Arrival and setting the scene

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Trip Start Dec 28, 2009 Trip End May 19, 2010 Next
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  Debre Zeit, Ādīs Ābeba, Ethiopia
Saturday, January 2, 2010

Well Christmas passed all too quickly and here I am again on my travels! Fortunately the weather held off and the journey to Heathrow was trouble free. We even managed a rendezvous to collect some booklets connected with Link Ethiopia en route!

Trying to locate exactly where Kenya Airways check in was located in T4 was a little more difficult. Eventually I could see their “elite” check in so headed there and discovered no queue and a very helpful check in agent who was happy to take my bags and reassure me that the 23kg allowance was for each bag and not the total!! Whew what a relief.

I had another surprise as I turned to look at the Alitalia check in next to mine as Jose Mourhinio was standing there. I had my camera ready and asked if he minded me taking a photo. He gave a lovely smile, but I was so entranced by the time I actually took the photo he was no longer smiling. However, I can tell you he is even more gorgeous in real life than in photos!!!

I found that I had very little time for browsing the shops and only had time to pick up my supply of Cadbury’s chocolate before I had to head for the gate. Although I had managed too check in online I was not able to secure my favourite window seat but at least I had an aisle seat and the people inside me did not keep getting up and down. The transfer at Nairobi was also hassle free and arriving in Addis already in possession of my visa saved a lot of time too. My baggage appeared pretty quickly so that was it…..I was on my way. Firew was there to meet me and we took a taxi to a hotel just off the Bole Road that neither of us had used before. It was fine, although prices here are so much higher than Nepal, even for a shared bathroom I paid more than double the price I paid in Kathmandu. However, prices for food and drink appear to be cheaper than Nepal so far.

Firew and I spent a little time discussing how my time here could be spent and he also told me that the room at the school was not ready. However, the school have agreed to pay for a hotel for me in Debre Zeit for a few days until they get it sorted. I am not quite sure what the problem is but after all this is Ethiopia and nothing happens quickly so I am not at all surprised!.

I used the rest of my time to relax and watch a film on TV before falling asleep and actually sleeping surprisingly well. I still woke quite early and had plenty of time to get my self ready before Firew came to collect me and we took the bus down to Debre Zeit. The traffic did not seem as bad as I remembered it or perhaps after spending time in Nepal it is all relative?

We waited to meet the Director of the school and he came along with a couple of colleagues and took me to the hotel in their school bus. This is a new hotel that has only been open a couple of months. The room is “minimalist” so I am not convinced they have finished furnishing them yet. But the bed is comfortable. I have my own bathroom and so far it seems I also have hot water!

Once again the day passed all too quickly but I did manage to get access to wireless internet free of charge at a local youth centre. The downside was that it was very sporadic and extremely slow, but I suspect much of that was due to the number of people accessing it! It proved almost impossible to use skype and took me several goes and a couple of hours to send 2 emails. Hey ho welcome to Ethiopia. So although I am writing this blog I have no idea when or even if I can upload it. As for adding photos……well I can try!

I took a couple today but unfortunately was not quick enough to catch the men herding their “geep” along the main dual carriage way in Addis! However, I did catch the lorry load of cows just across the road as we sat having a coffee in Debre Zeit.

Well talk about being thrown in at the deep end! As promised the Director of the school collected me this morning and we travelled on the school bus to the school that I now know is called Nafyad School. The whole school were gathered to listen to the Director and to sing their national anthem as the flag was raised. This was no surprise to me as I had seen this before in Asella. What did catch me by surprise was when I was asked to stand on the platform and address the school! That was just the start though as they went on to present me with flowers and welcome me. I hardly had time to catch my breath when I was whisked off to the grade 7 class to take my first English lesson. Luckily my brain has not completely switched off during my time away from teaching so I was able to get through the 40 minute lesson fairly easily.

Just as I was sighing with relief I was grabbed by another English teacher who took me off to teach his grade 3 class. This was a little more challenging as their spoken English was not so good. However, I managed a team teaching session with him and I think it went quite well. Towards the end of the lesson Firew arrived and I think was very surprised to see that they had thrown me straight in to teaching. Yesterday he and I had discussed how I would spend a few days observing and gathering information about the curriculum…..didn’t happen!!

I was so pleased to see him though as the senior staff at the school seemed to think that I would be teaching there fulltime! I had tried to explain that I was in Ethiopia to develop some projects with Link Ethiopia and whilst I would be happy to do some English teaching, that was not my main focus. I sat back in my chair and let Firew speak for me. A long discussion ensued with some serious negotiating taking place. Although I could not understand what they were saying I could read the body language and could see how hard Firew was working to get the outcome we wanted.

By the time we left the office we had agreed that I would teach all day on Wednesdays and on Thursday and Friday mornings. In exchange I will be given free accommodation, but I have yet to see that.  They were trying hard to get me to go and teach at their other school in Adama as well, but Firew made them realise that this was not an option. As it is my time is going to be very full as I have 8 classes to teach on Wednesdays, 4 on Thursdays and 5 on Fridays. Tomorrow I hope to discover which grades  I will be teaching at which times so that I can go away and prepare. They want me to concentrate on spoken English which is fine with me. However, I have asked to see the whole English curriculum so that I can make sure what we practise is appropriate to their level of understanding.

Firew had plenty of work that he needed to catch up on and I felt I could not expect him to stay with me all the time so he went to his office and I carried on and spent the afternoon by the lake at the “Air Force Officer’s Club no. 2”, a snappy little title don’t you think? I can see myself spending a lot of time there as it is very relaxing, although the menu is a little limited! I was feeling quite proud of myself as I managed to stop a minibus an ask for the right place, but then I overshot my stop and had no idea where I was. Stupidly I started off by walking in the wrong direction, but the exercise did me good and I eventually got back to the hotel!

So tomorrow I am hoping that they will not be expecting me to teach and to just spend some time gathering the information I need from their text books. I did try to stress this to the Director as I was leaving, but we shall see what tomorrow brings! Well it actually worked out that I was presented with the curriculum as requested and I also observed a couple of lessons. I was also given my timetable but with a couple of changes. It seems I will only have to teach every other week on Wednesday afternoons so that gives me a little breathing space, but they tried to sneak in an extra class on Thursday morning which I spotted and made them remove it! Soon after Firew called and asked me to go and meet him as he wanted me to meet an American lady who may be willing to let me have a room in the house she is renting close to the school. She seemed to like me and will try to arrange things so that I can move in tomorrow. However, the school director was not pleased so he won’t pay for my hotel tonight and will not pay the full cost for me to rent the room with this lady. The thing is it will be better for me as this house is fully equipped so I can cater for myself without having to buy any extra equipment. The only thing I need to provide is my own bedding if I don’t want to use my sleeping bag and liner.
The rest of the day was also mixed as I was unable to connect my laptop to the internet in Firew’s office so had to use his PC which is less than ideal especially as I did not have my memory stick so could not upload this blog entry! However, I did get to meet up with the staff at Ada Model. This is one of the schools I have visited many times with students from England where we have worked on sport related projects. It was lovely to see Tsgaye again and he took me off to have dinner before I returned to my hotel….hopefully for the last time!. I just want to get settled somewhere so I can unpack and start to properly orientate myself. The slight disadvantage is that the school and accommodation is a very long way from the main town where there is internet access and proper shops, but it will be very quiet. So as I can’t upload this yet I guess I will finish for tonight and once again wait to see what tomorrow brings. It is weird because today is New Year’s Day but here of course nothing changes as their calendar is different, but tomorrow is still the weekend so no school or anything until Monday when Firew and I will work together to formulate a plan for the rest of my time here.

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