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Words cannot express my gratitude for the experience that I have had traveling to Ethiopia. I went to Africa expecting to make a difference in the children’s lives there--feeding them, teaching them, playing with them. I expected them to have little intelligence because of their lack of education and to all be sad about their lives and how little they seemed to have. I went with the expectation of giving hope. I never thought that I would receive the greatest gift of all. Through this experience I have redefined love and happiness for myself, realized the power of human touch, and gained appreciation for all of the things in my life that until now had seemed insignificant. I am greatly changed by this trip and am so thankful for the opportunity I was given to make this journey.

The moment we arrived I learned something very important about Ethiopian culture. Patience is key. It took hours to get through customs and out of the airport yet we were the only ones complaining. I began to realize that in Ethiopia, the people are always just happy with what they have and what is going on at the time. In America, everyone is always concerned about what is going on somewhere else or what they are going to do later; we never fully appreciate what we are doing at the time.

The first few days in Addis were shocking and breathtaking. I had no idea how great the poverty was there. It overwhelms all of your senses; you can even almost smell it. It’s hard to describe to someone who has not been there, but Ethiopia has a certain smell that I cannot forget.

Hearing that Ethiopia is among the 5 poorest countries in the world is nothing like seeing the endless, overwhelming poverty first hand. I was shocked to see the poor and homeless everywhere in the city. Yes, in the US there are homeless people panhandling on street corners, but that doesn’t even compare to this. Women and children come up to the cars begging; they knock on your windows and just stare at you. You can see how sick they are by just looking at them. It’s heart wrenching to just sit there and watch knowing there is nothing you can do and if you give them even 1 burr (10 cents), your car will immediately be swarmed by others. It’s a terrible feeling… so helpless. Driving for so long you feel like eventually you will get to the richer part of town, or at least the middle class, but it never happens. It is just endless poverty.

In Addis, we visited a place that I will never forget; I don’t think a day has gone by when I haven’t thought about the children in the Mother Theresa Aids Orphanage. This place was filled with hundreds of children orphaned by AIDS and all of them have HIV/AIDS themselves. I expected the orphanage to be dim and depressing, yet it was almost the complete opposite. When we arrived, we were swarmed by probably 30 orphans who were so happy to see us. I will never forget their smiles. One little girl found me and did not want to let me go. She held onto me the whole time we were there and would kiss my hand and hold onto my leg like a child does to their mother. When it was time for us to leave, she jumped on me and gave me one of the best hugs I have ever had in my life. And then she told me she loved me. I don’t think I can describe it any better than Noel did when he said to the little girl, “You’re stealing hearts little one. You are.” This really made me think about the power of human touch. Sometimes that is all we have to give but it can be the most powerful gift of all.

Being in a place like that, full of hundreds of happy, smiling faces, and knowing that they are all filled with such an ugly disease and may not even live out the year was one of the hardest things I have ever experienced. In America we don’t value life enough. Any one of those orphans could be gone tomorrow, yet every single one of them values their life enough to go to school every day and live their life to the fullest. They are all constantly smiling and laughing and playing around with each other. I don’t think I saw a single one that looked sad or heard one complaint.

I met some of the most amazing, intelligent people on this trip. When we got to the Project Mercy school we went on a 5 hour hike to a waterfall guided by a few students from school. I talked to them about their studies, aspirations and goals, what they feel needs to change about Ethiopia, and their lives in general. I don’t think I have ever met so many people my own age with such big dreams; they don’t just want to make something meaningful out of their lives, but every single one that I talked to wants to go back to Ethiopia after college and make a difference. They are all so aware of the problems that their society has and all have different ideas about what needs to be done to fix it. They all want to help.

On the hike, we trekked through the mountains and were able to really see the way the Ethiopian people live. Thousands of people lived in these mountains and we saw them traveling to and from their homes, called toukles. These toukles consisted of one small circular room with a fire in the middle and little to no ventilation. At night, the family would bring their animals into the toukle and that is where they would all sleep. Many of the people we saw had no shoes; the women were often carrying big loads and the children were watching the goats, cows, or donkeys that the family owned. Throughout the hike our group seemed to increase as we got closer to the top. The children all seemed so curious about us and came along to laugh and make jokes about us “frengees” slipping and falling on the rocky path, as they with no shoes seemed to climb to the top with ease. At the top, everyone just played around with each other in the waterfall seeming just so happy to be alive.

Never have I seen students who wanted to be in the classroom as badly as they did in Ethiopia. The children there were so eager to learn. They packed themselves so tightly into the classrooms that they had three or even four students to one desk; they were almost piled on top of each other in the seats when they were all sitting down. When the teacher asked a question, they all jumped up ready and more than willing to answer. This was quite the contrast to the American classroom. Teachers in America have to try too hard to get the students to participate in class, let alone show up at all.

Before the trip I had watched the videos and understood that Project Mercy was a unique and beautiful place, but now having been there, I realize that I had no idea. The country is full of the most loving and caring people, who have taught me the most important things about life that I may ever learn. I would never have been able to learn these invaluable lessons from a book, but only through an experience like this.

I became very close to a few of the students at Project Mercy and learned a lot about their culture through them. They were so fascinated with our ipods and begin asking how much they cost. I was dumbfounded by the question and could not think of an adequate answer. I was just thinking “well they cost more than the average Ethiopian makes in three years, but no they are not too expensive, almost everyone in America has one.” After watching one of the Fergie videos the boys would not stop talking about how beautiful she was. Bedru, one of the boys, began explaining how everyone is beautiful because they came from God and that in itself makes them beautiful. I then began to reflect on American culture and how people put so much emphasis on what others look like on the outside and begin to judge them before even getting to know their personality at all. I now try to think about what Bedru taught me about people when I meet someone for the first time. I had so much fun with these boys, probably more fun than I have had with people in a very long time and I will never, ever forget them.

After my trip to Ethiopia, I now appreciate all of the little unnecessary luxuries I wake up to every day. Instead of worrying about what to wear, I am thankful that I have more than one thing to choose from… instead of complaining about having to wake up early to go to school, I am happy that I do not have to walk 2 hours there and back, maybe with no shoes… the list goes on and on.

Africa gave me a new appreciation for life; the things that once seemed most important to me, now take the back seat. It is very hard coming back and hearing all of the things that my fellow classmates are worrying and talking about. Through this experience, I have learned about love and the importance of showing those you love how much you care. Life is too valuable to play with and to worry about such silly things like what people are wearing, or who is dating who, etc. Now when I begin to worry about something so irrelevant, I cannot help but think about the children of Ethiopia, and tell myself to just be happy that I am alive. I wish that everyone in America could have the opportunity to realize how lucky they are and to be able to fully appreciate what they have.