Ok so I never thought I would be so grateful for indoor plumbing! Sarah and I caught something and are frequently frequenting the restroom. And only days after we moved into our new house with an actually toilet that actually flushes...we sang praises and exclamations of joy about that.
Today we actually made some progress and visited an Orphanage called the Village of Hope a few miles down the road. It is run by some girls we met because they helped us to church on Sunday. We were able to see two sick babies and help them out a little bit.
So I'm now going to attempt to explain what it is like to be a white person in Ethiopia. Also in my attempt I want to assist Americans in realizing that giving handouts to these people is not "helping them". It makes them literally rely more on begging and does not lift them in any way out of poverty. Teach them, help them learn, give them loans and make them pay it back once they get their education...anything but giving them money. This is skewed their minds to a point where now they don't even listen to us trying to truly help them and teach them because they turn of their minds to us once we tell them we aren't giving them money. Everyone here when they see us pass stare at us and some even took pictures of us on their cell phones to show their friends that they actually saw a farenji. Then if we walk anywhere they scream "you you you" forcefully trying to make us look and then hand out their hands and say "money money money". Mother's push their kids at us and try to get our money. One kid actually in front of our eyes started rolling on the ground in front of us asking for money. Kids here have a radar from a mile away and smell us and come running in hoards. We just have to stand there for 2 minutes before we are surrounded with people trying to get our attention and asking for money. Walking to the orphanage kids came running from the fields and followed us just saying "money". We ended up with at least 15 kids behind us. Then we hear the adults talking about us and saying rude things about us not giving their children money. This is what "saving Africa" and Duffie bag medicine and handouts has done to these people. They think they have no chance to live a good life here...well they do!! There are people who are well off with a college education that live comfortably and are happy, until we tell them otherwise. I have met kids here whose dream it is to go to America because they say there are no poor there and it is the most beautiful. Then when you ask them what they want to do they don't know, anything to save their family. This is so wrong, America is a land of opportunity, but it isn't the land of milk and honey and the streets aren't lined with gold as they think. Even those who try to befriend us we find sometimes are just using us as their "golden ticket" like charlie in the chocolate factory. If I can do anything with this blog, it is to help others understand that we aren't helping them! It is debilitating them and taking away their own freedom in a way. I'm going to go crazy with the people in the streets everywhere screaming money and you you you like I owe it to them because it is my duty and right because I'm white and I have money and they don't. What kind of a perception of life is that?
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