Day 1 - Team 'Be the Change' is headed to Shanto, Ethiopia!!!

Where do we even begin?  Today we are leaving for Ethiopia on a  humanitarian mission.  Before we talk about where we're going and what we're doing, we would like give thanks and love.   Thank you to our family and friends who have been incredibly supportive in so many ways.  Without you to share our lives and love there would be a huge piece missing.  


It is truly amazing to reflect back on our lives and wonder in amazement at how we got to this point.  We have simply taken a few steps that have led us here.  There is nothing extra special about us beyond the willingness to take those steps in faith.  We have been lifted up so high from our experiences along this journey.  The people we've met, what we've learned, our new perspective on what is truly important in life, and being able to continually share our lives with our dear friends and family are beyond anything we've dared to dream of.  


FOVC, Friends of Orphans and Vulnerable Children,  is doing all the right things for all the right reasons.  Going on this trip are 13 people from Colorado, Michigan, Indiana and London.   This is a very task oriented trip.  We have 4 teachers, an artist, a doctor, a veterinarian, an agriculturalist, a water well 'expert', our fearless leader, and 3 others.   " FOVC's mission is to educate and support orphans, vulnerable children & widows in Ethiopia, empowering them to break the cycle of poverty and hunger as we offer them hope and independence for the future." 


It will take 3 days to get there, we will be in the village for 5 days, and we will take another 3 days to get back.   We leave at 12:55am tonight, change planes in Charlotte early morning, arrive in D.C. around 8, and leave at Noon.  We will have a quick fuel stop in Rome (no de-boarding) and arrive in Addis Ababa around 7:30am local time.   We will spend that day in Addis shopping and visiting and geting our bearings.  We stay at the Ethiopia Guest Home that night, which is where we stayed 2 years ago when we adopted Gierma!  The next morning we drive down to Shanto, about a 6 hour drive.  We are renting Land Cruisers with drivers, one of them, Zi, we know from our last trip!


We are staying about an hour away from Shanto in a hotel.  We will drive each morning to Shanto, spend the day on all of our tasks, then drive back each night. The entire village will have a welcoming ceremony for our team.  We've heard from the last trip that this is an amazing 3 hour ceremony filled with dancing, eating, coffee, laughter, hugs, tears and more.  


As far as Denise goes, she will coordinating art projects for the students.  We hope to use these as a teaching tool too.  Denise has designed and set up really cool projects.  You will love them!  One special project is for all of the families and people that are sponsoring a student there.  It will be a map of Ethiopia with their sponsored child's handprint and signature on it.  It will be amazing!  


Steve will be working with 3 other teachers to help train the teachers from three villages.  Steve's coworker at Denver Academy, Emily Garbus, has led the charge to put together an amazing teaching resource booklet.  We hope to get through as much as possible to help the teachers learn the basics of lesson planning, transitions, assessment, and all the other specifics of teaching that Denver Academy does better than any other school in the world!  What we don't get to in the packet, we hope the teachers there will try out and practice on their own until the next group of teachers visit with FOVC.


One of the hardest parts of this trip will be leaving Gierma behind.  He has not even been with us for 2 years, but is so connected to us sometimes we have to peel him off.   Gierma will be staying with Auntie Val and Uncle Apple.   Thanks to Val & Apple for this enormous offer, even rearranging your 25th wedding anniversary to help us.  You have been, and continue to be such an important part in Gierma's lives, let alone ours!!  We Love You!  


Gierma will also be going to the DU Sports Camp every day of the week.  This will be great for him and help Val & Apple out!   He also will start the ELL (English Language Learners) Summer School for Denver Public Schools.  He finished 1st grade at level, but still could use some extra work on reading.   He has worked so hard this year and learned so much, even more remarkable considering we had him skip kindergarten.    He wrote a letter to us this morning... "Mom and dad.  I will mis you wille wille wille moch.  I will be sad."    He is such an unbelievably sweet kid.  It will be hard to leave him, but we will all get through it and be better for it. 


Please take a look at FOVC's website.  It will give you a very good guide as to the why's, how's and what's involved in turning an entire village into a self-sustainable community.  We will post pics and videos of everything when we get back.  We will have some sort of showing/party to celebrate our trip with all of you!  


We hope that our lives encourages others to find/continue their own remarkable journeys and take those steps that lead to a wondrous, fulfilled, loving and complete life.    We all have it in us to lead extraordinary lives.  It's just a matter of taking the first awkward step with faith.


With all of our deepest love, respect and joy,
Steve & Denise