The Stars Will Never Align

*I am on a email list for Go Big Network and wanted to send you some helpful information for starting and owning your own business. This is one of their Funding Tips series.

GoBigNetwork

Business Funding Series:
You're Already Ready

Entrepreneurs often ask themselves when the right time to start a company might be. They hang around waiting for the stars to align, for their moment of inspiration to hit, and for their career to prepare them for something big.

Well I have some bad news for you. The stars will never align. The brilliant flash will probably never come, and nothing you will learn or do working for someone else will make you more ready to start your own company.

Now here's the good news – none of that matters. The truth is that you're already ready. There's absolutely nothing to hold out for in order to start your company. You really just need to get off your butt and get started. If you still aren't convinced, and think you've got a few more excuses under your belt, let's get rid of those right here and now.

You don't need more education

No matter what you're about to learn in school (short of becoming a surgeon) it's not going to make a lick of difference in starting your company. Sure, you may learn how basic accounting and bookkeeping works, but who cares?

You're not going to do so much revenue in your first year that your bookkeeping skills are going to make or break you. Even if you do, you can hire a professional bookkeeper for peanuts and never think about it again.

Anything you don't know now you can either figure out when you need to or find someone else that knows the answer. More importantly, there isn't a class in any school's catalog that will teach you how to take huge risks and always succeed. You'll learn more in your first year of running a business than you will in your undergraduate and MBA tenure combined.

Highlighted Ethiopian Centers and Foundations

I have been having a great time interviewing Ethiopian centers and foundations for presentation in the upcoming year. I am amazed at the stories I have heard so far. You are going to enjoy hearing about these organizations in the trenches of non-profit battlegrounds. They are leading the way, throughout the United States, in humanitarian work, while they all hold full time jobs and some with families. Below are a list of candidates for the interview series (note there is no specific order to the list). Here's the line up:

• Ethiopian Community Center in Sacramento (ECCS)
• Ethiopian Dream Center (EDC)
• Wegene Ethiopian Foundation (WEF)
• Kidmia Foundation
• Ethiopian American Foundation
• The Praxis Ethiopia Foundation
• Marium Orthodox Church's Center

*Presentations will be featured on The Ethiopian Foundation's website.

The Ethiopian Foundation

The Ethiopian Foundation is here! As a result of contributions, hard work and great friends, TEF can continue it's work in helping Ethiopians abroad and coming in 2011, those here in the United States. This has been a dream for along time and it's exciting to see it take fruitation. My next goal is to give TEF the wings it needs to become large enough to take on its own entity, becoming self sustaining. The members of TEF want to build a connection between the work in Ethiopia to the Ethiopian community in the states. Here are our priorities:


The Ethiopian Foundation:

• Providing Scholarships
• Integrative Education and Training
• Crisis Intervention

We will keep you updated on our progress in the weeks to come.
All the best and Happy Holidays,
Our Trip to Ethiopia &
The Ethiopian Foundation

*We will be presenting the a Center in Sacramento as the next highlighted organization for the month of December.

Fundraising Efforts for OTTE

For the month of December we will be be interviewing different organizations who are helping the poor and needy. I wanted to start with "Our Trip to Ethiopia" (OTTE). OTTE is now incorporated under a new name. I will give more detail at the launch date. Until then, we have started our fundraising efforts for next years projected date for delivering funds to the children of Ethiopia. Hopefully, next year will bring more opportunity to help Ethiopian families here in the states.

We started our fundraising efforts using this blog as a voice to our humanitarian work, documentation for giving and encouragement for others to do the same. It's about finding your own voice and making a difference. This year is a new challenge as we have moved. I have been researching new ideas and prospects for raising donations. For now I came up with the idea of winter scarves that I started crocheting in October. I made 10 and they were all sold in one day. I am so happy but have to make 10 more to replace by Christmas, for my original targeted customers. I will be able to make it so I am not worried. I will be shipping them next week. I wish sooner but I want them to be quality work. I will probably sell more after the holidays. You can see a sample of a few below.

Funny I never thought I crocheted well enough to sell. I used to have heart disease that kept me in the hospital for two months, when I was a 11 years old. A nurse taught me how to crochet and the first thing I made was a yellow and green blanket. I rarely crochet now and picked it up as I had an eagerness to make something. I started with one scarf and couldn't stop. Ideas and creations continue to fill my mind. I want to start knitting also. I am a little rusty but inspired. Who would have known, hidden talent so small could help make a difference?

December Update

As you know I like to write about Ethiopia and humanitarian giving. Every now and then I like to write about an interesting fact on Ethiopia or Ethiopians. I also like to do Guest Posts. Hopefully we will have some more for you. But my favorite is Post Presentations.

For the month of December, Our Trip to Ethiopia will be focusing on other organizations making a difference in helping others. I will be researching and doing real time interviews asking the questions you want to know about these organizations.

Next year I hope to present the the non-profits we are targeting for giving contributions. It will be special because we finally have our own non-profit which I will announce, so I am so excited. Of course it will start off small and in a few years really grow to meet the needs. Thanks for your support.

The Famous Abduction

I love the science of Astronomy and have always been interested in time travel, worm holes far off galaxies and one day working for NASA. I also knew about the famous stories of witnesses who saw flying saucers and claimed to be alien abductees. One such famous story which captured our full attention and went down in history as the leading account of the 1961 Alien Abduction was the case of Betty and Barney Hill.

They were an interracial couple which back then was very rare. Their story became national and I remember seeing a movie based on their alien encounter. It was a total sci-fi, but what came out of it was their duplicate description of the account and the infamous "Star Map" (a written recollection of Ms. Hill's communication with the aliens) that became a huge phenomenon, for it showed stars or what soon became known as planets in our solar system, that was not yet discovered until decades later.

Betty died in 2004 and remained true to her story as did her husband Barney who died earlier in 1969; just a few short years after his foreign encounter. Betty was a Caucasian American and Barney was of Ethiopian birth. Click below to view one of the many online articles about this interesting couple.

Betty and Barney Hill

Live Your Purpose

I am always amazed at how different we all are yet so much alike. To think we were made in similar form but each with our own strengths and weaknesses. One person is fluid in water while the other can take a crowd by storm. Another has a voice of angels yet another mathematical brilliance. Another has the art of a paint brush while another creates splendid garments. I marvel at tech savvy individuals and neurochemists. All talented in their own right. This talent is weaved into our purpose in life for why we are more advanced than others in our expertise and we can't really explain it.

I always find it ironic that we can see every part of our body except our own face. Everyone else can see our face except us. We need the use of a mirror. Everyone else may be able to see how dynamic you are with your given talent but you have to see yourself with your capabilities or else it is useless. What do you use your talent for? What is the ultimate use of your talent? Does it benefit others and if so does it reach those who are in need of your talent? The greatest use and biggest impact of your gift would be to the greatest in need. You know what is even more ironic some of us have two or more great talents. Don't stifle them. Let them flow, fluidly with freedom to touch the lives of others. That is what you were made for.

If you don't think you have talent. Go and have fun discovering what you are good at. Ask others. They will tell you. Then incorporate or associate it to other strengths, asking what good can you do with the information. If you know what your talent is and don't know how to use it, make a calendar with events on how you can express your gift. Start with what makes you feel comfortable but be sure to put something challenging and exciting on the days ahead. Beware, that once you start, it becomes addicting. And once you stop you may feel under the weather. As a singer who doesn't sing will tell you, they are miserable if they do not sing. So go out there and do what you do best. "Live your purpose".

Ephesians 2:10

"For we are God's Handiwork, created in Christ Jesus
to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Bitter Sweet Marathon News

"He's still the best" they say. According to the New York Times online blog called On the run. Sources say Haile Gebrselassie will retire. He is Ethiopia and World Olympic Champion runner who has set 27 world records. During the New York Marathon Race on Monday, November 8, 2010, Gebrselassie chose to end the race. Due to an injured knee and stating "things didn't work out", he voiced his retirement from running. Fans are hopeful he will return. You may see the article link here.



There he is the winner of New York City Marathon 2010,
Gebre Gebermariam. Below you can see him as runner #7.
A New Ethiopian Champion has emerged with many others who placed in the race.You can see more about our new winner as EthioSports does a great featured presentation with other news on Ethiopian sports coverage. You can see the coverage here.

Thank You.

Thank you for visiting our anniversary celebration yesterday. It was great Hosting. You can see the beginning of the celebration by clicking on "older posts". (There are two other pages). Can't wait to see all the successes next year will bring.

Best,
Petrina

Happy 1st Year Anniversary OTTE

Happy 1st Year Anniversary "OTTE"!!!

Tezeta (Memory)

Greetings to all Ethiopians out there. Hope you enjoyed the celebration. Hope we can work together in the future for the betterment of Ethiopia. It's been a great year so far. Please keep coming back for more updates.

arenguade, bicha, keye
Mike

We have come to the end of our celebration! It has been great hosting Our Trip to Ethiopia's 1 year anniversary. Thanks for all your support. We look forward to another year of progress. There will be one more Guest Post and end with our finale. I now leave you with music from one of the greatest Ethiopian singers of all time-Mahmoud Ahmed.

Comedy by Meskerem Bekele on "Typical Abesha".

*Here are some pictures I found on Ethiopia.

These are the Foundations we project helping in 2011. Two are the same. We added another organization and two centers in DC.

Wesmco, Ethiopia Reads, and The Fistula Foundation are our next projects in Addis Ababa, 2011. In the centers in DC, we started assisting in the tutoring program. We will be visiting the other center before the end of the year. You can see the previous post earlier today. Let me know if you know of some others that we could highlight.

Our celebration continues with a selection by Teddy.

Poem on Ethiopia

Created of sun and soil and dew
of life long song an voice anew

leaves and stars whisper it's Name
of title and prestige the same

the dirt again gives birth
to breath and seeded earth

where mind and soul abound
and kind with strength are found

Here lies the ancient Crown

*By Petrina Yemane

I posted this song in July. I kept playing it up until recently. It has such a catchy tune.

Here's Radia Mohammed.

These are the most memorable blogs of the year for OTTE
(click and view)

1. Showcase: Tigist Selam

2. Words of Dawit

3. Ethiopian Joke

4. Enjoying the New Year

5. Photographer-Ethiopia

6. Liya Kebede-Super Model

7. Ethiopian Comedy

8. Adoption

9. Ethiopian Soccer Tournament

10. Father's Day Tribute

11. Ethiopians in White House

12. Poem-Beloved Ethiopia

13. Pictures in Ethiopia 1

14. rice

15. Carrie Underwood-Change

We will be back within the next hour with
more give aways, memorable posts,
guests and of course music.

Our next featured performer is Tigist.

I so wish I was in Ethiopia during the concert featuring Beyonce'. I really like her. I found this clip on the web of her singing to the crowd. See how the crowed goes wild when Teddy Afro is played. You may even catch a few performers doing eskista. The original song, which I love, is below Beyonce's debut.

UPDATE: The party continues until 11pm tonight. Stay tuned for more music next. Also followers for today will receive a free gift. See below for "Give Aways".

My Good News

There are a few programs out there that are doing a great job of helping the Ethiopia community when it comes to immigration and helping mothers and children. Most of them are not registered with their state. It is family and community coming together as this is the way we should help one another.

From my research there are no non-profit organizations in Virginia. which has a growing Ethiopian population second to District of Columbia. In DC there are only two non-profits that I know of that works with the fast growing needs of Ethiopians within the tri-state (DC, VA, MD). You can find them listed below.

Ethiopian Community Center
7603 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20012
3608 Georgia Ave NW, Washington, DC 20012

Kidist Mariam Ethiopian Orthodox Church
1350 Buchanan Street Northwest Washington D.C., DC 20011-4453

My good news is that I am in the process of starting a new non-profit. I wanted to announce it for the 1st Year Anniversary Post of "Our Trip To Ethiopia". It is now registered. My goal is to continue our work abroad and to partner with the centers here. The focus will be on Scholarships, Acculturation/Adjustment and Crisis Intervention. We have to get off the ground first, so to speak, and then the real work begins. Keep us in your prayers and again, thanks for your support.

Next up, we have Alex.






Stay tuned... more music to come.....

Keep up the good work Ethiopia. Continue to make strides and progress. Surprising everyone. As you are one of the greatest countries of Africa. Keep moving forward and when you get a chance to look back, you will find that you have come a long way, further than you ever thought possible. Many look to you as you have a great history, even more now, as you triumph into a great Future. Anbessa (Lion) is truly fitting.

Give Aways!!!
If you join OTTE, you will get a free gift!!!

You have until tonight at 11pm, when the celebration is over, to follow this site.
Just email us at mikeandpetrina@gmail.com, after you follow (on lower right hand side) and win.
Make sure to put in the subject line "OTTO new follower" Leave your address or PO box and your free gift will be sent to you.
*All information is confidential.

How did "Our Trip to Ethiopia" (OTTE) get started?

Mike and I used to work for an Aid Organization in East Africa where we worked with an orphanage and many other projects. We would travel on furlow to Ethiopia whenever we had an opportunity. When we came back to the states we felt the need to continue giving. We started fundraising at work and when we traveled to Ethiopia, we would bring the private donations to the local centers and organizations who were helping mothers and children.

For our trip, I started documenting online. I have another blog on marriage and family, which just celebrated it's 1st year anniversary last week. You can see the 17 post celebration here. I figured if I could start a private blog on my family, I could start a public one on our philanthropic giving for others to join in, support, comment, connect with other blogs on travel (which I will highlight later) and highlight the culture which is the most important reason. With the help of my husband, who is Ethiopian (which I will tell you how we met, shortly), it would become a great online journal of just a small portion of work in Africa on a whole. I love that I get to write about Ethiopia. I will leave you for now but will continue the program in a few minutes. Thanks for your support!

Best,
Petrina, a.k.a Hirut

There's more music to come. For now let's tune in to Helen.....

Happy 1 Year Anniversary "Our Trip to Ethiopia"!!!
It has been one year of much growth, lots of happiness, many connections, new goals, new friends, an awesome family, another amazing trip, and lots of fun.

We will be posting all day in celebration up to 11pm tonight. Thanks for joining us. Lets start our party with some good music. We'll start with Aster....

"Go, I Wish You Well....."

If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

-James (NIV)

I find this so challenging. It is easy to ask someone "how are you" and to accept their answer when you know there is more you can do. Or have good wishes and hope things go well for someone yet not offer your help. Or you sincerely hope the best in a situation and think someone else will help them when you could give them a call to try and help meet their needs. Or you do offer to help and they say no. Do you simply stop there? Hope and belief in their safety and welfare, goes to not or becomes useless although we mean well. Action goes along way. Even a simple gesture, phone call, text message, cooking, email, small gift or card, small monetary donation, hugs, touch on the hand, active listening, encouraging words, poem, etc. We all know the phrase, "Action speaks..................

International Day of Giving-Hope Worldwide

I just love Hope worldwide. They are the organization that gave me my wings to speak and to act. I even had the opportunity to to be on their website for the Tri-state (on the top of the page, which loads in three seconds). You can see the site here. I know, I look tired. It was a Hopeww event for children, with my 2 and 5 year old running around. It was sooo much fun but hectic, so excuse the bags under my eyes : )

This is their official web page for humanitarian giving around the world:
Hope worldwide



The great news is Hope worldwide is now registered in Ethiopia as of last week! Just in time for the International Day of giving, Sunday, November 21, 2010. Make a difference.

Showcase: Tigist Selam

Today I would like to showcase an extraordinary woman who is ambitious, intelligent, beautiful and motivating. Her name is Tigist Selam.

All three photos

were taken in Ethiopia

by Tigist Selam.

Born to an Ethiopian mother and a German father, Tigist Selam, enjoyed the diverse experience of growing up in Nigeria, Argentina and foremost Germany. With her first performance at the tender age of three, she started her training in ballet and continued her classical training in voice, piano and the flute. Her multiple talents allowed her to attend the prestigious Christliches Jugenddorfwerk Deutschlands, a school for the gifted in Germany. At the age of sixteen she left to pursue her passion for the performing arts and activism to California. She graduated in International Relations with an emphasis on International Organizations at San Francisco State University as the youngest to do so in the department's history. She continued her studies at the internationally renown Goldsmith's University of London and graduated with a Master's degree in Communications, Culture and Society, where she wrote about film, music and style.

In New York City, Tigist returned to the arts and took Master classes in theater, dance and voice while fundraising for more than a dozen non-profit organizations, including the notable Riverside Church. In 2009, she met the critically acclaimed producer of 'Good Hair', Nelson George, who asked her to write and act in her first feature film called 'Left Unsaid'. In 2010, she was officially selected as the face of Ethiopia's leading lifestyle magazine, 'Tadias' and has interviewed prominent Ethiopians along with pioneering filmmaker Haile Gerima. For the past five years, she has worked in close relationship with CNN hero Yohannes Gebregeorgis of 'Ethiopia Reads' and will be launching her own non-profit organization, the Ethiopian Educational Project, in the beginning of 2011. Tigist has appeared in numerous films, music videos, television series, magazines and commercials as an actor, writer and philanthropist.

*It is encouraging to see Ethiopians who are doing great things for themselves and others. She is a person to keep an eye on as she will go far in her future endeavors. She is really a rising star on the road to success. Let's show her some love and support by logging on to her sites, commenting and following as well. Thank you Tigist for all you do and for allowing us to see your beautiful work as a photographer. You can see Tigist's photo album here.

www.twitter.com/tigistselam

www.facebook.com/tigistselam

www.tiggie.tumblr.com

www.tigistselam.com