Ethiopia: Zehafta's Story - Abundance

Ethiopia: Zehafta's Story - Portrait

Ethiopia: Zehafta's Story - Village Life

Ethiopia: Zehafta's Story - Clean Water

Ethiopia: Zehafta's Story - en route

Ethiopia: Zehafta's Story - Welcome Home

I have mountains of photos to share with you from this day of laughter, tears, exhaustion, dust, and joy.

Ethiopia: Epic Story Tomorrow!

Meet Zahafta.

She is a student at the Mekele Institute of Technology (MIT) in northern Ethiopia.

She tested first out of 900 students on a recent placement test.

She travelled to the USA last year for a year-long exchange program.

She raised enough money to build the first well a remote Ethiopian village had ever known. This village now has drinking water that is clean and free of disease. It's a 250km drive north from Mekele near a city called Axum (site that a priest supposedly watches over the secretly located Ark of the Covenant), down a dirt road, then a substantial hike from the end of that road.

This village is her village!

She says they have yet to encounter any "faringies" (white people). And tomorrow JP and I will travel north with her to visit. I may be the most blessed man on planet earth.

Ethiopia: Song

Here are the beautiful children I was with today. I put this together for you to see their faces and hear their song. They love this Ethiopian anthem.

In compiling this tonight I was overcome with the simple reality that each of us has a name to proclaim, a song to sing, and a prayer to pray. Here is theirs.

This video is copyright © Paul F. Hassell and cannot be reused or distributed outside of Vimeo.com or SharingTheExperience blog without prior written consent.

Ethiopia: Leadership Training

Ethiopia: Smiles

Ethiopia: En Route

Airlines may be in survival mode these days charging for checked luggage, meals, even peanuts; but on Ethiopian Airlines one service is still free—children screaming. Yes, the screaming was VERY free last night.

I strongly considered joining in on the screaming actually. My second thought—and I grew rather fond of this one during the night—was to follow the "white lights that lead to red lights which indicate the exit," then bale out somewhere over the Mediterranean Sea. When you gotta scream you gotta scream.

It's sure to be a great month. Stay posted.

Ethiopia: Packing to Leave

Packing cameras, tripods, audio/video gear, and an extra shirt to leave for Ethiopia the next morning, May 5th.

Timelapse: 305 images over 2 1/2 hrs
Music: "Wade through the Night" by Matt Wertz

As I Depart for Ethiopia

This month I hope to tell stories that restore what has been stolen.

Adichie explains, "Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity,"

"Show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become." What has Ethiopia become to you? What story have you heard?

Undebatably, there has been a single Ethiopian story shared louder than the rest. I yearn to remain epochs away from the long painful history of well-intended aid that too-often bends toward heist of human dignity. Perhaps I'll be given the gift of sharing with you another story—a story reaching beyond distended bellies and buzzing flies on fecal-splattered faces as barefoot children walk dry clay streets. Perhaps I'll share a story of hope that's come so close you can touch it.

This month of May, these are the things I hope for. Will you please join me in Ethiopia?