May 2018

Tsedalu Walle

One of the requests for housing this year came from a young blind man called Tsedalu Walle. Tsedale is currently in 9th grade at the state school, he receives 300bir (£7.90) per month from the government and is currently living in rented accommodation. He has been given land by a family member but cannot afford and is unlikely to be able to afford to have a house built. We felt that by helping him with a house Tsedale would no longer have to pay rent and would be in a better position to support himself on his government allowance.

Dentist

A young girl came to us with her face wrapped in a scarf and explained that she had a toothache. She had been to the hospital to see the dentist and she needed two extractions but did not have the money to pay for the treatment a cost of £20.00. This type of medical situation is one we always like to support. We gave her the money and off she went to the hospital. The hospital is a 20-minute walk away from where we are based. She was back within the hour, teeth extracted and showing us the receipt. Considering most of the hour she was away was taken up by travel her actual treatment must have been quick and severe.

The Bank

It is always an experience going to the bank which we tend to visit on several occasions each trip. We know the bank manager Asawele well and he always invites us to his office for tea or coffee. This year we decided that instead of giving cash to the people we are helping with housing we would encourage them to open a bank account and we would pay the money into their accounts for them to manage, much to the delight of Asawele. It seemed a good idea at the time; all we had to do was transfer the money from the Ethiopiahope account to each of the individual’s accounts. However, this has to be done clerically and a separate form for each withdrawal and deposit and then typed into each account on the computer by the bank staff. One particular visit we had 6 transactions to make as well as a currency exchange and in the middle of it all we had a power cut. When the power goes off everyone, staff and customers just sit there, the customers’ gossip and the staff drink tea whilst offering us snacks. The power came back on after about 10 minutes and everything went back to how it was before the power cut. Visits to the bank can easily take up a whole morning.

The Prodigal Son Returns

One of Sisters helpers at the centre, Tiblet, has four children. One of her sons Washun left home when he was 12 years old and went to Addis Ababa. Over a number of years, the family tried to trace him along with the help of the sisters in Addis, on several occasions he was traced living on the streets but was reluctant to return home and then as soon as he was traced he would disappear again. This year news of Washun was received and some of the family went to Addis and were successful in getting him to return home, Washun is now 22. We went to meet him; he was unrecognisable from the 12-year-old lad we once knew. He appears to be settled in the home now and we talked about his future and he said he was interested in learning to become a barber. He had done some research and with the help of Sister Terfatu found a training course, we agreed to fund it and possibly supply any equipment he will need once he has taken the course.

Pudgy

After the many years and trips to Ethiopia it is always great to catch up with old friends but someone who is always pleased to see us is Pudgy, Sister’s cat. Whilst we are there he gets a couple of weeks of cuddles every night and the odd tin of Tuna Fish. It is amazing how affectionate he is as for most of his 14 years he gets very little attention other than a meal of leftovers, but for a couple of weeks each year he is in cat heaven.