It was during our stay in Awassa that we spotted some outlandish hats – just right to decorate for the Bingham ‘Crazy Hat’ day. They were being sold by boys at the roadside who have hats and baskets in piles to tempt the traveller.

Drawing up beside one young boy we were about to examine his wares when an older boy came by and jostled him out of the way, thrusting his own selection through the window. We decided to postpone our purchase to the following day. This time we avoided a fracas and as our friends kindly bargained for us the hat was secured for 35birr (£1.10). I decided to try out the new head covering when we stopped by a lake beach for lunch. It certainly kept the sun off, rather like sitting under a palm tree, but I began to feel slightly queasy as the lengths of straw swayed in the breeze before my eyes. The hat was simple to decorate though and brought a smile to the faces of parents and children alike when the day came to wear it.

Classroom quote of the week: “Mrs Griffin, I just saw a big mouse run into the bathroom!” I’m reliably informed that the ‘dry season’ drives rodents indoors!

At Y’Tesfa Birhan this week our oldest girl was preparing to travel to university outside Addis the following day. She had been attending the weekly sessions regularly for six years. She needed a suitcase, a mattress, sheets and a small amount of money for snacks, transport and equipment. These were provided. As I walked with her to the Bingham gates I couldn’t help musing on the heavily laden cars that transferred our own family to various UK universities. It is our hope and prayer that she will remember what she has heard over the years as she begins her new life away from her sister (her only companion) and from the tiny room at the end of a barn that she has called home until now.

As one leaves another joins. We were asked to take a girl into the programme who lives on the riverside. These one-roomed tin and fabric dwellings are very susceptible to flooding and are both dark and often damp. The new girl has a disabled father and both parents have AIDS. Within the last year the family lost their baby daughter to the river waters they live beside. Pinned to the wall in their home there is a photograph of the baby.

One often feels weary at the end of the Wednesday school day as the time for Y’Tesfa Birhan approaches. I shall now remember that meagre home, because pinned to the wall in pride of place beneath the photograph of her baby sister is the picture sequence that this new girl created during my last teaching session on Creation – humbling indeed.