Poverty in Ethiopia

Since my return from Ethiopia, I have had lots and lots of people have asked me how it felt to be in Ethiopia, if it was overwelming and if we saw lots of poverty..... it has taken me a while to write down my feelings about this and I thought I would finaly share as a closure to my posts about my expedition to Ethiopia....

Being in Ethiopia was overwelming at times and very exciting and fun at other times, a lot depends on where you are and what you are doing....

Yes the poverty is beyond imaginable… no doubt about that..... but Ethiopia has a lot of beauty as well beyond the poverty that you see...... lots of people have told me after seeing the pictures of my trip that they could not believe that there were buildings and that the guest house we stayed at was so nice that that it was not a desert....

I am really glad that I am able to show people how Ethiopia truly is a beautiful place...

But we also can't forget all the people that are suffering and dying due to treatable disease, poverty, war or even those who have to make the unselfish decision to have to place their chidren for adoption.....

While there I often thought of our girl's birth family and the pain that they must have suffered having to relinquish them to an orphanage not too long ago....

The first few times we had beggars come up to us or at the window of the taxi, we didn't know what to do and it felt horrible..... then we would turn around and there was another child, and then another and then a mother with a baby on her back asking for food and another child, and then an elderly man without shoes and then another child with a brother or sister on their hip begging for food as well…

It is very overwhelming and you cannot turn away….poverty is everywhere….. I still have such a heavy heart and I know this will never go away…. Its amazing to see so many people suffering and to hear their story of survival and of courage…

The memories are still really raw.. I wrote a lot in a journal while in Ethiopia and having a friend in the same room did help at night when we NEEDED to talk and express our feelings about what we had seen that day and how life just isn't fair sometimes……

It was amazing to see how much one american dollar can go far in Ethiopia..... when you think that $5 US dollar can feed a whole family for a week, it is hard to believe but it is true. The unemployement rate in Addis Ababa at this time is %75 percent.....

Ethiopia has changed my life in so many ways..... I was able to learn a lot about our girl's birth country and I have made memories that I will be able to share with them forever..... We are looking forward to them being old enough and us being able to travel to Ethiopia again as a family for them to experience and see their birth country as well !

In my next post, I will write about a conversation that I had with an orphan in Ethiopia....