Hospital

I arrive early on site again. It has been swept and mopped but clearly no disinfectant. I am seething. Again!

Ms J has beaten me in to school and we head across to The Pavilion to chew the fat. She has been in Ethiopia for the last 20 years and still can’t make sense of this very “unique” country and it’s people. And she is African!

Secretary asks calls me up from the school telling me to come to the office immediately. It takes me less than a minute and she tells me to go into the Nurse’s Room. There i find Ashenafi, my somewhat smelly Grade Three teacher rolling on the bed, feverish and delirious. I bundle him and “Nurse” Martha into the car and head straight down to the nearest High Clinic. We arrive to find apart from Birr 80 (about US$5) in my pockets they are penniless. I ask them to call the office when they have any news.

I email SMT to report on my morning, but the only response i get is from Ato Sin who asks me could i prepare a letter for Ashenafi requesting payment for his March salary in advance. It seems a bit mercenary but i don’t have any money on me, so i do.

By 10.30 he has endured both blood and urine tests. And the diagnosis is extreme typhus and typhoid. Ashenafi is a solitary and strange kinda guy, collects his 7 day medical certificate and checks himself out. To save his money i’m sure.

I am deeply stressed and seriously concerned of the well-being of my beautiful children. They might all be infested with lice, typhus and typhoid, but i hug and/or kiss some 30 - 50 of them throughout the course of the day and i treasure each and every one of them.

I decide to write my Newsletter which is released every Monday with the students (oldest siblings only). I regularly write about Health and Safety and as Addis is at it’s driest season i decide to open with the three most common ailments – colds, flu and typhus. I write down the symptoms and recommendations. I also write about the Hand Washing posters now in every classroom, Miss J.  and Mr. Z. leading infomercials for their sections and extra cleaning on campus. I also put in other bits on International Day (scheduled for Saturday week) and uniform information. It really is very innocuous.

After being accused of operating in isolation,  not sharing or being a team player, i send out the Newsletter thinking it has stuck the right balance, it is swiftly laid into by Ato S and unusually Ginger Warrior concurs with him. The word “typhus” must be removed and not to mention the extra cleaning. I’m out-voted and extremely pissed off. I have written several controversial newsletters and have never been censored or abused from its’ contents. 

We sometimes have one or occasionally 2 students being sent home during the school day. We're up to 8 from 6 yesterday.

I invite SMT to join my Primary Management meeting, but no-one else joins Miss J and Mr Z. We finish before 4.20pm – a record. We are all drained from a worrying week. 

I call Ato S and tell him my day has been busy and ask him to write SMT a report on hat he has done to assist my school. We are all accountable. It transpires that apart from cursory look on the Internet, he has done nothing at all. No wonder this is The School of Inertia - "led" from the very top!