Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Jacob and I spent three weeks in Addis Ababa. We ended up getting to spend about half of that time volunteering. We spent the majority of our volunteer time with kids. Something I was thrilled about, and something Jacob grew to enjoy.

We spent our Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at Strong Hearts. They run a preschool and kindergarden for children in the area who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to go to school.  We taught each class for about 45 minutes each, just doing basic English vocabulary.

It was such a nice change from teaching in Korea. These kids were so eager to learn and unbelievably well behaved. It definitely helped that the regular teachers stayed in the room with us but the kids were still amazing. The classes had 20 and 35 kids in them, and each one was quiet and respectful when we were teaching. They even stood to say hello when we walked in the door.

The classrooms are quite basic. The preschool students have a large room inside the main building. Each student gets a cushion and everyone sits on the floor in a semi-circle. There are no desks, chairs or chalk boards. The kindergarden students are in a trailer at the back of the compound. They have a whiteboard desks and chairs with three students to a table. Everything we taught we had to make our own flash cards and come up with our own activities. The students have one work book and note book each; the uniforms are also provided.

In the afternoons we traveled to an orphanage to hang out with some of the kids. There are about 30 kids at this orphanage ranging from infants to 12 or 13 years old. For the first hour we would teach about 10 students who aren’t able to go to school. In Ethiopia if you cannot attend the class in September when the year starts you have to wait until the next school year to start. We taught English and songs and just had some fun with the 10 boys until the rest of the kids came home from school.

Some of the kids are in the process of being adopted. They had photo albums of their new families and were quite proud to show them off. There was one boy, Solomon, who really connected with Jacob. From the minute he got home from school he would just be around Jacob. They played soccer, basketball or read together. He’s a really smart and kind kid who is still waiting to be adopted. Thankfully though that doesn’t seem to phase him, when we asked him if he knew when he would be adopted he just shrugged his shoulders and said maybe a year or two.

I liked teaching at the kindergarden and preschool but I loved the time we spent at the orphanage. The kids there were amazing. They always had a smile on their faces and were so eager to learn. It’s hard to think that these children are actually the lucky ones in Ethiopia since they have a roof over their heads and aren’t on the street and they’ve been able to build a family. These children were able to keep everything they owned under their mattress of their bunk beds but they were happy.