the mountain

This past Saturday we climbed up Entoto to see the famous multicolored church and a rockstar view of the city (I have 3 images to share). The hike up the mountain was totally REDONKADONK, especially carrying my huge camera bag. I definitely did not know what I was getting to myself into, and towards the end of the hike Jessica Merriam and I trailed everyone else by about a half hour. But the 2 hr long out-of-breath stroll left us with plenty of time to memorize Ephesians 4:1-3, which was a sweet piece of the Word to chew on when all you want to do is call a taxi. It was worth it ­ the church was beautiful, and it was a very interesting cultural experience. The guard (see 2rd pic) was SUPER sweet and he asked if we could take a pic together.

The Party
So, it is a ridiculously small world. We were invited by a friend of Lyston¹s to a birthday party. Turns the friend of Lyston¹s, Samuel Tadesse, does conflict management/resettlement contracting work around the world...a career I am very interesting in pursing. TURNS OUT, b/c God so interestingly puts all the pieces together, he knows Ted MorseŠTed is one of my good friend¹s professors (who I met this summer) in Nevada who does similar work in conflict torn societies. Ohh my.

While we were enjoying the gathering, I met one of the sweetest men, Abaybay, who is a delightful storyteller. He is a retired Ethiopian Educator who completed his schooling in the States. He told Kate and I one of the most fascinating stories about a plane ride from NYC to Ithaca, when, after
an unexpected layover, the plan left without him. The terminal manager angrily ordered the pilot to turn the plan around, since he left a foreigner at the last stop. TO MUCH SURPRISE, the small plane came back to the terminal to pick Abaybay up. 20 some years later he is telling the story as if it was a sweet gift he recently unwrapped.

The Primary School
I spend most of my day in the Montessori classroom, as I have referenced before. These kids are all too old to be in nursery, and too young to be in KG. Then, after lunch, I spend a few hours in the Primary School (grades 1-4).

All of the kids who attend school on campus live at the orphanage, and the older kids go off campus to attend school. Most all of these 500 kids are living with AIDS, but unless you visited the sick room, you could hardly tell. They have just as much energy and excitement as any other elementary school kids, and they LOVE to be loved. Each grade (except for first) is split up into A and B, with about 30 kids in each classroom. First grade is combined, with about 50 kids. There is one teacher for each class who teaches all subjects. The students are very much used to volunteers from all over the world coming to help with art, music and English. There are about 20 volunteers currently at Asco, all doing various jobs to help keep the orphanage running.

So, the first few weeks in the Primary school were rather unstructured and frustrating. I just figured out who was teaching Œspoken¹ and sat in on the class. This normally meant I taught the kids random words and phrases and tried to spark interest (when the kids were WAY more excited about my one handed cartwheel than learning animal adjectives). After too many seemingly worthless afternoons I decided to take initiative and ownership over the time I have, the past 2 weeks have been SO much more manageable and effective. Glory to God for this, because so many days I came home asking Him why in the world he called me to Asco.

So this is the structure (see pic ­ this is one of my first grade groups)...I take 5 first graders out during each class period, and thanks to wonderful advice from Casey Reagan, an ESL teacher I know from church, teach them action words. I brought over 5 white boards, so I teach them a verb, they write it, then we act the verb out together. After 5 or 6 new words, we write or new words into activity books. I purchased enough activity books for all the first graders, so they can each have their own notebook. It's beautiful to see how excited they are about sharpened pencils and new
notebooks. Today was my first repeat class (I have 2 classes a day) and I thought it went very well. The teachers seem to think what I am doing is worth the time and energy and the students seem to be engaged, so I am very very thankful for the opportunity to serve the kids and the teachers in this way.

I am still hoping to find an avenue through which to teach photography, but as of right now, I do not know where, how or when. I am trying to trust his perfect timing.

Well, I am out. We are leaving in about 5 hours (5 am on Thursday morning) for Bahir Dar, which is about a 12 hour trip each way. Lots of quality time with the whole house, plus a friend, Joy.