Ethiopia
An opportunity presented itself with my beautiful friend - and fellow Marine Mom - Audra Koning to visit the primary and pre-schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that are sponsored entirely by her incredible community OneLove. After approximately 8 tenths of a second of consideration, I was onboard! (Click on photos for full images.)
When they visit the schools, the members of OneLove bring their skills (carpentry, medical, occupational, etc.) along with needed items and various other things meant to enrich the lives of the OneLove community. It quickly became obvious I would bring Larry’s photos to the children! I put together 12 kid-friendly photo collage posters with the names of the animals written in English and Amharic. They were a big hit with the children ! Brad Cottrell did a beautiful job printing them on heavy poster board, and Alex Koning was awesome during my presentations in sharing his remarkably accurate lion and hippo sound impersonations! I can’t describe how grateful I am that I was able to bring Larry with me to Ethiopia in this way and leave some of his images behind for the children to enjoy. 🍯🐇📸❤️
The Kids!
It’s all about the kids! While we were in Addis, we did a field day with the kids in the primary school and an obstacle course day with the kids in the pre-school. We also did PE, a dance party, and just spent lots of time sharing love and happiness with these beautiful little people, and with their amazingly loving and devoted teachers and school staff. SO much fun, so much love, so much laughter, and so much joy! These babies have big dreams and I’m so hopeful that OneLove will give them the foundation to achieve them.
Those sweet little voices! Also, you get to dance. Dancing skill not required:
In addition to wonderful gift of meeting the children, their teachers, and their families, we visited some of their homes and a number of places in country. Bonus for me: I was able to eat my absolute favorite cuisine in the country where it originated!
Photos and videos can’t possibly capture the beauty of the honor of sharing in their world for a few days, but if you ever have the chance to do something like this, I HIGHLY recommend it. Your heart and worldview will never be the same.❤️
