Trip to Sheshemane!

The last day we had to spend with our daughter was Wednesday the 13th. We made plans to head down to Sheshemane to visit the school that our church youth group raised money to have built. We decided it only made sense to visit the village while we were already in the country. It is a four hour drive and it is not safe to drive in the country at night (cows, goats, donkeys & people). So, this means that we had to leave our daughter at about one o’clock. That was really hard to do; we just wanted to take her with us.


We met our driver at the hotel and we were off for Southern Ethiopia. The schools are closed for the same months that schools are closed here in the US. The teachers of the schools were taking ESL classes, which are taught by teachers from the US.We met up with the ESL teachers at the hotel in Sheshemane and talked with man in charge of the school building ministry. He informed us that he would pick us up at 7:00am to head out to the village our school was being built in.

We got up early and dressed warm for the mountain air. The trip took two hours by landrover, one hour on paved road and one hour on gravel/dirt road to get to the town of Kokosa. From this point we had to walk about one and a half hours out into the hillsides until we arrived at the village the school was being built in. Wow, it looked awesome! The frame work, roof, windows and doors are all complete. They only need to mud the walls, finish the floor and build the desks. Many of the children that lived nearby had to come and see who was visiting their new school.


Table Tennis in Kokosa.


The next day we joined the ESL teachers and observed them in their classrooms. They were teaching in classrooms that had no electricity, no plumbing and cows were used to keep the grass cut low.After noon all the teachers and students went to meet in the large gathering room. Three teachers were flying home the next day so there was a ceremony and gifts of traditional clothes for them. Well they also did the samething for Carrie and I. We were very surprised since we were just visiting and not teaching.

There was a fun trip planned for that evening and wait till you hear what we did.

Tony