Recorders and Counterpart II (and Guy Fawkes)

I took the third recorder lesson today – they now know B, A & G. It’s fascinating how different they all are. There are a couple who are picking it all up very quickly, reading the musical notation etc, one who I believe might be dyspraxic – he is very bright, but has trouble with which hands to use etc. Then there is one girl who really isn’t getting it at all. When I get some more recorders from the UK I can start new groups and maybe ability-mix them a bit.

If you would like to purchase, or have a good condition second-hand recorder (descant) and you would like a child to have it here in Ethiopia so I can expand the lessons, then please send it to me at:

Mark Sidey, PO Box 47, Gilgel Beles, Metekel Zone, Benishangul Gumuz, Ethiopia.

Thanks very much.

(I guess a decent new recorder will be anything from £6 to £15 and the postage will be around £5.)

In return you will be giving a child here in Ethiopia a chance to learn a musical instrument and musical notation and you will receive a photo (or email picture) of the child you have given a recorder to. (Don’t forget to include your email address.)

No fireworks though!

I told my “sort of” current counterpart about Bonfire / Guy Fawkes’ night on Wednesday (5^th November) and we had a small fire and he drew a little guy… English culture in Ethiopia!

Counterpart

Getting my new counterpart is still proving to be a problem, partly because one of the unsuccessful candidates has a husband who works in the woreda (small region) education offices and is causing problems saying that his wife should’ve got the job. They are making any excuse they can, like the one who got the job was observed teaching a class that was not his normal class (he was showing he could teach a younger class that we will be focusing on, instead of his regular older class) also, and this is petty, that he was born 300km away and may not be committed to stay here! Watch this space! In the meantime, I have been told that another instructor in the college will work with me until the fulltime counterpart has hacked through the bureaucracy!!!!

Weather

The days are getting a little shorter (not compared to you) - the sun sets at its earliest in about a week at 18:08 and it's currently rising around 06:25.

Last night was the coldest yet - it went down to +13°C !!!!

US Elections

The instructors here are all fascinated by Obama winning the US elections and keep asking me about what I think. I pointed out that although they keep quoting Martin Luther King:

"Judge a man by the content of his character and not by the colour of his skin." (paraphrased)

The main thing that is being mentioned on the news is the colour of his skin and not the content of his character.

Additional added 9 Nov (couldn’t get a connection on Friday)

On Saturday I did a 14km round-trip walk to the rapids on one of the rivers. It’s an amazing place, about 100m wide across the river “valley” with lots of rocks, some smoothed by the water. Last time I visited this place was back in March and although the rainy season finished a couple of weeks ago, there was still much more water going through the system at this time, with many more little water falls. I saw a little crocodile (I think) zip through the water and up rocks away from me, and later I heard rustling in the bushes and thought a person was coming. Then I saw a large lizard head. The whole thing must’ve been around 2m long with tail. Luckily it ran off when it heard me!

The electricity was off from 2030 last night until 1730 today.

Each Sunday I teach English to my neighbour’s son and in return they give me coffee and a meal (injera and tagabino (sort of a paste made with pea-powder and spices).) Today was tenses, especially with “to go” (partly because he started the conversation with “yesterday going of Chagni.”)

Additional additional added 10 Nov

Still can’t get through on the net. Today we held a meeting with the teachers who are supposed to be doing the CPD programme but are refusing because they want “an incentive” (for that, read money!) I started by telling them that if we gave them all 20ETB for each session, for all the teachers in the cluster that would cost us 60,000ETB which is impossible. I also told them about how good the course is and they will personally benefit and their teaching will improve. Eventually they agreed that, providing they got a certificate signed by the zonal officials, they would do the course. Watch this space.

Bahir Dar ICT purchasing trip

We were supposed to leave on Thursday at 0700, so both me and Goran got up early and were ready by 0700. We finally left Gilgel at 11:20. What can you expect! At around 0800 we went up to the college to find out what was going on. After a lot of questioning of various people, it turned out that the cashier was off with morning sickness and she is the only person with the key to the safe*, and in the safe was the 10000ETB needed by the purchaser who was going with us to actually pay for the computer equipment that Goran needed. Finally they dragged her in with her key, we were picked up from our house and after sitting 5mins outside someone’s house while a fridge was loaded onto the car, for another 20mins outside the college entrance while some paperwork was completed and a further 5mins outside another person’s house while a bike was loaded on, we were off.

We, of course, stopped so the driver could have lunch about 45mins later, but then we were really off and had travelled the 94km to the start of the asphalt road by 13:50. We covered the remaining 116km to Judith’s apartment in Bahir Dar by 15:30 (after another brief stop to pick up Goran’s and the purchaser’s bags from the road after they had blown off the back of the truck!)

At least it was more comfortable in the Toyota Hilux, than the bus and there were some good views on the way, including the highest point of 2646m

We had a look around town and ate overlooking the lake (as usual) but that night I felt very nauseous. The following morning I had a mini-squits and felt really weak and achy and basically slept the whole morning. I managed to get up for the 1400 rendezvous with the purchaser and driver to buy computer stuff with Goran, but we phoned them around 1420 and they told us at they would not be ready until 1600… I took Goran on a short lake walk, then we purchased our own supplies and by then I was all-in again and went back to the apartment while Goran was collected (at 1640) to do some purchasing.

I managed to eat a pizza later in the evening and pretty much felt back to normal after a good night’s sleep.

The next day I went with Goran to do some more purchasing (both for the college and for me) and on-and-off that took most of the day. We had a rather disappointing “special Chinese fried rice” which was basically “egg-fried rice” with no veg or anything else – but that did mean we got out of going to an Indian dance thing to celebrate 60 years of freedom or something. We did have some good chips (which took so long, I commented that they probably had to go out and kill the potatoes) and we laughed when they came up on the bill as “Plain of Cheeps.”

On the final day, we did some last minute purchasing and checking out the market, then left Bahir Dar around 1100. The highlights of this journey were big bowls falling off the back, the tyre deflating, being “mended”, deflating 15km down the road and being mended again – lots of coffee at each stop, a chicken being transported with us on the back, a very heavy rain storm (which never reached Gilgel by the way) possibly soaking all the paper that had been purchased in the back of the truck, and certainly soaking the chicken. The tyre deflating again, being “repaired” by two guys with a sledge hammer completely ruining the rubber of the spare tyre and making dents in the rim of the hub.

Anyway, we are back in Gilgel finally, after nearly 7 hours, and it is good coming back to our own house. The only problem so far was that Goran saw a bird fly out of one of my hanging shirts. I looked inside to see lots of moss and twigs etc. When was the last time you arrived home to find a bird making a nest in your shirt?

*I commented to the vice dean, that with only one person holding the safe keys, what would happen if she was in a car accident and she and the key were lost, to which he replied “She’s been in car accident?” and it took a while to explain that my comment was hypothetical. Goran was almost in hysterics at this point as you get kind of “high” when you’ve been hanging around for a long time. A similar thing happened in a computer repair shop when a miscommunication resulted in the answer to “When will the repair man be back from lunch?” being “one week.” “He’s gone to lunch for one week?” (It was the time the repairs would take!)

Recorders and counterpart

I have just finished my first lesson teaching the recorder to five children in grade 3 (they were in the class I taught in last year.) Hopefully dad can upload a picture I took. Yes I can! I selected them last week by a class test and then individually assessing their musical ability. Some are picking up reading the notation really quickly. Today was A&B. This is a bit of an experiment (I pre-prepared a phrase-sheet in English and Amharic which I used to say stuff like “blow softer” and “check you have covered all the holes".) If it works, I might ask for more people in the UK to sponsor a recorder and postage to send it out here, then I can teach more children. I also want to train a couple of teachers so they can continue when I leave.

The latest on the counterpart is that there was one person who was clearly better in the interview and in teaching (he used teaching aids I had trained last year and made some of his own.) More news when all the bureaucracy is sorted and he is actually here with me in the college.

I go to Bahir Dar for a couple of days with Goran tomorrow. He is going to purchase computer bits for the college and I’m there as a guide (and to get supplies).

Ant Invasion

On Sunday night I went into the toilet and saw hundreds of ants coming from behind the cistern. There were regular-sized ones and larger, big-jawed soldier ones and many of them were carrying eggs and white, ant foetuses. It looked like they were trying to set up a new nest.

Our first counter-attack was extensive blasting with “Roach Killer” insecticide spray. They started trying to escape along the place where there would be a skirting board in the UK, into Goran’s room, but he blasted them there. Then we poured a bucket of water to wash them all out. We went to the outside to try and find where they were coming in and sprayed again.

While all this was going on, there was loud crashing and running noises in the roof. We also have a resident rat family and the high pitched sound of the aerosol cans was probably freaking it out.

Also, on the subject of bugs, the other day I saw a spider “running” round and round in circles on a wall. It had caught a fly and was “tying it up” by letting out sticky silk and running round it lots of times. I’ve never seen UK spiders do this. It was quite funny to watch.

Monday update – How often do you flush the toilet and ants come out? When I flushed the toilet this morning (about once every three days it flushes) ants, left over from our battle last night, flushed down with the water. They must’ve been in the cistern!!!

Counterpart interviews and recorders

Recently, I planned and arranged the interviews and assessment of three possible counterparts for me. The assessments included making a teaching aid, role playing an interpretation between me and someone who could only speak Amharic, translations from English to Amharic and Amharic to English, and then there was the interview. Next we are going to visit their schools and assess their teaching.

At the local school I have been assessing the musical ability of children from the class I taught last year. From that, I have chosen the first five children to start learning the recorder with me. That should happen next week.

Last night, when we were outside, Goran was scared by a short, furry snake running past in the dark, purring.

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.”

Moving Day at Last!!!

Well yesterday was the day.

I finally moved across the “road” (aka dirt track) to a new house. I am in an identical room to the one I had before which is quite weird. The only difference is the house is rotated 180 degrees so the sun is in different places at different times of the day.

I started transferring stuff Monday night, but still slept in my old house, then, yesterday morning I transferred the last of my things from my main bedroom, and the next family started moving in, freeing up the room Goran was going to have. Then I transferred my “kitchen” food supplies, bowl-ful at a time to the living room of the house while the kitchen /store room of the new house was emptied. The cleaners came in and did the floors and that took a while. It was all quite complicated logistically!

We had a lunch break then started work – nets up in both rooms, a bit of personal sorting, then Goran started on the toilet (using a razor blade to remove the brown from the seat (yes we have a seat) after the bleach failed to remove it.) At the same time, I got stuck into the sink which was covered in a thick gunge that was green in places, maybe 1cm thick in the bottom. I guess it hadn’t been cleaned since it was installed. It took ages and I thought I may contract something, but at last it looked like concrete and everything was solid and not squelchy. I later commented to Goran that it is nice that our sink isn’t photosynthesising any more!

We ate together in our living room looking out on a nice sunset, then continued sorting.

The kitchen is a complete mess and we’re leaving that until “phase-2” of the clean-up operation. There is a shelf unit which looks like the leaning Tower of Pisa., the ceiling is covered with cobwebs and the light doesn’t work… oh, and the tap in the sink doesn’t work – a tap which is too tall and doesn’t allow the window to open as it bangs on the tap!!!

But, despite that, at last I can leave doors open without old wee-feet coming in, and hopefully won’t have anyone staring at me through the windows. And, there shouldn’t be poo in the toilet when I go in there, and we can sit down without contracting anything, and I won’t be woken by a baby crying or kicking a football at my door.

Our New House (Still Not!)

CPD

On Friday I ran a training session for the facilitator teachers who will be leading the groups of teachers on the CPD course. It went ok, but I had a little trouble with the interpreter. I was making general statements like “On the first page of each session notes you see the learning objectives” and he was translating it by reading out all the learning objectives and taking ten times longer than me and slowing the pace. I was being general, he was basically reading everything in a specific session out.

Also, the facilitator teachers were being very negative about any other teachers showing up. I think we (from the college) are going to have to attend the first few sessions just to make the course seem more important!

House

One of the instructors, who is usually very happy was complaining about feeling unwell and was not his usual self. We couldn’t find out what it was. Later, the truth was revealed. We found out he had been told that he might have to move out of his house to allow me and Goran (pron. Your-Ran) to move in. On Saturday, however, we found out another instructor will be leaving and we can move into that house – just opposite the one I am in now. We were told Saturday, which became Sunday and now it’s Monday. It should be today or tomorrow…

Health

I had my first minor case of the squits yesterday (and today) – I attribute it to a piece of roasted corn on the cob I was offered on Saturday which was handed to me by someone with a questionable hand-washing regime.

My neighbour’s son was hit (accidentally) by a stone in the face last week. It must’ve been hard as there is a large bloody area by his nose and his eye is bloodshot. Yesterday he was having trouble keeping his eye open (it had been ok before). All I could offer was some sterile eye-wash solution and an eye bandage. He is going back to the medical centre today – hopefully – although there are no doctors there – nurses only.

New house... not!

Current situation report:

Electricity: ok (minor cuts for a few minutes, but nothing too bad.)

Water: ok (seems to be on regularly in the morning and evening.)

Washing: underwear backlog cleared.

My stomach: No problems so far!

Bugs: No more tarantulas. One big beetle. No scorpions. I am being bitten by something at night though – fleas or bedbugs I guess.

Toilet: Relative of my family staying with them so flushing poos is inconsistent.

Weather: Quite pleasant. Not too much rain, low 20Cs at night, rising to mid 20Cs in the day. Humidity 75-80%

Work:

I have a meeting planned today with two directors (head teachers) from the local primary schools, and the printing of the CPD (continuing professional development) program has at last (after 6 months of chasing) been printed, so things are looking up.

I still do not have a counterpart (which is pretty important, as the whole idea of VSO is that we pass out skills to someone, and I have no-one to pass them to, so I am effectively taking an Ethiopian’s job at the moment.) We have sent a job description to the local schools to get a teacher to be a counterpart, but I’m not holding my breath!

House:

Well of course Goran was told we would move into the new house on Saturday, so…

I am still in my house, he has moved from the local hotel on campus, but not into the final permanent house. We are told that it will now be next Saturday. I’m not holding my breath on this one either (except when I go into the toilet.)

Meskel, Goran and Tarantula

Goran has arrived, except you pronounce his name Yoran which is going to take a while to get used to. He has loads of gadgets like me and he knows the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show. I’ve been showing him around Gilgel and it’s good to talk to someone with good English, but more importantly, someone who has a similar cultural background. Sometimes it can be hard here when you can’t refer to anything from modern culture or films. For instance, no-one here has heard of John Lennon – that kind of thing, and Darth Vader would be meaningless. He also doesn’t seem to mind my instant cooking – like some instant noodles with a tin of tuna we had tonight!!! It’ll be good when we share a house – I was woken by the baby again this morning, and what with the family going to bed around 2030 – it’s a bit limiting.

It’s Meskel at the moment (I remember it from just after I arrived last year) – it’s a Christian festival (the finding of the true cross – I guess someone tried to sell someone a fake one in the past or something.) Anyway, I basically spent an hour and half following the priests with their colourful umbrellas, then hung around in a field listening to Ge’ez (pre-dates Amharic language) before they lit the traditional fire after walking round it twice chanting – maybe it was the Ge’ez version of “Here we go round the mulberry bush”. The only thing that kept me sane was watching the children who were as bored as I was, doing gymnastics, running around and getting told off for doing gymnastics and running around. A highlight was when one little girl walked up to a priest and tried to pull his strap-things off.

Last night I found a 10cm tarantula outside my bedroom door – the first one I’ve seen in Ethiopia. I’ve seen a number of large spiders, but not an actual tarantula. So that’s five snakes, two scorpions and one tarantula. I feel a bit guilty to say that as it was nearly midnight, I didn’t have the energy to catch it and put it outside, so I sent it to the big web in the sky. I’m just glad I have bamboo at the bottom of my doors to block the big gaps (initially to stop the rats getting in the kitchen) otherwise it would’ve been in my room.

Additional (Monday)

I’ve taken Goran on some walks around Gilgel. He is staying in the hotel, but allegedly we will be moving into new house in a few days.

On the work front, I’ve had some meetings and seem to have had some success chasing the card, pens and paper order from six months ago. And, my line manager and I will be visiting the local schools tomorrow to find out if we can recruit a full-time counterpart for me.

The electricity has been good for 4 days, there was very heavy rain and thunder last night, it’s very hot and sticky and I feel sleepy a lot!