A people untouched by… McDonalds! (03/08)

Perhaps teaching in an Ethiopian school would not be so bad after all, for it seems that teachers there have little marking to do. Tedros has decided instead of coming in at the end of my lessons to do a question and answer session, which has limited success in all fairness, each two students are nominated to write a report of each lesson. They present this to the rest of the class at the start of the next lesson. It’s a good idea and helps them grow in confidence speaking in front of their peers, whilst learning the skills of report reading and summarising. I offered to take in the written reports of the students today and mark them, helping them further improve with corrections. I have rarely seen someone’s face light up like Gebreyesus’. He excitedly said, “Are you going to correct my mistakes? Can I have it back afterwards to learn from them?” “Yes”, I replied, “do you not get work marked for corrections usually?” He replied, “Not really.”, but by his reaction I guessed he was trying to be polite about the inadequacies of the Ethiopian Government education system. It certainly doesn’t seem to do too many favours to the street children.

I am enjoying my time in the project more and more, I am less nervous about walking into the classroom and I am far more confident about what I am doing. Equally, I am buoyed on by the fact I am having some success! With my morning group, after doing some expert shopping with some adlibbed lines in the role plays such as “That is not my favourite brand of cigar. Do you have another?” and “My shopping is too heavy. Do you have the number for a taxi?”. Daniel asked me, “Why is it you always smile Andy?”. I told him it was impossible not to in their class.

We also did a ‘A-Team’ versus ‘B-Team’ quiz covering all we had learnt this week, it turned into quite a riot, but nearly all the students seemed to had learned a fair bit. Surprising to many, I must be an effective English teacher! It was the first day that I felt confident about what I was doing, I was comfortable and getting more into things. It was only natural that it would take a little time, but this is something very new to me!

During the break, I spent time talking to Hialu, who used to be a student at the project for many years. He has now managed to get a job working as a women’s hairdresser. He is very proud of his job, but tells me it pays very little and that is why he returns to project for lunch most days. He told me that Friday was actually his one day-off this week and he had come to the project to help out where he can, and because he doesn’t really have anywhere else to go. As much as I want to celebrate in the success of Hialu managing to get one of the few jobs in the Ethiopian economy, there is a big part of me that still struggles to see it as the complete answer to a young man like Hialu’s problems.

I spent about 20 minutes going through my little photo album again today, the children really do love it. They think Sarah, who is in fact 15 looks ‘at least 30’, I’m not sure she will be too happy with that. I had an amazing moment though, when they pointed to Southend High Street’s finest eating establishment, McDonalds and asked what it was. I was genuinely shocked that I was sat with around 30 children who did not have a clue about McDonalds. It was a truly liberating moment as I told them, that I hoped that never find out (hiding my secret and sudden craving for a McChicken sandwich, large fries and still Fanta). I said, it is a fast-food restaurant that serves chips and burgers. They asked if I went often, I said never.

Today, I also decided that I would begin a ‘name-to-photo’ project. Me and Tommy have lots of photos already between us and I have used photos to help me learn the names of the students in my classes (although there is still some way to go!). However there are lots more people involved in the project and students that I don’t teach who I have photos of and spend my time with. I am terrible with names at the best of times, and struggle to recall all my friends and family at times, so I thought I would begin labelling up pictures of as many students as possible. When I come home I do not want to look at pictures of ‘a load of street children’, because that is not what they are. Abba Gebremichael School has over a hundred gifted, inspirational, funny, clever and caring students and I want to at least be able to refer to them by name, even when my memory is failing me in a few months time! John has an amazing gift for remembering names and I hope that he will help me in this task.

On the way home I treated myself and John to some belus. These ‘cactus fruit’ are really growing on me and I genuinely believe you could eat them all day and never get full but be totally refreshed. Most of the children (particularly the street children) will go to collect them at one point or another. This involves a long pole with a nail on it and a little precision. They are then sold in large bowls at the roadside. It is a small income for the children and we obviously find ‘our’ children. Me and John found Trhas and bought 6 from her and sister. They were delicious and superior to the ones we had at St Vincent’s, Trhas loved that when we told her, and cost us just 6 Birr (35p). We also felt pleased we were helping out where we could in different way. Each student at Abba Gebremichael pays 10cents (0.5p) per day for their food in order to teach them not to rely on charity and handouts. This was being counted in the sewing room/staff room/office and is used to offset some of the costs. I found out the main sponsor of the project is Caritas Germany. I got this from John’s blog that I spent an hour and half reading today, it is a source of information and background details on Mekele and the Daughter and their work, which I will add in future (with credit!).

Asiz and Elsie are our wonderful housekeepers at St Vincent’s. They run the place and keep everything as it should be. One of their roles is washing clothes and I rather sheepishly took my first load of t-shirts to be washed. I wanted to do it myself, but there is certain etiquette regarding how you treat ‘staff’ in Ethiopia (Tommy had got himself in right trouble for using the staff toilet as the other ones were busy!). Sr. Medhin had told us to wash our pants and socks ourselves, which was no bother, except my boxers seem to be taking an exceedingly long time to dry. Things are getting close to critical – especially as I managed to put my foot through the middle of one of my 5 pairs! Tommy has lent me a needle and thread by I am little worried to admit that I don’t actually know how to sow. I could take them up to the project to be sewn I guess, or I could just find a shop and buy some more.

John took me and Tommy shopping today for a present for Sr Fisseha. It was her birthday today, but she had forgotten until another sister had phoned her from Addis to wish her happy birthday. At lunchtime we sang her ‘Happy Birthday’ as well as ‘For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow’ which I think bemused her, but equally appreciated. At the project, we had a small coffee ceremony where both Tommy and I ate far too much popcorn, although in fairness, it was left in front of us! On our shopping trip we managed to buy a card, which had all nature of intricate pop up parts, and a box of chocolates from a supermarket in the main shopping street. It was good to see a shop with prices already labelled, we had already paid ‘faranji price’ for the card so it was relief to get the present for normal price. We then stopped for a drink and had a mirinda (fizzy orange) as our mission was accomplished. During our café break, there was the usual stream of young children selling tissues, dodgy looking CDs/DVDs and lotto scratch cards. I guess someone, somewhere must buy them, but I am yet to see evidence of it. John did point of the ‘Axum Gift Shop’ where we can buy some local and traditional goods to take home for friends and family. I warn you now, it looks like leather and silver are the way forward with both being of very good quality at low prices.

Walking into and through the busier parts of town there are things that keep reminding you exactly where you are. I still find it difficult to walk past the beggars: children, the disabled, the immeasurably poor. The trouble is, to give one beggar some money would mean being mobbed by every other beggar and opportunist. We are constantly told to be careful about giving anything to anyone by the sisters as it does not take long to get a reputation as a ‘faranji who gives things’ and as soon as you get that, there will never be a seconds peace. My conscience constantly does battle with this though and probably 1Birr would make a lot of difference to many of these people. I guess through my donations and fundraising for the project, as well as my work there, I am doing the right thing in the long run for this community. Buying belus from our students and taking them out for the odd drink here and there is a better way of channelling my charity. I still feel gutted and helpless when I see people lying in the street with a little begging dish in front of them, obviously suffering from malnutrition and varying illness, disease or disability. Remember there are no government benefits to be had here, none. No social welfare and no old age or disability pensions.

Today was also the day of the first mosquito. I have not seen or heard any since I arrived and consequently gave up on the mosquito net after the first night. I have hardly used any of my repellent and usually have my bedside light on instead of my plug in insect repellent. Maybe these will be decisions I regret at some point but for the time being I think I am pretty safe. Mekele is also not a malaria danger zone as it is between 2150-2270 meters above sea level. However, bites are still irritating and itchy. The aforementioned one mosquito was in my room and after around 5 minutes leaping around I managed to ‘get him’ and cover the wall in blood. Obviously someone else had been ‘got’ by him first!

We ended the day with the trio of faranji heading out for some tradition Ethiopian grub. Very close to St Vincent’s there is a place called Maharito which serves very good local food and as me and Tommy so far have only been dined out on pizza so far we thought it would be a good idea. We all had tibis (pronounced tibs, we think) which are small bits of meat which come served on a little charcoal burner served with both bread and injera. At a guess, it was steak, with onions and a few peppers but it was actually delicious. For someone who has not long eaten meat, I really enjoyed it. Incidentally, it was a good idea I trained my stomach up to eat pretty much anything as it has suffered a fair bit of abuse on the food front and so far has held up pretty well. For that reason, I avoided the spicy sauce that the tibis are served with!