Brennan's December Blog

2010-12-15

This past month, I have been extremely busy with traveling. I have never before experienced only being home for a couple days for an entire month. These long awaited trips were very thrilling and I took away a lot from each of them. Now, I had a great time at the Ultimate DECA Power Trip as well as the DECA New York Experience, but I decided to write my article on my trip to Africa. For about two weeks, I visited the country of Ethiopia. The reason behind the trip was primarily for Project Mercy, Colorado DECA’s charity of choice.

Just a quick background of the Project Mercy foundation: It has been around for almost 20 years and was started by, literally, the wisest married couple I have ever met. To better understand their intelligence, I thought I would list a fact about each of them. Demi has invented many things in his life but one of them is required to be in every radar plane around the world. Marta, was elected as the first woman Senator of Ethiopia. Their goal is not to constantly provide aid to these Ethiopian Families, but rather give them an education and the tools so that they can eventually be successful on their own.

Project Mercy is a compound filled with classrooms, a cafeteria, dorms for 80 orphans, a church, a hospital, and a soon to be high school. It offers aid mainly to students from pre-school to 12th grade. This aid includes essentials that most of the students don’t have, such as food and clean water, a uniform, and an education. Project Mercy can only provide services to close to 1,500 students. Unfortunately, they have to turn away thousands of other children every year. Those lucky enough to attend Project Mercy, sometimes walk up to three hours one way, just to get to school. In Ethiopia, it is a requirement to take a national test in 8th, 10th, and 12th grade. This test is similar to ACT or SAT but students must pass the exam to move on to the next grade. Meaning that if they fail, their school career is finished. The select few who pass the 12th grade exam, head off to a university. However, the government chooses what career path they must pursue, depending on their test scores.

I always knew that my trip to Ethiopia would be inspirational, but I did not know that it would change my life completely. I won’t keep you here all day, so I decided I would just go over several key points. The first thing that impressed me was the students’ willingness to learn. Some of these students will walk through the mountains before the sun rises for up to three hours, just to get to school. Plus, when they do get school, every single student participates. I was in English class one day, and all 60 kids would call me over to make sure that they had the answer or ask questions so they could get that right answer.

The thing I took away most from the trip was the love and friendship that I received when I was there. From young to old, I don’t think I met one angry person while I was there. Even though I was a complete stranger, they acted as if I was their best friend. I was constantly giving handshakes, high fives, hugs, holding hands, or picking up children who just wanted to be loved. It was remarkable because for the most part they didn’t know my name, my age, my background, or even my language. The country was full of unconditional love and I will never forget my time spent there.

I guess the reason that I am writing this article, is to express the importance of donating to others. I would just like to encourage community service to anyone reading this. Not only does it help complete strangers, but you can also find a lot about yourself. For example, my trip to Ethiopia completely changed my life. I will never look at life the same, and I will continue to donate to Project Mercy for the rest of my life. If you have any further questions or want more information regarding community service or Project Mercy, let me know. If you want to see photos from my Ethiopian Trip, just go to my Facebook. Thank you so much for reading and have a happy holiday season.

Sincerely,

Brennan Boehne