This week

It has been a funny week or so. Paul and I have a bunch of big decisions to make, which I will write about when they are made. My time with CARE is wrapping up soon. Everytime I hold a focus group with the domestic workers I come out thinking "that is the saddest one ever". The one I held on Friday certainly made me feel that way.
As I've written about before, I've been meeting with Domestic workers here, to find out more about their needs (an lives). The last few were held at nigh schools, but we wanted to find a way to reach the workers that don't (or can't) go to school. We (mostly my amazing coworker Biniam) managed to get in touch with some brokers and we set up a group. 8 women walked in, all I would learn were 20 and under. 4 had children strapped to their hip. 3 of the others had children at home, watched by a friend or roommate. One more had a child who had died a few months before. The saddness, anger and frustration was palpable in the room. I won't get into the details, but these were all women who had worked as dw at some point in their lives. A few had gotten pregnant while working (2 by their employer, one who had been raped by him) and were than fired. Others had moved on to bar work, where they had gotten boyfriends who paid for their things, but bolted as soon as they got pregnant. They were fired as well. People won't hire domestic workers with children, because it is an almost full time job. The bars won't because of the late nights and small room space provided to live in. So the women are reduced to washing clothes, one household will pay them 50 birr/month to wash their clothing. That is just about 3 dollars, or what Paul and I paid for a pizza last night. Rent, most said is 250 birr a month, split with a roomamte. That is before the costs for their kids, many who despondently shared with us that they want to put up for adoption. As one woman put it "I don't want my mistakes to hurt my daughter".
The kids were all adorabe, though I resisted adopting them on the spot. I commented, as I was thanking them, that their children were all so quite and well behaved, nothing like American children. "That" on woman told me "is because they are poor children. They know not to make noise, because there is nothing to ask for".
I have 2 weeks here to stress how important this group is. I still want to figure out the best way to reach them. If anyone has any ideas please share them with me.

Paul knows I always feel glum after these sessions, and him and Puddles did the best they could to cheer me up! A Saturday of movies and cuddling on the couch with my 2 roomies was much appreciated!
Even better, we had the chance to escape the city on Sunday. Paul and I, plus our friends Jack and Stacy went horseback riding in the forests outside Addis. It was a beautful trail, and though the weather was odd (the first rain outside of the rainy season) it was cool and crisp, which was nice since all four of us are extremely pale! I ended up with a horse that can be best described as "tempormental and stubborn". While everyone elses horses would go when kicked and stopped when reighned (like trained horses are suposed to do) mine liked to stop at the back of the pack and pick up slowly. He wouldn't move any faster when I kicked him, but he would break into a trot whenever he felt like. It was a bit scary but our tour gudie was great and the horse was never mean, he clearly just didn't feel like working. It was a long day (we began riding at 10 with a lunch break around noon and got back close to 5) and were all sore and tired. It was really great though, and anyone spending time in Addis should definitly check Eqquos Addis out, especially if you need a break from this city. I should have pictures from our ride up in some form too.