Yesterday, we travelled 14 hours from Dhadim to Addis Ababa by car, because we have to do a few things in Addis Ababa like changing my driving license and picking up some guests.

Since my last entry, many things happened. On Tuesday the first of January, we had a little dinner in our garden. The whole clinic staff came because one man went in Retirement and a second one found another job. We ate goat and talked a lot. But because many things were in Borana Language, I didn't understand much.

The next morning at 8.30 I went with Sister Ancia to the Kindergarten. It is really different to our Kindergartens. First of all, there were 50 Children; everyone had to wear a yellow T-shirt, their uniform. First, all the children screamed the alphabet together, then there were a few exercises outside and then some of the children had to go to the blackboard in front and write some letters or numbers.
They all have their own books where they practice the letters or numbers in it.
They are teached in English, Mathematics and Borana Language.
In the afternoon I washed a few clothes. It was the first time I did my laundry without any machine, properly and I will have to do that e few more times, but it is ok. First, the clothes had been put in some water, then I soaped everything and with a brush, I sweaped the dirt and soap out of the clothes. Then I washed the soap properly out of the clothes and put them somewhere to dry. I still got a lot of help by the sisters, because it was my first time.

On Thursday, I went with Sister Annie and some staff of the clinic out in the field, which means, we went to a little village somewhere without proper roads or electricity and water. We went there to give vaccinations to the children and control the pregnant women. The most of these women were around 20, the most of them had already one or more children. The youngest becoming mother was about 17, she didn't know herself how old she exactly was.
The poorest one got some cooking oil and biscuits from us.
But these women didn't come as soon as we arrived, we had to go to them and convince them to come to us to be treated. So we entered a few houses, they all looked quite the same. It is one round building, sometimes two combined with a small way, where people and animals live and sleep next to each other. They also cook in their houses, a little fire in the middle of that small round house. As far as I know, they never wash themselves and they never clean their places too, I do not even know if they go out for the toilet.
We also walked to their water place, where they get their water from. To the water place and the village back again we walked about an hour, quite slow and under the burning sun. The water in that little lake wasn't clean, it was red and dirty, but most of these people drink it without cleaning or cooking.
In that village, there weren't so much people, so we were finished at about 2 o'clock.
While driving back to Dhadim, we saw a few monkeys. Later in the afternoon after lunch we went to see a really really old man. We came to that little village and entered the house; the man was barely sitting and looked more dead than alive. He didn't really talk, I never saw his face and I think he is completely blind. He has a wife who is 16 and a two year old child, he is a quite rich man, has a lot of goats and cows. His other wife(s) before this one died.

Christmas in summer. Quite weird. But actually, on Friday it wasn't yet Christmas, but we did celebrate it in the Kindergarten, so in the morning, Sister Ancia, some local staff and I decorated a tree like Christmas. The sun was shining and I could stand there in short pants and T-shirt. But I always wear long pants and mostly a sweatshirt. The Borana people there have also some clothes like we have in Europe, but also they are just wearing a lot of cloths, very colorful.
After Lunch we prepared some other things and at 4 o'clock we started. One child had an English welcome speech, even though I'm not sure if he knew what he was telling and then the children sang some songs and Abba Boniface told the story of Jesus, but I'm not sure if that's true because he preached in Borana Language. After some more songs we distributed some sweets and then the children sat in a circle and they got some tea and biscuits. It is interesting that the children were sharing, breaking the biscuits in little pieces and ate together, although they all had their own biscuits.
That was the first day when the generator was broken, that means, since then, we have no water and no electricity. Some local people are carrying water to our houses, so they earn some money and we have water. In the evening we prepared some songs like "silent night, holy night". Just Abba Boniface, Abba Anthony, the three sisters and me.

The next day was Saturday; there was a big competition for the youth. First, the youth and children had some quiz. That was really boring, because I didn't understand a word and the questions were quite difficult. Later, we played some games like "Journey to Jerusalem" where there were in the beginning 8 chairs in a circle and 9 players running around them. At a signal, they all had to sit down on a chair, so one person didn't have a seat and he was out. Then, one chair was taken out, so there was always one person more than chairs, till there was a single winner. They liked that a lot.
In the afternoon I cooked some vegetable soup and Vanilla Pudding, because our cook always cooks the same things.
I ate a weird green fruit; I think it was called Kashmir, but I'm not sure. Also I discovered sugar cane. That's the plant where sugar is taken out of. You chew on it until it's not sweet anymore and then you spit it out. I like it a lot and I eat quite much of it.
Because I get up every day between 6.30 and 7 o'clock I went early to bed that day, to get some more sleep.