This week we had an ‘Ethiopian Day’. This involved dressing in traditional dress, and learning an Ethiopian playground game. A variation on hop scotch is played here called ‘Senoe, Macsenoe’ (Monday, Tuesday). The game is based on the days of the week, but not Sunday – as that was the day God rested during creation.

Our celebrations also involved Ruth (my teaching assistant) doing a coffee ceremony for the children to watch and ask questions. Instead of the brewed coffee they enjoyed apple juice with their popcorn.

Ruth needed to demonstrate the game but someone had to attend to the coffee hence I had to indulge in this exclusive ceremony and the revered process of maintaining the coffee as it reached temperature without allowing it to burst forth from the spout spraying boiling water and ground coffee into the air. This is trickier than you might imagine as the ‘jebena’ that the coffee is brewed in is opaque and neither the level of liquid nor the temperature can be gauged. Ruth was so amused to see me concentrating so hard that she took the photo.

During an Amharic lesson Sara my teacher received several calls on her mobile. She explained the situation. About eighteen years ago a blind mother and her twelve year old daughter arrived in Addis from the countryside and began to beg outside a church. Some of the church members washed them, gave them clothes and paid the rent on a room. The girl continued to care for her mother then went to work for Sara’s parents and later Sara. She is now 30 and in a hospital having an operation for kidney stones. They live in the area of the city dump and the blind mother is being offered care by a neighbour. One of the calls Sara received was from her dad (to be joined later by Sara’s mum), who was at the hospital bedside waiting for the girl to come round – Sara simply explained that she has no one else in this world.

And finally a photo I took as I passed an open apartment door this week – can you spot the visitor?