Rain! Finally Rain!!

Here the rainy season seems to be progressing well – there really is a lot of rain this year and it looks as if we will be ok for the year after all since we really were worried with the absence of the short rains. However, surprisingly, the power situation hasn’t changed at all – here in Nazareth it is usually 2 days on and 1 day off ( although the power goes off a lot when it is supposed to be on ! ) however in Addis it is 1 day on and 1 day off – which actually means that Addis gets about 2 hours of power every 2 days ! – it is difficult to live without power really – it does make the evenings so very very long ! – since of course it gets dark at about 6.30 pm every night – so that makes for a lot of very early nights !

    The lack of power really does have an effect on everyone – for instance since there is no power at the café then people don’t go because there are no cold drinks ( since the fridge doesn’t work ) and no hot drinks – so the café people are losing out – there are also no cream cakes since there are no fridges to keep them cool – so the people who make the cakes are losing out – then the boys who deliver the cakes on their bicycles are losing out since there are no cakes to deliver – then the flour grinders are losing out since less flour is needed due to less cakes which of course filters down to the farmers who have too much grain since no one wants it – so those there at the very bottom of the line are losing out ! – this is the worst power situation that the country has had since the introduction of power and there seems to be no end ! – perhaps this will be a permanent situation – who knows ?

      The summer schools are going on well however since they don’t require power !- Johanna the Belgium volunteer has now left – she really was fabulous with such new and inventive ideas ! – she was even kind enough to leave some money so that we can buy a TV and video which will be fabulous since the TV and video haven’t been working for a very long time ! and it is so very important that they have as much exposure to spoken English as possible !

      We are currently trying to organise Tsion ( the girl with Downs Syndrome ) to be an assistant of some kind with the small children – this was an idea given by one of the blog readers – so hope that it works – if anyone is a specialist with special needs – Downs Syndrome in particular – and can give us some guidance as to how we can implement this idea then we would be really grateful !

 

Still poor power situation

This week sees the conclusion of the summer bird project - Johanna - the volunteer from Belgium has spent a lot of time and energy in making a giant sized bird complete with flapping wings - the plan is to wheel the giant bird along the high street and then give out leaflets about the school with the slogan - English Alive Academy gives you the wings to let you fly !!! - she is going to video it all and when she goes back to Belgium ( on Wednesday ) she will put it on youtube and then everyone can have a look - will let you have the details of where it is once she has put it on !

      the power remains terrible - one day on and one day off ( except it is hardly on when it is supposed to be ! ) yet the rains are heavy - so no one is quite sure where the power is going - at one stage the power was being sold to some other country so we think that this may be the situtaion once again - there is no news as to when the power will return - if ever ! so that is a little worrying !! - still, the good thing is that you get a lot of sleep since there are only limited things that you can do by the light of a candle !!!

This week we are pleased to have seen the arrival of Kim from New Zealand. She has made the total number of volunteers at the moment to a grand total of three ,which is the largest number we have ever had! It is a bit of a squash at the house since it is a 2 bed roomed house and there are 3 adults living there ( Frasier is sleeping at a nearby hotel since it is culturally unacceptable for males and females to share ) so this has meant that Dawits mother – Azeb – an energetic woman of about 65 who works as the school manager has temporarily moved into the living room. However it is worth it since the summer school children are getting such a lot of attention and the standard of the lessons is steadily rising.

   In addition, this had meant that there is intensive English language training in the afternoons of the teachers, with the hope being that as the standard of English amongst the teachers rises so does the standard of English amongst the children !

   On a personal note, I handed in my resignation this week at the school where I was working in Addis Ababa. 

The lower wages means that we will have to move house to someone cheaper and sell the car – which is all going to be hard but it is better to be even poorer and happy !

  Since every penny counts, we are really pushing people to join in with the free fundraising – there is a website –http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk  where you can join for free to support us ( English Alive Academy – Ethiopian schools for the poor ) and then whenever you shop online then you access the site from here and a proportion of the amount you spend is donated to us !!! – in addition, you can click the easysearch button ( bottom left ) and make that your home page – then instead of using Google you use this search engine and each time it is used you earn ½ pence for us ! – which doesn’t sound like much but once you put it all together then it really adds up to a lot !!!!

So please give it a try !!!! – Stephanie