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…

Well, it’s been a little over two weeks since I posted on my blog.  Sorry to keep some of you waiting so long.  I know you really rely on my daily snippets to get you through your day….right???  Haha!  Well, anyways, I’m going to try to get back on track ASAP!

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!