Love Volunteers Ethiopia program

I spent two weeks last summer in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I signed up for the Teaching Program and have not regretted it since. I was nervous about going during this time because of teh rainy season but the weather was great, with an occasional rainy night or day. As told by others who lived there, I was lucky to have experienced not so many rainy days.
I was picked up from the airport by Tamrat, one of the partners with LV and Dundee, the head of the school I volunteered. Both are such nice, generous, friendly and very funny guys. They picked me and another volunteer up. We went to the guesthouse where we would be spending the next two weeks living and sleeping. The guesthouse is pretty decent. There is a wonderful woman there who washed clothes, cooked and greeted you each morning with a great smile. Some rooms you had to share but there were a couple where you were able to be single in teh room. I was lucky again and got a decent sized room with my own bathroom. Everyone else had to share.
Ethiopia is a third world country so you will experience things such as water outages or power outtages. That happened a number of times during my stay. The great thing is someone always brings you a bucket of water ( May be cold water) so you can wash up.
The teaching program was a little different since we came during the summer. School was out so we were pretty much teaching in like a summer school. The children are AWESOME! They are so willing to learn and excited to have volunteers and just too CUTE! They just want you to play with them and show them attention. They ranged from 3 -7 in the mornings and in the afternoon, there was a program for older children..some teenagers.I think teh most difficult is the beginning when you are just thrown into teaching the FIRST time you are at the school. It can be a bit overwhelming and also you don't have alot of resources so we just made alot of our own ( Flashcards, etc)
We were given a tour of Addis by a great and friendly guy named Eyasu. Also we went to various restaurants and shopping venues on our days off. Some of us traveled to other places in Ethiopia for weekend trips. Tamrat, Eyasu and Dundee are very informative and supportive in helping you go where you need to go.
I felt fully immersed into the culture and enjoyed every aspect of it. I am glad I went with LV because they were definitely a great price and quite affordable for people who would love to volunteer but just don't have the finances that sme of these other programs charge. Julian and Kelly were always prompt with answering my questions and getting me in touch with the right people. Very happy with my experience with them and would definitely do another program with them in the future.