We got to see all of this great progress first hand. We of course were delighted to see that they were able to completely construct a barn to house livestock. As you may remember from this past December, over $5,000 was raised to help build this barn and purchase the cows needed to "occupy" the land and meet the land requirements that allowed TOG to protect this piece of property.
Currently, they have two mommy cows and two new baby cows that now call TOG home.
They've started a large garden down by the creek and a small one up by the kitchen-which is now a brand new covered kitchen area (Karen's team built it in November) so they no longer have to cook for all of these kids outside (which couldn't have been too much fun during the rainy season).
There is a new playground with swings, a slide, parallel bars, and a merry-go-round (totally wouldn't meet safety protocol in the US, but looks like lots of fun:)
They've also got a soccer field now, new paint in the school rooms, some desks, chalk boards and school supplies (still pretty primitive-but much improved from September).
(The green building is the schoolhouse)
In addition to all of this, two of the buildings have been turned into dormitories for the orphan children and staff to live in.
That's pretty awesome change in just 5 months--especially in Ethiopia were things can often progress at a snails pass (especially adoption proceedings these days:-) :-) :-)
Next up, I'll introduce you to the best part of the whole trip--THE KIDS!!!
Amazing!!!
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