enjoyable week

soup

Last Tuesday we had our first 'cup of soup' night, which means Asni cooked 2.5 giant pots of soup, and we invited a bunch of friends to come over and enjoy each other's company. Many folks showed up from the orphanage, which is really encouraging since the invite was rather late notice and we live about 45 minutes away from Asco.

Habtamu (the fatherlike figure from work that said crazy people are close to God) and I had a few sweet conversations. He has been working at Asco for about 5 years, and he desires to get his degree as a nurse, but education is slow-going because of all the work at the orphanage. This man is the Asco rockstar­ he is in charge of paying all the bills for the orphanage, he helps give out medicine, runs physical theory sessions for the kids, and is the official 'parent' for the 40 older kids who attend school outside of the compound. It is beautiful to hear him talk about the kids; he very much believes that each one of the children is Jesus (Matthew 25). Many other friends came by and it was a sweet time to open our home and meet new folks.

Habtamu and some of my sweet kids!

sleep over
Alexandra, a friend from work who lives on the orphanage compound, spent the night on Thursday. She is an incredible woman from London who has traveled the world and is passionate about advocating for child and indigenous people¹s rights.  We enjoyed some tacos and quality time with the Cherokee family.

rocky
Every morning on the way to work we pass a loud market, so Friday Rob, Abraham, Alexandra and I decided to check it out. Here is the scene. There are hundreds of people in a space about half the size of a football field. The people selling clothes wear bright green vests and stand up on platforms, which are sectioned off by clothing items. If you want to buy something, you stand inside this enclosed area, wait until the seller lifts the desired item up and then start biding. There is money and t-shirts flying all over the place. Unfortunately photos are not allowed, Rob left
with a $2 rocky t-shirt and Alexandra and I left with huge smiles. It was very obvious that forengies do not usually enter this area of Asco, since half of the people we walked by made comments and tried to get our attention.

beautiful kids
I told you last week I would inform you about Nigistine. She is quite the miracle child. Nigistine has a heart problem that results in death if not operated in the first 6 months of a child's life. She is now 8. She has many physical, psychological and emotional troubles, but when you get this sweet
child in a good mood, your heart smiles. Nigistine can understand a lot of Amharic and English words, but more the most part she does not speak. I have been working with her 1 hour a day ­ giving her some TLC and encourage her to use her voice through silly songs and games. Its been really sweet to watch her develop the strength to walk more often. In order for her to walk she needs some one to support both of her hands, but this week she took a few steps with me gently holding only one hand. It was a sweet celebration for the both of us! Some days go better than others, but overall it¹s a blessing to spend time with this sweet girl.

My sweet friend Nigistine

beep beep
Ohh my! Alias, the boy who bit me a few weeks ago, and I are getting along MUCH better now. He, like Nigistine, has good days and bad days, but Monday was definitely a great day! We have sport (PE) on Monday mornings and Alias and I walked down to the field together. Since he has some hip deformities, he walks much slower than the other kids. As we were crusin' down the stairs towards our PE class as this man pulls up next to us in his car. He offered car a ride to the fields, and even though we were only in the car for half a minute, for the rest of the day Alias repeated "beep, beep konjo...flicklick?" The 50 feet car ride made his whole day!

This is Alias. YES! He is wearing a "material girl" tshirt!

new connections
Saturday Beyonce launched her world tour in Addis, and since none of (or any of our Ethiopian friends) had 1500 ETB to drop on a ticket, we only experience her via hearsay. Instead, on Saturday afternoon we visited Salem's jewelry place. This was a really sweet experience because she is the
woman that supplies most of the jewelry for A Brighter Future, one of the main projects I worked on this summer in Raleigh. I hope to meet with her again and maybe do a few photo stories on the women that work for her.

Sunday Mestfin, a friend of Cherokee, invited a few of us to his pool house to hang out. After sharing some tibs (Ethiopian food) we started talking about out goals and dreams and it was so encouraging to hear his passions. He is a strong man of God and very open and genuine. Mestfin, and other friend Sami, may be able to help me get a photography project started with the kids in their neighborhood, which would be really great. Although many doors have shut, I trust that this project will begin shortly.

Thanks for all your encouragement, hope to here from you soon!
Jruss
jrussphotography@gmail.com