to know and love very much: John, Phyllis, Jeni and her adopted twin sisters, Amy and Abby Coleman.This amazing family have been missionaries in Ethiopia for 3 generations now. They work with SIM ( Serving In Mission), particularly in Gumuz and Langano, Ethiopia. I am going over simply to help with what I can and soak in the culture. Africa is somewhere I have always longed to go, and so when the opportunity came up I jumped at it as soon as I could. Everything has worked out so well, there is no doubt in my mind that this is going to be an mind blowing experience and that this is where God has called me.
I will be leaving here on Saturday (hopefully my VISA will arrive before then), and then be in London for a day, and then leave the next morning for the other half of my 16 hour flight. After I get into Addis I believe the plans are roughly as follows: I go down to Longano for Christmas with the staff that work for the newly built clinic called the hope house. (This is a clinic Jens' mum, Phyllis, has been working on for years and years. It is dedicated to infants who are ill and/or who's mothers have died. As you can tell, it's a very difficult area since many people do not even try to keep the babies alive if their mothers have died. This new building provides better safety, bigger facility, more food, and in the end strives to save more lives. I have heard that now even more mothers are bringing their children there....pray that this works out to the glory of God.)
After this we are headed to a wedding...who's? I have no clue, but it's going to be a blast anyway! After that we are planning on heading to a Spiritual Life Conference that i believe will be about 4 days long. After that I think we are heading back out into the bush back to Gumuz. All things after that are unknown to me...but again, I will try to keep this updated and such.
If any of you do feel the need to email me then by all means have fun! Just don't get too offended if I don't respond right away.Also, when emailing I cannot receive any pictures, or funny fonts, or add-ons...so you will just have to stick with the dull, normal, black and white emailing system. If you want to send Jeni or any of the other family a hug through me, I'm not complaining!
For anyone who wants to know more about the awesome Jeni I am working with you can visit her blog at: http://mythirdculture.blogspot.com/.
Look forward to telling you all about it!!! Thanks to all of you who are praying for us and supporting me! I couldn't do it without you!
God Bless.
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