Typhoid strikes

Here all is progressing slowly since have been sick with typhoid which meant that the continual process of converting the curriculum was put on hold this week or so ! ( have a lot to do this weekend to catch up ! ) –

Samantha ( the new volunteer ) seems to be fine in Nazareth , although time is racing on and she has been here almost 2 weeks already and has only another 2 weeks left ! – still no sign of a new volunteer to replace her which is a bit worrying since there is much to do – especially with the new grade 4 teacher !- lots of people write for information however not that many people carry on the process after that ! – I suppose that with the recession it s different to get the funds together for the flight ( although things are very cheap once you get here ! )

It was half term at the school where I work for 4 days this week – which meant that the children had a break however, the purpose of the half term was for the teachers to have training – thus have had a lot of work to do to make two full days training ! – it is necessary however since many teachers  ( well all actually ! ) don’t really understand any other technique than writing on the board for pupils to copy ! – even for the 3 year olds !!! – still I suppose you can only go one step at a time !!!

A new volunteer is on her way!!

This week has been eventful with arrival of Samantha Chu – our latest volunteer from San Francisco USA. It is the first time that we have ever had a cross over which will enable the old volunteer to pass on information to the new one – and although Fraser ( from Australia who has been here 3 months ) leaves on Tuesday which means that there are only 3 days together , then that is something !

 Samantha is here for the next month, with no volunteer currently waiting to come – so anyone who is thinking about coming please consider coming at the beginning of November !!!!!

The new curriculum is developing slowly – it is hard to get so much done in such as short space of time ! – thus although things are plodding along there are significant gaps – especially since we are not longer allowed to make our own textbooks which means that there is very little information to look at for the pupils – we are trying to do our best with information books such as encyclopedias from our library but since we only have 2 it is all very limited !!! – as a result, can we ask that anyone who has internet access to help us with googling information pages on the subjects covered e.g. parts of the body / different types of plants etc – finding something that is child friendly and then emailing it to us so that we can print it out and start building up a collection of information that the teachers can share with pupils ! – if you email us at : stephanddawit@yahoo.co.uk then I can send you a list of the subject areas !

Last weekend we have a meeting in Nazareth to try to form a parents committee – it was very successful and parents were very positive about the school and the things that we are trying to do – they really do appreciate that we have kept the school fee to  a nominal fee since things have risen dramatically in price due to the recession ( however this does mean that although we now have the highest number of students ever  since we have given teachers a pay rise and the rent of the buildings has increased as well as the price of school materials although in the past we would have been breaking about even we are now running at a loss of 50 pounds a month ( although this doesn’t sound much in Western terms it is a fortune here ! ) – still,  we hope that something will turn up soon ! We are still trying to be a registered charity which would help a lot since then we would be considered more viable rather than just some obscure school in Ethiopia and have our fingers crossed!

School is in full swing!

School is now in full swing with the school going all the way up to grade 4 for the very first time. The curriculum is still very hit and miss at the moment with the change to Amharic medium and the things that we are doing to try to get around that ( such as having lunchtime clubs which are all English Literature ) – however this means that there is no real progression with the English at the moment – something that I need to work on as soon as I get time !!( anyone with experience in making an English Literature curriculum for grades 1 – 4 with any ideas please get in touch asap !! )

       Started my new part time last week – it is basically a troubleshooter for another school which I visit once a week to analyze and give information for others to implement – then take some new aspect – write instructions on what to do etc and then bring that the next week – teach the management what to do and then leave them to implement it ! – it is complicated to divide your brain into three – one for English Alive / one for the day job / one for the part time job – however I am sure that I will get used to it !