Busier

A lot has happened over the last couple of days….

First the arrival of Kathleen, a new Irish colleague( 26 and quite the character but then again so am I) , who immediately started planning a trip to somewhere. I said I’d join her so later on her first day we set out to try and book a bus (seeing as the internal flights were above my budget). After a long exhausting day, we were dropped off somewhere we didn’t want to be and we were trying to find our way to the bus station asking some people that weren’t very useful when all of a sudden a Rasta with a British accent (Tony) helped us out.
When he heard what we were up to he actually recommended another place and asked if he could join us. That’s how a day later then we had originally thought we ended up going to Nazareth/ Adama. ( 2 names= The second is African and the first one refers to the Ethiopians relation to king Solomon through their ex-emperor Haile Selassi a prophet to the Rastas).
It was quite fun, Tony can be a bit much at times and Kathleen moody but we had fun.
We stayed in a quite horrible budget hotel which didn’t even meet Ghana’s shoestring-standards but it was only for the night so we did survive. We went there amongst other reasons because there were some hot springs accompanied by a resort with a pool. Pretty cool floating in hot water ( too hot for swimming especially in combination wit being even higher up) and in a beautiful setting including monkeys that nicked my breakfast jam sandwich.
I went all out on juices which were even less expensive there…. Sheer pleasure.
At a certain moment I lost my company which was a bit scary and annoying but the Ethiopians are good people and when they saw I was lost they honestly wanted to help which made me feel even more frustrated and embarrassed.
We had taken the bus back to arrive ‘home’ we found nobody had any news about the following day which was supposed to be our first day of training. After ringing almost everyone without answer we got hold of someone who told me he was going to ring me back as soon as he knew what the plan was. That was at 6 AM!!!! He woke me up to tell me we didn’t have training until the next day! Grrrrrrrrr We are all getting a tad frustrated with being kept in the dark about things regarding us.
In the mean time another girl arrived in our home ( we are now 4). Lucretia is great! She is such a ray of sunshine and giggles at absolutely everything. She’s 35, American, worked in the army to pay for college, has lived in Korea and seems really on my wavelength about a lot of things. Can you imagine, there was a mix up with her arrival time and no-one was there to pick her up ( after a 17 hour flight). So she tried to call but nobody answers their phone here it seems then she changed the only money she had on her ( 20§) and got in a taxi to the main office and when that was closed ( lunch) she went to the American embassy and then back to the main office….. OMG ( for my mum this means: Oh My God ;-)) and all this she tells with a smile on her face after you’ve been introduced…. I would have died!
Today we had our very first day and got to meet the other staff international and regular teachers. We’re not as many as we were led to expect, a mere 8, 6 of which in Kindergarten teachers ( not all with experience or training) separated over both campuses. It was quite funny because all of us feel we aren’t getting paid enough: the school is very profitable and other schools are offering double from time to time to their international staff. So I hope we can arrange that. Things aren’t expensive here but they had told us the 250 euro would permit us to live comfortably and it’s more of a money managing budget since prices have tripled in the last 3 years ( I notice this a lot in my travel guide and also there’s a staff member who taught here a while ago and the price references he gives are so surreal) … Cross your fingers we can get united and receive a pay raise.
The boss, Mrs Leea Gibson, a converted American Muslim made a cliché speech and we had to applaud and shout yes!!!! PFFFFFFF Nothing interesting this far, a lot of importance being given to paperwork which has never benefited a single student but that’s no different in Belgium. I hope tomorrow will be more enlightening at least as to what I am supposed to do in class.
David has been told that he will teach in the other school and has to move out tomorrow to move into the bole house. I lose a nice flatmate but gain the room with on-suite bathroom, enough closet space and balcony. Every cloud does have a silver lining;-) seeing as it was raining he spent the afternoon packing and I moving my stuff and then we played some scrabble which I am happy I brought along. Nice and homey…

Big hug, thinking of you all.
Take care and all news is very much appreciated!

By the way I can be reached on 00251 113714222 landline
Or on 00251 912488366 mobile
And you can write to me on Gibson Youth Academy
PA Corine Huyghe
PO Box 15564
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia