Bale Mountains mist


Tukuls


A mountain hut shower


Fields of teff (the staple food crop of Ethiopia)

The flies were annoying today. There seems to be a permanent population of flies in our office at college. Just outside our window is the staff toilet (a pit latrine with concrete walls and a tin roof) which doesn’t help. Trying to kill the bastards using an empty poster tube is a great way to get some exercise.

At last students have started to arrive and register at the college. Apparently there are now over one thousand registered students for the 10+1 course (a one year course leading to a “Certificate” to teach in 1^st cycle primary schools, for people who have completed Grade 10 at High School and failed to get a good enough grade to stay at school to do Grade 11 & 12). This is important because we cannot complete the HDP until our candidates have had at least one more lesson observation from us, which cannot of course happen until classes begin. The college still feels empty although all the staff are supposed to be here preparing and planning for the new academic year. At home the adrenalin would be starting to flow as teachers prepare for the new school year, but here, in true Ethiopian style, the only buzz about the place is coming from the bloody flies in our office.

Hopefully soon we will get some news from VSO about when we finish here and move to Gonder. According to the last version of our work plan, agreed with VSO and the college, we should finish here at the end of October. Unfortunately the college didn’t release our HDP tutors from their teaching timetable over the summer to help us do lesson observations, and the unplanned for three week break over New Year and Meskel has meant that we will not finish until sometime during November. The college is happy to pay for us to stay another month and we are happy to stay, but VSO in the form of our programme manager is being awkward. Yes of course our new partners in Gonder want us there as soon as possible, but our programme manager has refused to talk with them to find out their views on a slightly later arrival date. It’s getting a bit frustrating not knowing when we are leaving, given that in theory it could be in three weeks time. Our programme manager has this rather inflexible attitude that we should “stick to the plan” even though “the plan” is now irrelevant as circumstances outside of our control have changed.

Our priority is to leave the HDP course here so it will run effectively after we leave, however I am also keen to get to Gonder and start my cluster co-coordinator role. I like most aspects of our lives in Awassa such as our home, our landlord, the town itself, most of the other VSOs and our employer so I would normally expect to feel sad and anxious about leaving for an unknown situation elsewhere, but I actually feel excited about moving. Change is stimulating and I’m very interested in my new role working directly with schools, especially because I will have colleagues rather than candidates I am assessing. I’m also excited about living and working in a different part of the country.