Today, we met the boys living at Moria'h House's main location for the first time. Currently, nine boys live there, ranging in age from six to eighteen. After asking for God's blessings, Jean, Brad and I introduced ourselves and explained what had brought us to Ethiopia and, in particular, to Moria'h House. The boys, with their song leader, Addis, sang us a song with great gusto. All of the staff joined in. Then, we had a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony where green coffee beans are roasted, ground with a mortar and pestle, and made into a strong brand of coffee. This is commonly done to show honor and respect to guests.Next, we had the joy of giving many gifts that we had brought from the U.S. to the boys. Like most kids, they didn't seem overwhelmed with joy about receiving the blankets, shirts and socks, though they were polite and thankful. They got more excited when they saw the whiffle ball sets, games and footballs. Finally, when we got down to the cheapest of all gifts, two party bags of plastic kazoos, they were at first puzzled.
It didn't take long for them to learn how they functioned and before we knew it, they hummed us the same song they'd sung moments earlier. The smiles and giggles were nonstop, even among the staff. This turned out to be a perfect ice-breaker.Playtime ensued outside and everyone expended lots of energy. This was the end of day two, another great day.
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