Our last days in Ethiopia

Hi all! This will be our last post! After landing in Addis on Sunday morning we were prepared for a relaxed few days making the most of the sun before heading back to the UK. On Sunday we did just that! We spent the majority of day playing cards on the house's sun terrace. We planned the same for the Monday, however we heard that a container that had been packed in the UK by Jonny and others from Romsey Baptist Church had finally arrived at the school. Jonny and Frank then went down to the school to help unload the container whilst Hannah continued to enjoy the sun! :) The container seemed to be emptied much faster than it was packed, mainly due to the help of the school staff! :) Jonny really enjoyed seeing the containers journey and was really pleased that he was able to be there to unpack it. On our last day in Ethiopia we were determined to make full use of the sun and the heat so once again we spent the day outside reading and playing cards! Han ended up winning after playing more than 50 games in the last 2 days! :) We spent the rest of the day packing before going to China Bar for dinner. The restaurant was located opposite one of the main squares in Addis where they were streaming live football. It also happened to be the last group match that Ethiopia were playing in the African Cup, meaning that the square was very busy and loud! Soon we were off to the airport and we could not wait to get home! We left the Addis house around 10.00pm and we landed at Heathrow at 7:00 am this morning and are now both safely home! :) We would like to thank everyone for their support over the last month, through skype calls, facebook messages and just by reading this blog! :) It means a lot to both of us and we feel we have gained so much from this experience and feel that it was really worth while! :) We would definately recommend it to others! Thank you again for reading! :) Jonny and Han.

Day 23 and 24

Hi everyone! Sorry we haven't posted for a couple of days the internet is a bit temperamental! :( Friday was our last day of school, which was very bitter sweet as we were leaving the children and the staff behind, yet this saw an end to another chapter of our Ethiopian journey and signalled that we only have 4 days left before returning home! :) We had a relaxed day in school with Jonny teaching the children a little more on subtraction whilst Han taught her last Grade 5/6 English class. We spent the rest of the day preparing them for their performance next week. We then went in search of the internet at the Ghion Hotel, although again it was very unreliable! :(

On our last full day in Bahir Dar we had a much needed lie in :) We then went onto a cafe to have a ice cream with Rahel and Marion. Whilst there we saw a big group of people crowded round an unconscious young man who looked very ill, although they managed to get him awake and get him to an ambulance luckily. We then went back to house and went onto Homland to speak to friends and family back home. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing cards. In the evening we were invited by the parents of a girl in our class to their house for what was meant to be a snack and coffee. However, it turned out to be a big meal with some of the family's friends and family, which was really nice. Later on we returned to Homland where Rahel presented us with some lovely presents. Jonny was given a scarf and a wallet while Hannah was given a Africanny sarong (Hannah's words!). It was a lovely way to end our last day in Bahir Dar :) and to get ready for the 6.00am start the next day! 

Day 20, 21 and 22 - Mawilid.

Hii everyone! We are alive and well! We haven't had internet for 3 days now, so sorry for the lack of posts! School has been pretty standard the last few days! We have taught the children multiplication and addition, and 45 high-frequency English words, which most of them are getting 100% correct now, so we are super proud! We only have one day left of school! The children are all saying that they don't want us to leave, which is so sweet to hear! As sad as it will be to leave, we definately feel we have learnt so much already from this placement and from the children and are ready to move on :) Today is Mawilid in Ethiopia - a Muslim occasion, celebrating the birth of Mohammad, therefore we have the day off school! After searching what feels like the entire city of Bahir Dar, we have finally found internet, yay. Thanks again to everyone viewing our blog! We have had 1727 views, so we are so super happy! And we hope to make it 2000+ before we leave! Only 6 days now! :) Han and Mr. Jon. (he hates it when i call him that) xx

Day 19 - 3 days left of school!

Today we had another really good day at school :) We did the usual Maths and English, and then in the afternoon we ran through a nursery rhyme with them. As our school is a private school, it is expected from the parents for us to put on a show at the end of every semester. We only found this out last week, so us and the rest of the staff are a little stressed about it! but we have some children in our class telling jokes, some doing traditional Ethiopian dancing, some reciting poems and the whole class singing Hickory Dickory Dock, which was definately a challenge trying to teach, but we will get there! There isn't much to say about today, but we are feeling very bitter sweet about only having 3 days left of school. It will be so so nice to go home and see our friends and family, and living in a third world country is getting tough now, however we will also feel very sad to leave our lovely children in our class! When we got home from school, we had some of Jonny's Smarties chocolate birthday cake that his mum sent over from England. It was amazingly good to have chocolate for the first time in 3 weeks, it actually felt like we had just won a bush trucker trial and that was our reward! We hope all of your first day of SIP placements went well, and everyone is being safe and having fun in the snow. We only hope it has gone by the time we get home as we are used to this heat now! :) xx

Lake Tana early in the morning

Sunrise on Lake Tana :) so beautiful

Our boat coming to get us

Jonny and I

Fishing

Jonny and Rahel

Jonny, Rahel and I, mid joke. haha.

The sun rising more

Arriving on the Island

The village houses

Near the monastry

Art work inside the monastry

Outside the monastry

Crowns from 14th Century

Religious texts, printed onto cow skin, not paper

Mud hut for tourists

Walking through the forest

Back on the lake

Our tour guide

Very vivid pictures!

Locals praying inside the monastry

Crossing the lake

Rahel and Han

Jonnys birthday cake from Rahel! 

Back to Desset for dinner

Jonny cutting his cake

Lake Tana :) 

The opening of where we sat at Desset

Our favourite place in Bahir Dar :) (minus Homland)

Rahel in traditional church wear

Part of the celebration involves priests with elaborate umbrella's

Inside the field where the priests were spreading holy water

The red carpet, where priests walked down once it was clean

Singing and dancing on the carpet before the priests came

In Ethiopian culture, holding hands is a sign of friendship, so we often see males walking around hugging eachother and holding hands, something you would never see in England 

A very happy boy who wanted me to take a photo of him whilst eating his sugar cane

The priests

The "party" after