Hard Knock Life

Today Hiwot called me up to the kid’s room. When I got upstairs there was toilet paper and the extra cups all over the place. (The extra cups are stored under Israel’s bed in a huge duffle bag.) Four kids were awake from their nap and playing in the toilet paper. This is the third day straight that the same four kids have been playing in toilet paper. Toilet paper is expensive here. So I brought Tesfanesh into the room to tell Little Eyob, Tamirat, Matthewos and Helina (who was completely naked - she kept taking off her clothes today for some reason) that soft ‘toilet paper’ is expensive and not a toy. I took them downstairs for their punishment. We gathered around a laundry tub and washed a load of clothes. They actually enjoyed it because they got to play in water. Matthewos was the best at washing. After we were done washing I gave them each $1 birr. They then had to give it to Tesfanesh who was holding a roll of toilet paper. They really didn’t want to give it to her at all. They never get money and so it was torture to have to give it up. Matthewos then took the roll up to their room. I’m pretty sure they didn’t understand completely, but it was the best I could think of. Saying “no don’t do that” doesn’t work most of the time here.