Dance Fever and Donald Duck

I woke up this morning to a nice phone call from Greg.  Today is his birthday (October 18, 2011) so I was excited to chat with him all the way from Africa.

The team went to PATH this morning .  At PATH the guardians of the children in our program have a workshop where they weave traditional blankets and make shopping bags out of old sugar sacks.  This helps the guardians generate an income.  It is very cool:  helping children, helping guardians, helping the community = the Canadian Humanitarian impact. 

Shopping bags made by the PATH guardians.

Meeting the PATH guardians.

We handed out the flour, cooking oil and laundry soap to the PATH guardians.  We were introduced to all the women receiving the household goods and they were very grateful and appreciative.

Prepping the flour, oil and soap.

Abeneezer, Deb, Nicole and I were the distribution team.

There was a large age range among the guardians, some with young children and babies.  I loved watching the women use their blankets to load everything onto their back for the long haul home.

Another task for the day was to sort through all the donated medication.  Any expired meds had to be thrown away.  Dr. Northcott took them to the local hospital for incineration.  We prepped the suitcases full of scrubs, swabs, syringes, cotton balls, gauze pads etc.  They thought of everything!    I am really looking forward to learning from Dr. Northcott and helping with medical exams.

Once school was out, we made our way to YTH Alemgena - another Canadian Humanitarian project.  The team interviewed the children at the education center to monitor their progress.  Once the interviews were done, we played soccer, sang songs, danced and the kids were very excited and lively.  When Dr. Northcott walked in - they all cheered!

In case you are wondering, no, I cannot bend it like Beckham.

The Alemgena gang.

The kids would all dance in a large circle - and it donned on me that the songs and dance were like the chants I heard at the soccer game.  I guess they learn them at a very young age!  They pulled each one of us one-by-one into the middle of the circle.  I learned some basic Ethiopian dance moves.  We danced hand -in-hand and then with one child at a time.  They loved it (and so did I) - especially twirling. 

Steven is amazing with the kids - he spoke like Donald Duck and they all broke out into big laughs.  He then taught them the classic dance move where you put your hands on  your knees and move your knees in and out and cross your palms over your knees.  They practiced their new moves for the rest of the night!

Steven playing with the kids.

I had so much fun laughing, singing and dancing.  I left energized and extremely thankful for this amazing opportunity.

Tomorrow we leave Addis Ababa for Gindo to visit the BEKA project, about 3 hours away.