Archived Blog
Further happenings
Sorry about the long delay in posting; as Ethiopia is coming to the end of its dry season, the city’s resources are running low. Therefore, water, electricity, internet or a combination of all three are shut down at random times throughout the week, for an unknown number of days. The dodgy internet has prevented me logging on long enough to write a posting; hopefully I can get it done now.
My parents left on Monday of this week, and I think that they really enjoyed their stay here. It was really great to have them out here, if a tad stressful being a tour guide for the week! I hope to have a blog on some of the things we got up to soon.
On Monday, my soccer team played their first match against one of the schools here. Unfortunately they lost, even though they played well, a few too many silly mistakes cost dearly. 6-4 the final score, we came away with plenty of things to work on in our next match, which was on Wednesday. Against apparently one of the best teams in the league, we worked out all our mistakes and came away with a 4-2 victory. They guys were really pleased, and I think they are really excited about our upcoming game on Monday. I’ll keep you updated!
It’s getting towards exam time for the students here, and my grade 10 IT students are preparing to sit their practical exam in a week’s time. I have to sit the exam before they do, which hopefully won’t be a problem! Fortunately, I am able to simply download it and work through it whenever I feel like it, a lot more relaxed than they have to do. However, this week and the next will be pretty busy! After my grade 10 and Grade 12 students begin their exams, however, my week’s workload will be greatly reduced.
On street ministry this week I went out with a different group, to visit some different areas. Our translator had himself got quite a story. During the last election in Ethiopia, there had been a lot of unrest and the government had been arresting a number of students from the university. This guy, Dawit, had been in the firing line so he decided to leave the country. He made his way down to South Africa by foot, crossing the borders through the bush. He was arrested in one country, forced to eat leaves and drink green water to survive in another before finally arriving in S.A. where he worked for a few years. He has only recently come back to Ethiopia, on fake papers that he obtained in S.A. Quite a story for someone in his 20s!
We shared bread and stories with some of the kids that we met, who then told us that one of their friends was very sick and needed help. They took us to a young girl, about 14 or 15, who one of the other teachers I was with had met before. She is a prostitute, and was bent over on a small bench, with pains in her stomach. We promised to come back for her and take her to a hospital the next day. Early the next morning, we began the process of finding out where she had gone to, eventually finding her in one of the other organisations who help out with the street kids. We took her to one of the local aid hospitals, and she was admitted. The diagnosis, which we received later on in the day, was that she had a worm in her stomach. Unfortunately, she has also got some form of STD, obviously from her line of work. Hopefully there will be some treatment available for her, though she is only one of many like her!
Yesterday, Aaron asked me if I wanted to come climbing with him, and I obviously leapt at the chance. Aaron’s boss is apparently quite into it, and has a full set of gear, a number of harnesses and a couple of ropes so we set off up Entoto mountain to see what sort of cliffs we could come across. We found a good place, about 40 or 50 metres high and set up to find a spot to anchor to at the top. We attracted the usual hangers on, who inevitably follow four white guys up a mountain. James, Aaron’s boss, set about setting up the gear so we could abseil off, and then climb back up. I was first off the edge; unfortunately the cliff was extremely dirty, having never been climbed on before. The locals watched on in interest, probably wondering if we were mad. We had good fun though; even simply abseiling down a large cliff in a country where an emergency helicopter evacuation is not an option was exhilarating enough!
Bye for now,
Niall
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