A past due update

Below is a blog entry I wrote 2 weeks ago, but never posted. It’s a collection of disjointed thoughts, but that’s the way it is when you live where you work; everything flows together.

We’ve said this before, but it is hard for both of us to sit down and write when it’s hard to find the words to convey what’s happening here. Sometimes I want to tell everything, but know I can’t give the full picture so instead I give nothing. Or it is too draining to even think about what has happened that day, so instead I stay away from e-mails, the blog and even the world’s finest creation: Facebook (May Mark Zuckerburg be bestowed with endless blessings for the service he has done for mankind.)

How about some high lights of the past…2 months?! Have a full cup of coffee? Good, this is going to be a long one!

First up: Christmas. We were blessed with two of them as Ethiopia uses the Julian rather than the Gregorian calendar and the two do not coincide. (If you’re feeling old, just come to Ethiopia where it is still 2003 to shave some years off.) We first had a unique American Christmas Eve dinner here at the orphanage. Sam’s friend, who is now very much my friend too, Natalie was visiting from Seattle and we made a tremendous occasion of it. We made Kraft Mac and Cheese and Trader Joes packaged Lasagna in the kitchen. Meanwhile the children held their nightly church service in the dining room filling the building with their beautiful voices, clapping and heartfelt worship. We ate our gourmet meal out of plastic containers outside under the stars while the hyenas “whooooooo oooooop”ed across the valley.

January 6^th was Ethiopian Christmas Eve. CCC’s director, Henok, honored us by putting on a celebration and inviting all of the ferenjis at the hospital compound down to join us. We had a small ceremony to dedicate our new well (!!!) and a giant feast. They purchased two goats, slaughtered them and served delicious BBQd goat which was followed by a large bonfire and spontaneous singing and dancing. It was a tremendous evening.

We had two births here at the foster home. Fortunately they weren’t human. Both our sheep delivered healthy lambs and we didn’t even know they were pregnant. The best part was when the first was born Dawit in his excitement exclaimed, “The son is born!” When the second was born we were standing outside the sheep shed amazed at the new addition to our family and Micahael stated, “Oh yes, this is very good result!”

We love it when it rains here. Even though it is dry season it has been uncharacteristically rainy at night. The thunder storms are tremendous and the rain gives a vibrant green to the grasses (even though it is not good for the harvest to get wet and is very unfortunate for the farmers). Even the hyenas seem to cackle louder on nights after the rains have come through. Out our balcony we look across to a few small mud/stick huts nestled among banana trees and corn on a hillside. The hillside gives way to a giant valley with large hills/small mountains on the edge. When it is clear you can see little huts and farms all through the valley and old ladies swatting the cattle with a stick to herd them down the paths. There is a tree at the edge of the compound that is typical of African photographs (medium height, twisted skinny trunk and large canopy at the top that spreads with spindly branches and tufts of long, skinny aloe-colored leaves) that we like to climb up in and watch the farmers harvesting, children herd cattle and sun set over the distant hills.

Two of our older children, Michael and Asrat, took the TOEFL exam last week to start the process of getting into university in America. They were very nervous even though they studied VERY hard. Through this we realize even more how important it is that the children learn English, as it is in many ways their ticket to getting better jobs down the road. In our region the children speak their local language, learn Amharic in elementary school, and have all their high school classes in English. Not knowing English can make succeeding in high school and university (both in Ethiopia and outside of Ethiopia) very difficult.

Sam and I are taking Amharic class to enable us to communicate better with society. The people are very responsive and love to hear the ferenji try to pronounce their challenging words. They laugh and laugh but are truly grateful.

I was at a contractors shop the other day reviewing a contract we agreed on for him to build much needed dining room benches and short tables for the little children (THANK YOU Allie and Bob for the donation to do this!) and as I was leaving he offered me a ride to wherever I was going. I hoped on the back of his motorcycle and as we weaved through the donkeys, goats, laborers carting wood and trucks billowing out dark diesel exhaust he waved and greeted most of the men we passed. Just then my phone rang. It was Sam asking about something related to sheep, chickens, a meat grinder, rebar, a great potential nurse we should hire, or some other completely normal topic that would have never crossed my mind 3 months ago. As I hung up the phone I laughed outloud. How bizarre and great. I love it when I realize in the moment how much my normal has changed.

I had a hard time deciding whether or not to include the following story, but decided to post it with a warning. The next paragraph is pretty intense. Working in a developing country is incredibly rewarding but also very draining and heart wrenching at times. A few days ago Sam and I went to the funeral of a 1 month old baby whose 13 year old mother tried to take care of him but couldn’t. By the time she was brought into our sister orphanage that cares for infants, her health was very poor. Stephne took her into her home and held her, sang to her, put her on oxygen and as her situation worsened fed her with an eye dropper all night in the hospital trying to restore her, but was unable to save her. The extreme vocal manner that the 13 year old mother expressed the pain during the baby’s funeral was very difficult to handle. And just as we were leaving the hospital with the casket a woman brought in a 6 day year old little girl she had rescued who was abandoned to be admitted to the orphanage. Through the roller coaster of pain and joy Stephne connects with each child emotionally and is able to fully invest in each one, even as one passes away and another is put in her arms. Pretty amazing.

Dealing with the stresses of death, getting glimpses into some of the hardships our children have dealt with, and having to completely rethink how to achieve even the simple tasks has been a challenging experience. The difficulty isn’t as much in handling the specific situation as it is in not being able to ever get away. Sam and I have discussed how in the States after a hard day in Seattle he would catch a game of basketball at the gym, kayack on the lake or simply veg on the couch with bag of chips and salsa in front of a football game. I lived in So. California for the past 6 years and was always able to simply hop on my bicycle and cruise the strand while the sun set over the Pacific, jump in on a game of beach volleyball or battle the ocean around the cliffs of Palos Verdes on an outrigger canoe (thanks Allyson!). But there aren’t distractions here. The children on the streets don’t go away. While the children here at the orphanage are incredibly blessed, the reality is that they have countless needs that Sam and I simply cannot meet. And internal frustrations can’t be distracted by hanging out with some really fun friends or exercising the emotions out. This really leaves 2 options. First, bottle it up until it comes out in some nasty way or it can’t be dealt with or second, take it to God. Not just pray the “Dear God, I’m having a bad day. Please help me have a good day” prayer, but actually surrender. And listen. And surrender some more. And make apologies for those who have had to deal with me.

It’s odd to be so vulnerable with…the entire world…on a blog, but I feel some odd responsibility to share what God is doing even if it’s hard to share. I was praying one night, incredibly frustrated at everything that wasn’t going right and how difficult it was and how I was feeling all sorts of foreign emotions that I hated and wondering why I was having a hard time with so much, when I was hit with three things. First, I felt God impress on my heart that even if I achieve nothing here, that He is going to use this time to work out some garbage in me. Second, I opened up to Philippians and chapters 2 and 3 hit me like a freight train. WHAT? “Do NOTHING (!!!) out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” This suddenly took on an entire new, awful meaning. This is not easy when trying to implement new standards, manage building projects, and “fix” things. How do you consider other’s ideas better than yours when your purpose is to bring change? Still working through that one. Third, I was reading A.W Tozer’s The Pursuit of God and was hit by a passage in which he discusses how we hold on to our possessions (both physical and non-physical) so tightly because we are afraid of losing them. But because we cannot surrender them they end up controlling us. Its really something that we all know. We talk about those rich people who keep buying nicer homes in Beverley Hills or purchasing more expensive cars and pity that their possessions control them so much. But I’m just the same way, only not with Porsches (a motorcycle or even a donkey to get me around would be a blessing) but rather with my pride, emotional comfort, or having conveniences. In allowing God to rid me of this, Tozer states that “The ancient curse will not go out painlessly; the tough old miser within us will not lie down and die in obedience to our command. He must be torn out of our heart like a plant from the soil: he must be extracted in agony and blood like a tooth from the jaw. He must be expelled from our soul by violence, as Christ expelled the money changes from the temple. And we shall need to steel ourselves against piteous begging, and to recognize it as SPRINGING OUT OF SELF-PITY, ONE OF THE MOST REPRENHISBLE SINS OF THE HUMAN HEART.” Gulp. Not sure if I’m ready for this kind of pain, but here we go…

If you have made it to this sentence, you are a trooper. Thank you for reading, for caring, for praying. We appreciate all your comments and e-mails!

Notes from a recent visitor…

This is Sam’s dad, Tom Hartman, posting after an amazing trip to visit Sam and Noah in Soddo.  I had a wonderful 8 days with the guys earlier this month.  The sights, sounds and emotions are still strong as I write this and at some point I may ask the guys if I can post up some of my impressions, but for now I just wanted to give you a couple of links to a video (now split in two parts) that I posted up on YouTube.  The purpose was just to give anyone who was interested a feel for where the guys are.  Apologies for the quality of the “videography” and the rather loud breathing in parts (be merciful…Soddo is at altitude and I had just climbed the hill)…  Here are the links:

The Persistent Widow

I urge you to play the part of the persistent widow on behalf of the kids of this orphanage.

¹And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. ²He said, ”In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. ³And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ’Though I neither fear God nor respect man, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” ⁶And the Lord said, ”Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? ⁸I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Luke 8:1-8

A few highlights: We have almost completed the guest room project, it should be completed in the next 2 days and our friend Natalie will be here soon to christen it! We are very excited to have a friend during the holidays as it is difficult to be away from our beautiful families and friends at this time of the year. Celine Dion Christmas has been playing nonstop for the past week.

The well we are digging hit water much sooner than expected which is a praise but we are negotiating in attempts to go deeper still to ensure we always have water, even in the driest of seasons.

We took a trip to Ajorra falls last week. 2 waterfalls each about 200 meters high. We hiked down and swam at the base of one of the falls. It was beautiful and a much needed get away.

We spent the last 2 Saturday’s planting the gardens. We planted carrots, cabbage, zucchini, squash, melon, lettuce, corn and beans. This is supposedly some of the most fertile land in the world. We are anxious for the crops to grow in aims of becoming more self-sufficient. There are also dozens of mango, banana and avocado trees on the compound which will aid in this project.

We are taking Amharic classes 2 times a week at a local classroom, we meet for an hour and a half on Monday and Wednesday mornings.

“A son is born!” proclaimed Dawit excitedly early Saturday morning. We later learned this was his best attempt at letting us know one of our sheep had given birth the night before. Tis the season.

Love you all deeply, thank you for keeping up with our blog.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was the first time Sam and I weren’t with family. For me that meant not eating delicious carved turkey, prime rib, stuffing, chocolate covered strawberries and pumpkin cheesecake. But it’s not all about the food right…? It was also the first time we were not surrounded by family, partaking in the traditions that are never planned, but become such a important part of us. As a child, Thanksgiving wouldn’t have been complete without a dip in the hot tub under the cold, clear skies in the hills of Napa at my aunt and uncle’s house. We were usually joined by a few coyotes yelping off some adjacent hill, jealous of our feast – especially the turkey soup. But this Thanksgiving was a bit different.

The organization that our orphanage operates under, Children’s Cross Connection Ethiopia, has several avenues for poverty prevention here in Ethiopia. It works at both long-term poverty prevention (ie our orphanage, where children are mentored & educated to enable them to be productive and self sustaining adults) as well as short-term immediate need solving (ie providing food to malnourished children who have families but cannot afford to provide proper nutrition). One of the many services that CCCE provides is building infrastructure for local churches and distributing food to the most destitute widows, widowers and physically disabled. Yesterday Sam and I joined the food distribution team and witnessed dozens of the poorest people from one church receive rice and enriched milk to help sustain them. I was once again struck by the need for the most basic needs here – and this was only one of many groups that receives assistance in this community. It wasn’t easy watching the elderly men who suffer from polio and can only walk by wrapping their leg around a stick or the many blind men and women that stumble barefoot on the rocky, red soil, only able to get around from the assistance of a young child. Many of the children that were waiting for food had flies swarming around their eyes, running noses and mouth. But the thing that bothered us the most was that they had lost the desire, ability or drive to even swoosh them away. They had become a part of normal life. Just like the swelling in their small, tough feet.

Mossy foot is a fairly rare condition, but is common here in Soddo. It is caused by prolonged exposure to the red, silica-rich soil. The body does its best to expel the foreign and harmful particles by swelling up. The skin ends up becoming infected, heavily layered and swollen and eventually becomes so painful that the person can no longer use their feet. Mossy foot is a highly preventable disorder – it only requires washing the feet and wearing shoes. But this is a luxury many cannot afford.

So what, amidst this pain, are we thankful for? We are thankful for the children in our orphanage, that they do not know this kind of pain, that they have shoes, nutrition, and a community that loves them here. We are thankful for each child’s sponsor in the US and the many donations provided by Aerie Africa, ensuring that the CCCE children do not know what Mossy Foot feels like. We are thankful that we were able to provide food to those who needed it most at the church food donation, to at least help ensure survival for the next month; for those who donated the food, for those who have the drive to make these programs work; for the Ethiopians who have the vision to be a driving force of change in their community and for the westerners who come alongside financially or physically to assist in this dream. We are thankful that we can be here to help those in need. And we thank you, our family and friends for your prayers, support and encouragement. We had a very blessed Thanksgiving.

Ethiopian Days

The goal of this blog is not to paint a pretty picture and provide an entertaining read. I would hope that it would educate as to what life is like on a day to day basis for us and the many others doing similar tasks to us. I must constantly remind myself to be real with myself and also with you, because my natural tendency is just to focus on the positive and leave out the difficulties. My prayer is that this blog educate you as how to pray, rejoice and in a sense, join us on this adventure we are on in Ethiopia, doing our best to follow the Spirit’s leading as we serve the King.

Our typical day thus far:

-          Wake up early to the chorus of sounds Noah wrote about last week

-          Spend time in prayer, the word, and a daily devotional

-          Have breakfast which always consists of bread and honey/real peanut butter… sometimes the cooks will make us pancakes or French toast which is a real treat, always with tea and/or coffee to drink (best coffee ever)

-          Spend time walking the compound, making to do lists, just getting a feel for where we are and what needs to be done

-          Spend time with Noah, talking, brainstorming, on the computer writing down lists… trying to prioritize, separating the emergencies from the urgencies! This is difficult as everything feels like an emergency, we remind ourselves daily that this is the Lord’s project not ours. There is a daily battle between life and death here that I am unfamiliar with. What must be dealt with soon, and what can be put off to do in the future. Very heavy time

-          Spend time talking about the long term plan, what is the end goal? How do we meet this goal? How do we make sure everything we do is sustainable and will continue to function once we, one day, leave *see note

-          Lunch: Always bread and injera with tips (meat in a spicy red sauce) and bananas. Sometimes rice or French fries or pasta is included.

-          Quiet time for an hour or so to relax, rest, think, pray

-          Have meetings with the staff, talking about what needs to be done, developing job descriptions, improving sanitation, praying, dreaming, brainstorming.

-          Tutor when the kids get back from school, this is very difficult at times with the language barrier. This is usually very draining and can be frustrating trying to communicate the very basics of what they are learning. This as a real area of need, as many of the children are falling very behind in their schooling.

-          Play with the children, play guitar and harmonica, sing, play the “animal game,” laugh, hug, cuddle, throw the football, kick the soccer ball, read books to the children, practice my Amharic etc…

-          Play soccer (or volleyball for Noah) and watch the sunset, a highlight of every single day. The natural beauty of this place is remarkable

-          Dinner: Injera with tips, pasta, or rice

-          More tutoring and playing

-          To bed early, great pillow talk with Noah, reading, exhausted. This week I struggled with a mattress full of fleas and woke up with bug bites all over my body. I sprayed the junk out of my mattress with raid and left it in the sun all day, hopefully they learned their lesson and will think twice before messing with me again.

* The potential for the orphanage is very great. We are working on putting together a more official business plan but really think it could become completely self sufficient in a few years. The property is huge and the land is very fertile. We met with an agricultural specialist yesterday morning and talked about the potential for sheep farming, gardening and growing fruit trees and it is very realistic to think we could raise enough animals, and grow enough plants to live off of and even sell to the community. We currently have banana trees, mango trees, avocado trees, a large garden waiting to be planted, 2 sheep, 13 chickens, and a monkey (who doesn’t really play much of a role in the self sufficiency long term plan but is fun to play with and watch do back flips). This is a plan that gets us very excited, but it will take prayer, the Lord’s favor, money, hard work and good planning.

Thank you for joining us on this journey.

-Sam

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed” –Prov 16:3

The first few days

We have only been here three full days and yet it feels like several weeks. It is hard to know where to begin when describing a world entirely new. I could write for pages, but I know that as I remain here I will continue learning and my perspective will change again. So how about just a few observations?

The children here are incredible. They are kind, respectful, helpful and yearning for love. They will stop what they are doing in an instant to help you out and in this week, I have not heard one word of complaint or argument yet. I spent a couple of hours working with a few of them on their 6th grade homework assignment on air and water pollution. I was explaining to them in english, simply and slowly. When one would understand what I was saying that child would begin spewing out a long explanation in Amharic to the others. The others all would begin taking short little gasps and raising their eyebrows with a giant smile. No, they weren’t short of breath – in place of saying “uh huh” or “yes” or “go on” Ethiopians will take a little gasp and raise their eyebrows. Needless to say, my first tutoring session was one I don’t think I’ll ever forget. I’ve never seen kids so eager and excited to learn.

The days thus far have been long and very busy. Morning begins with a disorganized choir of rooster crows a bit before 5, soon to be followed by the Muslim call to prayer which is proceeded by Orthodox chants which is followed by a lengthy sermon broadcasted from the protestant church. Ethiopians would think you were crazy if you tried to instate “noise pollution” laws. And I kinda like it; no time wasted on getting angry over the things that really aren’t a huge deal. Just takes some getting used to…

Cars, trucks, motorcycles, donkeys, goats and cows do mix quite nicely. Especially on busy roadways.

Whether it is due to a cultural standard, or the result of a life of difficulty, Ethiopians are passionate about their love for God in a way we don’t understand. Outdoor churches are pact all day on sunday, weekday afternoons and most of the day on saturday. Sam and I were honored to be part of the children’s own evening (daily!) service that they lead and run entirely on their own. I was moved to tears at their passion for reading the bible, praying for each other, the content of their sermon (an entire chapter of Ezekiel) and the vitality of their singing. Nothing like being in a room with clapping, swaying, singing children worshiping in their language. Not your typical American sunday school with Veggie Tales and Ritz crackers.

The community of Ex-pats here is great. They have been incredibly welcoming in opening up their homes and helpful hands to us. They also have a perspective on life, hardship, service and adventure which generates very interesting conversations. Evening dessert conversations tend towards strategies for solving mass starvation, how to keep a service-minded mindset amidst frustration, the best safaris in africa, whether to amputate when it must be done but means loss of meager income for a laborer, or how to survive the unavailability of ice cream.

Blessings,
Noah

Our Story

Our Story: Last October I (Sam) had the chance to go to Ethiopia on a trip with New Covenant Foundation. They maintain a coffee plantation in a southern Ethiopia that provides jobs for local farmers and growers and then all the profits get dumped back into the community, into things like churches, orphanages, schools, hospitals, water purification, and things of that nature. Really cool stuff. Check it out at newcovenantfoundation.org. I went on a 2 week trip with them and saw all the different programs they were involved in. This trip changed my life. The poverty stricken land of Ethiopia that I knew only from magazines and pictures, became personal. I looked it square in the face and realized that each child scouring the streets for a meal, each diseased beggar, each single widowed mother was the exact same as me in God’s eyes. God doesn’t see the huge ocean between America and Africa, we are all His children. How do I come home and continue to live my comfortable life knowing those children are sleeping on the streets and those mothers are dying because they don’t have clean water? I wanted to do something… but what? I prayed about it and 9 months later the answer came to me, no it wasn’t a baby, it was an email from Stephne Bowers, a beautiful woman inside and out who I had met on my trip last October and who runs a couple of orphanages in Soddo. Check out what her and her family are up to at thebowersinafrica.blog.com. She asked if I would be interested in coming back to help, I said yes, so she passed my name on to an organization called Aerie Africa. Aerie contacted me and told me what they were looking for. Someone to “manage an orphanage,” someone to be their eyes, ears, hands and feet, someone to make sure these kids are getting loved the way they deserve to be loved, someone to give vision, someone to figure out what needs to be done to increase the size and quality of this orphanage called CCCE. Long story short, my friend Noah Frank and I had been praying for years, making ourselves available to whatever the Lord wanted us to do at this time in our lives and this seemed like an answer to that prayer…

Where Noah comes in: Through college I felt a draw to learn about anything related to poverty relief and wondered how best to actually do something about it. Should I become a doctor and serve the sick? Become a politicain and rally for poor? Be a lawyer and fight for injustice? Be financially successful and give the profits away? Be open to letting God use me here and not worrying about going somewhere else – after all, there are hurting people everywhere! Am I really making a difference here now? Decisions, decisions.

After graudation I had a great job where I was learning a lot and being very challenged. But the thoughts of development work never went away – they got stronger. I saw some of my friends walking down the path towards financial success in corporate America. Others took the road less travelled and saw the world. Was I just looking for adventure or afraid of getting too focused on financial success? When Sam returned from Ethiopia with an excitement that went beyond the typical exciting vacation, I sensed he was on to something.

Big decisions don’t come easily, but long story short, here we are, heading off to Ethiopia!

Welcome Friends and Family!

Thanks for visiting our blog! If you’re here, you probably know that we (Sam Hartman and Noah Frank) are heading off to Ethiopia to work in the CCCE orphanage. We will be posting updates on the orphanage, our experiences and ways that you can be praying for the children periodicaly. Thanks for visiting and hope to hear from you! More information to come!