Two days in one blogg but what days they have been!

Friday day 6

Today was a day that we were all dreading, not only were we saying goodbye to the beautiful children but we were also starting our venture back home. After a mad rush around for our last bits of resources, we were back on the manic roads of Addis heading for Ahisdo and the Meskerete Kindergarten school. We arrived early enough to witness their daily outdoor assembly which finished with the children all proudly singing their National Anthem as the flag was raised in the centre of the playground. Our morning was yet again filled with laughter and joy and lots of fun as the teams treated the children to yet more crazy and sometimes messy activities including mask making , puppets, bracelets , balloons and finger painting along with singing and dancing and a fantastic break time of playground games. As we all knew the time soon came to an end. After we said many sad, tearful goodbyes we were thanked endlessly by the children and the staff as they served us up a traditional coffee ceremony. Many a tissue was needed!

Back at the youth centre, we were treated to an amazing show put on by the young people of the community, which included acrobatics , dancing, singing , more coffee (!) circus skills and heart felt speeches . One of our interpreters ( a teenage lad who met some of us last year) told us that the community would be talking about this celebration for the whole year and that our presence in their midst this past week had created a real buzz. As we said our goodbyes to the after school children that we had got to know and love , we were almost overwhelmed by the crush of hugs and kisses and ‘high fives’ which made our walk back to the mini buses quite an experience and even as we drove off through the rugged pot holed tracks of the slum the youngsters ran around and tried to climb on the back until we picked up speed and made our way out of their lives …….. but with our hearts very much left behind with them .

A visit to the traditional cultural restaurant for our evening meal lifted our spirits as we attempted to unpack what we had all experienced in this past week . Many of us joined in the dancing and sampled the local delicacies ad we were finally able to relax.

Saturday Day 7

I started today sat on the roof of our hotel as the sun was still rising, looking out over Addis, a sea of tin roofs punctuated by the odd tall building and the silhouettes of the trees and hills on the horizon, twas a beautiful sight. The sound of the call to prayer echoed in the background accompanied by the sounds of birds singing and glasses chinking as our breakfast orange juice was being prepared below. A wonderful way to start the day. After the usual breakfast routine we all bundled into our buses, opened the windows, turned up our favorite tunes set off for a driven tour around the market. The marcato is one of the biggest in Africa and sells just about everything. It was amazing, chaotic, inspiring, like a car boot sale x 100,000! Nothing is rubbish everything has a potential and value. We witnessed what we reckon is the world record for the number of mattresses a person can balance on their head whilst walk down a mentally crowded street. Are you ready? Take a guess. Nope not even close. 28! That’s right people! Go and try to balance one, go on, I dare you! We then stopped at a less chaotic street market where we were able to do some shopping and practice that art of batering. There was them some inbetween stuff like lunch and a hotel stop, bla, bla, bla. But the real good stuff everyone is this: Some of us took up an offer of a friend of Pauls to go to a coffee ceremony at a house in the slum just round the corner from our hotel. I have never experienced such genuine, heartfelt, selfless hospitality. What followed was pure, special, beautifulness. As we then wandered around the slum our party quickly increased in number. The Party of dancing, games stories and the biggest grins I have ever seen lasted until the sun went down. That is what it’s all about people! Wahooooo ☺

Even though it is just a little tear drop in the grand scheme of things, we know it has made a massive splash!

start the day with the national anthem and a prayer

The TLA crew

all agree!

memories for ever

tears of love and good bye

we did it!

hugs help

sad goodbye

proud nation

how many can you carry?

The Bournemouth crew

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