We took off again, this time in two separate trucks. Started on nice paved roads and slowly progressed to harsher and more undeveloped areas. For people reading this who live in Canada the best way I can describe the landscape we are traveling would be: you are driving the Cocahala but it's all dry desert-like with lots of foreign forestry and obscure landscapes. We saw so many small villages, dry vast landscapes, farms and laborers. So many people walking the roads with different crops attached to there backs as well as water containers. We asked why it was mostly women and girls doing the work and we learned that when a man marries a woman in these villages, he pays her parents and owns her. So she does all the long travel work while he harvests the cash crop at home. They then bring the crop to the market, sell it and bring the money back to him. He does whatever he wants with the money.
Whenever the villagers would see our trucks coming they would run to the roads to smile and wave at us. Some people we waved at looked uneasy and scared and we learned that some people that live in the most remote areas have never seen white people before and think we have leprosy.
When you watch a world vision commercial you see the kids and they're so sad and sick. I know these people battle with some very hard stuff and have lots of sickness, but I've never seen happier kids. So many smiles despite the living conditions. Encouraging, eye-opening, powerful. I get shivers writing this because I know I cannot express how truly amazing these people are. They have nothing, they work hard and they carry on and smile. We made stops and took pictures with villagers in different areas and I have to say I felt like a celebrity. As soon as we stopped the truck and pulled out our cameras we would get swarmed with kids - young and old - wanting to be in the pictures and see themselves after. I turned my iPhone to the front facing camera and pointed it at the kids so they could see themselves and every single person was amazed.
As we continued on we stopped at a mountain cap that Hope has built which Run for Water has contributed to. How powerful it was to actually see hard evidence on what the Run for Water actually makes happen. Life-Changing. It's cliche but everyone can make a difference in this world, whether it's out here in Africa helping people receive their basic right to water or maintaining healthy relationships with the people around you. That is so evident here in Ethiopia, everyone is in community. A reason I think people are so happy is because they are all working together and living so closely.
We visited the camp that the Hope workers are set up at. They have several tents set up as well as a small kitchen area. They work everyday, they never stop. Their passion for these projects is mind blowing.
Meeting some of these forgotten people and the place they live has already been life changing. We are all excited to see what tomorrow has in store.
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