Lauren’s Stay at Selamta

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

I’m finally finishing up my seventh week here and it seems to have dragged on much longer than any of the others. Its interesting because I thought it would get easier to be so far away from home and to live on my own, but it has only proven to have gotten more difficult as time passes. I am so sad about leaving everyone here who I have grown to love so much, but I cannot WAIT to see my friends and family back home!

The past week has not been uneventful though. Last Sunday I spent the day at the “Sport the Bridge” program soccer tournament which was really fun. The Selamta girls and boys both played really well, and the younger boys got a chance to get in on the action when they played a team of other younger boys. There was a little boy who was probably about two that came running up to me almost right when we got there in the morning and he stuck around with the Selamta spectators throughout the day. His name was Abush and he was one of the cutest children I have ever seen, I immediately fell for him. His mother was sort of lurking in the background throughout the day, clearly a homeless woman who was also suffering from elephantitis. It was so hard to think about this adorable and loving boy having to live on the streets with a mother who let him run around among strangers. All of the Selamta kids became partially attached to Abush and when Abel came at the end of the day there was talk of whether or not we could try to have Abush come live in Selamta. Abel went to speak with the mother, who adamantly did not want to separate from her child, which of course makes sense. Then Seyfe told us that this woman had lived where he used to live and that she had tried to sell her son when he was younger and then had sued the person she had sold him to. I guess it was a good thing that we didn’t get involved with a person like that, but it really was heartbreaking to have to say goodbye to this little boy. Oh, he was so sweet.

On Wednesday, I took a much needed break and spent the day at the pool at the Ghion Hotel. It only cost 25 birr ($2.50!) and we could hang out there as long as we wanted. It was very relaxing, but unfortunately the sun was much stronger than I expected and I got a little sunburn that has really been a nuisance. It was nice to get into the city though, and I realized that I hadn’t seen any other forenge since John left almost two weeks ago! I think going home is going to be more than a major shock.

The week in school seemed to go by very quickly. Friday was my last day with my grade 7 students and it turned out to be extremely anticlimactic. I was kind of expecting some big inspirational thing to happen and then…. Nothing. Most of the children did pretty well on their quiz that I gave them which was a general review of everything we had studied together. The average grade was about an 80%. After spending a few hours grading all of the quizzes, I have a new found respect for teachers. Grading is a lot of work! Quite a few of the students brought in letters or small presents for me like jewelry and little trinkets like that. It was sad to say goodbye to some of my favorite students, but honestly I couldn’t really wrap my head around the idea that I would never see some of these kids ever again. I guess the fact that I’m leaving hasn’t really hit me yet.

So now I just have a few more days here, I have to finish up with my grade 6 students, do my last minute souvenir shopping and spend my last precious days with the kids and moms. I’ll write once more before I go!