Thursday, June 23

Today we did workshops for the teachers. The day started with our usual delicious breakfast provided by our wonderful cook, Tilblets. A few of us walked down to see the flag ceremony and to listen to Pastor give a short message. I don't know why we all seem drawn to this time of day, as it's all in Amharic, but we do. Today I sat quietly to the side and watched the kids faces as they listened in their straight rows all dressed in their maroon and purple uniforms. I prayed that whatever Pastor's message was the students would hear it clearly. Jeff was able to convince the people at the school to let us meet in the library, a much quieter place than yesterday. The highlight of the day was Brett's demonstration of hopscotch math, and watching Steve fall asleep in the back of the room during my reading strategy lesson. We all had a great time during the break chatting with teachers about life outside of school. I could tell they were starting to get more comfortable with us when they started teasing a few of us about being single in our "old age." We finished off the afternoon teaching workshops, ate dinner, cut crowns for Vacation Bible Study (VBS), and watched a bit of the World Cup, before I myself, zonked out at around 9 p.m.

Noelle Ferguson
5th Grade Teacher