Blogs from Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa Region, Ethiopia, Africa - page 15

(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 start cleaning up. Now this is the hard part -the cleaning. Eeveryone has their own job like carrying hot water, washing, rinsing, making juice, and cleaning the table. Every person contributes every night. It takes ... read more

(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 care and preschool, I don’t think that I ever saw 40-50 kids under age 3 sit nicely and calmly on the floor to greet visitors or wait for instructions. This organization also has a small “library” for ... read more

(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 offers them food, shelter, arranges for counseling, medical care, legal assistance, etc. To better prepare the women for the future, the organization also may help teach women new skills (such as cooking), life skills (such as self confidence, assertiveness, and physical ... read more

Here it is, one year later after the harrowing car accident that Lauren and I endured on the way back from Weliso on Feb 9, 2008. I can't believe its actually been a full year since we ended up in that ditch. And yet almost on a daily basis I either think about the accident or my body reminds me that it is still on the mend. I'm not sure how many times I've retold the story of that eventful day and yet if I had to do it all over ago I would. Yes that's right I would. I believe that things happen for a reason. That there aren't any "coincidences" in life. I'm grateful for many things from that experience; from the people we encountered along the way that day to Lake Weliso, our ... read more

(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 little bit different. The thing we were very worried about was that we would have internet. We discovered that there was dial-up. Dial connects from the phone lines to the internet. It is also the world’s slowest internet connection. It ... read more