The sweetest kids on earth!

There are too many things I have to say about this place! After spending only a few minutes here in Ethiopia, I saw things I had never seen before. 

The way of life here is very different from the life we all know and love.  The majority of people are happy living in a small hut with just the simple necessities.  Others are not so fortunate and rely on others to support them and give them food and water.  Many of us wouldn't be happy without running water, televisions, computers, flashy clothes and jewelry, however people here don't seem to mind.  They live day to day and encounter many struggles that us Westerner's can't even imagine. 

Let me start by telling you a bit about what I have seen in the city...

There are roads with no street signs and plenty of round-abouts. The only cars you see either belong to rich Ethiopian's or foreigners, and the rest of the traffic is made up of blue "mini-buses" aka vans which are used for public transportation or city buses.  I already mentioned in my previous post that the driving here it nuts, I am shocked I have not yet seen any large accidents! Each time I venture out into the streets I hold my breath.

The city is always full of people. Many make a living by selling jewelry, gum, fruits and vegetables on the side of a road. There are always people asking for money, and even children will approach you and hold their hand out. It always breaks my heart to see a child wandering around on the streets alone. One positive thing is that their money is worth almost nothing compared to Canadian and US dollars, so if I give a beggar 10 Birr (which is equivalent to around 60 cents Canadian), that is enough to feed them at a shelter for 10 days. Wealthier locals typically give them change or 1 birr paper bills, so when they receive 10 birr from a foreigner they are extremely surprised and thankful. 

The Students

There are 15 children currently being taught at the Mercy Ministry Happy Children's Home, 10 boys and 5 girls. From the very first seconds of meeting them I fell in love with them all! Monday morning I walked into the classroom and they were all sitting in their chairs calmly waiting for us to come in.  They all stood up at the sight of me and said "new teacher, new teacher" with much excitement! One at a time they all walked up to me, held their arms out and gave me a huge hug and a little kiss on the cheek. 

Each day we start the morning off by teaching in front of the whole class and encouraging them to participate in conversational English. We have them ask/answer questions, we teach manners, rhymes, spelling, patterns, vocabulary and much more! The children are fed breakfast, lunch and dinner at the center and get two small breaks for playing outside and one large lunch break for a nap or quiet time. 

In the afternoon we split into 3 groups and each teacher takes 5 children. My group consists of the children who are quite smart and ahead of most kids, but have attention deficit problems or undiagnosed behaviour issues. So getting them to focus can be very tricky! Some days they will work fine and others they won't sit still! But I can't help but love them all since they are just too cute. 

There are so many things I can say about this place, but just not enough time to write it all. I will try to post more about things I have seen tomorrow. 

xoxo