Jimma: Part 2 - Jimma

We were all really hungry by this point, and we went to the 'upmarket'
hotel in Jimma for some lunch. The food was good, the hotel was
really pretty (lots of pink chalets clustered around a swimming pool
and a restaurant terrace) and the TV was playing a report about the
closing ceremony of the Olympics. It was in Amharic, but all three of
us paid attention when we heard the words 'Gordon Brown' in the mix of
unfamiliar words!

After lunch we went back to the hotel for a rest, at Hanna's request.
Danyele and Anthony didn't need a rest, so they played Uno, but I
definitely did. I slept really well, only waking to beg Anthony to
give me just another 10 minutes until I had to get up …

Then we took a walk and a short minibus ride to the children's house.
Instead of being called 'farange' as we walked, we just got 'you, you,
you' from the kids that passed us. If someone calls you 'farange' you
can call back 'abesha (Ethiopian)' which usually gets a laugh, but
with 'you' there's no real comeback!

The house is lovely – large, with quite a few rooms, and set on a
large compound where they can grow their own vegetables, the children
can play, and they can keep the sheep we are buying them. There are
19 children at the moment (although it does change, depending on
mothers being released, and new people being put in prison). They are
mostly between about 2 and 11, although there are a few older
children.

They were very quiet and smiley to start with, but as soon as I got
the camera out, they were up and away! If you ever need to break the
ice with a group of under 10s in Africa (or Aisa, I'd guess!) bring
out a camera. Works in seconds!

We gave them the footballs and some of the Haribo (the next step in my
'E numbers to Ethiopia' masterplan!) and started quite a boisterous
game of catch. The baby of the house, Fraser, decided that the
brightly coloured football was hers and hers alone, so she carried
around like a baby and her face broke into a beaming smile when she
managed to throw and catch it.

While they were playing, Hanna told me the stories of some of the
children. A very strong motivation for mothers taking their children
into jail with them is that they are at risk of revenge attacks by the
victim's family. For example, one of the boy's father is in prison for killing a
man (I don't know why). For a while he, his mother and his brother
stayed in their house while the father was in prison, but then the
victim's family set fire to the house in revenge. The mother managed
to get the smaller boy out, but the older boy was trapped in the
flames and suffered severe burns. He is fine, a happy and healthy
boy, but he has lost the sight in one eye and has a lot of facial
disfigurement. He is safe in the orphanage now, though.

Hanna told me another story of how one of the boys was 2 or 3 when he
watched his mum and her new boyfriend kill his father and bury him
under the orange tree in the garden. His mother told everyone that
her husband had disappeared, and soon set up house with the new
boyfriend. But the little boy knew where his father was, and he kept
saying to people 'my father is there!' pointing at the orange tree.
Nobody listened to him until many years later, when they finally dug
up the tree and found the body. He is now safely in the orphanage
too.

It was hard to connect the stories with the shrieking and laughing
children in front of me. I hope the orphanage can give them the
stability and safety they need, and we intend to help them do that in
every way possible.

We couldn't stay for very long at the orphanage as Hanna wanted us
back to the hotel before dark (which was a shame, as the kids had
started to watched Shrek 3, which I quite wanted to stay for …) but I
will be back. The house is quite bare at the moment, and there are
likely to be more children coming in September, so we will use some of
the money we've raised to buy the things they need – some toys, books,
bright things to go on the wall, bedding, blankets etc.

This time though we might hire a minibus rather than using the normal bus …