Day 5 - "A whole new definition of the word "busy"..."

An early start saw us reach the street kids' breakfast before 7am to help prepare the meals. A steady stream of children flowed through before making their way to their schools. The project feeds them, counsels them, and tries to persuade them that they would be better off at home with their families. On the same site there is a small craft workshop where two wonderfully talented women produce pots, vases, and tiny clay nativity figures, vastly superior to anything in the souvenir shops. Unfortunately, because Hope is a charity, the government does not allow them to run any commercial enterprises. It's a brilliant piece of red tape which even now I'm trying to figure out a way round. If anyone can work out a way to bend the rules, it's me - just as my finance department.

From high up over the city you can see the corrugated iron roofs of shanty towns everywhere - Addis is where corrugated iron goes to die. The walk to the homeless project was my first opportunity to walk through one of these, and I was amazed to discover a bustling centre of industry - tiny workshops churning out beds, wardrobes, bar stools, you name it. My favourite was a dilapidated shack which seemed to be made out of old food packets and was in a state of imminent collapse. The only sign of activity was a large sign saying "Import-Export". It seemed a bit condescending to take a photo. So I did it really quickly when no-one was looking.

The same kitchen also serves as the location for a soup kitchen for homeless women later on in the day. This runs along the same lines as the men's version we'd previously seen, but with a very different atmosphere. Firstly it was more vibrant. I'm in no way suggesting that women talk more than men, but... well, no, actually I am suggesting that. The presence of children lifted the atmosphere as well, especially as many of them knew from the breakfast project.

I should probably mention that while I was playing at photo-journalism, Fiona and Lauren were working like Trojans in the kitchen, folding up injera, serving food, washing and generally making me look bad. Thank god I've worked in marketing for Reed in Partnership for 5 years and am thus immune to criticism.

From the soup kitchen we hightailed it to the school again. Fiona and I joined a year 10 English class while Lauren went off to teach English to the kindergarten kids. I also met up with the school director to take him through some lesson plans for the art classes. There are no art teachers at the school and so the lessons are taken by other teachers who are obviously disengaged and see it as a bit of a chore, so we're developing some simple lessons which embed their specialist subject, whether it's history, geography, maths, English or music. Tomorrow I have to put my money where my mouth is and deliver the lessons myself.