Update

The good news this week is that although not great, the power situation is at least a little better so the fans are able to be in full swing, which helps matters along somewhat !

Still lots of interest for volunteers for the summer but no one for now ! – Not good but I think that the recession has a lot to do with this since people need to make money rather than volunteer ! Still, we are plodding along and after Easter I have a week’s holiday from the school where I work so we will go and stay for the week and sort things out.

We are currently trying to make a learning support unit for those pupils who are a little behind. Any learning disabilities ( such as dyslexia etc ) are not recognized in this country so it is very hard to support them since often they are just labeled as not being bright , rather than being recognized as having a difficulty. There are some pupils in the school who aren’t progressing as they should and it is hoped that the learning support will assist them in particular.

Although I am a fully qualified dyslexic consultant, I have limited knowledge of other learning disabilities and thus am currently applying for grants in order to purchase some books etc in order to help me train the teachers about how to help those with specific needs. It is not an easy process however applying for grants – a lot of paper work – made even more difficult by the lack of power !!! – Oh well, fingers crossed !!

Weekly Update

This week there was great excitement in Nazareth with the construction of the first ever set of traffic lights in Nazareth !! – it is rather exciting and lots of people are very confused about how they are supposed to use them thus they have two traffic police permanently stationed there in order to explain to people the system ! Haven’t yet seen what happens when there is a power cut – but assume that it is the same as Addis i.e. that the lights go off and then everyone just tries to push their way through !

The new grade 4 teacher is doing well .The new nursery section ( the previous assistant teacher who got promoted when the number of children became too high ) is doing very well and the classroom is nicely decorated with collages of the nursery rhymes that they are learning each week.

Income wise have managed to write a couple of sets of articles for a Christian children’s website – paying a whopping $ 27.50 a time – a fortune here !- which has really helped now that 1/3 rd of our income went when I got fired ! – will keep on looking for more freelance writing opportunities since that appears to be a good way to make money. The only difficulty is finding the jobs with the terrible internet and fluctuating power ! – not sure how long this Christian job will last for so it would be great to have something else around the corner as a back up !