Mulugeta and I did some work together on Tuesday. I helped him carry some wood to a workshop a few streets away to be chopped into pieces he can turn into counting sticks and other maths resources. The “workshop” was actually the front yard of a house and was a health & safety nightmare, although after a year and half here I get less fazed about that sort of thing now. In a small room was a circular saw surrounded by piles of sawdust. Moving the sawing bench into a more convenient position was achieved by the operator kicking it across the room while it was on. I spent the next hour watching him spray the area with wood chippings and sawdust.

A lot of the time I want to be in charge of the cluster unit so I can make some necessary changes, but then occasionally I’m really glad I’m not. A few days ago I was told by the instructor who is “in charge” of the unit that we have 20,000 birr left over from last year to add to the 50,000 birr we have been allocated for the coming year. Yesterday it turned out that we supposedly overspent by 23,000 birr last year. Given that the 50,000 birr has already been allocated this leaves us with a few problems. As usual I was left stunned by the lack of any proper systems that would allow people to track important things like budgets.

At least Mulugeta was happy yesterday. Being busy making something makes Mulugeta very happy and contented. We want to put up a noticeboard in the entrance to the main admin building to communicate what we do in the cluster unit to the college staff. I’m hoping that this will help to get instructors onboard about what we do and make it easier for us to get instructors involved in the in-service programme. Getting this thing up and running will feel like a big achievement in the current climate of chronic under-work.