After six weeks in India, we’re heading to Ethiopia. Telling people we’re going to Ethiopia for six weeks is akin to telling them we’re going to Baghdad with a target on our foreheads. Occasionally, we get blank stares, sometimes people yell, “What? Why?!” but usually we get an “Oh, Ethiooooopia.”

Guess what? We know all of the following about Ethiopia, so you don’t need to tell us: Ethiopia is in Africa; Ethiopia is poor; Ethiopians have AIDS.

Those three reasons are actually the three reasons we’re going there. We’ve never been to Africa. We wanted to go somewhere where we could volunteer. We wanted to volunteer with HIV+ kids.

And so, we will be spending six weeks working at AHOPE for Children in Addis Ababa, an orphanage for kids with HIV. Now is when I tell you that you cannot catch HIV just by hanging out with infected kids, so chill out. Unless I decide it’s a great idea to suck their blood (which I only do on a full moon), the chances are practically nil that we’ll catch it.

Why Ethiopia in particular? Well, T had an aunt who went there when he was little, so he’s been interested in it for a while, and when I was a kid, I started a fundraising group for kids there, so I’ve been interested in it for a while. It’s meant to be beautiful, with lovely people and a wicked long history, as we say in Maine. As for AHOPE, I sponsor a little boy there and they need volunteers. Decision made.

A lot of people think we’re crazy for doing volunteer work instead of just traveling for fun. (ALERT: SELF-RIGHTEOUS RANT TO FOLLOW) This is the deal: I had never seen real crushing poverty until I went to Asia. Now that I have, I want to try to do something about it, so that I am not just another rich white westerner going to another poor brown country to stare at them and buy cheap stuff. (RANT ENDS HERE)

And I promise, I won’t come home with 10 babies. (The INS won’t allow it.)