Title: Back to Bloggin

All access to my blogspot site is now completely cut off complements to the paranoid Ethiopian government, so, with thanks to facebook-wise friend Ben, I'm going to attempt to use facebook to blog from now and my rather talented and very beautiful friend Gemma has kindly said she would scoop up my dribble and pour it over to this blog site so you don't have to join up with facebook. If you are part of facebook you can find me there using my full Sunday name, and if you are reading this on facebook you can get the rest at www.youngcrone.blogspot.com
Obliviously I have had loads of problems with internet access, but hopefully this new system and run smoothly. I have missed bogging; it really cuts down on answering the same questions by email. It also forces me to form my thoughts of where I am and what I'm doing into coherent sentences… well sometimes.

The first quarter at school has finished with a flurry of paperwork, grading and exams. For a few weeks I was just like that teacher that you remember from high school who always looked like she was just about to have a nervous breakdown. But then my mother sent me a book with the New Zealand English curriculum, having some sort of idea of what I'm going to teach tomorrow and next week and next month. It has made a huge difference having some sort of direction and I'm not so stressed.

I also got one kid called Haleluyah suspended for a week, and as much as I missed constantly shouting "HALELUYA!" in class it meant for an entire week I actually taught the kids something. He's back now, but doesn't seem to mess with me so much. I have another straight F student who spends more time in the office than in class. I don't know what I'm going to do about him.

I haven't felt time the best teacher, I'm never on top of it all, and between the boring-as-shit lesson planning and the utterly mundane grading it's not the most exciting job in the world. But I did with an award for 'best teacher' (which was a surprise) and another award for 'best decorated classroom' which was not such a surprise given the other teachers were going for prison-cell-minimalism in their rooms.

I have a landline phone, it's not working at the moment (and no running water for five days now too), but if you want to give it a go it's +251114192959. I'm not worried about publishing my home phone number on the web given that if you are willing to call Ethiopia you must actually know me, and this website is blocked in Ethiopia which will cut out the 'hello' 'hello' 'hello' 'yes' 'hello' calls that happen.

"Use an adjective to describe Ms Rachel."

In the after school tutorial programme, that I was co-teaching with my flatmate Sarah, Sarah was asking the class of 1st to 8th graders who had failed their (massively different) entrance exams to use adjectives. "Use an adjective to describe Ms Rachel." she said. "Fat" they said.

So I'm back in Ethiopia, I have pretty much been doing nothing but teaching, lesson planning, marking, and being a teacher for the past 3 weeks. I'm getting into the school. Some days are crap, and some days are great. Like when they said 'Fat' not only was it funny, but also they actually used an adjective with was a pleasant surprise.

I have about 140 students with the weirdest names ever. There is one kid called Naga... pronounced Nigga, when he's naughty "Sit down Nigga" I feel like I'm being racist, and when I'm praising him "Great work Nigga" I feel like he's ma brover.

You may have noticed that I haven't updated this for a while, well the internet has been down over the whole country for the past couple of weeks because the government (that owns all telecommunications... which is why they are so crap) has been updating it. It's still as slow as continental drift. When I have been able to get on I can't log in. In fact I am actually not logged in now... this blog is coming to you from Africa via Scotland where I have emailed it to Missy who has posted it for me (thanks Missy, you rock).

So as much as Ethiopia is not as sexy, exotic or modern as Yemen I'm glad to be back, and I'm becoming much more content now as I settle in and establish myself here. Also, unlike the middle east, I can dress to suit the weather, so I'm happy.

I can't say the same for my flatmates. Akanshka from India has had her phone stolen. Ebony from California has contracted typhoid fever and Sarah from Texas is dealing with a massive leak in her bedroom ceiling from the upstairs toilet. Our maid is happy, she hangs out watching satellite telly all day, she does SFA, but is really sweet, I bought her some Jackie Collins romance novels translated into Amharic, she seems to like them.

I just want to take a moment here to thank my mother who brought me my typhoid vaccination shots for my 30th birthday last year. they are working well.

For the past 4 days we have had a water shortage. the first two days were now water whatsoever, which got pretty vile in the the bathrooms, we couldn't shower, or wash our clothes. The water shortage was over the whole suburb so using local restaurant facilities was just as bad. Remember we have one flatmate with typhoid fever and at any one time half the flat has diarrhea. The last couple of days we managed to buy jerry-cans of water and followed the 'Meet the Fockers' rule "If it's brown, flush it down. If it's yellow, let it mellow."

The water is back on now, we still have a few plumbing issues with leaking water, and in my bathroom they set up a water heater which i have turned off as it runs a mild electric current though all my bathroom fittings. I had to stand im my rubber bathmat when i turned on the tap to clean my teeth.

We had been without hot water for over a month, then one night Sarah got sick and spent a night vomiting, that was when we discovered that they had hooked up the water heater to her bathroom light, a long a we leave the light on, we have hot water. Bonus.

The weather is fantastic with 23 degree sunny days every day. I shall soon be teaching the 'Art Club' and also offering additional lunch time tutorials in handwriting to a select groups kids who are really lagging (I'll make typographers and calligraphers out of them yet). My stomach has adjusted to the food, and I'm the only one in the flat who has not driven the porcelain bus here.