The Tesfye Birhan girls came to Bingham as usual this Thursday from 4.30 to 6.00pm. The venue was the grade five classroom where a snack was prepared for them. Usually it's popcorn, half a banana and a cup of water. This week the popcorn was replaced by chocolate cake with icing sugar on top. They were more tentative about trying this. A couple of the younger girls put their finger in the icing sugar, licked it, then made a face. There wasn't much cake left over at the end however, so they overcame their reticence. While they ate they listened to a Bible story. Each sentence was translated from English to Amharic. If the girls were asked a question they would often stand to answer (in Ethiopian government school style). This week we broke into groups and played a version of "Pairs". The girls were encouraged to ask for each card in English. "May I have a tugboat?" sounds a bit odd with a strong Ethiopian accent. We found out a little about their families too. Several have relatives living with them and there are nine people living in one girl's household. Each member of the group received a second-hand tee-shirt and a couple received financial help with their school uniform.

As a treat our group then went to the grade one playground for the first time. Two girls sat on the roundabout. The helpful Bingham Ethiopian sixth former who was with us began to turn it and both girls squealed with delight. Eventually a couple of them tried the slide. It is rather steep. The Bingham kids know they must lean forward when they land, but the local girls learned this the hard way! They looked rather surprised but were laughing. The group were reluctant to leave when the time came but they all wanted to shake hands and kiss us as they went through the gate.

Becoming involved in Tesfye Birhan will be a regular commitment but I believe it will be very worthwhile and I'm sure I will gain as much as the beautiful girls I'm serving.