Keeping Up with the Tesfayes

Dear Wonderful People of Whom Many are Far Away,

Selamno from Ethiopia! My apologies for such a delay in writing, but
while I have many comforts here, a fast internet connection is not one
of them.

I hope this message finds you in good health and spirit. I cannot
believe that I have been in Ethiopia nearly a month. I’m an still
very much settling in, and every time I try to talk to the children, I
remember how very little I know, especially in language. I am living
with the Salesian community in a compound with my own bedroom and
bathroom (hot shower included!). There is a volunteer house on site,
but it is currently filled with an Italian family, a Spanish
volunteer, and two Austrian volunteers. Besides the husband of the
Italian family and his son, we are all female volunteers. I have a
beautiful courtyard outside my door, palm tree included, and a burning
trash heap outside my window.

For those of you who were in India and otherwise heard my tales, Addis
is a much cleaner city. Since we are on a plateau, the air is much
cleaner, and I expect once I get into the country more I’ll find even
healthier air. I am living on the very outskirts of the city, so it
takes nearly an hour to get to city centre and the markets. Every
night us single volunteers cook and eat dinner together, so we’re
getting plenty of vegetables and I occasionally get to throw in a
southern recipe. For Thanksgiving I’ll be making veggie pot pie,
zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. Since there’s only one other
American volunteer and she’s not big on celebrating American holidays,
we won’t make a big fuss about everything.

As for my work, I jumped in as soon as I arrived. I started teaching
my Spoken English classes four days after I arrived. I teach at Don
Bosco High School, which is actually a very good high school for the
area. While some of my students come through the Bosco’s Children
program (a home for street boys) and others through Donato’s children
(an oratory for impoverished children) many of my students come from
middle class families. I don’t think I’m a very good teacher because
I don’t like to plan my lessons, but now that the first quarter has
ended, I think I will have to change my ways. My seniors would like
real grades instead of happy faces and frowny faces.

With my seniors, I am working with many of them to help them go to
college abroad. This is a very difficult task because they are very
late to start applying to schools in the US, and anywhere they would
want to go they would need full scholarships. I am hoping to be able
to send at least one this year, and I will start working with my
Juniors in the spring to prep them for the SAT and the TOEFL.

Altogether I have 500 students, so I’ve only learned about 6 names so
far. Since I live in the compound with Donato’s children, I also see
all 400 of those children every afternoon and weekend. I have just
started tutoring at Bosco’s Children which is a compound about 15
minutes away walking. I am working with boys/men from 16-25 years old
to teach them English. Its different working with them since they’ve
spent most of their lives on the street and when I ask a question like
“How old are you?” they honestly reply “I don’t know.” I’m hoping to
improve my Amharic enough to go with other volunteers to start meeting
boys on the street and encourage them to join the program.

My other responsibilities include sports coach for the girls and IT
person for the compound. Its scary to think that out of all the
volunteers and workers here, I know the most about computers.

Life is comfortable here, and I’m enjoying getting to know my students
and the other children. I’m sure once I get some grasp of the
language, I’ll be able to tell you much more about them. Thank you
for all your messages and words of support after my first email. I
wish I could address everyone individually, but this is the best I can
do for now. For the Americans, Happy Thanksgiving! And for everyone
else, I hope you have a wonderful non-holiday week!

Much love,
Virginia (Van)