The week in Ambo

Good Morning from Ambo!
We traveled out here to Ambo a few days ago it is about 160 km outside of Addis. The drive was pretty incredible with numerous views of the countryside. During our time here thus far we have spent time with street boys and compassion kids. The compassion kids are supported by the church and attend school in a building that mohaclub raised the money to build. The school is located on the church grounds less than a mile from here. We spent one morning teaching English to the compassion kids and we will return this morning to continue to teach them more english. So far our teaching methods seem to be extremely effective and I am excited to go back later this morning. In the afternoon we spent time playing football and other games with the compassion kids, they seem to have had a great time. Most of the time we are in Ambo will be spent with the compassion kids, enough time it seems that we should be able to develop some great friendships here in Ambo. Jealousay - means my friend in Amharic, and I have made many of those.

Yesterday we spent the morning with about a hundred street boys, It was only three hours of our time but it seemed to last much longer than that. The street boys here in Ambo live owning nothing except for the shirt on their back, they work the street for money to buy food by selling gum or shining shoes. There are a few street buys that have been spending a lot of time with us and traveling with us to and from the church on the bus, their names are Gaytar, Barahan?, and Tura. I am very grateful for the time that they spend with us. I need to get going to Breakfast but I want to leave you with an image that you can capture and remember when you think of me here in Ethiopia. Imagine two 16 year old boys one on my left and one on my right, the one on my right is holding my hand and I have my arm around the other one's neck, we are joined by four others and we are walking down a dirt road next to some small shops. The Ethiopian people show their friendly affection with each other by holding hands and putting their arms around one another. The looks of astonishment from others in the small market area as they looked on wondering how these teens could be friends with foreenjay, foreigners, was incredible. For they are street oys, and they are the outcasts of society, why would I a foreenjay choose to travel all this way to spend time with the outcasts of their society?