School in Gororaya

This past summer our primary in our ward back home in Ashton and Josh and Stacy's ward in Midvale, UT had put together some school packages for my mom to give to the school students in Gororaya. My mom had put off visiting them because school wasn't in session and also to wait for us to go with her. I am SO SO SO glad that she did. I can't imagine missing this experience.

Those that went were, me, Andrew and the girls, my Mom, Haile, Zakir and Ashreka. We pulled up to the fence with a metal door and entered. Definitely not your typical school but full of beautiful Ethiopian students eager to learn and very excited that forenjees have come to visit!

 Zakir and my mom are holding the school sign, it is painted onto tin.  I'm not sure how may teachers there are but there were at least five that I recognized as teachers, four male and one female.

 As soon as we entered kids seemed to come from everywhere, some had been playing ball, others in their classrooms and others just wandering about in the brush. Within minutes there were probably two hundred kids hovering around us, giggling and reaching out to touch us. If you made a quick move though they scattered like mice, but were back in seconds because they were so curious.

 After the commotion settled and the teachers were able to get them to sit down my mom pulled out some maps that she had purchased to give to the school. One of Africa and the other of the world so that they could see where we were from too. The funny thing was that the teachers and Ashreka were standing by my mom as she was pulling out the supplies, pretty soon they had crowded so close to my mom that the rest of the students couldn't see. They were just as interested as the students and I had to tell them to get back so all could see.  Stacy's ward had donated colored pencils, scissors, erasers, pencils and a manual pencil sharpener. The primary back in Ashton had put together some bookmarks, pencils and friendship bracelets, along with a picture of the primary. We handed out those to only the youngest students because there were only a select few.

In return, we decided to write Galatooma (Thank you) on a posterboard and then have the students sign their names. While they were signing names Andrew installed the manual pencil sharpener in the teachers office so that all of the new pencils wouldn't be shorn to stubs, because let's face it pencil sharpeners are just cool!

 Also while the kids were signing we took a look at the classrooms. They teach some english but they are mostly taught in Oromic. The classrooms were tiny with little wooden desks. The walls were made out of manure bricks and no light except for through the windows. I hope American children realize what a blessing it is to go to school in the States, never take it for granted.


 Like I said above, when we first arrived some of the children were playing ball. They call it ball but I call it volleyball, yes, my favorite sport! I was a little nervous to ask if I could play but I decided to just do it and I'm so glad I did. On my side of the court all of the other children gathered around the outskirts of the court to watch and laugh at the female forenjee play ball. I was glad to see Ashreka (pink) step in and play on the other side. I must say Ashreka knows how to play volleyball! I can't explain how fun this was! I never in a million years thought I would be playing volleyball in the middle of the brush with a bunch of Ethiopian school children. WOW!

 At this point I had handed off my camera to Zakir and Haile, they became the photographers and had done a really good job. They wanted to get some of the art work that they had done on the side of their school. Beautiful, had I been there I would have asked what the tree meant. Also the teacher I think was trying to find something to give us in return and all he could give us was some beautiful papayas. We gladly took them.

Andrew had drawn a crowd too and was off in the brush with a group of children that were asking him parts of the body. I'm sure they had been studying it lately in English and each time Andrew told them nose, mouth, eye, etc. they burst into giggles thinking Andrew was the silliest thing they had ever seen. One of the children told Andrew he was fat.... that just makes me laugh. It probably made Andrew feel better because we're always teasing him about how skinny he is. :)

They were so interested in all of us that when I turned around to walk away from a group of children I could feel little fingers pinching my arms and back or a little tug on my hair. Obviously they have not seen a forenjee up close before and just couldn't help checking if I was real.

What an experience! I will never forget this day and I'm thinking neither will the school children of Gororaya. I picture them going home and saying to their mothers, "Mom! Today was the best day ever! Forenjees came to school!"