Yes! We are home now… but before we left, we met with more of our partners, and stopped at a friends’ mom’s bar to eat some tibs and toast our successful trip with tej!

Read more (and see more pics!)

Our last day in Ethiopia was packed full to the brim. We had a few
meetings and then were off to visit Canadian Humanitarians’ BEKA
project in Addis. Remember, Vulnerable Children Society is working in
partnership with Canadian Humanitarian on a similar (but more
comprehensive) project in Gindo.

We really enjoyed our visit…

Read the full post on vulnerablechildren.ca!

Our third day in Adama was full of fun. Of course, we did some work,
going over financials and doing some planning with Faya Orphanage,
delivering packages and taking pictures of House 2 House kids, but we
also packed in some fun as well.

Read the full post and see more pictures on vulnerablechildren.ca

My mom and I have taken a 2 day break from Vulnerable Children business
to travel out to Nakemte, which is where my daughters were born. It is
usually only 3 hours from Ambo, but because the road is under serious
construction, it took us almost 6 hours to travel about 200km.
…
Click here to see the full post and picture gallery on the Vulnerable Children Society blog!

What an interesting day! We drove from Ambo to Nakemte over road under
repair. It took us 5.5 hours to travel about 230 kms. They are
constructing the whole road at the same time – completely upgrading it.
So we would travel about 100 – 350 m on good paved road interspersed
with long section of either rocky base or dry, dusty red soil over the
base.
Read the full post on vulnerablechildren.ca!

Today was our first trip to visit with our House 2 House families, and it was a resounding success!

Our first stop was in Ambo, a busy city west of Addis Ababa. We went
to the woleta Women and Children’s Affairs Office, to meet up with some
of the families in our program. We were happy that most of the children
were able to come and meet us. We had packages from some sponsors to
deliver, but we made sure that each child that we got to meet went away
with a car, stuffie, or soccer jersey. They were big hits! So thanks to
all the donors.

Our plan ahead of time was to sit and talk with each family and get
updates from them, but most of the mothers and aunts who brought their
children were doing so over their lunch hour, so we didn’t have much of a
chance to chat before they had to go.

Read the full post on vulnerablechildren.ca

Vulnerable Children Society’s treasurer/money lady, update
volunteer/keeper of the files and big dreamer/president
(that’s me!) are off in 3 days for a whirlwind trip to see
our charity’s projects in Ethiopia. Read More…

My daughters are trying to raise money to fill the educational centre in Gindo, Ethiopia, with books, gardenng supplies, furniture and learning supplies.

Above is the posterboard they made to solicit book donations and tell the school about their campaign!

If you can, please stop by Raymer Elementary in Kelowna at 2:30 on Thursday the 19th to buy some books!

If you can’t make it, please consider donating a small amount to their campaign! Here is the link. Thank you so much!!!!

The picture below is of some of the kids benefiting from the preschool, library, and afterschool programs!

The daffodils are blooming in the window boxes, the apple and pear trees are sprouting leaves, and the grass is green. Yeah spring!!!

So proud of Spice – she was listening to music on the radio last week, and said “This song makes me think of people in Kelowna without any homes, and people in Ethiopia without any food.”

I empathized, and asked her what she wanted to do about it.

So Spice said that she wanted to sell books at her school and send the money in Ethiopia to help with the “Library” that Vulnerable Children is filling with books.

Well, the last thing I need right now is another project before I run off to Ethiopia myself, but there is no wiating for a 5 year old. So their big book sale is next week, and I’ll be sure to post some pictures!

If you would like to help Sugar and Spice with their fundraiser, you can donate to the project here… and get a tax receipt!!

My dear husband is by his lonesome on the gorgeous island of Haida Gwaii.

The girls and I really wanted to go with him, but cancelled our trip. Jrock and I just concluded that it would be impossible for me to get my work done and get ready for my trip to Ethiopia if we went along for the ride.

So he sent some pictures today of his digs – this lovely little cottage, with a river across the field. Jrock said he got a fishing licence and was going out to fish! This was surprising for a few reasons – one, he rarely does anything outside for fun unless cajolled into it. Two, he hates fish. Three, he doesn’t like fishing.

MAYBE, this is a new beginning for him – a departure into a more active outdoorsy life!

Or, maybe he’s just really bored without us, isolated on a huge island with very few people. And no PRV and no internet…

In any case, I hope he is having a blast! Catch one for me, honey!!

This weekend we’ve been on the road, and we’re actually currently up in Prince George. On the way up, we stopped for a night visit at Sugar and Spice’s friend C’s house. He and his family (5 brothers and 2 sisters) live on a farm. His mom J has been trying her hand for the last two years at what she calls “homesteading” – raising animals and trying to be self-sufficient.

The girls, of course, were super stoked to see their buddy C… but I also really enjoyed my visit, getting to know J better, and learning from her adventures of the last two years living the country life.

The nice thing is that even though C and his family live 5 hours away, the girls do get to se their buddy a few times a year, including at Harambee and Mehaber summer camps. Funny how they have this age difference with him (they are 5 1/2 and he is just 9) but they are such peas in a pod. He’s a really good kid, so I hope their friendship stands the test of time and growing up.

I was asking the girls what they were looking forward to, going to Calgary at the end of the month. (While I’m in Ethiopia, they are traipsing about Alberta with their dad.)

The answer was so sweet – I was expecting them to say the zoo, or the science centre (which Auntie L has promised to take them to. Nope! The answer? “Visiting Nonna.”

Yup – that’s right. Sorry to all the aunties and uncles, who are apparently chopped liver in comparison. The highlight of Calgar…y is Nonna.

Now, somebody please share this post with her, since her computer is on the fritz!!

We all had such a great time at the cultural fashion show at UBC last week!

The dresses from the Toronto Fashion Week Dare to Love show were amazing… but equally as cool were the traditional costumes from all over the world.

We ended up being a huge group of people that knew each other, with ties to Ethiopia. We actually ended up with 3 five year olds, 1 six year old, a couple of eight year olds and a couple of teens, in addition to all the moms. Such a blast!

The girls stayed up way way too late, but it was so worth it. They were just enthralled the whole time, and it was just such a positive experience for all us. (All proceeds to the amazing Stephen Lewis Foundation, BTW.) Spice especially, my fashionista, was making all these insightful comments and exclaiming over the details.

Enjoy the photos… I went a little paparazzi, but seriously, it was such a fab time. It was over an hour long, but here are my favorite pics.

Well, our first veggies (ok, tubers) are in the ground! Sugar and Spice have been growing some of our seeding potatos… they started sprouting in the warm spot beside the microwave, so we decided to see if we could get them to the small plant stage.

It worked! By both methods, actually, so this weekend we prepared the barrels and planted the potato sprouts. With the help of our neighbor’s donation of some pop bottles, we made cloches for each plant, so hopefully they will be ok in this weird spring weather.

Funny, actually: since we got a pop machine, we just don’t have any plastic bottles anymore! So we had to schlep over to the neighbors for some discards.

I also tilled and toiled and got two of the garden beds ready for planting. The soil has been compacting, and I’m convinced the reason I can’t grow carrots for the life of me, is because of that dratted clay soil. So I worked in peat and manure… and hopefully this looser soil will produce some orange munchers.

Well, along with the daffodils in full bloom in my windowboxes, it’s official! Spring has sprung!