We spent about an hour on Sunday afternoon, along with another family staying with us at the guest home from Montana, doing a bit of shopping. As we got out of the van at the row of shops we were surrounded by the street boys immediately. They were really cute and one of them took a particular interest in my shoes. He tried every angle possible over the hour to get me to give him my shoes. I give him credit as he was creative and I struggled with whether to give in and give him some birr (money) or not. That is the toughest thing to do, as you want to help, but balance it with the fact that you don’t want to enable begging as it only encourages more. I found out later that another boy had taken to the other man in our group and also worked the shoe story so it seemed it was part of their story.
Staying at the guest home with us for the weekend was a volunteer group from the States, Visiting Orphans. They were just finishing up a mission trip to Uganda and Addis Ababa and it was really fun to meet and visit with them. On Sunday before they left for the airport to head back home, the guest home threw them a coffee ceremony and said their goodbyes.
The staff of the guest home roasted coffee and even played music. It was a really fun evening.
