Etiopian päiväkirja, osa 4

Nyt viimeinen päiväkirjatekstini Etiopiasta, mikä oli päivästä kun lähdimme Sodo-kylästä.

Every day is the best day yet. Today was very bittersweet as we drove up the dirt roads to the Zamine Sabaye School we have been working on and with all week for the last time. Even through the language barrier we were able to bond with the children and teachers through taking photos, painting the school, playing games with English songs and words to help them learn, hosting a sports day and giving out candy.

We started the day by meeting with government officials to commission in the four new wells of Zamine Sabaye. The school director presented a speech on the future needs of the school and thanked us for all our efforts. The school and officials presented each of our team members with a handmade scarf in Wolaita colours and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. We then shared homemade bread, fresh bananas and oranges and strong coffee, before departing.

We made a few more stops at other KVI projects, the first being a school where the kids sang for us and we gave autographs into their workbooks. The next project we stopped at was the Women’s Empowerment Project. The women greeted us with song and dance, which a few of us promptly joined in on. I loved it so much! They showed us the new grinding mill and how it worked to make grains into flour that they are able to sell at the market on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. We were able to bless them with a donkey and a cart as a team, which they were very grateful for. This, for me, was one of the major highlights of the trip.

As we drove out of the village we decided we needed to get rid of some of the leftover candy, so as we drove we tossed them to the children walking home from school. Before we knew it we were being mobbed by children hungry for sugar, it was quite hilarious.
The drive to Hawassa was crazy with the many people, cows, goats and donkeys taking up the streets. Our driver is very good and was able to get past them all without a hitch.

We ended the day with a beautiful dinner on the lake at a resort in Hawassa. It’s crazy how inexpensive everything is here, this dinner that would easily cost 80 dollars for two people alone in Canada or Finland, was what we paid for all ten of us to have a great meal and milkshakes.