Friends Ink: February 2025 (from Kim)

Dear children, 

This is your friend Kim. Thank you for asking how we are doing. We are well. It has been a really cold and snowy winter here in Canada and we are expecting even more snow and cold in the coming weeks. Temperatures will go down to almost -20 degrees. That is cold! I am writing this letter to you on February 11 and tomorrow we are also expecting a snowstorm and another 20 centimetres of snow could fall.  

I loved reading your January letter! It made me so happy to hear that for the New Year in September, you celebrate love, good health, peace, and fortune. It is wonderful to stop and think about all the things we are thankful for. I also loved learning about your New Year tradition of sharing songs and beautiful paintings with the people in your community. There is nothing more special than receiving a handmade gift or song made with love. My daughter is 28 years old and I still keep many of the special handmade gifts that she made me when she was a child. I am sure that the girls' song, "Abeba Ayehu...lemlem," and the boys' colourful flower paintings will be incredibly special for the people you shared them with.

It also sounds like your January 7 Christmas celebrations were wonderful. Even though you live in Ethiopia and we live in Canada, we have similar holiday traditions. We all love celebrating holidays with special foods, games and the people that we love! Do you all love to eat Doro wat? Is Doro wat served with injera?

I'm so proud of you for volunteering at the children's hospital in your area and helping the cook and nanny at your shelter! Your volunteering is amazing because you are not only making a difference in the lives of other people, but you’re also showing your kindness and caring. Volunteering helps others feel happy and supported, and it can make you feel really good inside, too. When you help someone, it’s like you’re giving a little piece of your heart, and that can make you feel proud, happy, and even excited to do more. Keep being the wonderfu and kind children you are, because you’re making the world a better place! Your community is so lucky that you volunteer! Thank you for sharing these wonderful examples of volunteering. We LOVE to hear about your amazing work!

I hope you had a fantastic first semester break from school! I trust you had a great time playing, reading, and doing all the things you love during your break. While school is very important, it is just as important to enjoy time for fun and relaxation. In my free time, I also enjoy reading to relax, and one of my favorite activities is playing a game called pickleball. Have you ever heard of it? Pickleball is a really fun sport that combines the rules of tennis and ping pong, played with a small ball, paddles, and a net. You can play with two or four people, and the goal is to hit the ball over the net in a way that your opponent can’t return it. I play pickleball every Saturday morning with a group of other ladies. Patti (your other Canadian friend) is an amazing pickleball player! Patti can really hit the ball and she is really fast! Patti volunteers and organizes all the games I play, which is such an important job, and we really appreciate all the work she does! What are some of your favorite games to play when you have free time? Maybe you can write to us about some of your favourite games.

We are honoured that you say you learn from us as well as from Tesfa, Kal, and Grandma Shelley. We learn a lot from all of you too. The stories that you share about volunteering and working hard inspire us and make us all so proud. 

By the time you receive my letter, you will likely be back in your classes in school. I hope that this semester is a good one. Just try your hardest to do your best. 

We cannot wait to receive your next letter!

With much love,
Kim

Friends Ink: January 2025 (from Lisa)

Hello to all of our dear friends at Tesfa’s Shelter!  This is Lisa writing to you this month. It is January 2025.

I hope you had a lovely Ethiopian Christmas last week.  Here in Canada, we celebrated Christmas on December 25 and New Years Day on January 1.  For many people here in Canada, Christmas is a celebration of Jesus’ birth.  Whether we are Christians or not, Christmas is a celebration of family, friends, community, generosity and gratitude. During the Christmas season, the outside of many people’s houses are decorated with colourful lights. Christmas trees covered in lights and decorations are in our living rooms, and lots of decorations put up throughout the house.  Grandma Shelley’s house was so beautifully decorated!  I think that part of the reason that Canadians love to decorate and enjoy bright colours and lights at Christmas time is that we are now in the winter season which is cold, with snow and ice, no leaves on the trees, and roads and sidewalks which can be slippery to walk or drive on so we tend to stay indoors more than we do in the nice weather of summer, spring, and autumn.  We are reminded that in just 3 months, it will be springtime and new life will emerge from the earth – flowers, grass, and leaves on the trees. But right now, in winter, the sun doesn’t come up until after 6:30 in the morning and it goes down below the horizon shortly after 5:00 in the afternoon, so a lot of the time, it is dark.

North Americans have a very funny tradition called “Groundhog Day”. Every February 2, certain communities in Canada and the United States hold very popular, televised events where a groundhog is brought out of its “hole” to see whether it sees its shadow or not.  If it sees its shadow, as the tradition goes, he goes back into his hole to hibernate for another 6 weeks, meaning that winter will last for another 6 weeks.  If he does not see his shadow, everyone is excited, because it means that spring will come early. Of course, there is absolutely no scientific truth to this – winter is going to last for another 6 weeks regardless of whether February 2 happens to be sunny or cloudy – but it is a funny tradition that people seem to enjoy.  I think that communities just enjoy the fact that we’re getting closer to spring and the nice, warm weather!  Maybe you can think of some funny traditions that you have and write to us about them.

I am so proud of how kind and helpful you all are, volunteering to help others in the shelter and in the community. One example of the kindness that people here show to others this time of year is helping neighbours clear the snow from their driveways and sidewalks. I take my 3 dogs for walks every day in my neighbourhood here in Woodstock.  If it has snowed overnight, in the morning, it can be very difficult to walk because the sidewalks are covered with several inches of snow or worse, ice, which is very slippery. Everyone is supposed to shovel the sidewalk outside their house so that people can walk safely, but in many cases, the sidewalks remain unshovelled.  The City of Woodstock has organized a “Snow Buddies” program, which arranges for volunteers to go to the houses of people who can’t easily do the shovelling either because of old age or a physical condition.  It is really lovely to see people helping each other after a snowfall.

What types of food do you like to eat at Christmas time?  Are there traditional meals at Christmas in Ethiopia? Do you have a favourite food this time of year?  In Canada, many people eat a turkey dinner at Christmas.  Do you have turkeys in Ethiopia? Here’s what a traditional turkey dinner is like:

A turkey, stuffed with a mixture of bread cubes, chopped onion and celery, lots of herbs like sage, thyme, marjoram, savory, and parsley, roasted in the oven for several hours. (I roasted a turkey this Christmas that weighted 17 pounds (that’s about 8 kilograms). It roasted in the oven for over 5 hours.)

Then, a gravy is made with the juices from the turkey.  The gravy is served on top of the turkey meat, stuffing, and mashed potatoes.  We have other vegetables with the meal, too, often carrots and squashes, root vegetables that are easy to get here in the winter. 

Some of my family members are vegetarian – that means they do not eat meat – so I also prepared a pasta dish – pasta shells filled with cheeses and tomato sauce. We had a chocolatey bread pudding for dessert. Canadians also like to eat cheese.  I had a big wooden board covered with 8 different kinds of cheese, olives, jellies and crackers. 

In the winter, popular foods are soups and stews, hot dishes that keep you warm.  I love ice cream in the summer, but don’t really want it in the winter!  Too cold!

There are organizations and churches in our community that offer free turkey dinners around Christmastime to people who might otherwise not be able to afford one.  Also, there are agencies that provide donated toys and gifts to families who might otherwise not have the money to provide Christmas presents for their children.  Many people, including my family, are choosing not to give gifts to each other but instead, make donations of money to charities.

Later this month, there will be special events happening at libraries and community centres to celebrate Family Literacy Day.  Local leaders, like our mayors, firefighters, and star athletes, will read stories to children and their parents.  Families will be encouraged to read to their children every day, as reading to children helps them develop good reading skills and a love of books. Are you enjoying using Julia’s Library of Love? Have you had time to read a number of the books in the library?  It would be very interesting to find out what your favourite books are. Do the older children read to the younger children? I think that reading together is nice regardless of the literacy benefits, because it is nice to be close to other people and share time together.

I hope that you are all healthy and that your school year is going well.  We think of you often.

With love,
Lisa

Friends Ink: December 2024 (from Group)

Hi to all of you! This month, our writing team decided to send you a letter from all of us about how we feel about volunteering and what it brings into our lives. 

From Kim:

Hi friends! I was smiling from ear to ear when I read in your letter that you are all being trained and learning about volunteering. It's wonderful that you are discovering how important it is to help others. You are so lucky that Tesfa, Kal, the psychologist and Mekdelawit are teaching you about how amazing it can be to volunteer and help other people. By learning these skills, you are not only making a difference in other people's lives, but you're also growing as kind, caring individuals. Volunteering teaches you how to work together, be thoughtful, and understand how your actions can brighten someone else's day. Keep up the amazing work—you are all doing something very special and making the world a better place!

When I was a teacher, I used to enjoy volunteering to coach Cross Country running. Cross Country running means running long distances (like 2 kilometres). Students would come to practice their running and then we would drive to competitions where they would run against students from other schools in our area. I used to stand at the finish line when students were racing, and I would cheer loudly as our students finished their races.

I used to love volunteering to coach Cross Country running because it gave me the chance to help students push themselves and reach their goals. Watching my students train hard and then seeing the excitement and pride on their faces when they finished their races was one of the best feelings ever. It wasn’t just about winning; it was about each runner giving their best effort, no matter how fast or slow they were. Seeing them cross the finish line, knowing they had worked hard, made me feel proud and happy inside.

How do you feel inside after volunteering and helping others? Do you feel happy, proud, or maybe even excited to make a difference? Volunteering can make your heart feel full because you're doing something kind for someone else. After you volunteer, take a moment to think about how you feel inside—it's a great way to see just how powerful your actions can be! Maybe you can tell a friend how it feels inside when you volunteer. 

From Megan:

Hello to all of our friends! I get such a warm feeling in my heart when I hear about the volunteering that you have been doing at the shelter, at school and in your community! Doesn’t it feel good to support other people?? You are all setting amazing examples for your friends and classmates and even the adults around you!! I am so happy to see the Volunteer of the Month news and sending big congrats to each of you working hard to make a difference for other people by volunteering.

I love volunteer work because I like to meet people and remind myself of the things that are important in life. You get a new perspective and have a stronger purpose when you are a volunteer! I love volunteering with my Canadian friends for Hearts for Ethiopia, and I love volunteering in the summer with a sports league for children that have disabilities. Our friends started that group, and it has grown from 12 children to more than 80!! Do you see people in Harar who have disabilities and may not be able to run and jump and do the things that you do because of physical differences or mental challenges? We love making sure that children who have different abilities in our city can still play sports!!! 

When I was younger, I used to go into a nursing home - that’s what we call a home for older people who aren’t able to live on their own - to play board games. I met some very special people and was able to listen to their stories, share games and jokes, and have some nice moments.

I believe that when you are privileged in life you should share those benefits and joys with others. That’s why I like to volunteer in different ways. I have the blessing of a safe home, loving family, a body that can move and skip and jump, a job that covers my needs and more - so I feel it is a requirement to try to help other people find joy and safety and have their needs met, too. We have a phrase we use in our organization, sharing your “time and talents,” so it’s good to remember there are many ways to volunteer and give back. You can spend time, you can share your skills, you can donate and make great projects possible by giving money.

Volunteering means different things to different people, but I hope you are discovering that it is a very joyful experience and a window into new opportunities. You are making us all SO proud with the ways you are helping your friends, classmates, brothers and sisters, and adults who help you at the shelter.

From Patti:

I learned to become a volunteer from my parents, so it’s been a part of my life for a long time. I learned by example. That is why we are so proud of you children for setting an example for others around you to follow. Our family’s motto has always been, “if there’s work to be done, then get up and get it done.” None of my family shy away from hard work because of that motto, even when the work does not pay a wage. Volunteer work pays us in different ways.

Sometimes my volunteer work actually directly benefits me, like when I volunteered in the church kitchen. We got to sneak a taste of the snacks before they were set out for the rest of the church members, and sometimes it was hard to remember to leave enough for the other members because the treats were so good. Sometimes my volunteer work benefits others more than it benefits me, like the work I do for Hearts for Ethiopia. No matter where the benefits lie, all my volunteer work makes me feel proud, reminds me that I am a helpful person, and fills my heart with joy because all of it is just a way to demonstrate love. Volunteer work is a way to give a big hug to people you sometimes don’t even see. I feel hugged by your volunteer writing team at the shelter every time we receive a letter. That’s a good feeling. 

From Lisa:

I have more time to volunteer now that I am retired, although I have always tried to give some of my time to causes that are important to me. I have volunteered on a number of Boards and Committees for various agencies over the years. Being a Board or Committee member is important work, as you help to ensure that the organization is operating properly, making good decisions, and spending money appropriately. However, the most meaningful volunteer opportunities I have had have been ones where I was able to interact directly with the people who were receiving the needed service. Whether those people are children who need a free breakfast before school so that they won't be hungry during the school day, or a family that is experiencing financial difficulties and other traumatic circumstances, I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of -- even if it is a small part -- providing them with the help they need.

Almost everyone at some point is going to experience hardships -- either financial, physical, or emotional.  Those of us with people in our lives who love and support us will usually be better able to deal with hardships. Without those supports, dealing with hardship can be very scary and lonely. The friend, family member, or volunteer may not be able to make the person's hardships disappear, but we can at least let them know that they are cared for and that they have more people in their lives than they realize who they can turn to for help, support, and encouragement.  

Feeding a child a breakfast before they start their school day may not be a big action, but it's not just the food that is important.  It is also the warm smile, the "good morning" greeting, and wishing them a good day at school as they walk out the door that makes them feel noticed and not quite so alone and invisible.

Small kindnesses matter. We are all capable of making a difference in other people's lives, even if what we do seems to be so small. 

From Grandma:

Volunteering for me, helping others is what makes life meaningful, enjoyable, and fulfilling.  I have found that when I spend more time thinking of others and helping others than I think of myself, I am a happier person.

My volunteering started when I was young like you. When you start volunteering at an early age, it just becomes a normal part of your life and something that you miss if you are not giving to and caring for others.

I have been a Sunday School teacher, a youth leader in the church and organized socials for teen girls, I took my dogs into a home for the elderly once a week for years to visit with old people who were lonely, I was a “Big Sister” to a girl from the time she was 9 until she was 18 and we would spend 4 hours together every week doing fun activities and I taught her different life skills and encouraged her to believe in herself and to be confident.  Very recently, I became a “mentor” to a girl who is 11. I spend one hour with her every week in her school. She doesn’t have many friends, and she has some challenges that make life difficult for her.  She really likes baking together and we have made cupcakes and cookies. She tells me she really likes spending time together and I can tell by her smile and her enthusiasm that our visits are helping her to feel special. Do you know what, she makes me feel special too because she shows me that our time together is meaningful to her.

I have had other volunteer roles in my life and all of those roles have not only helped other people, they helped me because helping others gives my life purpose, helping others fills my heart and has given me the opportunity to meet and get to know children and adults who became very special to me. 

About 18 years ago, a retired pastor I knew was suffering with cancer. I offered to help him and his wife by driving them to the hospital for treatments, making meals for them and just showing that I cared. As he became sicker and had to go and live in a care facility, I visited him and also did things with his wife to show her care.  That man’s wife (Lois) and I became very close friends and although she was 38 years older than me, I consider her to have been one of my best friends.  The blessing of helping her husband was a beautiful friendship with Lois. I was with her in the hospital when she died, and she asked me to speak at her funeral. We truly loved each other.

I did not know that when I adopted Julia that I would start a whole new life that included two sons (Tilahun and Tesfa), two daughters-in-law and 96 grandchildren (all of you and Christina and Nati)!  When I was in Ethiopia to bring Julia home to Canada, I saw the needs of women and children and I felt that God asked me to do what I could to help.  Choosing to respond to the needs I saw has not only helped women and children in Ethiopia, but it has also given me blessings that I could never have imagined!!  The love I feel for all of you and the love you give back to me is a gift that has no monetary value. You cannot put a dollar amount on love, can you?

What I have learned from volunteering is that happiness does not come from money, happiness does not come from having things, happiness and joy comes from giving of yourself to help others and we can all do that in the ways we are able. 

I am so proud of each of you who has volunteered already to help those around you who are in need!!

I absolutely love the creativity, sensitivity, care and compassion you are showing.  Each of you who has already volunteered is setting a beautiful example for other children and adults!

I want to ask you a few questions:

• Can you think of someone you know who is lonely?

• Can you think of someone who is sad?

• Can you think of someone who needs a friend?

• Can you think of someone who needs help?

Now that you have thought of a person or more than one person, I have a few more questions for you:

• Is there something you can do to help that person?

• Is there something you would like to do but need help from someone else?

If you need help from someone else to help the person you have thought of, please talk to Tesfa so he can help you.

When I come and see you again, I will be so excited to hear about your volunteer work and to learn how you feel about helping others.  I will share your feelings about helping others with Kim, Megan, Lisa and Patti.  They will also be very interested in hearing about your volunteer work and how you feel.

Friends Ink: November 2024 (from Patti)

Hi Children,

This month I wanted to write to you about something a little bit more serious. It’s about finding people to look up to in our lives. This is really important to help motivate each of us to strive to do better in our own lives. The fun thing about finding traits in people around us that we admire is that there is no age limit, race or religious restrictions on the good in others.  We can find good in people of all kinds.

Now, admiring someone does not also mean we become jealous of that person, or of that person’s good fortune. It also does not mean that we treat them as if they are royalty, giving them special priviliges or special treatment, because that can cause them to have inflated egos. Do you know what an ego is? It is what we think of ourselves. Imagine if a person is getting treated as if they are more important than any other person in the room day in and day out, how they might begin to believe they actually are more important than others. That is not a healthy way to think. We are all important in our own ways. You can probably see how we have to be careful about how we admire others, remembering that all people have their strengths and their weaknesses.

Can you think of something about yourself that you see as a strength?  If you are not sure, maybe ask a good friend because I bet they can tell you. Can you think of something about yourself that you see as a weakness? Don’t be too hard on yourself, okay! Weaknesses only tell us there are areas in our character that we might want to work on to improve.

A strength of mine would be that I write very well. I can write letters and messages on social media that are interesting and meaningful. A weakness would be that I seem to feel easily hurt by people if they say or do something that bothers me, and I feel angry. I don’t like feeling hurt and angry, and this weakness in me is something I want to work on.

I feel so fortunate that I have had so many people come into my life that I have admired. I have learned something different from each of them, and I have used the special lessons and examples they have shown me to help me grow into a good and kind person.

People who I have admired in my life include a teacher from my teenage years. This teacher was a coach for my sports - basketball, and for track and field where I threw the discus and the shot put. These two sports are from the ancient Olympics, and not all that popular today. I admired him because he was so much fun to be around, and because the manner in which he taught me things was easy for me to understand. He convinced me that I was smart enough to go to university when no one else in my family had ever been. He gave me so much confidence in myself to go on further in my education, that I not only went to university, but I also went on to school to become a teacher.

Another person I admired in my life was my grandmother, my father’s mother. She was such a loving and kind woman, who enjoyed playing the piano, singing, and baking. She baked two loaves of bread every morning to help feed all of us. Her rhubarb custard pie was absolutely the best pie in the world. Do you know what rhubarb is? It grows near the ground on long red stalks with huge green leaves. The stalk is the fruit that we eat. Grandmother taught me so much about love and family. She taught me that you can learn a new craft like baking just by experimenting and sharing ideas with other people.

Another person I admire is my mental health doctor. She helped me when I was feeling very sad and lonely. She listened to me and allowed me to share some very scary stories with her, and she never judged me or made me feel embarrassed about the terrible things that went wrong in my life. She  gently advised me on ways I could overcome my sadness, and she encouraged me and reminded me that I am special, too. I admire how intelligent my doctor is, and how kind she can be, too. I try to remember her examples of patience and kindness when I am struggling with a friend or family member. I am really grateful for her in my life.

My sister is also someone I admire. She is one of the bravest people I know. She will try any new thing, even if she isn’t very skilled at it, and work really hard to learn about it. She is also a good listener, so when I need someone to talk to, we can video chat over the internet, and laugh and cry and be silly together if we need to. I admire how strong and courageous my sister is, and I try to use her example whenever I am afraid to try something new.

The members of this writing team are also people I admire. When I read their letters written to you children, I sometimes laugh right out loud. I often think very long about what they have shared with all of you in their letters, and I picture all of you enjoying their written words. I also think the letters remind each of you of how loved and important you are. That is so important to remember. I use the examples of letters written by our team members to inspire me when I am writing.

I also admire Shelley, or grandmother to most of you. Shelley’s deep commitment to your shelter is an inspiration for many, many volunteers here in Canada. She is the glue that keeps all of us working together, and she works tirelessly for all of you. Whenever I am feeling like a task is too hard, or the challenge is too great, I remember Shelley’s perseverance in keeping Hearts for Ethiopia moving ever forward.

And finally, I admire EACH of you. Many of you have known difficult times in your lives, often more difficult than any of us can even comprehend. Yet, you show up day after day with smiles on your faces, songs on your lips, and a true dedication to your school work and community. I am simply amazed by all of you. Tefsa and Kal have the most beautiful family of children in each of you. Whenever I start to feel sorry for myself over any petty little thing, I think of all of you, of all you have overcome, of how hard you work for each other, and of your love for one another. That is a great inspiration to me, and it causes me to step up for others in my own life and do better for them.

I know my letter didn’t mention our fall weather, or anything in particular about Canada. This month, I just wanted to share with you something that is important to me, and something that we can all learn from. I hope this message allows each of you to think a little bit about who around you inspires you, and why that is so. I hope you can know that there is probably someone looking at you, seeing the special part of you that shines so bright, and that they take inspiration from your spark.

Always remember, children. You are loved.

Sincerely,

Patti
Friends INK!

Friends Ink: October 2024 (from Megan)

Hello friends at Tesfa’s Shelter! This is a VERY exciting month because this month, we not only got to write to you, we got to SEE you!

We had a very fun Zoom call with many of you where we got to hear your thoughts on volunteering and get to know your names, ages and the grade you are in school. It was so special to be able to see you through video on the computer screen. Wow, that was so amazing for us.

Thank you for practicing your English and for taking time to share with us through Zoom! We are so impressed with the English you have all been practicing! We need to work on our Amharic and other Ethiopian languages so we can introduce ourselves and use the basic phrases. You all are a big inspiration for us - you are working hard to learn new languages, which is not easy!

Your smiles were so big and could you see how happy you made us? We were smiling the whole day after we got to “meet you” on video! I am including a picture of our video call and our happy faces. We even saw some of you in your Canada shirts!

We loved hearing from Siti, Kirabel and Nati and their thoughts on volunteering. We know it takes time to build up a culture of volunteering. It can also take some work to find the right opportunities where you would like to contribute (and make sure you can do so safely).

Siti, we love your mission to reuse and recycle school books and other supplies so children who don’t have them will have the materials they need! What a great idea you have had! How is it going? Have you collected many items? I have had several writing jobs so I am always finding notebooks around our home. I try to rip out the used pages and put the notebooks onto a desk so we remember to use them up. Your effort also helps the environment by ensuring the paper and other supplies don’t go to waste.

Kirabel and Nati, you had such wonderful reflections and questions about volunteering! You were asking about the right age to start volunteering and where to start volunteering. It’s great to volunteer your time around the shelter and also to share your blessings with people in the community. You are all role models for other children and even adults in your city who can learn from what you are doing.

What do you think is the best age to start volunteering?

How is your season going? We have fall here right now, so all the beautiful trees have leaves changing colour! We also have to start getting ready for winter, the very cold season when many of our plants will go to sleep for the winter and we have to make sure our homes are ready to keep us warm.

We are getting some unexpected warm temperatures, though, which is unusual for October. It was PERFECT timing, because we had a fundraiser to help support the shelter and other projects for women and children in Ethiopia.

Our event was called A Walk in Their Shoes - do you know the phrase “take a walk in someone else’s shoes?” It encourages people to imagine they live someone else’s life, by pretending to put on their shoes and walk through that person’s day-to-day realities. Our fundraiser has that name because it is all about teaching people about life in Ethiopia and raising money for children like YOU!

The same way you like to learn about Canada, and the cultures, seasons, holidays and practices here, Canadians also love learning about YOUR country, and all the facts and features that make it unique. We had a great time walking outside in the sunshine, and walking indoors in the building where there were learning activities.

We raised money to support projects in Ethiopia and we even added more sponsors to Team Tesfa - the program to raise money for your needs. We want to make sure all of you at the shelter have clothing, books, school supplies, food to eat, medication and health care when you are sick, and opportunities for some fun, like your monthly birthday parties and board games to play.

Thank you for teaching us about Ethiopia. We tried to share some of our knowledge with other Canadian friends this month.

Please know we are thinking of you every day and cheering you on!

Megan
On behalf of Friends Ink

Friends Ink: September 2024 (from Patti)

Hi Children,

The letters you children are writing to this team are truly inspiring to us. We feel so much closer to all of you because of the time you take to describe things that are important to you. When you describe some of the things you are experiencing in your home and school, it helps us to understand your life, and we feel closer to you that way, too. We sure hope our letters are helping you to know all of us as well.

When you wrote to us about your involvement in volunteering, I felt so proud of all of you. You are such special children to want to help others. This letter caused each of us on the writing team to reflect on our own reasons for volunteering. We decided you might like to know how each of us look at volunteering our time, and perhaps you will see some more common things between all of us.

I will start with myself.

From Patti:
I have been a volunteer for most of my life, even when I was young like most of you. I think I learned a lot about helping others through the example of my parents. They were always helping their neighbours and friends when problems or a crisis came up. I fully believe that being part of a community makes you responsible to share your gifts and strengths to make that community better. There is a saying: “many hands make light work”. I have experienced that in all my volunteer work. I have experienced that when volunteering for Hearts for Ethiopia. Even the biggest of tasks seem so much smaller when we band together and tackle the work together. When we work together, we make the world a better place. Sometimes we are the strong hands, and can lift up others. Sometimes we may be the ones who need to be lifted. We never know when our places may switch. I also believe that whenever you help others, your heart is filled with gratitude, and you are reminded of your own good fortune, no matter how big or small.

From Lisa:
When I was a young child, my parents, grandparents and teachers all taught me the importance of being a kind person, a fair person, and a person who cares about others.  I have been fortunate throughout my life to not have to deal with serious problems like not having enough to eat or not having a safe, healthy home.  I know that I have been lucky, and I believe that I have a responsibility to help when I can to make sure that others have better access to the things that they need to be safe and healthy, even if what I can do may be very small.  Every little gift of time and money can make a difference.

I have volunteered in many different ways over the years. One of the most valuable things about volunteering is the opportunity to get to know people better and understand other people's lives and the challenges they face, and learning how I can use my talents and time in a positive way. 

Volunteering is an opportunity for me to contribute to my community in a positive way.  I can see the impacts that our shared efforts can have.  I also really value the relationships that I have made by being involved in volunteer organizations.  I have made some dear friends (including your Grandma Shelley) and have met so many people who are wonderful examples of kindness and generosity.

From Megan:
I believe so deeply in volunteering and the reason is simple. I think if you are lucky enough to have a good life, you should do what you can to help other people live good lives, too. Maybe that means sharing food with those who live on the streets, or donating clothing or money so people can stay warm and buy the supplies they need for their children. It also means fighting for what is right, even if it won’t directly impact me or change my life.

Everyone needs help in this world, we all just need different kinds of help. Acting like a community - a global village - where we support others just because we can makes us all stronger. I love volunteering for Hearts for Ethiopia because it helps me learn from amazing Ethiopians like all of you at Tesfa’s Shelter! Isn’t Tesfa such a wonderful example of giving to others?

Though volunteering is common for some people in Canada, others never take part in volunteering or donating. We have to work hard to make sure that is part of our culture, one of the building blocks of our communities. I am so proud of the example you are setting in Harar!! Thank you for your volunteering! 

From Kim:
I am excited that you are all learning about volunteering! Volunteering is such a rewarding experience! I love volunteering because I know that the volunteer work that I do can brighten someone’s day and make them feel happy. Sometimes volunteering can be a really small gesture like showing kindness by sharing a book or sharing a snack with a friend who is hungry. Other times volunteering can be bigger like helping an older person to do a job for a few hours or visiting someone who is sick. Volunteering can make you feel kind of like a superhero! You can use your special superhero powers of kindness and your actions to make the world a better place for others.

Helping others can also make you feel great inside and teach you new things too. So, whenever you volunteer, you're not just helping someone else—you're also growing and learning how to make the world a wonderful place for everyone!

From Grandma Shelley:
I am so excited that you have completed your volunteer training and what I love most of all is that you have connected your life and what you are provided with the fact your dad, mother, grandmother and many, many volunteers in Canada are all volunteering to give you a better life.

Do you know something? We can all help to make our communities a better place to live by volunteering our time and our skills. 

For me, volunteering has been a part of my life since I was a child.  Your great grandma and great grandpa (my parents) set a very good example for me when I was growing up.  My parents volunteered in many different ways and were very involved in the church as volunteers. 

Tesfa, Kal, your grandma and all of our volunteers are now setting an excellent example for you.

When you start to volunteer as a child, volunteering becomes a part of who you are and how you live.  Caring for other people and thinking of others can give you a strong purpose in life and help you to feel fulfillment and happiness.  I know for me, the less I focus on myself and think of others, the happier I feel inside. 

I try to help others in the same way I would want to be helped if I was in need. 

Volunteering has blessed my life so richly that I often feel I get more out of giving to others than they receive from my volunteering.  For example, I have a son and daughter-in-law that I would never have had if I was not volunteering for women and children in Ethiopia.  I would not have all of you as my grandchildren.  I have been very blessed, greatly blessed through my willingness to volunteer and help others.  I know you will be blessed too!

 ————————

So, children, we are all learning from each other about how to live better lives and how to be happy. Helping others makes us feel happy. Helping others makes them feel happy. The reason we are together and getting to know each other is because of a longing each person on this writing team felt to want to help all of you feel loved, supported, and known. We represent all of the volunteers of Hearts for Ethiopia who care for you so much. I sure am grateful to be on this team, to be writing letters to all of you, and to receive your letters in return. It fills me with joy. I always finish my letter wondering if just one of you will smile or feel the love we have for all of you when you read what I have written.

We are grateful for you. And we are so, so proud of you. 

Sincerely,
Patti of Friends Ink!

Friends Ink: August 2024 (from Shelley)

Dear children,

It has been just over two weeks since Helmy and I left your home and I really miss you.  The morning we came to say goodbye was hard knowing that we had such a special time with all of you and it had to end.  You made us both feel so very welcomed and loved.  Thank you!  Helmy and I had so much fun with you.  We really loved being in small groups talking with each of you.  Hearing your voices and having a better understanding of who you are was a highlight of our time at the shelter.

Here is one thing you can think about before I come back next time … what questions would you like to ask me and/or any volunteers who come with me to your home.  Helmy and I loved the questions you asked us.

Everyone who donated money towards Julia’s Library of Love is absolutely thrilled to know that you have books to learn from, develop your imaginations, experience new ideas and thoughts and enjoy.  I remember a very old lady told me one time, if you have a book, you will never be without a friend.  She loved to read and always had a book that she was reading.  She told me she would take her book with her wherever she would go and knew that if she was waiting for an appointment or waiting for someone, she could always read and she felt she was with a friend.  I have many friends who read every day.  Lisa, who is one of the volunteers you have met at the shelter and who writes you letters has already read over 60 books in 7 months!!  That means she is reading about 2 books every week.  One of the books she has read in the past 7 months was over 900 pages long!! 

Have you started to borrow the books from the library?  How often are you reading?  What are your favourite books so far?

Since I have been home in Canada, whenever I see a children’s book I think “I wonder if the children would like this book?”.

Helmy still has her toenail polish on and I just put some on because seeing you with your nails polished inspired me to have my toenails polished.  Have you put more nail polish on since we left?  Kal said you would be able to buy nail polish remover there.  The clear nail polish is a base coat and should be put on your nails first so your nails do not discolour from the coloured nail polish.  It is important to allow each layer of nail polish to dry totally before you put another coat of polish on.  I would wait for at least 10 minutes in-between the layers of nail polish.  One more thing … make sure to shake the bottle of nail polish (the coloured nail polish) very well before you use it.

We brought a ring toss with us but I didn’t have time to show you how to use it.  It is in a fabric bag with handles.  You get points if your ring lands on the peg.  Have you tried that game yet?

One day, I will spend more than one week with you and that will give us a lot of time to do everything we want to do together.

We are in the month of August now which is our summer.  It was hot when I first got home from Ethiopia but now, the weather has cooled down and some people are wearing a sweater in the morning and at night.  It will probably get hot again but for now, I am enjoying the cooler weather. Today is supposed to be only 21 degrees (at the warmest) and that is cool for August. 

This time of year, many people love the fruits and vegetables that are growing and being harvested.  Corn here is very sweet and I really like it boiled in a big pot of water and then spread butter (that melts very quickly) and sprinkle salt on the corn.  When I was growing up, our mom would have a whole meal with just corn, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and cheese.  Does that sound good to you to have for a whole meal? 

Do you want to know something … I have never had a piece of corn in Ethiopia!  I see the women roasting it on the sides of the street but I don’t walk on the streets very often and have not been able to buy one.  Do you think I should do that the next time I am in Ethiopia?  Do you like that corn?

I know you love watermelon and that is a fruit that is grown in our area and many really like it.  I need to buy a watermelon this week because I really like it too.  Julia loves a fruit called peaches.  I don’t know if you can get peaches in Ethiopia.  They have a soft fuzzy skin and a sweet inside.  The colour on the inside of the fruit is a little bit like a mango.  Some farmers grow strawberries for a few months in the summer and last week, Julia and I bought a couple of boxes.  They were SO delicious!  Remember we talked about our favourite colour and talked about why we love that colour?  When I see the colour red of strawberries or the beautiful orange of a mango, they make me happy inside.  Maybe I think about the delicious taste of that fruit and associate the colour with something wonderful. 

We asked you what you liked to do when you are not in school.  One of the things I like to do in the summer is to go to the beach.  We have to drive about one hour to get to the beach we really like.  We have many huge lakes within a couple of hours of where we live.  I think that makes us very, very lucky because one of my favourite places to be is by the water. 

Kal told me she had never been to a beach before, so I think you probably have never been to a beach either.  You will see in my pictures the sand, water, birds, sunshine and me, Julia and our friends relaxing.  When the sun hits the water, it looks like there are diamonds sparkling on the surface.  To me … that is very beautiful.  I really like to swim in the water, visit with my friends, share a picnic and stare at the water.  I find this to be very relaxing, very peaceful and makes me feel very, very thankful for the beauty of our world.

Thank you for your July letter!  The welcome to your shelter you gave me and Helmy and knowing how excited you were to see us will be something I will never forget!  We asked you what was something that made you happy in the past year.  One of my happiest moments this past year was when we arrived at the shelter, and I saw all of you.  I thought my heart was going to burst open, it was so full with happiness and joy.

I love you all!!  I miss you but knowing that I will see you again makes me very happy.

Grandma

Friends Ink: July 2024 (from Kim)

Hello dear children! This is your Canadian friend Kim! You must be super excited that Grandma Shelley is visiting again. I know that Grandma Shelley is excited for her visit and I am sure Helmy cannot wait to meet all of you. All of your friends here in Canada are looking forward to hearing about Grandma Shelley and Helmy’s visit! I hope we will get to see lots of pictures or videos of you! 

I helped Grandma Shelley pack some of the suitcases for you and I have seen the clothes and wonderful books that she is bringing for “Julia’s Library of Love”. There are many special books in the library and I hope you will love them! I sure had fun looking at the books when I helped with packing them!

I have a secret to share with you. I LOVE books. I have an even bigger secret and maybe you will think that this is strange but I am 57 years old and I still LOVE children’s books. I don’t think you are ever too old to read a children’s book! I cannot wait to hear what you all think about your new library. I hope Grandma Shelley and Helmy will share lots of pictures of you and your new library with us!

Here is another secret! I am in a Book Club with 5 other ladies. All of the ladies in my Book Club love to read. We get together every month for a couple of hours, we eat some snacks, and we talk about the books we are reading. We talk about the characters in our books and the parts we liked about the books. Sometimes we share new information that we learn from our books too. It is so great to talk about books with friends! If you enjoy one of the books in “Julia’s Library of Love”, talk about the book with some of your friends. Share with your friends if you think that they would like that book too. 

Did you know there is more than one way to read a book? Most grown-ups think that you just have to read the words in a book but there is another way to read! (Yes, this is ANOTHER secret!) Besides reading the words, you can also read the pictures! Pictures in books tell a story too—they show us what's happening and how characters are feeling. Sometimes, even without reading the words, you can understand the whole story just by looking at the pictures. So, next time you grab a book, try looking at the pictures first. It's like a treasure hunt for clues about the story! Reading both the pictures and the words helps us enjoy books in a whole new way. Maybe you and a friend can choose a book and read all of the pictures together!

Tesfa says that reading is freedom and I agree with Tesfa! Reading lets you travel to new lands, meet fun creatures without leaving Harar! Reading gives you the freedom to explore new ideas, learn about different people around the world, and dream big dreams. Reading is like having a superpower! I hope that reading books from Julia’s Library of Love will be like a superpower for all of you! 

It is summer here in Canada and in the past few weeks, I have been planting some new plants in my yard. While I was outside planting one morning, I thought of all of you! I thought about your questions about strategies that help when you feel anxious about something and I realized that I needed to share something with you! Working with plants really helps me to feel calm! Plants have a magical way of calming me down when I’m feeling upset or worried. Have you ever noticed that it feels peaceful to sit near a plant, a garden or a tree? Plants give us fresh air and make our surroundings look beautiful and green. Taking care of plants, like watering them and giving them sunlight and watching them grow, can be like taking care of a special friend. Some plants that we grow in Canada even have gentle smells that make us feel relaxed. Have you ever heard of plants like mint or lavender. Mint and lavender smell so good. I actually just planted a tiny lavender plant beside my house. Do you have any plants that have a nice smell in Ethiopia?

Please enjoy your time and have lots of fun with Grandma Shelley and Helmy! I know that they will be giving you big hugs. Remember that the hugs from Grandma Shelley and Helmy come from all of us in Canada. We think you are wonderful!

Love from Your Friends Ink Friend,
Kim

Friends Ink: June 2024 (from Patti)

Hi my dear children! It’s Patti here, and I wanted to respond to your request in one of your letters to Friends Ink, our volunteer writing team, about some strategies we might use to deal with feelings of anxiety and fear. Our friend Kim gave you some good ideas to follow, and I saw in your letter that some of you do have struggles sometimes during testing time at school. I am sure there are other instances where you might feel worried, but I can certainly relate to your concerns during tests and examinations at school.

I am sure Father Tesfa has probably shared this thought, but I do know the best strategy for confronting testing is to know you have done your best to prepare. There is a lot of relief in knowing you have worked hard to prepare, and you should feel proud in yourself when that is the case. No matter what the outcome of the test scores, you must remember that you did all you could to get ready. Remember my dears, we are not all as skilled as others at every chore and every subject matter. All the preparation in the world will not always be enough when there are certain ideas or information that don’t seem to want to stay in your brain. Do you remember what I told you about my struggles with reading and language classes?  I am certain I worked as hard or harder than most of my friends to prepare for testing in this subject, but that did not end in great test results for me. I felt very upset about that for a long time, as I know any of you might when you get a poor test result. It took me a long time to accept that this was simply an area of struggle for me. Accepting ourselves means we must know our strengths AND our weaknesses, and loving ourselves for all the ways we are in the world. The key is to remember that you worked hard, and that is the only thing you can control. The results of that work can often be outside of our control, and we must remember that not all of us will be excellent at every challenge. This is where we learn to practice grace for ourselves, just as we would for our friends who might struggle.  Grace means showing goodwill to yourself or to another person.

Now, when test time comes, and that yucky feeling starts in your stomach, and your nerves start to build, I want to tell you maybe one more strategy to help you get through it. It is called grounding. Have you heard of this strategy?

You can play the 5-4-3-2-1 Game

This game or technique to help sooth your anxiety is about using all 5 of your senses to soothe you: sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste.

1. Name 5 things you can See in the room you are in. 

2. Name 4 things you can Feel in the room you are in.  As an example, it could be a friend, a book, the shoes of the child sitting close to you and your teacher.

3. Name 3 things you can Hear in the room you are in. 

4. Name 2 things you can Smell in the room you are in.

5. Name 1 thing that you can Taste in the room you are in.  If you are not able to taste something, think of one thing you like about yourself.

If you cannot think of 5 things you see, 4 things you feel, etc. don’t become worried or anxious about it.  Simply observe what you can.

Here is an example of how I might practice grounding.  Let’s walk through it together.

When you realize you are starting to feel anxious and/or afraid, it helps to focus really hard on all the things immediately around you so you can confirm that you are safe. If you are sitting, let your mind focus on the chair you are sitting on. Feel it holding your body up. Feel how strong it is underneath you, and know without a doubt that it is holding you up. Look then to your hands. Look at how your fingers can flex and relax. Hold a pencil in you fingers and feel the texture of that pencil in your hand. Your fingers know just what to do to grip that pencil, and your brain knows exactly what you are holding in your hand. Look around to find a face of someone you trust. Look at them and remember, they are there for you and you know they are your friend and they like so many things about you. Find something in the place where you are that maybe holds your favourite colour. Think about how that colour makes you happy and feel pretty or bold. If there is sunlight nearby, observe how that light makes anything it touches so bright and easy to observe. If you can, look where the sunlight touches things, and observe how much detail you can see. Take in a deep breathe. Is there a smell that tells you a story? Maybe there are flowers planted close by. Breathe in their smell and think of how beautiful they are. Help your mind to remember, you are in a safe place, and you are surrounded by others who know you and support you. This process will help chase away the nervous thoughts.

One last strategy I often use when I am getting anxious and upset is to listen to or sing and dance to music. Now, I know when you are at school and about to take a test, you can’t possibly sing out or start to dance. The teacher and your friends will think you are being silly. Our brains tell us about our fears, and if we don’t chase those thoughts away, they can really take hold. That is why I have a song that I keep in my mind for just these scary moments. It is a song I picked for myself that reminds me when I am afraid or unsure that everything is okay. Sometimes my brain tries to convince me to be afraid when I don’t need to be, so I chase those feeling out by remembering the words to my song.

I am going to write out some of those words for you here, but I sure hope you can find a song that fits just for you.

Brave by Sara Bareilles

Say what you wanna say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

With what you want to say
And let the words fall out
Honestly I wanna see you be brave

I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I just wanna see you
I wanna see you be brave

Friends Ink: June 2024 (from Lisa)

Hello to all of our dear friends at Tesfa’s Shelter!  This is Lisa writing to you from Woodstock.

Summer will be here in a couple of weeks.  Already, we are enjoying lovely warm weather and sunny skies.  We have had lots of rain which is very good for the farmers who have planted their crops.  As you know, Oxford County is agricultural which means that there are a lot of farms here!  Woodstock is a city but it is surrounded by farmland.  Some of the most common crops are: corn, wheat, and soybeans.  There used to be many tobacco farms in Oxford County, but over the years, the tobacco industry has changed – maybe that is partly because smoking is not as common as it once was, thank goodness!  People are not allowed to smoke cigarettes inside of public buildings like restaurants and stores.  Years ago, people could smoke anywhere which was very unpleasant for those of us who didn’t smoke.  I can’t stand the smell of cigarettes and breathing in air polluted by smoking is not good for your health.  I hope that all of you will protect your health and choose not to smoke.

One of the wonderful things about living here in Oxford County is how close we are to farms that grow delicious food.  Late spring (which is the season we are in right now) is time for fresh asparagus, and soon fresh strawberries will be available.  We have farms nearby that you can visit to pick your own fruit.  Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and later this summer, there will be fresh sweet corn that is so delicious to eat.  Later this summer, I will buy lots of corn on the cob and will barbeque it, then put the corn in the freezer so that we can enjoy roasted corn on salads and in soups all winter long.  I also like to buy lots of tomatoes which I roast in the oven and then freeze, so that I can make tomato sauces all winter long.

Some people have vegetable gardens in their back yards to grow their own food.  I do not have a vegetable garden, although I do grow fresh herbs like basil, rosemary, thyme, and parsley, and use those herbs in my cooking.  I would like to grow vegetables, but don’t really have enough room in my back yard.  Plus, I have three dogs who race around the back yard and trample any nice flowers that I plant, so I don’t think a garden would be a success!  I wonder if my dogs would eat the vegetables in a garden?

Even though there is so much wonderful food grown near us, there are many families that cannot afford to eat well.  Groceries are very expensive.  The food that is the most healthy – fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, and proteins like meat and fish – is sometimes something that families cannot afford.  Our schools are noticing that more and more school children are coming to school hungry and do not have a healthy lunch to eat.  So, there will be fundraising done to help pay for school nutrition programs which provide healthy food for all children in the schools.  I will want to give some money to help support that program.  I am grateful that my family has lots to eat, and I am very grateful that Tesfa and Kal are able to provide you with good food to eat to help make you healthy and strong.

I imagine that you will soon be finished school and will have a little break before starting the next school year.  Did you have a successful year at school?  Were there school subjects that you found particularly interesting?  What was the most interesting thing you learned about this year?  When I was in school, many years ago, my favourite subjects were English (learning about English literature), French (which is Canada’s other official language), history, and music.  I did NOT like science and math as much.  But I worked hard and managed to get good marks (usually) even in subjects that I didn’t like.  We all have our own favourite subjects and areas of interest.  Sometimes, a teacher can make all the difference – an excellent teacher who is able to share their knowledge of a subject and inspire their students is one of the greatest gifts a child will have.  I hope you have teachers and other people in your lives who inspire you.  There will probably be many people who you will meet in the years to come who will inspire you.  As you learn and grow as a person, your strengths and your life story will likely be an inspiration to other people, too.  I know that I am always so impressed when I hear about your efforts and accomplishments and how helpful and kind you are to each other.

I will finish this letter now and wish you all a wonderful school break!  I am so excited that your Grandma Shelley will be visiting you again in a few weeks!  I will look forward to hearing about your time together.

With love,
Lisa

Friends Ink: May 2024

Hello sweet friends! Endeminachu or akam!

It’s Megan writing to you this month. I think I begin each letter with this same thought, but I have to repeat myself again - wow, we just LOVE hearing from you!! Your letters bring us such joy and even though we are not together when we read them, the members of Friends Ink - our writing team - share our thoughts with each other by email because it is just so fun so read your stories and learn more about you!

Summer has arrived here in Ontario, where we live in Canada, and that means all the plants have turned green again and the flowers are blooming! I absolutely love seeing the flowers and trees become bright green and put out their colourful blooms after a long season of snow and dead plants. It reminds me that we all go through stages and seasons and that anything can change even in just a few days or weeks!

Nature is so amazing and I always feel better when I get to be outside enjoying all the beauty - or even drops of rain on my face. Grandma Shelley gave me a wonderful red raincoat that she wasn’t using and I wear whenever we get a lot of rain. I always smile and think of her when I put it on! I hope sometimes you look at your Canada T-shirts or any favourite sweaters or pants you have from Canada and think of all of us. We are often thinking of you!

For us here in Southwestern Ontario, it feels really hot right now - the temperatures are between 25 degrees Celsius and some days as high as 31 or 32 degrees! - but we know it would feel pretty normal to you all, because you get lots of heat in Harar.

Since it is warm for us Canadians, we have to make sure we drink water a few times a day. Are you able to drink water throughout the day when it gets hot in Harar? I hope you have access to that to keep you hydrated. You will likely think this is very silly, but I even bring a tiny little water bottle for my pet dog when I take him out for walks!! He is very furry so he gets even hotter than a human under all that hair and I have a water bottle with a little folding bowl so that he can have a drink of water when we go walking. Can you imagine if someone was giving a dog or a donkey on the street in Ethiopia a drink of water? I know that might seem very funny, but some animals get hot just like we do, and some of them need to drink water to stay healthy.

Are there other drinks you like to have on special occasions? I know there is a lot of colourful and sugary pop (or do you call it soda? Or maybe Mirinda?) at shops and restaurants. You have many flavours that we do not get here in Canada! We also love that some of your drinks still come in glass bottles and get recycled.

We were all so touched by your beautiful reflections on second chances. Do you know how strong and brave you are? All of you have overcome big challenges and yet you are still looking for opportunities to seize every day and make a difference.

We are really in AWE of you. You should know that! As much as your Canadians friends love you and want to provide the support you need to have a good life, we are also learning SO much from you! What a gift you are giving us with your wisdom.

The Friends Ink team loved your “second chances” theme so much, we decided to share some of our stories with you in this letter. All of my wonderful Friends Ink buddies have shared experiences from their own lives, so I’m going to give the rest of this letter over to them! I think all of their stories are so impactful and I hope you think so, too. Thank you for inspiring us with your very powerful outlook on life!

Kim’s Story:

In Canada, we often learn to ride a bicycle when we are young children. I grew up on a farm so we had a long laneway. I remember learning to ride my bike for the first time and feeling like this was such an exciting adventure! I had an older cousin who lived near me and she knew how to ride her bike so it looked so easy! It was not easy at all! I still remember losing my balance, falling down and scraping my knees many times. My older cousin was very encouraging and tried to help me. She kept saying, “That's okay! Let’s  keep trying.”  I kept falling and feeling like I would never learn to ride my bike. I felt sad and frustrated, but I didn't give up. With each try, I got better and better. I just kept practising. And guess what? After many attempts, I finally learned how to ride! So, remember, it's okay to fall down sometimes. What matters most is that you get back up and try again. With practice, patience and maybe some courage, you can do amazing things!

Lisa’s Story:

When I was 12 or 13 years old (50 years ago!), my father went to the doctor for an insurance physical and it was discovered that he had an aortic aneurysm.  About a year later, he went into the hospital in Toronto, a big city here in Ontario, for surgery. Tests done just before surgery, though, showed that instead of one aneurysm, he had three, and they would not be able to operate on him -- it was too high risk and they had never done such an extensive surgery on the aorta.

For the next two years, I lived with the knowledge that my dad was going to die.  I had gone to the public library to research aneurysms, and even though my dad did not want my sister and I to know how serious it was, I found out but never told him that I knew. It was a very sad time.

It seemed like a miracle to us when doctors in Texas reached out to my dad's doctors to say that they wanted to meet him to see if there was something they could do for him.  He went to Houston, Texas, and had surgery!  He recovered and lived another 13 years. I was so grateful for that extra time.  He was able to walk me down the aisle at my wedding and see his two grandsons.  The experience of almost losing someone so important to me changed my life.  It showed me what is really important in life and what isn't.

Patti’s Story:

I went to university after my high school education to learn to become a teacher. Unfortunately, when I graduated from University with my Teaching Certification, there were no jobs available in my area for teachers. I tried for two years to secure a job as a teacher, taking supply teacher jobs. Supply teaching means I would cover the work of a full time teacher who might be sick for the day, or for a teacher who needed time off of teaching for a medication condition. These jobs were not reliable, and did not pay enough wages to help me cover my living expenses. Finally, I was forced to take a job in a totally different field of work and abandon my teaching career. I was sad that I did not get to teach, as I really did love working with children.

Last year, 35 years after I gave up on finding a job in teaching, a fellow volunteer for Hearts for Ethiopia asked me if I would consider teaching at the college where she worked. I would be teaching people who had criminal records who were struggling to find work because people looked down on them because of the mistakes of their past. They were looking for a SECOND CHANCE as well. I was really nervous to go back to teaching after all these years, but I decided to be brave and try it. It was my SECOND CHANCE. Guess what? I loved it so much. I am so happy that I got a chance to teach after all those years of missing it. It is something I really love to do. Second chances truly fill a person with gratitude and happiness.

Shelley’s Story:

I am so thankful for second chances. There are many examples when I have had a second chance but the one I think might encourage you is when I was accepted to go to University as a mature student. When I was in high school, we had grade 13 which was a requirement if you wanted to go to university. I was taking very difficult math classes and science classes and I was not doing well with my marks. At the same time, I had a long-distance relationship with a young man who was in his second year of university. I thought I would marry him and knowing that university was going to take me another at least four years to complete, I believed that it would be too hard to wait to be married that long and be so far away from one another. He was my first love.

I was never a natural student. Some of my classes like music, home economics and social studies were my favourites and I got very good marks in those classes but math and science were difficult for me and my marks were not good.

With the combination of really struggling with my math and science classes and thinking it would be too difficult to wait for another four years to marry my boyfriend and be together, I decided to quit school in grade 13. My mom told me I had to have a plan for what I would do with myself before she would allow me to quit grade 13. I decided I would become an esthetician (estheticians do manicures, pedicures, facials and make-up application) and I started that program. I got very good grades and continued to have my boyfriend who lived in the United States.

While I was doing esthetician work part-time, I also started a job caring for elderly people living in their own homes. I broke up with my boyfriend because I realized that I did not want to move that far away from my family and friends. While I was caring for the old people, I realized I really loved them and wanted to be able to do a job that would allow me to improve many elderly people’s lives. I knew I needed to go to university to accomplish my goals. Where I live, universities allow mature students (people who are 21 years or older) to apply to go to university even if they do not have all of the educational requirements. I knew that I would have to do my irst year of university completing a few classes in math and science because I did not have grade 13. Although I knew that would be difficult, I applied, and I was accepted to go to university which I graduated with honors in gerontology (the study of aging).

That university degree allowed me to get my one and only career job as the Executive Director of the Alzheimer Society of Oxford. I worked there in that leadership position for 29 years! The university education allowed me to get the career position of Executive Director and the experience as Executive Director allowed me to develop the skills and gain the credibility to start Hearts for Ethiopia which I love and hope to do until I die.

I hope this will encourage you to know that even when our paths in education may not be direct or in the timeframe others are following, it doesn’t mean you cannot get to where you want to be. Although I felt like I had not succeeded in school like my friends, in the end, I got my education and now have the most favourite work I have ever done in my life … serving you and many other children and women in Ethiopia.

Friends Ink: April 2024

Dear children,

Hi my wonderful young people. How are you? I think about you so often throughout the month, wondering if you are doing well in school, if you are making good friends, if you are eating properly, and if you are staying happy and healthy. Since I don’t have any children of my own, I suppose I think of all of you as my far-away children. I think of you with the heart of a mom.

My own mother passed away 2 years ago, and I still miss her very much. She was so loving and kind. It makes me feel very sad when I know that some children in the world don’t get to experience a good mother. Perhaps many of you at the shelter know what I mean. I am so sorry if that is true for you. I am so grateful that Tefsa and Kal provide a safe place for all of you children to feel like family together. I have heard that Kal is loving and kind like my mother was, and many of you think of her as a mother to you. Isn’t that wonderful?

You know, I do like that our organization is named “Hearts for Ethiopia”. Although some of our volunteers are wonderful men and boys who do a lot of work to support all of you, many of our supporters are women and girls. Whether they are young or old, they approach our work with a heart of love. That is why the current name of our organization seems so right to me. In a way, I also get to act motherly towards all of you when I write my letters, and when I read the letters you write to us. It makes me smile.

The people on the Friends Ink! writing team have a very important job to do on behalf of all of the volunteers. It is our job to make sure each and every one of you know that you have the love of a whole team of mothers here in Canada. And, on top of that, we have father-figures as well who love you just as much. I know we are far away, and can’t throw our arms around you and squeeze you tight the way good mothers and fathers can. We really appreciate that Tefsa and Kal can give out good hugs. We also appreciate that Grandmother Shelley can come to see you and hug you for us. She shows us the pictures of her hugs with each of you, and it makes us feel like we are right there with you. We all have to depend on our imaginations a bit to make it more meaningful, but that’s kind of fun too.

Why don’t you take a moment and close your eyes and wrap your arms around yourself and imagine it is a hug coming all the way across the ocean from all of us here in Canada? I sure hope you can squeeze tight. Hey, while you are at it, maybe you could give a hug to one another just to take our places for this one time. Only if you are comfortable with hugs, of course. I can picture it now, and it makes me so happy.

I want to tell you some more things about me. I love to read books. Reading has always been a bit harder for me because I am very, very slow at it. It was always my most difficult subject at school. I had to work very hard to get a good grade in reading, and sometime all that work didn’t pay off. That made me sad because I did try my hardest. I simply had a difficult time with reading. I had a friend who had the same problem with mathematics. I was very good at mathematics, and always scored a high grade in that subject. My friend would ask me for help to study her mathematics, but she still had a difficult time getting a good grade. It seems like sometimes even when we try hard, we can struggle to do well at certain things. It isn’t always possible to be good at everything, is it. I think the important thing is that we try our hardest.

What do you think? Do you have a subject at school that you struggle with? Do you ask for help from your friends or from Tefsa or from the teachers? I sure understand how frustrating that can feel.

I remember when our friend Lisa from Friends Ink! told you how many books she read in a year and I actually said “wow” out loud. That was a lot of books. I heard about a project that Grandmother Shelley and the organization is working on that will result in your shelter having access to over 100 books. You are getting a library. I have to say “wow” once again. Isn’t that great news? There will be so many opportunities for all of you to read and read and read. My fingers are crossed, my toes are crossed, and heck, even my eyes are crossed that this project will launch very soon.

Can I share some fun news with you? I am actually writing a book and it has just gone off for publication. Although we haven’t settled on the title quite yet, the story is about a young girl who meets a dragon and they become the best of friends. They go on a grand adventure which involves elves and dwarves and magic spells and even some danger. The girl and her dragon are very brave. Do you know what a dragon is? I will send a photo of some dragons from other stories. Dragons are fictional characters, so my story was a lot of fun because of all the imagination I had to use to make the story sound real, even though it could never come true. I am pretty excited about writing my very first book. Do any of you like to write made-up stories?

I have been learning a new sport. It is called Pickleball. Now, there are no pickles involved in the sport, so the name sounds funny. The name actually came from the inventors who had a pet dog named Pickles. The game is played on a court marked with lines to indicate in-bounds and out-of-bounds. I think soccer has lines like that, only on a much bigger scale. Pickleball is played with a paddle that is held in the hand. The paddle is used to strike a plastic ball that has many holes in it called a whiffle ball. Most often the game is played with two people on one side of a net against two people on the other side. There’s even a place on the court called the kitchen, which is also funny, because there is no cooking or eating going on in this kitchen. I think the inventors were just really fun people who love silly names for things. The game is mostly played outdoors, but in Canada, we really have to play inside in a gymnasium during our winter months because of the snow and the cold. I have so much fun playing pickleball. I show up 4 or 5 times a week to play. One time, I actually got to play with another member of Friends, Ink! and we had a great time. I was out of breath after just a short time of playing, and my face hurt from smiling so wide. Has that ever happened to you? The game is helping me to get healthy by moving my body, and I am making lots of new friends at the same time. The game of pickleball is getting so popular, I wonder sometimes if you might even see it played in Ethiopia some day. That would be amazing.

I also want to tell you about a new hobby I am starting to love. I have started to do puzzles. I have heard that Efnan is good at puzzles. Way to go young man! The last puzzle I completed had 1,000 pieces to put together. Wow! That’s a lot of pieces. The reason I enjoy doing puzzles so much is because every time I find a piece that fits in the right place, I celebrate just a little bit. I actually cheer out loud. It feels like I have solved the greatest of challenges each time I find a puzzle piece that fits. On my last puzzle, that was 1,000 celebrations. Can you imagine that?

Now, to be truthful, it can be a bit frustrating to work away at the puzzle for some time and not find a piece to fit. Working on puzzles required a lot of patience. We aren’t all full of patience, just like we aren’t all good at mathematics. I guess that means that puzzles aren’t for everyone. It seems to me that puzzles could teach us a lot about patience, and celebrations. If you get a chance, why don’t you try working on a puzzle and see how your patience grows. Don’t forget to celebrate when you get a piece to fit.

Well, I think that is enough stories from me for this month. Please feel the hug I am sending you, and when Grandmother Shelley is there, try to picture me just once when you are getting a hug from her. I sure do appreciate Shelley for bringing my hugs all the way across the world to my favourite children.

Be Happy and Healthy my dears.

Patti McDonald of Friends Ink!

Friends Ink: March 2024

Hello to all my grandchildren!

I feel so lucky to have all of you in my life. Do you know that I think of you every day?! I wonder about how you are feeling, if you are happy, how you are doing in school … if you have a good friend who you can share your feelings with.

I wish Canada was close to Ethiopia so I could come and visit you a few times a year. I am hoping that Ethiopia will be safe for me to come this summer. I am going to learn how to play the ukelele so I can play and sing and teach you some songs. A ukelele is like a very small guitar. I want to learn it because it is small enough I can bring it on the airplane with me when I come to visit you.

Maybe you could teach me a song this summer in Amharic? The song would need to be short and easy because as you all know, your grandma does not speak Amharic. I am going to continue to try and learn some new Amharic words and I hope that you will try to speak English with me. When I am visiting you, it is a really good opportunity to practice your English. I know you might be nervous or shy to try and speak English because it is not easy for you but I would really appreciate you trying.

Our volunteers are working hard to get ready for our big fundraising event called Gems & Java. We came up with that name because Java is coffee and Ethiopia is the founding place of coffee and one of the main activities of the event is for our guests to shop for jewellery and purses. The word Gems in Gems & Java is for the jewellery we have at our event. We also have an Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony, delicious food, a silent auction (I hope Tesfa or Kal can explain what a silent auction is) and I speak about some of the needs in Ethiopia and how our guest’s donations are making a difference in the lives of women and children.

We are expecting to have 180 guests and about 30 volunteers at Gems & Java. It is a special time for our volunteers because it brings us all together to work for a wonderful purpose … children and women in Ethiopia.

Our organization provides money for five projects in Ethiopia and Tesfa’s Shelter is one of the favourite projects of our volunteers and donors. Do you know why it is one of the favourite projects? First of all, people in Canada think of Tesfa as a hero because he is so brave and he gives so much of himself to help all of you and so many other children and women in Harar. The second reason why your shelter is one of the most favourite projects is because of YOU! Your sponsors and the donors who provide money to the shelter all care very much about you and want to help you reach your potential.

I know you cannot see in person all of the many volunteers, sponsors and supporters who care about you but I hope you can feel the love and care they have for you.

Our winter is almost finished and the next season called Spring is almost here. Most Canadians look forward to the Spring because it means that the weather gets warmer, the grass turns green, the trees grow leaves again, many of our trees flower in this season and the birds lay eggs and baby birds are hatched. Spring is a time of new life.

I take our two dogs for a long walk every morning. I know that is probably a very strange thought for you because dogs in Ethiopia are not walked on leashes but in Canada, many people have a cat or dog or sometimes more than one dog or cat and they live in our houses as a part of our families.

Over the past few days, I have been looking for the spring flowers that are flowering and other flowers that have just started to come out of the ground. Seeing these flowers and knowing that more are coming soon brings joy because I really enjoy the beauty of the colours of Spring.

I am really excited to share some good news with you. For many years, I have wanted to donate a library in honour of my daughter Julia. From the time that Julia came to live in Canada, she has loved books. Before she could speak English, she looked at picture books and I read a lot of books to her. She still likes to read and listen to books. She has learned a lot through books. Hearts for Ethiopia started because of the adoption of Julia. When I was in Ethiopia to bring Julia home to Canada, I saw hundreds of children who were living on the streets and others who were living without enough to eat or clothing to wear. After seeing so many children who didn’t have enough, I wanted to help as many children as I could.

Knowing that most children in Ethiopia would not have books in their homes, I wanted to provide books they could enjoy and learn from. Many people who love to read say that a book can help you learn about a different country, that you can feel like you have travelled to that country without having to get on a bus or on a plane. A book can introduce you to ideas and concepts that you may not have thought about. A book can help you create your own story and your own ideas.

Reading can help you learn new words and information. Do you like to read? Do you like it when someone reads to you? What are your favourite books?

The perfect place to have a library in honour of Julia is your shelter! The reason why it is the perfect place … because you are children myself and all of our volunteers and supporters love and care about. This summer, your shelter will have a small library with books that you can borrow in both Amharic and English.

We have a few volunteers working to select books that I will bring from Canada. There will be many Amharic books purchased in Harar for your library. We will have a special fundraiser to raise money for books. Each year, my plan is to bring some books from Canada and hopefully we can add more Amharic books.

Many of our volunteers and supporters love to read and consider books to be a very important part of their lives. We will all feel so much joy knowing that you will have books to help you develop your knowledge, understanding, imagination and love for reading.

Do you know what I would love to do when I come this summer? I would love for each of us to have a book and to sit and read together for 30 minutes. When those 30 minutes are over, we can share one thing that we learned or that we liked or an idea we had from that book. What do you think? Do you like that idea?

Until I can hug you again, I hope you can feel the hugs I am sending to you from Canada.

Love,

Grandma

Friends Ink: February 2024

Hello my Ethiopian friends! This is your Canadian friend Kim! I am grateful that I get to write to you again! I hope that you are all well and that you celebrated and enjoyed your Christmas! I would love to hear more about your Christmas celebrations!

Thank you for creating and sending us the amazing New Year video. What a treat to see your smiling faces and to hear your cheerful voices. I loved your video messages and I noticed that many of you were wearing your Canada t-shirts! How special! We know that it is not your New Year yet so we really appreciate you wishing all of us, your Canadian friends, a Happy 2024! It must have been a lot of work to create that special video! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! 

Do you have any special celebration days in Ethiopia this month? If you do, please write about them in your letter. I love to learn about your culture and celebrations!

This year, our Canadian winter has been very strange. We have not had nearly as much snow as we normally do. It has also not been as cold where we live in Woodstock, Canada either. Instead, we have had rainy and milder winter days. It means that instead of our ground being covered in white snow, we have lots of mud. It is still early though so we could still get lots of cold and snowy days. I am keeping my hat and mittens ready just in case! Do you remember last year that I talked about Groundhog Day and how some Canadians believe that the groundhog’s shadow can predict how much more winter is left here? I still think it is silly that people believe that an animal can predict the weather. It is kind of a funny tradition. What is the weather like in Harar this year?

You may remember that I wrote to you last year about Valentine’s Day. It is celebrated in Canada on February 14 every year. On Valentine’s Day, we like to show appreciation to our friends and family by sending small cards and eating sweet treats. I like to appreciate my family and friends so I love Valentine’s Day! I have been married to my husband, Paul, for more than 30 years. I know that I am fortunate to have a husband who I love and who I get to spend time with. It is special to share a marriage and close relationship with someone special. On Valentine’s Day, Paul and I ate a special dinner together and we exchanged cards to make each other feel special. He also bought me some special chocolate cookies that he knows are my favourite. 

In your November letter, you shared some of the things that make you feel scared. You were brave to talk about this and share it in your letter. I am glad that you are comforted when you talk to your friends, to Tesfa and to Grandma Shelley when you feel scared about something. Sometimes talking to someone else about your anxieties can be really helpful and make you feel better. Even adults feel anxious sometimes and we need to have strategies to help us. 

In your November letter, you asked about strategies that we have that help our anxiety. When I used to be a school teacher, my students would talk about ways that we can help ourselves to feel less anxious. Just like you, Canadian students have worries and anxieties too. I am going to share some calming strategies with you. These are suggestions that my students used to use so maybe these strategies might help you too.

Four Strategies to Help You When You Feel Anxious:

1. Talk to a friend or adult (maybe Tesfa) about what you feel anxious about (You already had this idea! You are all so wise!!)

2. Close your eyes and think about doing something you love. (Maybe imagine that you are playing your favourite game with your friends and that you are having so much fun!)

3. “Tense and Relax” Strategy

   Scrunch up your face and then relax it. Tense up your arms and then relax them. Tense up your shoulders and chest and then relax. Tense up your legs and then relax them. Breathe in a relaxing breath. Breathe out all of your stress and tension.

4. “Square Breathing”

 Step 1: Breathe in, counting to four slowly. Feel the air enter your lungs.

Step 2: Hold your breath for 4 seconds. Try to avoid inhaling or exhaling for 4 seconds.

Step 3: Slowly exhale through your mouth for 4 seconds.

Repeat these steps at least 4 times or until you are feeling better.

I hope that you will find some time to practise some strategies with Tesfa and the other children at the shelter. After you practise some different strategies, you could pick one that works best for you. I would love for you to write back and let me know if any of these strategies help you.

I also loved your idea of making a list of things that you can control and things that you cannot control. This is another brilliant strategy! I know it is difficult but try not to worry about things that you cannot control! Just focus on the things that you can change and control!

Remember that you are loved by Tesfa and by Grandma Shelley and by your friends in Canada!

I cannot wait to read another one of your letters!

Hugs and love to all of you from Canada!

Your Friend, 

Kim

Friends Ink: January 2024

Hello to all of our loved friends at Tesfa’s shelter! This is Lisa writing to you this month.

Thank you for sending us such wonderful letters. We always love to hear from you and learn more about your lives in Ethiopia. I hope that you are in good health and that your studies are going well.

We have described our winter weather in past letters. It is January and we are in the middle of winter. As I write this letter on my computer, I look out of my window and can see the snow starting to fall. It is currently 4 degrees Celsius outside, although with the wind blowing, it feels colder than that. We have weather channels on television and the Internet that let us know what the weather is going to be like over the next week or so, and there are even weather maps that can show us the size and direction of the storms, and how much snow or rain we can expect. The study of weather is called meteorology and it is quite fascinating! It uses satellites up in space which take photographs of the weather systems over planet Earth. Do you watch weather channels on television or listen to the weather news on the radio? We rely on weather reports, to help us plan when we need to go to the grocery store or other shops to purchase food and supplies that we need, so that we can avoid driving in bad weather. Although we had very little snow up to Christmas and New Years, we have had a couple of bad snowstorms in the past couple of weeks, and are expecting another one this week. As you may know, we are very reliant on our cars to take us places.

Our towns and cities are too big for most people to be able to walk to grocery stores. Many people drive quite a big distance every day to go to their jobs. There are many people who have moved to Woodstock and Oxford County in the last few years because the houses here are less expensive than in big cities like Toronto. But many of these new residents still drive to Toronto or other big cities to go to work. This means that some people are driving in their cars for hours every day, on big highways. The traffic can be very bad. Imagine how much worse it is when it is snowing so hard that you can hardly see the car in front of you! Cities and towns have big machines called snow plows which drive along the streets and highways, pushing the snow off to the side of the road. The snow plows are out in bad winter weather, day and night, to keep the roads safe. Thank goodness! But unfortunately, there are still accidents in winter weather, usually caused by someone driving too fast. Ice on the roads is very slippery, so driving fast in winter is very dangerous.

After a snow storm or an ice storm, our cars are covered in snow and ice and we have to clean them off before we can drive them. We use plastic scrapers to get the ice off the car windshields and windows, and the car’s heating system keeps the windows from getting fogged up so that we can see. We have to allow ourselves lots of time in the morning to get our cars ready and warmed up, and shovel the snow off of our driveways and sidewalks. Otherwise, our cars might get stuck in the snow!

Our houses have furnaces, which run on electricity or natural gas, usually. There are heating ducts (big metal pipes) that go throughout our houses inside the walls, with vents (holes covered by a metal grate) that send the warm air into the rooms. We can control how much heat is sent from the furnace, and our houses are very comfortable and warm. However, there are people who do not have a place to live. We have shelters where some of them can stay, but there are some people who live outside, even in the winter. In our community, there are wonderful agencies that run shelters where people who do not have a home can spend the night. These agencies fundraise – ask for donations of money – to help support the shelters. Next month, I will be walking in an annual fundraiser called “The Coldest Night of the Year”. Hundreds of people participate. We walk 5 kilometers in the cold and ask our friends and family to sponsor us, with the money raised going to support the shelters.

I know how kind and generous you are, and how so many of you volunteer to help others in your community. That is very special. We are so very proud of you all.

After all of that talk about winter weather and the cold, perhaps you think that we must really dislike winter! Some people do, but many of us, myself included, like winter. I like the variety of the seasons here in Canada. When it’s cold outside, it is so nice to stay in my warm house – maybe turn the gas fireplace on and make myself some hot chocolate and read a book.

Do you like to read? What kinds of things do you like to read? History? Storybooks? I’m sure you must have to read and write to complete your school work. Is there a library at your school? Can you borrow books from a library? I ask because I borrow a lot of books from our public library. In 2023, I read a total of 77 books! That’s more than one book every week! Reading is my favourite way to relax, but I also like to read to learn about people and about other parts of the world. Before I retired, I was a librarian working in a public library system here in Oxford County for over 22 years.

Well, I have enjoyed writing to you again. We think of you often and send our love.

Lisa and the Friends Ink team.

Friends Ink: December 2023

Hello to our lovely friends at Tesfa’s Shelter!! It is Megan back again this month!

It’s cold and the snow has started to fall here in Canada. Sometimes that can be a bit of a sad season, because the sun doesn’t come out from the clouds very often and it is dark much of the day. But this month, many people are happy and cozy because it is our time to celebrate Christmas.

I think we already wrote to you last year about many of our traditions, but my favourite part of the holiday this year will be seeing our families and friends! I told you about my sweet nephew in my letter just a few months ago - he is walking and he loves playing with toy trucks. He is not talking yet but he does like to make the “vroom vroom” sound of a truck! We got our nephew a Christmas book this year. I can’t wait to read it together! I also have a few books that have been patiently waiting for me to open them for weeks after I chose them at the library. I can’t wait to have some quiet moments to read those books.

I know Ethiopian Christmas happens a few weeks after Canadian Christmas. What are your favourite activities or traditions that come with celebrating that holiday? If you can share a few with us, we will explain to the rest of your Canadian friends - there are more than 100 people thinking of you over here! - so they can also learn about Ethiopian Christmas.

Another new tradition we hope to start this year is playing lots of games with our loved ones, and having a big contest. I love seeing all of you playing board games or using other toys together at the shelter, especially after Grandma Shelley has brought games to share with you. This year, I hope to play several different card games as a family, just as you play your games together as a family at the shelter. Do you use decks of cards? Is that available in Ethiopia? We started our Christmas celebration last night, and in the evening I suggested we play one of the games. It is called Dutch Blitz. It can feel a little bit wild because everyone plays their cards at the same time, instead of going one by one in a circle. But the baby was already asleep and guess what the family told me? They said we could not play it because I would be too loud!! This made me laugh because I know they are correct! And we did not want to be loud enough to wake up that baby!

I can be very competitive. Do you know that word? I think it is a character trait that can be both positive and negative. I know all of you at the shelter are very driven and strong, and that is part of being competitive. But it is not always nice to take a fun activity like a game and make it very serious - games are about connecting with each other and having fun, not just winning, right?

I have always liked to talk to other people, make jokes and ask lots of questions. I wonder if that is why I became a newspaper reporter? My family likes to tease me about something my very first school teacher said about that part of my personality. In Canada most children begin school at age 4 or 5. This is called kindergarten. In my first classroom there was a little desk where children could go to eat something during the day. We called it the “Snack Table.” In my report card, my teacher wrote that I would act like “Queen of the Snack Table.” I do not think she meant that as a compliment! My family still uses that phrase to tease me a bit, especially if they think I am being too bossy :)

I love to hear stories about all of you at the shelter and how you are all helping each other become the best people you can be! You are developing new skills and learning lessons about how to be a strong and supportive family. All of those characteristics will help you in your lives - at school, on the soccer field, with friends or when you start working. We are always so proud of you all. So many friends and even strangers here in Canada are cheering you on and sending financial help to ensure you have the things you need.

It has been a hard year because there are so many difficult things happening in the world - it is so heavy on our hearts to know so many people are struggling. But do you know what has brought such joy into our lives? Writing to you and reading your letters back to us! We want you to know that you are a huge source of light for all of your Canadian friends. One day, you will be a light for this whole world!!!

We love you and think about you very often! We hope you have a wonderful month and a wonderful Christmas.

Happy, happy, happy holidays our dear friends!

With love,

Friends Ink, on behalf of all your Canadian Friends

Friends Ink: November 2023

Hello dear children!

I can’t tell you how excited your Friends Ink! Team feels about receiving letters from you. It makes our hearts fill with love. Thank you for taking the time to write to us. We are learning so much about you through your letters.

I know sometimes grown-ups don’t talk to children about serious issues, because we don’t want our children to worry or feel afraid. We know that some things going on in your country, and in the world, can feel really scary. It is hard for all of us to understand why there are wars, and why people seem so angry towards each other. It is hard to understand why people can act cruelly to others. That is one reason why I think our letters to each other are so important for all of us. We are getting to know each other, and talk about our differences, and talk about all the wonderful things we have in common. We are teaching the world how to love each other even when we live so far apart. When Grandmother Shelley comes to see you, her hugs are sharing our love with you. We sure appreciate Grandmother Shelley being our arms for you.

If you are feeling worried or afraid, I can understand that. I sometimes feel that way as well. I think it is important for you to know that your father, Tefsa, and other adults around you, are there to listen to your worries. When I am afraid, I know I can talk to my sister, or my dearest friends, and they comfort me. I am so glad that you have one another so you can share your feelings together. Sharing our feelings really helps us to feel less afraid.

One thing I can do when I am feeling worried or afraid is I can draw or paint a picture to relieve my feelings. I can even use my talents to paint pictures which help me express my difficult feelings. Painting a picture often makes me feel so happy, because I am using my gifts to create something beautiful. I also find that sitting down and writing helps to ease my difficult feelings. It doesn’t even have to be about anything serious. Just writing a story even helps me to relax and feel better. Another thing I might do is play a game with my friends. That usually makes me laugh. What are some things that you can do to help you feel a bit better when you are afraid or worried?

I have seen pictures of all of you celebrating birthdays, and other special occasions. I feel like we should all find more reasons to celebrate together. What if we celebrated Friendship? What if we made a special day each year where Friendship is the theme. What fun things could we do? Perhaps we would each send a card to one special friend. We could do something fun like sit and watch a movie together, and eat sweet snacks. We would have to come up with a perfect song about friendship, and then sing it all together. We would need a friendship dance, and a special friendship handshake as well. What fun we could have making up a new celebration for friendship.

I love food - so much. I saw you celebrating Mangos, I think? What a great idea. I am thinking it would be so fun to celebrate one of my favourite foods - Pizza. I want an International Pizza Day. On that day, everyone could celebrate pizzas. Do you eat pizza? It is one of my favourite fun foods. Here in Canada, we can make or buy pizzas with just about any toppings - even pineapple, and anchovies (you might have to google what an anchovy is, and I think you will be surprised). We start with a bread dough, flattened out by spinning it in the air. Then we spread a sauce on the dough, usually a spicy tomato sauce. After that, we layer on whatever we like to put on a pizza. I usually put peppers and mushrooms and spicy meat, and of course, pineapple. Shredded cheese then covers the whole thing, and into the oven it goes. Yummy!!!! Hot and delicious. You children have given me a great idea! Celebrating yummy things!

It is fun to imagine wonderful things we can celebrate together. It helps us to think a little bit less about our worries, and more about how fun it is to share time together. I am certain that the children of Tefsa’s shelter know that your Father, your friends here at Friends Ink! and your many supporters here in Canada and in Ethiopia understand that sometimes things are scary and sometimes it is hard not to worry. All of us want you to know that we are here to comfort you and encourage you. Keep focused on the things you can control - like your school work, like your kindness/volunteer projects, like your tasks at the shelter, and remember that so many people love you.

Next time Grandma Shelley hugs you, picture all of your friends here at Friends, Ink! We love each and every one of you. I wonder if we each keep setting good examples of love and acceptance, and if we keep working hard at supporting each other and encouraging each other, if the world will see our example, and want to follow us? Let’s imagine that is true! We are making the world a better place simply by loving each other.

Until next time, goodbye from Patti, writing for Friends Ink!

Friends Ink: October 2023

Endeminachu! Akam!

Hello dear friends - I have tried to remember the wonderful new words you taught me in one of your recent letters!

I am so impressed with the many languages you all know (or are learning). I only speak one language, English, even though I took classes for almost 15 years to help with my French. One summer I went to a very small town in Quebec where almost everyone speaks French and took part in a special learning experience there. I lived with a family and had to speak French all the time. I am sad to say I am still not very good at it. I need to try again and keep working at it. All of you at Tesfa’s Shelter inspire me to put more effort into learning a second language. It’s important to always be learning! Even when things are challenging, we should not give up. I think my main problem is that I am scared to look silly when speaking a language I do not know very well, because I know I will make mistakes. Isn’t that a strange reason not to try? I need to push myself past that fear!

Canada has two official languages, English and French, which means many of our products here have to include labels in both languages. For example, packages of food show ingredients in both English and French. I went to university in Ottawa, which is the capital of our country. Since our federal government is based there, French is very prominent.

Sometimes I even have some trouble remembering the words I am trying to use in my one language. Haha! Does that ever happen to you? You can think of what you want to say, but your brain can’t think of the word?

In one of your last letters, you said you were reading fiction on your vacation from school - what did you read? Do you have any favourite books that are enjoyed by many of you at different ages? I love reading. When I am giving gifts to the children in my life - such as my friends’ kids or my little nephew - I try to always give at least one storybook to help others develop a love for reading like me! Our sweet nephew is named Jayden and he just turned one year old! We got him a book about a baby duck and the pages had a duck with a little circle of fuzz you could touch with your fingers. We also got him a book about bathtime.

I like going to the public library, which is a service funded by our government so that everyone in the community can borrow books and then return them so others can also read them. Do you have a library at your school? One of my favourite activities is picking out a big stack of new books to read. Do you want to hear something a little bit funny? I usually pick based on the covers that attract me. In English, we have a phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover,” which is a reminder that people and situations in life are not always as they seem at first. Someone may be very different inside compared to our first impression! Though I try not to judge people based on how they look, I actually do judge books by their covers! I hope this still makes sense when it is translated to you - I know some “expressions” do not really work when they are converted into other languages.

You also asked us to share any other manners we thought were important! I loved reading the characteristics and etiquette that you are learning. One lesson that is close to my heart is picking up after yourself. Sometimes that is inside, like in the rooms where you sleep, or cleaning up after a meal, but it also means not leaving garbage lying around! That litter, like food packaging, soda bottles or plastic bags can get into rivers or lakes or other places in nature and create a big problem! Kids in our neighbourhood leave the wrappers from their snacks around our home when they are playing outside and it really upsets our family. In most Canadian cities, the government comes to collect our garbage outside people’s homes, so there is no excuse for leaving pieces of it on the ground! I know it can be hard not to do something when other people are doing it, but all of you at Tesfa’s Shelter are true leaders at your school and in your community. You could show others the way by not littering.

It is so amazing that some of you are learning to drive a car! What a privilege it is to learn and have that skill! I love to drive. Sometimes I do get a little upset when other drivers are not following the rules of the road. I do not think I would be brave enough to drive in very big and very busy cities, like Addis Ababa. I once was able to visit Uganda, and driving in their capital city seemed very scary to me!! They use many roundabouts - do you know that word? Maybe it is called a traffic circle where you live? - and everyone all drives into the circle at once, including buses, cars, motorbikes, trucks and all sorts of other vehicles. I had to close my eyes because I always felt like we were about to crash! I hope the driving lessons are going very well for you 🙂

Have a wonderful month my friends!

Love,

Megan, on behalf of the entire Friends Ink team

Friends Ink: September 2023

Hello from Canada!

It is my turn to write our children a letter, and I want to share with you about my travels this past summer. Yes, for Canada, summer is about to come to an end. In some ways it can be sad, but once the fall leaves arrive and their colours make us smile, we remember that seasons change to bring something new. That’s all good. I think you have season changes in Ethiopia, too. How do you like the season changes? What is your favourite season?

This summer I traveled in Canada to the east coast to a province called New Brunswick, then one month later, I traveled all the way out to the west coast to the province of British Columbia. If I were driving, the distance between these two points is 5954 kilometers, which would take 56 hours of driving time without stopping to sleep. When we say Canada is big, we mean BIG!!! I did not drive this distance - because that would be a bit tough to do.

It might be fun to look at the places I traveled to on a map. See if Tesfa can show you where I went.

To go out east, I drove in my car, which is powered completely by electricity stored in a big battery. That means instead of stopping for petro-fuel to fill up a tank, I have to stop to plug my car in to re-charge its giant-sized battery. I can drive for about 4 hours before I have to stop for a re-charge. It takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes to recharge the battery, so that is a good time for me and my passengers to eat a good lunch, go for a walk, and have a washroom break. Sometimes we even had time to read a little bit from our books. I was reading a spooky book written by Stephen King called “Fairy Tales”, so sometimes it was hard to put it down to get driving again.

This trip took us 15 hours of driving, so we broke the trip up into two days to make it more pleasurable. We scheduled a stop in the province of Quebec, which sits between Ontario (where I am from) and New Brunswick. In Quebec, the official language is French. I only know a few words in the French language, like, “Thank you”, “Please”, and “Where is the bathroom” - all important words when you are traveling. All Canadian children learn to speak the French language in our school days, but that was a very long time ago for me, and I have forgotten so much of it. We have a saying here that says, “Use it, or lose it”, and I think when it comes to learning a different language that is really true.

My friend who traveled with me, along with her dog, is a friend of mine from High School. We graduated from High School way back in 1980, so we have known each other for over 40 years. We were traveling to visit another old school friend who owns a small home in New Brunswick in the town of St. Andrews-By-The Sea. This little town truly rests right against the ocean waters. The Atlantic Ocean washes ashore into the Bay of Fundy, and St. Andrews is right along this bay. I have included a map so you can see where I am talking about.

The coolest thing we did (and by cool I mean interesting and fun) was we drove to Minister’s Island in a car right over the ocean floor. Isn’t that crazy? In St. Andrews, they experience the biggest tide changes. Does anyone know what a tide is? Look-up what you can find out about tides. They are so interesting.

I’ll help you out for now.

A tide is the rising and then falling of the sea waters, usually twice in each day, due to the attraction of the moon and sun to water. That’s right. The sun and moon cause the ocean waters to rise up for about 6 hours, then to go back down again. It’s amazing to watch. In St. Andrews, we saw the water levels raise 28 feet or more twice a day. From low water to high water takes about 6.2 hours and in that time up to 2¼ billion tons of water swill into the Bay through the passages. That’s a LOT OF WATER! Carefully watching the time of day, we were able to drive across the ocean floor from the mainland to Minister’s Island during low tide because we could actually see the ocean bottom. Of course that meant we also had to time our trip back to the mainland so we weren’t stuck on the island over night by the rising sea levels. I will show you pictures. What FUN!!!! I hope someday you can see how tides work - it is such an amazing thing to watch. I was completely surprised to see how tides work.

I ate the most prized food of the east coast. A lobster. In Ontario, we have to pay a lot of money to eat lobster, but on the east coast, they are plentiful and easy to buy. We bought our dinner straight from the fisherman who caught it out of the sea that day. I know lobsters probably don’t look too tasty on the outside, but once you crack open the hard shell, oh my, the meat inside is so yummy.

For my trip to the west coast, I had to take an airplane for 5 hours, then a ferry ride for 2 hours, then a car ride for 1.5 hours to get to our townhouse sitting right on a lake in the mountains. The difference between the lake water and the sea water is salt. The sea water has a lot of salt in it, and the lake water is fresh, clear water that you could drink. I got to go kayaking on the lake water, and I am still smiling from this. A kayak is a small, low oblong boat that normally only one person can fit in. The paddle has two blades, so you can stroke through the water with both arms and get going super fast. Kayaking is so fun.

On the west coast, we stayed on Vancouver Island beside a lake called Sproat Lake. It was voted the most beautiful lake in all of the province of British Columbia, and I know why. Wow!!!! So pretty. To drive anywhere from our location, we had to take highway 4. This highway is famous because of how curvy and windy it is. We were driving around curve after curve, climbing up and then down the sides of mountains and we had to go very slowly. The sights were so amazing, it took our breath away sometimes. I was a bit dizzy from the drive, I have to admit.

On one exciting moment of my trip to the west coast, I rode on a ski-lift chair to the top of Mount Washington, then peered out across the lands from way up there. It was cold up there. And we could see so far. Because we are having problems with forest fires in Canada, there was a bit of smoke in the air that clouded our view. I hold all the people fighting fires in Canada in my heart whenever I think about how hard they are working to save our forests. I have to admit, I was a bit afraid of the ride on the ski-lift, but I didn’t want the children who were with us to know that. They were so brave.

I was so happy to put my toes in the Pacific Ocean in the town of Tofino, British Columbia, because those same toes had also been in the Atlantic Ocean just a month early. What a fortunate person I am. I feel so grateful to be able to experience my own country from one coast to the other. Canada truly is a beautiful place to live.

I know that it is a privilege to be able to travel. I do not forget how fortunate I am to be able to travel to see my own country, and then share this experience with you. If there was somewhere in the world that YOU could travel to, where would that be? To be honest, I hope one day, I might be able to travel to Ethiopia to see all of you. That would be a dream come true!

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my adventures. I hope you enjoyed learning about tides, and found seeing my pictures interesting.

Friends Ink: August 2023

Hello to all of my grandchildren!

I started to miss you the day I left Harar! I am so thankful and happy I was able spend time with you this July. One day, I am hoping to be able to spend a lot more time than one week with all of you. I hope that time will come sooner than later.

I have so many special memories from my trip. I loved the welcome you gave me and that you call me Grand Ma. I never thought I would be so blessed to have 95 grandchildren (including Christina). God has really given me such a gift in all of you! I feel so lucky.

The Team Tesfa Awards ceremony and party, playing games, singing, dancing, the Canada Day party, giving and receiving hugs and cuddles and just being with you has given me so many memories that I will think of until I can see you and be with you again. I am so proud of all of you. I know that you work hard at school, you help in the shelter and you all try your best to be good and loving to the other children, to Tesfa, Kal and the others who care for you.

The Team Tesfa Awards are given to recognize, acknowledge and reward the children who have achieved the top of each category. I am so thankful to be a part of the Awards Ceremony. I want to say to all of you whether you have received a Team Tesfa Award or not, when you do your best, when you give your best effort to anything you are involved in, I am going to be as proud of you as I am the winners of each of the categories. My mom has told me since I was young that “if something is worth doing, it is worth doing very well.” We are not all going to get the best marks in our class, we are not all going to be the top athlete, we are not all going to be the most creative and that is okay. What is important is that you are doing the best you can do and that you are working to be the best you can be in all areas of your life.

When I am in Harar with you, I want you to know that I would really like you to talk to me and tell me what you do to do your best, what you are proud of about yourself, what you have difficulties with, what makes you happy, what makes you worried, what makes you sad, what makes you laugh. Do you know what I am saying? I am saying that each of you is very important to me and I really would like to get to know each of you. It is harder because I don’t speak your language but Tilahun can interpret for me and we can get to know each other through his interpreting.

Do you know what I am excited about? I am excited to see you as you grow up, finish school, decide what you would like to do with your lives and how you will serve others. What I value the most in others is how they give of themselves to show compassion and care for others. Some of you have already decided to help others through your volunteer work and that makes my heart sing. I am so happy that our organization is able to make it possible for you to celebrate your birthdays. Our volunteers and donors want you to feel special and recognized and celebrated.

My birthday was on August 12 th and I turned 56 years old. I cannot believe that in four years, I will be 60 years old!! That seems so strange to me that I could be that old. When you are very young, you think of 60 as being old but now that I am getting closer to being 60, I don’t think of it the same as I used to. Julia and I went to the beach and packed a picnic lunch to eat there to celebrate my birthday. We had egg sandwiches, watermelon, potato chips and cookies. We had a really nice day at the beach. One of my favourite places to be is by the water. When the sun is shining, it looks like sparkles on the water. The beach we like to go to is about one hour away (by car) from our home. The water is very shallow for a long ways and you can walk out a long distance before you cannot touch the bottom of the lake. Some days, the wind is strong and the waves are big and Julia and I love jumping over them. We have been visiting that beach since Julia was very young.

This is the last week before school starts here in Canada. The children are all thinking about the summer ending, who will be their teachers, will their friends be in their classes, what will they wear on the first day of school (most schools do not have uniforms here) and probably feeling excited about a new school year starting, a bit nervous and a little sad that the summer is almost over. How are you feeling about school starting soon? Do you feel excited? Do you feel a bit nervous? Are you going to miss the time you have to play and relax that you have in the summer?

Are you having fun with all the games, toys and activities Tesfa is putting out for you to use through the summer? I had so much fun and it brought so much joy in my heart to see you all playing and having fun with the things our organization has sent for you to play with.

Efnan, are you still helping the other children with doing the puzzles? You are so good at puzzles. Please practice doing the puzzles so when I come back next time, we can have a contest with groups and how fast you can put a puzzle together. I know one thing I should bring each time I come to Ethiopia … Smarties! Am I right? I think you all loved our Canadian candy/chocolate called Smarties. Would you like to have a Canada Day party every summer I can come and be with you? That was such a fun day!!

Here is something you don’t know about your Grand Ma … one way I make money is as a baker. I bake scones every Thursday for customers who order in advance and come and pick up the scones at the end of the day. I have four flavours … plain, raisin, cranberry/orange and blueberry/lemon. On Thursdays, I start making the scones around 7 in the morning and I finish cleaning up around 7 at night. It is a long day but it is nice to know that people like my baking enough to order them. I have sent pictures of me baking and of my scones. Do you recognize me with my baking outfit on?

Always remember that your Grand Ma loves you and cares about you and that you have more than 100 volunteers and donors who also love you and care about you. You are very loved!

Be ready to give and receive a lot of hugs and cuddles when I can come back to Harar and be with you!

Grand Ma