Tesfa girls

I visited Team Tesfa, another team sponsored by GGRF in the city center, to begin regular English lessons. Cuddled into the Ethiopia Reads office, Joanna and I asked the girls questions about pictures in comics from an American newspaper that we had brought; “How many clouds are in the sky? What color is the girl’s shirt?...” They giggled and helped each other whenever one of them struggled. The girls were shy at first, but throughout the hour session, they gained confidence and were engaged and eager to respond. The atmosphere in the room was of excitement, interest and gratitude, a refreshing feeling after living in the RAB house. The first day that I was in the RAB house, Hana, one of the athletes, informed me, “Learning is burning.” There is a sentiment among many athletes hoping to be internationally competitive that they do not want to be anything but athletes. Therefore, they perceive education as something that exhausts them and only draws away from their training efforts. This is what I think makes Team Tesfa successful, or at the very least, more complete; Dana Roskey has established a program that successfully pairs education with the girls’ drive to run.