So I'm in Africa!

So I’m in Africa! And I already met the little boy I want to adopt. Aaaand I’m not even kidding. Some might blame it on the jet-lag-induced exhaustion I’ve been experiencing since I arrived. Some might chalk it up to just being crazy…sometimes I am. Some might say I’m being dramatic (who, me?). I don’t drink the water here so you can’t blame it on that. But I have always, always, for as long as I can remember, had a heart for Africa and a heart for adoption from Africa. So put those two heart thingies together and you get a girl in a country she’s dreamed about, surrounded by orphans who don’t have a home, and you shouldn’t be surprised.

The trip, already, has been incredible. Stinkin’ incredible. I met up with my new team (Danielle, Katy, Stefanie, Emma, Jeremiah, Funmi, Derrek, Amanda, Eric, Elizabeth, and Michelle) at JFK airport, after having an 8 hour layover there before our next flight. We boarded the flight to Dubai and spent the next 13 hours falling asleep with our mouths wide open, eating more food than we had ever seen served on a plane, and playing around with the individual tv’s we had before us that had a bunch of new movies on it. Michelle and I convinced Eric to watch “He’s Just Not That Into You”, you know, to get in touch with his sensitive side before our adventure. The fact that he also watched “Twilight” after that is no fault of ours. Once we got to Dubai we were taken to our hotel and after settling in, decided to take a 2 hour bus tour of the city. The one thing realized after that 3 hour tour (the bus drivers didn’t seem to care about time frame) was that Dubai doesn’t do anything mediocre. Every single sight we saw was bigger, taller and prettier than the one before. We stopped at the beach and I was able to swim in the Arabian Sea. Ok, I put my feet in it, but still. I then proceeded to take some really awkward pictures with 2 other foreign guys on the tour. They didn’t speak much English but somehow managed to convince me to stand in their pictures with them.

We got on our flight to Ethiopia the next morning, and it took us almost 4 hours by plane to get here. But we were just excited to finally be in Africa!! We have been staying for a few days at a guest house and have already adjusted to the usual state of life when in a country such as this. The electricity goes off about every other day (eating dinner with the team by candlelight is actually fun), you don’t flush the toilet unless absolutely necessary (if you know the phrase “if it’s yellow keep it mellow…if its…”, you will catch my drift), and you don’t drink the water…ever. We have been, in all seriousness, absolutely exhausted. Yesterday the entire team took a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, sleeping until almost 7 pm, then we still went to bed around 11 pm for the night. We have desperately needed sleep! The Lord has been good to provide it to us!

We have visited a few orphanages already and are preparing to head to a town called Nazaret tomorrow to work at a hospital. I’ll post more soon, but so far this is all I have time for!! Much love to you all!!

~ellen