School Days

Yesterday, just before we were leaving the hotel to go for breakfast it started to rain.  Not unusual for the rainy season, but this was heavy.  Even that was not unusual for this time of the year and we have often been woken by the sound of the rain on the roof in the middle of the night.  This rain however was torrential.  Is that a big enough word for it I wonder?  It was really, really, really heavy.  We waited for a bit and when it didn’t subside we made a run for it.  The house is only about 300 yards away around the corner; but when we reached the end of the road there was a river running through it.  No I am not exaggerating at all. 

We walked up the other way for a bit to find a narrower to cross over but then it left us with another huge leap to cross the river on the other side.  The usual route of staying close to the building to avoid the mud (there is more stone close to the building) didn’t work.  In fact when I jumped I landed ankle deep in muddy rainwater; my Birks are the only footwear I brought with me, and although I tend to gather a lot of mud between my toes none-the-less they wash and dry out quickly. 

When we arrived at the house the back of my dress (I gathered up the front under my pac-a-mac) was like a water balloon.  Martin was completely soaked through.  This was just 300 yards.  I put up with the discomfort as I was only wearing a cotton dress but Martin had to go and change before we went to school (we got a lift in the end).

That's my rucksack, not my hump!

No-one likes the rain in Ethiopia and they will stay away from school if they can.  Consequently there were a lot less students in the KG school and so we put them all in the same large classroom and sang lots of songs until 9:30.  Then we decided to start break early and the Pom-Pom fest continued.  It was CRAZY like nothing you have seen.  The children who had started their pom-poms the day before wanted wool immediately and were calling out “Red” “Black” “Purple” “Can I have pink please?” plus seven kids at a time tugging on anything that was hanging and gesturing and making scissor movements to show that they wanted attention in some way.

The teachers loved it too!

How cute can you get?

All the children who had not started a pom-pom the day before poured out of the woodwork to make one today.  It was like Petticoat Lane! The teachers were quite keen to make their own pom-poms actually and they seemed to like it as much as the children!  Once the wool was out and the scissors distributed I moved to where the other volunteers were having fun; playing with the smallest children and a bag of those coloured balls you have in a ball pond.  One of the Aussie visitors held out a bin and the children threw them into it.  When it was full it was tipped back into the bag and so on. You know what little kids are like; they NEVER tire of games like that!  However some of the shots went wide and she got bashed in the face a few times!

Children never get tired of throwing things into a bin!

Trish gets one in the face

When we went to the grade school the playground was flooded and there were only a handful of children there.  So we had a very nice time!  I taught a couple of the older kids how to do animations and transitions on Power-point and the others played cards!

It must be over 6 inches deep