Sometimes it seems almost as if I never went on this adventure. Life is as whirlwindish as ever here at home as we go from one thing to the next. Chores. Errands. Running. Class planning. Fund raising. Gift shopping. School book organizing (again). Seed sprouting. Goodwill box filling. Yet always in the back of my mind are those ten days. And there is something I remember.
(Do you know what this is?)
Ten warm and sunny and SLOW days. Some may call our days there whirlwindish (if they are inclined to unabashedly make up words and ignore the red squiggle as I often do). We did a lot. We saw a lot. We met a lot of people. I've discovered though that when you have four young children you don't even know you are living a hectic life until you are away from it. Suddenly you are staring at your own still hot coffee wondering just exactly what to do with it. Busy to some but with time to think about myself and time to pay attention to the details I will still call my time there restful.
The organization (GHNI) I traveled with is all about networking. It's right in the name. Global Hope NETWORK International. Connecting real people with other real people. Finding the combinations that can get the job done. They made SURE to allow us the time to connect with people back home. Face time our friends with similar skin tones. Skype with our kiddos. Blog about our experiences and post photos. Update often on Facebook. E-mail anyone who may share an interest in what we were doing. They know that someone knows someone who may have something to offer.
Someone who can build water purifiers. Someone who can sponsor a village. Someone who would make a one time donation. Someone who knows the ins and outs of what will grow (or not grow) in the dry climate of Ethiopia. Someone who would like to make this trek and see for themselves. It could even be you. It was me. What did I have to offer? A little known blog, a small monthly donation, an eagerness to see.
While away our team often brought our computers together and googled ways to purify water....
and doodled scientific scribbles and pondered...
and blogged to try to convey all that we had seen...
making sure to keep our gadgets close at hand in case we received an e-mail offering a different perspective or perhaps to record something at a moments notice so it could be brought home and explored further
We put our thinking caps on and thought and thought. Sometimes it seemed as if the answer,the key to clean water for the village of Megaladi was right in front of us. Yes. No. Maybe?
I didn't have a charger for my computer so often at our laptop play dates I would journal and get some practice in with my new camera.
We've been home for a while now. We still have questions about how to help. We can't set our computers up like this anymore.
But our team still comes together. We still talk of the people of Megaladi. It just looks a bit more like this.
(Do you know what this is?)
Ten warm and sunny and SLOW days. Some may call our days there whirlwindish (if they are inclined to unabashedly make up words and ignore the red squiggle as I often do). We did a lot. We saw a lot. We met a lot of people. I've discovered though that when you have four young children you don't even know you are living a hectic life until you are away from it. Suddenly you are staring at your own still hot coffee wondering just exactly what to do with it. Busy to some but with time to think about myself and time to pay attention to the details I will still call my time there restful.
(Here this may help. Is it becoming clearer?)
The organization (GHNI) I traveled with is all about networking. It's right in the name. Global Hope NETWORK International. Connecting real people with other real people. Finding the combinations that can get the job done. They made SURE to allow us the time to connect with people back home. Face time our friends with similar skin tones. Skype with our kiddos. Blog about our experiences and post photos. Update often on Facebook. E-mail anyone who may share an interest in what we were doing. They know that someone knows someone who may have something to offer.
(Now you see it don't you?)
Someone who can build water purifiers. Someone who can sponsor a village. Someone who would make a one time donation. Someone who knows the ins and outs of what will grow (or not grow) in the dry climate of Ethiopia. Someone who would like to make this trek and see for themselves. It could even be you. It was me. What did I have to offer? A little known blog, a small monthly donation, an eagerness to see.
While away our team often brought our computers together and googled ways to purify water....
and doodled scientific scribbles and pondered...
and blogged to try to convey all that we had seen...
making sure to keep our gadgets close at hand in case we received an e-mail offering a different perspective or perhaps to record something at a moments notice so it could be brought home and explored further
We put our thinking caps on and thought and thought. Sometimes it seemed as if the answer,the key to clean water for the village of Megaladi was right in front of us. Yes. No. Maybe?
I didn't have a charger for my computer so often at our laptop play dates I would journal and get some practice in with my new camera.
We've been home for a while now. We still have questions about how to help. We can't set our computers up like this anymore.
But our team still comes together. We still talk of the people of Megaladi. It just looks a bit more like this.
Had it not been for another's blog, had I not seen that it would indeed be okay for a mother of many small little ones to leave them for days and days to go out of the country, that they would survive, that you simply come home and get right back into it,that they would be exactly the same size when you returned as they were when you left, I would not have had the courage to go. Spirit of adventure of no.
Through networking we (my family and I) learned we can actually support real far away people. We can actually go on trips and meet our far away friends.
Ethiopia is really there. I saw it. These people are really there. I met them. EVERYONE in Ethiopia isn't in a desperate situation. But some are. GHNI is a group of people who want to reach out to another group of people and they believe networking to be one of the best ways to meet their goals.
We went to Megaladi, Ethiopia and we met the people. We fell in love with the people we met. Now we network for those people. We use our blogs,we use our local papers,we use our small groups,we use casual conversations with strangers. We use our twice monthly meetings with our trip leader to keep us going strong. Networking was a big part of what we did while we were gone.
It was one thing I remember about my trip. A piece. Something I can tuck away to remember anytime the people of Ethiopia come to mind. I don't have much that is physical left from my time away but I have this. I have my remnant.
1 comment:
Great post Courtney! Sorry I missed the call last night. Tyler is getting braces soon so we had a late afternoon dentist appt couldn't reschedule. When is the next call.
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