BATAM!

Dear Friends and Family,

I have never liked mixing words with images..  in the airport in Ethiopia I will give you words...

When the mothers saw me get out of van by Day Care Center they ran and we cried  we kissed and then they went right back to work finishing the second building as now they loved their day care more..I only expected 1 building to be done it is only 5 months  but they worked for $1.00 a day to change their destiny the second was almost complete!

when we bought pottery from the mothers so they could join us in celebration of Int'l Peace day .. . they went right back to work making more pottery and standing by the UN flag they told me how their lives  had already begun to change... in their heart... in their dreams for their children, everyone wanted to sign the UN flag and have a picture with it...they felt already part of something big .."I never had a dream before but now I want to be a doctor.." 

when the red paint made the outlines of mothers and children on the building they yelled Batam BEAUTIFUL and I couldn't stop crying.

In 5 months the women and men of Amacho Wato Kebele have changed their destiny and in shining lights on themselves with something they built there will now be a preschool in the Day Care....self help group for mothers and the municipal decided to build a grade 1-4 school and water.

They will now have water!!  they have never had water!!! 

& the people of Amacho Wato Kebele who have been living in quiet anonymous desperation just changed their lives forever!  

For those who believed in them and in me  I say thank you!!!!