Ethiopia and Kenya

Here are some pics from my April trip to Ethiopia. I got really interested in Ethiopia mostly after my little brother Tyler got called on a mission there. I mentioned going to Ethiopia to one of my mission companions Katie Forrest and she thought it was a great idea so we went. We found a great group to go with called Village of Hope http://www.villageofhope-ethiopia.org/. Village of Hope was started by Lon and DeAnna Kennard who adopted 6 kids from Ethiopia several years ago. They are an amazing couple. We worked for a week doing various humanitarian projects at the Village of Hope center in Kersa Elala. I mostly gave scabies baths and dressed the babies and kids in their brand new clean clothes. It was a lot of fun but it definitely stretched me WAY out of my comfort zone. The people are so loving and wonderful. They are so kind to us. The kids just grab onto you and are your best friend. As we walked through the Village of Kersa Elala all of a sudden I felt a dirty little hand grab mine. By the end of our walk I had kids holding onto both of my hands and grabbing onto my arms. All of us had 6 or more little friends hanging onto us. Life there is so different than my life. I have to remind myself that life there is a reality for them and not some National Geographic special. In some ways their lives are difficult and horrible. I met women who had been circumcised, a girl who had been raped and impregnated by her father, and a woman who's child died at the hospital and had no way to get home to bury her baby (by the way, we ended up giving her a ride home with her dead baby in her arms.) I also had a mother try to give me her son. She tried several times to try to get me to take him home with me. Within an hour of meeting this little boy, Abraham, he told me that his mother wanted to give him to me. I was so shocked that I had the translator make him repeat what he said just to be sure. I can't imagine living in such a desperate situation that you felt that giving your child to a total stranger was the best option. In other ways though, their lives are beautiful and simple. They don't worry about so many of the things we occupy ourselves with. They have a very strong faith in God and are incredibly positive and happy people. It was difficult and draining to see and try to help so many people in need but it was a beautiful experience too. I definitely want to go back sometime! After Ethiopia we headed to Kenya for a safari. We flew into Nairobi and from there took a bush plane to the Masi Mara. I'm not normally afraid of flying but the bush plane was so tiny. We landed just out in the middle of the Masi Mara on a dirt runway. It was kind of freaky. We stayed in the Masi Mara for several days in big tents by a river. It was so cool. Our tents were amazing...I've never stayed in a 5-star tent before. Our tent camp was just in the middle of the Masi Mara with no electric fence or anything protecting us from the animals like most of the big hotels have. We had Masi spears outside our tents just in case we needed a weapon. Luckily we didn't have to use the spears. The scariest thing I saw in our camp was a gecko in our tent which seriously freaked me out. We ate 4-course meals overlooking the river where we could see hippos bathing. The food was amazing. I have no idea how they could have such amazing food in a tent camp in the middle of nowhere. Every day we went on four safaris. We saw tons of animals. My favorite had to be the giraffes and elephants. It was an amazing experience. It was quite a contrast from our Ethiopia experience...Kenya was a relaxing, 5-star experience and Ethiopia was not. Both experiences were wonderful though!