The past few days at the day care and at school have been simply wonderful. I cannot stress enough how much I love these kids, and how much I'm going to miss them when we leave.
First let me tell you a little more about the day care. We have been in the same room the whole week, with the kids who are about two or three years old. They are funny, and sweet, and cute, and cuddly, and I could go on and on. Yes, they are dirty...and sometimes they pee on me, because only the babies get diapers. But, it doesn't even matter because their adorableness makes up for it. They were so excited to see us today, and we didn't spend two minutes without a child in each of our laps and another trying to squish in on top. They are so pleased with whatever toy happens to be in the room, and play happily for hours with us. They sing and dance, and play Ethiopian games with the nannies who work there, too. The nannies are very nice, and mostly around our age. They know a little English, and were having a great time quizzing us on our Amharic skills today. Highlight of today's time at the day care:
One of the nannies turned on the light in the room while the kids were playing. Instantly, they all froze, pointed at the light, and said in unison, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh". Not screaming, more like a sound of amazement. Think the little alien dudes in Toy Story when they say "the clawwwwww ohhhhhhhhh". It was nearly the same. But I don't think these kids have seen Toy Story. When she flipped the light back off, they went right back to playing. She did it again, on and off, on and off, and everytime the kids gave the same response. It was hilarious! I'll have to try to get a video...I think it's better if you see it :)
So anyways, we love the day care. The nannies are great, the people in charge are so nice, and the kids are fantastic. Tomorrow we're going to try to take some pictures of them so you can all see their cuteness. We're also going to bring even more toys and donations tomorrow, because they can really use them. There are so many kids there, and they are all coming from the streets, which means they don't have much of anything. Kim - I'll be bringing the baby clothes you donated, which is fantastic...these kids can suuuper use some new, clean, stylin' outfits!
And now on to the school. I love these kids more and more every day! They are an awesome bunch. I love that they adore coming to the school, and I love even more that when I walk through the door fifty kids yell, "Deanna! Deanna! Deanna!!" every single day. You'd think they'd get tired of me...or at least used to me being there. I mean, the excitement has to wear off sometime, right? But instead, the excitement seems to grow everytime (for both the kids and myself!). After they greet us with almost overwhelming enthusiasm, we have some time to hang out and talk with them before whatever lesson is planned for that afternoon begins. Even though they don't speak English anywhere near fluently (and our Amharic is even worse), we have some great convos. It doesn't take long to figure out that you can talk about all kinds of things even with a pretty legit language barrier. They love asking questions about America, and telling us about themselves. We talk with them, play with them, and laugh with them until it's time to get ready to begin. Some days, we bring our cameras. They always get way pumped about this, because they love getting their picture taken. Today was one of those days, and I got pictures of some pretty super cute kids. My "brother", Solomon (who I believe I wrote about in one of my last blogs), was all about getting pictures with me, and the other kids were taking turns posing with my sunglasses. I just love it, really. After we hang out for a bit, we get them all inside for the lesson or activity of the afternoon. Today (get excited, Mom!) we had them write letters or draw pictures for my Mom's second grade students. Her students had written letters to Kendra and I and they had lots of questions about Africa. To give you a few examples:
Do the kids do nothing at school?
Do they have books?
What do you eat?
Do the kids write or draw or anything?
Kendra and I thought it would be fun if Mom's students got some mail back from students in Ethiopia, instead of just the two of us. Our kids got really into it. We told them they could draw a picture that shows something about Ethiopia, or they could write a little letter in English or Amharic. A few of them have very impressive English skills and wrote. Others write in Amharic, which I think will be really cool for the kids in America to see (of course, I will work with one of my Ethiopian buddies to write a translation...time to put Amare and Masresha to work!). The younger kids drew pictures. They all turned out really neat, and I'm so excited to send them! Maybe if my mom is awesome she'll make copies of the letters when she gets them so me and her students can keep them. Hint hint :)
When it's time to go, we get attacked with goodbyes. In Ethiopia, you say goodbye with a kiss on the cheek. This means that by the time I've managed to get through the school gates, I've gotten about a million goodbye kisses. We usually have an entourage walking home with us. Generally this consists of my brother (who I just love), Kendra's brother (who we also just love), and about fifteen other kids (okay, we just love them, too). We walk down the street hand in hand singing random songs, skipping, running, and talking. Usually this gets us a lot of laughs from strangers...I guess seeing the two white girls of the neighborhood skipping along with a group of random Ethiopian kids is kind of a funny sight. I love it, and this quite possibly might be my favorite part of the day. I love it all, and I love them all, and I know I'm going to miss them so, so much. It kind of makes me sad already.
Buuuut, on a happier note, guess what these two girls have at their house?! Running water! I know this has been said before and so far it's never lasted more than like a day and a half. I don't want to jinx it but...we've had it for almost four days straight now. Woah! Warm water is still a luxery that we are not experiencing, but beggers can't be choosers. We can take a shower whenever we like (cold, but still clean!) and we can even wash our hands with real soap in the sink. Beyond exciting. Just had to throw that in this blog. A little random, but very exciting...for us, at least.
Now, my friends, it is dinner time. A delicious soup is calling my name!
First let me tell you a little more about the day care. We have been in the same room the whole week, with the kids who are about two or three years old. They are funny, and sweet, and cute, and cuddly, and I could go on and on. Yes, they are dirty...and sometimes they pee on me, because only the babies get diapers. But, it doesn't even matter because their adorableness makes up for it. They were so excited to see us today, and we didn't spend two minutes without a child in each of our laps and another trying to squish in on top. They are so pleased with whatever toy happens to be in the room, and play happily for hours with us. They sing and dance, and play Ethiopian games with the nannies who work there, too. The nannies are very nice, and mostly around our age. They know a little English, and were having a great time quizzing us on our Amharic skills today. Highlight of today's time at the day care:
One of the nannies turned on the light in the room while the kids were playing. Instantly, they all froze, pointed at the light, and said in unison, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh". Not screaming, more like a sound of amazement. Think the little alien dudes in Toy Story when they say "the clawwwwww ohhhhhhhhh". It was nearly the same. But I don't think these kids have seen Toy Story. When she flipped the light back off, they went right back to playing. She did it again, on and off, on and off, and everytime the kids gave the same response. It was hilarious! I'll have to try to get a video...I think it's better if you see it :)
So anyways, we love the day care. The nannies are great, the people in charge are so nice, and the kids are fantastic. Tomorrow we're going to try to take some pictures of them so you can all see their cuteness. We're also going to bring even more toys and donations tomorrow, because they can really use them. There are so many kids there, and they are all coming from the streets, which means they don't have much of anything. Kim - I'll be bringing the baby clothes you donated, which is fantastic...these kids can suuuper use some new, clean, stylin' outfits!
And now on to the school. I love these kids more and more every day! They are an awesome bunch. I love that they adore coming to the school, and I love even more that when I walk through the door fifty kids yell, "Deanna! Deanna! Deanna!!" every single day. You'd think they'd get tired of me...or at least used to me being there. I mean, the excitement has to wear off sometime, right? But instead, the excitement seems to grow everytime (for both the kids and myself!). After they greet us with almost overwhelming enthusiasm, we have some time to hang out and talk with them before whatever lesson is planned for that afternoon begins. Even though they don't speak English anywhere near fluently (and our Amharic is even worse), we have some great convos. It doesn't take long to figure out that you can talk about all kinds of things even with a pretty legit language barrier. They love asking questions about America, and telling us about themselves. We talk with them, play with them, and laugh with them until it's time to get ready to begin. Some days, we bring our cameras. They always get way pumped about this, because they love getting their picture taken. Today was one of those days, and I got pictures of some pretty super cute kids. My "brother", Solomon (who I believe I wrote about in one of my last blogs), was all about getting pictures with me, and the other kids were taking turns posing with my sunglasses. I just love it, really. After we hang out for a bit, we get them all inside for the lesson or activity of the afternoon. Today (get excited, Mom!) we had them write letters or draw pictures for my Mom's second grade students. Her students had written letters to Kendra and I and they had lots of questions about Africa. To give you a few examples:
Do the kids do nothing at school?
Do they have books?
What do you eat?
Do the kids write or draw or anything?
Kendra and I thought it would be fun if Mom's students got some mail back from students in Ethiopia, instead of just the two of us. Our kids got really into it. We told them they could draw a picture that shows something about Ethiopia, or they could write a little letter in English or Amharic. A few of them have very impressive English skills and wrote. Others write in Amharic, which I think will be really cool for the kids in America to see (of course, I will work with one of my Ethiopian buddies to write a translation...time to put Amare and Masresha to work!). The younger kids drew pictures. They all turned out really neat, and I'm so excited to send them! Maybe if my mom is awesome she'll make copies of the letters when she gets them so me and her students can keep them. Hint hint :)
When it's time to go, we get attacked with goodbyes. In Ethiopia, you say goodbye with a kiss on the cheek. This means that by the time I've managed to get through the school gates, I've gotten about a million goodbye kisses. We usually have an entourage walking home with us. Generally this consists of my brother (who I just love), Kendra's brother (who we also just love), and about fifteen other kids (okay, we just love them, too). We walk down the street hand in hand singing random songs, skipping, running, and talking. Usually this gets us a lot of laughs from strangers...I guess seeing the two white girls of the neighborhood skipping along with a group of random Ethiopian kids is kind of a funny sight. I love it, and this quite possibly might be my favorite part of the day. I love it all, and I love them all, and I know I'm going to miss them so, so much. It kind of makes me sad already.
Buuuut, on a happier note, guess what these two girls have at their house?! Running water! I know this has been said before and so far it's never lasted more than like a day and a half. I don't want to jinx it but...we've had it for almost four days straight now. Woah! Warm water is still a luxery that we are not experiencing, but beggers can't be choosers. We can take a shower whenever we like (cold, but still clean!) and we can even wash our hands with real soap in the sink. Beyond exciting. Just had to throw that in this blog. A little random, but very exciting...for us, at least.
Now, my friends, it is dinner time. A delicious soup is calling my name!
I am very excited for the letter. I get the hint, too! ;-)
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