I had a letter yesterday stating that the regional education bureau had accepted my proposal for this year for the Cluster Unit. I requested, and got, over 35,000 birr for our training activities including transport and refreshment costs, materials and resources used to make displays in all the classrooms and paper and copying costs for the training materials.
In Ethiopian terms, the amount is equal to about two years of my salary. In UK terms it is roughly £2000. I have already spent some of it ordering thousands of sheets of card and other materials for our "Every Classroom should be a Model Classroom" training sessions. The problem I found when I arrived was that most schools had only one classroom ("a model classroom") with displays and the rest were bare. My plan is to get basic displays in all classrooms. The training I have planned is to take a load of resources to the schools, have a quick 30min session on why displays are "good" and what you can use them for, then the rest of the afternoon will be spent by all teachers making and displaying materials in their classes.
Building?
There has been a large bulldozer clearing a vast area in-between the college and the staff accommodation. I thought it was for new buildings, but apparently it's for football pitches!!!
Dust and climate
Well into the dry season, the roads and pathways are really dusty at the moment. Leaves metres back from the road are covered from when cars, buses and trucks go by. Just a quick walk into the village turns your shoes brown. Doing the washing, especially trousers, I have to do a pre-wash to get some of the dust out, before I leave them to soak for a while. The water goes brown very quickly. It currently goes no lower than 16C overnight, and by late afternoon the temperature is somewhere between 30C and 34C. According to my astronomy program, the sun will be directly overhead in the middle of April which is supposed to be the hottest time when temperatures get to 40C! Then it is followed shortly after by the start of the rainy season. It is currently quite dry (35-40% humidity) and, though hot, the climate is pretty bearable. When the rainy season starts it will get very humid again (like when I arrived and it was usually about 80%) and I am not looking forward to that!
It still seems odd seeing The Moon directly overhead at night, and when it is a half moon, it is on its side.
Toilet
I am really enjoying being on my own in the house. I know that when I get home, I can shut the door and have my own space. The toilet has been really clean lately. No coming home at lunchtime to find a load in there. I even managed to tweak the cistern at the weekend and now the flush works properly, even stopping filling when the water reaches the top.
Night noise
I am currently being woken by a bird which peeps like an alarm clock and the usual call to prayer. At least there are no baby noises!!
Bahir Dar
On Thursday I will be going to Bahir Dar to stay, again, with a VSO volunteer there. On Friday, I will give my number fans and count stick - teaching aids presentation to a group of academics at Bahir Dar University. I will also be able to get lots of supplies to add to the box that arrived
from Addis yesterday. Then I'll be flush with tinned meat and tuna to last me a couple of months! The good news is that there is a college car going there so it will take about 4.5 hours in relative comfort instead of 8.5 cramped on a bus!!!
Day 150
On Saturday (23 Feb) I will have been in Ethiopia for 150 days. It will also be the half-way point as I plan to come home to the UK for a couple of months during the summer.
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