The morning run in Dessie is a wonderful event. At 6am it was raining lightly, about 65 deg, and just perfect. None of the roads are paved, but there are plentiful stones, so the puddles aren’t too bad. We cruised down our road for ¼ mile, took a right and went through the “traffic circle” towards town. At an elevation of 6,600 ft, we are totally dying going up hills; this in addition to dodging the flying, diesel spewing taxis. The bonus is that the locals totally cheer us on, raising one hand, smiling, and yelling, “Good! Good!” It is a great way to start the day.

Today, the Big Boss, Dr. Minas, was visiting, so all of the students showed up for the day, about 750 total, k-10th grades. It is amazing to see all of the students, knowing that they represent the poorest families in town and yet, by being selected for this school, have hope for a future that doesn’t include poverty. It is like viewing the personification of positive potential.

I have had the privilege of teaching science to the 9th graders this week. We split them into two classes and it is much like teaching 9th graders in the States – the girls have become shy, the boys more assertive, and the attention span is pretty short. Consequently, we don’t get much participation in class from the women, so today we opted to split the students into same-gender groups. It was outstanding. The girls blossomed into equation-writing fiends, laughing, correcting each other at the board, clapping, and cheering whenever a particularly hard problem was conquered. Having never been a big fan of single-gender education, I must say that it worked extremely well today.

Our team is getting tired, but we’re heading into town to attempt to get on the Internet, make some phone calls, buy scarves, and sit in the Ebenezer Café, drinking incredible cappuccinos. It is a great way to spend an afternoon in Dessie.