Greetings family and friends!

We are happy to communicate with you! We feel as though we've been in a bit of a black hole for the last week; our first week in Addis Ababa (AA), but we have a dial-up internet account now and are able to slowly navigate the net! We've been told our net connection in Tikempt Ishet (TI) is faster and more reliable than here in the capital.

We are totally enjoying our time here in AA preparing for our first trip down to Tikempt Ishet. The weather is beautiful, the people are vibrant and friendly and we're getting to know our TI team (they came to AA to pick us up and help us get oriented, which has been a huge blessing!)

The jet lag adjustment has been relatively painless, but altitude sickness(8500 ft), a new phenomenon for us, has put our heads in a vice in the last week. Steve felt it more than Melanie- headache, dizziness, nausea. Great fun! There is a 10km run here tomorrow and Steve is thankful he didn't sign up to run in it- we get short of breath walking up a hill here!!! We are getting more used it though each day! TI is only at 6500 ft too, so that will help.

Otherwise, health wise, we have been great! No problems with the food or anything... YET :)

We got our drivers license- which took three different stops (Canadian embassy, foreign affairs, and then the department of transportation.) It was a big, long ordeal but now we can drive here in Ethiopia and use the SIM cars. We are quite thankful for the help we have gotten to do those kinds of errands here. We've had a fellow named Ephram help us by going around town with us for the day doing things. He is very kind, get's us many local prices (instead of "forenji prices") and has been helping us with our Amharic.

We learned more than we thought in Canada with our language so that has been really helpful! It may come more easily than with thought but will still be a long, slow process.

We are trying to stock up now for groceries for the next 8 weeks (until we come back to AA) so we have been doing a lot of shopping. Jenny and Dorinda (our TI teammates) have been wonderful in helping us know what we need etc. We have found many thing that we can get back home but Jenny says they come and go here (ie. brown sugar, Crisco, "laughing cow" cheese). So we have stock piled those things.

We went out of the city the other day to a village called Desta Mender. This is a compound built for women who have had an unsuccessful fistula repair (look it up, if you really want to). They are normally outcast from society so this place was great. It gives them a place to live as well as trains them in a vocation so that they can make money on their own.

There is also a midwifery school there that brings young women from the all over Ethiopia- from the countryside- in order to train them and send them back to their homes to practice midwifery. The fistula hospital has paid for all of the accommodations out there and it's quite nice. It was great place to see- Melanie would have loved to take some classes there, but that will have to wait. They actually wanted her to come and teach something on pediatrics.... that will wait too...

For those of you who know her- we are going to have dinner with Joline Olsen tonight! She has been here for 10 days on a well project and is now back in the capital city so we are looking forward to that!

We plan on leaving for TI with the team (there are 9 of us here, including the three kids) with two land cruisers early on Tuesday morning. The trip will take two days.

We are really looking forward to seeing TI. The pollution and noise here is hard to get used to so we are looking forward to the quiet, fresh countryside.

We are so thankful for all of your love, prayers and support and have listed some specific prayer requests at the end of this letter. We will be able to respond to personal e-mails now, so we'd love to hear from you. Please, no forwards though. We also have a phone now!! This phone is basically for when we are not in TI (we will get a different one for there), so when we are in the capital (AA), Jimma, or Mizan Tiferi, we can make and receive calls. Please call us if you want, we'd love to hear from you!!

Our number is 00-251-9101432766


Prayer Requests:
*Continued language learning
*Continued good health
*That our last piece of luggage would arrive safely in the next 2 days
*Close, honest connection with our team



Thanks so much for journeying with us.
With love from,

Stephen and Melanie

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Off We Go!!!

Well, today is the day.
We leave Calgary at 8pm tonight.
We arrive in London Saturday at 1230pm.
We'll be there for about 24 hours and visit with New Park Road Church and a friend from my Tropical Nursing course.
Then Sunday we are off to Ethiopia at 1pm and will arrive there at 230am!!!
We will try to write within that first week and let you know about our first impressions.
We aren't directly the one who is blogging- my brother is going to upload letters and pictures for us (the Ethiopian government is regulating blogging, I guess?) so if you are going to leave a message, please send it in an e-mail!!! Thanks!


We love you all.
Thank you for your prayers in this time.

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