Settling into Wolisso

 Wolliso...its growing on me :)

Ive really come to appreciate the privacy of my new home.
I may just be in a 1 bedroom house, with 4 walls and 1 floor that I bathe, cook, sleep, pray AND exercise in, but its MY 4 walls and it is more than enough.

Today I had a praise party, music blaring, me singing along and doing the most ridiculous dances within the confines of my 4 little walls.

THIS is the beauty of having your own spot, I thought to myself as Byron cages “Bless the Lord” blasted in my house.
Needless to say I am starting to love my new found freedom and my new town.

                               One of the suks (stores) I stop by daily in order to buy small goods.

                       
    The market. Market days are Wed & Saturday and its where farmers from other rural areas come into my town to sell their goods. There is a larger variety of fruits, veggies & spices on market day.
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 I am settling in quite nicely. My Amharic is good enough where I can shop by myself, I no longer get lost, I recognize some townspeople, and because school has started all the kids in town and the townspeople know me.

I am greeted daily by kids and adults alike as “Teacher, Teacher!!” or “Ashley”. Its pretty cool :)

Im building a routine and I'm loving it. I workout, watch tv on my computer, play with the kids in my compound, read books on my kindle and I've even met a few Ethiopians who might be potential friends. I'm still figuring out what I can cook and trying to find ways to eat healthy, but so far so good. I even managed to make Fried chicken one night! (Its not healthy, but its nice to know its possible to make such a delicious comfort food for when I may need it)

Im teaching 9th grade at Geresu Duki high school here in Wollisso, and although enjoyable, its something I will also have to get accustomed too, my first week teaching here taught me that much.

I was extremely nervous and worried about teaching in Ethiopia and if I would meet the school staffs expectations, my own expectations and peace corps expectations. It was all a little overwhelming and things seemed highly unorganized.

I had been living in Wollisso for a few weeks now and still had yet to hear from my school director. He told me he would call but I'm guessing he just forgot, so I decided to show up to the school campus randomly one day and I'm so glad I did! He told me that classes would be starting the following Monday, except I was supposed to observe instead of teach for the first few days.

 

The entrance to my Highschool

 

The Library... the book nerd in my wants to cry at how unorganized it is

 

The teachers locker room. Teachers do not have their own offices, but they have lockers to storie their bags and personal belongings...well except for me -_-

When I arrived on Monday, I was anxious to meet my students, and observe an Ethiopian teacher but instead I ran into that infamous teacher from a previous blog post who was my community liaison… yes the one who called me “fat”.

“Ashley! It is so good to see you! How are you? Are you fine?”
“Yes Im fine, thank you”
“Today school starts! and you will be observing a teacher”
“Yes I know, Im going to talk to the director now about watching a female teacher”
“No you will watch me during the morning shift, and you can start teaching in the afternoon!”

Geresu Duki is split into morning and afternoon shifts. The first set of students come from 8am -1230pm and later the 2nd set of students come from 1230 -5pm. The days are split in half and students and teachers both alternate from the morning and afternoon shift weekly. One week Im teaching from 8-1230, the next week im teaching from 1230-5pm. This is done because the school is so overcrowded and there is no way the school could provide classrooms for all the students at the same time.

“No, Ive already talked to the director and I'm only supposed to be here for the morning shift, I can not stay during both shifts”
 He tries to reply but I wave goodbye and tell him I have to meet with the director, there is no way I'm going to entertain this conversation with this man.

I walk into the directors office and he informs me that I would be watch Lem Lem, a Female English teacher and that I am to start teaching whenever I think I am ready.

 

This is Lem Lem, she is 28 years old, a wife, mother and working woman. She has been teaching for about 5 years. Shes an Addis girl, a woman from the big city and her attitude and style of dress capture all that. Her English is pretty good and shes super sweet! I am sure we will become good friends. But back to my story...

I head to Lem Lems class but only find students talking, joking and sitting outside the classroom.

Class was supposed to start at 8am, I glance at the schedule to make sure, then look at my watch, yeah it starts at 8 but its already 830… where is Lem Lem?

I look around and see students everywhere….where are all the other teachers?!
I poke my head in a few classroom doors and see that no teachers have arrived yet.
What is going on?!

 Students just BIG TIME CHILLIN'

Lem lem arrives at 912 and explains to me that this is the first day, many teachers do not teach during the first week and so the students just wait outside. Together we walk over to her classroom and enter inside, only to find another teacher teaching the class.
Lem Lem and this other teacher converse in Amharic and afterwards she explains what happened to me.

“He is a teacher of a different subject and he wants to take my class period for the day”
“Wait, can he do that? You’re supposed to teach English, but he just walked in and took your class? Is that ok?”
“Yes, it is fine, he says he is teaching something very important and needs my period, so he can have it. Come, I am done for the day we can walk home”

I follow Lem Lem in a daze. Wow THAT was a productive day.. smh. If another teacher every tries to steal my class like that, I will definitely have something to say about it.. but Im sure Lem Lem knows what she is doing… and after all its only the first day…


 As we walk home she proceeds to give me insight into Ethiopian school culture and it is something I’ll be eternally grateful for. In Ethiopia and in my school in particular, there are 6 periods a day, at 42min a period. Very similar to an American High school, but at the end of each period instead of the students leaving and going to a new class, the teachers leave and go to their next class. This means that no teachers have their own classrooms, you can not hang up posters, learning aids, behavior charts, or even exceptional class work. The class room belongs to the students and those students sit in that classroom all day, every day with the same kids. It never changes. Because the same kids sit in the same classroom all day long, if you teach that class during 5th period, you know they will be in that same class for, 1st period, 2nd, 3rd, 4th… etc.. and its easy to just walk into that class any period of the day and take over and teach during the period you desire (if another teacher isn't already present)

This makes stealing another teachers class very easy, especially if they are late, or if they just don't show up. Lem Lem missed her earlier class and was late to the second class, so someone stole it. I’ve actually learned to take advantage of this classroom theft, and when I notice that one of my classes doesn't have a teacher during any given period I waltz right in there and just decide to teach an extra lesson… its 1 thing I like about this system, but it doesn't always work. If the teacher comes in late, then I feel sheepish and I have to gather my teaching materials and leave the room.

Lem Lem also told me that there is no money for teachers to print out homework assignments, quizzes or test. The only printed sheet of paper kids get are the end of the semester exams. Anything else has to come out of the teachers own pocket. Teachers do not take attendance, they are not given a roster with student names, and interactive work or group work is nonexistent, because of the incredibly large class sizes.

There are sometimes 80 or more students in a class!

Im supposed to teach 3 English classes per day, all grade 9 students, with about 60-70 kids in each class. The class sizes alone make teaching here a bit of a nightmare. Ethiopian teachers are expected to go into class, lecture, leave and repeat, and Im sure this is partly because of the large class sizes.

When I started teaching after observing Lem Lem, I tried to implement a seating chart - which was a fail. I tried creating a roster so I could know all my students names and keep track of their work, another fail. I slowly started feeling defeated, but I rebuked that thought and instead began to wonder why a simple thing such as a seating chart and roster were not working in my class. Thats when I realized that my students are just super creative and have decided to spell their name differently... every. single. day.

Bethelihem Mokonnen `would transform and become Bethlahim Mekonin
Iyayusalem decided she preferred  Iyuselim every once in awhile

&

Abendzr  and Abendezer are probably one and the same person.

 I realized that the names are basically the same and deciding which English vowel sound fits your Ethiopian name best can be a challenge when English vowels have 2 different sounds, and when your mother tounge is Amharic and it doesnt use the English alphabet but rather Fidel Or when your mother tounge is Oromiffa and it uses the English alphabet but the sounds are completely different. Not to mention that many people in Ethiopia do not write in the vowels. My LCF (language & culture facilitator) who is of course Ethiopian let me know this very early on but it took awhile for it to click in my head. And it took awhile for me to realize why my seating charts & rosters never worked and why it seemed like I had new students every other day haha

*update I have been teaching for a month and a half now and the seating chart works wonders. Im even learning some of my kids names :) (well the ones who sit in the seats I assigned them)



Teaching in Ethiopia is definitely bringing about some challenges but I am adjusting. And luckily I have not come across any cases of abuse or had to deal with seeing any of my male colleagues trying to get with the female students. Katie Puzey, another Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa, had to deal with something like this, and in her attempt to help the girl students and report this man, she was murdered (Read her story HERE). I don't even know what I would do or where to start in such a situation, but I do know that Ethiopia faces similar problems. Teacher - Student relations exist, in rural Ethiopia the teacher often marries the underage student. My male PCV friend has already been asked by his school Principal “So, what are you going to say when your female students come to you for sex?” . This is a sad reality in the US, in Ethiopia and in places all over the world, and so instead of figuring out how I would go about this problem if it ever presents itself, I just steal another classroom, teach an extra lesson and try again to make this seating chart thing work.