Lots has been happening since I last posted, we've had big piles of stones dropped onto the road to make it flatter (causing chaos for buses, cars and walkers) which luckily were flattened the next day by a big truck - obviously because of much complaining!
My little buddy Abraham has now got a "sister" looking after him which means he is bringing food at least every other day. he now says a few words to me at the water tap and gives me big smiles even though he is painfully shy in both Amharic and English. He also really enjoys computer lessons and when I take Grade 2 for English lessons especially handwriting.My nephew has celebrated his 2nd birthday which I was really sad to miss (especially when everyone was eating yummy cake on skype in front of me) but overjoyed when I called and skyped to see how much he's grown and his speaking has improved. He even gave me a little crazy shake at the table!
This week I was at the central grade school the whole time and between teaching and assisting I have been typing all the library books into a spreadsheet (you know how that goes Lyn). Monday was the only day which was a little different as Dawit came into school before lunch and asked me to come with him to a local school to try to identify/assess a young man believed to be autistic. We duely went around the corner and I got to see what the other schools look like and meet another very exceptional young man. His teacher was complaining because of his behaviour towards other children and objects in the classroom and described him as being unable to hold a pencil and a very 
naughty boy. When he came out it was immediately clear that he has Down's Syndrome, which the school had never heard of. Dawit and myself interacted with him - me as much as possible because of the language barrier, he mainly played with my bracelet and asked me lots of questions which I couldn't understand in Amharic! - Dawit tried to provoke a response to see if what the teacher said was true about his behaviour, he handled his arms and tickled his stomach and the boy just played and talked back. We observed him for about 20 minutes unable to stand still but not harming anyone, whilst Dawit tried to explain to the school what Down's Syndrome is and that he would need a one-to-one teacher and specialised curriculum. The school was not really interested and said that the parent would have to pay for an extra teacher if she wished for him to stay there. Dawit asked about the class size and they told us that he was in a nursery class of 45 children and he was hitting others and throwing lunches around regularly. At this point the small boy tried to play with the teachers little girl who was standing next to her and was told "Don't touch him, he's going to hit you" to which he responded by hitting her! The next day the parent contacted Dawit to ask if she could send her son to EAA as he had been thrown out of the school. Dawit and Stephanie are desperately looking for a child sponsorship (£140) and a one-to-one teacher sponsorship (£420) so that they can accept him as an EAA student. I hope that this happens before I leave as I would hate to think of him being at home because he's been kicked out of other local schools. Stephanie and Dawit have been in this situation before, a 5 year old Chloe came to them a number of years back after being kicked out of three local schools. They hired a one-to-one teacher and she completed 5 years of schooling with them. Apparently she hid in the corner at the beginning, due to her ill treatment at other schools and by the end was participating fully in class with the other students and helping out with the nursery and KG children. Let's hope that they get to do this again for the little soldier I saw on Monday!.JPG)
Yet again I went around to Helena's (grade 3 teacher) for lunch this week and enjoyed lovely Ethiopian fruit and coffee. Her little 4 month old Fickr was also pleased to see me and got very upset when I walked out the door!
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