22nd August 2008

My brother and sister arrived in Addis, safe and sound, and I even managed to meet them at the airport despite a traumatic journey including a forgotten passport (everyone must provide ID to get into the airport – yes, even Faranjis) and being pulled over by the traffic police (God bless M and his quick thinking!). It's lovely to see the siblings, and it's even better to see all the things they have brought me and the orphanage! So I now have Haribo (which I fear may be an obstacle to my 'returning to England a size 8' plan!), the books I had to leave out of my already bulging luggage, trashy magazines full of puzzles, presents from Anna and 3 episodes of Scrubs! Bliss! Big thanks to all friends and family members who contributed to the 'keep Jenny sane' fund!

Much more important, though, was the suitcase full of games, pens, pencils and other goodies for the orphanage. We went there this morning and, after Danyele and Anthony had watched me teach a particularly rowdy class, we started getting out the skipping ropes, the diablos, and the 'velcro catch' sets. Well! What a hit!! I spent about half an hour judging various skipping competitions (185 skips … we didn't quite make it to 200!) and even some of the staff jumped in to try dutch skipping (skipping with two people)! The Velcro catch game – which to be honest, I've never really seen the point of – was a big hit with the little ones, and Danyele was soon teaching some of the boys to master the Diablo. Hanna quite rightly pointed that the skipping ropes will probably last about 5 minutes with the kind of bashing they're getting, but who cares? Sustainability be damned! They're having so much fun!

I've been moaning about not having any coloured pencils and pens for my class, but now we have millions, which is great! Ridgeons, a building company in Suffolk, donated a huge shoe box full of led pencils, Marion Slade has sent coloured pencils and pens, and we at Hanna's Orphanage have bought pens, pencils and paper. There is also a cricket set, but we've decided to wait until Danyele and Anthony have the time to explain it all – cricket is not big in Ethiopia!

In other very good news, the money has finally arrived in the orphanage's bank account! So on Monday, £1,850 will go to the Jimma bank branch, to pay for the rent of the prisoner's children home and for three sheep to go on the compound. The rest of the money will be used to pay for a combination colour printer, photocopier and scanner. It sounds like a luxury, but it really is needed; having it will enable the orphanage to print proper brochures to give to tourists who visit (to encourage them to donate!), to create and photocopy worksheets for lessons and to scan photos of the children onto the computer.

On Monday, Danyele, Anthony and I are off to see the children's house in Jimma. It's a half day drive outside of Addis, so it's going to be an adventure! We're taking some exercise books and pencils, as well as some colourful wall charts with the alphabet and numbers on. We'll also be able to see the project and children who the money is supporting!

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped raise this money over the last year – we couldn't do this without you. And a special thank you to the Hanna's Team back in the UK: I wouldn't be able to be here, helping the orphanage like this, if they weren't working so hard back at home. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Ps. People have asked me to post some pictures – I'm really sorry I haven't (and I have millions of pictures I want to show you!!) but I simply can't upload them as the internet connection is too slow. However, I will be sending Anthony home with a CD of pictures for him to upload, post on the blog and on my facebook page. Keep an eye out!!