September 9, 2008

It’s been cold and rainy here but lots of fun with my daughter, Melanie. We got to spend two plus hours in the local Beauty Salon with our hair in little curlers under a dryer. We both came out looking like Shirley Temple.

My work days have been spent asking for government permission to open a bank account, send a letter, just checking the price of a hotel room took almost two hours. Whew……. I’m missing drive-through and McDonald’s.

Things are great at the Trampled Rose. We have our first graduating class on September 20th!!!! We just endured (really it was a process) our evaluation by the government about how we are doing our work. I was braced for some criticism. After all, I started as an independent beauty consultant with no experience, just lots of love and pain knowing how easily it could have been me with a fistula.

After two days of interviews, reviews, etc., the reviewer from the City of Addis (our main supervisor) said that he had visited lots of NGOs (there are 400 in Addis alone) and ours is the very best he has seen. He said that although we have only been open less than three years, he was amazed at how well our systems are in place, how well our financial records have been kept but most of all he was shocked at what a good job we have done with the women with fistula. He interviewed all of them in private and all of them said wonderful things about our organization and how we have changed their lives. He told us that we are the only ones he has ever heard of who have taken on this challenge. It felt great!

Most of all, we could not have done this without your help and support and encouragement that it really wasn’t just a crazy idea.

September 11 is the new year here. It will be 2001. We did make it through another millennium.