Thursday, August 20, 2009

Rain! Finally Rain!!

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

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

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

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

 

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