Sunday 11th August

Early mornings are becoming easier now we are getting more sleep, well some of us, some people will never find early mornings easy!

This morning, after another carby breakfast, we went to a castle which turned out to be made of three sections, each a bus drive away. There was a church, a castle and a huge swimming pool/bath type thing. At the church, harriet, who had been feeling slightly car sick, decided she was to be blessed by a holy man (with an unknown title) and so that happened. She is absolutely fine now. Our tour guide is amazing, he speaks impressive, self taught, English and knows an awful lot about everything. He told us about the history of the castle, and we helped him with some English and a little bit of knowledge about London and Great Britain.

The castle was the most interesting part; there were loads of historic rooms and a lion cage, which obviously we all had to climb in to take a group photo!( thanks Emily ). We also took one on the steps and the photographer from a large student group was so interested in what was going on that he had to take a photo as well. This did make us all laugh (as per).

At the pool, which was literally just a huge stone pit with a building in the middle, we learnt about the religious traditions surrounding the bathing routine of the Ethiopian people. So many people gathered to swim at a special time in the year that they had to build seating made out of, what Harriet likes to call, ‘bamboo scaffolding’, so that they didn’t get crushed or pushed in by the massive crowd. The seats feel safe...they don’t look it. Lunch was more carbs in the form of pizza and chips and various other small dishes.

Over all its been a good day but we are all ready and excited to start work at the school tomorrow.

Millie and Libby

xxx