To Ethiopia With Love Q&A

In light of my upcoming trip to Ethiopia many of my posts have been dedicated to the trip.   I have received lots of comments, questions, concerns about the trip and I wanted to share the answers with you. 


Where exactly are you going in Ethiopia?

We will be flying into Addis Abba on Friday, February 23rd and fly out on a smaller plan to a small cluster of villages called Dire Dawa on Saturday morning.  Dire Dawa is located in the eastern part of Ethiopia and is near the Dechatu River.

How long will you be there?

We will be in Dire Dawa and visiting a total of 3 villages from Saturday February 24th through Saturday, March 3rd. 

Who are you going on the trip with?

I am going on this trip with a non profit humanitarian group called Global Hope Network International or GHNI.  We have two team leaders from GHNI as well as several other volunteers that are part of our team.

What are you going to do while in the villages?

This particular trip is mostly to build relationships with the already established villages and help with a couple small projects for those less established. We do have a few projects planned and I will be able to share about those while I am there.  One of the villages we will be visiting is a brand new village in the TCG program.  How exciting is that! My personal goal while I am there is to immerse myself in their culture and share all of their stories with you.  I want to bring awareness to these villages and show you how much of an impact a person can really have on villages such as these.

How are you going to communicate with the villagers?

Good question.  Since none of us speak the native tongue which is Amharic we will have translators with us HOWEVER body language and pictures can speak a thousand words.  I plan on bringing some pictures of my family to share and books to show to the kids along with stickers and bubbles.

Are you being compensated to go on this trip? 

No.

Did GHNI pay for your trip fees in order for you to blog about them?

No. I paid for most of the trip myself including airfare with the exception of some money donated by some of my friends, family and loyal blog followers. 

Why travel to Ethiopia to help people there when there are many here in the US that need help?

My trip to Ethiopia is taking my giving back and compassionate nature to a whole new level.  Going on an international mission/humanitarian trip has always been one of my dreams and I hope that this is the first of many to come.  Here in the US our family does give back quite a bit.  I started and run our churchs' food pantry.  I am also leader of our church's Care Team which is an outreach to those less fortunate within our own church body but also in our community.  Our family donates time, money and clothing to several area non profits on an regular basis in effort to help those less fortunate in our community.

Are you scared to go to a foreign country?

I have a little bit of anxiety about it but not much.  I think I am more scared to fly 21 straight hours on the plane into Amsterdam not because I don't like flying but I am going to be bored out of my mind.  LOL.  I am bringing lots of books and hopefully I can sleep a little bit.  Once I get to Amsterdam it is is another 9 hours to Addis Abba so lots of flight time.



Hopefully I have covered most everything, if I haven't please drop me a comment or email.

And remember to check back while I am on my journey from Feb 22nd-Mar 3rd.