Ten days to go!

So I have 10 days to go in my placement. It seems to have come around surprisingly quickly.

All ELIC activities for this academic year have come to an end - all the classes, clubs, activities and so on. For the students, we held a coffee ceremony in the ELIC and had a programme of students telling stories and reciting poetry. A couple of the students had written particularly good poetry. They also talked about how the ELIC had helped them. It was a great event which the students enjoyed, which is good because we want them to remain excited about the ELIC and use it next year when most of them come back.

The teacher trainers that we had been teaching weekly for the second semester held a coffee ceremony for the other volunteer and I. We awarded them certificates for completing the course and they were so sweet, they bought me a present, a lovely handbag.

The teacher trainers with their certificates

I was also invited to a local primary school in Debre Birhan for their end of year celebrations. On this day, the school had invited the parents to attend the celebrations which included a prize giving –for students who came first, second and third in their class (an exercise book and pen).Then the parents got the chance to visit different parts of the school, for example, the science lab, where students did a practical demonstration, the kindergarten classroom where a little girl demonstrated how she uses the abacus (made of bottle tops) to count, and other highly creative handmade resources. The parents loved it.

Science lab demonstration

The parents watching the science demonstration

Kindergarten student demonstration

An excited student leaves the stage with his prize

There is a tradition in most primary schools, especially in rural areas of Ethiopia, which is that the students of each class get together and organise a coffee ceremony in their classroom and invite all the teachers. So I went with the other teachers from classroom to classroom drinking coffee, tea and squash, and eating popcorn and lots of bread.

I have also just been to Addis to sort out my Exit Visa. This was supposed to be my last trip to Addis before I fly out. So, the plan was to do some shopping, get my police clearance letter, sort out my exit visa and do my exit interview at the VSO office. I intended to stay one night and get everything done over two days. But this was a little too ambitious of me! On my arrival in Addis, I discovered that the letter I brought from my college to process my exit visa is the wrong one, so I would have to get another. Then my exit interview was cancelled due to an emergency meeting. The only thing that went to plan was the shopping and getting my police clearance. In the end I stayed another night and got the rest of the things done the next day which wasn’t too bad.

I have many things to do in my last couple of weeks. I have finally written my Final Report for VSO, got my reference, written my handover notes….but there is still so much more I need to do, including seeing all my friends before I go and attend all the invitations.

I’m getting more and more excited about coming home though. I am definitely ready to leave.

Going to the Middle East

I have just come home from my ELIC Gender Club meeting. The meetings are held every Wednesday. The aim of the club is to raise awareness of issues that disadvantage females, so for example previous topics have included the division of labour between the sexes, the importance of educating females, Ethiopian female role models and so on. Today I chose the topic of Ethiopian females going as domestic workers to the Middle East.

It has been an issue for me ever since I came to Ethiopia, as a few of my Ethiopian friends are planning to go. Even before I came to Ethiopia, I was used to hearing and watching stories about the terrible experiences of African domestic workers in the Middle East. My instinct is to always say to my friends ‘don’t go’, but one has to understand their desperation, because even they know a little about what is happening, but they are willing to take the risks.

Anyway today I found an article on the internet about the issue which wasn’t very difficult to understand so I used it for the Gender Club meeting. It was about a female on her way to the Middle East, and another that had returned to Ethiopia, having had a terrible experience as she had been severely abused by her employer. 

The Gender Club, about seven males and seven females today, read the article individually, then answered some comprehension questions about it. We then had a discussion. One of the females immediately said that she already had a plan to go to Dubai after she finishes college. The students themselves discussed the advantages and disadvantages of going, the risks, and the reasons why females feel the need to go in the first place. Excellent points were raised and many of the students talked about their personal experiences of immediate family members. The student who was planning to go defended her decision very well.

About half way through the discussion, one male student asked the female that previously said she wanted to go to the Middle East, if she still wanted to go, even after hearing everything that had just been said. She said yes, she wanted to go because of necessity. (At this point I could have cried.) She said that she had heard of many females’ positive experiences.

The discussions continued for the rest of the session, and in the end many of the students said how important it was to raise awareness of this issue and to discuss the negative side because usually they are only exposed to the positives.

I closed the session by saying that  whatever people decide to do, they should research and find out as much as possible from a variety of sources. I then asked if there were any concluding remarks. One student reiterated the point that awareness of the truth is key. Lastly, the female student who said she was planning to go said that she had now changed her mind about going.