Temanj Yaze

While we were in Ethiopia, I volunteered in a government primary school during the day before going to PATH in the afternoon. Here's 'tis:

The school has a kindergarten annex (where I'm standing while taking this picture). The kindergarten building has three classrooms: one for 3 year olds (KG-1), 4 year olds (KG-2), and 5 year olds (KG-3). I worked in the KG-2 classroom, and loved it! Here I am with the teachers and beautiful KG-2 kids: This is Selam. She was the lead teacher in KG-2, and she helped me so much!!! She spoke excellent English and was so friendly and helpful to me. Because of her and the other teachers here, I got to learn a lot of stuff about Ethiopian culture that I never would have otherwise. She is an awesome teacher and is really dedicated to doing a good job teaching the children. In this picture she is coloring a poster of the Amharic alphabet. These are three other teachers I worked with: Haregowin (other teacher in KG-2), Redit (KG-3 teacher), and Hirut (KG-1 teacher). They were really nice to me, and Selam would translate what they said for me. Here we are in the teachers lounge during our break. Here are two pictures of the playground: In the morning all three classrooms line up and do exercises and sing the national anthem together. Those teachers have some excellent discipline going on in their classes! (I think it helps that corporal punishment and public shaming for bad behavior is not considered a no-no.) Here's the KG-2 classroom: All 30 kids lined up to go outside: They brought lunch from home and ate around noon. Each child brought pretty much the same thing: injera with vegetables and a water bottle, as seen here: Here are some close-up shots of some of my favorite kids (okay they all were pretty much my favorite, but I got some good shots of these kids): Zainaba: She is so hilarious!! She made me and the other teachers laugh every day. What a cutie. Fikre: She is a bright light of shining happiness. Her name means love and it fits her perfectly! Love this sweetie pie: Mintessinote: the epitome of suave, charming sweetness. He was such a good kid, so well-behaved, mellow, and easy-going. He would always wink back at me with a half smile when I winked at him. Me with some of the kids: Teaching these kids English was such an awesome experience. They all came from low-income (or in other words, no-income) families, and it was at times painful and at times inspiring to see how they learned how to be tough from such an early age. They never cried, complained, whined, or threw fits. They were so grateful and responsive to any attention/things they received. They were so loving and affectionate. And they all had their own light about them. Man I miss these kids!