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…

Ken Meeks has probably known me the majority of my life.  When my family moved to Maryland from Oklahoma, I was 8 years old.  We began attending a church in Arnold and it is there that we met the Meeks family.  My memory isn’t clear as to whether or not Ken & his family were part of the church in 1988 when we joined, or later.  But my memory is clear on the awesomeness of Ken’s voice.  I can remember listening as a child with awe as Ken would sing in church.  His voice was so clear, and powerful, and true.  It was an absolute delight to be able to listen to the gift that God gave him.

Ken recently contacted me to take some head shots for his musical career.  I have never done head shots before, and honestly didn’t really feel I knew what I was doing.  But Ken brought along his daughter Kayla, and between her lighting up the stage, Ken playing his music, and me trying to look like I knew what I was doing, I think we came out with some pretty good shots.  After you preview Ken’s photos, hop on over to his web page and listen to some of his wonderful music.  You won’t be disappointed!