Exciting things are happening in Soddo.  Who would have thought?  Who would have thought that Soddo would now have many paved roads and cute little restaurants.  It has been over 3 years since we moved to Soddo. I remember being in Addis, the day we were going to drive down to Soddo for the first time, I met someone who had lived in Ethiopia for many years.  I introduced myself and told him that my husband and I were moving to Soddo. He told me that Soddo was just “Ehhh”. Basically, a place hardly worth driving through.  I wanted to stand up real tall and tell him in a loud voice, ” I just sold everything I had, to bring these few things in these bags and our son to move to Soddo and how insensitive it was to tell me that place was just ‘Ehhh’”.  And after a 5 hour drive through the mountains and villages we came to Soddo.  It was a town with a million people, half who were in the road, with a beautiful mountain and a quaint little house just for us.  I thought it was fine and much better than just Ehhh.  And it really is amazing how much has happened in 3 years.  There are many exciting things happening at the hospital as well.

Other than planning our Thanksgiving meal, the most exciting is the building of several new houses on the compound.  For over a year, we have been talking about families wanting to come, but there was no housing for them.  So Paul challenged them, “We want you here and need you here, can you find a way to build the needed housing?”  And they did.  They partnered with an organization called MSAADA.  Who designed their houses and has now sent an architect to oversee the building of their houses.

Zeleke on the left, our local contractor and Jeff, the architect with MSAADA that will be here for 9 months. Behind them is the shed behind our house and our house is to the right.

 

Flattening the land to begin the foundation...yes, all done by hand. It may take longer, but it is giving a good amount of people a job.

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