May 17, Wednesday:

Wow! It seems to be normal to live a life time in one day. Today is my first day back to work. I loved my time with Martie, but I am so rested and jumping to get back in action.

I had to release our accountant yesterday. All the money is accounted for but I just need more. So Tegest was promoted to Accountant (she has an accounting diploma) and Youngose was promoted to house mother. Can you imagine how wonderful it was to be able to tell a woman how much she is appreciated by all of us and that we were able to reward her hard work. What a change from her life on the streets when she had to wait to eat her food until after the family dogs had finished.

I woke up last night worrying about some of our permanent residents who need to get an education. I don’t think we have even one woman who is literate. I though of one young girl who was forced to live her life in the cattle stall after her fistula. She is about 15 years old. But how is it fair that only a few get and education?

The idea come to me in the night to hire a teacher to come everyday for four hours. This would also force to women to think about other things than their own problems and relieve the boredom of waiting for surgery. Well….. early in the morning I found the perfect fit. He is a man who lived eleven years as a prisoner of war in Somalia. Wow! What courage and love. He taught the other prisoners. But he can’t get a job here in Ethiopia because his diploma was destroyed in the war. And can you believe this???????? Last night he stayed awake begging God to give him a new life. I got to spend the day with him and I can’t wait for each of you to meet him. So…. our school is officially open tomorrow morning and 9:00.

Then this afternoon as I was worrying about figuring out our accounting system, one of my good friends called. He has six years experience as an auditor for NGOs and was wondering if he could help us six hours a week as a volunteer!!!!!! We met this afternoon and we begin work tomorrow.

Oh one other thing I forgot, a fiend of mine, a British reporter called to see if I would mind if she comes with all the cameras to do a documentary on us and if it wont be too much trouble to bring her girlfriend who wants to do a magazine article about us. What fun things plus I love being with her to add to all the good things.

Since February first we have helped ONE HUNDRED FOUR women!!!!! Thank you for all your support and encouragement I just so hope that you really know what a difference we are making for the women here. One lady who only speaks her tribal language told me through two interpreters that she had heard that there was a woman in Addis that has a home where they treat women with Fistula with respect, she told me how hurt she was at the loss of love from her own mother and father, but that now she has us. She said there were no words to explain her heart!