Rules, Regulations and Procedures

So Dr No responds to my email to explain the procedures to follow to move all the broken furniture out of the compound so i can create a Role Play Centre, Audio-Visual/Multi-Media Room and a Teacher Resources Centre (hopefully containing yet to be purchased resources).

"Materials considered as scrap should be registered and reported to the internal auditor.The auditor will then discuss the matter with the share holders and give us the necessary directives.Materials in Gerji campus are registered, and those in Bole are being sorted. The compiled list will be given to the internal auditor sometime."

"Sometime" sounds about right.

But as Rob says why can’t we just get a truck to pick up all the crap and take it round the city’s recyclers? It won’t be their first illegal act.We're not meant to have a pre - Kindy on our site just for starters.

I’m itching to create more learning space on the compound – you would have thought that in poorer countries they would understand utilizing everything and maximizing resources. But they don’t.

End of the Holidays and the Ultimate Bourgeois Ex-Pat African Experience

It’s the end of the hols. For the first time since my arrival back to Addis, time has sped by. How the Hell did that happen? I’ve been here some 70 days (which feels like years) and i’ve only managed to avoid school for four of those days. Bonkers i know, but that’s OCD for you.

It’s a shock to my parents to hear me described as a workaholic by Frank at Heathrow Airport. They only know me as a bone-idol primary and secondary student who blagged his way through the the UK state education system achieving the bare minimum of C grades. But i am a passionate and dedicated educator with a love of quality teaching and learning and i can’t stop myself.

It isn’t a healthy balance of work-life and leisure i know, so i’ve vowed to spend a whopping Birr 3,000 and sign up for a year membership at the Old Legation Golf Club in the compound of the British Embassy. The intention is to get at least 2 sessions in a week. And it should be do-able; it’s only about a 15 minute drive from school or 20 from my apartment in favourable traffic.

Frank has been very keen to initiate me and we’ve completed three session and two score-cards to “verify” an official handicap.  Not sure how i’ll qualify for the minimum 24, not least due to my 11 on the par four 14^th on Friday.

It’s an interesting mix of blacks and whites, and through Frank, i’ve been introduced to a few of them. They’re an assortment of expats of varying ages from a huge variety of NGO personnel  and African Union diplomats. It’s all very polite and congenial (so far anyway) but with a few “Golf Knobs” who tell Frank off for picking a ball up from the water-logged hole with his club face.

With the start of the regular competitions, conditions on the course have improved somewhat, with greens now looking green and rolled rather than dry fairways. Frank is insistent i cut my teeth in Saturday’s first competition - Muller Real Estate Trophy. I’m pooping my pants – i’m used to hacking about with friends and family in a rather ad hoc fashion when i’m visiting England.

Fortunately, it’s a Stapleford tournament and the computer scorer won’t recognise anything above a 7. Even better, i’m drawn in a two ball with Frank. There are fifty four registered players for the day, and i’m on a maximum 24 handicap with Frank playing off 16. However, with my handicap still to verified i’ve no chance of being officially ranked. We’re booked in early in the morning, whilst others are down for an afternoon tee-off.

My game is aided somewhat with the employment of ball spotters strategically placed along fairways, so i save myself several shots from the start. My game is surprisingly consistent scoring a noble 36 points.

I turn down the opportunity to meet up for drinkies and dinner in the evening, where Frank informs me i am given “Special Commendation” for my 36 gave me forth spot on the leadership board.  I’ll probably be resting on my laurels until it is the turn of my school to host Competition Day - an annual event apparently. Respec’!  

I miss my driver back in London and so wish i had brought more low tees. Pa is already on the matter and will try and link up with Boss when she is next in UK to pass on to me.

Despite living in Hong Kong pre-1997 or my four year stint in Colombia i have never lived the ex-pat lifestyle. It may sound like i’m getting more bourgeois, conservative and colonial in my maturing years, but i’d like to thinks it’s just coz it’s Ethiopia and i like golf a lot.

School Site Update

Over the course of the vacation, things have been progressing to my satisfaction on site.And it's not often i can say that.

The canopy has been re-welded and just awaits the fabric and the kids will finally have shelter from the harsh rays of the sun. We’re situated about 2800 metres up and the UV readings are high. The painting of all cupboards and shelves is complete (some 8 weeks late), and most importantly of all, we now boast are very own fire alarm. Unfortunately however, it means i can procrastinate no longer and will have to develop and implement emergency evacuation procedures. Not my idea of fun for sure, but necessary nonetheless.

A sticking point remains the complete junk that fills three basement rooms. Ventilation is especially poor (although it’s bad throughout the building), but i have plans for each of the three. An AV room, a Role Play Centre and a Teacher Resources Centre. At first resistant, Site Manager Ketima has agreed to move out all the shit – i told him to take it for recycling, most of the junk is broken tables and chairs, plastic, metal and wood. Ketima tells me Mr A has told them he has to count the pieces before they can be removed, so i email him and tell him let the counting begin. Then, inevitably, killjoy reptilian Dr No sends me an email to inform me that as a PLC (more like private limited company) “we cannot simply throw away broken materials”. There are government rules, regulations and procedures to be followed. 

I don’t know if he’s simply bullshitting, biding more inertia time, or honest and genuine. I write back asking him for copy of the government rules, regulations and procedures of throwing out crap from a fast expanding school.

A Grand Day Out

 

government housing in Bishoftu in front of
Lake Chelekleka

I have to leave Addis. I really have to. I am so tunnel-visioned nothing else has existed beyond school for months.

I’d love to go for a few days’ break but i have got too much to do and sort, so i opt for a day trip to some volcanic lakes some 80 kms outside the sprawling city of Addis in Bishoftu. This is where Rob and Anna have spent the last 10 months volunteering to build and open the latest of my Boss’ schools.  They’re a choice English couple in the mid-sixties who met in Ethiopia back in 1970s. Which is how they know Boss. We usually meet up in Addis for either for Friday dinner or Saturday lunch to swap horror stories from the last 7 days and if it is lunch, Ms J joins us.

I have invited dedicated Ms J and her two youngest to join me, and pick them up early on root out of town. I’m far less nervous on the roads, a true sign of acclimatisation to my host city. The rented KIA’s clutch remains fairly buggered but i am confident it will get us there.

The road is sealed but has regular diversions on the way. Many stretches of the road are single lane only and with the amount of large tankers and trucks on the road, it is all too easy for the 80kms journey to take a few hours. 

Bishoftu has seen a lot of recent development and now has burgeoning population of 144,000 putting it into the top 10 most populated towns in Ethiopia It is also been the home to the Ethiopian air force since 1945. However, its rural charm around the neighbouring lakes which has encouraged numerous entrepreneurs, both local and foreign.

There are five lakes in all, which are accessible on foot or garis (horse-drawn carriages). Each one is quite different but equally as tranquil. We only manage to see four of them. 

 We start off at Lake Babogaya, where we introduce ourselves to Yann, a Belgium guy, who, with his local tribal wife run the beautifully located Viewpoint Lodge, a fave with Anna and Rob. His was the original lodge brought several years ago, but now there are several scattered around the crater’s edge. He offers us lunch, but it’s only 10.30 and we have only just finished breakfast at the respectable Ethiopian Air-force and Officer’s Club, so we politely decline.   

 growing beans

Our next stop is to check out Rob and Anna who headed up to Lalibela with 2 of their kids last week, but due back today. We have no problem locating the school with it’s lovely location in front of Lake Chelekleka , but there is no sign of Rob and Anna. 

The Security Guard nonetheless shows us around the school. It has five classrooms and is beautiful. But at the moment there are only 8 students. The shiny imported resources put my school to shame. The guard then offers to escort us to the top of the ridge where there is a quality view of Lake Hora.

  Lake Hora

Having worked up an appetite, we head to Rosemary, where both Rob and Anna rate as one of the best serviced restaurants in Ethiopia. Although it gotta be said, there is little competition. We’re all non-plused as they inform us that there is no bread for sandwiches ordered. Ms J suggests going to bakery and magically it is sorted. My steak and cheese sandwich is pretty good, but Ms J and kids are not impressed with the chicken nuggets and Jody ends up feeding them to the well-fed cat. Nonetheless the order was correct and took a mere 22 minutes to serve.  

We head over to the lakeside of Hora, where we see cormorant fisherfolk and a rich biodiversity of bird-life. However the area is busy with strollers, and Jody wants to swim but has no swimming costume. 

We head up over to the much smaller and quieter Lake Kiroftu close to the beautiful but expensive Kuriftu Lodge. Only Jody enters the water which she describes as cold and rocky. I just lie in the sun and appreciate the serenity. It’s been a grand day out.

 Ms J, Emma and Jody

Resourcing Disasters

The urge to get out of Addis has been great, especially with a nine day half term holiday, but there is stuff i want to get sorted at school – not least resource sourcing and purchasing. But nothing is straightforward in Addis.

After an aborted trip last week where i totally couldn’t find local manufacturers, i am forced to ask for Dr No for his assistance in getting me over there. The thought of spending “alone” time with him in a car is totally horrendous, so i persuade Ms J to join us and go mad with the cheque book. However, when we do locate the compound all the managers are out in a meeting and not expected back for the rest of the day. There is nothing else for it, but to turn back to school again empty-handed.

The school has nothing, nada, vunsun. No counters, dice, cards, toys, building blocks, rulers, pencil holders, et infintum. These can be sourced in Mecato – Addis’ sprawling and claustrophobic market-place. It’s a complete labyrinth so i want Yasin (weaselly purchasing officer) to take me round with my “floating budget” of Birr 3,000. It’s my money but apparently i am not allowed to be given it, but i think if Yasin is with me, i might be trusted. However, unexpectedly Yasin has had a “Ring Ceremony” (he can now kiss his bride-to-be) he has been given the entire week off. This closely follows his mysterious 7 day  medical certificate.