This thread has to serve as my journal until I buy one this week. I want to document my feelings prior to leaving, as well. Anywho...
I finally got the last of my immunizations today. And they were expensive!!
I still have to get some prescriptions filled and I'll be all set, medically. Lately, I've done a lot of reading on the history of Ethiopia. I've read a ton of articles on the famine (a few of which I've posted). I have began to develop (loosely) the curriculum for next year surrounding this project. I am SO excited about it all! It's funny how you can do something you've never done before, yet be so confident about it that you do it well. I have definitely found my niche. I am building a team here at the school to work with me. My school will have the TIGHTEST service learning project!!! I just have to continue to think about how to get the kids actually invested in the service. Hopefully, they will get that through the class that we are going to have surrounding service learning and Ethiopia.
I'm excited to meet all the people we'll get to meet. I'll get to meet the US Ambassador to Ethiopia! She's from ATL and graduated from Spelman. We'll also get to meet different leaders from different NGO's, including the author of a book that we had to read,
Sheltered by the King. I'd recommend it to anyone. It is a story of an Ethiopian woman who had to flee the country during the Marxist rebellion. It reads like a novel, so it's a fast read. This will be networking at its best!
So that should all be exciting.
Oh, the places I'll go!!!
After we are done with "work," we'll get to do some cultural traveling around the country. I'm glad I decided to do some reading about the history, because otherwise I'd be clueless as to where I was going. I'll get to travel through part of the Great Rift Valley!!! Although I'm not a bird watcher, I plan to take lots of pictures of birds and other wildlife! I will also be going to the holy city of Axum!!! THEN, I get to go to Lalibela! This, I think, is going to be the highlight of the cultural part of my journey!! I can't wait to see the rock-hewn churches. They are said by some to be the 8th wonder of the world. This entire experience is going to be AWESOME!!!!!
This is truly the greatest blessing. I can't stop thanking God for it!! One day, I got an email from my director about this project. She was telling me how she felt that I was supposed to cross paths with my school to do this project. She also told me that she was glad I got the opportunity to do something great and build my passions surrounding world justice. I was so moved by her email that I began to cry. I felt so emotional that day. I was moved that I had been CHOSEN to do this work. I was moved that she had seen my passion and recommended me for this project in the first place. And more than anything, I felt moved that I will finally get to do something TRULY great in the area of service. Sometimes I think about it and I just get chills.
My only hope is that people are paying attention. Children are dying. I mean, adults are dying, too, but KIDS are dying. From hunger!!! It's so unfair, because there is ENOUGH food in the world to feed these people; it's not like there isn't. They say that if aid doesn't start coming in fast, this famine will be worse than that of 1984. Over one million people died in that famine. Just think, even more may die this time. I hope people are paying attention.
Service to all mankind...