The Day The Dump Truck Arrived...

270 pillows,

purchased for us by Gladney

with only two days notice.

If you have ever been to Ethiopia,

you know that was a

God sized job!

Yes, this did make the mom

in me upset...

Brand new, clean pillows,

laying on the dirty ground...

but I held my tongue. :o)

after all...

nowhere at Kolfe is it clean.

The Gladney rep delivered them in a

DUMP TRUCK,

since there were so many of them!

It was quite a site.

Sadly, no video or photos of us unloading,
we were having camera issues this day.

It would have been so fun to show you the process.

Think
BOYS & PILLOWS

that leads to...

Pillowfights!

When the first pillow hit me,

I thought it was an accident,

but the giggling

gave the kid away.

 - - -

Pretty soon, it was an all out war...

the kids in the dump truck,

ambushing my helper and I as we tried

 to find places to put them all!

Laughter abounded...

so much joy!

Now, remember this is a Government Orphanage.

That meant that when we showed up with

the dump truck and a receipt

for a big purchase,

the man in charge of storage at Kolfe

stepped in to snatch up the pillows

and put them in his storage area

until proper paperwork could be filed.

We were told this could take a week or two.

Meanwhile, HE would know what was missing...

Originally we were told that we could still

hand out the pillowcases, since they weren't

"purchased", but as the nervous minutes ticked by,

 that all changed too.

Next we were told we could run the project

for one room, so that I could take photos.

Really??  Who wants kids crying because

they weren't in that room?

My answer was, "No thanks."

So, it was looking like we would be praying

that the paperwork would be finished

after we left ET, and that the boys

would in fact, get everything we

had for them... UNTIL...

this sweet man stepped in.

Yordanos ~ our driver and friend

He worked out a "deal" of sorts...

The cooks had been wanting me to buy them

a LARGE POT,

to replace one that was cracked.

BINGO!!

We agreed to buy the pot the following day,

IF the director would agree

to skip the paperwork

on the pillows and cases.

We used another word to describe this "deal",

but here, we shall say it was

 "You scratch my back,

I'll scratch yours." :o)

It worked!

Special thanks to Linda for picking up the

whole tab on this huge, expensive pot.

2 very happy cooks,

and 243 happy children!

~ Part 1~

Stay tuned... next post has some

great photos of happy kids

and PILLOWS!!!!!