Cooking in progress


Green oranges (oranges are green or yellow here; our colleagues were amazed when I explained that, at home, oranges are orange!) and our Jubuhna, a clay pot used for making coffee.

Dinner being prepared

Although our work can be tedious and frustrating it does have its rewards. I’ve been busy observing lessons in the college and I’ve seen some very encouraging things. Given their starting level in April, many of my HDP candidates have developed a lot and are implementing some of the methods we have explored on the course. There are a lot of rough edges in their technique but some lessons, such as Fekadu’s maths lesson I saw this morning, are right up there with a lot of lessons you might see in the UK. I learn a lot about my own teaching and at times I’d love to be back in a UK science lab teaching physics, as I would be a much much better teacher than I was six months ago. I had a “moment” during an observation this afternoon when I remembered photographs from VSO courses of volunteers in bare overcrowded classrooms in Africa, and realised that I am one of those volunteers. It’s easy to stop “seeing” what’s around you as your way of life becomes routine and familiar.

Our main problem at the moment is a lack of urgency on the part of the college management about reducing the workload of our tutors so they can take a bigger share of the lesson observation burden. The tutors are candidates in our HDP groups who we are also training up to become the Higher Diploma Leaders of future groups, after we have left the college. The tutors (there are three for Gill’s group and two for my group: Mesfin and Gobeize) are supposed to be given a reduction in their teaching timetable so they have time to work with us on preparing sessions, and also to conduct observations of their colleagues. Each candidate is supposed to be observed four times during the course i.e. for my group that’s 104 lesson observations. Sharing the observation load with the tutors is not just about making my life easier; it’s a key part of their professional development towards being Leaders of groups in the future. Despite meeting with the college management and agreeing workload reductions, the promised reductions have yet to happen. With only two weeks left of the summer teaching programme, and knowing that the next academic year doesn’t start until October, we are becoming increasingly worried that we will not be able to finish the course.

The weather today has been beautiful. It’s been warm and sunny all day, and at 5pm that familiar dark wall of cloud on the Eastern horizon appeared. With thunder rumbling in the clouds above my head, a vivid rainbow and a beautiful golden glow due to the approach of sunset, torrential rain started. It’s been hammering down all evening. Amazing.