The Ashenda Festival Brings Dancing and Singing

This was John’s first day at the project. The classes today were taken up with children asking John all sorts of questions they had prepared. Now that John has arrived and will be picking up from Andy and me, I am looking forward to coming home with very mixed emotions - sorry to leave but glad to see family and friends.

Today taught me another lesson on how easy it is to underestimate the value that street children can attach to a personal gift, no matter how small or insignificant the value. Since arriving in Ethiopia I have been wearing my white “Make Poverty History” plastic wrist band. I had intentionally not freely distributed them but have been discretely taking the one I was wearing to

anyone who showed an interest and I explained what it stood for. This appeared to be working OK until today but all of a sudden everyone wanted one and it became very difficult to control. I knew I wouldn’t have enough to go round. Such is the life of a street child where objects viewed as a personal gift take on a completely different value. It wasn’t a pleasant experience but nothing can be assumed to be normal in the unique world of a street child. This strange phenomenon only seems to apply to personal gift items, as they would willingly share their last Birr, meal or shirt off their back with a friend who they thought needed it more than they did.

In the evening, Andy, John and I went to Jordano's for a pizza and spent all night talking about various aspects of the Project. I needed some time to sort my mind out after this afternoon, so I really enjoyed the time we had together tonight.
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I went to 6:30 Mass this morning . In Ethiopia this is the Feast of the Assumption. The Mass lasted two and a half hours. It was quite tiring but there was lots of chanting and singing which was really nice and finished with about 50 children making their first Holy Communion.

Ashenda Day has arrived, and what a lovely surprise when all the girls from the Project arrived at the gate of the Sisters Community. They were all dressed in beautiful white cotton dresses with blue embroidered flowers. They were absolutely stunning and so full of fun and happiness. They danced and sang, with John, Andy and I stuck in the middle of them getting

caught up in their excitement. Ashenda is a national custom which falls on the same day as the Feast of Assumption. The girls in the town all go round singing and dancing and surround any males until they give them some money, even a few coins get you off the hook. There was about twenty of them allowed into the Sisters Community courtyard area. It was just fascinating to see the transformation that the day brought to them.

Tommy Dobbin
22nd August 2007