Hey Beautiful People,

I hope that you’re all well and happy! I just returned from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this past Wednesday and am still soaring from the beautiful energy of the children I visited while there.

This past Sunday, I taught a yoga class to the kids whom I work with who are a part of Beyond the Orphanage and some children from Kiddane Mehret Children’s Home. I think that there were about 55 kids who participated and we practice outside in the beautiful Ethiopian sunshine. March is definitely the time of year to visit Ethiopia. Flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, people are smiling.

A few of our BTO kids had experienced a very limited yoga practice with me in July of 2008…the rest of the kids had never tried or even heard of yoga before and were very open to the experience. Hewan, BTO social worker, helped with translating for me at the beginning so that I could tell the kids a little bit about yoga–being in the present moment, breathing in and out through the nose, and not worrying about what you can and can’t do. After that, we just practiced–sharing the beauty of movement, breath, and sunshine together. Since we didn’t have mats, I had to modify our practice a bit–but yoga does transcend all barriers and it was a fun, fulfilling practice I believe for all of us. The kids were smiling and laughing and I think that I enjoyed teaching this class more than any other class I’ve taught over the past seven or eight years.

Take a look at the beautiful pictures and I think that you will see that our practice transcended all and united the beauty of our souls as One.

Wishing you love and sunshine…

Donna