A candle and a laptop

It is mid December 2008. I just twisted my foot. I was coming from work on a Friday afternoon and was rushing upstairs to drop my bags, change clothes and go to the painting exhibition we helped organize. When driving home I was thinking I should perhaps slow down, and now this! Just what I needed, which such a busy weekend ahead with a table booked at a bazaar to sell cushion covers and little seedling toys! We ended up being involved in so many things. It is almost the end of the year; it is often a good time for reflection.

What has kept us so busy all these months?

Why I often feel I have no time available?

Is it because I have two little daughters? Many people have more than that…

Is it because I work full time? Most people do too…

Is it because we have a busy social life? Many others do too…

What else is there?

Looking back and trying to be critical I somehow feel we have an informal home based NGO (non governmental organization). We have not really noticed but we have sort of diversified immensely our small home projects and I now feel perhaps it is time to concentrate on just a few? But it is difficult to decide which one (s) to drop, if any!… The more I think the more I see so many routes we took and the various areas of action. I did not realize they are so many and so diverse…

Promotion of musical shows

– Senegalese band from Senegal – Bringing them every year to Ethiopia and starting to take them to home country too. Taking care of all bookings, accommodation, advertisement, show organization and ticket selling

- Blind musical band in Ethiopia – incentive friends to hire them for private parties

Promotion of art exhibitions

- Painting exhibition – helping a young painter to organize and expose his paintings made in leather and wood materials, painted with colors made of natural plant extracts.

art exibition

Tourism and accommodation

- Partners of a Safari touring company in home country

- Partners of a tourism boat transportation company in home country

- Hosting friends in vacant house in home country

- Hosting friends at home in Addis, when they pass by

Catering

- Promoting and tutoring home catering businesses with own staff – Teaching Portuguese/Mozambican/Goan dishes to home staff, helping to develop menus and price calculation and general catering services. Supplies to private cocktails, dinners, birthday parties and bazaars.

catering list

Promotion of local crafts/products

- Taking local crafts to friends in home country (fabrics, carpets, small wood/metal pieces, silver and beads bijouterie)

- Promoting beautiful semi precious stones nicely cut by a friend

- Financing initial investment (for local women handicap association) for the making of local hand made cotton fabric (Gabi) and helping to export them

Developing new products

- Designing locally made cushion covers made with high quality local materials (leather and cotton fabrics) and selling them at local bazaars and to friends all over the world.

Bright cushions

- Adapting little seed and soil heads (educational toys) with local materials (little green heads) and selling them at local bazaars

Green heads

- Making little match boxes or pieces of wood, painted or covered with fabrics and selling them at local bazaars

Social support

- Helping young shoe shiner to have regular weekly business at our house and friends

- Tutoring young lady with support from a friend abroad

- Raising money for charity promoting and selling some of the above products in local bazaars.

- Donating toys and clothes to local orphanages and schools

- Gathering each year a group of 10-15 friend’s crazy enough to walk 21 km through the beautiful mountains around Addis to raise money for children than cannot walk, victims of polio disease.

Polio victims

Monastery support

- Helping charity work at a nearby Monastery providing technical support to their dairy business, choosing and supplying seeds of forages and helping the acquisition of calves.

How did we manage to get so involved? And why? Is it because we might have boring jobs? Not at all! We both have extremely demanding and challenging jobs. This is just the way things happen, without any logic. It is just one more thing and one more good idea that is worth trying and then it just grows and grows. Nothing of the above was definitely planned, it just happened…This is how the last months passed during our extra time…