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.