Peparing to Leave for Home

The boys had a pre-arranged football match against the local Alitena team and won 6-2, so that made for an enjoyable trip home.

Sister Ababa gave Andy, John and I a tour of the various Church activities in Alitena. The kindergarten was impressive and the medical clinic is reasonably well equipped given the project is funded entirely by the Sisters. When we were being shown round there was a woman in the ladies ward who had given birth to a baby boy that very day. It was really exciting to be up in the mountains almost totally cut off from the outside world and here in the ward was a brand new baby boy.

We met Abba Haggis, the parish priest who is in charge of the seminary. I was sitting next to him for a cup of tea and he was a really friendly old man with a lovely sense of humour. He had a good laugh when we described his parish as the Holy Land.

The journey home after lunch was another nightmare, especially the first hour climbing up the mountainside. For any future candidate on this trip to Alitena, please insist on 4x4 jeeps and not a bus.
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I spent Monday morning buying exercise books and pens for the children as a small present for each beneficiary on the Street Children project. Exercise books are not supplied by the Government schools, so with several different classes to attend and with very little income, children have great difficulty trying to keep themselves supplied with writing materials for school classes. We also created certificates to mark their improvement in English during the summer period and attached a small photograph of Andy and myself as small photographs are prized possessions for the children. They love to show you pictures of previous volunteers as well as friends and relatives with of course famous footballers.

This could be my last update before leaving for Addis Ababa tomorrow afternoon. We’ll be flying back to UK from Addis on Friday. These last few days have been a bit hectic and difficult to cope with. One half really gutted at leaving the kids who are brilliant and the other half just looking forward to coming home.

Tommy Dobbin
27th August 2007