Kids are great and sometimes they understand what’s really important in life long before us adults catch on. I (Andrea) was reminded of this by a little girl who helped us while we were camping (as described in the previous blog).
As foreigners setting up camp alongside the road, we attracted quite a crowd of spectators. After finishing our evening meal, we asked a little girl and a little boy to help wash the dishes in the river, paying each of them 5 birr for their services (that’s about 40 cents in US currency but it goes a lot further here). The little girl proved herself to be a particularly hard worker so when the next morning’s breakfast had finished we sought her out among the crowd. She and I went down to the river talking briefly in Amharic. (This little girl is in the picture posted with the previous blog: she is closest to the camera wearing the pink dress.)
As I was trying to think of things I could say in Amharic she started talking to me. One of the things I could understand was that she was a student on summer break and she was asking me for a notebook. She was less interested in money than in obtaining a notebook for school. I immediately knew what was going on. From what we understand, government run schools are free for children to attend; however, they must provide their own notebook and pens. On our trip to the schools in the Gmz region last May, we saw so many kids with old, tattered notebooks and some of the smallest or saddest pens we’ve ever seen. It was not uncommon to see kids writing with just the inside “refill” portion of your standard Bic pen. With it being August, school would be starting again soon and this little girl was wanting a new notebook to start off well.
With the help of a better Amharic speaker, we promised that we would buy her a notebook in the city we were traveling to and drop it off the next day on our way back through that area. So with no immediate payment for her services, she watched us pack our vehicle and drive off.
Thankfully, we were able to find a store in the city of Lalibela at which we bought the best notebook we could find (a whole 8 birr worth, less than 70 cents). We also bought a new pen for her, the better of the two types of pens this store sold (another 2 birr). It touched us to see this bright little girl requesting a direct investment in her education and consequently her future. We consider it a privilege to express our gratitude with this new notebook and pen.
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It is "back to school time" here and notebooks and pens are crazy cheap right now. Would this be something that you could use if we could get them to you?
ReplyDeleteAndrea, my eyes were teary after this post. I too would be willing to send a package of school supplies if you have people to delivery them to. I believe someone was advertising notebooks for a penny? Let me know.
ReplyDeleteNicole