Getting ready to leave Africa

In 13 days (that's 312 hours, or 18,720 minutes) I'll be leaving Addis and Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa and Africa itself to head back to the UK. I have to admit, I'm getting all sentimental. What was annoying yesterday is going back to being endearing.


Peter, The British teacher who came in to teach grades 3 and 4 did a runner. He took a two-week holiday, returned to collect his pay and then disappeared. After two weeks we started to get a bit concerned, we tried to track down his friends though facebook. After 3 weeks, we called the British Embassy and told them we had misplaced an Englishman. They took my number and called me back the next day to tell me that he was safe and well in Thailand where he had been for the past two weeks.


So, leaving and not telling us was a bit rubbish, so was taking a two week holiday, popping back for pay-day and then naffing off. But in his defence: after he collected his waged he left the flat money for the maid and the phone bill. He also left behind a load of teaching materials and some computer equipment that will be given to the school which is properly equivalent in value to his monthly wage. And he left behind a load of (unmarked) tests and his mark book, so we have something that we can use to give the kids grades. So despite the fact he did a runner, his departure leaves less of a bitter taste than Ebony, who still hasn't paid her phone bill nor has her boyfriend returned the stuff he took... ok, let’s face it: stole.


Grade 3 and 4 are getting a bit paranoid, their foreign teachers keep leaving them without saying goodbye. Poor kids.


My computer had a few virus problems, so I got the whole thing re-formatted at an internet café around the corner from the school. It was one of those strange moments: walking down the un-sealed street through a small herd of mixed animals carrying my CPU. As I made my way through the goats, sheep, two cows, a donkey and a horse, the herder, wearing a traditional blanket around him and carrying a long stick, reached into his pocket to answer his mobile phone.


The yearbook is done. I really enjoyed doing it, there are many changes that I would like to make, but it's at the printers and I'm hoping they do a good job.


I've done most of my work, what is left is giving and grading the final exams. Then the closing day celebrations. I have been told that I shall be the master of ceremonies. Yep, get that white face up there on stage, always looks good for the public image.


The school really wants me to stay another year, hey have been very persistent, it is flattering; I respect and like my bosses. But I said that the only way I would do that is if they moved the whole school, all the students, most of the staff and the owners to a different country. I really love the school and the people, but I would go insane if I lived here another year. Unfortunately my ‘no’ was not good enough. So I enlisted the help of my mother who wrote an email detailing the reasons why I just can’t stay another year in Ethiopia. The second they read her letter, they all backed off and are no longer insisting I stay. Even in my 30s my ma has got my back.