It’s Friday night and I’m knackered. A combination of heat (that old subject again…), work and illness has drained me. I feel a need to just blob in front of some trashy TV.
I’ve spent part of this week consulting with the college about their new science labs. We have watched a new building containing three science labs, a language lab, a computer lab and sports hall take shape since February. The buildings are to enable the college to start offering degree courses and become a university. Once the degree programme is up and running, students intending to teach in secondary schools will be training alongside students for primary (1st and 2nd cycle) teaching.
Like everything else in Ethiopia, watching people go about activities we might not give a second thought to at home is endlessly fascinating. Scaffolding here is made of the trunks of young trees, and is tied or nailed together. Building sites are a health and safety nightmare. There was a man using an angle grinder in one of the labs, but the nearest electricity socket was in a nearby building. So, the power cable snaked across the floor and ended in a standard two-pin plug which was lying in the mud outside. A cable had been plugged into a socket in another building and trailed across the ground, ending in two bare wires. These bare wires had been wrapped around the pins of the plug for the angle grinder. Men will be digging trenches with just a pickaxe while wearing flip-flops. At least construction is one of the few occupations where there is near-equality between men and women: a lot of the labouring, digging and brick-carrying is done by women.
The building work is nearly finished and must be completed by Monday, so despite being available to offer advice since February, the college decided to ask my views on the layout of the physics lab on Wednesday. Fortunately the physics lab is still a shell. Their original plans were for a similar layout to the chemistry and biology labs, with two long, fixed benches. Along with one of the physics teachers at the college, we have come up with a plan with moveable benches. After an evening in front of powerpoint drawing a plan (there are no plans for these new buildings!) I gave some recommendations to the college. It’s nice to be able to say that I am largely responsible for the design of their new physics lab.
The whole experience has been very revealing about how projects like this are approached. At home, the interested parties would get together and discuss factors such as number of students to be accommodated, long term requirements, etc. Then (hopefully) the relevant people would discuss needs and agree detailed plans. Only then might construction start. Here the college investors decided to build first, then think about internal layout and skip the consultation-with-users part.
Having said that, what they are trying to achieve is really amazing. The five investors in the college have grand ambitions and are thinking big. Debub Ethiopia College of Teacher Education (DECTE) will be the only private college in southern Ethiopia offering degree programmes in sciences, and having an indoor educational sports facility. The language lab will be the only language lab in a private college in the whole country. Private colleges are much more important here than at home. Government institutions are bloated with bureaucracy while private colleges tend to be much more efficient. The private sector fills a need here that the government simply cannot meet. The five Ethiopians who put money into the college are incredibly motivated to provide a service to their country (while also making a profit!). The language lab can take fifty students, with each desk equipped with headphones and microphone all connected to a console on the teacher’s desk. Everything has been made in a small workshop on-site. Local people have been used to install the wiring and we have watched each day as the tables and chairs have been made by hand from wood and metal. The result is a language lab a school at home would be proud of, for a total cost of 25,000 birr (approx £1,700!!!). To buy from a commercial company and have it installed would have cost 1,000,000 birr!
The excitement about being involved with the new buildings has been dampened a bit by being ill. Gill was clobbered by diarrhoea and general unwellness on Wednesday and stayed at home all day. After reading the health advice we were provided with by VSO, we thought we had better check the possibility of malaria. A quick trip to the clinic and one blood test later the result was negative. She started to recover a bit just as I felt awful on Wednesday evening. Thursday was my turn to enjoy the delights of diarrhoea and general feeling of awfulness. I spent the afternoon at home with my feet in a bowl of cold water and sponging myself to try and keep cool, while my insides gurgled and erupted away. The funny side of it all is that if you mention feeling unwell to an Ethiopian, they automatically ask you about your bowel movements and are big fans of stool tests. Not quite the passing conversation you have with colleagues at home.
At last, it is raining! I love the sound of heavy rain on our metal roof.
I’ve spent part of this week consulting with the college about their new science labs. We have watched a new building containing three science labs, a language lab, a computer lab and sports hall take shape since February. The buildings are to enable the college to start offering degree courses and become a university. Once the degree programme is up and running, students intending to teach in secondary schools will be training alongside students for primary (1st and 2nd cycle) teaching.
Like everything else in Ethiopia, watching people go about activities we might not give a second thought to at home is endlessly fascinating. Scaffolding here is made of the trunks of young trees, and is tied or nailed together. Building sites are a health and safety nightmare. There was a man using an angle grinder in one of the labs, but the nearest electricity socket was in a nearby building. So, the power cable snaked across the floor and ended in a standard two-pin plug which was lying in the mud outside. A cable had been plugged into a socket in another building and trailed across the ground, ending in two bare wires. These bare wires had been wrapped around the pins of the plug for the angle grinder. Men will be digging trenches with just a pickaxe while wearing flip-flops. At least construction is one of the few occupations where there is near-equality between men and women: a lot of the labouring, digging and brick-carrying is done by women.
The building work is nearly finished and must be completed by Monday, so despite being available to offer advice since February, the college decided to ask my views on the layout of the physics lab on Wednesday. Fortunately the physics lab is still a shell. Their original plans were for a similar layout to the chemistry and biology labs, with two long, fixed benches. Along with one of the physics teachers at the college, we have come up with a plan with moveable benches. After an evening in front of powerpoint drawing a plan (there are no plans for these new buildings!) I gave some recommendations to the college. It’s nice to be able to say that I am largely responsible for the design of their new physics lab.
The whole experience has been very revealing about how projects like this are approached. At home, the interested parties would get together and discuss factors such as number of students to be accommodated, long term requirements, etc. Then (hopefully) the relevant people would discuss needs and agree detailed plans. Only then might construction start. Here the college investors decided to build first, then think about internal layout and skip the consultation-with-users part.
Having said that, what they are trying to achieve is really amazing. The five investors in the college have grand ambitions and are thinking big. Debub Ethiopia College of Teacher Education (DECTE) will be the only private college in southern Ethiopia offering degree programmes in sciences, and having an indoor educational sports facility. The language lab will be the only language lab in a private college in the whole country. Private colleges are much more important here than at home. Government institutions are bloated with bureaucracy while private colleges tend to be much more efficient. The private sector fills a need here that the government simply cannot meet. The five Ethiopians who put money into the college are incredibly motivated to provide a service to their country (while also making a profit!). The language lab can take fifty students, with each desk equipped with headphones and microphone all connected to a console on the teacher’s desk. Everything has been made in a small workshop on-site. Local people have been used to install the wiring and we have watched each day as the tables and chairs have been made by hand from wood and metal. The result is a language lab a school at home would be proud of, for a total cost of 25,000 birr (approx £1,700!!!). To buy from a commercial company and have it installed would have cost 1,000,000 birr!
The excitement about being involved with the new buildings has been dampened a bit by being ill. Gill was clobbered by diarrhoea and general unwellness on Wednesday and stayed at home all day. After reading the health advice we were provided with by VSO, we thought we had better check the possibility of malaria. A quick trip to the clinic and one blood test later the result was negative. She started to recover a bit just as I felt awful on Wednesday evening. Thursday was my turn to enjoy the delights of diarrhoea and general feeling of awfulness. I spent the afternoon at home with my feet in a bowl of cold water and sponging myself to try and keep cool, while my insides gurgled and erupted away. The funny side of it all is that if you mention feeling unwell to an Ethiopian, they automatically ask you about your bowel movements and are big fans of stool tests. Not quite the passing conversation you have with colleagues at home.
At last, it is raining! I love the sound of heavy rain on our metal roof.
posted by Michael at 21:43
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