A Day in the Life :: Ethiopia Edition

I’m in Africa! I’ve been living and loving life in Ethiopia for a little over two weeks now! My squad and I are living on a compound about 3 hours outside the capital city, Addis Ababa. We are partnered with an incredible organization called HOPEthiopia. Their goal is to love and serve the country in big and small ways. The compound houses about 20 orphans and loves and cherishes them deeply. I’m so thankful to be without wifi this month, it truly is a month of being present without  distractions. So here’s a little glimpse into my life here in Ethiopia. 

Breakfast beings every morning around 7am which is supplied by our wonderful house cooks named Eldonna and Zenit. They cook all three meals every day for all of our hungry selves (32 to be exact). I spend about an hour or so in prayer or the Word during this time too. We then break into teams for our ministry assignments. This month my team and I have been helping make bricks! I never appreciated how much work it takes to make one single brick by hand. The first week we spent time sifting the rocks from the dirt. We then wheel borrowed hundreds of pounds of dirt and grinded hundreds of pounds of rocks. This week we started the actual brick making process. The finely ground dirt is mixed with cement and water in a drum, shoveled into a machine that presses it into a brick mold which then dries over a few days. We’ve easily made over 300-400 bricks in one week. What do you do with all those bricks you may ask? We then carry them two at a time to wherever they’re needed on the compound. We’ve been working hard and I’ve been loving it. 

Then lunch time! We praise and thank our wonderful cooks again, eat some delicious Ethiopian food and rest for a bit. Our afternoons are full of either brick making or playing with the kids who have made it home from school. Most of them know English really well, so communicating with them has been easy and fun. We spend time coloring, playing soccer or frisbee, pushing them on the swing or whatever else they want to do. We’re all in love with them to say the least. 

Dinner time! We hug and thank Zenit and Eldonna before they go home for the evening. Eat more amazing food and spend time in community with everyone. If there’s one thing that’ll bring people together joyfully it’s a lack of WiFi. We spend nights gathered around watching a movie. Some nights singing and worshipping together. But my favorite nights have been laying under a blanket of bright shiny stars. I’ve never felt so free without a care in the world than those precious few hours. Some nights my closest friends and I are silent, just in awe of our creator together. Some nights we talk about the future and what life is gonna be like when this is all over. Some nights we talk about deep theological things that typically end with us answerless but worshipful. I know without a doubt these will be the nights I cherish and look back on forever. 

Ethiopia is easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. It’s definitely one of the simplest. Between growing our own food in gardens out back, hand washing and hang drying our clothes between thunderstorms (it’s currently rainy season here) and loving and looking forward to stove top popped popcorn I can say I love the simple life. No one is worked up or even aware of the politics back home. We have no where to even think about going to spend money. We aren’t consumed with wants just aware of basic needs – Jesus, food, running water and best friends to share in all this. I. Am. Blessed. And I’m definitely humbled by this lifestyle. 

Thank you for all the prayers and for keeping up with my life. I love you all and pray for you regularly!