We attached some pictures for you all to get some kind of impression of the place.
We hope the internet allows us to show them to the world. If we are successful in our attempt many more pictures will come later on.

The first picture is taken this morning illustrating how enthusiastic Maria is when she washes our clothes (enthusiasm is here measured by the quantity of water on her shirt).









Second picture is of our room. In the lower left corner are the “cooking facilities” we were promised (the green gas-thing made in China) and right above it is our “washing machine”. Above the mirror is our “photo album” and to the right is “our office”. Our “bedroom” is in the lower left corner illustrated by a mosquito net.














Picture number three is from our first week in Jimma, showing me doing the laundry. Maria found it amusing, so she took a picture. Tsk tsk.



















Number four is from once we went to another teacher’s house to see “the Coffee Ceremony”. The lady in blue has (without the parents knowing of course) been his girlfriend for the last six years. The younger lady to the left is his fourteen year old sister who does the cooking in the house.














Two weeks ago there was a marriage at the house we live at. The parents of the bride got a sheep (well… I would like to have a pet-sheep too), we named it “Birger”. Unfortunately Birger’s stay here was short, before they ate him. Anyways, the picture is from the night I went to the toilet and almost started screaming because someone, somehow had forced Birger to spend his night there. Yes, it did feel odd to pee right next to a sheep. I managed to protect myself.



















Number six is just a picture of Maria on her way home from the school. Just to show you all how blue the sky is and how red the roads are.



















The last and seventh picture is Maria happily doing the dishes. Our food storage is in the background. When we came we had one single-use knife, two forks, one pan and some other spare necessities.

October 17th - Aske

Today is apparently October 17th (oh thank you laptop), I thought we were still in first week of October.
That is something I have noticed and both enjoy and fear – the pace at which the time is passing.
Now it is Friday evening, but it seems like the last weekend has just ended. Time passes by fast. I can’t wait to get back home to food, hot showers, liver pâté, nightlife, everything, but at the same time I really do enjoy it here and I feel good here.

As it has been mentioned before everybody seems so suspiciously friendly towards us. I keep getting surprised by it. If we take one of the minibuses around town and are not quite sure if we are supposed to pay 1 or 2 birr (0,5 or 1 kr.) and we show two birr notes to the taxi-guy, he only takes one. I love it, but I keep getting surprised by the honesty of 98 % of the people.

Puhh, anyways, I am happy that it is Friday. During the weekdays we have had an (I would say) immense workload the last two weeks: we had to correct the “English Weekend Diaries” from four classes. In theory it means that we should correct 180 exercise books with written work. I know it is wrong to say this as a teacher, but luckily only about half of the students handed them in and yet we managed to make a ½ meter tall pile of books to correct.

We have spent every evening from Monday to Friday plus our daily two-hours break in the middle of the day on correcting them. It took ages.

The Ethiopian students were quite astonished when they got back their exercise books and saw that we had often written more in them than the students themselves. The other teachers responsible for the English diaries in the other classes apparently look at them, sign them and give them a marking ranking between D and A+. They do not write one page with comments, ideas and explanations in each of the books – and nor will we in the future as we have been told that we had to give them marks, used for the records.

We have created a new marking system. It is inspired by our previous, admirable Environmental-Systems teacher Anna Garner and is meant to provide the students with some constructive feedback without taking 20 minutes each.

Almost all of the students wrote the exact same things these first two weeks. Now I know it by heart: “I wake up from my bed I go to toillt I wash my fise I wash my hand I it my brake fast I see TV program I play foot bool whith my frend I go to my uncl hous I study my lesons I it my diner I wash my leg I slepp on my bed”, and that was just Saturday… Sunday was the exact same thing (+ “I go to church I come back” for half of them).

Arghhh! I have got enough of that – we have. So we made this scale that surely will punish all the students because they show no signs of creativity and individuality whatsoever.
Therefore we will force them to write what we want to read by marking

Creativity and Content out of 10 points
Vocabulary and Spelling out of 5 points
Grammar and Fluency out of 5 points
Handwriting (we were forced to include this) out of 3 points
Improvement out of 2 points
TOTAL out of 25 points

And then:
0-7 points = D
8-13 points = C
14-17 points = B
18-21 points = A
22-25 points = A+

I think it will surprise the students as well as the teachers to see the results. We have this idea that our “fancy” private school kind of pushes the boundaries to be able to show their overall result: 55 % A and A+, 40 % B and 5 % C, or something like that.

Now the problem is that the students have been learning English for eight years and some still cannot communicate in English. We wrote down some of the more interesting ones as they were worth remembering:

S.Y
Satr bay mornig it a was, aoisiy
buy han I wayk ap my
my mother is war king Warbly
and I ask Her she a nsark frmi
it was ny brother 9ragua sn
we stisort In arcnik Hot
we a bak In the niyt thun
we Shapt

Well… it’s up to you to interpret; we of course just copied it literally, but I especially like line three “my mother is war king” – excellent!. If you want our inexperienced opinions there are here some clear signs of dyslexia, but that is not something the teachers have heard about before.

I have been thinking a lot about all this fuss about what the best way to learn English really is. My mid-way conclusion is: not to start teaching it from grade 1 and to find some qualified teachers who actually do know it. Our school focuses a lot on English compared to other schools (so we’ve heard at least), by having English 1 (written English), English 2 (spoken English), English 3 (supplementary English) and finally “English Day” one hour weekly. In total it is something like 8 periods of English in five days - that is quite intense. Unfortunately one cannot really see that they have had these many English classes for the past eight years.
We are of course very modest in the company of the other English teachers at the school, but there is no doubt that Maria at least is far ahead of them all when it comes to correct knowledge about English.

We do secretly have fun about all the wrong things the teachers say, but it is sad to see that the students remember all the wrong things they have been taught. “No, you cannot say I woke up from my bed or I studied my lessons – sorry!” Sometimes in the exercise books we write “take care” at the end, but apparently the students feel threatened by it. When they whisper and have to be quiet the teacher waves with his long plastic cane and shouts “You! Take care!” – something that clearly gives it another connotation from what we want to say.

The best episode (that I really enjoyed myself) was when we tried to teach the students to use “ago” and “in” when talking about past and future. All Ethiopians tend to say “before two weeks ago...” instead of just “two weeks ago…” and “after one day… “instead of “in one day…”. For some reason one of the other English teachers (the male version of MT for those of you who know her) wanted to pay our class a visit and observed it for some time. As he was about to leave we asked the students how to make the sentence correct “____ one month I will go to Addis”, and he said to us “after one month, yes. That is good. Keep doing like this” and then he left. I laughed a bit when he had gone, but I also feel a bit rude or cocky when we tell the students that what their previous English teachers said was wrong – but we are right, because… Because we are from Europe?

Yes, we have used English every day for two years, but the teachers have all gone to university for many years where they only use English… Taught by Ethiopians, who probably have been taught by Ethiopians themselves.

Hmm, it is getting late and you have probably been bored about reading all these detailed, useless information for quite a while already. I bet Maria writes something interesting =)
Today the local shopkeeper asked if we still had the crate of beers we bought for an occasion a long time ago. In Ethiopia they have relatively enormously high refunds on bottles. When we bought a crate (24) of beers it cost us one average monthly salary. Anyways, we wanted to make the shopkeeper happy and celebrate that it is Friday, so we took a beer, but still have many left.
Here at last I want to say that if you expected a postcard from Ethiopia; sorry can’t do – there are none. If you expected a parcel you can forget about that too – you can only send international parcels from the capital.
As simple as that.

Furthermore we do not have any address (those are nonexistent in Ethiopia) and we just got a phone number today.

All from me now.
Best wishes and lots of love to you all. I miss everybody and everything, but still enjoy Africa =)

Aske

17 sep - Maria

Eldan school has just opened a computer room and decided that computer lessons are to be given during spoken English classes, so all of this week they have split our classes in two: one half learns about computers while the other half has spoken English class. This means that we now only teach around 20 students – what a luxury! Having class discussions is so much easier and so is keeping them quiet. We like it very much.
The school has also given us a new task: For the past two weeks we have been correcting English weekend diaries for grade 7 and 8C. The first week was horrible as all of the diaries sounded like this:
I woke up from my bed then I ate my breakfast then I washed my hand and leg then I watched television then I went to the market then I ate my dinner then I slept on my bed x2

We taught them a bit about commas and words they could use to replace “then”. We also tried talking about creativity and individuality, but I don’t know how much they understood. The majority of this week’s diaries were a bit better than last week’s, but still the same (some added a “I was happy” and thought they were being very creative), however, there were some really great ones in between. There was a little fellow who wrote something like this:

Saturday: I got up and ate my breakfast. I was very happy because I rode my bicycle from 2 to 6. Then I watched television and slept.
Sunday: I was very afraid because I rode my bicycle again to Jimma airport. There I met two police officers.
“You do not have license plate,” they said. Then they hit me, but it was necessary.

Simple but effective. A real story with a build up and everything.
I really look forward to reading next week’s entries, and I’m sure the students will try very hard to be creative as we start grading them next week also.

One thing which has been the most shocking feature of the school is the fighting. Everyone hits everyone (girls included) and we see fights every single day. The teachers also do not hesitate to hit the students and usually use sticks to keep the students under control. We see them treating the students like cattle: If they don’t move fast enough, they hit them, if they move in the wrong direction they hit them and if they fight they hit them.

We tried having some class discussions about fighting where we also taught the students what the different words you can use to describe fighting are. You see, they think that everything is called “kicking” which makes it a bit confusing for us when they come up to us and say “He kick me!” but mean something completely different. We taught them” hit, slap, punch, kick, pinch, bite, strangle, throw a rock at someone, attack someone and insult someone” (they loved it and I don’t think I have ever seen that many students taking notes before). We always ended the class by trying to get them to talk about the right of teachers and parents to hit children. Some of the points they made were interesting, but I think it might have been too difficult a discussion topic for their level of English.
I actually think that I am getting more and more accustomed to the fighting. There are especially two boys in 7B who like me very much and talk to me quite a lot, and who I also like very much. However, they always fight and then just laugh and smile when I stop them. They are best friends and inseparable (so I always punish them by moving them away from each other) and don’t really see what’s wrong with hitting each other. I guess you just have to take it with a bit of humour (unless it’s a really serious fight) and keep in mind that they are much more used to hitting and being hit and therefore don’t care about it as much as we do. As one of the teachers always tells me: “This is Africa man….” I guess I can’t expect them to act like they do in little peaceful Faroe Islands. Here defending yourself is important and if you don’t fight, you aren’t strong. I mean, when the police and teachers hit my students, how much can I then expect of them?
- Maria

Sept 30 - Maria

Today is September the 30th my calendar tells me, but I have long since lost track of time which seems to move at a different pace here in Ethiopia. Their calendar is a different one – a couple of weeks ago we entered into year 2001 and the clock does not start at midnight, but at 6 in the morning when the sun rises. That means that I go to school at 2.30 and get home again at around 9. They also have thirteen months in a year, so all in all I’m quite happy that Aske’s laptop is able to tell me what time it is western time. Perhaps even more so because tomorrow, the first of October, is our six months anniversary. We are planning to go to a restaurant which we haven’t yet eaten at and celebrate with a good dinner and some Ethiopian red wine.
At the moment I’ve got more than 40 mosquito bites on my legs and am feeling very sorry for myself. We were out eating with Kidist (the wife of one of the two founders of the school) and some others who work at the school. Unfortunately, Kidist had forgotten that she had to attend some charity-something, and wasn’t able to come until 8 o’clock – three hours later than planned. Apparently it is a part of the Ethiopian culture not to start eating until everyone has arrived, so we were waiting outside the restaurant for 3 hours. At first it was okay, but it gets colder and dark at around 7, so little Maria ended up sitting in a skirt being very cold and (she found out the following day) attacked by more than 40 mosquitoes. Now my legs are almost more red than white and I’ve had allergic reactions to some of the bites so they’ve got disgusting yellow bladders, ew, ew, ew. Both Aske and I have also got a cold, blah.

Maria

sep 10 - Maria

I arrived Friday evening with a stomach filled with butterflies. Was my visa okay? Had I filled all of the papers correctly? I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the airport which was very professional albeit a bit slow. When we finally got through the passport and visa control, Daniel and his chauffeur were there with a sign reading “Aske and Maria”. They followed us to a car and drove us to our guesthouse. It is about 20 dollars per night for a double bedroom (110 kr for the two of us) with cable TV and a separate bathroom with a bath tub, running water (warm and cold) and a normal toilet. I am very happy.

So far we’ve been to see Lucy (the ape-human) at the national museum, had a traditional Ethiopian dinner and been a tour around the city. It is completely dark by 19.00 and since there are no streetlights, the streets are lit only by the light of the small shops that fill the streets. When we drove home after eating Friday evening at around 11 in the evening (accompanied by Daniel and his friend), I was surprised to see a man with an AK47 (Aske says) guarding the hotel nearby. I don’t think I’ve ever really seen anything bigger than a gun on the streets before, so I think that was the first time that I realised that I’d left home and really come to a new place. It should be said that we’ve had no problems whatsoever, though. Everyone has been very nice to us, and even though people on the streets stare a bit, that’s all they do. I have to say that I feel very white and out of place from time to time, but I think I’ll get used to it with time. I am of course awful at bargaining and all of those things, but Daniel said that I was very good at eating with my hands (the traditional food where you use a flat bread to pick up the food), so I guess that’s a start. Oh, and no stomach problems so far, no mosquitoes and no big spiders either. That might change when we leave the big city, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Today we plan to go to the market which will be interesting and a bit scary for little scared me, but definitely an experience to be experienced. On Tuesday or Wednesday we drive to Jimma and I’m really looking forward to seeing the apartment, the city and to getting settled at a place that is my own (well, for 4.5 months at the least). I’ll try to keep you updated about what happens in the next few days. Take care everyone!

- Maria

Yes, I am alive!

The internet here in Ethiopia is incredibly and painfully slow andrefuses to load this page. However, my mother suggested that I juste-mailed the posts to her, and then she'd upload it. Clever.

So, gosh, what has happened in the last month?
Well, our apartment with its cooking facilities turned out to be two rooms with one of those small things you bring out camping. When wearrived it had a bed, two plastic chairs, a plastic knife and some cutlery. We spent two weeks living out of our suitcases, but now, oh now we have got a drawer, and not one but TWO tables and THREE woodenchairs. We are very happy. There is no running water inisde the house, but a tab outside in the court yard. The bath room is in a seperate building outside and consists of a porcelain hole in the ground and a cold shower next to it, but in Ethiopia, this is actually quite fancy. Everyone uses squat toilets here as the area is predominantly Muslim,and I got used to it after a day or two.
We visited some of the teachers from the school, and none of them have had indoor toilets, running water, more than two rooms or a stove, so I guess we are living as average Ethiopians. It is actually very nice.

The school is also very nice and the Ethiopians themselves are very warm and welcoming. The young children a the school act as if we are rock stars, and Aske and I dread having to pass by the 1st-3rdgraders during recess. They all come running toward us: "Aske! Maria! How are YOU!" and they touch us, kiss us, try to hold our hands and touch our hair... Oh, they are actually very sweet and charming all of them. Sometimes it can just be a bit overwhelming having 40-60 of them trying to touch you at the same time...Especially if you are in a hurry, but if we have lots of time, then we try to talk to them and hold their hands and bend down so that the little girls and boys can kiss our cheeks. Yes, they are actually very charming all of them.

Aske and I teach a class called "spoken English" together. We teach the 7th and 8th graders. There are around 40 students in each class and three 7th and three 8th grades. We don't have any textbooks because it is SPOKEN English and we don't really know what to do, but so far we have taught them how to give directions, and then we'll see what we can come up with in the future. Apparenlty this is quite a fancy private school by Jimmaean standards, and the pupils are known as being clever and quick learners - all is good:)

I like it very much here in Ethiopia, and, eventhough I can only take cold showers and have to use different toilets, I find myself falling more and more in love with this country and its people for every day that passes. It is all truly amazing. You should alll be here and see the red gravel roads stretch out in front of you and the marvelous green mountains in the distance. You should all feel the incredible hospitality, warmth and humour of the Ethiopians - Yes, when are you coming to visit me?
Unfortunately, we have tons of things to correct for tomorrow, so I'll have to end ithere. I will try to write again shortly. Bye everyone,take care, I miss you!

Lots of African loveMaria