THE RUNNING OF THE HYENA

Got an idea for a new national event today...you've heard of the Running of the Bulls? Well how bout the running of the HYENA? Yes folks, that's right, this morning I am out in front of our home at 11:30am and Nati is playing soccer with friends and a LARGE HYENA runs across the empty soccer field about 40 yards from our house! Shortly thereafter, a mob of young adults, adults, and children begin gathering and pouring into our street and the poor hyena is running every which way to avoid them and they are gathering stones to throw at it while it frantically runs around our block - once running right by our front gate (we were all safely inside our compound and watching through the fence by now). I got one photo but all you could see was a little of its fur behind the angry mob of people chasing it...it was madness! Apparently they chased it into a main road near our house where it (she) was hit by a car. Wow. And I thought living here was getting boring....

A WEEKEND OF REJOICING!

THE ORPHANS HAVE ARRIVED! At last the first 4 have come to the orphanage...two boys and two girls. They went to pick them up on Friday, driving far north near the border, where many orphans exist due to poor resources and the recent border wars. They all say they are five years old, but some may be a year or two older. The smallest girl looked quite sickly, with a bad fungus on her head, one eye having a white spot on it which looked like it impeded her vision, and evidence of a bad ear infection. The poor little thing sat so quiet and still while Steve looked in her eye with his tools. They were all very quiet, but supposedly slept well last night. It will be quite an adjustment for them. All of them had both parents deceased and had either been living with very elderly grandparents or a neighbor or a teenage sister. So common here. We were so happy the orphanage is finally able to do what it is designed to do...care for children who need a home. In our home today, we had two groups come over...one group of boys then later a group of young ladies. We shared with the boys about Advent and then Steve read with them from the book of John. We bought Amharic Bibles for each one and they were so excited to thumb through them. We took turns reading verses, which was quite funny as Steve and I had no clue where they were in their readings since we can't understand Amharic! Then they took turns reading from our English Bible so they could practice their English. There were 7 boys plus Curtis, and they ranged in age from 12 to 20. The younger ones were just precious...I got some great pictures. They asked some great questions at the end, which was fun for us, and then they all took a Bible with them, which we said was our gift to them if they didn't have one at home. We went over a Bible verse for them to memorize in English and told them we would have a prize bag for them to choose from next week if they have it memorized in English. It was fun to not only get involved in their little lives, but also to see Curtis helping us teach and and share with them about American culture. A great day!