Week 2

My second week here a lot has happened. I have been doing a lot more teaching because several teachers have been out for holidays. Surprisingly, I really like teaching English the best. I have been teaching the two lowest levels and they are hilarious. We went through the whole alphabet; I would write a big A and they would come up with different words that start with the letter and write them down. One of my favorite kids is hilarious and would shout out things like, "Star Wars, Power Rangers, Narnia!" when we were on a random letter. Two days ago a deaf boy came to Layla. He is very aggressive and lacks social skills because who knows what his home or school situation was before. It is very frustrating to work with him with no instruction teaching an entire class while he's trying to attack all the other kids. Because I have minimal signing knowledge, but more than any of the other volunteers, I'm going to start working with him one on one. We'll see how that goes. Nicole and I just implemented tutoring for kids behind in English and Math. The head teacher is excited because he has wanted this for a while. I tutored math (VERY low level, just my speed, haha) to younger kids. They are so cute and actually started to understand some when I started using crumbled pieces of paper to show subtraction having them take pieces off the table.

The volunteer coordinator, Ivy, came back after 2 weeks off. She is the one that is supposed to tell us what to do, etc. However, I had never even met her until yesterday. She is supposed to be really rude to new volunteers, but I think she was impressed that we had held things together so well with 0 direction when she was gone, so she was all right to us.

Hopefully we can do some field trips soon with the kids. They have been suspended because AAI has received complaints from the Ethiopian government that white people are parading around the city with Ethiopian children and taking them from there country. Ethiopians do NOT like Americans coming in to adopt children. They are embarrassed that their country cannot take care of their own people. In some ways, you see their point. White people swooping in and taking their countries children; it doesn't really fix the underlying problem. However, these kids need families. So now families or parents who are coming in to adopt have to wait to take their kid from the orphanage until it's time to leave. AAI wants to maintain a low profile so that the government does not say that Americans can no longer adopt out. It is too bad for the kids at Layla because they are stuck on the compound 24/7. After working in the Detention facility at DYS in Eugene, it is interesting to see that those kids get more freedom than the kids at Layla. But the kids at Layla remember when they had no one taking care of them and would rather sacrifice freedom than be on the streets with nothing.

Earlier this week, I went to Sele Enat, another orphanage, with a few kids so they could get their pictures taken and get some records there for them. Two of the girls have HIV and one of them is very sick. She just got out of the hospital, and I cannot believe she was let out. I have never seen a kid so listless and unresponsive. She is two years old, but she is the size of a 3 or 4 month old. Her little arms and legs are nothing and have no muscle tome whatsoever. The rest of the week I would go into Wanna (the baby area) and try to do little leg exercises with her and get her muscles to do something. She is so darling and I have been worried about her. I was told that she is expected to do better when she moves to AHope and gets on different meds.

Friday night at Layla we celebrated Meuskeul, the Ethiopian holiday that celebrates the finding of the true cross. It is a rather big holiday here. After work, I went with the director to drop of two HIV+ baby girls at AHope, and went back to Layla that evening. It was al most dark and when the kids saw us they were so excited that we had come for the celebration. They mauled us! The older girls grabbed my hands and dragged me down to the laundry area in the back of Layla. Surprise, there the older boys were slaughtering 4 goats for the holiday meal. They were happy to have an audience. They had already killed 2 goats and wanted me to take pictures of them holding up the heads. Then I watched them drag a live goat in, the boys pinned it on its back, and Bogale, one of the oldest boys, sawed its head off with a large knife. Blood was everywhere. It was the first time I had seen anything get killed like that. When you think about how many kids that goat is feeding, you really don't feel bad at all. Everyone slaughters sheep and goats here, that's just what you eat. So I saw a second one get decapitated and took lots of pictures. The boys we very excited that we weren't freaked out.

After this, we sang and danced around in the main compound with all the kids jumping all over us. All of the kids want attention and want to be hugged and held. They are so cute. Then, they lit the giant bon fire in the middle of the compound and everyone ran around the fire in a circle signing Ethiopian songs. It was very cool. I loved being able to hang out with the kids at night without having to be a teacher-like figure. They are so much fun.