Watch out for the puddles!

Today I covered Singular and Plural Nouns. This may sound like a fairly simple concept to an English speaking child, but when you try to get across that adding an “s” or “es” or sometimes keeping the same word as in sheep, or foot and feet, then life can get a bit complicated.

After classes, Gebreyesus told me about his background. He explained that he had been separated from his family and had been living on the streets. The Sisters took him under their guidance eighteen months ago and he is now back living with his family. He is studying his English with a lot of enthusiasm and said he wants to be a doctor and do lots of good work

with poor people. He knew all the Sisters and in his own words they were “very good people” The Sisters have been doing this work for years and have most certainly saved the lives of hundreds of young children like Gebreyesus.

The internet connection and telephone system for the whole area are both down tonight, so no emails back home or contact with the outside world possible. At least we had power so we can see our way around ok. Power cuts are an almost every day occurrence and as most roads are just dirt and boulders, it can be quite dodgy as John found out to his peril the other night. He walked right into a big puddle which gave us a good laugh.
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Walking home from lunch on Wednesday brought another reality check. We have been noticing a bunch of people congregated outside the Street Children Project gate. We have been exchanging daily greetings and waves but haven’t really given it much thought. Today we learned that these people have HIV/AIDS and this was a clinic where they received medication and money to buy food. I suppose I am just like many millions of people throughout the UK where AIDS is recognised but you never really see the reality. It certainly brings the situation home more poignantly.

At 4pm, Andy and I visited the new Daughters of Charity street-children project due for completion by December 2007. The project is absolutely amazing, particularly when compared to the current very basic facility. There will be five classrooms, a craft area and kitchen, an eating area, offices and a bedroom area for 8 boys and 20 girls. These bedrooms are for homeless children. For Andy and I, knowing what we are working with just now, seeing this new project was breathtaking and really exciting.
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On Thursday we had a day off from English lessons. Although feeling a bit guilty about it, we will both be covering home visits on both Saturday and Sunday, so a break will do us good as neither Andy nor I are sleeping very much at night. We visited some rock churches in the Gheralta region. The

rock formation, countryside and churches are breathtaking. It certainly gave us a different perspective of Ethiopia. The churches are carved out of the rock face and date from about 300 AD.

Tommy Dobbin
9th August