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Grade 7 retreat to Langano

Still having internet problems, until I get these sorted out the frequency of postings will be low; bear with me!

The weekend of 4/5th Oct, I joined Brian and a number of other staff on the Grade 7 retreat to Langano. This is a large lake about 4 hours to the south of Addis; I had never been before so I was glad to join in. Before we set off, we were informed that we needed to deliver a package, from SIM HQ in Addis down to the SIM clinic that is located in Langano. The package turned out to be a 3 month old baby; brought up to Addis to be cared for and nursed back to health as the mother had either died in childbirth or was unable to care for the baby herself. Quite a funny situation in some ways, we almost dreaded the drive down but the baby was very good and barely cried. Phew!

We spent the weekend playing games with the kids and swimming at the lake. The lake isn’t the best place to swim; the bottom is thick with mud and leads to many mud fights. However, it is nice to get into the water. We had many competitive games with the kids, watched in wonder by many farmer boys who had brought their cattle down to graze by the lake. Overall it was a very successful retreat and hopefully the kids will take something away from it.

This last weekend, we travelled back to Negash on the motorbikes, taking again some of the others. We enjoyed another great relaxing weekend by the pool, Brian’s friend Laura came this time and they had great fun winding up the poor Ethiopians sitting by the pool. Brian had brought a mobile phone that he found some time ago in a river; hence it is broken. However, he has great fun throwing it to people and watching their reaction as they inevitably fail to catch his deliberately bad throw. He and Laura had fun throwing it to one another across the pool, only to have it fall in. Some of the reactions of those standing around the pool were priceless.

Over Halloween break, one of the other teachers (Daniel Toole) and I are heading to climb Kilimanjaro. I was figuring that this year was probably the best time to do it, considering that I’m already living at about 2,600m there will hopefully be a lesser chance of getting altitude sickness. While we were doing some training around Bingham, I fell awkwardly. Whatever way I put my hand down, I dislocated another finger. I couldn’t believe it when I looked at it, 2 dislocations in less than 6 months! I went to the doctor on compound and this time he put it back in there and then, without anaesthetic. Ouch!

All for now,

Niall

Posted at 16 October, 2008, 5:52pm

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