Volunteers needed for September!!!!

The key word for this week is WET ! – Shockingly for Nazareth, the rainy season has started to invade in the daytime rather than solely at night as previously. This has meant that things are rapidly coming to a standstill since people are simply not used to it and thus find it too cold to continue ! The children however, are unaffected without enough internal energy to keep themselves warm and lively !

The bad news here is that the Ethiopian government have changed their minds about grade five. After we have spent the whole summer wasting time and money on making new walls, floors an roofs for their classroom as well as in numerous tables and chairs – not to mention advertising the fact heavily throughout the town – the government suddenly came round and causally informed us that they have changed their minds !!!!!!!

Considering that they were the ones who told us that we could have grade five , then this news is most disappointing to say the least ! Still, there isn’t much we can do about it – but feel very frustrated that we now have a new beautiful ( and expensive ) empty classroom ! – That money could have been much better spent on purchasing a necessary computer or a television set !

Summer school progressing well with the three volunteers – great to have so many people to help out ! Still no one for September however – so please keep your eyes peeled !

Things are going ok here now that the end of the academic year school has come. The summer school has started but the teachers don’t feel that confident at teaching English thus they are focusing for these couple of weeks or so on general teaching. As a result, the numbers of pupils attending are a little low but we are anticipating this dramatically changing when the three volunteers come in about a week’s time !

The excellent news here is that the grade 4 pupils were busy practising for their end of year celebration when the educational bureau came and saw them practising their final goodbye speeches ( since the school only goes up to grade 4 – there are various licences available – a kindergarten one , a grade 1 – 4 one, a 5 – 8 one and a grade 9 and 10 licence. To get the grade 5 – 8 licence is complicated since it requires different things such as a separate laboratory room etc thus we didn’t even bother to try to apply. However, the government were so moved by the sad farewell practise of the students and the obvious regard we have for education ( they remarked that we were obviously interested in education rather than business ! ) that they said that they would consider making a special consideration on our behalf so that the grade 5 students can stay on.

As a result, the officials came to the school during the week to see if the rooms were big enough ( even though we do not have enough space let alone equipment for a laboratory ! ) and sure enough they were ! – the grade 5 kids were absolutely thrilled ! – with some of them crying with joy ! So its all systems go making it all ready ! - excellent !

Rains have come...

Here all is going well – the rains are a little heavy this year however, which is bringing things to a bit of a standstill. Although in Addis it is usual for it to rain during the daytime ( usually the clouds build up and then it rains about 3.30 pm ) in Nazareth it is very rare for it to rain during the day, with it usually begin brilliant sunshine all day , with the rain falling heavily at night only. However, this year there have been many days of rain, resulting in a slow grind to a halt!

Marianne – our latest volunteer has safely arrived and is now in Nazareth. As a fully qualified teacher she will be a great addition to the team, enabling the teachers to learn professional techniques. She is here until 6^th September – which is a nice long time – we really are very lucky!

Still no one applying for September – so please keep your eyes peeled!

The other good news is that a long time ago, an American chap – Troy – has collected some books for the school but hadn’t managed to raise the cash to send them. This week we heard from him again to say that he has now managed to raise the funds and that they will shortly be posted! Especially with the new grade five, the need for books is ever increasing, so this will be an excellent addition to the library!