Lucy has arrived!!!

After the disastrous last couple of weeks, I am glad to report that at last things are getting a little better ! The first good news is that Lucy – a volunteer from the UK has successfully arrived and is currently in Nazareth. Although she is only here for two weeks, she is the first volunteer of this new academic year so the teachers and students were really looking forward to her arrival.

The second great news is that we seem to be well on the way to being a registered charity ! The process isn’t yet finished since there are a few tweaks here and there, but in principle it all seems to be going well !!!

We have ordered our charity collection boxes in anticipation and will soon be distributing those to anyone who is interested in collecting for us ! – will have details on how to order a collection box etc on this site and our website once it is all sorted ! – watch this space !!!!

Student numbers continue to rise – we are now at 189 !!! and with students still trickling in, the possibility of 200 is not impossible !!!

This is fantastic news since the more students we have the more chance we have of being self sufficient and even to make a little bit of money which would mean that we could start saving for our own land and building !!!

The government have told us that they will give us free land if we can prove that we have one third of the building costs – which is about 13,000 pounds !!!!! – a figure that seems totally impossible ! However we are now looking at fundraising / grants etc so that we can start saving !!! To have our own land and building would make all the difference, enabling us to be more stable as well as the money saved from the renting meaning that we could pay ourselves a minimal wage and move back to Nazareth and run the school once again – our ultimate dream !!!!

Work in Addis for me isn’t going that well – it is frustrating to go there each and every day and achieve very little when there is a whole school waiting for us in Nazareth who are desperate for our help !!

Unfortunately no one applied for the Christmas card competition so am struggling to get them sorted out – again it is a matter of time ! Working full time at my job in Addis and writing plans and visiting Nazareth every weekend means that there is little time for creative extras ! Thus if anyone has any good Christmas card ideas please send them in tostephanddawit@yahoo.co.uk asap since I do think that they would be a great source of income in the long run !!!

First Parent Meeting of the Year!

Last weekend English Alive Academy had their first parents meeting of the year – the purpose of the meeting being to establish our first ever PTA ( parent teacher association )

We were a little worried since we had told parents that we would try our best to buy computers and have computer classes and although we had tried our best to buy one, we spent more than all our money on the van instead !!! We do aim to buy computers at some stage, but they are currently on the wish list rather than the reality list !

However, we really didn’t need to worry since the meeting was a raging success ! Sixty three people attended the meeting ( often school meetings have only 5 – 10 people here in Nazareth !!)

Only one person mentioned the computers and instead the majority appreciated the fact that we had stretched ourselves above and beyond ( thanks to Fraser and family ) to get the van !

It was great to feel that we are on the right lines – that the parents get what we are trying to do and appreciate all that we do give rather than what we don’t !!

Onward and Upward

Going onwards and upwards – that is how the whole school is feeling at the moment, with the number of students rising and our major problems being finding enough room to educate them and having enough tables and chairs ! – Great problems indeed!!

With almost two hundred children it really is getting very busy and I am struggling to keep up with the plans and the organisation etc! The government are now getting firmer on their promise to provide us with free land if we can find 13, 500 pounds to build!! – And although that is an impossible amount we are not deterred and are carrying on the process ever hopeful that the money will turn up!

My work in Addis Ababa (where I work to keep English Alive up and running) has decided that there should be no holidays until the January where we get a luxurious eight days! Work for me in Addis is very challenging. It is very frustrating  !!!