Salutations from the shining *stars* of the trip, Anna and Grace! Today, we woke up bright and early to get ready for today. After that, we enjoyed an extravagant breakfast of homemade (although, according to Anna… or whatever, it’s “home-aid”) muffins, coffee, and tea. Following our meal, our driver arrived in his van and we hurried to get to the adorable children at Destiny Academy. Upon arriving at the school, we greeted Hareg, the founder, and gave her various school supplies for the students. They were extremely gracious and made us feel very welcome. We had a tour of the school, coffee ceremony, and then split up into different groups to play with the children. They prepared the traditional coffee ceremony, which included homemade coffee, and snacks of popcorn and special crackers. The coffee with sugar was amazing and some of the best we have ever had. Next, we split into different groups with the children. One group stayed to play basketball and the other group attended biology class. Mary Ashburn shined out on and off the court and Suzanna was the best cheerleader a team could ask for. The other group enjoyed learning with the seventh graders in the Biology class.
Following all this activity, we were hungry and went to a pizza restaurant called Afeu. The different pizzas that we ordered were all delicious, especially the pineapple and ham pizza. After lunch, we went to the younger campus of Destiny Academy. This school was the younger children and we played, did art, and read stories to them. Lauren and Ms. Turlington went to join the kindergarteners and took a nap with them. After watching the kids leave for day, Hareg took us to the new campus that they are building and showed us what their plans are for the new school.
After we left, we went to the bank and exchanged our American money for Ethiopian money. The dollar is very strong here and we got a lot of money, 2270.30 birr! Next, we went to a Kaldi’s, sort of an Ethiopian version of Starbucks. We all got the traditional Ethiopian macchiato and it was just as delicious as the coffee served in the ceremony earlier. After this fun but long day we came back to the house to chill and enjoy a great dinner of crepes with a special vegetable dish. After dinner, we shared our different highs and lows of the day and hung out with each other until bed. In the morning, we are all excited to learn more about the Ethiopian culture history.
Love, Anna & Grace!!
-Anna Allen, ’17 & Grace Kempson, ‘16
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