So I waited and waited for Tom. We had eaten a late breakfast at a place we found, shopped, and Kim took Netzie inside a little street side shop where Kim befriended the owner and her son while I stood in our meeting place to wait. Tom did not come. 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 50 minutes... still no sign of him. I was watched by the police, the beggers, the store owners. Everyone looked at me as if to ask "what is this crazy lady doing just standing in one spot?" I asked myself the same question. What was I doing?? Obviously, I felt I should do something other than to just stand there and wait, but I didn't know what more to do.
Over an hour passed. With appologese flying, Tom screeched in to pick me up. We stopped by and picked up Kim and Netzie. We were on our way. We needed milk and candy and then our planning would be complete.
We stopped at the butcher where we had priced milk the day before. They were closed because of it being SUnday. Tom immediately picked another shop. This was a "convenience" type store. Everything we did at this point was with a sense of urgency. We were going to be late. We were not going to have time to set up before everyone arrived. The milk and candy were picked out and though I had been warned against running accross the streets in Ethiopia because that is considered crazy, I went sprinting from the store back to the car, acrossed the street- all while hollering "Com'on Tom... let's go!" I knew he would think me crazy and laughed as I did it. Some men on the street corner found me amuzing as well! Tom got in after his normal Ethiopian stroll back to the car and smiled, laughed half embarrassed and said "You are crazy. Those people were laughing at you." I told him that I was glad to make them smile and that I was just even more famous in Ethiopia now!
We had all we needed. The car smelled of the cake warming in the sun and of bananas that were already over ripe, ripening even more. But we had all we needed and we were on our 25 minute drive back to the Hope orphanage.
We had arranged to pay for a taxi bus for the street home children to be able to get to the party. We had also arranged for the staff to be able to take public transit from their homes at our expense. We knew that everyone would be there by the time we had arrived and we were going to have to find a way to get all of the children out of sight in order to set up the party. This proved easier than we thought.
Upon our arrival, we asked the staff to put all of the children into the common area room. Now this could not have been fun or comfortable for the kids, but we knew that it would be worth it in the end. Bag after bag of food was unloaded from the car. Boxes of Bibles, cake, jump ropes, and soccer balls were all lugged in and placed in the dining hall. The tables were pushed to the side and used for a buffet style set up and the staff worked with us to lay out all the food items. In a matter of 15 minutes, we were ready for the big reveal. Would they be as excited as we were? Would they feel the love we had for them in the things we brought?
They were all seated on their benches as we came out after the final preparations. The party was ready to begin!
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