Treasures of Zeway

There are many times I had wanted to say that the dog ate my homework.  It never occurred to me that a rat eating my homework would have been a much better and more viable excuse.  I’ve got a pet rat and he likes to eat everything.  He lurks under my bed, in my stove and under my fridge.  He’s elusive, but I hear him nibbling all the time.  At first, I just saw the evidence of his presence, but lately he’s becoming brave, actually maybe even fearless.  He takes my earplugs, he takes my socks, he took my mouth guard for sleeping (I like to grind my teeth), he’s eating lots of my good food sent from the US. Now if I can’t find something, I blame it on the rat, because most likely he took it and made it his lunch or a snack for later.

Food for the Hungry/ Ethiopia has three child development program sites.  The Zeway site, you should be very much aware of, and the other two are in the western side of the country in Belo and Sasiga.  All last week, all people from these three sites, met for meetings here in Zeway.  It was an exciting time of interacting and getting to know the CDP staff from around the country.  We had meetings (in amharic) every day, where topics such as program planning, community work and communication were discussed.  I was given an opportunity to teach a brief section on the work roles of social work.  I was very excited to share on this topic (as you know I love social work) and have been asked to do a lot more in this area ( I’ll share more about this at a later time).  After the long week of meetings, we took two buses down south to a hot springs area called Wondogenet and to the lovely lake Awassa for an overnight trip.

Brainstorming ideas about the concept of social work

Our new Country Director, John Connelly, waking us through the story of the Bible

Chillin with my favorite social worker friends

It’s been a crazy few weeks and even though the celebration days were a few weeks ago, I thought I’d share some more photos.

CDP Kids performing a drama about taking care of orphans

The Zeway Social Workers with all of the top ranking students and their parents

Hika sharing about education in Zeway

The children’s choir in Zeway

Finally… Here are a few pictures from the big week!!

Aman and Melaku sharing at Abossa’s CDP Day

Me presenting a parent award at Bulbula’s CDP Day

Parents and their high ranking – award receiving children in Bulbula

Happy parents presented FH with a prized local food made up of ground barley mixed with a bit of local spiced butter.

It’s been a crazy and busy week as this week we’ve celebrated our 2nd Annual Child Celebration Days! Everyday a celebration has been held at a different site. Since this was our second try at these celebrations there was a lot more child participation with each site organizing their own program for the event. Children read poems, told cultural funny stories, gave testimonies about FH, we also had gymnastic/circus type performances, dramas, and singing. This is one of my favorite events with FH, because all of the families and children come together- there’s just so much excitement in the air, and children are affirmed for who they are. Also at all the sites, awards were given for those who ranked 1-5 in their classes.  Additionally the parents of the high ranking children were given certificates to show how important they are in helping their children achieve.   Let me tell you- FH has got some smart kids!!

Sorry the internet’s too slow right now.. but hopefully I’ll be able to post a few pictures next week.

Well it looks like that new place i was hoping to move into isn’t going to work out. They wanted to charge almost twice as much as I’m currently paying for less space. I expected a price increase, simply because like all prices, rent is also going up, but to be asked to pay so much is me just paying a foreigner price. So I’m bummed, but am still praying that another place nearby will open up.  Thankfully, things have quieted down in my compound and there hasn’t been any recent trouble with my landlord. Please pray that this will continue to be a good living situation.

I broke out the playdough that was sent to the project a while ago.  It was pretty fun.  At first this little guy would only copy the things that I would do with it.. then his imagination ran wild.  By the end of the hour, look at what he made!

Just in case if you’re wondering it’s a cow

The last time I was on the internet when I was in Zeway it was chugging along at 14.4 kbps.  Yeah, I know – your thinking is that even possible in this day and age.  Well it is and it was.  I could only load my google start page and that was it.  But today, I’m sitting in the office in Addis, waiting to head out to renew my work permit- and wadda ya know.. I’m literally flying on the internet at 100Mbps!!  I love Addis!