I guess I just need to breathe.  My list is getting out of control.  But it is good to know that God is totally in control of this whole process.  I thought for sure going a second year I would not get nearly as much funding as I did last year.  Wrong.  I thought I’d be on my own for arranging food for my family.  Wrong.  I thought I’d have to arrange child juggling.  Wrong.  God has been showing my little mind in all of this.  I have little plans, little dream, little needs.  His are bigger, and better, and they are His.  I am just his vessel for as long as he allows me to be, and I am so okay with that!  I am not a forefront person.  I don’t like being in the spotlight.  I like to just support.  And support I will!

As I have been counting down to my departure on Facebook, I just realized I forgot to share with my blog family as well.  The photos on here are way bigger anyway. 

Here are some things I’m looking forward to….

…seeing John & Jana again.  The husband & wife team of doctors who become my alternate family while in Ethiopia & when I return.  I so love their company, their hearts & their vision for Ethiopia.  I am truly blessed to know them.

….the children.  I know they may like me because I’m probably the whitest person they’ve seen….ever!  But I like to think they like me too.  I’ll admit, I enjoy having a gaggle of munchkins following me around saying, “cam-er-A!”

…Solomon’s kids. Ahhhh…never have I felt so loved meeting a group of kids.  They hugged, touched, played & giggled with us the entire time.  I even got in trouble from the American adults for talking too much with them!  They love posing for group shots….whipping out their modeling poses.  It will be wonderful to see some familiar faces here.

…sorting.  I know it sounds weird, but as you sort through the massive amounts of donations made to this trip, you become in awe at all it takes to pull this trip off.  There are literally thousands of pills of medication, hundreds of thousand of dollars in medical supplies, hundreds of pairs of eyeglasses & shoes, and a small army of knit bears from Project Mother Bear.  It’s amazing.

….the feeding program at Solomon’s place.  To think that Solomon starting feeding these HIV/AIDS kids only one meal per month was devastating.  And now, by the grace of God he is able to feed them one meal per day!  And I am anxious to see my chicken!  Yes, I own an Ethiopian chicken.  We all bought one for their “village” so they could start chicken farming & becoming self-sustaining.  I can’t wait to see how it’s grown in the past year.

….glasses station!  This was one “medical” area where I was actually of use.  When I took breaks from snapping photos, I’d help out at the glasses station.  Here I got one-on-one interaction – because you couldn’t call it communication on my part – with many people who could see more clearly with the reading glasses they’d been given.  Yes, we oftentimes had men picking the most hideous pair of rhinestone glasses, but at least they could see!

….clean water!  This is probably the thing I’m most looking forward too.  We know that the majority of the illnesses we see, especially in the more remote villages, are caused by dirty drinking water.  The Ethiopian people don’t waste their firewood on boiling water, so they are drinking water that has run down a hill where animals graze & defecate.  Gross, I know.  It has been on the forefront of Doctor’s Giving Back’s mind to solve this problem.  The amazingly wonderful news is they have found a company in Florida who has a filtration system similar to a kidney dialysis machine that can filter 99% of the water!!!  We had enough funding to purchase 34, which was a little disappointing.  However, since God’s plans are bigger than our own, we got bested again.  The company in Florida asked to be able to give us 148 water filtration units at the same cost as the original 34 we were going to purchase.  Heck yes!!!  I don’t know how we are going to transport them all, but I know it will somehow happen.  I can’t wait to see the ramifications of that much clean water!

And this year, I personally get to be responsible for filling one 50-lb hockey bag of supplies!  I can’t fill it alone, though.  So if you are able to donate any of the following items, please let me know!  Thanks in advance for reading, for donating, and for praying. It is definitely felt!

“Tylenol(Adult tabs and Pediatric/Children’s syrup)
……Advil, Motrin (Adult and Pediatric/Children’s syrup)
Alieve
Pepto Bismol (tablets, not liquid)
Immodium (tablets and liquid)
Zantac 150mg tablets, Zyrtec tablets
Claritin or Clarinex tablets (Adult and Children’s)
Hydrocortisone Cream
Antibiotic ointment (i.e. Polysporin)
Naphcon A Allergy eye drops
Prevacid or Protonix (Omiprazole)

From the above list, the OTC meds that we usually run out of first are the allergy eye drops, and allergy meds, and the stomach meds like Zantac, Prevacid and Protonix.

Some good places to get these over the counter medications at a great price include: the Dollar Store, Walmart, and sometimes even Costco. DGB usually suggests Walmart first as it is hard to beat their prices on medications. We need as many of these medications as possible, so anything you can donate would be fantastic!!!!”

Anyway…here is March 12th

We started out our morning as we usually did – at the clinic in Asossa.  I ventured outside a little more today to see what it was like for people waiting in line.  These people were directly outside the church doors, which is actually the last place they had to wait.

Before you got to the church, you had to make it past these blue gates at the front of the church property.

Back inside the clinic there was a very important area – our pharmacy.  Now Kari sat at the pharmacy table and kind of just fell into it.  It was actually the perfect fit for her.  She was so well organized that the pharmacy ran like a well oiled machine.  I think we need to giver her an honorary faux pharmacist license because she rocked it!

The next few photos are of goiters – a condition we saw a LOT of in Asossa.  “A goiter is a swelling in the thyroid gland which can lead to a swelling of the neck or larynx.  Worldwide, the most common cause for goiter is iodine deficiency.” (wikipedia)  So you know when you buy salt, and it says “iodized,” that is typically what keeps you & me from getting goiters.  Iodized salt is apparently not a common thing in Ethiopia.

This woman’s goiter had gotten quite a bit more extreme than most cases we saw.  Untreated, these seem to be a bit dangerous to me, especially because of their close proximity to the airway.

And of course a day at the clinic wouldn’t be complete without some bears!

After lunch I was taken to the Asossa Hospital to view & document the work that our construction team was doing.  The hospital does bring in funds, but the construction team also came with supplies, and more importantly, a knowledgeable team of construction men to fix their basic problem of no water.

Here is John, my guide for the afternoon, and also a construction buff.

This is Dibush showing off some of his handiwork.  He was hired by our construction team for the week, and, along with Mohammed, was a very hard worker.  This pipe is one of many leading into the different wards of the hospital.  The piping was so old and corroded that the valves didn’t work to let water flow through it.

This is Mohammed showing the section of piping he helped replace.  I was told that each time they cut a section of pipe, and put on a newer piece to replace it, more corroded pieces would break, threads would be stripped, and so on.  Things are just so old and decayed here.

This is the cistern in the rear of the hospital that is fed by the city water.  Since the water supply from the city is often unreliable, they have to store up a reserve in the cistern for delicate times such as surgery & deliveries.

Inside the hospital the team repaired sinks, putting “p traps” (???) in them so the hospital workers wouldn’t have to empty buckets so often.  This is a repaired sink….

And this is a sink not yet repaired.  See how it’s missing a vital piece of pipe at the bottom??  Looks kind of important.

On my tour, I caught another team member, Dan, sharing the photos on his camera with new friends he’d made.   Everyone wants their photo taken!

They really loved him!

Next we went inside the maternity ward where I found this new little guy & his momma!

The guys were replacing lights and/or fixtures so the doctors & nurses would be able to see their patients at night.

Part 2 coming later….

]]> http://www.mandysrokaphotography.com/2010/04/2010-image-68-ethiopian-adventure-asossa-hospital/feed/ 2 http://www.mandysrokaphotography.com/2010/03/2010-image-67-ethiopian-adventure-village-trip/ http://www.mandysrokaphotography.com/2010/03/2010-image-67-ethiopian-adventure-village-trip/#comments Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:44:49 +0000 mandysroka http://www.mandysrokaphotography.com/?p=14289 Here is our March 11th…..

We spent the morning starting out at the clinic in Asossa.  There were many, many more people waiting to be seen and we were working hard to get them all in for the doctors and eyeglasses.  A really neat thing happened in the middle of it all though…this little guy showed up!  He is a little boy featured in the Doctor’s Giving Back promo video from 2009 and one of John & Jana’s patients from last year.  Their faces lit up at the sight of him & his family.  And he was equally as happy.  (This is something else I have a video of to show you!!!)

And this next photo is just to tease Kristin!  These glasses, as I was told by a native Ethiopian, are “old lady” glasses.  No body seemed to want to take them?!?!?!?

There will be a few photos to follow this story:  A little girl (11-13 yrs I think) came in with her mother.  Her leg was large & swollen around the bottom by her foot.  She had gotten a small cut on the heel of her foot that went unattended & became infected.  The infection was spreading up her foot causing pain & swelling.  Jana explained to her mother about the medications she would need to take over the next few days & then Tiffany cleaned her wounds while Kristin distracted her from any pain.

(I also have a sweet, touching video of Tiffany & Kristin working so diligently with this young girl)

And now, after lunch, we had our first village trip!  I didn’t really know what to expect from a village trip.  I rode directly behind our driver, Sentayu, and a helper, Nati.  I asked Nati how long until the village & he told me about 40 kilometers and that it would be “an uncomfortable ride.”  HAHA!  What he meant by that is that at a certain point the road through Asossa ends and becomes simply a dirt path.  We quickly learned that when other cars passed us along the road we needed to shut our windows or we would literally eat their dust.

Here is what we saw at the first village….

This was the one piece of medical “equipment” that we found where we were.  It was a pretty ancient scale.  These are our two helpers, Nati & Tola, taking people’s weight.

This next series of photos of this little girl may be a little hard to take.  I know that the first time I saw her I about lost it.  I wanted to just stop, go in the van, and cry.  I believe the condition she has is called Hydrocephalus.  You can correct me if I’m wrong.  One of the hardest things I learned was that she is the same age as my daughter – 5 years old!  These kind of things just grab your heart strings & make you want to leave your cushy life in America & help all of the people here in Asossa.

Sigh….and if your are squeamish, don’t look at the following sore…

Here is the one, dear, sweet, poor nurse we found in this village.  She has the necessary skills, but no supplies!

After we began treating some patients (and by “we” I mean the doctors…not myself), we lined up the children to hand out shoes.  This is the line before it got out of hand…

This next little guy was too adorable.  His father spoke very good English & was apparently a soldier.  He named his son Japan.

Here is some of the shoe distribution…

And while the majority of the kids were distracted with getting new shoes, Jana & Philippa & I handed out these knit bears to children on the village road.  They were so excited…grinning from ear to ear!  We almost started our own little mini riot with these things!

And finally, as we were ready to leave, the leader of the village stood up & thanked us for our efforts & supplies.  We left him with a soccer ball for the children.

As we left this village, we were taken to their water supply.  It was down a type of valley through some long grassy stuff.  The problem was, that on the way to the water supply, we passed many animals feeding &, subsequently, pooping.  When it then rains, the water runs through the animal feces & into the water supply.  This is a main reason why so many of these people are sick – their water is not clean!  Something so simple to us, but something so deadly to them!

Well, here is our looooooong March 10th….

We began with breakfast in the Upper Room, lovingly prepared by Anne from the Touching Africa Team.  I wasn’t a fan of oatmeal, so I quickly learned  the word for bread (daboe…I believe), and asked one of our dear helpers, Nati, to get me some bread at basically every meal.  I had a peanut butter sandwich for every meal that had milk or that I thought my stomach couldn’t handle.

After breakfast, and a potty break at the Bamboo, we headed off to our first clinic in the sanctuary of a local church.  Here we are having some prayer time before we opened the doors to the public.

This was the outside of the church where we held the clinic.  It has the tin roof, windows on both sides, a few fluorescent lights inside, and many benches for seating.  But that’s about it.  No carpet, no majestic sound system, no artwork, no glass in the windows, no heat or A/C.  People who came to this church came because they WANTED to, not because of what the church building itself had to offer.  It was beautiful to behold.

This is Elise.  The is the 13-year-old daughter of one of the team members who came along this year.  Here she is donning her “doctor” gear.  These were the typical things most of us wore throughout the day:  scrubs, gloves, and the occasional mask.

This table was one of three for reading glasses.  Here, Jessica is helping a woman choose frames in the reading strength she needed.

This is a view directly outside the front doors of the church.  These people are waiting to get into the clinic to be seen.  They sat here after they had gotten through the large gate at the front of the church.  We heard stories of people at the gate who had slept overnight and others who had walked as many as four days to be seen by the doctors.

Some more reading glasses magic by Michael Elliot….

And these people are ones who’ve gotten into the church and are now waiting to be seen by the triage team.  As I mentioned earlier, before people saw the doctors, we took a medical history on them along with vitals.

This is Alice.  She and Marie, were team members dedicated solely to prayer.  They would seat people after they’d seen the doctor and simply pray for them.  It was a sweet sight to behold.

And now, after morning and afternoon clinic, we move on to the BIG church.  This is the church where Pastor Califa preaches.  It just oozes over with people.  I tried my best in the next photo to show you how many people come to this place.  The lighting is very challenging, but in this photo, after you can’t see any more heads in the far back and it’s just light…well, that’s more people sitting outside the church in even more rows of benches.  It was just amazing to behold.

This little girl is one of many who were following me around during each and every church service.  Apparently it’s not a common thing to have an American girl with a large camera walking around during church.  I tried my best not to cause a stir, but some of these little darlings were too cute to resist snapping a photo of!

I had to shoot at 6400 ISO here, but it was the only way (I knew of) to capture all that I wanted to see.  This is Betty, the Ethiopian singer I mentioned earlier, leading worship.  I have some great video of this too that my husband is working on for me.  Can’t wait to share it!

And lastly, I’ll leave you with Elise.  This is during another late night pill sorting session.   She just couldn’t last the whole time & fell asleep on the hockey bags!

We started off our morning by “loading the truck.”  What this meant was taking the hundreds of pounds of hockey bags, filled with medicines, medical supplies, toys, shoes, and clothes, and carefully packing them in to the truck for Asossa.  The truck would be taking an hours long journey over “uncomfortable” roads to Asossa, so we sent it the day before we were to fly out there ourselves.

After this, we were rewarded with a nice lunch at the Hilton in Addis.  Except, I didn’t quite get my lunch.  We ordered, got our drinks, and then I was asked to leave to head to a feeding program for about 75 HIV/AIDS children living in Addis.  Of course I couldn’t pass this up!  I grabbed a granola bar & my camera and we were off!  This feeding program is run by Solomon – a local Ethiopian – who started out feeding the children once a month and is now up to feeding them once a day!  It’s just an amazing site to see.  The children, and their families, live on government land that they don’t own in Addis, so they are basically squatters.  They can’t afford to live in the city, so this is their only alternative.  As we speak, Solomon is feverishly trying to obtain land for them, legally, to start a larger scale feeding program, school, and facilities where they can grow, and live, and thrive.  It’s just amazing to hear him talk about it!

Here are the kids….

John & Jana LOVE this stuff…they LOVE getting to connect with these kids.  It’s so sweet to observe.

This little guy just melted my heart!  He caught me snapping away at him & then gave me this smile!

Here is Solomon sharing about the feeding program.  I have video to share later!

This little girl about broke my heart!  She was covered in flies (even before we gave her the lollipop) and walked around with no pants, no diaper, nothing on her lower half!  And she was very wary of us.

We gave the children simple airplanes to put together & play with.  Here is one of the boys hard at work on his.

This is another new friend, Glen.  He’s a Texas Longhorns fan through & through, and here he is teaching the boys the longhorns sign!

Here are the children receiving their meal for the day.  Scrumptious!

This mother was so excited when she got to see the photo of herself with her baby!

Here’s another new friend, Tiffany.  She’s with the Touching Africa Ministries team.  This photo cracks me up.  These girls loved her blonde hair & Tiffany told them they could “try” it too!  Here she is letting Hannah see what it’s like to have long, blonde hair!  HA!

And dear sweet Philippa!  Enjoying her favorite types of people:  cute children or cute old men!  These are obviously children.

And I’ll leave you with this last one of John.  He always takes such time & care with each patient.  Here he is showing these girls how to use a stethoscope.  They loved the attention as much as he did!

]]> http://www.mandysrokaphotography.com/2010/03/2010-image-65-ethiopian-adventure-solomons-feeding-program/feed/ 0 http://www.mandysrokaphotography.com/2010/03/2010-image-62-64-plus-a-lot-more-ethiopian-adventure/ http://www.mandysrokaphotography.com/2010/03/2010-image-62-64-plus-a-lot-more-ethiopian-adventure/#comments Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:49:59 +0000 mandysroka http://www.mandysrokaphotography.com/?p=14189 Okay, that was way too long of a title, sorry! You know you have to title it just right so it will show up in Google…that’s what I was trying to do…sorta!

Since I was away for 14 days in Ethiopia (and away in jet-lagged state for another week after my return to the states), I am waaaaaaay behind on my Project 365 photos. However, I did take well over a photo a day while in Ethiopia, and I’m happy to share some of them with you here! If these few meager photos don’t satisfy your appetite for what I did & saw while I was away, then go here and see over a thousand! Be prepared, get a comfy chair, your next meal, plenty to drink, and take breaks – there are a LOT of them!

Here’s how my Friday, March 5th went…

That’s  pretty much it.  I was on an airplane on Ethiopian Air for almost the entire day!  I didn’t feel secure enough to whip out my huge camera too much during the flight since it’s kind of frowned upon due to airline security.  And I don’t own a point and shoot…AND…I didn’t take my iPhone.  Sorry people.  You’ll just have to trust me that I met about 10 new strangers in the airport, tried my best to make friends, borrowed anti-nausea medicine from my new friends Anne & Sam, ate a TON of airplane food, had to go to the bathroom a LOT, slept a LOT, looked at my girls photos over & over again, and prayed and prayed that my plane would land safely at each stop.  It was an adventure.  I am not the best flier, but by God’s grace I made it!

When we landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, it was Saturday morning their time.  Now, Ethiopia is kind of strange because they are still in 2002!?!?!  And their clock is like 6 hours different from ours!?!?!?  The sweet, kind Ethiopian woman on the airplane tried to explain all this to me in her limited English, but it went right over my (medicated) head.  Just Google it.

Here was my March 6th….

These are a few of the MANY bears from Mother Bear Project that we handed out to some lovely children.  These things were a HOT item.  I have photos of near riots over these things.  Where we were, toys are NOT a common thing for children, and getting a bear was like Charlie getting the golden ticket!  B-I-G D-E-A-L!

After we got in to our super duper sweet hotel in Addis, we lugged a butt load of 50-pound hockey bags up to the 5th floor to sort and repackage them.  Now, what nobody told me about Addis is that is has the elevation of a city about equal to Denver, CO.  I was huffing and puffing up those stairs.  Whew!  This photo features my new friend Kari (and the arms of many others) sorting medicines in to dose sizes.  We were like our own makeshift pharmacy – without a license!  John & Jana Turns (from Doctors Giving Back) organized a TON of different medicines to be bought/donated for this trip.  There was everything from antibiotics to inhalers to heartburn meds to simple pain relievers.  These people were prepared!

This is after our pill sorting at the hotel…our first clinic in Addis!  This was a building next to Tom’s church (more about him later) where we hosted a little clinic for church members to see the doctors.  This is my new friend Lisa taking someone’s blood pressure.  A lot of us had no prior medical experience, but we were given the chance to learn to take some basic vitals:  blood pressure, temperature, pulse, and respirations.  The clinics were set up like this:  triage & vitals at the entrance, see the doctor next, pharmacy following that, with reading glasses as an option at the end.  Very efficient in my opinion.

This is the reading glasses table in Addis.  I helped the most with this aspect of the clinic.  We spent quite a lot of time sorting the glasses into their strengths.  We’d have people sit, with an interpreter, at the table and try on different strengths and read an Amharic bible.  It was basically a trial and error type of deal.  Most people found something they liked.  Some picked solely on fashion.  Others just wanted glasses.  But the big thing, and what I’ll remember for next time, is sunglasses!  They LOVE and WANT sunglasses!

These were just a few of the kids waiting outside the clinic before the Saturday night church service.  The first thing they said to me:  “Give me chocolate.”  Apparently that’s a common phrase in Ethiopia??  And apparently all Americans have chocolate on them?  Yeah right!  I didn’t have anything to give them, but one of the other team members provided them with lollipops.  I simply provided them with unlimited poses in front of the camera!  They loved it!  We’d snap a few photos, and then they’d want to see RIGHT AWAY what they looked like.  They’d also push each other out of the way for a chance of a portrait all by themselves.

After a few hours of clinic, we went straight to Saturday night church service at Tom’s church.  And unbeknownst to me, we were in the presence of an international Ethiopian superstar!  Bethelhem “Betty” Tezera was our guest for the trip.  I’ve been told she’s the most widely known Ethiopian singer in Ethiopia, Canada, and amongst the Ethiopian community in America.  She sang for us many times and got those people on their feet!  Now I just need to read her lyrics!

And now my March 7th….

It was, unfortunately, very uneventful.  Apparently everyone gets sick at some point on these kind of trips, and this was my day.  Which actually turned out to be a blessing.  The days following this were filled with many photo needs and I was able to be there to capture them.  I spent Sunday sleeping in until 4pm.  There wasn’t any definite thing I could pinpoint as being the cause of my sickness, but I just felt like my batteries were drained.  My muscles ached, I was hot, then cold, I couldn’t eat, I felt sick at the thought of food, and I just wanted to sleep.  Homesickness???  After my long nap, I stepped outside to get a view of our hotel:  Pacific Hotel.

Later that evening, we were all invited to the Top View restaurant for our first team meeting to eat, fellowship, and learn about what was ahead of us for the next week.  It was here that we got to learn about the other half of our team from Touching Africa Ministries based out of Colorado.  We were the medical side of the trip, they were the missions & Christian outreach side.  It was wonderful to be partnered with such an amazing, well-established organization.

And I’ll leave you with this view of Addis at night…

For those of you who didn’t know, I just returned from a two-week medical missions trip with Doctors Giving Back.  Now, I realize I have no medical background, except applying Princess Band-Aids, but I do have the ability to document with my camera!  And that’s what I did.  As I sort through literally thousands of photos, I’ll be catching up on my photo of the day project as well as sharing what I did with you over in Ethiopia.  Let me just sum it up in two words:  life changing!

The following isn’t technically a photo, but it was shot with my camera!  I am so glad to have been able to figure out the video features.  It was awesome to have some 1080P High-Def footage – even if it did eat up my memory cards!

Here are Daniel & Kokebe singing “Jesus My Lover.”

Jesus my lover from Mandy Sroka on Vimeo.

My girls & I were forced to wait at McDonald’s yesterday while our tire was getting repaired.  For like one whole hour!  Do you know how excruciatingly painful it is to sit in a McDonald’s when that is the very place you are trying to avoid for health reasons?  It’s like major temptation!  I had packed the girls a lunch & got myself a salad.  And stupidly…by habit…got a sweet tea as well.  I’ve been counting my calories with the Live Strong app & realized that a stinkin’ McD’s sweet tea is 230 calories!  That was more than the chicken Caesar salad had!  Ugh!  Good thing I went to Zumba last night with my sister-in-law!

Anyway….on to the above photo.  I thought this older couple was just so precious when they walked in to McDonald’s.  It was a bit chilly yesterday.  They came in, ordered coffee, and she sat down.  He took a little longer because he stopped at the drink bar to get ice & coffee fixin’s.  I just enjoyed watching them interact and I wanted their picture.  I STOLE their picture!  Now, when do you think it is okay to photograph people?  I know there are laws on this kind of thing.  My memory tells me that it’s alright to photograph people in public places, where they don’t have an assumed amount of privacy.  For example, say they are walking down the street, like in downtown Annapolis.  It is NOT okay to be in a public place and turn  your lens into a private place, like someone’s backyard, and start snapping away.  I was not in a public place.  I was in a private business – McDonald’s (aka fast food chain from the Devil) – and these people had an assumed amount of privacy.  So, in retrospect, I should have asked before or after I snapped this photo.  Hand slap on me!  I will do better.  What are your thoughts on photographing people who aren’t your clients?  What would or did you do?  You can write anonymously, too, if you’re scared.  I’m pretty sure I don’t have any law enforcement personnel reading my blog that will come & get ya.

Photos I’ve been looking at:  Jessica Claire.  Now most photographers know who the famed Jessica Claire is!  She’s one of the many OC/California photographers who are uber fabulous.  I really enjoyed this post that she re-posted from 2004.  I enjoyed looking at where she began…how she’s evolved…and that it IS possible to get better & better if you just work really hard.  Her 2004 photos were great.  Her 2010 photos are off the charts!

Oh, and sorry this post is a day late.  I’ll be doing a double today.  I’ve been having this mysterious pain in my right hand, my dominant hand, that starts in my wrist, goes up to my elbow, and even all the way back to my shoulder blade. I think I’m straining it too much on the computer with typing, editing, & reading (& commenting) on other people’s blogs.  It’s time for a little break.  Now I’m off to mail a check to Doctor’s Giving Back for my trip to Ethiopia that is exactly ONE MONTH AWAY!  Thank you to all of you who’ve donated & prayed.  I’m half way there & would really appreciate your continued prayers & support.  Thank you thank you thank you!

Welcome to my living room.  No toys were cleaned up in anticipation of this post.  In fact, there are a pair of socks lying on the floor visible in this photo (dirty socks).  This is how I roll.

This quaint Melissa & Doug dollhouse was just sold to us by our neighbors & friends Anna & Kate.  Anna is cleaning out some of her toys & her mom Laura offered this dollhouse to us first.  She also told me that Brooke plays with it constantly whenever she visits Anna’s room.  We do have a dollhouse already, 2 in fact, but one is Emma’s and the other is what the girls call a “baby” toy.  It was Emma’s first dollhouse given to her by my mom on her birthday – the Fisher Price Little People series.  Ever since then we’ve been collecting a slew of Little People until it got too unbearable.  They were like a bunch of breeding rabbits, showing up everywhere!  The kids have loved them, but I told them if they want to buy this dollhouse, they needed to sell some of their old toys to make room for the new one.  They agreed.  Some things have sold (enough to clear out some clutter) & they’ve been playing with this doll house non-stop since Laura brought it over.  So, thank you Laura, my dear friend, for thinking of us.  We love its simplicity & the imagination it brings forth.  Emma & Brooke are in dollhouse heaven!

Here’s to recycling your toys!

And to get this shot – in case you care – I put my camera on the dining room floor and put the ISO at 400, the aperture at f/4.0 and the shutter speed at 0.6 sec.  I wanted to see if I could get enough light, no grain, & enough in focus without using my flash.  My makeshift tripod of the dining room floor seemed to work well!

Photos I’ve been looking at:  Homeshade Photography.  Tasha Pool was introduced to me by my friend Heather (her website, not her in person).  I’ve loved looking at all her work, following her numerous hilarious status updates on Facebook, and just enjoying her real, vibrant, & colorful photos.  She’s even shared with me a little bit about how she does petti parties for little girls & mini-sessions for various other holidays.  They are kind of like Tupperware parties with the hostess inviting friends over for little photo sessions of their kids & the hostess receives credits for the more guests she invites. It’s ingenious!  And this girl cranks out the photos – and they are by no means mediocre.  She is fabulous!

Well, that’s my talk for today.  Just wanted to give a little shout out to my wonderful family, friends, and clients who’ve pushed my Ethiopia fundraising all the way up to $500 so far!  (Corinne, Jimmy, Ashley, the Rode’s, Kelly, Aunt Gail)  And the total cost of the trip got reduced to $2,500 so I am on my way!  If you’d like to help me get all the way there, visit my online donation page.  I’ll also be mailing out support letters & prayer cards, so let me know if you want one too.  I covet your prayers!  Thanks so much!

Well, it finally came.  It actually came very quickly.  This is my passport – don’t worry, you won’t be subjected to the inside photo that I got on a whim at Kinkos on a off hair & clothing day.  I had it rushed & it just came this afternoon.  Now it will quickly be sent away to the Ethiopian Embassy in DC to apply for my visa.  In case you’re wondering why I am getting my passport & why I’m traveling to Ethiopia, let me explain quickly….

In March I’ll be traveling with Doctors Giving Back to Assosa, Ethiopia for 2 weeks.  Actually, I said it a lot more eloquently in my fundraising letter, so I’ll just paste that here:

From March 4 through 18 I will be traveling to Assosa, Ethiopia with Doctors Giving Back (www.doctorsgivingback.org).  I came about this opportunity in an odd way, or really, in a “God way.”  Who would think that a wife, & stay-at-home mom of two would even think of traveling half-way around the world without her family?!?!  Well, that’s just what I’m doing.  My friend, Jessica, who works with DGB, came to Maryland in October for a wedding & left with me on board as a teammate in her annual trek to Ethiopia.  She had convinced me that I could, even as a wife & mother, be used by God in Ethiopia.  So, I’m taking a huge leap of faith & going way out of my comfort zone to assist Doctors Giving Back in less than 3 months!

What is Doctors Giving Back?  It is a medical relief organization dedicated to education & empowerment through medical and health programs in the developing world.  Their mission is to conduct health outreach programs in impoverished African countries by providing medical care, support, supplies, education and other resources for the people living in these countries.  This year, 2010, DGB has expanded into two teams – a medical team & a construction team.  The medical team will be busy hosting various clinics, and education & sanitation projects.  The construction team will focus on the hospital renovation & land rebuilding.  I encourage you to visit the Doctors Giving Back blog for a short video showing exactly what they do & who they are helping – your time won’t be wasted!  (http://doctorsgivingback.wordpress.com/)

The reason I’m telling you all this is 1) yes, to ask for your hard earned money, but 2) more importantly to ask for your prayers.  I need to raise about $3,000 for this trip.  And on top of that, I need God’s grace & peace to go with me and to be with my family while I’m away.  Here are a few things you could be praying for:
Funds
My husband & daughters while I’m away
That I would be able to use God’s gift of photography in my life for DGB & the people of Ethiopia – one of my roles in this trip will be to document & tell the story of what Doctors Giving Back does through my camera lens
Travel
Health – spiritual & physical
Peace

There are two ways you can give to my trip to Ethiopia:  Mail checks to me or give online through this site.  Please make checks payable to Doctors Giving Back on my behalf & send to:
Doctors Giving Back
7172 Regional St. #155
Dublin, CA 94568
memo line:  Mandy Sroka

Thank you again for taking the time to read this letter & prayerfully consider how you can support this endeavor.  And be sure to look forward to a second letter when I return – I can’t wait to tell you all about my trip!

I feel so blessed to have already received donations towards my trip from some dear family & friends.  If you feel led to donate, & even more importantly to pray, please visit my fundraising page & let me know.  Thank you again!