21st Century School

Coming to the end of October and i still haven’t been given a budget, And there is so much the school needs! Nonetheless General Manager and School Founder Ato S gave me carte blanche to buy resources, and i don’t need to be asked twice.

No more fucking around trying to buy hoops, i want some big shit! A big fuck-off T.V. for a start. The school has a crappy 21’ set that has been commandeered by our bizarre Music Teacher, Ms Enatanesh, and i have earmarked a space downstairs for an AV/Media Room. I have just got to get Ato Ketima (Site Manager) to remove all his crap from there – broken tables and chairs, and even an ancient fridge. My school is finally moving into the 21^st Century.

I fill in the appropriate requisite form, label and highlight it as urgent,  photocopy it for “evidence,” and pass it direct to Ato Yasin, our weaselly Purchasing Officer. Yasin has meant to have been on my site for the last three weeks on orders by HR,, but this is the first time he has made it over. He explains he has “been sick” but when i get to query it with HR, it transpires he does have a medical certificate, but only for a week. When i ask Mr A what was he was doing for the other unexplained two weeks i am reliably informed he has been “very busy at the Ministry of Education.” Well he certainly hasn’t been very busy on my campus, that’s for sure.

Yasin looks at the Requisite Form aghast. Usually i’m trying to get some glue sticks, scissors or crayons. This is a Big One and he knows it. He looks inspired and impressed. He makes a phone-call to his Electronics Man for pricing gets quotes for various sizes. The 40’ isn’t going too crazy and i tell him to go and buy it immediately.

He scurries off, and i don’t see him for five days. He doesn’t call, send a text or pick up his phone to me. I call HR, demanding he calls. Which he does – the following day. He can’t buy it because Dr No won’t sign the cheque. I’m completely seething and decide to have it out with Dr No once and for all. I loathe the nasty reptile with a passion which he continues to ignite. It’s Senior Management meeting the next day and i decide to go early and corner him in his office.

The traffic is diabolical on the way up to the Secondary campus, and with just 10 minutes only before the start of the SMT meeting when i finally arrive, there is no time to go eyeball-to-eyeball with him. Nonetheless it’s one of the better meetings. Boss is back but concedes to my chairing and there are plenty of opportunities to berate Dr No. Again he has not completed any of given tasks and Boss puts in the boot over his fuck-up in withholding payments, increments and bonuses from all staff since the start of the academic year. He explains the refusal to sign the cheque for my telly as he only was been given two of the three required quotes. I just glare at him. I am a complete pacifist and have never hit a person in my life, but my loathing of this worm is so great, i picture myself headbutting him in the face.

I begin to fear the worse. They’ll get me the cheapest  40’ TV they can find – circa 1968 and black and white.

Nine days after the Requisite Form (labelled Urgent) the TV finally arrives and i’m completely over the moon. It’s the dog’s bollocks of 42’ flat-screen plasmas. I can imagine Dr No vomiting at having to sign the cheque for me. And i’m happier still.

 The AV/Media Room still has Ato Ketima’s crap in it so there is no other safe option than to put it in my office. Onlookers presume it is my own – they find it impossible that it is the latest resource to arrive for the school.

It's a fitting end to the first half of term. With the advent of Eid, the holiday will last nine days. I’m desperate to get out of Addis, but i am driven to get a whole bunch more of resource sourcing and collecting around town too. A real dilemma.