Saturday, October 31st - Addis Ababa

Only Lynn and I are left at the house now.  We got up and had breakfast - leftovers from the day before - and left at 8:30 a.m. to start our day.

Our first stop was at Kality where we did a follow-up session for the guardians.  Nine of the ten guardians were there and we had a lively discussion as we reviewed their goals for their candle making business.  The goals and details about them were their homework and they did it quite completely so we were impressed.  Some parts obviously didn't translate well but that is to be expected.  For example, for each goal we asked for a time line to accomplish the goal and instead of that they gave us their meeting schedule for the group candle meeting.  

All of the topics we had to discuss for the day came out of the discussion of their goals so we managed to accomplish everything quite easily.  Some of the points were discussed quite heatedly but we only got the translator's version of "they are discussing it".  We knew the discussion of how to split any profits or pay wages would be an issue. The group is quite new and so far all they have done is split their meagre profit evenly despite the fact that some of the ladies work much harder / longer than the others.   I may never know how they divide the profits but it was interesting watching their debate.  The other contentious issue was reinvesting the profits in the business so they could become totally self sufficient.  They had help for the first round but they now have to pay for everything themselves so dividing the profits might not be too much of an issue for a while.  They also want to go into a different type of candle and they need training for that but they don't have the money yet so things are on hold at the moment.  It was a good session and, as noted, we did cover all that we wanted to cover.  

That will be our last session with this group of ladies.  It will be interesting to hear reports of them in the future to see how their business is going.  And just to be clear, when they talk about splitting profits they are not talking about a lot of money.  I believe each one got 227 birr or about $11 and that might have been for three or six months work.  It seems so little to us but it means the world to them and it's money they would not otherwise have to feed and clothe their families.

From there we went back to the house to have some lunch.  That almost didn't happen because we lost the key to the house but eventually we found it in the bottom of the banana bag.  Lynn was carrying that bag in when she pulled the key out of her purse.  I guess the key came off the ring and fell into the bag.  We looked everywhere in the van and on the road and had already phoned someone to tell them we were locked out.  Then we checked the banana bag and there it was.

After a very quick lunch we went to the Alemgena Centre to do a session with the senior students.  In fact it turned out to be over 30 of the students in a wide age range.  We weren't sure the young ones would follow the presentation but in fact they were the ones who participated the most.  We started out with skills and abilities and selling yourself in a job interview and on a resume.  Next we did goal setting and talked about SMART goals.  Then we switched to starting a business and they came up with many good business ideas and, as we went through the presentation, they told us how to market the business, where to locate it, etc.  Then we got into the finances of a business and they even came up with the types of costs for their particular business.  They really did a good job on all of the material and seemed interested in it even though we were there for several hours and some of it was pretty dry stuff.  

This will likely be the last time we are at Alemgena too.  The students there really are quite impressive and their goals are not small.  Many had short term goals to pass their year in school with top grades or longer goals of graduating from high school and going to university.  Some want to be engineers, many want to be doctors - mainly due to Dr. Northcott's influence I think.  Despite being the poorest of the poor and having little family support, these students dream big and believe they can do something with their lives.  One of the girls wants to be a doctor and make good money to support her family and have enough savings to open a clinic to find a cure for diseases like HIV and Ebola.  I don't imagine any of these students were affected by ebola but they still sympathize with the children whose families were devastated by the disease.  So many of the students in Ethiopia live with grandparents because their parents died of aids.  At times it seems like a whole generation disappeared.  Yet the children are happy and smiling and they are friendly and excited about learning.  They love their Canadian Humanitarian education centre and the whole family there and it really shows.  I remember one of the older boys, when asked about his family, who simply looked around the centre and said "this is my family".  And indeed, some of the older children do live on their own and the centre truly is their only family.  It really is amazing what a tight-knit group they become and how much they look out for each other.  Even after they graduate they still come back to the centre to participate in activities and to help with the programming for the current students.

We left the centre about 5:30 and went back to the house.  Lynn and I later walked over to the Bella Hotel to have dinner and use their internet.  Dinner was good but the internet wasn't, which was a real disappointment.  We came home and tried to use our slower internet hot spot but again to no avail.  It really is annoying but what can you do.  Eventually we both just went to our rooms to crawl under our mosquito nets and read before going to sleep.  I actually didn't even get my book open.  It had been a busy day and I was too tired to even read.  Sleep was much more enticing.