Work
My placement title is Methodology Trainer/ Teacher trainer and I’m based in one of the sub zones which has 8 primary schools, 4 secondaries and 3 seniors. The idea is to work closely with the local Ministry of Education and supervisor (inspector) to identify a group of Key teachers, train them further and they in turn will be able to give training to other teachers...all part of VSO’s sustainable development plan.
I arrived in the village on 25th February, keen to start work, only to find that both the boss and supervisor were at a meeting in Barentu which is the regions head office and situated 200 miles away. They returned last Thursday, 5th March. So I decided to help out at the local secondary school which was experiencing a bit of a teacher shortage, just 12 teachers for 1,300 pupils. I taught English to the grade 7 students, aged anywhere between 11 and 15. This was “a good learning experience” as they say; classes of 60+, often a text book between 4 and students that are just programmed to copy everything you say or write on the blackboard. They were also quite hyper at having a teacher, and especially a foreign one. They’d stand outside their classroom door shouting, “get in here, teacher!” and then clap at the end of the lesson. They also say “thank you, teacher” when asked to sit down, fight over who can clean the board and rush to carry your bag...not the surly teenagers I’m used to.
Now that the supervisor is back, we’ve started our programme. So far, we’ve visited 4 schools, met all the teachers, drunk lots of tea and once we’ve travelled round all the schools in the region start running some workshops. I should be bringing my motorbike here from Asmara this weekend to make travel a bit easier but the supervisor is not convinced about riding pillion. He keeps telling me that there are buses, but some of them only run on certain days and are often only one way.
I organised a writing competition to coincide with International Women’s Day last week. The title was “A woman I admire”. There were some good entries, several on Eritrean women fighters, but there was also many copied from books and three were exactly the same! We’re having photos and prize giving tomorrow..all very exciting.Well, that’s a brief outline for now. I’m sure I’ll have more soon.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
My new home
Wednesday 25th February
The bus journey to Mekerka
The day had come to travel to my new house. I was told that I should get a bus sometime between 7 and 11am and so I headed off to the bus station at 7:30. You have to just ask around for bus destinations as there is no office, no timetable and no bus numbers. I was soon told that there would be a bus to Mekerka in 10 mins..brilliant! After 20 mins I was taken to a bus (an old, blue, square shaped one), and seated behind the driver. Then the driver disappeared for nearly 2 hours!! Apparently the bus only leaves when it’s full so the driver was probably sitting in the bar around the corner drinking tea. In the meantime the bus slowly filled up and at least 30 different people got on the bus selling water, bread, tissues, chewing gum, watches, radios, t.shirts and the occasional beggar. There was more activity than in the market square. At one point two men had this very heated argument which only ended when one was escorted off the bus by some of the other passengers. Once we got going at 10am, we had to take a detour to a garage outside of town to get some petrol...at this point I naturally assumed that I was on the wrong bus. We chugged along steadily for the first half an hour or so then left the tarmac road. Things got a bit bumpier for a while on the red road. Then the journey turned into a white knuckle ride as we didn’t appear to be travelling on any road at all, just going cross country. Thankfully the bus reached Mekerka in one piece at 11:45. 32km in nearly 2 hours. I’d sat beside a teacher from the senior school who spoke some English and told me the names of all the villages we passed through and when we got to Mekerka he got a young lad to help me carry my bags to the house and it seemed that everyone in town knew I was coming. Next time I may take the motorbike.
My home
My home is in the village of Mekerka which is 32 km from Asmara. It’s in the highlands at 2,300m above sea level and so has a lovely climate; cool mornings and evenings and a daytime temperature of about 25c, but will get hotter in April and May. The rains come in the summer. It’s not a big village and the centre appears to be a street with a bus stop, 2 small shops, a tea shop and a “hotel”. The main secondary school is in the middle of the village. It has a huge open space in front of it where the kids play football, volleyball and the donkeys wander when it’s free. There are donkeys and goats everywhere and lots of chickens and children too. The school also has a satellite dish so a lot of people go there in the evening to watch local tv and international football matches: apparently it’s standing room only on Saturday evenings when Arsenal, Chelsea or Man Utd are playing.
part of the village
My house is up a little hill and so has a glorious view over the village and the land and hills beyond. I’ll try and include some photos. There is no obvious path to the house..it’s all a bit of cross country walking and I usually end up in some neighbour’s goat / chicken yard but they don’t seem to mind and always want me to go in for coffee or tea. My closest neighbour is Dehab who lives with her mother in law and 2 young girls and, as her uncle is my landlord, she feels the need to look after me. Shushy, my neighbour on the other side, has 5 boys under 12 and a husband who lives somewhere else with another woman. The house has 2 big rooms; one I use as a bedroom/lounge and the other as a kitchen/bathroom. The toilet is outside in a kind of concrete shed. I have a little garden area but there’s not much growing there at the moment. I hope to have a go at growing things soon. The house has 24 hour electricity which is a real bonus but no running water. The cleaning water comes from a communal well and the drinking water comes with a student on a donkey. I haven’t worked out where exactly it comes from but I have a water filter and so filter it just to be on the safe side. This all means that the kitchen/bathroom contains a collection of buckets and basins, all with a different purpose.
The house is quite private once the gate is shut and it is lovely to have my little refuge in the evening away from all the shouts of “hello teacher”, “what’s your name?” “where are you from?” the kids are sweet but there questions are fairly constant!
The bus journey to Mekerka
The day had come to travel to my new house. I was told that I should get a bus sometime between 7 and 11am and so I headed off to the bus station at 7:30. You have to just ask around for bus destinations as there is no office, no timetable and no bus numbers. I was soon told that there would be a bus to Mekerka in 10 mins..brilliant! After 20 mins I was taken to a bus (an old, blue, square shaped one), and seated behind the driver. Then the driver disappeared for nearly 2 hours!! Apparently the bus only leaves when it’s full so the driver was probably sitting in the bar around the corner drinking tea. In the meantime the bus slowly filled up and at least 30 different people got on the bus selling water, bread, tissues, chewing gum, watches, radios, t.shirts and the occasional beggar. There was more activity than in the market square. At one point two men had this very heated argument which only ended when one was escorted off the bus by some of the other passengers. Once we got going at 10am, we had to take a detour to a garage outside of town to get some petrol...at this point I naturally assumed that I was on the wrong bus. We chugged along steadily for the first half an hour or so then left the tarmac road. Things got a bit bumpier for a while on the red road. Then the journey turned into a white knuckle ride as we didn’t appear to be travelling on any road at all, just going cross country. Thankfully the bus reached Mekerka in one piece at 11:45. 32km in nearly 2 hours. I’d sat beside a teacher from the senior school who spoke some English and told me the names of all the villages we passed through and when we got to Mekerka he got a young lad to help me carry my bags to the house and it seemed that everyone in town knew I was coming. Next time I may take the motorbike.
My home
My home is in the village of Mekerka which is 32 km from Asmara. It’s in the highlands at 2,300m above sea level and so has a lovely climate; cool mornings and evenings and a daytime temperature of about 25c, but will get hotter in April and May. The rains come in the summer. It’s not a big village and the centre appears to be a street with a bus stop, 2 small shops, a tea shop and a “hotel”. The main secondary school is in the middle of the village. It has a huge open space in front of it where the kids play football, volleyball and the donkeys wander when it’s free. There are donkeys and goats everywhere and lots of chickens and children too. The school also has a satellite dish so a lot of people go there in the evening to watch local tv and international football matches: apparently it’s standing room only on Saturday evenings when Arsenal, Chelsea or Man Utd are playing.
part of the village
My house is up a little hill and so has a glorious view over the village and the land and hills beyond. I’ll try and include some photos. There is no obvious path to the house..it’s all a bit of cross country walking and I usually end up in some neighbour’s goat / chicken yard but they don’t seem to mind and always want me to go in for coffee or tea. My closest neighbour is Dehab who lives with her mother in law and 2 young girls and, as her uncle is my landlord, she feels the need to look after me. Shushy, my neighbour on the other side, has 5 boys under 12 and a husband who lives somewhere else with another woman. The house has 2 big rooms; one I use as a bedroom/lounge and the other as a kitchen/bathroom. The toilet is outside in a kind of concrete shed. I have a little garden area but there’s not much growing there at the moment. I hope to have a go at growing things soon. The house has 24 hour electricity which is a real bonus but no running water. The cleaning water comes from a communal well and the drinking water comes with a student on a donkey. I haven’t worked out where exactly it comes from but I have a water filter and so filter it just to be on the safe side. This all means that the kitchen/bathroom contains a collection of buckets and basins, all with a different purpose.
The house is quite private once the gate is shut and it is lovely to have my little refuge in the evening away from all the shouts of “hello teacher”, “what’s your name?” “where are you from?” the kids are sweet but there questions are fairly constant!
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