Midweek of my first workweek.

It’s pretty exhausting and I tend to go to bed around 21:00 or earlier. Hopefully I will get used to it soon and thus be able to have a bit of a life in the evenings.

Sunday ( after updating my blog) was great. Kathleen and me set out for the Entoto hills that surround Addis to see the Washa Mikael church or at least what is left of this rock hewn church. Not that pretty but still very impressive. It was quite a climb and I was totally out of breath by the time we got there ( my cold doesn’t help, nor does the smog) afterwards the guides took us to a viewpoint: nice view of Addis. We finished off by going to my new favourite burger place….mjammie.

On Monday ( 1^st day of school) they made us foreigners responsible for the new kids that cried or fought too much to be able to keep them in class. Not exactly fun in all honesty especially because these kids don’t speak English yet and thus feel very frustrated by someone like me who doesn’t understand Amharic. Tuesdays things were a bit quieter and I started teaching. Being a bit out of it and not having a clear idea of what these kids can and can’t do it wasn’t much of a success. Today, Wednesday, it went better though and I felt pretty pleased with myself.

The kids are so incredibly cute! All of the girls have the funniest and most creative hairstyles.

Sadly enough the school drills them ( more then I like may be) a lot, they have to walk in straight rows boys with on one side the girls the boys on the other. Also they need to sing the Anthem every day. Whereas I have songs to get them to class they march on: AFTER I EAT and the I is often left out here which makes the thing besides not fun also incorrect I WASH MY HANDS AFTER I WASH I GO TO CLASS…Or BE EXCELLENT TODAY, BE EXCELLENT TODAY,… .

Anyway even though some things are quite different when I get out a teddy bear and play with it the kids are mesmerised all the same which is nice. They are quite shy and often what they say is hardly a whisper which as communication teacher who wanted to try peer correction isn’t very handy but I guess they need some time and I’ll find ways around it.

This weekend is another long one ( some Muslim holiday this time) and were planning to go away somewhere with some of the teachers so there’s much to look forward to.