Stuck in Elevator, Volunteering, Serendipity, more

I took this selfie picture of Sister Martin and I along with a boy that was stuck there with us.

We were in our elevator and all of the sudden the power went out. This pic gives you an idea of how much light was in the elevator. None. Luckily, after a few minutes, a battery backup slowly moved the elevator almost to the next floor, the doors slowly opened and we stepped up and out.  

We checked out an after school home program for vulnerable children called Child Centered Network. Everyday after school, selected extreme poverty level children are able to continue some studies at a nearby home and get a hot meal. 

Some of the children were previously school drop outs due to needing to support their family because of losing one or both parents. Many were homeless but now live in rented corrugated metal shack homes. The program helps the children stay in school and helps the parents or guardians obtain employment. We visited here because we plan to volunteer soon with some of the younger missionaries.

They have a few computers to practice on, with no internet I might add.

A music room.

A gardening area.

A small library.

A few days later we visited the home to volunteer for the after school program. 

The younger missionary Elders from our apartment building volunteered with us.

While we were there they asked us to help hand out school back packs to each child.

We had fun meeting them. Next time we will be able to help teach them English, Science or something.

Followed this overloaded taxi on the road. 

Carrying potatoes.

So many potatoes that the roof of the car looked crushed. 

We invited the young missionaries from our apartment over for dinner Sunday. I made some chicken curry and Sister Martin made some home made garlic naan bread.

We made a lot of food and they ate it all. Especially Elder Okunbowa on the left, front and Elder Waters, across from him. Elder Waters calls himself "the garbage disposal".

The Elders each shared experiences that helped them know that the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ was true. We then watched the animated nativity Christmas story called the "King is Born".

Yea...we just got our Ethiopian Driver Licenses. It took a while to get. We had to go to the ministry of transportation two days in a row. That doesn't include the online application time, etc. One day after waiting in their office for a couple hours they told us it's closed, come another day. We then wondered where our helper Abere was. They had apparently sent him to another office, a 15 minute drive away, to get a stamp on a document. The next day we decided to celebrate with Branch President Abere who worked hard to help us get it. Yum, good Ethiopian Vegan food.

We had a sort of serendipity the other day. A little over a month ago our language teacher asked us if we wanted to come volunteer at an after school program for some children. I got sick and was unable to go that day. Then during our last language lesson we somehow got on the subject of some NGO programs that we were working on and volunteering for. We then found out the one we attended above with the children and the back packs was the same program that she wanted us to help with, but a different location. We had lunch with the leaders of the program and our Mission Leaders below. They are a Canadian humanitarian group. 

What was even more interesting is that our language teacher was one of the program's spotlighted success stories. She started at one of their after school programs when she was 12 and has continued in other programs and helps others along the way. She is currently working on her master's degree. In addition to teaching language, she works at a local hospital. Such a "Small World". See article below. 

This is a picture of the zone conference group. We attended the other zone since we were too busy the day of our zone conference. We were meeting with a charity NGO that day.