July 8, 2008

Today was a tough day. The morning was wonderful because I got to see a somewhat of a solution to the poverty problem. We went to Selam which is a vocational school. They are teaching men and women a trade. The man who gave us the tour said with this training they can make up to 7 times more than the average Ethiopian income per month. How wonderful is that? They are opening so many doors for these people than they would normally have. This is helping them get out of poverty, but it is also helping their families who would have suffered in poverty if it hadn't been for a place like Selam.

It is just so nice to see a place that is looking at the problem and coming up with a solution. They aren't just putting a band-aide on a symptom of the problem. They are allowing these people to help themselves and better themselves. They aren't just throwing money at them that will feed them for a day; they are teaching them skills that will help feed them for a lifetime.

In the afternoon, we went back to the study center in Kechene. The kids were happy to see us and some of them remembered us from Friday. I was so tired from not sleeping well last night that I just didn't have the right attitude going in. We played for a little while in the year. The children were very active today which is a huge contrast from Friday.

We broke the children up into groups to play games. Jessica and I played Hot Potato with our group. The children loved the music! They love to dance! It was fun with the smaller group--not so overwhelming. we then brought the kids over to join the other groups All the kids wanted a balloon. They went crazy! They started getting really mad when I said we were all out. It turned into a mad house. It was borderline violent. One little boy, probably 10-12ish, grabbed my arm and would not let go. He started squeezing harder and harder. I had to really push him off of me. I felt bad, but I know it was going to be the only thing to get him off of me. At that moment, I was just so overwhelmed by the whole situation I wanted to leave. I was not having a good time and found myself becoming angry at the children. I hated that. I don't want to be mad at these kids. It was just a very difficult situation. It was definitely a learning experience though. I know what we shouldn't do next time. We definitely need to take a different approach when we go back tomorrow.