Sunrise and Why I'm Here

Dear Friends,

Wow. I'm in Addis Ababa right now, listening to morning birds chirping, and to the amplified, acute sound of prayer calls echoing around this city It's just me and my laptop in the living room. And the silly house dog curled next to me. I don't really know what day/time it is, but I know it's around 6am. I just watched the sun slowly slowly rise. It's brilliant and burning over the stone wall of the house, silhouetting the power lines and razor wire. Ouch, that hurts to look at. Just trust me, it's legit.

So, here I am, beginning my 8 weeks in Ethiopia. And I just realized that I haven't told you what I'm doing yet. Now's a good time:

For four weeks, I'll be volunteering with an organization called "Cherokee Gives Back." They operate a volunteer house here in Addis Ababa that partners with 10-ish other local NGO's to place volunteers in service positions and host them while they serve. Specifically, I'll be teaching at a school, "Destiny Academy," and doing marketing work for a home for the blind, "Hulugeb's." Details are TBD, but I'll meet with the organizations in the next two days to learn more. I'll live at the Cherokee house (I'm there now), and volunteer every weekday from 9ish-5ish. Weekends are off, and spontaneous. Then, the second 4 weeks, I'll be living with some friends from home here in Addis Ababa, and working with an organization called "Geneva Global." They're legit, and they do performance philanthropy--essentially connecting high net-worth donors with small, effective, bottom-up organizations. Check them out at http://www.genevaglobal.com/. In a couple of days, Matt Keshian will join me here at the Cherokee House (Duke almost-senior, bff with Robert Ryan, spent SB with me canoeing through the Everglades, brilliant man who's writing a business plan for a leper colony), and in a couple of weeks, Conor McWade will join me too (schmuck, my boy). Interspersed in the 8 weeks, I'll be travelling around Ethiopia (again, TBD), eating crazy things, and volunteering with other organizations in a small capacity, just to explore. There is SO much to do here, I wonder if 8 weeks is enough. I'm crazy excited, and so much of this'll just be spontaneity, and reacting to my experiences moment by moment. I don't have a long itinerary, and I like that. It's just me, in Ethiopia, ready to listen. I'm listening.

I'm about to eat a stray muffin on the table, 'cause I'm hongry,
-Chris