Green Thumbs

We're finally back from our trek across the country and returned to find our garden bursting at the seams. I (Matt) got a little over ambitious this spring with our meager 50 square feet and attempted to plant 3 tomato, 4 bell pepper, 1 thai and 1 jalapeno pepper, 1 cabbage, 1 cucumber, 4 broccoli, 3 basil, a couple dozen beans, climbing peas, carrots, spinach and leaf lettuce.

Things seemed to be growing a little slowly until we left on July 1. When we got back it looked like Little Shop of Horrors on the south wall of our house. "Feed me Seymour!" Most of the tomatoes and peppers were huge-mongous and falling all over each other, not to mention smothering the broccoli. Oh well, its survival of the fittest in the Florek garden this year!

Feed me Seymour! (not from our garden)

Our first harvest

Sweet little pepper, what will you be? Red, Yellow, Green, Chocolate?

Our little jungle

Charlotte enjoying the bounty. What a good little greenie.

Our accidentally planted pumpkin. Last year's jack-o-lantern rotted right in this spot, and surprise, surprise up from the ground arose a few of this year's pumpkins!

Ethiopia, part three

Here is the third installation of pictures from our time in Ethiopia. I am finding it is better to work on this in small increments or it is too overwhelming.

After our time in Addis Ababa, the capital city, we traveled 4ish hours south to a rural area called Langano. We're not sure the true population of the village because it is all scattered around in huts like the ones in the pictures above.

This is the container bridge just before getting to the SIM (Serving in Mission) station next to Lake Langano. The bridge is made out of an old shipping container; isn't that resourceful? It's a bit of a tight squeeze to get a van through, but we made it!

Here are some more huts in the area. They are made out of sticks with mud packed in between. The roof is made of sticks as well.

These kids are friends of the people we were staying with in Langano.

Our hosts took us to see the natural spring where many people in the area get their water. There are lots of wells around, but many of them no longer work. To get to this spring, you have to climb down a very steep river bank (an elderly Muslim sheik held Kristi's arm on the way down--apparently she looked unsteady!). Once you are down the embankment, there is a tiny trickle of water coming out from the rock and you can fill up a little water bottle or cup. Then you climb out of the hole, dump it into your big water jug, and go back in to fill up your little bottle again. Repeat 50 times, then carry your jug of water back up the river bank. This was good perspective for us to remember when we tell our patients "You should drink more water." It's not as easy as in the USA where all we have to do is turn on the faucet. Water is a significant problem in Langano. The people are almost exclusively subsistence farmers, growing corn as their only crop. The area is very drought prone, and if the crops fail, this is serious trouble. Not only do the crops suffer from water shortages, but people also struggle with chronic dehydration, which can cause problems with kidney or bladder stones. Clean water can be hard to come by, so intestinal parasites and diarrhea are one of the main medical complaints we saw in the clinic.

This is the home of a friend of our host family. We visited and had coffee with them one afternoon. As you can see, the land is very arid and scrubby.

These are several kids from the nearby homes who wanted to see what we were doing there. The boy in the bright blue t-shirt on the far left is the son of our host family.

As I mentioned in my last post, Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. It is very important in the lives of Ethiopians. The beans are roasted over the fire (on the blue circular pan you see on the left side), then ground with a mortar and pestle as the lady is doing here. The grounds are poured into boiling water (the black pot over the fire, with a corncob for a "cork") and brewed. The coffee is served without straining the grounds, so it is thick coffee! Many Ethiopians drink their coffee with salt rather than sugar. A little salt with sugar isn't too bad.
This picture is taken inside the home from the two pictures above. The fire is right in the middle of the floor (the smoke keeps insects out). There was a little wall halfway through the house, dividing the "entryway" from the "bedroom."

If you turn around exactly 180 degrees from where the picture above was taken, this is what you would see. This is us drinking the above mentioned salty/sugary thick coffee. We are also eating roasted barley, which is delicious. Charlotte is sitting next to her friend Mia, one of the daughters of our host family. Matt is sitting next to a basket which contains four or five baby goats. Keeps them safe from the hyenas.

The girl holding Charlotte is Ruhama (not sure if I'm spelling that correctly). She is a friend of Mia's, and part of the family that we were visiting here. I'm not exactly sure who the elderly gentleman is, but he was there the whole time with us. :)

Ruhama is the oldest of several children in her family (I think she is about 11 or 12), and so she was very motherly toward Charlotte. Charlotte was not so interested in being mothered as you can see here...

and here...

This is the house that Ruhama, her mother, and her several siblings currently live in. As you can see, it does not protect them well from the elements.

This is Ruhama's mother and two of her younger siblings inside their house.

They are working on building a new house!

Ruhama and Mia (and a goat) in front of the Great Rift Valley.

Matt and the old guy and a spear.

The only decent family picture we took while in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia, part two

You all probably started to think there would never be a post titled "Ethiopia, part two" since it has been so long since we posted part one. Here it is!

One day we were able to go visit the care center where our niece Liya lived for her first 6 months of life! It was so great to be able to see where she lived and meet some of the nannies who took care of her. In the picture above, you can see the nannies from the house she lived in for 4 months holding pictures of her now! My sister sent the pictures with us in hopes that we would be able to give them to the nannies. They all remembered her and we told them how she can run around and how sassy she is now!

Charlotte and I had a fun time playing with the babies!

The nannies made us coffee. Strong and dark. Yum.

Another day we were able to visit the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa. It was founded by Reg and Catherine Hamlin, two Australian OB/GYNs, and is a world-renowned center for treating obstetric fistulas and training physicians to surgically repair them in other hospitals. An obstetric fistula develops when a woman is in labor for too long and the baby's head puts pressure on the tissue in the birth canal and cuts off the blood supply, causing the tissue to die. This creates a hole between the bladder and the vagina or the rectum and the vagina, which then allows urine or stool to leak continually through the hole. As you can imagine, this is not a pleasant problem to have, and usually their husbands leave them and they can no longer get a job. Usually, the baby has died in the process as well, so the woman is also mourning the loss of a baby. In Ethiopia, most women's identities are closely tied to their family and ability to bear children. An obstetric fistula strips them of both of those things. The Hamlins became passionate about bringing new life to these women by surgically repairing fistulas. Their work is truly amazing! Catherine is in her mid to late 80s and she still operates! We saw her at church the very first week we were in Ethiopia, and it was like a missionary celebrity sighting! :) If you are interested in learning more, please visit http://www.hamlinfistula.org, or read Catherine's book "The Hospital by the River." There is also an amazing documentary about the Hamlins and the hospital called "A Walk to Beautiful."

On a less serious note, we had macchiatos at "Tomoca" after our visit to the Hamlin Fistula Hospital. They were amazing! Ethiopia is said to be the birthplace of coffee. As the story goes, a shepherd noticed his goats were acting frisky after eating some berries off of a plant. The shepherd tried them and noticed he felt more energetic too. Eventually someone had the bright idea to roast and then boil the beans in water, creating what we know as coffee. Matt is glad that someone thought of that. :) Ethiopia is proud of the fact that they were never colonized, but they were briefly occupied by the Italians at one point. Lucky for us, the Italians introduced several lovely things like pasta, pizza, and espresso makers.

See, here's the pizza! For Matt's birthday we went out to an American-style restaurant (Island Breeze, for those of you who may know something about Addis) and had pizza. Yum!

And here is our lovely Charlotte, holding some of the toys we bought at the bazaar one weekend. From left to right, a horse made out of twine (?) wrapped around wires, an ibex made in the same fashion, and a hippo made out of leather (which belongs to Kristi, and is probably her favorite purchase in Ethiopia, with the exception of her hippo potholder). :)

I thought I was going to post the remainder of our trip all at once, but I'm tired and it's late, so there will have to be an Ethiopia, part three and maybe also a part four. Goodnight!