Satellite School

Tuesday 8th April

The visitors from LinkEthiopia arrived yesterday en masse. Meleshew organised transport to take us to visit a school they have been supporting. Kebele 16 – nothing more that a few mud huts a few years ago, is now a developing elementary school catering for grades 1 – 8.


Satellite School

The school has enough classrooms now but not enough furniture. After totally disrupting the school and all the lessons for about an hour, we walked about 30 minutes further into the countryside to visit a satellite school that LE have recently taken on. Catering for children from Grades 1 – 4, it is no longer classified as an ABE school because it has 4 classrooms – that means the local education authority will fund the teachers.


Open Plan Classroom

There are no toilets and no drinking water. I asked the Director about this and he took me to a mucky looking water hole next to which a group of local men were in the process of sinking a well. A project also being funded by LE who are providing the cost of the materials and a fee for the supervisor. Unfortunately, we had arrived at a difficult moment since they had decided this well was not going to be viable because it had already collapsed at a strategic point. They will begin again further away.


Digging the Well

As we stood around discussing it, the school bell went and all the children ran down to the water hole to drink. Shortly after, the cows arrived for their drink – at the same place! Not surprising that children (like Mohammed – see previous blog) are liable to get water borne diseases.


Water Hole


For Children and Cows

Things are slowly and sustainably improving for this community thanks to the work of Link Ethiopia. The countryside around is beautiful, water might not be plentiful but it is regularly available.

Social life has improved this week with the arrival of VSO visitors, one from Addis and one from Rwanda. Great, not only to have company but the chance to talk about the work. One of my visitors has been visiting projects around Ethiopia to see what is happening and was very impressed with the quantity and quality of work going on in Gonder so I indulged myself with a little pat on the back!

Visiting Atse Fasil School

Wednesday 2nd April

Up at the crack of dawn and onto a line-taxi to Azezo to meet Melash (please ignore all previous spellings!)

We went to visit Atse Fasil school, infant, primary and secondary equivalents. All of these schools are supported by Jean’s charity (see previous blog) and are among the best schools I’ve visited so far. They have buildings, furniture and libraries. Jean has also ensured that these schools have drinking fountains and toilets.


New Buildings

Melash was particularly impressed with the toilet blocks which he informed me could cater for 40 students at a time – which, given 3000 students in two shifts would seem necessary.


New Toilets

He also showed me a building – see photo – which is a great example of misplaced philanthropy. It had been funded by an Ethiopian, now resident in America. Rather than hand the money over to the school or local organisation, he had the plans drawn up and appointed a builder. The building itself is twice as large as the blocks which Jean had funded. But it only catered for 4 students at a time. Or would do if it was ever finished. Sadly, the builder was paid but no-one was left in overall charge and the building has never been completed.


Misplaced Philanthropy

It was lunch break at school, so I didn’t see any lessons but found this lovely dedicated teacher – marking her books in her classroom which had a number of things displayed on the wall. Seems like some of the training has been getting through after all.


Dedicated Teacher

Next stop was to visit the high school where Melash teaches conversational English for one hour a day. Another line taxi but this time for half an hour on a bone rattling road, 23 Kms further north – a place called Koliadeba. Given the reaction of the inhabitants, I don’t think they see too many ‘ferenjis’ here. Today I was the teaching aid!


Me as Teaching Aid

The class was packed and standing room only all around the building! I had a great session asking and answering questions for the students. Religion came up again and I was quickly embroiled with explaining about Henry VIII – they thought this was a great story. Melash but a limit of 3 minutes per student and the next one wanted my views and opinions of Hitler!


Fresh Water from the Hills

From the school, Melash took me back to Azezo to visit the Blind school and meet up again with Jean and Sandra. The school was set up and run by an Italian order of Nuns. The children reside at the school during term time and although most go home during the holidays, some orphans are fostered out for the period.

By this time it was getting very late and like Cinderella, I felt I should be home before it got dark. Missed my chance. I caught a taxi and had to get off at a stop on a road running parallel to the road I live on. I achieved that OK but by this time it was getting very dark and I hadn’t brought a torch. I walked down a side track to reach my house and was momentarily disorientated when I reached the bottom since there were no lights at all. I negotiated my way along the track to my house – also in darkness. No power all evening so I had a piece of bread for supper and an early night!

Ah…. ! Poor me.

Not sure I’ve completely eradicated those damn fleas yet either!

Evening at Melush’s Family Home

Sunday 30th March

Last night Melush called to invite me to his home to meet Jean and Sandra.

Jean is Melush’s Sister-in-law. She was married to his brother who died in 2002. He had set up a trust to support his old school and Jean has now taken over the fund raising aspect of this as well as providing training for nurses (together with Sandra who hails from the Isle of Arran) on her regular visits. The name of the trust is the Aysanew Kassa Trust – an independent charity supporting several local schools and the local community. Next project is to build and stock a library for the community.

We all met at Melush’s family home – Mum, a very striking elderly woman had organised dinner for all, including meat despite the fact that they’re all fasting. Also met Semu aged 61 going on 16 (I kid you not). Semu has lived in London for the past 35 years (Maida Vale end of Kilburn) raised her family, has grandchildren, retired and returned to Gonder to build a house and settle. But not sure at the moment that she will manage to do that. She is feeling very lonely and doesn’t feel she fits in. But it’s early days. I hope to get to know her better.

I had a long conversation with her and Sandra about the situation in the south of Ethiopia.

Sandra had taken two groups of nurses to visit a hospital about 40 km south of Addis. Unusually, there have been no rains at all this year leading to a massive shortage at the present time. They were allocated one small bottle a day.

Semu then told me that much of the water was being diverted to new farms growing flowers for export whilst people were going hungry! Semu, a member of Greenpeace then went on to tell me about an assignment of contaminated fertiliser that was delivered 5 years ago. They knew it was contaminated but forced the farmers to use it because they couldn’t afford to ship it back. The consequence being that much of this previously good farmland is now useless.

Sandra told me about the work of the Taru Centre, an organisation in Gonder that works with Street children. She had been that day to visit it and recommended I do the same.

At this point, Mohammed came into the house and was greeted with great pleasure by everyone. Mohammed came through the Taru organisation. He lives with his mother and 3 sisters. As a child he caught a viral disease that affects the face and eats away at the cartiledge so he lost half his face. For many years his face was an open wound. He couldn’t go to school. Eventually, a charity picked up on it and Mohammed was treated. Last year he went to London to the Kensington and Westminster Hospital where two plastic surgeons offer their services for free. I think it’s called ‘faceback’. They were unable to continue with surgery because Mohammed had a rare condition attacking his skin (like TB of the skin) and so he came home.

He has now recovered and next week, returns to London for continuation of the surgery that will recreate his face and give him a future.

Sandra also told me of a hospital in Addis she wants me to visit – it’s called the Fitsula hospital and caters for young girls. A huge problem in Ethiopia is the number of young girls made pregnant before maturity. Because their bodies are not fully developed they end up going through days of labour which only finishes when the baby dies and is eventually still born. The damage caused to the girls’ bodies causes bladder and bowel problems so they become incontinent. They are then housed outside the villages/towns because of the smell. The hospital in Addis is the only place treating them and it can only treat a small percentage of the young girls affected by this.

Melush organised a taxi home. We dropped Jean and Sandra off on route. Then a nightmarish journey back into Gonder. The roads are just as full of people walking at night as there are in the day. The car journey is something you just want to hide your eyes and pray you’ll make it!

And that brings me to the end of March – only two months!

Sponsored School Children

March 29th Saturday

Tried to catch a line taxi to Gonder to check my mail but it’s impossible on Saturday morning. My neighbours Adena and Belet joined me and we began to walk. We hadn’t got far when a friend of Belet came along and gave us a lift.

Walked back (it’s down hill!) picking up supplies from the market stalls, bakery and supermarket. Today I was joined by 13 year old Mulata who took my bag and chatted away – great English! He goes to Walya school, is being sponsored by one of the many gap year students that came over (Alex) who lives in Oxford! Mulata lives alone with his elderly mother who is elderly.

The issue of sponsorship is interesting. I haven’t met any girls that are being sponsored. I’m also not sure about the idea of sponsoring a child/boy to go to a fee paying school. This seems to be an individual issue and since most of the gap year students seem to be male it could skew equal opportunities. Why not sponsor through the state schools so that more children benefit? Individuals could still be helped to find costs and living expenses if necessary. Need to take this up with EthiopiaLink and see what they think.

Housing and Architecture

The traditional housing is basically a mud hut constructed from a frame of eucalyptus wood packed with mud mixed with straw. These constructions range from small huts with no windows and only one or two rooms to quite large ‘cottages’ with windows. They are often located in groups – small compounds and cooking and other domestic activity is carried out in the yard. On the way back from Azezzo, I noticed a different type of housing more along the lines of small villas – Meleshew said they were Italian buildings left over from the occupation.

There are also some quite outstanding villas obviously belonging to people with money but I have yet to establish who they are. There is also the type of housing that I live in – more modern and though it has a tin roof, the construction is probably of breeze block (given the construction going on next door). This housing is low rise with yards/gardens – again a lot of domestic activity will take place in the yard despite being equipped with a kitchen and bathroom.

Then there is the enormous amount of building going on up and down the main road in and out of Gonder. Each day I pass one construction site that is all but obliterating the beautiful hills behind it. When I first arrived it was approximately two storeys high. They seem to be getting ever higher, some are up to 4 storey’s high. There are a large number of them. It resembles a local authority housing estate under construction. I asked Mulat about it today and he confirmed my fears. These buildings are being put up to cope with the increasing population and increased cost of land in the area. They are ‘condominiums’ which will be rented or leased and are self contained units. Presumably, this means they will contain a kitchen and bathroom. Domestic activity will become individualised.

I can’t help but feel this is not a good long term development.

Driving to Azzezo today, I saw a lot of similar developments along the road. I also saw a lot of buildings that had been completed and the ground floors let for commercial purposes but the flats themselves were empty. At the end of my ‘street’ (I must photograph that), there is a small building which I think was built as an hotel – again it is empty. I see a lot of modern buildings which are empty. I suspect that they are too expensive for the majority of Ethiopians to rent or lease and wonder what will happen when these new ones are built.

Whilst the construction itself is providing employment at the present time, unless there is more industrial or agricultural expansion, there could be a massive problem of raised expectations that can’t be met. Add to this a rapidly increasing population and massive expansion of educational opportunities and it could lead to a very disaffected generation of young people.

School Visiting

Friday 28th March

Thought I’d managed to upset my work colleague this week. Think Meleshew sometimes finds my enthusiasm a bit too much! Mulat, the transport manager visited the office for a chat so I took the opportunity to ask if he could spare a vehicle to go school visiting. Before he could, Meleshew announced that she and Mulugeta were off to another school on Friday to deliver training. Felt a bit left out )-: ! But cheered up again when she checked if I was coming.

I woke early, and arrived at the office promptly at 8am. The drive to Teda was full of contrasts. Leaving the urban boundary, we passed examples of industry which I will need to explore further. A large area taken up by the Dashen Brewery – a large employer.

As the urban landscape transformed into a rural landscape - vast stretches of cultivated land being ploughed by one man with his ox and plough – I observed this without taking it in. Only later did I realise how extraordinary this was. I’m sure there must be more of them somewhere! The land is this area is reasonably fertile – it’s close proximity to Lake Tana helps and farmers are often able to get two crops a year. The main crop is teff used to make Injeera – the staple food.

Meleshew and Mulugeta did what they do very well. I was given a small slot to talk about continuous assessment but few understood what I was talking about – Meleshew discussed this with me and we will have to work on a translation so that she can deliver it.

Mid-morning break, I suggested we put the tables into groups which Meleshew thought was a good idea. When the teachers came back, they tried to re-arrange the furniture!

Mulugeta and the supervisor Fenta went off for refreshments with the Director to his office. Meleshew took me to the ‘staff room’ to join the teachers for tea and a bread roll.



Staff Room

The Director sent over to see if we would prefer a coke or fanta!
Lunchtime, we went to a small ‘hotel’ – it looked to me like someone’s house and the only way you could tell it was more than that was the hand washing tap and some people sitting outside. Lunch was injeera with a lentil wot, cabbage wot and a salad.

On the way back, I tried to take photographs but the camera cannot capture the vastness and contours of this landscape.



Vast landscape

On the drive home, we passed through Azzezo which consists of a long narrow road, part of the main road to Addis. The road is crammed with people, goats, cattle, bicycles, pony carts and….. pedestrians are completely nonchalant about vehicles!
Suddenly, and with no forewarning, we turned off the main road and began to negotiate a very rough series of tracks winding its way through what was obviously very poor housing. I put the camera away! Not because I fear for it being taken but because I feel like a voyeur in these circumstances. There are more than enough pictures of African poverty without me adding to them.

We turned off the main road onto a track. Gradually, the housing became larger and better quality, marked off by fences and gates. We stopped, at Meleshew’s House! She was very enthusiastic about me visiting but also clearly nervous as well. I asked if I could take photographs – and she cheered up immensely. Then I was taken in doors and expected to eat – nobody else ate, but I had to! Having not yet recovered from lunch, I braced myself and did the best I could. I hope I succeeded in relaxing with Meleshew – complimenting her on her beautiful home (photograph) and crotcheting skills! The fabulous food. Admired the photographs of family and particularly the younger Meleshew. Discussed the new extension to the house. I think we parted friends – as much as is possible.



Meleshew’s House

Keye Amemba School

Monday 24th March

While the UK are basking in the golden sunshine of a Bank Holiday w/e, I’ve been working. Still the weather’s good. Spent part of the morning working on ‘continuous assessment ‘ projects.

I was visited by Karolyn from Italy with her Ethiopian guide Melesh who has a lot of experience working with NGOs and volunteers. He lives in Azezo close to Gorgora which is on the Northern coast of Lake Tana. He has offered to show me around and also to organise any treks that I want to make – Meleshew knows him and says he’s a good man so that looks promising. Karolyn is with an Italian NGO working on a thesis about the effects of HIV and Aids – she has been interviewing women in Azezo but needs access to a younger group – Meleshew is going to organise this for Wednesday.

Several members of the CCU committee called in to check on the arrangements for the afternoon lesson observations. But at 8 o’clock – time to go – it was suddenly announced that all administration staff must go to a meeting. This included Meleshew, Mulugeta, and all the drivers! After a drawn out, heated debate, Mulat turned up to take us to Keye Amemba school.



Classrooms

We started off with 4, picked up Alemayhu on route wandering back from wherever he had been for lunch and finally Melku in Gonder so eventually 7 of us turned up at the school. The Director was not available (again) but the heads of department sorted out classes for us to visit.



Staff Room!

I went to a Grade 5 (15 year olds) session on Civics. The session consisted of a discussion between individuals and the teacher about how Ethiopia could develop economically, socially and geographically. The teacher periodically summarised the discussion – 2 keys issues were ‘educating women was more important because they were primarily responsible for teaching the children’ and ‘if you don’t work, you don’t eat’ The youngsters were reading from their exercise books – the topic had been set for homework and they were discussing the ideas that they had come up with.



The man on the mobile is Ato Alemayhu, CTE Instructor and head of CCU. The man in white coat with his hands on his hips is Ato Mohabaw whose civics lesson I observed.

There were approximately 70 children in the class, boys outnumbered girls by 2 -1 but this was even more so when it came to speaking.

A Sunday Walk

Sunday 23rd March

Decided to get out for a walk today. I went round the Northern part of Gonder following the dirt track route taken by the line taxi a couple of weeks ago when I was visiting Atse Bekafa school. The walk was great. Quiet for the most part until I drew near to the top end of Gonder. There I was greeted by a whole bunch of little boys who firstly kicked their ball to me, I kicked it back, they then crowded round chanting Manchester United until I told them it should be Arsenal – so they started chanting Arsenal.



Boys and Toys in Gonder

Two little boys broke free from the rest to come and say goodbye politely (their dad was watching in the background), as I walked away I felt something hit me – turned out to be a small plastic bottle. It didn’t hurt physically but I was upset and decided to show it – so I turned and gestured ‘why’ at them at which point the man who had been watching had a go at the boy responsible and appeared to apologise to me. I walked on satisfied for once that an adult was dealing with a clear example of misbehaviour from a child.

This is not the norm I have to say and one of the things I find frustrating. Children sometimes ask me for money walking along with their parents. I can see they’re not wealthy but there are many agencies in Gonder attempting to constructively support families, children, the elderly and disabled. But for some, it’s just a way of life, the way it’s always been. Hopefully, the new younger, educated generation can turn this around.

For the most part, girls don’t beg or harass –it is a boy thing. Whilst walking along this track, two teenagers passed the other way – one said hello the other said give me 100, 200, 300 birr. I laughed, he laughed and we walked on. Sometimes you can make a joke of it!

Met up with two other volunteers for lunch and walked home. Tried out the new walking shoes – ended up with blisters on my heels. Will have to sort this out before I go for that 25 Km hike!

More Plumbing Problems....

Saturday 22nd March

Woken at 6 by the priest chants – beginning to feel very grumpy about this. About 7:30 the electricity went off and I cheered! It meant the megaphone got turned off and peace was restored. But only for 5 mins! Later the horns and cheers of the local lads coming to play or watch the football drowned out the chants.

I began my hole digging to bury this week’s food waste. When Mekdes arrived, I got her to ring the landlord and ask what was happening about the bathroom which is now awash with water. The Landlord said he was on his way round and, 4 hours later he did appear. We had a very drawn out discussion/disagreement about where exactly the excess water was coming from. He called in the builder. After a bit more discussion and investigation, they discovered that the water was leaking from the shower down through the wall. He called in the plumber (who had started the whole problem in the first place). Then all three shut themselves in the bathroom to fix it.

Didn’t quite manage it but most services were restored except for the boiler which now refuses to heat up.



Gonder meeting place

I had a ‘cold’ shower, which was fine since I was a bit hot and bothered by now. Got changed and went for a quiet meal in the pleasant gardens of the Lamageyer Hotel. I toyed with the idea of trying something else on the menu but came back to the grilled fish I’d ordered last week. It came this time with vegetable fried rice with loads of garlic – mmmmm

A Good Day at Work

Friday 21st March

Had a good day at work. Most of the Cluster Supervisors turned up to the meeting, a date and time was set for the training, a date was set for the lesson observations. A planning format was agreed, a discussion held about continuous assessment and…….. well we’ll see.

Great discussion with Meleshew in the early part of the afternoon. I asked if we could visit some schools next week, specifically those in the cluster that we are presently training. She agreed to set that up and I checked that it would include the ABE school. She said the ABE school was a long way away and couldn’t be reached by road. I asked if we could walk and she said yes but it was 25km out of Gonder. I thought perhaps we had a communication difficulty here checked with her – Meleshew said it would take 3 hours to walk there and 3 hours to walk back. Now there’s a challenge. Will need to get my walking shoes out and try them out.

Dealing with the Fleas

Thursday 20th March

Got my days mixed up somewhere. Today is Mohammed’s birthday so a national holiday in Ethiopia though the Northern Ethiopians ignore it since they’re not Muslim. But college is closed so I have a day to sort out the fleas and the plumber.

Spent a very pleasant and productive day with Mekdes throwing out all the furniture, beating it, spraying it and leaving it all to cook in the sun. G assures me this is the way to get rid of them. We also sat down together to do some crotchet and then, after lunch a language lesson. Me teaching English, Mekdes teaching Amharic.



Mekdes helping me get rid of the flea infestation

Fleas!

Wednesday 19th March

No plumber! Now don’t have hot water, tap water or flushing toilet (never had the latter but still). Plus the bathroom doesn’t smell too nice. Whatever the plumber did has just made matters worse.

I have discovered the source of my discomfort. I rang another NGO tonight to ask if she knew where I might get hold of some mosquito repellent having severely depleted my resources. She was very kind but did laugh! I don’t have mosquito bites, I have fleas!!!!!!!!!!! Oh gross!!!!!!!

The one thing of course nobody was about to tell me. I couldn’t work this one out. I don’t have any animals and stay well away from them.. G explained that fleas in Africa live in and on clothes and furniture, that I would have picked them up during ‘line taxi’ trips and general contact. Phew, glad that one’s sorted out. I was beginning to feel that I could not sit outside or have a window open. Now I can. Fleas can be a nuisance but they’re not going to inflict unpleasant illnesses.

Rain and Bites

Tuesday 18th March

Most important thing that happened today was rain! A good shower. Enough to lay the dust and bring out the gorgeous smell of eucalyptus and damp earth.

Beginning to get concerned about the number of bites, despite the precautions being taken.

Bakery

Monday 17th March

At lunchtime, I walked home and decided to call in at the bakery hut that I pass everyday. I wanted a small bread roll (dabbo). The young girl behind the counter couldn’t focus on me because of the silly behaviour of a young teenager trying to convince me to buy her something to eat. Before I could pay, a young lad came in and joined in the general hilarity as I tried to understand how much I needed to pay. I abandoned the project and left without the bread.