Da Boss

My Boss is a 67 year old English cancer sufferer and has spent much of the last two years receiving treatment in the west of England.

She was sole contact with the school during my application, and she came across as old and sick and quite fragile. Despite confused, protracted and convoluted Skype calls, she also appeared to be a sincere visionary.

A very deceptive veil unfortunately. She was cced in my many emails to find out the extent of resources, but did not facilitate the correspondence, let alone tell me there is no inventory because there are no resources. She also informed me withdrawing money out of Ethiopia is easy and it is not. I feel hood-winked and i don't like deceit.

Boss first came to Addis in the early 1970s and taught at Ethiopia’s most prestigious school, Sandford. Originally in the hands of educators, the parents took over the school and she left in disgust. The Derg came in and like most farengis (foreigners) she left the country. She returned with husband Frank in the 1990s and became the Executive Director appointed by founder Ato S of my school. She was his teacher at Sandford.

She has gone on to open her own schools including two early Primary schools in Addis and has just had built (by volunteer friends, Rob and Anna) a third in Bishoftu, some 60 – 80kms out of Addis.

However, this has now given rise to serious conflicts of interests. My fit secretary and two members of teaching staff have been poached to her school, requests made by the Boss’ schools to Ms J to pass over our curriculum mapping, and perhaps most outrageously, i receive emails asking me to send our new students to fill up her Addis schools. I am the Director of my site and i have to act in the best interests of my school, so i totally ignore her requests. Most guiling of all, she informs me that i should send them across to her as her sites are beautiful and she has plenty of resources.

The bottom line is not only is my Boss openly deceitful, she is responsible for the school since it’s inception and has neglected to develop it and move it forward. I'm bloody furious with her and am trying to avoid going head to head. However, i am seen as a “favourite” (she has a few of these – all men), and have received none of her infamous abusive and belittling emails.
 

Since her arrival back into Addis following her recent treatment in UK, with the added hardship of burying her mother, her “interests” have taken her away from my school. She flies back to UK for a further three weeks on the 10^th November and i’m counting the days. As well as keeping a low profile over the half term holiday.