Making It Pretty

One of the two chief concerns i had about signing my contract in Addis was the school building itself. It is a rented converted office block and it looked very Third Worldish, and appallingly maintained when i was invited to visit the school in April. 

I call in my Site Manager, a lovely old gentleman called Mr K. who worked at the most prestigious Ethiopian school, Sandford for 45 years. Whilst i can’t change the building structure itself, i endeavour to insure what we have is made to look like an real international school.

There are empty plug socks openly available to little hands and i show him all the areas that need painting and all the bathrooms that look like a refugee camp. We walk round the site together and i use my Post-it stickers to label all areas of concern. And there are many.

Worse still, all the sink areas are blocked and they will have to dig up the playground immediately to access the underground pipes.

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Realising the enormity of the task, he then calls in back-ups from the Secondary campus where all the administration live. I have requested only one person that is my go-between between the sites, but within the course of the week four people have been appointed over the week, and i repeat the school walk-about with all of them in turn to ensure there is a common understanding. 

Maintenance staff from the Secondary site is called in and i inform them that i will not open the school to students on the 17^th if the site remains unsafe. We don’t even have a fire alarm – apparently most schools in Ethiopia don’t either!

I justify the mammoth operation by informing all and sundry that i want to take parents around the school and feel proud. Word will spread, we get more students in and we might even get a half decent salary.