(Ruta writing) One of these amazing charities that is benefitting from some of the gifts and donations that you have asked us to forward is called Organization Against Gender Based Violence (a.k.a. Tsotawi Tikat Tekelakay Mahiber/TTTM). This organization supports mainly women and children who are victims of abuse. TTTM operates one of the only “safe houses” in Addis Ababa for the women who truly have no other options of where to go. Sadly, the women who come to TTTM have suffered beatings, abduction, sexual abuse, human trafficking to the Middle East, domestic violence etc. TTTM o [View Full Entry]

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(Ruta writing) TTTM’s Adanech Safe House has a striking photo album that shows a picture of a woman when she arrives at the safe house, an explanation of her story, and a picture upon her leaving. Wow. Sometimes the transformation is dramatic, not only in her physical appearance, but significantly in the expression of hope and happiness in her face and eyes. Here are 2 stories that I am summarizing from TTTM literature. The pictures that I have attached are NOT the stories that I list here. For privacy reasons, I do not know any of the exact stories of the [View Full Entry]

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(Ruta writing) You have all seen the appeals “For $35 a month, you can sponsor a child and change their life!” So what happens on the other side of the ocean, where the receiving children live? Tadas and I had the opportunity to see how these sponsorship children fare and distribute some of your kind donations to kids not formally included in the sponsorship program. The Arat Kilo Child Care and Community Development Organization implements a sponsorship program run by the Canadian Christian Relief Fund. Their operations were impressive in their thoroughness and extent. The crit [View Full Entry]

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(Vasara writing) Imagine - no microwave, no stove, no dishwasher, dormitory-sized fridge, and few packaged food items. After we come from school and soccer, Kovas goes to shops and buys food. He buys potatoes, carrots, lentils, garlic, onions, and bread. Bread comes in small loaves that are big enough to feed Kovas. It costs about 1 birr (10cents)per loaf. We get 10 each day. When Kovas comes back, we put all the food where they’re suppose to be, and then we start peeling, washing, chopping. We cook, boil, and all the other stuff to prepare dinner. When we finish eating, we [View Full Entry]

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(Ruta writing) I am continuing to describe the activities of Arat Kilo Child Care and Community Development Organization to share the excellent work enabled by the charitable contributions of others. To help poor women develop alternatives to the desperate resort of commercial sex work, this organization sponsors an Early Child Development program for children under 3. By taking care of the children during the day, the young mothers have time to attend training, seek work, and do regular jobs. As you can see from the pictures, these little kids are really cute. Even when my kids were in day ca [View Full Entry]

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(Vidas writing) We love our laptop computers! We use them for almost everything homework, movies, playing music, e-mail, blog, internet, even as a light source when the power goes out every week. The only problem is that we’re used to safe computer use, few viruses, and lightning quick unlimited internet and computer games. Only when you move to a developing country do you realize how technology is part of everyday life. In America every supermarket and restaurant having scanners, constant flow of electricity and safe outlets, every body having email and a computer. Here it’s a l [View Full Entry]

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(Ruta writing) Driving outside of Addis Ababa, we save seen some beautiful, old trees that could relate fascinating history if they could talk. It makes one wonder how completely amazing this African continent must have looked before people took over more and more of the land. Unfortunately, through the course of history and development Ethiopia, like many other countries on this continent and others, has deforested most of its land. It’s stated that only 3% of its original forest remains. On the bright side, there have been significant recent efforts to replant trees. The Entoto region [View Full Entry]

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Lukas writing… Our Christmas day was different than any others. We drove to Lalibela, which is one of the most famous places in Ethiopia. It is really amazing there. It is high on a mountain - the village has about 9000 people, just like our town of Riverside. When we got there we found a hotel, and then climbed a hill to watch the sunset because we heard it is very beautiful. While we were waiting we remembered that we still had not gone to mass. We asked the group of local kids that were following us where the church was. [View Full Entry]

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(Lukas writing… ) When we were in the Simien Mountains, we came across a hill full of hundreds of Gelada baboons. Gelada baboons are unique baboons who have red chests, which look like their hearts are bleeding. Their bright red chests are used for mating. They were cool because they were so hairy and they let us get close to take pictures. They reminded me of the hairy wompas in Star Wars because they were very hairy. On the hill we were all amazed that they were all digging roots from the ground at the same time. They were ignoring us [View Full Entry]

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(Vasara dictating) In the fourth tomb that we visited in the city of Axum, we turned on the lights when we went inside. This tomb had collapsed earlier, but now there were supporting beams. Inside the tomb, there were pictures of elephants and crosses carved into the walls. The guide told us the history, but Rytas and I were busy exploring the tomb chambers. We shone the flashlight into one tomb and something flew over our heads. ‘EEEK!’ We didn’t know what it was. First, we thought it was a bird, but then we saw that it was a bat. It [View Full Entry]

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