Getting Things Done

We had our first Film Night which was a success. We showed a documentary about the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia. We had over forty students which was lucky because that is the maximum capacity of the ELIC. The aim of the Film Night is to show a different film, documentary or TV show every week and have a short discussion after it. We want the students to be able to improve their English speaking and listening skills in an informal environment whilst enjoying themselves, as most of the students here think they are learning English only if they are learning grammar from a textbook. We will continue this as a weekly programme and are hoping that the number of students will increase.


We also successfully held a Gender Club Welcome Ceremony last week. It was a conference to introduce the Gender Club to first year female students and to introduce some of the activities that are going to be held between now and June. The agenda at the Gender Club Welcome Ceremony included the following: an introduction from the Vice Dean, a talk from the Regional Educational Bureau on Justice in Ethiopia and people’s rights, a presentation by one of the teacher trainers on his action research on Sexual Harassment in the college, and an outline of the purpose of the Gender Club and upcoming activities.


We wanted to do this Welcome ceremony much earlier – in November or December, but for various reasons we just couldn’t.  Organising anything in Ethiopia is such a challenge! However, we had a lot of support from the staff who took part in the ceremony which was great.


Some of the other activities we are hoping to do are a skills share between males and females – so the females will teach the males how to cook a simple ‘watt’ and the males will teach females football skills. We are hoping that this will enable those who take part to break gender stereotypes and try new skills which they normally wouldn’t.  Another planned activity is a HIV/AIDS and Safe Sex workshop with speakers from the local hospital. We also have a tutorial scheme planned where third year students tutor low achieving first year students. In addition, we have a conference organised for International Women’s Day in March. Altogether there are about eight events/activities planned. It was great to organise the event from the beginning and finally carry it out.


On the downside I still haven’t started the English Language Improvement Programme classes for the trainers at the college, which is very disappointing. The college is being very slow with getting this going. Nevertheless I have decided that I will hold speaking and listening English classes for the cleaners and the administrative staff who have very little English. Fingers crossed this will be a little easier to get off the ground!


Also I have a friend who teaches at a local preparatory school who asked me to come to her English class and teach intonation. It was a lovely experience and the students were great as they always are in Ethiopia. I have been to quite a few local schools before to see classes and observe teachers. For me it’s always been such a positive experience and so I’m hoping to do more of it.

Three months in Ethiopia

I have now been in Ethiopia for three months. The time has gone so quickly! 

My classes at the college are going well (I think!) and trainers at the college are keen to work with me which is great. The classes for trainers still haven’t started yet, but I keep getting assured that they will soon.

I have been advertising the ELIC (-that's English Language Improvement Centre for those that haven't been paying attention-) at the college, as the aim is to make it a welcoming centre for everyone to use when classes aren’t taking place in it. At the moment it is not being used by anyone except for classes; however we want students and teachers to be able to come in and use the centre to improve their English. We want them to come in to read English newspapers and books, or watch English television, or listen to English language cassettes, or even just talk in English. In order to do this, we have arranged certain opening hours and are in the process of organising different clubs for the students. The first club to be up and running will be the Film Club. Every Friday evening we will show an English film or documentary after which we will have a short discussion.

Below are picture of the ELIC:

How is my Amharic? Well to be honest I am impressed with myself! I have learnt far more than I ever thought I would before I came here. I learnt French and German at secondary school and hated it. But I have been having Amharic language lessons for the past four weeks now and to my surprise I really enjoy them. The teacher is also teaching us how to read and write Amharic which is a lot of fun.
From the beginning VSO emphasise the necessity of learning the local language - not only to function for shopping and going to the doctor etc., but to engage with the society we are living in, because without engaging with all parts of society one cannot make meaningful change.

The nights are very cold now, but in the daytime it’s still hot. I have just had the grass in my garden cut, so every day I sit out in the sun and watch the birds or the cloudless sky. Bliss. At night I have started to wear my fluffy nightgown to sleep, plus three blankets which is not so blissful!

As it is difficult to get much exercise here apart from walking, Maeve (the other VSO volunteer) and I have decided to run two mornings a week. We run at 8am before classes start on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the college sports field. The only problem is that every time we go, students gather to watch the funny ‘ferengis’ running for no reason. But I'm determined to become a good runner and running at such high altitude is very good for training.

Trying to be Positive

In my blog you may have noticed that I have decided to concentrate on the positives – for the most part anyway - except maybe today. I could easily spend all my time and energy dwelling on all that is negative here but I try not to. I don’t think I’d be able to survive very long here if I did. I keep focusing on the fact that I am here to do a job and I must use all my energy on doing the best I can.

In truth, as you might expect, there is a lot to be negative about here. There is the dire poverty that most people live in – some have just enough to eat, others do not. I feel like people live completely on the edge here, one of the reasons being that there are no emergency services. So if anything happens you are on your own. Maybe those around you will help if they can. And there are no safety nets here like social services, so if you have a job and you lose it, you won’t be able to pay your rent and will therefore end up homeless very quickly.

I have seen and heard things here that are truly disturbing. For example, the number of beggars on the street – homeless women and small children, even a completely naked woman I have seen a few times in the middle of the road howling. I have no idea how they survive the freezing nights here. There are also an unusually high number of deaths I hear of around me. And the treatment of women - the fact that about 80% of girls have been genitally mutilated in Ethiopia.  The horrendous things I hear that the men have done to women here – one friend of mines husband’s niece had her eyes gouged out of her face with a knife by her husband because she wanted to leave him.

The harsh realities of life are all too obvious. People here have to work so hard for so little. Even the teachers at my college work about 10-12 hours a day including weekends – and that includes the dean of the college. There is no such thing here as free time, or leisure activities or relaxing. Most of those that can afford to, eat the same food every day for every meal. Even fruit is a complete luxury for those that can afford it. And most people do not have running water in their houses.

A seventeen year old girl I know recently said to me that it is a good thing here if a pregnant woman falls and her baby dies as it would be very lucky. When I asked her why, she said because dying would be better than living in these conditions.

It seems so unjust that there are those that are so lucky in world and those that aren’t – no matter how hard they work or how good they are.

The Great Ethiopian Run

Last Sunday it was the Great Ethiopian Run. The 10km run which is organised by an NGO has been taking place in Addis every year for the past 10 years.

I went to Addis on Saturday evening to take part in the run. I woke up very early on Sunday morning to get to a place called Meskel Square where the run was to start at 9am.

There was a fantastic atmosphere in Meskel Square with so many people – about 36000 -  wearing the official red t-shirts. People were playing music, dancing, warming up, chatting to others. It was great! The serious runners started first to avoid the crowds, then the masses were allowed to start. I ran with fellow VSO volunteers. Okay, we ran and walked. Through the streets people were watching, playing music, encouraging the runners, selling drinks and sweets, dancing and some were spraying water on the runners to cool them down. It was like a big celebration, and the atmosphere was brilliant with people simply having fun.

After the run I met up with some of the other VSO volunteers who I was with in Addis for my In-Country Training when I first came to Ethiopia. (Most of them had also come to Addis for the run.) It was lovely to catch up with them and find out how they are getting on in their placements. It was also nice to know that I’m not the only one who has suffered with mice in my house.

Happy Birthday

On Monday the 14^th of November it was my 21^st birthday. Unfortunately it wasn’t a national holiday so we decided to celebrate it on the Sunday.

Sunday, like most days here, was a beautiful, sunny day without a single cloud in the sky. About fifteen of us set for a walk towards the gorge. We thought we’d find a shaded spot and have our picnic that we'd packed, however we couldn’t find any shade and we all became very tired quite quickly. The first spot of shade we saw was actually a small building site in front of the gorge. By that time we were too hungry and tired to find a more scenic spot so we just sat down and ate. We had a beautiful view of the gorge but in most of the pictures you can just see the building site.

My fellow volunteer, Maeve, and I had made a cake the day before – a fruit cake. We were going to make a chocolate cake but because it is a fasting period at the moment for Orthodox Christians and it would have required both eggs and milk, we didn’t. We don’t have an oven so we had to bake it in a special bread oven that Ethiopians use. It doesn’t have any heat settings except on/off. Consequently the cake was a little burnt around the edges and a little raw in the middle, but it tasted good. I even had candles to blow out!

It was a lovely day even though, on the way home, I stepped ankle deep in a huge puddle of mud covered with dry hay. (A mixture of hay, water and mud is used to make the walls on buildings.) I had to walk back home with a muddy leg. It was hilarious!

My Work

I will be working at Debre Birhan College of Teacher Education where they train primary school teachers. My official title is English Language Improvement Programme Coordinator (which is the longest title I've ever had). In my “centre” - which is actually just a little room - I will provide English language training and teaching methodology training. This is part of a nationwide initiative to improve English in schools and move educators away from text books and teacher-centred approaches. I will have classes for the trainees who are training to become teachers, as well as the trainers at the college.

The Ethiopian education system has 12 grades. From grades 1-6 children are taught in the local language (which differs from region to region) except the subject of English. Then after grade 6 all subjects are taught in English. The problem is that a lot of Ethiopian teachers are not confident with their English so they find it very difficult to teach in English and teach English itself.

In addition to teaching English and methodology, I also have two other roles at the college. I am going to be working to produce teaching and learning materials, especially reading materials, which will then be distributed to all the surrounding schools.

I will also be involved with the Gender Club at the college. In Ethiopia females experience severe gender inequality and so the Gender Club aims to improve the confidence of female trainees and empower them to break gender stereotypes. So far I have managed to get my proposal for the several events planned for the coming year approved by VSO, and have thereby secured some funding for them which will be great.

In my English and methodology classes I will have 40 students - which is a lot more than I'm used to. I’m looking forward to teaching the trainees, but I’m really quite nervous about teaching the trainers. However, the good thing is that they are all extremely keen to improve their English and have told me how much they are looking forward to my classes. I’m not entirely sure where to start as I don’t have any information about them except that they are all majoring in the Natural Sciences (i.e. Biology, Chemistry and Physics) so it’s going to be interesting!

The pictures, taken from my kitchen window, show some of the buildings of the college. As you can see I don’t have to travel very far in the mornings.

 

Eid Mubarak

Yesterday was Eid-ul-Adha or Eid-ul-Arafa as they say here. I knew that this would be the day that I miss my family and I was dreading spending it alone. However I needn’t have worried as I was surrounded by friends all day.

First I went to the mosque for Eid prayers with one of the teachers in my compound. It was great to see so many Muslims at the mosque as they are definitely a minority in Debre Birhan (The vast majority of people here are Orthodox Christian).

Then straight after, I was invited to a friend’s house. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to her house as she doesn’t speak much English and my Amharic isn’t good enough to have a conversation yet. But all was well as her husband and children’s English was very good. They were all welcoming and I really enjoyed my time at her house. But it did feel like I was being fed constantly for the six or seven hours I was at her house! It was the first time I ate meat in Ethiopia as I there aren’t any Halal butchers in Debre Birhan and I don’t fancy buying a live sheep (which is what everyone else does). I was able to try dorro wat, which is a traditional dish that Muslims and Christians make on special days, to be eaten, as always, with injera. It was very nice.

After that I went to another friend’s house for a coffee ceremony and then I visited a fellow volunteer who was also celebrating Eid. In the evening I went to another friend’s house. Overall, it was a great day even though I missed my family.

(I'm sorry that there aren’t any pictures this time. I did take my camera to the mosque but ended up being too scared to take a picture.)