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Please check out the Fields of Hope wesbite for info about the work that I cam currently doing.

Moving in

Well, I arrived safely back in Ethiopia yesterday. Was a shorter trip
than most of mine (though still totalled about 20 hours). It was a
wonderful feeling once I walked out of the airport and was greeted by
a group of my friends. The whole family I am staying with (Dr. Frew's
family) was there, along with Eshete and Birhanu. As we started
driving away from the airport I had this feeling as if I never left,
it was wonderful. I felt completely at home and completely at peace
about my decision to move here.
This isn't to say that it isn't hard. Especially to leave all my
family behind, I love you all.

This week will be pretty mellow. Both Melese and Frew are out of
Addis. They are both in Awasah. Frew and his family are there for
vacation and Melese is there for work. So, I will spend time moving
in. Hopefully seeing my other friends. And spending time with Ruth
after she finishes work.

After this week I will start having meetings with Frew about Fields of
Hope and how we can get all of that work started. Also, Ruth and I
will start having meetings with Melese for our marriage counseling.

Also, please check out facebook.com/fieldsofhope
This is acting as our temporary website until our official one is up
and running, which I hear should be pretty soon.

Well, that's all for now.
I'm gonna go get some breakfast and start unpacking

Take care,
Dan

some pictures, finally

so I finally put some pictures up online. I didn't take as many pictures on this trip as past times, because I wanted to be able to just spend time with my friends over there. But, I still found time to take a few...so here they are, enjoy and let me know what you think.

Ethiopia 2008

back safely

I arrived safely (though one suitcase short...it's schedule to come today) on Wednesday night. The trip wasn't too bad. Virgin Atlantic has personal TVs on each of the seats where you can watch a whole list of movies. So, between that, reading and sleeping the trip went relatively quickly. Though I did almost miss my flight in London, if I had been another 15 or 20 minutes I don't think I would have made it. But I did, and I'm back now.
It's always hard for me to leave my friends in Ethiopia. I have become so close to them, especially on this trip. So it was really hard to say goodbye to them again. I feel pretty confident that I will be returning within the year, hopefully for good - or at least a long time.
Now comes the hard part: preparing to move there. I have some things I need to do, such as become ESL (English as a Second Language) certified, work more on my Amharic, and of course get rid of these loans. I'm hoping that the time passes relatively quick and I can get back to Ethiopia soon.

My laptop with all my pictures is in the lost bag. Once that shows up, I'll try to upload some pictures to the blog.

That's all folks.

the hardest day

Well, my trip has come to an end. Today was my last full day in Ethiopia, I leave tomorrow around lunchtime. I always hate the goodbyes, especially when I don't even want to leave.

 

This morning we went to Sendafa. It was a bit busy, we had to hand out some more salt and vitamins to the kids, then we had a meeting with a water official, then we saw one of the existing wells (Andre and Felix, from Water Missions International, had some work that they wanted to do on it), then it was off to the Beke church to see how the construction was going. After that we came back to Addis. I rested this afternoon and started to pack.

Later in the afternoon I went out for a machiatto with Ruth and then I invited everyone out to dinner. We had a nice time at dinner, though I would have liked to stay with all of them longer. I think some of them are going to try to come to the airport to see me off tomorrow, so that will be nice.

But I'm really having a hard time leaving, I know I've said it before and I'm sorry for being repetitive. It's just that it was so hard for me to be away from here and from these people over the last year and I am not looking forward to dealing with that again. I know it's good for me to come back, mostly because I have a lot of stuff that I need to do in order to finish preparing to move here. But that doesn't make it any easier.

 

Well, it's past midnight here, and considering I have a long trip tomorrow I should get some rest.

See you all soon.

Tebareku.

just a quick note

I don't really have a whole lot to update on. But I have a few extra minutes today, so I thought I'd send something.

 

I have mostly been thinking about what it will be like coming back to America. I know I keep saying this, but it's going to be really difficult. I keep thinking about how much I wish I could just stay here. I know that I need to come back and continue working to pay off my loans, to become ESL certified and do some other preperations for moving here. But, especially these last few days, I have been able to envision what living here would be like - and I don't want to give it up. It's really hard for me to be able to see this, to have it within my reach - but to have to put it on hold for another year. I guess a year isn't so long and I'm sure it will be over before I know it...

 

It's still been raining a lot here. Everyday for the last week or so we have gotten rain, and not just a little bit, but a lot. Last night there was some minor flooding on the roads. Even as I am typing this it has just started raining. Most people would assume that the rain is a good thing, and maybe in a way it is. Though it may start to cause some problems for the crops. The wheat and teff grains should be drying out now, but if they continue to get wet the crops might be ruined. People here are starting to get worried about that. Those two grans are used almost every day for Ethiopians - so if there is a shortage it might be a problem. We will see what happens.

 

Tomorrow I will go to Sendafa in the morning. It will be my last time there on this trip. Luckily it seems as if I will have quite a bit of time to walk around and possibly even visit some old friends there. In the evening I invited all my friends here out to dinner. We are going to go to Karamara, which is a cultural Ethiopian restaurant. I took them all there last year and it was a really nice time.

 

Well, it's about time for lunch so I should get going.

Hope all is well back in America and nobody is getting too stressed about the election...