October 25, 2008

Who could believe how fast two and a half months could fly? I have been more busy that usual in October. Our first group of visitors left in the middle of October and another group of 25 arrived two days earlier than we had planned so we had a BIG group.

It was hard to say “goodbye” to our first group but Debra and Karen stayed on and we worked without any rest. Debra was in charge of organizing all the volunteer activities.

I was a little bit nervous when the Security Guard from our second group called me to ask if we could hire armed guards if necessary. Ethiopians are such peaceful people it made me very nervous to have someone this inexperienced with armed power and no overseeing authority. (My husband is a reservist in Space Command so I do understand there can be a need.) Things seemed better as I explained that not only was this illegal but it could get us all in big trouble.

I also had a wonderful guest in my own home, Elena. We had slumber parties almost every night and our friendship was bonded quickly. She spent her time writing our project proposal for the next three years. THANK YOU!!!!!

The ladies who came to work were WONDERFUL. They taught the ladies at the Trampled Rose lessons about geography and how to write Thank You notes. It was so exciting to see women who had learned to write a few weeks earlier being able to express gratitude. There was also a group organizing our storage area with boxes and boxes of goodies they had brought for the ladies. The work was dirty and it was hot but they got it done. They even managed time to get our fence painted.

However, I personally had many lessons to learn. Here, some things that may seem logical to our American minds are completely illegal and could result in my quick deportation from this country and the imprisonment of innocent volunteers. The main lesson I learned is to expect others not to understand this tight rope and watch much more carefully.

Thankfully, after I learned of some of the things happening, I proactively went to the head of Criminal affairs at the Ministry of Justice (an awesome man) and he was very generous to both our organization and to the group. As far as I know, everyone arrived back home safely and we are still open with our good reputation intact.

Now my focus is on moving our offices to a new building so we can open more beds for the women who are arriving quickly from the countryside and finish our reports and proposals that need to be submitted to the appropriate agencies.

We do have more good news! After two months of almost daily visits to the bank we have permission to open a new account and after more than two years of running the Trampled Rose and the more than two years before that working on permission, I have been accepted as competent to be the Country Director and Founder. I do have to bring an original copy of my diploma but it’s a nice start.

More good news, we are in the finalist group for the Stevie awards in the states. Wow!