We also spent a couple days working in the Medical Clinics in Gindo and in Kota, a smaller community even farther into the countryside. We took quite a few supplies with us!
We portioned out bags of iodized salt to give out to community members who have goiter (which is caused by an iodine deficiencies).
The doctors provided a free clinic day to each community, and saw many people from those communities.
We also had a box of prescription and reading glasses donated, and were able to give out many pairs to community members who needed them.
There were a lot of happy faces as they tried the glasses on and found that they could see!
At Kota, our group of volunteers was quite the unusual spectacle, and we got a bit of an audience gathered outside the clinic compound watching us work.
The ForeSight Fathers were busy as well, building beds, planting garlic, and learning about how to protect themselves as they administer pest control in homes in the community.
The beds turned out quite successfully, and are really comfortable!
A few of us couldn’t resist trying them out.
We were able to present the first bed to a guardian of one of the children in the program while we were there.
The children at BEKA Gindo greeted us with huge smiles, and singing songs.
We were able to complete all the medical check-ups in one full day.
The art project was very well received by the children at Gindo, and when we came back the next day, the classroom was decorated with streamers made of the chain-linked strips of paper the children had written and drawn on as part of the art project.
They also were thrilled to be introduced to playdough!
We have spent the last 5 days out in the Amaya region visiting the BEKA Gindo Program in Gindo-town, and doing some work at a couple of local clinics.
The first major excitement of the trip was seeing the amazing progress on the new education center.
The roof is on!!
And while we were there for a few days, the windows and the doors arrived and started to be installed.
There will be 2 kitchens, one modern style kitchen indoors, as well as a more traditional fire kitchen in this building, separate from the main hall.
We also got a tour of the gardens, which are growing!
There are green sprouts growing under the canopies of dried grass built over the garden beds to protect the seeds and small plants from the sun.
The well is full of water and they haul up a bucket at a time to water the gardens.
The ForeSight Fathers were there, working the soil into more garden beds to prepare for the planting of a large bag of garlic that we had brought for them.
Today we spent the entire day at YTH Kids Hope Alemgena. Like Guelele, this is an after school program where the children get to participate in student clubs, tutoring, and are fed a hot meal every day.
Alemgena is on the outskirts of the city of Addis Ababa, in the countryside.
Again we put our doctors to work doing medical check-ups on all of the 45 children who were able to come to the center on a Saturday. There are 50 children in total in this program.
We had lunch under a canopy that the children kindly put up for us, slung between trees and fence posts to provide shade in the front yard. Watching them get it set up was impressive!
One boy spent several minutes up a tree, working to secure the tarp so it didn’t hang too low in the middle.
In the afternoon one of our volunteers put on an Art activity for the kids, helping them to express through Art how they would bring peace to their lives and their community.
They love drawing and painting, and were very happy with the resulting decorations for a tree on the grounds.
They also love to sing and dance – they put on some music, grabbed some drums, and had a wonderful time!
It has been a busy few days! We have visited several of the programs, and met many of the children who attend them.
We spent an afternoon at YTH Kids Hope Guelele, where the kids got to build bridges and structures out of popsicle sticks!
They looked like they were having a great time!
While they were busy building, we would pull a few at a time out of the class and send them to one of our four doctors for their yearly medical check-up.
We had a lot of fun weighing, measuring height, and getting photos of the children on their way to see a doctor!
At the same time, a session for the guardians of the children was going on, to help them understand how to deal with grief and loss - both their own, and that of the children they are raising. Many of the guardians are the grandmothers of the children in the program.
The children are fed a hot meal every day when they come to the center, and are very good about helping to clean up afterwards.
And that was the end of Friday!
