English Alive Academy

Happy Western New Year

2011-12-31T08:08:00.000-08:00

HAPPY WESTERN NEW YEAR to everyone ! – New year doesn’t come around here until September so Western new year is a very low key affair ( nonexistent here in Nazret but there are events etc at the posh hotels in Addis ) however we are all currently looking forward to Christmas ( 7^th January ) so we will have some festivities at this time ! The schools Christmas party is a big deal here and takes place on Thursday morning before the Christmas holiday of Thursday afternoon and Friday ( and back to school at usual on Monday ! )

Things here ( as per usual ) are very busy – we had a wonderful week last week with our latest volunteer – Inge ( from Holland ) who not only bought huge bags of school supplies and a much needed laptop but also worked incredibly hard teaching English to the pupils- which both parties thoroughly enjoyed ! It really was great to have a volunteer once again since we haven’t had anyone since the summer.

Our other visitor this month was Tamin ( from www.everythingexceptthe horn.com ) who came with her enormous versatile land cruiser complete with fold away roof rack tent ! It was great to see someone so full of enthusiasm for Africa and she was full of good ideas. The main idea that we have taken up is that of getting online fundraisers ! – We went through the United Nations site ( www.onlinevolunteering.org ) and had an absolutely amazing response and have a team of people now working alongside us – it is so wonderful that people can simply volunteer their time and energy to helping us out and we are incredibly excited about the prospect of working with them !

We had such a wonderful response with the fundraising that we have now put advertisements for art , computer and music lesson plan writers ( all areas that we know and believe are vital but we lack the time and knowledge to address them properly ! ) – so hoping that there are more people with open hearts out there willing to help us to make such a difference !

Our grade 4 teacher sadly left this week after being with us for about 6 years ! – although she didn’t really want to leave , with a family to support, she needed the additional salary that another job in a nearing town could offer so she said her final goodbyes with a coffee ceremony and plenty of tears ! Our new teacher is a male – something good in an all female teaching environment and willing to learn the new and wonderful things that go on in English Alive.

Our weekly Friday afternoon training session was dedicated to introducing him to the workings of the school and it was all very eye opening – he wrote a list of things that this school does differently and he is not sure why and the teachers then answered - part of his list was as follows :

Ø why don’t pupils sit in rows ?

Ø why do pupils sit on the carpet ?

Ø what is phonics ?

Ø why don’t you hit the children ?

Ø why do pupils go to the library ?

It really brought home to us how different English Alive really is and how, although we aren’t yet at an international standard, we are heads and shoulders above the rest – offering pupils a chance not only to go to school but to educate them as a whole individual person.

Looking for a clever Christmas gift idea?

2011-12-06T07:15:00.000-08:00

If your child has a teacher who will get 25 mugs and a handful of Starbucks cards this December, or you have a grandparent who has everything... think about purchasing a brick from English Alive Academy in their name to help English Alive Academy achieve their dream of building their very own school by this coming September!!

Buy a brick !

English Alive Academy just secured a grant for land !

– now we need to raise £ 22,000 to build a kindergarten school on this land.

The purpose-built kindergarten school will:

Ø be spacious – with each classroom having space for activities and playing areas.

Ø have its own eating area ( rather than eating on the floor in the classrooms )

Ø be hygienic – with tiled lavatories

Ø ensure the future of English Alive Academy through a guaranteed location.

Ø enhance school finances through elimination of paying rent for school buildings.

Our dream is to build the school by September 2012.

Each £ 2 / $ 4 / € 2.50 donation will buy four bricks.

For those wishing to give bricks as a gift, gift certificates are available for donations of £ 2 / $ 4 / € 2.50 and above.

For donations of £ 20 / $ 40 / € 25 - your name written on a brick prior to use in the wall (a photograph of your named brick will be sent to you)

For donations of £ 200 / $ 400 / € 250 - an entire wall will be named in your honour – this name proudly painted at the top of the wall ( photograph sent via email)

HOW CAN I BUY BRICKS ? :

1/. Direct payment into the English Alive Academy

bank account

Bank details : Name : Ethiopian Schools for the Poor

Bank :HSBC Sort code 402503 Account number 21484613

2/. Payment into the English Alive PayPal account

PayPal details : donations@englishaliveacademy.org

3/. Cheque

Please made payable to “ Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy “ and send to our UK volunteer office:

5 Westbourne Street, Hove, East Sussex, BN35PE

4/. Pay by credit credit via

www.mydonate.bt.com

****** Please note – if you wish to receive your gift certificate, don’t forget to send an email to : info@englishaliveacademy.org stating the name that you wish to be put on the gift certificate.

SPREAD THE MESSAGE – PUT THE ATTACHED POSTER WHEREVER YOU CAN !

Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy
Registered Charity Number 1140681

www.englishaliveacademy.org

FANTASTIC NEWS!

2011-11-27T08:49:00.000-08:00

Fantastic news! After yesterdays visit, our grant of 15,000 Euros to buy school land has been confirmed! Look out for our buy a brick campaign so that at long last we can start to build our own school!

And the rain rain rain came down down down!!

2011-11-25T15:27:00.000-08:00

This week – well …… not the best in the world really !

The first problem was the weather – in Nazret it is rare for it to rain during the daytime , even during the rainy season. However, we woke up ( late – since we always just rely on the children waking up with the sunshine ) to find it cold ( relatively ) and pouring with rain ! As a result, we had to scamper around searching for a cardigan and an umbrella ( things which rarely come out ! ) Everyone was thrown with this spell of incredibly unusual weather and of course, the school playground was not ready ! This meant that the whole area turned into a huge swimming pool, puddles in the classrooms from dripping roofs and sections of the ceiling coming away ! The good thing however was that the student turnout that day was very low since when it rains in Nazret , people tend to simply give up on the world and stay indoors !

Perhaps the rain had something to do with our next problem - the drains in the kindergarten compound. The water had stopped a few weeks ago and the water board had come out and dug in the compound as well as next door which seemed to have alleviated the problem. However, a couple of days ago, all of the toilets suddenly became blocked. We managed to temporarily unblock them, however yesterday they seemed to explode with the water ( and contents ! ) bubbling up !

Fortunately this was almost at the end of the school day, which was just as well since the bubbling became a flood and soon the whole school compound was a massive cess pit ! This coupled with the heat of Nazret (which has now returned ) has meant that the smell is horrendous ! We have a couple of men in working on the problem but school for the kindergarten children has had to be cancelled today – really hope that it can all be sorted out for tomorrow since we have exams next week and the children are supposed to be doing assessment etc !

Hoping that next week will be better !

November...already!

2011-11-09T21:25:00.000-08:00

November already ! – Unbelievable how so much as been achieved in such a short amount of time. this week suddenly it is as if it has all come together in the grade teachers heads – suddenly, there is an understanding of active learning and in a twinkling of an eye the grade school has revolutionised from a strong emphasis upon rote learning and copying to lessons where tomatoes from the school garden are being squeezed to demonstrate their water loss / coffee and lemon are being put in pots and passed around to test our sense of smell etc !

Although it is a struggle to keep up with the lesson plans, now that I can see the effect that it is having then somehow it gives you the strength to be able to work until late at night – knowing that this plan will mean that the children will get an understanding – not simply a copying !

Even more good news - We have been lucky to receive a donation for the dream room – the first ever ! This will enable us to alter the room into a dream – complete with luxuries such as painting aprons, fully functioning tape machine etc !

Still no news on any of the big grants – the major airlines month is up on Saturday – so every day we check the internet with in trepidation, hoping that today will be the news of the good news !

Progress is very slow on the land front ! The organisation donating the money wants to do so through a Belgium organisation, which is fine, except that this means that we continuously have to wait for that organisation ! The founder is due to visit the school next Monday so hope that this means that at long last the process can start ! It is worrying since we have found a rare perfect piece of land exactly in the location that we want and of course – it wont stay there forever !

Also, at the back of our minds is the worry that the organisation will change their mind and not donate the money after all ! We haven’t had an official confirmation – just a general one – thus it is a worrying process !

In anticipation of the founders visit we are busy this week crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s of our paperwork – it is amazing how many strategies an organisation needs to have – from a 10 year strategy, through an annual business plan and a fundraising strategy to a marketing and communication plan ! – phew !

It is still very strange for us to think that we now live in Nazret once again – both of us feel that we are only on holiday and that soon we will go back to “ real “ life – the one with incredible stresses and worries in working for others, in a large and nondescript city ! Incredible to think that actually we live here – in a place where the sun always shines, where you are greeted by at least a hundred smiling faces and “ good mornings “ and where you can make a real difference !

Weekly Update

2011-10-23T22:48:00.003-07:00

Here all is plodding on – can’t believe that October is zooming by – it seems only 5 minutes since we started the school year !

The good news is that the school numbers are slowly creeping upwards – we now have 195 – which is excellent ! However, this has meant that we are currently in a chair and table crisis since many of the old chairs have broken and although we got some donations to have some mended, this hasn’t been enough to get them all done ! As a result, we are squashing some children 4 to a small desk and others don’t have access to a table and have to balance their books on their laps ! the good news however, is that we are very hopeful for a classroom enhancement grant from the major airline which visited a couple of weeks ago ! – they said that we have a 99 % chance of success ( which is pretty good ! ) so we are awaiting their answer ! - they said a month a couple of weeks ago so hope that we only have 2 weeks left to wait !

Within the classroom enhancement project we have also asked for a photocopier ! this will revolutionise the school ! – since then we will be able to have more extensive workbooks for children ( we haven’t photocopied the books for this year yet in the hope that the grant will come through ! - when it comes it will be a mad panic to photocopy all the work / textbooks for the year for everyone ! ) have a system of laminated worksheets for use in class, as well as be able to give the teachers handouts for their training !

We have now found land for the KG school – wonderfully located – right in the centre of the town ! Amazingly it is within the budget outlined by the Belgium organisation which are looking to donate – so currently in the waiting phase for confirmation of the amount and the process ! It is too exciting to even think about sometimes – don’t want to get too excited and then find that it all falls through ! – but it could be so amazing to actually get land at long last !

Once we get the land then we need to start fundraising for building costs – getting quite good at writing grant applications these days – so we are hopeful that with a combination of grants and donations we will be able to get a decent school building up and running in next to no time !

On the educational front things are slowly plodding on ! The KG school teachers have received so much more training and organisation and really are all ready and set to go . As a result, we are concentrating on enhancing the KG curriculum with things like self registration for children and the introduction of a writing corner in each room. In the grade school however, it is another world. All but one of the teachers has received minimal training ( from us ) and this really shows in the difficulty that they have in truly understanding what we want from a classroom – ( i.e. not rote learning or copying – instead differentiation , a sense of enthusiasm and enjoyment , a love of learning ) and how to apply it !

As a result, it has turned out that I am writing all of the lesson plans for all of the grade classes for all subjects ! ( well – expect for Amharic ! ) Obviously, this is not easy and it is a real struggle to keep up since I am in the classrooms team teaching with the teachers in the morning and home schooling our two in the afternoons !

This has meant that less prominent subjects like art , pe and music have been completely ignored ! Instead, we are relying on Cathy who will shortly be coming to volunteer – to focus upon these areas and try to build them up to a basic acceptable level ! We are very lucky in that she is a dance and music specialist, so really hope that she will be able to make a real difference !

Progress hasn’t been helped this week since I am been off school sick with cellulitis ( note that this is different to cellulite – although I have that too ! ) – which is a bacterial infection ! It started as a tiny insect bite at the back of my leg and then within 24 hours it was a huge red mass ! This required an injection of antibiotics to get me started and then strong antibiotics three times a day for 10 days.

It has been frustrating staying at home hobbling about when you know that there is so much to do at school but it has given me an opportunity to at least keep up to date with the planning and to get out a few more grant applications.

The rogue camel has not been spotted this week although on Monday when I was coming out of the school gate there was a huge stone right in front of me that hadn’t been there when I had gone in. When the stone moved I realised that in fact it was a tortoise ! – about 3 feet long and 3 foot wide it must be ancient ! Apparently, it is just a wild tortoise that likes living in the centre of the town , so simply wanders around – oblivious to the horse and carts plodding by and the steady stream of people !

Nazret really is a place of surprises – you think that it is quite modern ( well – relatively ! ) and then you realise that if there are wild camels and tortoises wandering around and that when you stand at the school gate to welcome pupils there are numerous horse and carts and herds of ox being led past then it really isn’t quite that advanced – simply, everyday life in the Horn of Africa.

Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy
Registered Charity Number 1140681

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait!

2011-10-12T11:16:00.000-07:00

193 !!!!!!!! – The number of current students ! and our highest number ever – so close to 200 – which psychologically would be amazing ! It is wonderful nonetheless to have so many children at the school and really see the difference that we are making to so many lives !

With Dawit and me now based here in Nazret, we can totally devote ourselves to the school – a dream that we have had for the past 4 years, when we were stuck in Addis due to financial restraints. It is wonderful to be able to able to wake up in the morning and think only of the school instead of other jobs .

Busy cleaning the sleeping mattresses for the KG children

At the moment, a huge part of the process is teacher training. To try to upgrade everyone’s knowledge, then I am focussing on team teaching on a daily basis, working alongside teachers to guide and assist, showing them inventive ways to make activities from a textbook which is very limited in content ! In addition, Friday afternoons the school is closed for teacher training afternoons, where educational videos of Western schools are shown and discussed and practical workshops take place.

This is a hard schedule for the teachers, with a very steep learning curve, however they are all approaching it with enthusiasm and laughter , well aware that previous techniques of copying and rote learning weren’t really that effective !

The visit by the major airline last week went amazingly well – at long last all that suffering of trying to learn the basics of fundraising and the meaning of the current buzz words, has paid off, with us now being able to talk intellectually with fundraising people and explain our purposes and goals with written plans and strategies!

We have just finished putting up the new shade-essential in the heat of Nazaret!

There is a 99 % chance that we will receive the classroom enhancement grant applied for , now waiting for the final confirmation ! This is incredibly exciting since except for a very small grant about five years ago, we have received no formal funding !

So, all in all, life just seems to be on the up and up – everyday is full of new and exciting things, from having to take shelter from a lost wild camel careering down the road to watching the excited faces of children as they grasp a new concept and realise that they can do ! - What more could you want in life ?!

Ciaran-our Irish volunteer giving a workshop on basic computer skills for our English Alive Teachers.

THANK YOU DUNCAN AND SARA!!

2011-08-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

At long last a little period of semi rest now that the summer school has finished. The summer school as a whole went really well, despite there being 2 rather than the needed 3 volunteers due to visa difficulties. However, Duncan and Sara just made the best of the situation and got on with it, thinking of new and fascinating ways to teach a wide range of interests and abilities with very limited supplies.

The teachers really appreciated their input, with it being great to have the experience of different techniques and approaches – all of which reiterate the fact that rote learning and copying from the board isn’t the way forward – which is great reinforcement since however much we train them and tell them and support them, since this is the training and experience that they have had, then inevitably that is the system that they slip back into. Yet, with more and more reinforcement and exposure, it is hoped that confidence will be boosted!

Now that the children and teachers are resting, it is time to race on full ahead with preparing the school for the new school year which starts on about the 16^th September after the Ethiopian new year on the 11^th September.

The main thing to do is to sort out the tables and chairs. Although some of them have been repaired thus far, it was a case of working around the children. For many of the chairs it is a simple case of re fixing the chair backs which seem to fall off quite readily. We anticipate however, a severe lack of tables for the New Year since the grade 4 class which just left consisted of 9 students only. The grade 3 class coming up consists of 26 which means that new tables and chairs are required. The great thing is that we have had donations for the repairs and this has given us huge assistance for our aim of getting one chair and a space at a table for all pupils on the very first day of school!

The tax is the other huge job at the moment. The government seem to be a little short of money this year so have dramatically increased taxes which bear no relationship to the amount of income, with small shops which have an income of about 100 pounds a month being charged a thousand pounds in tax and thus being forced to close and sell their items simply to pay the bill! As usual, we are in the negative when it comes to profit. This is something that the government simply cannot understand, not believing that we are running the school to provide a service for the community not to make money, meaning that they charge us what they think we have made! It doesn’t matter how carefully we keep records throughout the year, showing them receipts for everything purchased and the receipts from the parents that have paid school fees, they simply disregard it all and make up a number! We are hoping against hope that the number they make up this year is a low one and the tax is reasonable – but it is very worrying!

On a personal front, we are having a bit of a problem since we had planned to move into Dawits mother’s house in Nazareth as a starting point. Since we will have no income when we move to Nazareth, then we are working on a very tight budget. We are hoping that there will be enough money this year at the school for us both to be paid a minimal wage so that we can keep going, but until we know the student numbers in September when school starts and then receive the first month of payments we will have nothing! As a result, we planned to temporarily move into the house and for Dawits mother to move into the room at the bottom of the garden.

Dawit was half way through putting in a ceiling at the room at the bottom of the garden when the owner of the house came round and told them that the house was to be sold and that we need to be out after 30 days!

We had a good cheap rent on the house and it was a 2 minute walk from the school and was perfect for us all! It is the house where the children first took their first steps and where Dawit and I started our married life – it holds a lot of wonderful memories and although it is only bricks and mortar (well – mud actually!) I was attached to it!

This means that we need to find something else which will inevitably cost at least twice as much , not really knowing where it will be ( since we do need to stay in a convenient location since the house is used for the volunteers ) and then there will be costs of painting the house etc when we move in ! The chances of finding something where there is a separate area where Dawits mother can live is minimal, which means that we will all have to live together in one house for now ! Although Dawits mother is wonderful, it is not the best thing for a family to live with a mother in law –however nice they are!

Still, I suppose these things come to try us! – Long for a nice smooth period where there don’t seem to be any disasters and things just tick along nicely! – Perhaps next Ethiopian New Year – so roll on Ethiopian year 2004!

Welcome to the roundup of English Alive 2010 – 2011 !

2011-08-09T09:29:00.001-07:00

This year was a very busy one, with lots of very exciting changes and a very successful future to look forward to.

The year was off to a flying start with the highest ever number of pupils – a whopping 197 (up from about 150 last year) This meant that there was an initial scramble to have additional tables and chairs made, although we couldn’t afford too many new ones so for some of the grade classes it was a case of putting one child on the end of each table rather than making new ones.

For the nursery class, we had to move some of the children to the library which had to be converted into a classroom to hold all of the pupils, with the timetable being totally rearranged so that the library could still be used whenever necessary.

With so many pupils coming from the outskirts of Nazaret, a school bus was imperative, with Fraser ( a previous volunteer) kindly donating the last little bit when our collected funds had run out.

Along with the influx of pupils came a senior manager – Adanech, who has over 20 years teaching experience. With impressive ideas and a definite skill in coordinating, Adanech soon settled into the grade compound, organising the new systems for the year and dramatically improving the discipline system with the introduction of the star of the week – a board in the playground where each week a pupils name from each class is displayed. This causes great pride in the weekly winner and gives each child a real incentive to try their very best.

For the grade classes, a systemic phonics system was set up to try to address the current reading problem that pupils have, with this being reinforced with daily reading sessions for the younger ones. Our book collection was increased this year through a very kind donation by Troy from the USA meaning that although there are still only limited books, everyone can have access to a variety and find something that they want to read.

Educationally, perhaps our biggest achievement this year was the formation of a I.T. suite with thanks to Fraser and family. Although basic, currently consisting of two computers, no printer or internet access, this was a huge leap into the technological age for the school and will provide pupils will good basic skills which will eventually help them with future employment.

We have been incredibly lucky this year with our volunteers, having an almost steady stream of people, all willing and enthusiastic and offering varying areas of expertise. We always marvel at how kind people are to leave their luxuries behind, jump on a plane and face the hardships of Nazaret, with its limited water supply , power cuts and dry heat. However, if you ask volunteers, then they would answer that the positives of two hundred smiling happy faces each and every day , the thirst for knowledge ( from both children and teachers ) and the general integration into Ethiopian life more than makes up for these inconveniences .

On a personal level, the biggest change this year was at long last giving up my job. As followers of the blog would have been glaringly aware, my job in Addis Ababa at a local school was frustrating and poorly paid, with the ever increasing needs of English Alive compounding this frustration. As a result, on 1^st January I gave up the job and focussed all of my energies on English Alive.

This additional time meant that at long last I could concentrate on making the school a charity since this would significantly increase our chances of obtaining grants. We had looked at the process on and off for several years, but never seemed to have time to fully complete the forms and get the process underway. However, in March we were successful and the charity Ethiopian Schools for the Poor was officially formed.

Once charitable status had been achieved, the process of fundraising started, which proved to be an incredibly complicated job ! On my own it would have been an impossible task, yet we were lucky enough to have a volunteer who was a fundraising expert – Paula from the USA , who guided me through every minute detail and made a steady path for me to follow.

As a result, we now have an ongoing sponsorship programme in which individual pupils can be sponsored for a year for £ 140 / $ 227 thereby making a huge difference to the lives of so many needy children. Many children are now sponsored and this has been backed up with numerous donations of items and cash, enabling English Alive to change a maximum number of children’s lives for the better.

Through the sponsorship programme, children such as Mikias have now been given hope for the future.

Mikias – aged 8, currently in grade 2.

We first made contact with Mikias when his very old grandmother came to the school in a desperate state. Both his mother and father had died of aids, as well as many other members of his family, leaving his grandmother as the only living relative. Too old to work, Mikias’ grandmother was faced with a desperate situation of either putting Mikias in an orphanage to receive an education or gaining a full scholarship. Through gaining a sponsorship at English Alive Academy were Mikias has been educated at the school as well as receiving free textbooks , school uniform and transportation.

Mikias’ future is uncertain. With the old grandmother rapidly aging with the additional pressures of attempting to feed and clothe the two of them, we can only hope that she does not pass away before Mikias is old enough to look after himself , with there being a desperate need for Mikias to work hard and gain an excellent education at English Alive Academy , so that in the future he is able to get a decent job and support himself.

However, there are still hundreds of children out there struggling, so please be aware that the sponsorship programme is very much up and running – constantly looking for those who want their money to make a real difference.

Our new website was launched this Spring ( www.englishaliveacademy.org ) which was very kindly designed by Paul who managed to get a professional website up and running despite the limited input from the Ethioipan side due to the difficulties in sending photographs and files.

This is backed up with the ongoing blog (www.englishaliveacademy.blogspot.com ) which is kindly run by Julie from the USA and the new facebook site – Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy – which has 173 members and is ever growing as well as our online donation page - www.thebiggive.org.uk

Thus, with an ever increasing range of events such as the car draw ( www.smallcahritycardraw.co.uk ), parachute jumping (www.skydive-zone.co.uk) and a forthcoming music festival in Ghent, English Alive Academy is striving forward in leaps and bounds and we look forward to yet another successful year in 2011/12. But of course, much of our success is due to the ongoing interest and support of many people - many thanks to all of you – we appreciate it beyond all.

Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy
Registered Charity Number 1140681

www.englishaliveacademy.org

Graduation!

2011-07-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

At long last graduation is over ! – done and dusted for another year ! I am sure that to everyone else the graduation is a source of great excitement and celebration and fun but for the teachers it is a nightmare ! – one continual worry of whether the children will remember all that they have been practising for weeks, running around as the performance is underway to get costumes off one pupil and onto another in the shortest period of time ( we can only afford a limited number of pieces of cloth in which we simply cut a hole in the top so that they can be whipped on and off with the greatest of ease ! ) and the unbelievable organisational skills to get 200 children the in line and ready to avoid gaps in the performance and possible loss of concentration from parents - however, when you look back on it now in the fading light and look at the photos of the excited faces of parents and children alike, you realise that the nightmare was all worth it !

The day before graduation it poured with very heavy rain. Rain in the daytime Nazret is a rare thing – even in the rainy season where there is a brilliant blue sky and continual sun all day and downpours at night – thus when there is even a sputtering of rain Nazret comes to a standstill. Children don’t bother to come to school, people don’t go to work and there is no expectation of any movement until the rain stops.

This made it even more shocking the day before graduation when it rained so heavily that some of the very poorly made mud houses collapsed under the pressure of the rain and there were numerous floods ! When the rain eventually stopped, the school play ground ( where we were to place the tent for the show ) was completely flooded with huge pools of water. The children who had come to school when the rains had stopped were thus supplied with containers of every shape and size and a water recovery system was set up with the children continually making a path from the sink to drain away the water to the pools on the playground.

After several hours of this, the water was gone but our nice grassy playground had been turned into a mud bath ! As a result, instead of having the tent in the middle of the playground with the stage area designated at the top end of the tent, we were forced to move the tent across to the driest part of the playground and make the small (but long) veranda the stage area since that was the only area in which people wouldn’t sink into the mud!

Due to the limited space, this meant that whereas we had practised for a shorter and much wider space, in actual fact, the children had to adapt to the longer and far narrower space of the veranda, with there being a constant worry that someone would overstep and fall off !

However, it was amazing that pupils simply walked onto the stage, where confused as to where to go since there wasn’t space then simply rearranged themselves as they saw appropriate, meaning that although the teachers knew that this wasn’t just as we practised, parents wouldn’t have been aware of a single thing !

The graduation show itself went marvellously – despite the rain problem and the fact that there was no electricity until the mid morning break which meant that the accompanying music was slightly quiet since the tape machine was working with batteries with limited speaker power . But everyone enjoyed themselves and the parents are now looking forward to next year ( although the same cannot be said for us and the teachers ! )

Deadline for sponsorship is fast approaching!!

2011-06-30T07:45:00.000-07:00

Exams went very well last week, despite difficulties in trying to print them out since the flash must have had a bad virus of some kind since although we saved it when we plugged the flash in, the folder just disappeared ! To solve this we eventually managed to email it to ourselves , although opening up attachments is a very slow process in Nazret ! we really do need to invest in a printer of our own since it is so very hard to even get one page printed out with such a palaver !

Our technical problems have continued with a lack of a laptop to use for office work / plans ( and the blog of course ! ) – we are anticipating a donation of one from the US but this is not guaranteed, so worried about how we are going to manage – so many things these days need a computer to work on – from grant applications to letters etc !

On the positive side, graduation practise is going well and things are looking arranged for the summer school programme, although there is a strong possibility of a huge problem in the fact that one of the summer school volunteers is looking like pulling out at the last minute due to visa difficulties ( she has been volunteering elsewhere in the country and her visa for that runs out ! ) – should know for definite on Friday but very concerned that we won’t be able to find a replacement within a week or so !

The trouble is that we have three sections – the advanced course, intermediate course and the beginners course – with one volunteer running each of the courses – without one person that means three courses and only two teachers ! So if anyone knows anyone who may be at all interested, pass the word around !!

For the adventurous people in the UK, English Alive has organised parachute jumping ! The charge for the jump is covered with the sponsorships making it a win – win situation – people get the thrill of jumping out of a plane and English Alive receives a donation ! It is organised with www.skydivezone.co.uk – so take a look and have fun !

Don’t forget that the deadline for the sponsorships is fast approaching ! – sponsorships are trickling in slow but steadily which is excellent – all we need now is a little boost so that as many children as possible can receive the education that they deserve ! – all the information can be found at the top of this blog page and on the website – so take a look and spread the news !

Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy
Registered Charity Number 1140681

www.englishaliveacademy.org

BUSY BUSY BUSY

2011-06-17T21:43:00.001-07:00

BUSY is the only word to describe what life is like at English Alive Academy these days – and even that is not enough to accurately describe the number of things that are going on ! – the good thing is that they are all positive busy things – not a series of disasters – so we are fuelled along with enthusiasm !

Graduation practise is now in full throw – with the KG pupils this morning having a full costume practise. Amazingly, it all went rather smoothly – a few costumes forgotten and the old man’s beard constantly falling on whilst he was trying to sing – but on the whole, they are ready – which is excellent – since the show isn’t until the 7^th July – so there is plenty of time !

Tomorrow will be the turn of the grade classes to have their dress rehearsal, with it being anticipated that things will go well since Iris ( our Dutch volunteer ) has been working long and hard at it ! After quite a while in the country and at our school, Iris will be leaving on 24^th June , so will be sorely missed. However, the great thing is that she intends to keep up her good work whilst she is back home, working with fundraising activities.

The Belgium visit last week from the music organisers who would like to work in conjunction with the school went extremely well. They have an enormous wealth of ideas to expand funding and we are currently busy working on translating all our Amharic financial information for them so that they can know more about our needs and future plans .

It does seem as if our ultimate goal of building a specially designed school from KG – grade 8 could one day become reality, rather than only a dream – firm concrete steps are now being taken to achieve this and although our steps are very much baby steps, at least they are steps, and as Paula ( ex – volunteer and fundraising expert ) always loved to quote, “ all of the little boring steps add up until one day there is a miracle “ and who knows – perhaps one day our miracle will come!

The music organisers were extremely kind to donate a digital camera to the school ( our previous one was dropped thus we had to borrow a camera to take photos for facebook etc. ) which means that we can now take as many photos as we want – amazing !

On the technological front, we had a huge disaster in that our laptop died ( it was second hand when we bought it about 4 years ago so it should not have been that much of a shock – but it was nonetheless ) – without a computer this would mean that no lesson plans could be written etc! However, we were incredibly lucky that an ex volunteer has managed to locate a laptop for us and is currently in the process of organising sending it over – amazing the kindness that people have in their heart – there aren’t really any words to describe it !

We have been amazingly lucky with donations this week, having an anonymous US $ 10 , US $ 100 from a friend of a friend as well as a Australian $ 100 dollar donation from a previous volunteers relative – which will go towards the mending of our chairs and tables, and the construction of new tables and chairs, since we anticipate needing even more due to the fact that our current grade 4 class will be replaced next year by our current grade 3 – a class of 29 ! It is a wonderful problem to have – too many students ! – may this problem continue for a great many years to come.

Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy
Registered Charity Number 1140681

Graduation Day is fast approaching!!

2011-06-06T07:40:00.003-07:00

June has crept upon us without us really realising the dates and we are now in the full throw of the end of the term with exams and the end of year graduation ceremony ! At the same time we are trying to get sorted for the summer school which starts mid July – so it is all go !

Iris is doing a great job at helping pupils prepare for the graduation ceremony , encouraging them to march in a straight ( ish ) line and keep facing the audience during the play etc. The only trouble is that she leaves at the end of the week, thus really need to give the children a huge push so that everything will be ready !

Volunteers are now starting to apply for the next academic year starting mid September which is great, since our ideal is to have a steady stream of people so that the high level of English is maintained .

On the fundraising side, the airline person unfortunately didn’t come, although we are hopeful that she will make it one week in the near future. However, we currently have a visit from three organisers of a music festival who are interested in working with the school since the festival generates funds and they are looking for a worthy cause to donate it to. After an initial introductory meeting, we are all off to Nazret tomorrow for a couple of days, to look at the not only the school but available land for sale – which sounds incredibly exciting and promising ! We are too apprehensive to get our hopes up too high, but it gives us tinkles down our spine to even think of the possibility of the school having its own land – this would make the world of difference, giving us the real possibility of having a fully self sufficient school – wow !

On a personal level, Dawit and I are currently weighing up our options – we would dearly love to move back to Nazret, run the school full time and really see it develop to its fullest potential. However, if we moved , we would need an income of some sort ( we currently have a small shop in Addis – a kind of mini supermarket ( although nowhere near that posh ) which is problematic – so currently calculating a way to make our dreams possible !

Really starting to feel that things may be shifting – after a period of stagnancy – this could be beginning of the realization of our dream !

Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy
Registered Charity Number 1140681

Great things are starting to happen!!

2011-06-02T07:55:00.003-07:00

Cannot believe that it is almost June ! – this school year seems to have whizzed by and although we had big plans of having the funds to rent another compound and open up a grade 5 – 8 section so that pupils could continue on at the school, unfortunately we didn’t realise our dream ! – so are putting this on the plan for next year instead !!

However, although things haven’t progressed on the new compound as anticipated, the school definitely seems to be striding forwards ! Although slow, the child and teacher sponsorships are starting to trickle in, with the hope being that the trickle will form a stream which will lead to a river and eventually an ocean !!!! In addition, odd donations are starting to come in – which is fantastic, giving us all a renewed sense of optimism !

In addition, we have interest from a big airline in supporting the school – so fingers crossed for their inspection visit next week !! - who knows, this could be the start of buying our land and building our own school – it would be fantastic to have the freedom to do what we want with the school !!!

The other good news for the week is that our previous volunteer – Iris, is now our current volunteer ! She loved the school so much that she decided to extend her time there and is back off to Nazret tomorrow !!! This is particularly good at this time since the dreaded graduation practise is now underway ! – trying to get 25 kids march in time to the music, themselves and manipulate sticks at the same time is no easy feat !!!

The end of the school year is near!

2011-06-02T07:53:00.001-07:00

Once again, time seems to be flying past and the end of the school year is fast approaching !! Time to start thinking about the dreaded graduation once again where all of the pupils put on a show for parents. Although it sounds simple in theory, in practice, it is an enormous expense and requires at least a month of practise ! Not quite sure who started the trend or what the purpose is, but it is the main event in the school calendar so although we would love to skip it, this is not an option !!

However, the fantastic news is that Iris – the previous volunteer from Holland has decided that she loves the school so much that she will be coming back to volunteer for a few more weeks starting from next Monday ! This is fantastic news and the teachers and students will be ecstatic to see her once again !

English Alive had a visit last week from Chantelle – a Dutch visitor. She brought with her a huge bag of school supplies ranging from cuddly toys to pencils and beads - all fantastic stuff !

We have been extremely lucky with donations recently, since also received materials from the USA through Josh. Perhaps the most exciting donation was that of a set of baseballs and bats ! The game of baseball was a totally new one for the children of English Alive and although I had a few ideas of my own from my school day rounders, wasn’t that sure of the rules and regulations. However, Chantelle and Iris were experts on the game, thus during their visit the whole of the grade school came to a standstill as the game of baseball was demonstrated and an enthusiastic game ensued !!!

An accident with our van!

2011-05-11T09:54:00.000-07:00

This week was an extremely busy one ! The exams finished on Monday, with the children as a whole doing very well. I still disagree with exams for everyone ( including the 3 year olds ! ) three times a year – but when it is set in the curriculum what can you do ?!!!

The biggest problem this week was the van. As it was waiting for the children ( thankfully no one was inside ) a truck decided to reverse into it ! It crumpled the whole of the front and meant that it was out of use for a few days. This means that we had additional expense since we were forced to rent out another temporary van for a few days ! – however, although the rent of an additional van was not covered by the truck driver, the repairs were covered , so that is something at least ! Driving in Ethiopia is a scary experience – something that I have never dared even attempt ! Not only are there no pavements ( which means that everyone is walking on the road ) but there are a multitude of animals wandering around – even in the very centre of towns and cities ! This is compounded by the taxis , which are blue and white minibuses. There are no set stops, thus when someone wants to get off they simply shout “ wa raj ! “ and the minibus screeches to a halt ! It is a wonder that there aren’t more accidents really with the driving conditions, so we have to be grateful that there was minimal damage and that it wasn’t our fault !

On the positive side, our latest volunteer – Josh arrived ! He was unexpected and only managed to give a couple of days notice , but is a very welcome addition to the team ! Despite the very limited time frame between his decision to come and his arrival, he managed to collect a load of educational items ranging from pencils and a very much needed pencil sharpener to baseballs and baseball bats, with which we intend to start our first sports club – that of baseball ! ( once Josh has told us all how to play it ! )

As you may have noticed, we are now in the process of updating our website !!! – it is amazing the amount of time a website takes to make, but we are plodding on ! The main aim of the renovation is to focus upon donations ! - with there now being instant access to donations with PayPal as well as through the biggive – where you can even pay with credit card !!! – so don’t forget to have a look and make a donation of £ 5 / $ 7.00 – although this is only a couple of cups of coffee in the West, this amount would pay for a whole range of new library books / much needed high quality pencils for a whole class or a new chair for a student !!!!!

Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy
Registered Charity Number 1140681

www.englishaliveacademy.org

Still looking for volunteers during the summer!

2011-05-11T09:50:00.001-07:00

Exams are well underway here, with the arrival of fuel enabling the school to function as normal ! The main problem with exams is the overall cost, with examinations being compulsory for all of the pupils – even the 3 year olds !!! However, we are busy writing grant applications for a printer and photocopy which will significantly decrease costs ! – So if we are lucky, we will have those in place by the next exams at the end of June !

Good news and bad news this week regarding volunteers. Unfortunately, Helen – our volunteer from the UK who was scheduled to come out at the end of May and stay for the summer school now has dropped out since she needs to start work earlier than anticipated ! On the positive side however, we had an unexpected email from Josh – an American who works with the Delta airline to say that he would be over in Ethiopia from this Friday for a month and would be interested in volunteering ! With Iris ( the previous volunteer ) only leaving the school a few days ago, this will mean that there has been a minimal gap between volunteers – which is great for teachers and pupils alike !

Unusually this means that we have 2 vacancies for the summer period ( July 17^th – August 16^th ) – as well as for the month of June - so if anyone is interested, please get in touch ! – We would be very glad to see you !

We have spent most of this week fundraising under Iris’ guidance. A variety of grants have been formulated and are in the process of being sent off, so hope that funds for a good supply of materials will soon be secured !

We have been successful in our application to Google grants , which provide us with $330 daily for free advertising ! ( have you ever spotted those little adverts at the top or side of your search ?! ) we are hoping that these will help with publicising our name and directing people towards our website and our sponsorship programme with www.thebiggive.org.uk

Don’t forget to surf and shop online and raise funds for English Alive !!!

UK : www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/englishaliveacademy

BOOKS WANTED!!! URGENT!!!

2011-04-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

BOOKS WANTED IN THE ATLANTA ( US ) REGION - A US volunteer is coming at very short notice who has unlimited luggage allowance ! - thus books ( or any school supplies ) wanted URGENTLY !!!!! - call 770-712-3531 if you are in the region and have something to donate for poor Ethiopian children ! - every little bit makes a difference !

Happy Easter

2011-04-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL OF OUR FOLLOWERS

The biggest problem facing the school this week is that there is no petrol in the town of Nazret ! No one seems to know why and when it will come back , but although we struggled with the school bus yesterday , there is no fuel for today so the school is closed. The good thing is that we break for Easter on the Friday , so hope that fuel is back by Monday so school can carry on ! Exams start next Wednesday, so it is vital that the school bus is up and running by then !

Next week, Iris – our volunteer from Holland leaves after an exceptional four week stay. She really has worked hard at enthusing the teachers and attempting different ways to make English grammar exciting ! There will now be a little break with volunteers , until the end of May when Helen from the UK arrives.

Although applications for the summer usually have to be booked at least 6 months ahead, due to a last minute cancellation, we have one spare place for the summer school which runs from July 17^th – about 27^th August – so is anyone is interested , please visit the website www.englsihaliveacadmey.org for more information as well as the application form.

My latest delve into modern technology has been the formation of a twitter account ! – must admit that knowledge about it is limited, but since I didn’t really know about facebook until a couple of months ago, realise that knowledge doesn’t really matter ! – At the moment we don’t have any followers ! – so if you are a twitterer ( is that the correct term ?! ) then follow us on : ethiopiaschool

As promised last week when UK surfers and shoppers were targeted, the information for US surfers and shoppers follows : ( sorry for all those millions of people who live in other countries for not providing you with information, HOWEVER - please feel free to go ahead and set up your own English Alive surfers and shoppers accounts ! – a great way to justify your latest spending spree ! )

SURFERS:

You can now raise funds when you search the web!

Use iSearchiGive every time you search the web and raise money for each and every search !
By using iSearchiGive instead of Google or any other search engine, you can make a real difference. iSearchiGive is completely FREE and by making just 10 searches a day, you could raise around £20 a year for English Alive.

As well as raising funds, iSearchiGive also gives you the best search results available on web. Today, the Internet is so big that different search engines will often deliver different results for the same search. So, by combining the strengths of several search engines together - Yahoo!, Bing, Ask.com, MIVA, and many more - you get the very best results in terms of accuracy and relevance, which means you'll find what you're looking for quickly and easily every time - all in one 'easy' search!

Simply visit : www.iSearchiGive.com/englishalive

Choose : English Alive Academy

And start fundraising !!!!

SHOPPERS (USA only – see previous blog for UK details )

It’s the easiest way to help raise money for Ethiopia’s English Alive Academy! If you already shop online with the major retailers such as Amazon, EBay and thousands of high street stores, then we need you to sign up or free to raise money while you shop.

So how does it work ?

You shop directly with the retailer as you would normally, but if you sign up to :

www.iGive.com/englishalive

for free and use the links on the site to take you to the retailer, then a percentage of whatever you spend comes directly to us at no extra cost to yourself.

Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy
Registered Charity Number 1140681

No fuel....No School!

2011-04-20T07:44:00.000-07:00

There is no petrol in Nazret ! - as a result, although we have enough fuel to keep the school bus going today, we wont have enough for tomorrow - thus the school has to be closed !!! - lets hope that fuel comes in for after the Easter holiday !

Fundraising! Fundraising! Fundraising!

2011-04-17T16:41:00.000-07:00

Time seems to be flying by this year, with the Easter exams coming up next week. I still think that it is a bit silly for children aged 3 to be subjected to exams three times a year, but since this is governmental regulated, there isn’t much we can do about it apart from make them as exciting as possible !!

Iris – the latest volunteer from Holland is settling in nicely, although was sick this week – probably the hundreds of little children clamouring over her had something to do with it ! However, that didn’t stop her for long and she is busy sorting out the literature programme at the school ! We really are lucky in that like Paula, she is a fundraising expert – and as luck would have it, in another area – that of grants ! As a result am learning all sorts of interesting things ! – it is amazing what you don’t know ! and what seems so easy to other people is like a revelation to me. Two amazing things that I learnt this week :

a/. that you can save word documents as acrobat reader files !!!! ( simply click save as ( just in case you don’t know either ! )

b/. that website places ( hosts ! ) also have email facilities !!!! – thus have a wonderful new email address : info@englishaliveacademy.org!!!

Really do think that I have learnt more new things in the past few months then have learnt for years ! – you do tend to stick to the things that you know what to do and keep doing them – but now am in a whole new world of fundraising !!!

We are now registered at www.thebiggive.org.uk – which takes credit card donations ! – Simple and easy – just click and pay !!!!

Paula ( the previous fundraising expert ) is busy at work with organising presentations at Rotary clubs which is fantastic ! – as well as busy editing and advising my first initial steps in this fundraising world ! – wonderful to have so much help – it really makes me feel that at long last English Alive could be fully self sufficient in the very near future with wonderful things just around the corner !!

2011-04-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

This week saw the start of our latest volunteer – Iris – from Holland – who came to work multitasking working not only multitasking working not only with the kindergarten children but with the grade school as well as teaching English to the teachers ! She is here for a month so that will give everyone the boost that they need ! Easter isn’t for a few weeks yet , with exams to come before that – so things are quire busy at the moment !

Small group learning support groups for the kindergarten have not started. There are a few children who are slightly behind the others in terms of basic letter recognition and pencil control skills thus lunch classes to give them additional assistance have started. We would love to give much more emphasis upon learning support and as a result have applied for a grant to develop a separate room complete with equipment such as a computer, tape machine etc – so fingers crossed !

Fundraising continues to slow – currently trying to get the facebook group membership (Ethiopian Schools for the Poor - English Alive Academy) up to 200 members by next week ( we currently have 148 members ) since I feel that when we launch our sponsorship campaign then that will be a great starting point ! Plodding on with the website to get it incredibly easy for people to sponsor and hope that it can all be up and running by next week !!

One great thing this week was that a school in Watford UK suddenly wrote out of the blue to mention that they wish to donate books since the school was going to throw them out ! – You can never have too many books, so this is a great opportunity to expand the library ! This just goes to show that even though you think that no one really knows about you, in fact, people are looking out for you and success in the form of donations and funds is just a few clicks away!

Wonderful Volunteers!!!!

2011-04-01T17:26:00.001-07:00

Things here in Ethiopia are on the up ! – our latest volunteer – Paul has now returned to the USA and the latest volunteer - Iris is due to take the bus journey to Nazareth Sunday for her stay of three weeks . We really are doing very well with volunteers at the moment, with Helen from the UK booked to come at the end of May and two people already booked for the summer school !

Last week we had the school inspectors in – but for the first time ever – we were pleased to see them since they were evaluating us for the Nazareth best school competition ! From the fifteen or so schools in Nazareth , we were rated in the top three and thus to finalise the decision the school inspectors came to assess us ! Not really sure what they were looking for since the educational bureau here doesn’t value the same things as I might, but nonetheless, they looked quite happy and were more than impressed with our library and shelves of resources !

Not sure when the competition result will be out ( or even what the prize is !( if anything ! ) but it is great to be in the top three , especially as we are a disadvantage since our building is only rented meaning that the layout isn’t as we would like ! – So that has boosted everyone and there is a renewed sense of achievement!

On the fundraising front things are going slowly – as Paula our previous volunteer who was an expert always said , to be successful in fundraising you do the small boring things seemingly forever and then suddenly boom – there is a miracle ! – So I suppose that we are at the bottom of the ladder of boring things but need to focus on the miracle which is there waiting for us at the end !!!

Still trying to sort out the website ( not an easy task from Ethiopia ! ) so that we can launch our sponsorship campaign, but plodding on with the facebook. This has been made significantly more difficult however due to the fact that the digital camera was dropped and it is no longer working, meaning that the exciting daily events of the school are difficult to capture !

On the writing front had my biggest job ever ( £ 340 which says a lot for the other jobs I have been doing ! ) – 10,000 words on autism ! It seemed achievable when I started it , however that really is a lot of words and then once you add on references ,contents pages and appendices etc then it all came to about 14,000 !!!! I must say that it nearly killed me and I would definitely think twice about taking on so many words again ( especially in a subject which I know relatively little about ! ) However, the money really will come in handy and will keep us going for another month or two !!!Best to think in the short term these days !!!

A Surprise Teaching volunteer arrives at our door!

2011-03-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

Things are all go here and it is unbelievable how time flies ! – I suppose that that this is a good thing really, since they always say that time flies when you are having fun !!

The past two weeks have seen a good mixture of positive and negative events. On the negative side, the biggest problem was that the water supply to the entire town of Nazareth was turned off for four days last week ! This appears to be a seasonal thing and typically, no advance warning is given – you simply wake up one day and there is no water ! Although it is normal for water to be off for a few hours at a time, it is unusual for it to be off for a prolonged time.

Everyone has water tanks which holds water which can serve as an emergency measure, however, this only lasts a couple of days after which you are in trouble ! For the schools this meant that we didn’t waste water on flushing the toilets but as you can imagine, by day 3 it was a smelly place to try to learn in ! As a result, along with all of the other schools in the town, the school was closed on the fourth day with the children simply being told that school would resume once the water came back !!( I suppose you could call it the Ethiopian equivalent of a snow day ?!

The other problem was that there was no sugar in the country ! This seemed very strange as it is currently the sugar cane season so there are wheelbarrows of long sugar cane everywhere you turn, with the seller simply chopping the amount that you want to buy with the machete that they are walking around with . As a result, everyone seemed a little bad tempered since this meant that the daily cup of coffee was not available ( everyone has copious amounts of sugar in all drinks ) and it is a relief to see it trickling back into the marketplace, although at a higher price than previously !

The great news to counteract these difficulties was the fact that a volunteer turned up on the doorstep ! Although I had communicated with Paul previously via email in which he expressed his interest , there was nothing definite, thus it was a surprise to all at the school to have him arrive at the gate ! He had been working on a missionary programme in the country and had 10 days to spare so decided that the best use of his time was to work at the school !

In addition to his excellent job of teaching the grade pupils, he is also carrying out an intense English language training session after school with the teachers, resulting in everyone winning from his sudden arrival !

Paula – the previous American volunteer left this week after about two months in the country. She really did a marvellous job of not only teaching the children and carrying out teacher training sessions but also given invaluable advice on fundraising – an area in which we would be generous to classify ourselves as “ weak “ ! Thanks to her we now have a solid foundation fundraising strategy which very soon be launched – so get ready !!!

Sponsorships are beginning!!

2011-03-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

Here it is all action with trying to get the web site sorted out and organise fundraising campaigns! Unfortunately, power has not been very cooperative this week and this made progress very slow and frustrating, however, we believe that if we keep plodding on then we will get it all done !
At school, our grade 4 teacher – Lemma – has left since he was offered a much better salary at another school. Although teachers work for a lower salary due to the interesting work with educational materials and on going teacher training , with ever-increasing prices of basic commodities such as food and transport, this has meant that the salary given is fast becoming not enough to survive on ! This is a huge problem, since we do not have the funds to pay teachers any more , with even the current expenses being a great difficulty now that we do not have a stable income from my work. The income from the writing is bitty to say the least and it is impossible to get a living wage from what I am doing ! However, believe that God will provide and although you can’t live on fresh air for ever, the knowledge that I am doing the right thing in helping so many children have a decent education is enough for now !

Don’t forget that if you want to sign up for the English Alive newsletter simply send a blank email to either stephanddawit@yahoo.co.uk or englishaliveacademy@yahoo.co.uk with the word “ newsletter “ in the subject box .

We are fortunate in having yet another child sponsored this week – his name is Mikias and he is currently in grade 2 aged 8.

The latest child to be sponsered at the school - Mikias aged 8. We first made contact with Mikias when his very old grandmother came to the school in a desperate state. Both his mother and father had died of aids, as well as many other members of his family, leaving his grandmother as the only living relative. Too old to work, Mikias’ grandmother was faced with a desperate situation of either putting Mikias in an orphanage to receive an education or gaining a full scholarship. Of course, English Alive Academy were unable to turn Mikias away and he has been educated at the school for the past year, receiving free textbooks, uniform, tuition fees and transportation.
Mikias’ future is uncertain. With the old grandmother rapidly aging with the additional pressures of attempting to feed and clothe the two of them, we can only hope that she does not pass away before Mikias is old enough to look after himself , with there being a desperate need for Mikias to work hard and gain an excellent education at English Alive Academy , so that in the future he is able to get a decent job and support himself.

There are many children like Mikias in the school who totally rely on the kindness of others to support them. For children like this, there are no alternatives and thus it is essential that in September 2011 we have enough funds to extend the school up to school leaving age so that all children have a fighting chance.

We have been accepted as a charity!!!!!!

2011-03-07T21:30:00.000-08:00

Fantastic amazing news ! – after about three years ( if not more ) at long last we have been accepted as a charity ! we have now been approved and all we need to do is wait for our charity commission number and then we will start applying for grants as well as setting up collection boxes. The school itself is not a charity, since it is abroad, instead we have Ethiopian schools for the poor – English Alive Academy as the charity, whose purpose it is to coordinate grants, volunteers and fundraising for us ! We really are hoping that being legalised will give us much more credibility and therefore be more inclined to donate.

As a result, the website is under total renovation and is expected to be fully formed by the end of next week – so keep your eye on it !There will be sections on “ kids doing for kids “, the dream room, volunteer information and simple and easy ways that you can help the school without spending a penny !!

We are now about to launch our sponsorship campaign to get all teachers and 50 children sponsored by 1^st August 2011 ! – which will enable even more poor children the opportunity to get the education that they deserve ! – so keep your ears open as to how you can be involved !

We are now coming to the very hot season in Nazareth ! – this is a time when the breeze which normally takes the edge off the heat dies down a little, making it stifling at times ! Many of the schools in Nazareth change their opening and closing times – starting at 7 am and finishing at 2 pm so that they have a few hours of coolness in the morning. However, with so many children coming from outlying villages, it would almost be impossible to get everyone to school on time so we plan on taking the fan from the house and borrowing another so that we can put them in the hottest classrooms and rotate them around when necessary !!

It is now the fasting season in Ethiopia for the Ethiopian Orthodox religion. Traditionally there are 250 days of fasting in the Orthodox calendar. Wednesdays and Fridays are fasting days. The most serious fasting time is this eight-week period prior to Easter.

Fasting requires that no meat, meat products, eggs or dairy products are consumed – essentially a vegan diet – though it is permissible to consume alcohol. In addition, during the period of Lent, no food is taken until after church services in the afternoon. This means that all of the meat shops are closed, meaning that whatever religion you are , you are fasting from meat whether you like it or not !!

Fasting biscuits are sold at this time – I am not sure what they are made of and taste pretty awful, but I suppose when you are having a vegan diet, then a bit of sweetness is required !!

Big plans in the works...

2011-02-22T10:43:00.000-08:00

Here all is going very well. Busy at work with renovating the website and sorting out grant applications etc. and feel that we are on the way ! Planning a big sponsorship programme, with the aim of all the teachers being sponsored as well as a minimal of 50 pupils ! – High goals, but with perseverance and a lot of luck I think we can make it ! No news as yet about being a charity, but fingers crossed that we will be a charity all too soon !

Last week was parent’s morning – it all went very well with the parents generally being very pleased with the progress of their children and the school. The main comment was that we only go up to grade 4 and it would be so much better if we went up to grade 8. We do agree and are held back only by finances. However, being the never ending optimist, we are currently searching for a new building! - you never know !

At long last managed to build the partition wall for the computer room. Initially we were going to have the room in another room but it was declared that the director needs to have his own individual room rather than share ! Pretty useless use of space if you ask me, however we do not make the rules !

The electrics have all been sorted out and we now need to only purchase a stabiliser and then we will be up and running !!

English Alive is on Facebook now!

2011-02-21T22:53:00.000-08:00

The second semester is now underway, with the reports cards all written and signed and only the collection to occur. Pupils generally did well in their exams as a whole, with a few kids needing to be referred to the learning support division.

The great news is that we now have our latest volunteer – Paula from the USA. She visited Ethiopia four years ago and decided to come back to explore the country once again as well as work for a couple of weeks at the school. As well as being a great teacher, she is an expert at fundraising and thus has amazing fundraising ideas the whole time. I literally walk around with pen and paper so that I can jot down the ideas as they come ! It is wonderful to find someone so knowledgeable about it all since it gives you a new lease of life. It is hard sometimes trying to fundraise and easy to get dispirited when no one donates, but with these new amazing ideas I think we will be more than successful !

As a result, the first idea that I want to share with you is our new face book face !!! – it is called Ethiopian Schools for the poor – English Alive Academy – although not yet full of information ( being only 1 day old ! ) it is coming on and will soon be fantastic !!!

In addition, we now have a wish list on www.betterworldbooks.com where people who want to send us something but don’t really want to send cash can send books. Postage worldwide is free ! – so books range from about $3.45 onwards ! The account is in the name of englsihaliveethiopia with the password being – englishalive and the address to send them to being : Dawit Hailu , PO Box 170222, Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA.

To make a purchase simply log in , choose from the wish list and go from there !

It is so very exciting to be moving forwards with everything, with the application for the charity now being resubmitted with the minor changes required altered. So, fingers crossed and who knows – by the next blog we could be a fully fledged charity !!!!!!

News from Nazaret

2011-02-08T09:28:00.000-08:00

Here it has all been go, since last week were the end of semester final examinations. They like exams in this country and give them to all children – even the 3 years olds ! It is hard to make an interesting and exciting examination that will keep everyone happy and of course it ends up with an incredibly large number of pictures ! However, since we are on a very limited budget then we can’t afford to give an exam which is more than 2 pages long , so it is a difficult mission to say the least ! The good thing is that the exams are now behind us and we are now onto report card writing !

The good thing is that this week is holiday week, so there is a bit of breather to get things sorted out. Paula – our latest volunteer from the USA has arrived in the country and since it is the holiday time is off holidaying in the North until school starts on Monday.

We have made a school link with the Marlborough School in the UK, which is really great ! Our children wrote them some letters and they are en route to the UK as I write ! I am hoping that the school will also offer some educational advice since it is always good to keep up to date with matters !

Am busy writing perfecting my grant application letters. There are good days and bad days with it , you know how it is, you write it and think that it is ok and then look back or show it to someone else and they say that it is crap ! Still, haven’t been at it long so hope that practice will make perfect !!! Due to this, I haven’t had that much time for the freelance writing so are a bit low on funds - am hoping to work extra hard next month to make up !!!!

No progress with being a charity as yet since the forms which we sent to the UK with a volunteer to ensure that they got there safely have got lost en route !!! – trying to investigate whether the Charity commission will accept faxed versions etc as an alternative ! We will not be deterred however and one day we will get that seemingly simple but oh so important Charity number !

Merry Christmas!

2011-01-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS ( 7^TH JANUARY 2003 ) FROM ENGLISH ALIVE ACADEMY , NAZARETH , ETHIOPIA

http://www.englishaliveacademy.org

http://englishaliveacademy.blogspot.com

This year has been a busy one at English Alive, with the year seeming to zoom by. With the economic crisis around the world this has meant that we have had limited volunteers this year, but those who did come offered an enormous amount and taught both the students and teachers a tremendous amount !

So many thousands of thanks to our volunteers this year :

Jan Marianne Emma Antonio Leyte Sarah Lucy

This year has seen our largest ever enrolment, with almost two hundred children attending ! This has meant that the KG school is now packed to capacity, with two nursery classes, two KG 1 classes and the KG 2 class squashed into a small classroom ! The nursery class also has to double as the library ! Very worried about what we will do in September if the intake is as large as this year, since we do not have enough rooms to accurate the 6 classes ! – However, this is a wonderful problem to have !!!! – We will work it out when we face it !!

Perhaps our biggest event this year was the purchase of the school van. This was something that we have been planning for years – the opportunity to reach children who live on the outskirts of Nazareth. The road to buying the van was a rocky one, with funds having to be pulled from every direction with every birr counting. However, at the last moment we thought that it was impossible since the price of the van suddenly went up. However, thanks to the incredible generosity of Fraser and his family ( past volunteer ) the last bit was made up and the school van was up and running for the start of the school year !

We are now looking for funding for another van so that we can reach children who live in villages surrounding Nazareth – thereby offering them the opportunity of a lifetime.

Our saddest time this year was with the departure of our first graduation students. The government had promised us a licence to take us up to grade five – which would give us one more year to try to find a way to get our own building and thus go up to grade ten – however at the last moment they changed their minds and as a result the children were forced to leave and go to another school where they are simply one child perched on a bench with one hundred others ! We live with the dream that one day we will have our own building and thus take the school up to grade ten, thereby offering those who have left the chance to come back and continue with an education that matters.

We were very lucky with donations this year, with Troy from the USA sending a box of books – thoroughly appreciated !l

Soraya Aslam and Sarah ( past volunteer ) have also promised sponsorship for two children, with Marianne ( past volunteer ) sponsoring a little boy. All in all, the number of children being sponsored at the school is steadily rising, meaning that the school is helping more and more children break the cycle of poverty.

In addition, to close the year, Fraser and his family have once again come through and have donated a computer to the school ! It will be amazing to have computer lessons – the only trouble is that none of the teachers are sure how to use a computer thus it will be a case of the blind leading the blind ! – Still, it will be fantastic for everyone to learn together !

We are now well on the way to being a registered charity and hope to achieve this status within a few short weeks. We are hoping that this will boost our chances of getting funding for our own building, since the government have promised us free land if we can prove that we have money to build. An ex volunteer – Clare as well as Catherine are working hard on helping with the applications for grants – so hope to be starting that process shortly.

Overall, we have had a wonderful year – primarily due to the many people out there who help and support us - many thousands of thanks for all of those who have supported us this year and we wish you a very merry Ethiopian Christmas on January 7^th !

All donations gratefully accepted

HSBC bank Account name : English Alive Academy Sort code : 402503 /Account no : 21484613

PayPal account : stephanddawit@yahoo.co.uk

Happy New Year!!!

2010-12-31T23:03:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our readers ( even though it is a non event here as it is still 2003 and the New Year isn’t until September ! )

There are two good pieces of news this week – the first is that we have another volunteer coming ( Paula ) – two weeks In February ! Not the longest time I know, but it will be great to have someone else ! The teachers are all so much more motivated when a volunteer is around and the kids really gain so much from hearing a different accent and experiencing new and active teaching methods !

The second is that Fraser ( our first ever male volunteer – the one who helped out with the last bit for the van ) and his family have decided to give the school a Christmas present so will soon be investing in a computer !!!! Despite all the power problems, everyone is keen on computers and it will be incredibly exciting to have computer lessons ! The only problem is that none of the teachers really knows how to use a computer so somehow we will have to train one of the teachers first before they can teach the pupils ! The good thing is that the level of instruction will be pretty basic, simply parts of the computer , how to use word and draw pictures as well as playing educational games on the machine !! It will be a very exciting development – a computer is just what we need in our little lives !!!!

On a personal front, things aren’t so great ! – At long last managed to leave the paid job ! The trouble was that at the last minute, our son decided that he didn’t want to be homeschooled ( we can’t afford a decent school for them ) – he didn’t realise that it was permanent and thought that he could choose on a daily basis – when he wanted to go to “ real “ school then he could and when he didn’t want to go, then he stayed at home and was home schooled !! The worst bit was when he talked about his little friends and asked that when he was in the classroom, who would make him laugh !!! He is slowly getting over it, but it is hard for him to understand why he can’t go to school like all his little friends !!!

Still trying with the writing to get in a bit of an income but things are slow ! - there are agencies which pay 2 dollars for an article but you need a lot of 2 dollars to support two schools and a family of four !!! Still plodding on with the fundraising but it is all time consuming and requires a clear and thoughtful brain ! – Something that with all the stresses at the moment – isn’t available !!!

Still – roll on Christmas and who knows what God will provide for us just around the corner !!!

Donate to English Alive for a Christmas Gift to someone you love

2010-12-20T09:58:00.001-08:00

Life in Ethiopia certainly does seem to be a never ending round of ups and downs ! – unfortunately at the moment we seem to be on a little bit of a down since I have now decided that there is no alternative but to leave my paid job in Addis Ababa ! I have been unhappy there for a long time, with the school going in one direction and me going in the other, but it seems to have now peaked with the school not only having no holidays all year but now taking away the grade classroom assistants since they think that they do nothing ! In addition, there seem to be weekly arguments where the owner just lets loose with all his thoughts and accuses and insults me ! – It really is too much to take and I was coming home almost everyday in tears !

The decision to leave is a great one on a personal level but has meant HUGE problems relating to finances ! – Dawit has a small income coming in with the shop and I am making a little bit doing writing but even combined it is not enough !!! As a result, we cannot afford to send the children to a decent enough school and thus will attempt to home school them !!! – could be fun or could be nightmare ?! – Who knows ? – I suppose we wont know until we try !!

With English Alive to support as well it is problematic to say the least !!! We have thus decided to attempt to fundraise as much as possible so that the school is financially secure and then we can sort out ourselves out somehow !! – thus have sent the following to as many people as we can in the hope that if everyone just gives the price of a cup of coffee - two pounds or so and there are a hundred people reading it then we can raise two hundred pounds ! – Which will keep the school staggering along for a bit longer !!??

Thus, anyone reading this blog please try to best to encourage people to give at this festive season and rather than buying a cup of coffee to keep themselves warm for five minutes, they can give and feel the never ending warmth of doing the right thing !

Fed up with the commercialism of Christmas ? Feel that you are spending out and not really getting much of the good spirit back ? Then help is at hand ! – take a little bit of time and energy during this Christmas period to help others.

As the band aid song from the 1980’s goes,

“ There won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time,

The greatest gift they’ll ever have is life. “

Although this song referred directly to life and death, you can also take it as quality of life. At ENGLISH ALIVE ACADEMYwe are giving pupils the opportunity of a life that without us will be a consistent struggle. Without an education, our pupils would be left with the prospect of sustenance farming, working as a maid or begging in the streets.

So take the time this Christmas to think of pupils at ENGLISH ALIVE ACADEMY and remember what the spirit of Christmas is all about.

HOW TO HELP.

There are many ways that you can help.

The following are suggestions only to get you started:

1/. Give a present to the school – a cash donation

2/. Do something to raise funds – e.g. have a dinner party where everyone makes a cash donation to attend / go carol singing / sell your unwanted Christmas presents on eBay / have a movie night where everyone makes a donation to attend etc.

3/. Sponsor a child ( please contact stephanddawit@yahoo.co.uk for further details )

4/. Approach your work organisation for workplace sponsors.

Since we will shortly be a registered charity, then this donation is TAX FREE – your employers take the money from your wage packet each month. Since it is tax free then you are e.g. giving £5 to ENGLISH ALIVE ACADEMY but in fact you are only charged £3.50 – so everyone wins !!

WHAT DO I DO WITH THE DONATIONS ?

Funds can be paid in in various ways :

1/. Directly into the English Alive Account ( located in the UK )

HSBC bank

Account name : English Alive Academy

Sort code : 402503

Account no : 21484613

2/. Payment made to the founders of English Alive to be passed on to the school :

PayPal account name : stephanddawit@yahoo.co.uk

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!!

************ Please forward this email to as many people as you can – if everyone you know donates just £ 1 then that will be more than enough – when you have nothing every little bit counts !! ************

Don’t forget to keep up to date with the goings on at the school on the BlogSpot :

http://englishaliveacademy.blogspot.com

or on our website :

http://www.englishaliveacademy.org

'Tis the Season!!

2010-12-12T20:51:00.000-08:00

As the band aid song from the 1980’s goes,

“ There won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time,

The greatest gift they’ll ever have is life. “

Although this song referred directly to life and death, you can also take it as quality of life. At ENGLISH ALIVE ACADEMY we are giving pupils the opportunity of a life that without us will be a consistent struggle. Without an education, our pupils would be left with the prospect of sustenance farming, working as a maid or begging in the streets.

So take the time this Christmas to think of pupils at ENGLISH ALIVE ACADEMY and remember what the spirit of Christmas is all about.

HOW TO HELP.

There are many ways that you can help.

The following are suggestions only to get you started:

1/. Give a present to the school – a cash donation

3/. Sponsor a child ( please contact stephanddawit@yahoo.co.uk for further details )

4/. Approach your work organisation for workplace sponsors.

WHAT DO I DO WITH THE DONATIONS ?

Funds can be paid in in various ways :

1/. Directly into the English Alive Account ( located in the UK )

HSBC bank

Account name : English Alive Academy

Sort code : 402503

Account no : 21484613

2/. Payment made to the founders of English Alive to be passed on to the school :

PayPal account name : stephanddawit@yahoo.co.uk

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!!

Don’t forget to keep up to date with the goings on at the school on the BlogSpot :

http://englishaliveacademy.blogspot.com

or on our website :

http://www.englishaliveacademy.org

Lucy has arrived!!!

2010-11-29T09:56:00.000-08:00

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 !!!!

2010-11-12T11:52:00.001-08:00

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 and full of sabotage !! 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!

2010-11-12T11:50:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-12T11:49:00.000-08:00

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) is going from bad to worse! They have now decided that there should be no holidays until the January where we get a luxurious eight days! Despite the rational that the teachers and students will drop down dead working from September to the end of January, no one seems to understand and there is now a realisation that the job really must go ! There must be more to life than that – the only trouble is just what there is out there that pays and gives you a life is unknown!! Still, who knows what will turn up around the corner !!!!

Help English Alive Academy design a Christmas Card!

2010-10-03T08:05:00.000-07:00

HI – hope that all is going well there – amazed to find a weekly blog so quickly ? – Well, that is because this isn’t really a blog but a competition ! Am struggling with trying to design a nice professional looking Christmas card and now realise that it is best to try to get others to give their suggestions ! We are very keen on selling English Alive Christmas cards this year and even have ambitious plans of having a Christmas catalogue ( time permitting since it really needs to be sent out this week or so ! ) - So hope that we get a good response and some great ideas come flooding in !!

COMPETITION TIME !!!!!!!

Christmas is coming and the cards are coming !

This year English Alive hopes to print their own Christmas cards as well as their own online Christmas catalogue.

However, there is a little glitch in the process since however hard we all try we cannot come up with a decent card. This is where the blog readers come in ! A competition is currently being held for you to design a card for English Alive for Christmas 2010.

Drawings , computer generated images or simply ideas are all eligible for submission.

Closing date for the competition is Sunday 10^th October 2010.

The winner not only sees their design being printed on cards that will be distributed throughout the world but also win a traditional Ethiopian gift.

So get out your sketch books or laptops, put your thinking caps on and take this opportunity to enter this unique competition !

Applications should be submitted to stephanddawit@yahoo.co.uk with the subject being “ competition submission “ The winner will be announced as soon as possible after the submission date.

The winner will be notified by email.

Finally!!!! A van!!!!!!!

2010-10-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

Amazingly enough it is all GOOD NEWS this week !!!! – shocking I know since most of the time this blog seems to be a tale of woe and no money !!!

The first of the exciting news is that we managed to get the minivan !!!! – if you recall in our last blog we were out by about 250 pounds – which seemed an impossible amount since we had spent all of our savings and had borrowed everything from everyone ! However, amazingly, Fraser ( a previous Australian volunteer ) saw the blog and his family and friends had a whip around and surprisingly managed to come up with the outstanding amount ! It is so amazing how people can be so generous – they just give and give and give without stopping and we will forever be grateful to Fraser and his family since the van will make a huge difference to the lives of the English Alive children.

The second exciting news is that unbelievably we now have 173 children ( and still counting ! ) at the school !!! – we were very very pleased last year with 107 and now have two nursery classes and two KG 1 classes ! The library has had to be moved out and is now part in one of the classrooms and part in the office – but having a problem of too little space is a great problem to have !!

I used to give 90 % of my wages from working my crappy job in Addis to the school but with this huge number of students this means that the school is almost self sufficient ! – which is one huge step towards our ultimate dream of having enough money to be able to work full time at running our own schools rather than being stuck in Addis Ababa !!

Our latest volunteer – Suzanne starts today at the school – although she is only here for two weeks it all helps and we have interest for the rest of the year although no volunteers in the immediate future !

Overall, it is all going fantastically well and we wish to thank all those people who have helped us to make our dreams come a little bit closer !

Happy New Year!!!!

2010-09-16T10:59:00.001-07:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! This week saw the arrival of 2003 last Saturday. New Year is one of the biggest celebrations of the year where everyone cooks dora wot ( chicken sauce ) to go with their injera. This is made by slow cooking a mountain of onions for a few hours, adding very hot sauce and chopped up bits of chicken – sounds strange but is in fact fantastic !

School was due to start directly after the new year on the Monday ( the 13^th ) however, it was suddenly announced that for the first week of school no teaching could be carried out. Instead , it was to be a week of activities, with parents supposed to be joining in with them ! With no notice at all, this was rather unrealistic and as a result, many schools decided to simply not bother getting into trouble by not providing the range of activities required and start the school a week later ( our school included ! ) Thus this week has changed into training week, with the new addition to the team – Dawit's relative who is a secondary school teacher – giving the training.

In the meanwhile, Dawit has spent the week frantically having a last minute dash for the van which will be used to transport the children to and fro from the school. Although he has been looking for the whole summer, nothing suitable turned up and we are now down to nail biting times ! One suitable van turned up – a Volkswagen – although there was a little doubt about this since there are no garages in Nazareth that know how to fix a Volkswagen thus there is an element of risk if it suddenly stops ! However, whilst we were deliberating about this, the owner changed their mind so this option was off !

The only other option was a minibus which was way out of our price range at a whopping 3,000 pounds ! However, nothing else turned up and so we collected all of our personal savings and borrowed from family and friends and as long as we didn’t encounter any unexpected things then we would be fine until my next pay cheque! However, after all of this effort the man turned round at the last minute and put the price up by another 250 pounds ! – a seemingly small amount but when we were stretched the limit then it is impossible !

Thus as it stands at the moment we have no van for Monday and the start of school ! – we are hoping for a miracle over the weekend since at the end of the day we have done all that we can do – so we are just leaving it in Gods hands !!!!!

2010-09-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

The summer school finished with a blast last Friday and there is now a lull for the pupils before the new year on the 11^th( next Saturday ) and the restart of school on the 13^th !

It’s not the same for us however, since there is still a mountain of things to be sorted out ! – it is amazing that however early you start to get things ready and how many lists etc you write, there is always a mad rush at the end !

We are still finishing off trying to get a new van – which has proved to be much more expensive than we anticipated ! Still, it is essential since we are unable to control the fees that outside agencies ask for !

Student numbers aren’t too bad for this time of year – ( Ethiopians are not natural planners and with the very relaxed pace of life in Nazareth then many don’t register their children at the school until the Friday of the first week of school ! ) a modest fifty four – so hope that we will have record numbers this year !

Two of the three volunteers have now left and Marianne ( the lady from Belgium ) is on holiday with Azeb ( the manager of the school ) down in the South of the country where the rainy season has minimal impact during the daytime. She leaves however on Sunday.

The good news is that we have another volunteer – Suzanne – from the UK who is coming on Friday to visit here friend in Addis Ababa and then will make her way across to Nazareth for the start of school on the 13^th. Although she is only staying for two weeks, she will make a difference and we are now searching for someone to start at the beginning of October ! – a few people have enquired but nothing concrete as yet – still, I’m sure that someone will turn up !

Volunteers needed for September!!!!

2010-08-27T18:11:00.000-07:00

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 !

2010-08-04T10:05:00.001-07:00

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...

2010-08-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

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!

Graduation....At Last!!!

2010-07-11T08:38:00.001-07:00

This week was all go since it was the end of year show ! – it really is a bit of a nightmare to arrange since every year you need to organise more and more children !

Last year we were able to put all of the children in one room and then they could exit from there to the stage – but this year since we have two nursery classes as well as the new grade four, we couldn’t fit !! and had to split the show and have the small ones before the break ( with the grades sitting outside watching ) and the grades after the break ( with the small ones watching ! )

The show as a whole went very well – the power held as did the rain – which are the most important features ! The marching band remembered how to march ( this was our big worry – in the practices they seemed to forget what to do and go into a kind of disco mode in desperation ) and the little ones remembered how to get on and off the stage.

We now have a week or so’s lull before the summer school gets into full swing. We are lucky enough to have three volunteers coming, although they are all coming at the very end of July / beginning of August which means that the teachers will have to start the school without them – possible but difficult !

Currently looking for volunteers for September – have someone booked for December and another interested for December but nothing before hand – so please keep your eyes peeled !!

End of the Term is Fast Approaching!!!

2010-06-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

Things are getting busier and busier as the end of term is fast approaching ! – this week sees examinations and then next week is devoted to mornings only of graduation practice before the big finale on Saturday 10^th !

The examinations seem to be going quite well – it is the first real set of examinations for the new grade four teacher thus he had some difficulties in working out how to make an examination without multiple choice questions, but after the papers going back and forth from Nazareth to Addis a number of times it was all sorted out !!

Graduation seems semi sorted, although there is now a rush for the costumes etc and the logistics of getting over a hundred children in and out of outfits in a matter of minutes ! – still, I am sure that it will all come together in the end !!!

At the place where I work however things are not so smooth ! – although only 4 days from graduation, the cloth to even make the costumes isn’t purchased and the routines are in their embryo stages !!! The only thing that is keeping me going is the thought that although a disaster in my eyes, at least compared to last year it will be great since last year they had all the children sitting in the audience and then randomly made up the programme as they went along – even at one sage resorting to potato and spoon races to add entertainment !!!

However, I am getting rather frustrated with the job and their attitude – with the owner today saying to the director in front of me that I was a dictator ! – ( although people are always going on about how they would prefer to have things said to their face rather than behind their back, trust me, behind your back is a lot better !!! ) all I had done was ask for the cloth to be purchased and the piano that is currently plonked directly in the middle of the stage to be moved out of the way so that the children can get on the stage !! – when I am killing myself for the school and that is the attitude that you get, then you really do have to wonder if you are in the right place !!!

As a result, once again I am job hunting ! – the trouble is that if you leave Ethiopia then English Alive will be trouble since they need constant input ! – the answer really is to build our own school and then be totally self sufficient ! – so will try once again with a bit of fundraising – there is a lot of money and you never know – perhaps some of it will come our way ?!!!

Hello from Nazareth

2010-06-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

With only two weeks of school left, things are getting pretty busy here. The volunteer – Emma – left on the 1 am flight this morning - most upset to missing the end of the school year graduation ceremony that she has been helping the children practise for !

The end of year graduation is the big event in the school calendar and consists of series of performances by the children. Since there is inevitable forgetting of words and actions etc then we usually have a strong song with a good rhythm and the song having words – in that way, even if everything is forgotten then at least something is making a noise ! However, this year we decided that for grade 3 we would go mad and have a marching band ( with the instruments – more just marching ! ) – however, the children do not really seem to comprehend this concept and as a result, poor Emma struggled for weeks to try to get the children to march in time rather than break into “ free movement “ when they couldn’t remember what to do !

Since I am tied at the school where I work at the moment due to the exam etc. this meant that I was only available to supervise a rehearsal on Saturday – so the children were all called into school last Saturday morning ! Although the KG seemed pretty sorted, the grade classes were another matter ! – time is pretty limited now with the exams starting next week and the show less than 3 weeks away ! – still, fingers crossed that it will all come together !!

As schools in the first world are thinking about the end of term, many schools are clearing out their cupboards and throwing wonderful stuff away ! Although the logistics of actually getting the stuff here are not fully sorted out ( one suggestion is with future volunteers – we have them from all over the world – so there should be one coming from your location SOON ! ) it seems such a shame to miss this opportunity – so can I ask all of our blog readers to ask around at their local schools for things that they were going to throw out ! – anything and everything is our description of what we need !!! – every little bit helps !!! If you do manage to get some stuff then please let us know on stephanddawit@yahoo.co.uk and we can arrange the transportation of it with future volunteers etc ! – many thanks in advance !

Here Comes Graduation!!

2010-06-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

This week sees graduation practise in full swing. Although the show isn’t for another four weeks, two weeks will be taken out for exam revision and examinations, which means that we really are on limited time. In order to add variety this year we have decided to add marching – although good in practice on their own, as soon as they have an audience it all seems to collapse and it looks as if the children are simply wandering aimlessly around ! – Next Saturday is the big dress rehearsal so we will make a firm decision then as to whether they will be able to make it or not ! – If not then we will quickly revert back to plan B – a song that they already know from previous years !

Emma is getting on very well – she is very enthusiastic and tackles all the adversities of Nazareth ( such as having to wash using a bucket since the water is very dodgy and trying to communicate in pigeon English ) in her stride. The trouble is that although she wanted to stay until the end of July and thereby meet and pass things over to the new people, her job has phoned to say that she needs to be back for the beginning of July instead so she is off on the 24^th June !

Although we have three people for the summer, all of them are coming very late ( 2^nd August ) which means that the teachers will have to struggle and start the summer school on their own – which for the beginners and intermediate English classes is just about OK however for the advanced students, a native English speaker really is needed – still, they will do their best and something will be learnt !

Our New Volunteer has Arrived!!!!

2010-05-31T22:09:00.000-07:00

The latest in Nazareth is that our latest volunteer – Emma Le Vine has now safely arrived. Having had experience of living in China and Poland she should be fine with the rigours and relative isolation of Nazareth. The main difficulty for her however is the lack of maid at the moment. We used to have a very good maid however she got married and now appears to be negatively influenced by her husband and decided to stop work. The next maid only lasted a short while and there has been nobody to help Azeb ( Dawits mother ) for a few months now – which was fine since there were no volunteers so she only had herself to sort out.

Using a kerosene stove is not an easy feat – it requires a certain amount of bravery to get the thing on without burning your fingers and skill to throw water on it at a certain angle so that the flames are extinguished but the string wicks aren’t so dampened with water that they won’t relight when necessary ! Still, I’m sure that she’ll get the hang of it !!!

With the end of term looming in about 5 – 6 weeks we are now thinking about graduation and are starting to make the tapes and prepare costumes so that we can finish the year with a bang !It is a very stressful time at the moment however – graduation, end of year examinations and report cards , preparation for the summer school and getting ready for the next academic year ! – Still the great thing is that Emma is now with us so can be a real help!

English Alive Academy named BEST school in Nazareth!!

2010-05-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

If you are a regular reader of the blog then you may have been most disappointed for the last couple of months to find nothing new ! I do apologise for this but suddenly got really sick, had an operation and then have had constant infections for the last couple of months ! The good news is that I am slowly getting better so the blog is back !

In Nazareth all is going well – the one set of traffic lights are no longer working ( much to the disappointment of many people who loved to sit and watch them at work ) – one set have been knocked down ( by a big lorry I would imagine ) and as far as anyone knows then they aren’t going to bother to fix them again since they were too confusing!

At the moment we are busy searching for schools to send our current grade four students to next year. We cant afford to hire another building so that we can go up to grade five so these students will be our first ever leavers ! We have been approached by a school in the town who have little idea about education and would like us to work with them as their sister school. The other advantage to this is that they would employ us ( me and my husband Dawit ) so we would have a bit more income ( always necessary ! )

We were inspected by the authorities a few weeks ago and are now officially declared the best school in Nazareth – we are trying to get this in writing so that we can persuade the authorities to give us some free land so that we can eventually build our school ! – We have been trying for years without success – however, you never know !!

The good news is that our latest volunteer – Emma Le Vine – is coming on Wednesday – she initially was booked for a few weeks ago but her father fell sick so it was delayed. It will be great to have a volunteer again as we have had a gap of about four months – which is really too long a gap !

Update

2010-03-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-04T07:14:00.000-08:00

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 although is a little traditional. It is difficult to give him in-depth training when we are in Addis and he is Nazareth – really could do with a volunteer who could give him some more guidance !The new nursery section ( the previous assistant teacher who got promoted when the number of children became too high ) is doing very well – her spelling is rather off but at least she is trying 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 !

Weekly Update

2010-02-26T22:06:00.000-08:00

Still no signs of volunteers at the moment – a mountain of interest for the summer period but nothing for now – which means that the English curriculum is suffering a little at the moment ! – still, we are doing our best and that is the main thing !

The year seems to be racing by – can’t believe that it is nearly the end of February already ! – it is as if we never really get on top of ourselves ! we are now starting to think about next year – the school is only licensed up to grade 4 and now that we have a year 4, we are starting to think about what will happen to them next year. It seems so awful to make them go to another school where once again they will be just a number ( there are so many children in a class that instead of calling names they simply call out numbers – Dawit used to be number one hundred and three ! ) and they will be back to rote learning etc however really cant see how we can afford to get all the materials necessary to be a grade 5 – 10 school such as a laboratory etc !! – still, will wait and see what turns up !!

This week wasn’t the best for me since I go fired from my part time job !!!! – they love firing people in Ethiopia ( it is the norm ) so there was no warning or explanation – I simply went to work , starting sorting out all the teachers and then the little secretary arrived with the letter saying thank you for everything but we don’t want you anymore !!!I think that they thought that I was too expensive ( it was well paid relatively – it contributed a third of our income ! ) since the same day the school phoned up my old assistant and offered her the job at a vastly reduced price !!

This means that I am busy trying to work out ways to make the money !!! – have been lucky enough to get a job writing articles for a Christian children’s site – however it is piece work and I have no idea how many articles will be needed ! – so it is all a bit worrying !! – I go to work to pay for English Alive to keep going but losing 1/3 rd of the income means that something will suffer – we were only just surviving on what we had previously !! – still, who knows what tomorrow will bring – at least the sun is shining !!!!!

Volunteers Needed ASAP

2010-02-14T00:05:00.000-08:00

Having finished the exams, the staff and children at English Alive enjoyed a wonderful two week holiday ! Holidays are few and far between in Ethiopia since most of the schools rely on rote learning so don’t really get that tired, however with the singing and dancing that goes on at English Alive holidays are something that is really needed !!

We now have a new staff member – a mobile teacher. Since the grade school is so small consisting of only 4 classes and 4 teachers this meant that is anyone was sick and not at school then the class had to be covered by the librarian / cleaner etc and of course not much happened ! To solve this we now have a mobile teacher who covers if someone is sick and is also in charge of the Amharic classes. This means that the teachers are free during Amharic time and we want to start using this time for learning support, taking those pupils who are having difficulties out and giving them some one to one attention. We really hope that this will make a lasting difference to the overall standard thus justifying the additional cost of a teacher !!

No volunteer at the moment which is a bit worrying – especially since there are no interested parties at the moment – everyone seems to be interested in the summer and September which is great but it would be wonderful to have the classes covered all year round ! – so please everyone – keep your eyes peeled !!

Dawit and Stephanie Get Married!!

2010-01-15T09:56:00.001-08:00

All is busy here as English Alive has the end of the semester exams next week – after which there is a two week holiday ! – Ethiopian Christmas on the 7^th was nice with all pupils contributing a bit of money ( well – those who had money to contribute – those who didn’t we just contributed for them ) so that we could buy biscuits and sweets and have a Christmas party on the 6^th January – Christmas Eve !

On a personal level, Christmas was a little overshadowed by the thought of our wedding ! – although Dawit and I have been together for over 6 years we were never really that bothered about making it legal since we weren’t interested in fuss and besides – we never had the money ! However, when we went to renew my residents permit, it suddenly appeared that we had to married in order to get it renewed this year ! – oh yeah, we thought, we will do it sometime this year – just give us the permit, but instead it was a case of getting married immediately – no marriage certificate – no permit !! – which left us with no choice but to go for it !

The wedding day didn’t go quite as planned ! – initially our plan was to get married at 1.30 pm ( even though the place where you get married doesn’t bother with things like appointments - you simply go along !!! ) on Friday 8^th January ( the day after Christmas ) and planned to slowly get things ready the few days before hand. However, that was not to be since suddenly I became sick with a sort of flu / sore throat things so Tuesday and Wednesday were totally wiped out with me in bed and then still feeling quite bad on the Thursday ( Christmas day ) so that when we went to bed on Christmas day we weren’t sure whether we would be getting married the next day or not !

We were quite excited when we woke up to find that in fact I was feeling a bit better and as such decided to go for it and get married that day ! – this meant that there was a huge list of things to do since except getting a dress made for me and Dawit buying a new shirt and tie, we hadn’t done anything !!! We planned to zoom around and get our passport photos for the marriage certificate, get our documents photocopied, get my nails and eyebrows done during the morning and then get home for a quick lunch and to pack the bag so we could zoom off on holiday straight after the wedding ! During the morning there was also the matter of popping into the British Embassy and getting the certificate of no impediment ( we had put in that three weeks previously ) but we thought that would be just be another 5 minute thing to join the list !

We were doing quite well until 10 am when we went to get the certificate – I had to wait for the consular to come for about three quarters of an hour so that I could read out the affidavit to him and sign in his presence ! Zooming out of the British Embassy with the precious document, Dawit suddenly wondered whether the document needed to be verified by the Ethiopian authorities, since he suddenly remembered that we had had to verify Iyosious and baby’s birth certificates – so instead of finishing off the last remaining bits of our list, we zoomed off to the registry office place, where of course, they told us that it needed to be verified !

Unfortunately, since this was a Friday, the verification office closed at 11.30 until 1.30 pm in order that those who are Muslim can go to the mosque ! Still undeterred, we zoomed around doing all the other things – which of course all took much longer that we had thought ! This meant that we didn’t have the time to go home for any lunch and instead zoomed to the document verification place for 1.30 pm – the time when we were initially supposed to be getting married !

The children were being looked after by Dawits sister ( and quickly getting fed up waiting for the “ party ” ) and the family and Dawits friend were all waiting ( they were the witnesses ) – which meant that we were constantly on the phone to everyone, telling them not to give up, that we were still going to try for today but just be on hold !!!!

The queue at the document verification place was HUGE ! – causing us to suddenly think about what time the registry office closed for the day ! – We calculated that if it was a 4 pm closure time, then we had had it ! – there would be no way that we would be able to make it there by about 3.30 which we assumed would be the latest time to be eligible ! – it was beginning to look as if the wedding would not be that day – but with the school were I work so busy , if we left it, then this would mean that I would have to go to school in the morning and then the wedding would have to be in the afternoon – not exactly the best !!! - so innumerous phone calls were made to try to find out the closing time – which we eventually found out to be 5.30 – so once again, we thought that we could make it !

Dawit pushed his way to the front of the queue at the document place and there we waited and waited and waited for the precious stamp ! – the on going phone calls carried on and on – people were getting fed up with waiting for the wedding and were beginning to encourage us to do it next week instead !

At last at about 2.45 pm we managed to get the document and zoomed to get our passport photos – we managed to find a place that did it in 20 minutes so zoomed in – had some harassed photos taken and had a cup of coffee – the only refreshment that we had had all day !

Eventually at 3. 30 we managed to make it home ! This was the quickest dressing that you could ever see ! – dress on, shoes on, bit of water on my hair and at 3.40 we were off !!

At about 4 pm , after picking up the best man ( whom had given up and gone home ! ) we managed to make it to the registry office place !

The registry office was located in the basement , a huge windowless place, consisting of a row of hard chairs , some people sitting at their computers and a blasting TV showing weirdo things such as Ethiopian dancers, some people celebrating their child’s birthday party ( singing happy birthday in off key broken English ) etc ! – there in the semi darkness we filled in the copious pieces of paper – both in English and Amharic ( my birthday in the Ethiopian calendar is 10 / 10 / 1961 ! – that does make you seem very old ! ) until 4.30 pm.

The good thing was that since it was so late ( and no one is going to look good at 4.30 pm on a Friday ! ) there wasn’t anyone else ! – so we went straight in !

The room was decorated quite nicely – a typically Ethiopian style of glamour with the walls lined with blue and white material and big white wedding chairs for the bride and groom ! The man who was to marry us ( a very scruffy looking man wearing a dirty looking green jacket and looking more like a guard than someone to marry you ! ) turned on the music and loud Ethiopian music blasted out ! – we could hardly hear ourselves think so Dawit got him to turn it off !

We all sat down and left Dawits mother ( she was the only one who wasn’t a witness ) in charge of taking the wedding photos. The only trouble was that she didn’t know how to work it and didn’t quite get the idea that you can take as many as you want since they cost nothing ! – this meant that in the end she took 21 photos of which most of them are pretty hopeless with heads cut off etc !! – still, at least she tried !!

The man in the dirty jacket didn’t say a word the whole time – he just gave Dawit a big green book ( all in Amharic – have no idea what it said ! ) and then Dawit signed and then we clapped, then the book went to me for my signature and a little clap, this being repeated for the four witnesses.

No one said anything during this time and then the dirty green jacketed man opened the door for us to go ! Dawit sister had been intelligent enough to have taken our wedding rings ( which we have been wearing for the last 2 years or so ! ) off us and put them in a little box so then we exchanged rings ( again to silence ) and that was that !!!

Everyone then went off back home again since we hadn’t arranged anything for afterwards as we had planned to go away for the night – however, it was too late to go anywhere so sat in the car not sure where to go ! – the kids were moaning and groaning that that was the worst party they had ever been to and that they needed cake – Dawit was thus quite keen to take them off to the cafe for a cake – but after all the stress I needed something stronger than a cake and a juice ! – so instead we went to an outdoor cafe in gardens where I had two pints of beer and we ate meat ! – not the most traditional of wedding meals – but considering that I hadn’t eaten anything since 6 am that morning it tasted pretty good to me !

All in all I can honestly say that it was the weirdest wedding ever ! – we seemed to have spent most of the day wondering whether we would get married that day or not , the getting ready – well, I spend more time getting ready to go to work each day - and the wedding itself – well ! - however, am glad to at last be legally married ( even though we only got legally married for the visa ! )- Dawit is perfect and it is nice to be married to him ( even though I have been married to him in my head for years ! )

Originally my plan was to change my name - however, when you look at it then it is too expensive and complicated ! – to change the passport alone is about 100 pounds ! – not to mention drivers licence, bank accounts etc - so instead of being the exotic Stephanie Hailu – Mills instead I am the commonplace “ Mrs Mills ! “ – but happy just to be Dawits wife.

Ideas for Gifts for the Holidays

2009-12-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

Here all is busy with the sudden arrival of two volunteers – Layla from Australia arrived last Thursday and went down to Nazareth on Saturday to get orientated before starting work on Monday. It was an enormous relief to have a volunteer since we had almost given up getting anyone for the Christmas period thus was a tremendous surprise to find that Antonia ( another Australian ) was also interested in volunteering for a month meaning that once again we have two volunteers – an excellent number with two schools otherwise the one person is a bit stretched ! We look forward to her arrival in the middle of the night tonight ( the flight always seem to come in the middle of the night which does make us all a bit disoriented the next day at my day job ! – however, it is more than worth it ! )

One person has come up with a wonderful idea of unique Christmas presents this year and although it is late in the day, I hope that some people will be interested ! – the idea is to give gift certificates of things for English Alive rather than material goods ! – as you know, we are unable to issue our own certificates since the internet is so slow ( and so expensive with the use of the internet café ! ) however if you wish to purchase something then we can send you some photographs of the school/ children that you can attach to your card explaining your gift – hope that some people are interested in these alternative Christmas gifts and give something a little more meaningful this year :

Our present list includes :

School uniform – 10 dollars

School shoes ( rather than the flip-flops tied together with string ) – 11 dollars

Set of 6 plastic cups for pupils to use at break/ lunchtimes rather than the yoghurt pots currently used – 3 dollars

Set of 12 pencils – 1 dollar

Transportation for the pupils to get to the school – 4 dollars a month

Set of 12 coloured pencils – 2 dollars

Box of chalk – 2 dollars

Tape machine - 28 dollars

Video player – 110 dollars

Set of textbooks for a pupil – 5 dollars

To purchase one of these gifts you can :

Pay by PayPal ( stephanddawit@yahoo.co.uk )

Put money in the English Alive Account in the UK :

2009-11-28T08:59:00.000-08:00

Things have been very busy here the last couple of weeks – exams seemed to creep up on us very quickly whilst we are still working out the basic curriculum ! – so it was all a bit of a rush to try to get them sorted out ! They really do have too many exams in this country – in many schools they have monthly written exams so it is continual working to pass the exam rather than learning for the sake of learning a concept or idea ! – however at English Alive we only have exams every three months so I suppose we are lucky to get away with it !

The new nursery class is now up and running – it really was impossible to find a good teacher ( we really don’t pay very much – teachers work at our school for the experience of having something new rather than to have a good wage !) so in the end we had no choice but to promote the current nursery class assistant who doesn’t really speak much English at all but at least had some idea of what we were looking for in a teacher. The interviews for teachers showed that the teacher interviewed were limited - – rather than going through a list of questions we just gave them a book and told them to tell a story to our two children ( aged 4 and 5 ) - one teacher just read the book to themselves not really being able to read the words or having any idea at all what was happening in the story and another teacher simply changed everything into the traditional rote learning , looking at the page and then picking aspects and reciting “ This is a man “ / “ This is a hat “ etc which she wanted the children to repeat in unison several times. You can’t blame the teachers since they don’t have access to stories or books in all of the other schools but it does make you think about how poor the education in general in the country really is.

The good news is that after worrying and worrying about volunteers since the departure of Samantha about three weeks ago and consistently no sign of anyone until February ( I think most people want to stay at home for Christmas ) suddenly a new volunteer has turned up ! – She is a friend of one our original volunteers – now just over two years ago – and since she is the spontaneous type she wants to come within a week of hearing about the school !- it will be great to have a volunteer once more since the English curriculum isn’t completely sorted and the teachers find it hard to teach English and love meeting new people to get new ideas etc.

Student enrollment at 197!!

2009-11-11T17:11:00.000-08:00

Here is the weekly blog :

This week our American volunteer is due to leave which means that for the first time in over a year we have no volunteer ! –this is not good news since due to the new regulations, we have more English classes to make up for lack of English during the day !

Samantha – our latest volunteer really has done a good job in the month that she has been here – the students English really has come on and they are now onto complicated grammar such as past continuous !- the only trouble is that since this is the first year that we have had year 4 ( the 12 year olds ) so the English books that we use to help us were all beginner level, however the year 4’s are now upto intermediate level for which we have no books, so we are busy racking our brains for the grammar areas and exercises etc as well as the Literature that goes with it !

The good news is the nursery class ( the 3 year olds ) has been steadily increasing and we now have 54 children at that level ! – in many other schools it is normal to have this number of kids in one class, however, we set a limit of 30 per class so are busy converting the sleeping room into another classroom so that we have two nursery classes ! – the first time we have ever had a 2 form entry !

This also means that we now have a student population of 194 children ! – not bad when you consider that we started with just 37 a few years ago !!

Typhoid stikes

2009-10-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-10-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-10T12:48:00.001-07:00

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 !

First days of the school year

2009-09-28T14:05:00.000-07:00

Regarding our current needs – we are currently saving for a van to transport the children to the grade school ( this is a huge investment and I’m not sure that we will ever make it !! ) whilst at the same time saving for a TV since our current one is broken and it really was useful !!!!

Many thanks for you concern and help – very much appreciated – Stephanie

This week was all go since it was the opening of the school year whilst at the same time the wedding of Dawits sister ! – the weddings here go on and on and on – with the families doing almost all the work so they aren’t a day of relaxation but sheer hard work , organizing all the food / drinks / serving them all etc !!! – thus Sunday ( the day before school started ) was an exhausting time !!! Then there is another party at the house of the bride 3 days after – this in many ways is even more important since it is a direct reflection on the family and if it goes badly then the whole family are disrepute !!! – I am glad to announce that it did go well however and we are currently now only getting ready for the third party – on the fifth day – the reunion of the family – after which we can relax ( or collapse with exhaustion ! )

I think that having this coinciding with the first week of school probably made it all feel too much ! – however the first week is going quite well – although unfortunately our volunteer Kim is off at the end of the week although we still have Fraser for a few weeks before hopefully being replaced with Sarah Hollingsbury .

I am glad to report that I have now secured a second job – my current job gives me one morning and one afternoon off a week – so on one of those times I am the educational consultant for another school – so I go there – analyze the difficulties – write training programmes / lesson plans etc during the week and then go back the next week to deliver them and instruct others how to implement them and decide what the next area of focus should be !!! – it is a lot of hard work but we really need to maintain a regular income since English Alive needs the rent to be paid on a regular basis !!! – still we hope that one day we will be self sufficient and achieve our dream of just working for ourselves !!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2009-09-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

HAPPY ETHIOPIAN NEW YEAR ( 2002 ) for Friday 11^th September – all is excitement here as the new year is here – New Year in many ways is the biggest festival of the year and the streets are packed with sheep and goats for sale – it is traditional to buy a goat and then take it to your house – if you are strong then you will hang it up in your garden and then kill it, skin it and then cut it up ( although not into joints as such but cut at random ) – otherwise you can employ one of the many professional killers who will come and do it for you for a few birr. Afterwards you can sell the skin to one of the many buyers on the corners of the street – so each street corner is full of piles of bloody skins ( not for the squeamish ! )

However, we are not having a goat or sheep – we are off to the mothers house for dora wot – ( spicy chicken ) so that will be nice ! We are hoping that the 2 volunteers that we currently have – Kim from New Zealand and Frasier from Australia will manage to make it up from Nazareth for the lunch as well – so it will be a nice full house !!

Check out the youtube video of English Alive Academy

2009-09-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

Johanna, our volunteer from Belgium helped the children create a giant sized blue bird on wheels that the children pushed through the streets of Nazareth to get out the word about English Alive Academy. The blue bird went well – although it was a little more fragile than initially thought as you can see from the video on you tube :

http://www.youtube.com/user/casilasa

There were some difficulties with the wings and the wheels – however in total it did all that it intended to do which was to get the word out about English Alive Academy !!!

Rain! Finally Rain!!

2009-08-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-20T08:02:00.000-07:00

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 !!!

2009-08-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

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. I really couldn’t stand it any more since the director and I were heading in different directions – him towards a rote leaning sitting in rows style and me in a free and participatory style where each child is an individual ! – have yet to sign my contract at my new job which pays significantly less but hope that it will all work !!

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

Book donations have arrived

2009-07-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

HI - sorry for the delay - things have been hectic here !! - I am very pleased to report that the books arrived (donations from Hockinson, Washington) a couple of days ago safe and well and extremely quickly !!! - the post here is unreliable to say the least and things can take from about 2 weeks to 2 years to never !!! - they are great books - exactly the sort of stuff that we need - we really do appreciate it so very very much - thank you !

Here the summer school is well underway - the summer school focuses on teaching English and has three levels - beginners, intermediate and advanced and lasts for only half a day. The afternoons there is English lessons for the teachers to try to develop their general skills which will ultimately affect the students.

Johanna - the volunteer from Belgium is really great - she is doing an amazing job and introducing some new and exciting ideas. Frasier from Australia arrived a couple of days ago and starts work tomorrow - so it is all go here !
Still very limited power despite the rains at long last being here which does affect life for everyone - still - it cant last forever and we expect it to only go on for another month or so and then we can go back to the luxury of having power most of the time !!!!!

Stephanie

Update

2009-06-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

HI – hope that all is going well there – not much is happening this week for the blog – the children have al finished their exams – we were pleased with the results – the standard really does improve every year – which is a really good thing !! It was hard to get the exams ready with such a limited time scale and fighting against the power – the good news is that rains are sort of here but not as heavy and prolonged as usual which is a worry – they should be in full by now and should have been full on for at least three weeks ! - thus there is no end in sight for the power situation which is getting worse each week – 2 hours every 2 days is good nowadays !!!

Rushing to get ready for the graduation which takes place on Sunday – I am not really sure if the kids are ready but we are relying on “ cute factor “ to try to get us through it !!

The good news is that we now have 3 volunteers – the first from Belgium is coming on the 2^nd July , the second on the 16^th from the Uk and the third on the 18^th from Australia. The 3^rd one is our first man !! – we have never had a man before since the accommodation we offer is hared and in the society it is not acceptable to mix man and women ! This all looks like being a successful summer school this year and hopefully increase the numbers of students for next year !!

No news on my own job for the next year – still looking around both in Ethiopia and abroad – quite a worrying situation really since I really feel that I cant stay at the job where I am but need to earn enough to keep the schools going !! – still in the process of trying to the make the school a charity – our initial application seemed to have a positive response in that they didn’t reject us but asked for a mountain of additional information ( easy to provide if there is power and you can type out the answers ! but with 2 hours to do it all every 2 days you cant spend all that time on one thing !! ) – being a charity will help a lot since then I think we would stand more chance of getting grants etc !!! – so fingers crossed !!

Well must dash since racing against the power ! – many thanks for all your help – Stephanie and co

Hi

2009-06-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

Hi – sorry to have been out of touch – the trouble is that the power situation has suddenly got a lot lot worse !!1- officially they are still on the one day on / one day off system but now you really don’t know which day is supposed to be the day with power and the day that is supposed to be without ! – we get about 5 hours in 2 days ( I am being generous ) which of course means a lot of early nights / the children doing their homework by candlelight ( lots of children at the school are coming to school with candle wax on their books ( I can see how it is done – I have spilt wax on my daughters homework when I looking carefully at it ! )

This means that progress is slow ! – this has been compounded with the fact that the government have suddenly decided d that all schools need to close before July – then they are going to give training to the grade teachers all over the region of Oromo ( they were going to give training to the KG teachers as well but realized that they didn’t have the funds ! ) – this means that our exams are suddenly brought forward by 3 weeks and our graduation show by the same ! – this has meant that I have been racing to write the exam papers !!! ( they are still aren’t finished but I am writing them and sending them day by day with someone on the bus who is going to Nazareth and then someone from the school meets them at the bus station ! – not the best way – but what else can you do ?

Every weekend we are racing on Friday evening to Nazareth and getting the kids in on the Saturday morning to practice the show – then spend the rest of the week trying to make the costumes for them ! – not sure how it will turn out but keep telling myself that since they are young they have “ cute factor “ so hope that if they go all wrong then at least they will look sweet !

In our personal life I have decided that I cant continue at the school where I am working – I have hated it since about xmas and was only waiting for the end of the academic year – however, it is very hard to find a school which will pay enough both to keep us going and English Alive going ( I would say that at least ½ my salary goes to the school at the moment and without it then the schools would definitely close ) I have had job offers here but it isn’t enough – thus we are looking at making the hard decision of leaving the country and for me to work abroad. The UAE seems the best bet thus far – if I got a good job then Dawit would be able to come back every month or so fro a week or so and I could continue to make all the plans and send them over – so the schools would stagger on ! – it is not easy to think of this option but at the moment we cant see any other alternatives – however, haven’t as yet even managed to get a job in the UAE ( although I have a masters in education so hope that something will turn up !!!! ) so nothing is for sure !!!

2009-06-04T10:36:00.000-07:00

Preparations are carrying on for the end of term graduation – we will try to get some of last years photos so you can see more what it is – basically it is an end of year show with songs and dances etc then at the end the KG 2 pupils ( the 3rd year of school ) dress up in little graduation gowns and hats and get a certificate to say that they have finished KG school and are now off to the big school !
WE are still looking for volunteers for the summer school !!
We are still worried about Tsion ( the girl with Downs Syndrome ) since not sure what she will do next year – she really isn’t progressing.
We have joined a new internet place - http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk – you can set it as your home page and then receive ½ pence every time you use it to search rather than using Google – in addition – you can use it every time that you make an internet purchase – it might not be much but if the message goes out to a lot of people and everyone is using it then all the little bits will add together. !
Still no news on being a registered charity although they wrote to say that we should know by 10th June so we are on tenterhooks awaiting the results !
The power is still horrendous – one day on and one day off ! – it is caused a bit of a problem in the city of Addis and even spreading to Nazareth since many factories are unable to function so things are starting to be in short supply ! – still no real rains have come yet which is a bit worrying for the farmers !
The corn season is now in full swing – this is a fascinating time of the year when the streets are full of ladies with their piles of corn ( they tie the leaves together and stand them up like little teepees ) which you can buy raw to cook yourself or they all have a little charcoal fire next to them where they are roasting them – thus you can buy a nice hot roasted one ! – yummy !!
Once again many thousands of thanks – Stephanie and co

Hello from Stephanie and Co.

2009-05-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

We have had parents morning this week and everyone was all very positive – parents have come up with the suggestion that they form a parents committee in order to support the school.

Thursday is a public holiday for the Downfall of the Derge ( the regime that used to be in power here )

We are a little worried about Tsion ( the girl with Downs Syndrome ) as she is getting more and more behind and is starting to show disturbing behavior such as rocking – something that she has never done before – we are not sure what this indicates ( expect that it isn’t good ) and wondered whether anyone could offer any concrete suggestion as to what we should do to help her – we have had the idea of talking her out of schooling since I think that she has got as far as she formally can and putting her in the Kg as a helper where she will learn a bit and feel good ? – although not sure whether this will work or not ? – all suggestions most welcome

We now have a volunteer for September – a girl from New Zealand – but are still looking for volunteers for the summer school i.e. mid July onwards – anyone interested please apply !

Many many thanks for all your help – Stephanie and co

Paypal Account for Donations

2009-05-20T17:20:00.000-07:00

Send Money - PayPal

To: stephanddawit@yahoo.co.uk

From: Your E-mail address

Amount: $ ?.??

For: Services/Others

Update from Stephanie

2009-05-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

Regarding this weeks update ! – we are currently struggling with power since due to eh absence of the short rains which should have come in about February then we have severe power shortages – it is currently one day on and one day off ( with lots of unscheduled times in between ) – although we don’t use much power at the school ( since we don’t have computers ) but we are now starting practising for the end of term graduation ceremony ( which is rather like a show ) and since it is all singing and dancing then we need the tape machines to work ( we cant afford batteries )

We have now formally applied to be a registered charity in the UK and are awaiting the results – it would be fabulous to be a charity since then we would have much more credibility when applying for a grant.

We are still looking for volunteers for the summer school as well as for September – people don’t have to have qualifications or experience ( although that would be preferred ) – the only ting is that to qualify for the free accommodation they need to be female in order that they share the accommodation with the manager of the school ( Dawit's mother ) – males can come but they need to pay for their own accommodation ( about 3 dollars a night )

I am planning on going to the Uk in the summer and bringing stuff back – books / educational toys etc – if anyone lives in the Brighton area of the Uk can they please start trying to get donations ( local schools often throw a lot of stuff away at the end of the year which is nice and many people with children have old books and toys etc that are unused ) – then I will come and collect it when I come to the UK and I can take it back with me as luggage

Wish List and Dreams...

2009-05-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

HI – hope that all is going well – our current needs are :

100 pounds ($151 US) for the teachers to attend language classes for a year

250 pounds ($380 US) for a new T.V. / video player

5,000 pounds ($7565 US) for a van so that we can transport pupils from the outlying villages

15,000 pounds ($22,700 US) for land so we can build our own purpose built school

English Alive Academy

Happy Western New Year

Looking for a clever Christmas gift idea?

FANTASTIC NEWS!

And the rain rain rain came down down down!!

November...already!

Weekly Update

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait!

THANK YOU DUNCAN AND SARA!!

Welcome to the roundup of English Alive 2010 – 2011 !

Graduation!

Deadline for sponsorship is fast approaching!!

BUSY BUSY BUSY

Graduation Day is fast approaching!!

Great things are starting to happen!!

The end of the school year is near!

An accident with our van!

Still looking for volunteers during the summer!

BOOKS WANTED!!! URGENT!!!

Happy Easter

You can now raise funds when you search the web!

No fuel....No School!

Fundraising! Fundraising! Fundraising!

Wonderful Volunteers!!!!

A Surprise Teaching volunteer arrives at our door!

Sponsorships are beginning!!

We have been accepted as a charity!!!!!!

Big plans in the works...

English Alive is on Facebook now!

News from Nazaret

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!!!

Donate to English Alive for a Christmas Gift to someone you love

'Tis the Season!!

Lucy has arrived!!!

First Parent Meeting of the Year!

Onward and Upward

Help English Alive Academy design a Christmas Card!

Finally!!!! A van!!!!!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

Volunteers needed for September!!!!

Rains have come...

Graduation....At Last!!!

End of the Term is Fast Approaching!!!

Hello from Nazareth

Here Comes Graduation!!

Our New Volunteer has Arrived!!!!

English Alive Academy named BEST school in Nazareth!!

Update

Weekly Update

Weekly Update

Volunteers Needed ASAP

Dawit and Stephanie Get Married!!

Ideas for Gifts for the Holidays

Student enrollment at 197!!

Typhoid stikes

A new volunteer is on her way!!

School is in full swing!

First days of the school year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Check out the youtube video of English Alive Academy

Rain! Finally Rain!!

Still poor power situation

Book donations have arrived

Update

Hi

Hello from Stephanie and Co.

Paypal Account for Donations

Update from Stephanie

Read More about English Alive...

Wish List and Dreams...