This past week our team has been in Addis Ababa, and we are looking for ministries to partner with. Through making friends with people who work in the hostel we are staying at, we were encouraged to go to a local orphanage/school/training center. The place was called Muday Charity Association.
While there, we slept in the bunk room with kids and ate enjera (the local favorite) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Enjera is basically a sponge like pancake that we dipped into chili sauce.
Our team taught English, mathematics, and art. Madison and I were kindergarten teachers, and we loved it. We taught 4-5 year olds who were the sweetest kids in the world! We would say a number in English and ask the kids to respond.
It sounded like this “one, ONE!!, two, SOO!!, three, THRA HEE!!!
They screamed these words at the top of their little lungs! At first Madison and I were shocked, but then we joined in and started yelling too! It was the most lively class I have ever been apart of.
After this we would clean 150 dishes and laugh with the cooks. It was great to feel welcome and laugh with the women.
In Ethiopian culture it is not uncommon for men to hold hands with men or put your arms around each other, as the days went on the kids started to hold our hands and sit right next to us. We started to feel apart of the culture.
My favorite memory was when we played soccer with the boys, we played for two hours. We actually were not as bad as I expected, we won three out of six games and at times made fools of ourselves. We frequently had to postpone the game to get the oxen off the field. But this let to many great conversations because the boys opened up to us that night in the bunk room and we were able to talk to them about why we travel.
We were only there for a few days, but it was awesome to pray with the kids and talk about Jesus any chance we had. This organization is not a Christian organization, but we were given the freedom to teach about Jesus and pray with the kids!
