I totally can sympathize with Bucky in Avengers: Infinity War as he was the only white person in Wakanda as I now know how he must have felt being stared at/getting touched by the locals as that is exactly how I’ve felt being here in Ethiopia this month.
Plus I have always imagined that my first time visiting Africa would be to one of my bucket list countries of Egypt or South Africa, not the East Africa region but that just goes to show that God has a different plan.
But first let’s rewind back to Romania:
RVT week- preparing for kids camp with the ghetto kids & then going to weekend camp in the Romanian mountains which has been the best weekend on the Race for me
Adventure day/travel day- stopping at Brans Castle (and crossing that place off my bucket list) on our way to Burcharest for month 8 debrief which was nothing really special except for my reunion lunch with my Team Surrendered teammates as that was the only highlight of debrief for me.
Travel to Ethiopia on June 2
The leg between Istanbul & Addis mine & 18 other of my squad mates packs got lost in transit for a day (don’t fly Turkish Airlines & add that to the crazy things that have happened to P squad this year)
Word of advice: always pack clean underwear in your backpack
Arrived at HopEthiopia on June 4th
This month has been all squad month 3.0 & this has been by far the best all squad month of my race (minus having no WiFi) as far as accommodations & food wise.
We all live in a house together & we are serving on 1 of 3 teams which are:
- Sports ministry/manual labor/hanging out with the kids/sanitation
- Teaching
- Brick making/reforestation
I am a part of the team that does sports ministry/kids/manual labor (another reason why I can relate to Bucky as he does hard labor in Wakanda).
Some of the things we have done include:
Groundskeeping
Carrying bricks to there location to be used to build another children’s home
Assisting in the making of the bricks when needed
Planting the word of God in the ground of the apple orchard
Writing scripture on the walls /praying over of the new children’s home
Cooking
Playing with the kids
Playing a lot of soccer with the kids
Visiting people in the community among other tasks
I am also on a sub team that if needed I can help teach computer skills to the people here
Here’s what a typical day in the life looks like for P squad:
M-F
5am-8am: wake up & have quiet time
8am-9am: Breakfast
9am-noon: morning ministry
Noon-1:30: lunch/ rest
1:30-4pm: afternoon ministry
4-6pm: free time/team time/JMs (every Monday)
6-7pm: dinner
7-10pm: evening activities such as all squad worship/storytelling/breakouts sessions/free time
Every Friday night is movie night with the kids
10pm: Lights out
Weekends: adventure/rest days
The mission of HopEthiopia is part orphanage & part training center for the women in this poor community located in a village called Harbu Chulule located about 49miles from Addis in the Ethiopian mountains (8000ft elevation).
There are about 30 kids living here in the compound & HopEthiopia provides for all of their needs & to empower them to grow up to be whatever they want to be as they are the next generation for Ethiopia.
The kids adore us & love to touch us because of our light skin.
It is a pretty awesome organization in what all they do for the community, and the stories that Dr. Ralph has shared with us have just been incredible.
Also this is one if not the only place where the water is safe to drink directly from the tap as they have well that provides some of the purest drinking possible.
I have also gotten to experience eating some traditional Ethiopian food (it’s pretty spicy & I have a low spice tolerance) & taking part in a traditional coffee ceremony. Also I have loved laying out on the deck & looking up at the night sky here while listening to the hyenas call out in the distance as to me that is so relaxing.
As far as my spiritual side: Africa has been good to me as God has further confirmed more about wanting me to pursue a life of ministry by means of becoming a pastor & has led me in the direction of which 5 seminaries to apply for to attend in January 2020.
God has also revealed to me his kingdom dreams that he has planned (if you wanna know more-check our my blog Kingdom Dreamin)
I have also have had very vivid dreams at night while I sleep which is something that does not happen to me, and it kinda freaks me out, most of the time I don’t know how to interpret them.
Also my IPod has been a sanity saver this month since we don’t have WiFi as music is something that can calm me down & help me to focus & my movies help me to escape mentally when things begin to test me (which living 24/7 in this kind of community does test you at times esp when I feel like I have 30 siblings in Christ & they “test” me like I would imagine siblings would)
So despite my rough start to the month I have absolutely come to enjoy my month here in Ethiopia & being around my squad mates especially since we only have a short time left together.
(In case I don’t get to WiFi agian)
We leave for Rwanda on June 28th (this is a slight change in our route as we were supposed to go to Uganda next but because of the fact that we would have to take a bus there & do a border crossing into South Sudan (I’ll admit I’m kinda low key disappointed that we aren’t doing this as it would’ve made for a good story) which is still a unstable area we are instead flying to Rwanda for month 10 & then taking a bus to finish my race in Uganda where I’ll be flying back to the states via Dubai to Boston where I’ll be spending a few days of R&R before flying home to Detroit)
I am super excited to be going to Rwanda as growing up I remember watching the news about the events that took place there in the 90s. So to say that I’ve been there 20 plus years later is just an awesome thing to think about & to get to experience that especially being one of the only ones on who is old enough to remember those events & getting to share that with my squad mates.
Wakanda Forever (crosses arms over chest)
The White Wolf
