The kindergarten is racing on !

KG pupils at play

The kindergarten school is certainly suddenly amazingly popular with the government since in addition to the new radical idea of schools having time to do educational training in the kindergarten the government are now providing health education for kindergarten teachers !

                     A couple of ladies suddenly turned up at the kindergarten school with some leaflets this week, announcing that they would be carrying out half hour training sessions once a week after school. Although teachers were initially dubious since this was encroaching on their free time, they were willing to give it a try and if the information was already known then they would discontinue.

               However, once the sessions started, the teachers adored it – the first session was about the transference of germs. Staff were fascinated to learn about the need for fresh air in public places and were soon advocates of opening windows on buses.

              As anyone who has ever travelled on public transport in Ethiopia will clearly remember – the opening of windows on a bus causes extreme concern. There is a very strong belief that the wind is dangerous – especially the Nazret wind – and can even cause death. Thus, despite the sweltering temperatures, all windows on all buses are firmly slammed shut for health purposes. As a result, the discovery that in fact fresh air would get rid of the germs was a revolution and teachers were enthusiastic to share their knowledge with everyone they met.

               With exams coming up again next week, it is a struggle to get them all typed and ready due to the ever decreasing power situation. Previously, Nazret did not have a huge power problem – going off for about an hour or so daily and rarely in the evening. However, recently we have had about 2 hours power per day and even then it is half to a quarter power – enough to be able to move around the house without bumping into things but not bright enough to read by. This has been coupled with an extremely poor internet and telephone service, with the optimum internet usage being able to read your yahoo messages after a 15 minute wait ( 25 minutes to send an email ) – which when you pay by the minute – is a very expensive business ! No ideas why things have suddenly altered but live in hope that services will revert to usual as swiftly as they left !