Visiting KiliRufael and Adinet schools

6 October 2008

Woke to a glorious day, clear blue sky, bright sunshine and an optimistic enthusiasm for work. Put the kettle and the boiler on, said goodbye to the night guard, Tilahun, and listened to the early morning bird songs. No church sounds this morning so the glorious Faure choral album that serves as my anti-dote to the megaphoned chants of the priest, stays off.

A few mobility and tummy exercises whilst I wait for the kettle to boil, then a few moments of peace on the veranda with my early morning tea and marmite toast.

Switched the computer on to see if there was an internet connection and left it to get into gear whilst I had a warm shower. The joy of the shower. For most of the time I’ve been here, I’ve had to boil a pan but, after many attempts by the technician, I can now say that the shower works and I love it.

Mekdes arrives at 8:30 and after passing on the day’s needs, I set off for work at 8:30.

Meleshew calls me on route to say that she cannot get a line taxi and could I arrange everything at the office and then pick her up on the way.

At the campus, no Ato Mulat (the transport manager), no Ato Mulugeta (the workshop supervisor), no vehicle, no driver. My European self still finds it difficult to understand that ‘promises’ are good will gestures and don’t actually mean anything.

Ato Menagwa, the General Services Manager said I could change my programme. Remaining very calm, I said that I had been waiting for a month to complete this programme, that the vehicle had been booked on 3 occasions and had not been available and that I was expected by 4 schools to visit today. This latter bit totally untrue – I have learned not to promise visits to schools because it is not in my power to deliver! Ato Menagwa said he would see what he could do. I decided to remain highly visible and sit on the steps of the main administration block rather than being ‘out of sight, out of mind’ in my office.

Meleshew arrived, a vehicle was found but no driver. A driver did eventually turn up and we set off at 10:45 but with the driver insisting we had to be back for 12.

We decided to go for two schools: KiliRufael and Adinet. Both were possible within the time limitations because the vehicle could drive all the way. The first school, I had visited briefly before in March/April when the LinkEthiopia people came. The second was a bit further out.

The female Director spoke to me in Amharic the whole time and addressed all her comments to me. This was interesting because she made no attempt at English, I had to focus very hard on what words I could make out. I was surprised that I understood (I think) as much as I would have done if she had tried to speak in English. Certainly, every time I checked with Meleshew, I seemed to be getting the gist of it which was that she now had 4 classrooms out of action because one building had a severe crack in it and the builder who had come to check said it was dangerous and mustn’t be used.

On my return, Meleshew asked where I wanted to go, was I going home for lunch? I said yes and did she want to come although there would be no lunch I would cook her pasta. She was very enthusiastic about that idea and went off to buy bread, tomatoes and some cokes.

But I’d stupidly picked up the wrong keys in the morning so, we couldn’t get into the house. I decided to ‘invite’ M for lunch at the Leyermeyer where we had a good but expensive spaghetti Bolognese.

Coffee at the house and a very enjoyable session chatting about local commodity prices with Mekdes and Meleshew.