Ethiopia Seventh day - 03/10/13 otherwise known as 23/01/2006 in Ethiopia!

Too tired to blog much today, it was jam packed. After breakfast headed over to the grade school to give out water on the street to show everyone the school has clean water (you can't drink the tap water here).

After this I helped out with some reading, maths in grade four and three, then taught a basic computer lesson to grade four. Soon it was off to lunch - twenty minutes walk back in the midday sun along the busy dusty road. After that I headed to the other school to enjoy the company of the nursery and KG students, who were all sleeping when I arrived. They soon woke up when I got my camera out though!

We did a bit of number line maths in the KG class and then it was home time! So I set off for the guest house and had a relaxing shower before nipping down to Stephanie and Dawit's house to watch Shrek the Third with the children.
THINGS I LEARNT TODAY:
Children of any age can enter any class in Ethiopia (for example a ten year old in first grade), but if they are between 16-18, they tend to go to night class.
Pretty much anyone will stop for free, clean water!

Ethiopia Sixth day - 02/10/13 otherwise known as 22/01/2006 in Ethiopia!

Today I woke up and began to get myself ready for the day when the power went out. Never mind, washing and brushing teeth by torchlight is always fun! Injera and something for breakfast, washed down with nice hot black tea boiled on the gas cooker of course.

We walked to the grade school and I began the day doing circle time activities with grade 3. Lots of fun, I think they have the children with the most English in that class. My mission today was to sort out the library a little to make it easier to gather resources in the morning. The ministry did a spot check and many rooms had to be swapped around so the resources are in a bit of disarray. Afterwards I went over to Grade 1 to help out with their maths lesson - simple addition, again lots of fun, they love getting red ticks from me! Shortly after this it began to rain and did not stop until lunch time which meant that the playground was one big muddy puddle - not that it stopped the children playing - I watch a little girl splash right from one end of the playground to the other and then stamp off the wet (her feet must have been soaking), I suppose there is nothing better than a muddy puddle! We didn't go home for lunch and so I enjoyed my date jam sandwich and went into the Eating Room to see what the children were having. I was very surprised to see lots of pasta being consumed and of course... injera!

I dipped in on grade two this afternoon and helped out with a lesson on number ordering, they were very good at it - especially when I started writing excellent on their work and the teacher got the stickers out! After school there was a tiny chick at the bottom of the tree in the playground so we all spent some time watching it and discussing it's fate.
Me and the children went back to KG on the school service and then I walked them home, after which I ducked into the guest house to have a shower and unfortunately again the power went out, so it was cold :-( I went down for a lovely dinner of rice, pasta and sauce with a fork!!! and ate so much that my belly hurts.

THINGS I LEARNT TODAY:
Rain does NOT stop play in Africa
There are a few nasty spiders here I should look out for and kill if I see.

Ethiopia Fifth day - 01/10/13 otherwise known as 21/01/2006 in Ethiopia!

Last night was a bit noisy as my next door neighbours seemed to have a bit of a get together - odd for a Tuesday! I awoke to a power cut and opened the door to light rain as I headed off to Stephanie and Dawit's for my habitual morning cup of tea and a bit of date jam on bread.
We all headed to the KG school to set up the water cooler and give out some freebies on the street outside school as the children arrived. I was on a mission today to get the specs. of all the old computers so that I can make them the best that they can be, so, I hopped on the school service bus with the children to the Grade 1-4 School and headed in to get techy! As there was no power, I looked in on all the classes and did a few circle-time activities with grade four as well as quizzing grade three on their knowledge of colours in English - turns out they have never heard of purple!
After snack time (10.30am), the power was back on so I went ahead and played with the PC's. Then after lunch at home with the family, I stayed to do some resource work on  my laptop, after which we all walked back to school to get some sorting out done. Shortly after dinner, the power went out for almost an hour so I walked back to the guest house (with Dawit escort) and headed off to bed.

THINGS I LEARNT TODAY:
It's great being in a guest house with TV, hot water heater, internet and lights - when there is power!
When the temperature changes from 30 degrees to 25 degrees here, it feels like a cold day!

Ethiopia Fourth day - 30/09/13 otherwise known as 20/01/2006 in Ethiopia!

Today I was up at 6am ready for school! I walked down to Stephanie and Dawits for my usual breakfast of bread (not injera this morning!) and something which reassembled baked beans but clearly had berbere (local spices) inside as my tongue tingled! It was 25 degrees inside this morning. After that we made the twenty minute walk to the Grade School which Stephanie and Dawit's children go to, opened it up and Stephanie went through the plans and introduced me to all the teachers. Then we headed to the New Far School to see how they were getting on. We stayed there all morning and I got my first experience of EAL in Ethiopia. I played some matching and jigsaw games with the Kindergarten class and helped them to paint for the first time - it's amazing giving a child a paintbrush who has never held one before!  Then I moved up the the higher grades and helped out with a science lesson in Amharic about labelling the body parts. After the children had finished their work they were allowed to play on the carpet and again I helped out as they experienced Barbie and Ken dolls for the first time! Needless to say, they did not want to put them down to go to break time but the new football I brought helped ease that pain!

We then went back into class and I lead an English class on the body parts - we sung head, shoulders, knees and toes and the children wrote down the English names next to a picture of the body. I then observed Stephanie teaching a maths lesson in Amharic.

We returned home late for lunch (now 31 degrees in the house), then Stephanie stayed there to home school her two children (as she does every afternoon) and me and Dawit headed to the KG1 school to take cement and have a look around. I joined in a a short number lesson before the end of the day and then headed back to the Solomon guest house to discuss my rate and see if the internet was working. As you can see, it is and I've decided to stay here (for about 6 pounds a day). I'm going to head down to the house to see what they are up to.
THINGS I LEARNT TODAY
Quas means ball in Amharic - lots of children asking for those on the way to school as we walked with them
There are not many mosquitoes in Nazret and they mainly come out after 6pm - whoop whoop!

Ethiopia Third day - 29/09/13 otherwise known as 19/01/2006 in Ethiopia!

I didn't sleep very well last night and woke continuously until about 4am when I dozed off. I finally emerged from the bottom bunk at 10am to a nice cup of tea and injera with something (are you getting the food theme here yet!). By the way, knives and forks aren't used here, you must wash your hands before eating and then the right hand (all fingers and thumb) is used to mush up a wad of food before you stuff it into your mouth. It is not appropriate to lick your fingers, which are washed at the end of the meal.

I went around to the KG1 school with Stephanie where Dawit was welding the shade for the playground which we helped to clear of sticks and stones, then returned for lunch-guess what that was. The children and Dawits' mother arrived from Addis Ababa shortly after we ate and they all looked tired after a weekend of fun with their cousins. Dawit then took me to look at some accommodation. First stop - a small guest house near the Purple Palm - a cafe which Dawit joint owns. This was very small and so we went to see more. Three guest houses later and I picked a room for the night! I may move tomorrow to check out the competition. The rooms are literally a few houses away from Stephanie and Dawits' place and not far from school. So I nipped back for dinner and spent some time interacting with the children. First day of school tomorrow - Can't wait to see what it shall bring!
THINGS I LEARNT TODAY:
Not only horses can be seen on the streets of Nazret, donkey's, goats, cows and dogs can too!
It is illegal to travel with suitcases on the back seat of your car!

Ethiopia second day - 28/09/13 otherwise known as 18/01/2006 in Ethiopia!

After a decent nights sleep I enjoyed some bread and date jam with a cup of tea for breakfast. Myself and Stephanie then went for a walk around Nazret where I was shown many nice hotels (with pools), a supermarket and the bank to change some money. The exchange rate is extremely good right now so I was very happy to leave the bank with lots of BIRR. We then went to see the grade school and looked at some planning and resources, after which we wandered back to Stephanie and Dawit's house for some lunch - again Injera with Shiro (made without onion and garlic especially for me). Me and Stephanie then had a long chat about the English Alive Academy, how it came about and where it's going to in the future. One more night in the bunk bed for me, then off to a hotel/guest house tomorrow.
THINGS I LEARNT TODAY:
There are lots of horse-drawn carts in the side streets which move pretty fast and many horses wandering freely on the roads.
If you drink the tap water, you get a nasty bug which can be cured in 24 hours if you recognise the symptoms and take some pills.
Hyenas are as common as dogs in Nazret - but they only come out at night.

Ethiopia First day - 27/09/13 otherwise known as 17/01/2006 in Ethiopia!

After a very long flight with crazy meal times (11.30pm and 4am) I arrived in Addis Ababa to stand in the longest immigration queue I've seen to date. I felt a little faint after the lack of sleep with sudden heat and although no-one spoke any English, a kind man gave me a bottle of water to get me through!
Once outside I met Stephanie and Dawit for the first time and was introduced to the Ethiopian greeting of three cheek kisses. We proceeded to go for breakfast and I enjoyed my first Ethiopian omelet whilst passers by chanted and waved bunches of flowers to celebrate the finding of the True Cross - Meskel - trust me to arrive on a public holiday and celebration! I'm so glad I did, as then on we went to Dawit's sisters' house to share in the family celebrations. After a short prayer I ate my first Injera (sour bread pancake) with Gomen (minced spinach) followed by a lovely slice of cake! I also tried another bread made from part of a non-fruiting banana tree but declined the Tera Sega (raw mince meat) and malt drink on this occasion. Dawit has a lovely family and I enjoyed the wonderful atmosphere of children playing and adults laughing, joking and sharing food.
It was quite cool in the city but when we left for the house in Nazret, I fell asleep in the hot car (damn jet lag) and awoke as we neared the town to see baboons walking across the road and beautiful scenes of green and brown plains with odd shaped trees on the horizon.
I crashed on the children's bunk beds (they stayed in Addis to carry on celebrating with their family) at Stephanie and Dawit's place that night and hoped to sort out my accommodation the next day..
Lovely people, top day, what a start!
THINGS I LEARNT TODAY:
Every dish in Ethiopia has onion and garlic in it.
There is a toothbrush tree (which I must investigate further for emergency teeth brushing situations)