This is the diary of Camila, Mohsen, Wendy and Steve when they visited our kids in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!
Day 1
when we arrived in
airport we couldnt believe how fresh the air was!! To find taxi was fairly easy
and four of us & 6 cases was pushed in to one car and 45 minutes later we
were in the hotel.
When reached the
school they all were waiting for us on the bench next to the main gate.
Kids' shyness almost disappeared when Wendy opened bag with Orios and
Galaxy chocolates :))
I showed them your and
Mark's photos - you can't imagine how happy and alert them became..all tried to
kiss the photo. Melkami (he is in 6th grade now) read your messages to everyone
:) Photo is in Genet's bedroom now :)
We told the kids what
was the programme for the next day and (as per Genet's recommendation)
changed the timing from 10am to 9am.
Once everyone left we
spoke with Tirhas and Inatnesh (two girls, who couldn't pass their exams)
They understood that this is their last chance and if they don't pass their
exams successfully this year they won't be able to continue with these
programne. Both of them were very upset, but grateful to have another chance. I
am very happy Leysana offered her donation particularly to these two girls,
otherwise I am sure I wouldn't be able to look at their faces!
Since Genet has
already added two new students (Tizazu an Addisu) to the programme instead of
Tirhas and Inetnesh and as we decided to keep both of these girls for at least
another year, at that point had 24 children.
About a minute later
Genet introduced us to a new boy :) a very clever one! He instantly came to me,
told how well he studies, he put his hand on mine and and looked very
innocent He also kept hugging Mohsen and offered Wendy to help her to
collect trash from Orios and Galaxies that other kids left :) Suuurely, we all
said that he was the boy we would want to see in the group.
You will notice this
boy on the photos, he wears red t-shirt and smiles a lot :)
So that's how we got
our 25th child!
In the evening Genet
and General Merdassa took us to Yod Abbisinia where we tried local beer and
local food (the big tray with lots of different curries and cottage cheese)
with beautiful music. Electricity was cut off a few times, but no one seemed to
mind :)
In the night there
was religious chanting in the church close to Mekdela school,
but even couple of kilometers away, we could hear it in the rooms of Golf
Club :)
Day 2
We woke up at 6:30 -
at least an hour earlier than planned - that's how excited we were :)) Took a
bag of cookies and chocolates, a bag of jumping robs, cameras and
walked to the school. On the way we saw some things that we never saw before, like
urinating people on the street :) Okay, I saw it in Uzbekistan, but I think
Steven and Wendy were never exposed to the scenes like these. Steven
had to pass three dying puppies next to trash bin :( he just had to keep strong
and pass them through - I'm quite sure he never had to do this before!
When we reached
school, there were so many kids there. There is football practice and tutorials
every Saturday in the school. Our kidos were mixed with others and it was
really hard to say who was who :)) Some of them carried exercise books.
While we waited for Genet I gave away baloons to keep the kids
entertained :) Wendy drew smiling faces on the the baloons for them and
Mohsen took video. When all of the baloons were given away I suddenly saw a boy
with very sad face asking for one..You know, other kids, who didn't get baloons
were a bit aggressive, but this one was truly sad :( Wendy opened
his exercise book - it was for Chemistry..very neat
handwriting!! We were very impressed and I think four of us started counting the
cost of adding one more child to the programme..we asked for his name and grade
and decided to speak about him with Genet later during the day.
When Genet came we all
moved to the corner of the football field to play some activities. Everyone
(including us) got a sticker with the name and Mohsen took individual photos.
These are the photos I sent to you yesterday.
Wendy divided them in
to 5 groups and explained the rules of the games and Steven gave us
demonstration before we started.
Sooo..they run,
jumped, screamed, cheered for almost 2 hours!! Mohsen took video and
participated in the games!! :) there is one photo that I really like - the kids
stand in one big circle and hold hands! They are really good together! Boys and
girls tend to stay separately, but when mixed, they are friendly and
supportive to each other.
Since they played and
worked so hard they all got Orios and Galaxies :) It was lunch time, but no one
wanted leave the field - they wanted to play mooore!!
Wendy asked them to
sing a song for us and...the show started!! :)) They sang, they danced, they
laughed!! To me it was the happiest moment of the trip. Mohsen
went straight in the boys circle and joined them in the dance while
boys singing:
It's time for Africa
Waka Waka ef ef
Tsamina mina zangalewa
'Cause this is Africa
Some girls were great
dancers!! Very talented!!
Then we collected our
staff and walked to Tivola - lunch place :)) All kids had burgers with french
fries and 2 soft drinks :)
When burgers arrived
Genet remembered that three muslim girls might not be able to eat burgers, as
meat most probably was not cut as per islamic way. You would think it won't
stop a hungry kid to eat a burger just in front of her, but they refused to
have it..It was great to see how strongly they follow their faith!! So we
ordered them vegetable sandwiches :)
When we said good bye
the children, we went for a real adventure - Mercato!! The biggest open market
in Africa. It was different from what I imagined it, it was much more crazy!!
:)) You have to stick to each other, as the pace is crazy. You need to move
very quickly and know your directions well. I am glad we didn't take Marcus
with us, as I am sure we would have lost him there!
Genet took us to the
fabric place - there we bought dark blue fabric for uniform trousers and
skirts. Genet will take children and the fabric to a tailor, who will make
skirts and trousers for them for 70birr per child.
We also saw sweaters -
light blue, different quality..different prices. At the end we agreed on
the medium quality at the medium price - Genet will buy
them from the place where she can negotiate the rates :)
We also saw shoes
in governmental shop - real leather, beautiful colors..but..very
costly!! 380birr per girl and 245birr per boy. At this point I said it's very
expensive to have children!! :))) Genet said that cheaper shoes don't last long
and kids don't like them either..
Next day we checked
shoes in another governmental shop in hope to find the same quality at cheaper
rates, but found only hard leather and very heavy shoes. We told Genet that we
have to think whether we can afford to buy them uniform and shoes this
year.
At the end of this
eventful day, we hardly managed to walk to the hotel's lobby and had pizza for
dinner :)
Religious chanting
in the neighborhood continued that night as well...:)
To be
continued...xoxox
