Beatles To the Rescue!

The English lessons continue to go well, and most of the students seem to be really improving. We’ve just about got the grasp of when to use “I’m playing football” and when to say “I play football”... However, there continues to be a group of children who bring out the disciplinarian in me! My new tactic is to make my lessons and teaching style a bit more fun and relaxed. We’ve just studied “Yesterday” and “She Loves You” by The Beatles, and it seems to be paying off! The students and I really enjoy it. Surprisingly, no one seems to know the Beatles in Ethiopia (a far cry from my past experiences in Mongolia, where they’ve even built a statue of the Fab Four), so I’m enjoying the chance to expand the fan base.

This week we’ve also looked at the family, a topic which the students seemed to really get into. However, the lesson brought up some interesting points – I’m surprised that for such a traditional culture many of my students come from divorced families. Perhaps my “sample” of people is a bit skewed, being that the students are all either street children or are from the poorest families in the city, but nevertheless it’s a bit strange. Another thing that grabbed my attention during this particular class is that I’ve noticed the English language can be a bit sexist! One cannot really say “how many sisters and brothers do you have?” or “do you have any daughters or sons?” – the males must come before the females!

Cultural observations – Spend a day as a white person in Ethiopia, and you’ll surely hear at least one child shouting “farangi!” (white person!). The local children are very friendly, and get excited when they see a farangi. They run after our car when we’re driving through the city, and will sometimes jump up and down in excitement when we walk past! Whilst I’m sure it would really grate after a while, I have to say that it’s been lovely to have children follow me around and grab my hand, wanting to talk and play games. They seem happy, and are quick to laugh. The same cannot be said of babies however, most of whom are petrified of whites. Sadly, I’ve brought a few babies to tears!

The Power is On – Newsflash: we’ve had our first two days of consecutive power! Why this change? Well, Mek’ele has been enjoying a period of heavy rain, and thus more electricity is being generated by the hydroelectric plants. If the rain continues, we may soon have the luxury of not having to plan our photocopying and printing well in advance. The only downside would be that we’d have light in the evenings – I’ve grown strangely attached to whiling the evenings away by candlelight...

The street children’s entrepreneurial skills – I take my hat off to one of the street children I work with, who told me that he managed to gatecrash his way into a wedding party. The boy in question found a wedding invitation that someone had lost, and then decided to make the most of this good fortune. Taking on the persona of “Mr Getachew” (the name on the invitation), he went along to the wedding and enjoyed an evening of food, drink and dancing! He was happily recounting how he ate 12 different types of food, including many different types of meat. This was a far cry from his usual existence, in which he cannot afford to meat and works in order to get the leftover scraps from local hotels. Needless to say, “Mr Getachew” didn’t have the appropriate attire to attend the wedding party, arriving in a dirty Manchester United top and sandals. Thus, many people were suspicious of him (although the guard on the door seemed happy just to see the invitation). He said that whilst queuing for food the other guests would stand side on to him, because they were worried about being pick-pocketed! Anyway, “Mr Getachew” said that he loved the evening, and the feeling of just having a full stomach. After eating, he even had the audacity to have a dance with the groom before leaving!

Time for me to sign off again. All the very best from a hot and rainy Mek’ele, take care of yourselves,

Robert