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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Ready

Jan 21

I am thankful to be healthy and able to teach, type, and play as normal! I am praying for my roommate, Megan, now who seems to have contracted whatever 4-day sickness that ailed me. It is terrible to be sick with that stuff, and I am praying for her speedy recovery.

Today was our last day of teaching (1/2 day) and yesterday was our last full day. It was bittersweet because teaching is fun, but teaching here is a little more stressful. I'm glad we only taught the 3rd graders yesterday and not today because our 3rd graders were just so out of control and crazy yesterday. I wrote down all of our students' names since we took pictures of all our students; I really want to remember their names so I can tell stories about them when I get back.

I feel like I am ready to go home, despite how much I really enjoy being here. This was a short-term trip, and I had prepared myself to anticipate a short-term trip. This trip at times has been exhausting, energetic, invigorating, reflective, mournful, solemn, cheerful, celebratory, overwhelming, slow, fast, in-the-moment, flexible, and worshipful. The past few days seem like a whirlwind since I have been sick, we have had days off, classes off, all mixed in with teaching and preparing for American Day. We are going to sing some traditional American songs, talk about American football, American Christianity, American college life, and do some skits for the whole school.

Today we had some unexpected guests from the TOMS factory! Wow, not only was it an exciting surprise to have one of the co-founders of the company and his team members eat lunch with us and talk with us, but it was even more exciting because of how much my family has invested in the company and its mission to bring shoes to the world. (Check out www.tomsshoes.com)it is also awesome because I decided before we left that I was going to use my Toms for my everyday Ethiopia footwear, and the team was fascinated with the fact that I had brought their product here, while at the same time they are looking in to placing a manufacturing plant here to provide not only shoes but also jobs for the community. So cool. It was great to see and get to know the faces behind the company. I will definitely remember this day for a long time.

http://www.tomsshoesblog.com/home-from-ethiopia

Night time around here has been especially meaningful as we visit with the kids during dinner, pray for the needs of Project Mercy, other teams, other countries and our own team after dinner, prepare for whatever each day holds (teaching, homework, American Day, etc) and have quality conversations in bed as we await the next day and become anxious about going home.

I will miss the food here! I look forward to the predictable soup and salad meal each night because it is so delicious. Injera and wat and cabbage and carrots...mmm, I will definitely miss the traditional Ethiopian lunches we eat as well. I have already informed Joe that he will have to learn how to cook Ethiopian food for when I return home. :)







Me drinking my VERY FIRST cup of coffee ever...



I will also miss the mountains and the weather... I have forgotten many times that we are returning to Indiana in January ...

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