One Year on

Last Friday (17th October 2008) was exactly one year since I arrived in Gilgel Beles!

I remember it like it was a year ago… the heat, the humidity, my water filter candle breaking, no ferengi food etc

Back to this year, I am still trying to sort out a counterpart – some people have applied for the job and I’ve got to sort out how to assess them and interview them. It’s still going to be a while, even if one of them is suitable.

I can’t believe the bureaucracy here. I need to get more CPD booklets printed and instead of just giving the master copy to the photocopy-guy, I have to write a request to get paper from the store, sign for it three times, collect it, write an order to get the purchaser to buy more paper to go back in the store. I also had to write a request, sign for, and collect toner and master sheets. By the time I had been backwards and forwards to get things done, I was exhausted. I has taken about three days (on-and-off) of chasing different people to sort it all out and at one point, I even said to one of the vice-deans “Is it because I is white?” – of course the inverted Ali G reference was completely lost on him. Anyway, now I think the printing will start. Then I can start thinking about getting the teacher training (CPD) programme going in the other schools.

I also plan to do some demo teaching in classes in the local schools. This should allow a more personal, direct approach to improve a few teachers’ teaching styles.

The rainy season is nearly at its end. There was a heavy downpour a few days ago, but that is becoming less and less. The electricity is being pretty good now – on most of the time with just the odd short power cut. Also, the water is reasonably reliable.

Goran and me are really enjoying our new house and are settling in well. Today (Saturday) was a day of jobs. We put up mosquito nets on our windows (glueing them to the window frames) – (Question for PTCPS: Can you remember why mosquitoes are bad?) I put up some curtains in my room (using some nails hammered into the wall, an old metal pole, and some old, dusty material we’d been given) I did a bit more clothes washing in bowls, put up a new washing line and put the external sensor of my thermometer outside. At the moment it’s 7pm, inside the room is 26C, humidity is less than it was a week ago at 77%, outside is 24C, but it got up to 32C this afternoon.

I seem to be getting bitten a lot more than last year. I have bite lumps and scabs all over the place, especially around my ankles and on my arms. Some of it must be flies and mozzies during the day, and the rest could be fleas in my bed. It’s very irritating.

I’ve nearly finished “Blue Mars” by Kim Stanley Robinson. It’s the last book of a trilogy “Red Mars”, “Green Mars”, “Blue Mars” I started about 10 months ago in Gilgel. It’s an amazing story that covers about 200 years from when the first people land on Mars and what happens as more and more people come from Earth to colonise our neighbour planet. It reads like it really happened as a lot of the science is based on current scientific ideas which have been extrapolated into the future. It also covers psychology, sociology, economics, ethics and more.

Next in line is the second book of a new series by Garth Nix (of Mister Monday and Sabriel fame). It’s called “Castle.”