6 God Mothers/Fathers Needed for 6 Babies

To date we have had 51 children who have needed sponsorship and for all of these except for 6 little boys and girls we have godfathers or godmothers.  These 6, with the exception of one, form part of the new generation of one year olds who started at Abugida in July.  They are children of single mothers, some of whom are ill and the others servants (servants in Ethiopia and in the context of Akaki work all day and are given only a bed and the leftovers).  The situation of these mothers is very vulnerable.  If the owners of the house where they work decide to throw them out, not only do they not have work but they are also left without a home and have to live on the streets with their children.  Other mothers have had to give up their children because they have not been able to support them.  All of these mothers are trying to survive in extreme circumstances.

Sponsorship requires an emotional commitment on the part of the godfather or godmother and a monthly payment of 24 Euros.  This money not only secures the life of the child but also the life of his/her family, since a mother who is HIV+ that can eat is a much stronger mother.

August Photos

Here are photos of some of the work done by our volunteers during August:

enlarging the kitchen...

handicraft workshop...

blowing soap bubbles.

There’s only a little time left for the super volunteers of August and from here we want to thank them for their involvement and excellent work.

Martha Continues Smiling

Martha is still in hospital; we believe that she will be there till the end of this week.  They have put her in a corset that she will have to wear for the next three months.  Our little champion is always in a good mood, always smiling.  What a fine lesson for life she gives us.  

Mesfin, her brother is showing himself to be a fine brother and a fine person.  He has not wanted to leave the hospital, not even for five minutes.  Since Martha was admitted he has been with her night and day.  He is without doubt a son worthy of his father.  Martha has a marvellous family.

Milk Problems

Milk is a luxury in Ethiopia.  The great majority of children, not to mention adults, drink tea instead of milk.  The reason is purely economic; it has nothing to do with any type of intolerance to milk.  In our school Abugida (215 children including 73 babies on double rations), in Fitawrari school (310 children) and in Biru Tesfa (190 children), these last two where Mediterranea provide school feeding programmes, everyone drinks milk.

This represents 40 litres for the babies of Abugida and 40 litres for the rest, 70 litres for Fita and 50 in Biru, totalling 200 litres a day and 4000 litres per month.  This is a great business for the milkmen of the area.  Milkmen who have been increasing their prices at their convenience, because in Ethiopia they increase the price for buying a lot.  Price ceilings do not exist in Ethiopia.  To them it is natural to increase the price because you are a good business and of course they have to milk the cow well, which in this case is us…

The milkman who was supplying us invented a ‘mugging’ and disappeared with two weeks of milk money.  Since then we have been looking for a new milkman.  No one wants to supply us.  One came up with crazy excuses like he supplies the prison Monday to Sunday and with us it is only Mon to Friday.  What, the prisoners of Akaki drink milk?  Who in their right mind would believe this?  What he wanted was to charge us for milk on Saturdays and Sundays although the schools are closed.  The fact that the milk is for the poorest children in the area doesn’t bother them in the slightest.

The fact is that in one of the poorest countries on the planet, where milk is a luxury, they don’t want to sell it to us.  Can anyone understand this?  We can’t.

In a Place Called Ethiopia...the Return

After a long weekend away from Sebeta, today we returned to the Mediterranea workshop.  From the welcome we received we imagined that they thought we had left for good and without saying goodbye.  We dedicated the morning to our labours, we had to adjust the clothes that we had bought since the majority of the children are sickly thin and we could only find extra large sized trousers.  At the end of the morning session we offered them a healthy breakfast, a banana and a piece of bread.  In the afternoon session we performed a funny sound based story that we had spent some time preparing.  When they finished the activity we surprised them with an energy giving new tea, a Nocilla sandwich.

We start the day with a good portion of potassium

Some eat the banana first and the bread afterwards

An energetic tea to end the afternoon session.  Who can resist a Nocilla sandwich?

 We have proof that shows that they liked it enormously

 Conclusive evidence!

 Will you give me a little of yours...?

 Others however have to postpone their enjoyment of tea until after the sun goes down

 Some don't like the idea so much

They are focused on reproducing the sound of the bell: sol..mi

Those in charge of making the sound of a cat

An entertaining story in which everyone has a part.  You have to be focused to make sure that you make your sound at the right moment.

I love music!

Diary of Ale, Abugida 7, 19 July

The day got off to a terrible start! Carol didn’t sleep a wink all night long and got up feeling very down. She felt so low that she suddenly started crying whilst we were having breakfast. It rains day after day, the work is hard (if you are looking to do some charity work in your holidays then look elsewhere, this is no holiday), we haven’t had any internet access for days and it’s impossible to make phone calls (this makes us feel even more cut off than we already are), we seem to be going round and round in circles trying to get things done (people don’t fulfil deadlines or stick to the quoted prices, we have to negotiate everything…). She knew this wasn’t going to be easy but she is realising just how hard it really is now. We all have bad days and it’s good to be surrounded by friendly people when we are having a hard day.  Jonás, who is in charge of the storeroom always looks after us, the director is always joking around with us, Mrs Kedija is like a mother to us, Alem who prepares our food lovingly, the little ones who shower us with kisses….! So we had some group therapy! We talked about the country, the culture, the things we need to change in order to promote its development… we talked about all the things we HAVE managed to achieve up until now (lots) to cheer ourselves up and organised the things we still have to do. Jonás set us straight “but you are worried about such material things…! God is here and he is good!”. And with those words (without any cake) we went to the babies’ classroom to check how things were going.  Mrs Kebebuch had prepared them all a puree for their morning snack. You can’t imagine how hungrily they wolfed it down. Four hands giving out the food and that wasn’t enough! How many months had it been since they last had a decent meal? When will their hunger ever be satisfied? Today one of the mums told us that since her baby had been accepted by Mediterránea in Abugida, his weight had gone up from six to ten kilos. Even though this mother received milk from the school to feed her little one at home before the nursery class was started up, he still weighed less than the average child of his age. At this rate, they will soon weigh double!

Full tummies so then it was playtime! They love the xylophones (and all the other toys) that I bought with your donations. And the seesaw that Victoria brought. They are getting used to the classroom, the teachers, the mealtimes… The timetables are now being observed in the classrooms. Last week we put clocks in all the classrooms and as I told you, the carers prepared timetables out of card. This means that there is time to fit everything in, the children know what time to expect things and feel more secure and the whole team is well coordinated.  

In the “melons” class they are putting up the curtains we fetched yesterday. They couldn’t stop laughing at the noise of the electric drill! Siesta time is now much better than before as they can now block out the light. Tomorrow we will go to Addis to look for a CD player so they can listen to relaxing music whilst they rest.  Whilst the little ones were sleeping, I found the teachers preparing their own workbooks, making a note of the personal details of all the pupils so they always have them to hand, leaving space to write all the things we have asked them to write about each child. This means they will have better control and next year when they change teachers, the new one will have lots of background information on each child as it will all be noted down in the books.  What a great school we have set up! What’s more, it’s a bilingual school because the older children sing to me in Spanish!

As “Abugida is never boring”, we had some news today. This boy came and asked for help. He’s 15 years old and his parents died four years ago (I can guess what of). Since then he’s been living in this mud hut with the family of one of his father’s friends who took him in. This man already has 8 other children and it’s too much responsibility for him and wants the boy to start fending for himself. The boy wants to carry on studying and came to our paradise to ask for help. We helped him of course (not without checking out his situation first… we talked to him, with the man he’d been living with, we visited the house…). He will be given food at the school from now on and as requested, we will buy him a mattress, blanket, sheet and anything else he needs to be able to live with dignity without being a burden to his foster family. In exchange, he’s going to help out at the school, doing what he knows best: painting. He’s a really good artist! He’s so excited that he’s found help and kindness and that he can show people what he’s worth. I have already given him a little “telling off” for a start, I have warned him not to get too carried away with the painting and that he should concentrate on studying which is more important! As you can see in the photo, we have dressed him in new clothes just his size, that were given to me by my colleague Isabel and a tracksuit from the Puente Real de Badajoz school (the uniform shop gave me several and they have come in very handy!).

After class we had another meeting about the school year with the mums of two other groups of pupils (those from classrooms 1 and 2). Just like yesterday’s meeting with classes 3 and 4 we spoke about timetables, mealtimes, activities…… and the helpers introduced themselves to their pupils’ mums, reminding them that we are here to help them and are open to all suggestions. I made a point of telling the mums how lucky they are to have such wonderful teachers who will ensure that their children are more than well looked after. The mothers in the classroom left me with lovely pictures like these…..
I am delighted when I look out the window to see the grandmother of Mikiyas (one of my babies from last summer) arriving with the little boy so that he can give kisses to his teachers from the last school year. Even though Miki is happy with his new helpers, he still loves the people who showed him so much love. What a lovely scene of this reunion with the hardworking teachers of Abugida. 

We spent the remainder of the afternoon at the market. We bought more socks (we are now up to 142) and lots of other things and we treated ourselves to dinner at the petrol station.  

Our Carol soon got over her morning blues (these things don’t last long) and we all end up having a good laugh about how the day started as it seemed like it was doomed to be one of those really bad days when everything goes wrong but it turned out well in the end. THE SUN CAME OUT!
Sweet dreams and chocolate kisses.