11 Years of LOVE

We independently feed 20 low-income kids in Ethiopia. Feel free to write us at anytime at richter.com@gmail.com if you wish to support our work or give us ideas.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Camila's Diary Day 1 & 2

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

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