Today, on the actual day of Diwali (October 27), I celebrated with my boss, co-workers and colleagues at the office with some delicious Tiramisu.
In the afternoon, I received my first care package (Yay!) which was sent from my family in India. It was filled with sweets (i.e. date halwa – one of my favourites), snacks, plantain chips and mixture/trail mix for Diwali. It was also filled with stationery, markers, pencils, animal masks, and crayons and pencil sharpeners for the children at Menagesha! You see, I had tried to buy the children some paper and rudimentary supplies for my classes on Saturday, but when I went to the stationery store, 200 sheets of regular printer paper cost $20 and the markers and pens were even more expensive. I now totally understand why, during my elementary school years, we used to send pencils and stationery to children in Ethiopia as a part of Project Love. Paper products and school supplies in Ethiopia are ridiculously priced! In fact, the children at Menagesha are so careful with their paper. They keep using the same piece of paper to draw pictures over and over again with the one pen that someone gave to them years ago.
As such, I am so grateful for the materials! Thank you so much to my family - to Ammulamma (my grandmother) for making the wonderful date halwa and to my wonderful cousin, Asha, for buying all of the supplies for the children! I love you all very much!
