October 31, 2009

Well it’s almost time for Melanie to go back to the states so we have been finishing up the last minute details. She was so sick yesterday that I was worried. I was trying to remember all the details of Swine Flu but I keep missing the news. I used to be so updated on things and now I am just happy when I can remember the name of the new Vice President. My news source here is what I can see as I sign on to AOL. So… I am up to date on Demi Moore’s hairstyles.

We also have a bad situation in the Trampled Rose. Mimi, our supervisor, has some very bad condition. One side of her face is paralyzed and twice the size of the other. Her Doctors diagnosis is “the draft”. Every time I tell anyone they gasp and shake their heads. I have never seen this before so I keep asking what causes it. I have now learned that it is caused when someone opens a door and a cool draft gets on one side of their face and the other is still warm.

I started arguing with some good Ethiopian friends that this is impossible. We also have cold and hot air in the USA and I know of no one who has suffered the horrible case of “the draft”. Finally one said that the real cause is the evil eye but they didn’t want to tell me this or I might think they were backwards. The prevention is to keep your cross on around your neck at all times. So, believe me, my cross is on.

Next week my focus is on working again for our re-registration. I should be good at that by now because it is the activity that I have spent the most time in my adventures in Ethiopia.

I also have a new daughter. She has been with us for four years since she was a small baby. Her mother is a graduate and has never taken any interest in the little girl. She is always dirty and the mother never wanted her near. Yesterday she asked the translator for a meeting. In front of this precious little one she asked me to take her “burden”. You could not imagine the painful look on this little four year old’s face. It was the closest I have every come to slapping someone. I told her that I also was a single mother but that I still took care of my two children. I have seen her buy new things for herself but never for her daughter.

That night I couldn’t sleep. I know I can’t help every child in Ethiopia and that my focus has to be on Fistula but how could I put her out??????

So now she is mine and enrolled to start Monday in a private school, Covenant Academy. Our other girls have done so well there. In fact, Sarah just jumped another grade. So I’m off to buy uniforms and books and expand my heart just a little more.