- Kids began the day by singing us songs in Amharic and English. Their accents on the English songs were ADORABLE
- The kids attempted to pronounce our names
- Loved the fact that the kids fought over who got to hold your hand
- We loved teaching them English words and hearing them repeat them
- Dying of anticipation while introducing us
- Scenery is gorgeous
- We got to see the well, and the pipeline in progress
- We went and saw the rivers, still kool-aid purple and caramel brown (at its finest, it smelled like baby poop!)
After a LONG year waiting to see the clean water well (100 meters deep!) we finally were able to see this long awaited project finished! Near the well, three workers were manually digging a large trench to hold the pipeline which will take the water to the Kind Hearts site. In 80 degree heat for eight hours they broke through rock and dirt to clear the way for the trench. Tough work, but what fantastic yields their toil will bring!
The kids were very well behaved and tolerated our attempts at Ethiopian dancing and songs. There are never enough hands to hold theirs, or enough people to throw kids in the air, sing songs with or do (my personal favorite) hand clapping games.
While we were playing with the kids, our SJCS teacher crew (Lanette Bocquin, Connie Thornton, Kelsey Lane & Grace Dahlgren) was able to spend some quality mentoring time with the staff at Kind Hearts. They discussed goals, education, classroom skills and much more. What a great opportunity to mesh two cultures and discuss their passions for education.
Even in the midst of great poverty, it is obvious there is a lot of love here between the teachers and kids. They love to be noticed and spend time with anyone who will catch their eye.
Tomorrow we hand out a new pair of shoes to each child, hand our sponsor packets and spend as much time as we can with the kids doing what they love to do-playing.
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