Dananachu? For those of you that don't know Amharic as well as I do, that means "How are you?" (although I really don't know Amharic that well, so I probably spelled it wrong:) ). But I'm learning!
This morning we woke up and had breakfast, which was of course waiting for us at the table. My milk had been poured into a pitcher this morning, which was quite disappointing. I mean, how often do you get to have milk in a bag? Too bad. After breakfast, we were taken over to the school that we will be working in. It's a short walk, about 10 minutes, from our house. On the way, we bought bottled water from a "store". Really, it's a hole in a wall. Literally. It's across the dirt road from our house and in the middle of a wall is a small window and a room that's about 5 feet by 5 feet. There, after walking over a bridge of sticks covering a big ditch, you can apparently buy bottled water. It's no Jewel Osco, but it worked out for us! The walk to school is nice. There are tons of people out on the street (and plenty of donkeys and goats as well, but I'll try not to talk about how much I love that in every blog post...) and they are all very friendly. Many people apparently think it's really funny or awesome or something that we're, well, white. We get comments on it a lot, and people yell hello to us from all over. Little kids even walk up to us just to shake our hands. We're basically celebrities...
When we got to the school, as soon as we walked through the gate (by gate, I mean more like a sheet of metal that encloses the area used for the school) kids were all over us. They ran over and grabbed our hands, arms, anything. They were all smiling at us, and would get so excited when we said hello. By the time we got there, they were getting ready to start class so they all had to line up. I am officially helping a teacher of the "lower kindgergarten" class. The school is tiny, only 3 or 4 classrooms. To my teacher friends, listen to what these classrooms are like: Each class has about 30 students (and I mean young students, such as my class of 30 five- and six-year-olds) in a room that is, at most, a quarter of the size of classrooms in America. They are incredibly tiny rooms, and mine doesn't even have electricity. There are some small metal tables with little chairs all in rows, and one little dry erase board hanging up. That's it. The most amazing part was how the kids acted. Those 30 kindergarteners were so well-behaved, I couldn't believe it. They sit in their chairs, in their rows, and just listen to their teacher and do exactly as she says. They are so quiet and attentive, and much different than other kindergarten students I have seen. Not only are the rooms tiny and seemingly incredibly inadequate for these students, but the outside area used for the school is so surprising. It's all rocks and dirt, with piles of rubble and sheet metal "fences". There are huge sticks and debris everywhere, and one metal slide with two swings. Still, the kids seem to have a fantastic time playing out there. It just goes to show how much we take for granted in America!
Today, I just watched the class I will be working with. On Monday, they say I will start teaching Math to students who are behind, along with teaching English to the entire class and science as well. This will certainly be a different experience from teaching in America. After they had their lessons, they had some play time outside. I went out to play with them, and kids were fighting over my hands the entire time. They don't even care what I'm doing, they just want to be holding hands. They kept asking me, "Where do you live?" and when I'd say, "America" they'd all go, "Oohhh America! America!" As a group of kids crowded around me, one noticed my freckles. When she asked what it was by pointing to all the spots on my arms, I told her "freckles". From then on, they talked about it constantly. "Freckles, freckles, freckles!" as they pointed all over me. They would show me their arms and say, "No freckles!". One little girl even said, "You give me all of them!" Apparently she wanted to have my freckles. Who wouldn't? Anyways, they were super cute...so easily entertained, and so happy. And so well-behaved in school! Amazing.
After school, Kendra and I did something very, very exciting. We...hold on, get pumped...took a shower!! Yayyyy! No, we still do not have running water in our house. Yes, this means we're still washing our hands with only hand sanitizer, wiping our dirty dusty feet with baby wipes, and pouring a bucket of water into the toilet to "flush" it (I can't believe I just admitted that...) at home. But today, after not having a shower since we were in America on Monday, we found a way! When we were free to leave school, we took one of the very exciting minibuses, without help from our organization peeps, to the little area by the coffeeshop we went to yesterday, Kaldi's. There's a gym there and we paid to use the gym...and then used their showers. It was spectacular, and I feel clean and awesome. Then we got some coffee, used the internet cafe for awhile (at which time no one from home was on facebook to chat with me...what the heck people, just cause it's like 5am your time is no excuse!), and headed back home.
Now we're sitting around relaxing, waiting for dinner to be served ;) Speaking of being served, when we got home today all of our dirty laundry had been washed and folded. Seriously, I might be getting spoiled here! We're both exhausted, maybe still a little jet lagged. It's hard work exploring Ethiopia!
Well, dinner's ready on the table! And this is incredibly long, anyways. I promise I'll try not to write too much every time, I don't want to get too boring ;)
Miss you all!!
This morning we woke up and had breakfast, which was of course waiting for us at the table. My milk had been poured into a pitcher this morning, which was quite disappointing. I mean, how often do you get to have milk in a bag? Too bad. After breakfast, we were taken over to the school that we will be working in. It's a short walk, about 10 minutes, from our house. On the way, we bought bottled water from a "store". Really, it's a hole in a wall. Literally. It's across the dirt road from our house and in the middle of a wall is a small window and a room that's about 5 feet by 5 feet. There, after walking over a bridge of sticks covering a big ditch, you can apparently buy bottled water. It's no Jewel Osco, but it worked out for us! The walk to school is nice. There are tons of people out on the street (and plenty of donkeys and goats as well, but I'll try not to talk about how much I love that in every blog post...) and they are all very friendly. Many people apparently think it's really funny or awesome or something that we're, well, white. We get comments on it a lot, and people yell hello to us from all over. Little kids even walk up to us just to shake our hands. We're basically celebrities...
When we got to the school, as soon as we walked through the gate (by gate, I mean more like a sheet of metal that encloses the area used for the school) kids were all over us. They ran over and grabbed our hands, arms, anything. They were all smiling at us, and would get so excited when we said hello. By the time we got there, they were getting ready to start class so they all had to line up. I am officially helping a teacher of the "lower kindgergarten" class. The school is tiny, only 3 or 4 classrooms. To my teacher friends, listen to what these classrooms are like: Each class has about 30 students (and I mean young students, such as my class of 30 five- and six-year-olds) in a room that is, at most, a quarter of the size of classrooms in America. They are incredibly tiny rooms, and mine doesn't even have electricity. There are some small metal tables with little chairs all in rows, and one little dry erase board hanging up. That's it. The most amazing part was how the kids acted. Those 30 kindergarteners were so well-behaved, I couldn't believe it. They sit in their chairs, in their rows, and just listen to their teacher and do exactly as she says. They are so quiet and attentive, and much different than other kindergarten students I have seen. Not only are the rooms tiny and seemingly incredibly inadequate for these students, but the outside area used for the school is so surprising. It's all rocks and dirt, with piles of rubble and sheet metal "fences". There are huge sticks and debris everywhere, and one metal slide with two swings. Still, the kids seem to have a fantastic time playing out there. It just goes to show how much we take for granted in America!
Today, I just watched the class I will be working with. On Monday, they say I will start teaching Math to students who are behind, along with teaching English to the entire class and science as well. This will certainly be a different experience from teaching in America. After they had their lessons, they had some play time outside. I went out to play with them, and kids were fighting over my hands the entire time. They don't even care what I'm doing, they just want to be holding hands. They kept asking me, "Where do you live?" and when I'd say, "America" they'd all go, "Oohhh America! America!" As a group of kids crowded around me, one noticed my freckles. When she asked what it was by pointing to all the spots on my arms, I told her "freckles". From then on, they talked about it constantly. "Freckles, freckles, freckles!" as they pointed all over me. They would show me their arms and say, "No freckles!". One little girl even said, "You give me all of them!" Apparently she wanted to have my freckles. Who wouldn't? Anyways, they were super cute...so easily entertained, and so happy. And so well-behaved in school! Amazing.
After school, Kendra and I did something very, very exciting. We...hold on, get pumped...took a shower!! Yayyyy! No, we still do not have running water in our house. Yes, this means we're still washing our hands with only hand sanitizer, wiping our dirty dusty feet with baby wipes, and pouring a bucket of water into the toilet to "flush" it (I can't believe I just admitted that...) at home. But today, after not having a shower since we were in America on Monday, we found a way! When we were free to leave school, we took one of the very exciting minibuses, without help from our organization peeps, to the little area by the coffeeshop we went to yesterday, Kaldi's. There's a gym there and we paid to use the gym...and then used their showers. It was spectacular, and I feel clean and awesome. Then we got some coffee, used the internet cafe for awhile (at which time no one from home was on facebook to chat with me...what the heck people, just cause it's like 5am your time is no excuse!), and headed back home.
Now we're sitting around relaxing, waiting for dinner to be served ;) Speaking of being served, when we got home today all of our dirty laundry had been washed and folded. Seriously, I might be getting spoiled here! We're both exhausted, maybe still a little jet lagged. It's hard work exploring Ethiopia!
Well, dinner's ready on the table! And this is incredibly long, anyways. I promise I'll try not to write too much every time, I don't want to get too boring ;)
Miss you all!!
Aww...fun!! The little peanuts sound so cute!! You MUST include a picture next time:).
ReplyDeletexoxo
I am loving your writing! Keep up all the good work. Glad the kids love you, but who had any doubts?
ReplyDelete