Rediet joined Y’tesfa Birhan in August. She accompanied her friend on our first meeting and has continued to attend ever since. At the Gibsha before Christmas she and mum asked if we could pay for her dad’s eye operation. They brought along the invoices which seemed genuine so they received the money. Sadly the operation, originally for possible glaucoma, was not a success and the raised pressure inside his eye worsened. Both parents are HIV positive and prone to health problems.

When my colleague visited their home dad was in bed and obviously short tempered; also Rediet had to stay off school to care for the family. The pressure worsened to the extent that fluid was leaking through the pupil. It was at this point that my colleague arranged for Rediet’s dad to be seen at the Korean Hospital. An operation was performed and although he lost the sight in the eye, the pressure was released.

I am told that meeting Rediet’s dad when back home (in his meagre mud dwelling on the river bank) he was a changed man. Out of bed, happy, smiling and expressing his determination to seek work as a day labourer as soon as possible. Happily Rediet now is once more attending school.

Lemma (our head guard), has a country school for some extremely needy children at his compound. It’s a school to which both our home church and the school in Hatfield where I worked for a number of years have donated money. As another donation is on it’s way, Lemma has expressed his difficulty in retaining staff. The likely reason is that the staff are paid just 200 birr per month – 6 British pounds. It is common for schools to complain about lack of funding but this must be the most extreme example I’ve ever encountered.

This week we had the joy of visiting Claire - a friend we met on our first visit here in 2007. She is now the principal of RICE school (where I work on Mondays) and married to Hennock. Over dinner they told us of the challenges of setting up a business in Addis. Hennock is finally hoping to open his garage business next week but it hasn’t been easy. Negotiating the bureaucracy without paying ‘incentives’ is tricky. His determination to work through the process with integrity has resulted in greater delay each step of the way.  However we were impressed with his desire for honesty and intend to be one of Hennock’s first customers. After all, a trustworthy garage is a ‘gem’ anywhere in the world.