In Ethiopia, an Irish address is a prized possession and every child seizes the chance to pocket one.
They want to write to you to practise their English. They hope you might enclose a small token - a football, they suggest mischievously - when you write back.
At Dugda elementary school in the Meki region south of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, the clamour of young voices pleading playfully for addresses is disrupted by a more serious tone.
Totarekegen Biru, a teacher at the school, interrupts his charges to offer a scrap of paper and politely ask if he, too, can have the details.
Totarekegen is less concerned about the football but he does want a penpal who can help him improve his English and, by association, that of his pupils.
Each weekday he teaches up to 120 children at a time in a bare-walled classroom that in Ireland would accommodate only a quarter that number.
Totarekegen shares a handful of textbooks with the other teachers, and few of his pupils have writing materials so he must teach with only his verbal skills to hold their attention and help them absorb information.
He has little formal training, his main qualification for teaching being his completion of grade 12, the Ethiopian equivalent of sixth year.
Yet the school is the pride of the community who had no educational facilities before the Irish aid organisation, Self-Help Development International, stepped in.
They know they are the lucky ones. Just one in three Ethiopian children have the luxury of a primary education.
Ireland Aid has made education a priority in Ethiopia, but it is only one of the areas the planners are examining this week as they begin mapping out next year's expenditure programme. Clean water, irrigation, agriculture and health all compete for funds.
Dividing up the kitty has become easier of late. Overseas aid has grown 900 per cent from £40 million in 1992 to £365 million for 2002 and it will more than double again to £800 million by 2007.
But with such large amounts of money available, the task of ensuring it is well spent is more important than ever.
Pauline Conway takes the responsibility very seriously. Her posting to Ethiopia as chargΘ d'affaires at the Irish Embassy in Addis Ababa three years ago reflects not the size of the Irish community in the country - there are just 78 Irish residents - but the fact that the country is the largest single recipient of Irish development aid.
The budget for next year is £24 million, of which around £8 million will go on education, £9 million on agricultural development and £4.5 million on health. Conway is keen to put flesh on the bare figures whenever possible.
"One of the places we're working is Eastern Tigray in the mountainous north-east which is traditionally very food-insecure with people only feeding themselves half the year.
"Before 1998 the people had appealed to the local authority to be relocated elsewhere because they could not support themselves.
"We started terrace building to retain rainfall, closed the area to grazing to allow the soil recover and began a water management programme.
"It's very labour-intensive so it provides work to keep people going until agriculture improves. The local men earn 5-7 birr (50-70p) per day on the schemes.
"Already the water table has increased, agricultural production is much improved and they've started engaging in income generation such as bee-keeping. It's really quite a considerable success story." The project uses Irish money channelled through the regional government, a route that requires close scrutiny because of the notorious inexperience and inefficiency of local administration in Ethiopia.
Conway is aware of the pitfalls but says working within local structures is the correct long-term option.
"One of the things the programme is doing is improving efficiency in the civil service. We're giving training and support for internal and external audits so that money from donors can be properly tracked and accounted for."
Self-Help has a novel approach to accountability. Each year the organisation takes a group of fundraisers on a trek to visit the schools, clinics, wells, irrigation schemes and other projects it supports.
The benefits are twofold. Each of the 40-plus participants raised at least £3,500 to take part in this year's trek, a figure which, under matching funding arrangements with Ireland Aid, the European Union and other agencies, multiplies by six by the time it reaches Ethiopia.
The trekkers, a diverse group of farmers, professionals, retired people and housewives, also see for themselves where the money is going.
Back home, their ability to speak from experience in the pub, across a shop counter or over the garden wall is invaluable in helping others understand the value of a pound in a bucket at a church gate collection.
"Development is hard to sell because it's long-term. It's not as dramatic as emergency relief," says Self-Help director Hilary McDonagh.
"But once people begin to see the actual work on the ground, they are very supportive.
"The trek is a big part of that. It gives people a really good understanding of what's happening." For Self-Help, one of five Irish aid organisations receiving annual grants from Ireland Aid, the growing aid budget offers a potential windfall.
But McDonagh stresses the Exchequer contribution will never replace the man in the street who drops a coin in a collection bucket.
She hopes the generosity lasts.