Day 6 and our visit with @plan International

Product Information

Tuesday 9am

My wife, Laura, and I are in the process of adopting a 6 month old girl from Ethiopia. Her name is Tegegnech and on this trip we went to court so she would become legally our daughter. In fall of 2010, I launched a new social enterprise called My Happy Shirts. We make t-shirts and for every shirt we sell, we also give one away to a child in need. In addition, we are taking profits and using them to contribute to specific projects and make contributions in developing areas. We will be utilizing established partners, such as Plan International, to help us distribute the happy shirts and find projects to support. Our company is also sponsoring children. On this trip to Ethiopia, we were able to spend a half day with Plan Ethiopia to see the work they are doing and to meet some of our sponsored children and make some donations in person. Here are my journal notes:
We were picked up by Tesfanesh Befekadu, a representative from Plan Ethiopia, @ the Guest House. She had a driver. We loaded the huge duffle bag full of happy shirts and small bags of toys. In my backpack I had balloons to make balloon animals. We thought we were going to visit our 2 sponsored kids and a Plan school, we learned when we left that that is only part of it. Tesfanesh takes us to a hospital and clinic Plan Ethiopia built along with the Abebech Gobena Orphanage. The clinic serves patients free of charge. We visit the testing lab where and met 2 technicians who draw blood and test for HIV and other diseases. We visit the delivery room and see 3 mothers who gave birth that day. We then go to the doctor’s exam room and he checks Tesfanesh’s and Laura’s blood pressure. I make balloon animals for the little girl waiting in there with her mother. The facility, although simple and crowded, is clean, friendly and a great service to the very poor community that surrounds it. It was so encouraging to see how clean the facility was and how kind the people who worked there were.

We load back into the SUV and head to the Abebech Gobena School and Orphanage. This is not a Plan school, but they are supported by Plan. We park in the school courtyard and are greeted by tons 8-12 year old children in maroon uniforms! They want to touch our hands and introduce themselves. They all learned to introduce themselves and say “Hello, my name is…” We are not sure what to expect. We follow Tesfanesh to another building up 3 flights of stairs outside the building into a large classroom with 14-16 year olds sitting in several rows in a half circle with a video camera in the middle. We are asked to sit in front of the video camera in front of the class and have no idea why! What is going on?! I am laughing inside. The teacher speaks for a few minutes and I have no idea what he is saying. The kids are going to give oral reports on the video camera. But first he introduces us and tells them about who we are, about Happy Shirts and how we are supporters of the Plan community and that we are coming to make t-shirt and supply donations. We go back downstairs to get happy shirts that we are contributing and pass them out to the kids. We take some photos; shake hands and exchange greetings and head back to the car. When we get back to the car we are greeted by more young kids – they are sweet and happy. We drive across the street and park in the orphanage parking lot. We grab the entire duffle bag leaving a handful of shirts to save for our sponsored children and bring the bags of toys and happy shirts into the orphanage. We head to an office and wait for a meeting. I am not really sure whom we are meeting, but she is obviously important. It is Abebech Gobena and we learn later that day from Job how famous she is in Ethiopia, that she has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and how lucky we were to meet her. We did more than meet her. We exchanged the “3-cheek kiss”, and posed for photos with the donation of Happy Shirts. We were able to donate over 200 shirts to her orphanage and about 80 bags full of toys, pencils and goodies for the kids. We then went on a tour through the orphanage. The toddler room is tiny and the children look so sad and we can’t get them to smile. There are 8 kids about 2-3 years old, they seem sick. The nannies were kind and sweet and obviously cared so much for these children.

I pick up a 2 year old to put him on my knee as I crouch down for a photo with a group of small toddlers, “sad” faced, wearing “happy” shirts. Oooohhh, he’s wet (time to change the diaper!), my pants are now damp too. I care, but i don’t care. My heart is hurting for these kids, it is sad and I don’t know why i am smiling for the camera when they are not, maybe it’s just out of habit. So many children need a home…need a family. Laura and I hug the kids, rub their heads and leave the room to go visit the baby rooms. They are in cribs, some kids are laughing, others are crying, some are sleeping. We put some shirts on a few, pick them up and take some photos. I am starting to feel like this is more for “show”. I don’t want it this way, so i stop looking at the camera and focus just only on the kids trying to make them laugh or smile. Laura is doing the same. It smells a little musty and a little like urine and soiled diapers. They can only do so much i suppose.

We walk thru the garden (beautiful lush, green and well kept) and back to the office where we are presented formally with a wrapped gift; it is a table setting (beautiful traditional napkins and a small table cloth). We take some more photos with Abebech and then leave. We climb back in the car and head to the school that PLAN built that educates over 1500 students. It is very blue. The kids are wearing blue uniforms and the building is painted in shades of blue. It is 3 or 4 stories high – HUGE. The kids are HYSTERICAL and happy! They LOVE getting their photos and laugh and laugh and pile among one another and happily fight to be in the frame. This is fun. We walk around the courtyard and see the PLAN logos painted on the building. Now i see where donations are going directly – educating the poorest of the poor. Families that live on less than $1/day.

After the school we head up the street to meet 2 of our sponsored children. They live in walking distance to one another, about a 3 minute walk. There seem to be shacks in communes that share the same wash area, bathroom area and kitchen area, all outside. The first house/shack is 2 rooms. The front room has a couch and some chairs along the wall. The back room has some beds it seems. We meet our child, he is 10. Big Ethiopian eyes and a great smile. It was easy to make him smile, but felt a little awkward. We were served coffee, popcorn and a seed mixture. I had a conversation too with his older brother who was studying accounting at the university. He wants to come to the States. We give our child some toys and dress him and his sister in a happy shirt and ask him to share some of the other shirts we brought with his friends. Then i break out the balloons and make him a monkey on a hat and a little dog for his sister. She is very shy. Laura and I look at each other about the coffee…we’re not to sure. Our friends, Josh and Candace, were just so sick, we think it was coffee from the restaurant the other day. So I whisper to her “better to pray, drink and be polite than than refuse and be rude”. So I drink my whole cup (an expresso size). It’s actually delicious. Loved it. (and not sick at all) Laura takes a sip, i can tell she is pretending to drink it. We are there about 30 minutes, take a photo outside the house and head to the next one. The family was very kind, grateful and welcoming. They were excited to be part of the community there and about what Plan has done for them. It was awesome to meet them and see that our monthly contributions are making a difference. It was a joy to put new clothing and some toys directly into their hands too.

The next house is much smaller. One room, vinyl floor with some hay on it, not sure why. Our child is only 6, and I have a hard time getting him to smile. He is shy. He is barefoot. There is a grandmother there holding a newborn. She is 7 days old. Her mother is making us coffee, pounding the beans and begins to roast them on a small flame and hot coals. They were very very poor. She is sitting on a mattress on the floor. She had her baby and was discharged the same day. Coffee time: here we go again, but this time i see some flakes of dirt in the bottom of the cups before she pours it. But she is roasting it for a good 15 minutes. I’m more nervous about drinking this coffee, it’s definitely not coming to a boil.

Our sponsored child’s older brother is there too. I put happy shirts on both of them and give them some toys for themselves and for them to share with their friends. The shirts are a hit. The lollipops too. I break out the balloons again. They like that. I notice our child sucking on the lollipop and then putting it back in the bag of toys. They pulling it out again to eat it and i wonder if he has ever had a lollipop before. I then notice the grandmother quietly pull out some money from under the bed and sneak it to the mother’s sister(? – a young woman, very pretty) who leaves and comes back a few minutes later with a small pouch. It holds sugar and the mother spoons some into each little cup. I feel terrible, they are spending some of the little money they have on us, their guests. They are so poor and so sweet and kind and respectful. The mother is beautiful. We take some photos. We drink the coffee and eat some popcorn. I take hipshots of the commune on my way out. We see the poverty they are living in, yet they are so kind and so happy. Provokes some more thought about real happiness and where it comes from. Their son had an exam and is home early from school to meet us. We are done so I invite Tesfahnesh to join us for lunch at Blue Tops where we will meet the rest of the AWAA families and then head to the transition home. On the way there, Tesfanesh takes us to a small market. THis wasn’t on the agenda, but she had learned that we were looking for the traditional coffee pots and knew exactly where to find them. So we did. The market…man….my heart is bleeding. My mind is spinning. I am overwhelmed by all that I have seen today. Laura and I both had pasta for lunch, i needed something simple, something familiar. We then had our first ice cream – it was soft serve in a cone. Yup, remembered my lactaid pills.

We learn that Tesfanesh has a 16 year old daughter and her husband died 10 years ago. She was an amazing hostess and guide. Knowledgeable and very good at her job. I hope to meet her again next time we visit Ethiopia in a few weeks. We are grateful to plan for taking us around, opening our eyes to areas we would have never seen otherwise. What an experience…