Today is our last day in Soddo.  We will give a presentation to our clients Harry, Stephne, Mark and Sidney. We will be packed with the bus loaded by noon. Tonight we will stay at the Savanah resort (for construction research…) half way between Soddo and Addis Ababa. We will be flying out of Addis Ababa Sunday night. We will be without internet access until Monday night when we land in Phoenix.

Thanks for following us throughout our trip. We are grateful for the opportunity to visit Soddo and to be part of Wolaitta Village.

We would especially like to thank Harry, Stephne, Mark and Sidney for their gracious hospitality.

Love to everyone back at home. We are looking forward to seeing you again and sharing our amazing experience.

The EthiopiaStudio is in good spirits and working hard. Our day started with a full morning work session with the entire team.  The team has been hard at work! At three this afternoon we took a break and walked to one of the local mid-rise buildings and enjoyed some refreshments on the roof. Unfortunately they were out of their famous avocado fruit drink… We enjoyed coffees, Cokes and papaya drinks instead!

Once again our host Stephne prepared us delicious pasta dinner. As we post this right now, we are all working hard to preparing a presentation for Harry and Stephne tomorrow. After the presentation we will begin our journey back to Tempe.



This morning we were able to get a lot of work done, followed up with an authentic Ethiopian coffee ceremony. We hopped in Bajajs (3-wheeled “taxi” motor carts) and rode up to take part in the food distribution to locals in need. The people there were extremely grateful and humble. We then spent some time at the local market which was pretty wild. The children bombarded us and dozens of people yelled to us to buy their goods as we walked through the mud and chaos. Our dinner was a delicious, authentic Ethiopian dinner. We ended the evening with a presentation of our block plan to Henock, the orphanage manager, and it was well received.

Today we started out our day doing some individual group work and finishing up some loose ends from the day before.  Then we all grouped up and headed over to CCC orphanage where we got a chance to meet some amazing children and remarkable staff members.  There we got the chance to tour the facility and ask lots of questions in order to better understand how the orphanage functions.  And of course there was time to play with the kids!  We had a great time giving out soccer balls and running around with the children.  After our time there we walked over to the younger children’s orphanage (CWA) and had lunch prepared especially for us by the staff as a token of appreciation.  The food was fantastic and afterwards we had some time laughing and singing with the kids.  When we got back home we regrouped and began our initial layout phase on the site map.  Now that we have some layout ideas we will be sharing this with Stephne and Harry and will be open and looking forward to their feedback.

Site Group:

The site team (Arundhati, Ashlee, David, and Morgan) documented the slope, terrain and existing vegetation. Due to lack of technology in Soddo, the team was restricted to a couple a couple of tape measures and a laser level provided by Mark Lauder (our construction manager) to determine the slope of the site. The Documentation will help provide a site plan for us to begin laying out the programming blocks.

Materials Group:

Today, the materials group (Dusty, Ed, Matt, and Sal) researched the local shops in Soddo. We went to the local lumber yard, CMU block producer, furniture shop, and metal work shop. We also toured a catholic school under construction in Soddo, allowing us to see high quality work produced in the area.

Before coming back for lunch, we went to a local restaurant that sells avocado drinks. They were delicious.

Programming Group:

The programming group (Heather, Jack, Stacey, and Tommy) forged through the rest of the programming with Stephne and completed the space needs list. It is great to have a starting point for square footage so we can create our gaming chips to establish some adjacencies and building relationships. We are also going to start generating room data sheets for each space.

Everyone was up early today.  At 6:30 we took a hike up the village road in the deep fog.  We reached the top of the hill in the haze of the morning and were able to experience a cultural center with local huts and ruins.  The scene was awe-inspiring.  After lunch we started programming the orphanage with Stephne, figuring out spatial and functional requirements for the project. Then we broke out into small groups (local materials, site research and programming) and worked until dinner time.

(images from left to right: group photo during morning walk, programming with Stephne, materials research group studying local building technologies)

Happy New Year! Today is the first day of 2003 in the Ethiopian calendar. After a delightful breakfast, prepared by Stephne, we hiked up to our site – the first step out of the hospital campus experiencing Soddo first hand. The journey was eventful, stopped by the orphanage and had a quick look at the present accommodations the children are living in – our clients! Children on the streets followed us and they were much excited to shake our hands and give fist pumps; a love and warmth that emanated from the entire community. The first experience of the site was of serene beauty overlooking the rest of the town. The afternoon was spent with Harry and Stephne Bowers (our clients) and Mark (the builder) discussing their vision and goals for Wolaita village.

Our trip is now two days away! We are anxious to begin our journey to Soddo!  Thank you to everyone who has contributed both money and goods for the kids in Ethiopia. We look forward to seeing their reactions! We will make sure to share our experiences and hope to update our blog while in Ethiopia.