Our time out of touch has been spent in the classroom, mostly, although both Jane and I have had some time for additional duties. Jane has been writing (editing) final exams written by some of the teachers. This gives her the opportunity to catch errors in English, as well as evaluate the various teachers’ skill level. She also took two weeks off her teaching schedule to evaluate English instruction being done by Ethiopian teachers. It’s been very helpful and informative. Jane is forcefully pursuing an agenda that includes small children hearing correct pronunciation as much as possible.
I am working on the administrative end of things, a little. We are blessed with a very progressive principal who believes the system here can benefit from some western teaching methods. He is a very bright man, a fine Christian, a great dad and an attentive, if very busy, husband. After this embarrassing introduction, I will henceforth refer to him simply as Teshome (Te-sho-meh). He is very supportive and a very kind man as well. The more we know him, the more we like him.
Mussie (Mus-say) is a young man with very good computer skills and training in IT Technology. He is our principal translator and a very willing friend. Although he is only about 26 years old, he finds time to spend with old people like us. We are grateful. Without guidance and help with the language, things that sometimes seem tough would be very much tougher. As far as administration is concerned, he is naturally gifted. In addition, he is open-minded to suggestions such as a dual Ethiopian-English calendar, using MS Outlook for scheduling and improving efficiency.
Desta (Des-ta) works with money. And anyone who knows me just a little knows how much store I place in good relationships with the “money people.” Desta is quiet and competent. He receives money from me every month to pay our guard and our maid. That keeps things less complicated for us all. Desta is hard working and dependable.
The last of the six people involved in the work at the school (including Jane and I), is Kenfe (Ken-feh) . Kenfe speaks little English, but understands much! Everyone depends on Kenfe. He’s everywhere doing everything all day long. Officially he is the purchaser and spend money guy, but he is really the spit that holds many things together (sorry for the spit illusion, but in America they know this is a good thing). Additionally, he goes out of his way to help everyone, especially Jane and I. He makes sure we have enough water here at the house, he lately has been buying fresh corn for us. He is truly an impressive, quiet hard worker who is generous almost to a fault.
So we are soon to be known as “the corn-fed missionaries. Not to worry, we’re both still losing weight. Yesterday I weighed in at 226.6 pounds, down from the 269 I weighed when we got here. Jane continues to lose as well, an undisclosed amount because of the public scale thing (see previous blog), but she is complaining that she’s losing weight in the wrong areas (I think this is a problem for “senior citizens” in general. I remember when my Mom was living with us . . . well, never mind!)
Now for a gentle segue . . . We need your help! We need elementary education curriculum (teacher’s manuals, etc.) and textbooks for Grades 1-8. Doesn’t have to be new, just fairly recent and consistent. That is, it needs to flow throughout each term and each year. We need it in the subjects of English, English Literature, Math, Science, and World History.
Finding used curriculum in the states shouldn’t be very hard or very expensive. Most school systems replace curriculum at least every five years and the older books are simply surplus. The trick is getting the material from the states here. Shipping a container is expensive. Please pray with us and the Lord shows us how to best serve the people of Tigrai.
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