TEACHING THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED IN ADDIS ABABA
on My VSO Ethiopian Adventures (Ethiopia), 12/Oct/2011 10:44, 34 days ago
Addis in the rainy seasonComing to Addis on 10th July from Dire Dawa was like arriving on a different planet. I had been desperate to leave the hottest time of the year in the lowland east of the country, where some relief was being anticipated by the pending rainy season. However rain had not yet arrived by early July. The end of the academic year had been really busy, much like in the UK and working hard and having to move around physically in temperatures of 38-40 degrees C was sapping what energy I could muster.Contrary to this, the rainy season was well under way in Addis at 2400metres by this time! After about 10 days I was heard to mutter,‘how much more does it have to rain before I wish I was back in Dire!’The few warm clothes I had brought with me were well employed and I wore the lot for the first 2-3 weeks while I acclimatised. Thermal vest (brought for trips into the high mountains in winter) and 2 fleeces were my constant companions including frequently in bed(!) and instead of sandals it was only trainers or boots. Trainers got caked in mud within a day. I wondered if my washing would dry before I left in 6 weeks time!The job.VSO traditionally is able to offer some short term projects across the country, normally within the education sector, during the summer vacation period. As I was only here for one year I thought I would make the most of the year and have a different experience before returning home, so I had applied at an early stage to participate in a summer placement. I was lucky to be offered one this summer and was asked to work in the capital with a local NGO called‘Ethiopians for Ethiopians’ who had approached VSO to ask if a volunteer could run some English language tuition for blind and visually impaired students during the academic vacation period.EfE was set up by a blind lawyer to support the visually impaired in Addis. They run clubs to bring people together, so providing a social forum with all those advantages, and offer computer training, using specialist verbal software, among a range of activities. The plan to offer English tuition was a new venture so the planning and organising took some time before we could start.Let me say a little about the staff at this small organisation. It was started by a totally blind practicing lawyer who works for the Government in the High Court. He is divorced and brings up an 8 year old daughter by himself. The office manager is also blind; a very capable and competent young woman who travels a long distance to work each day by public transport, using crowded and chaotic line taxis (minibuses) which she negotiates alone. The third blind staff member is a recent graduate and he runs the clubs and handles PR. He lives alone in a tiny hovel of a bedroom and an alcove which is part of a larger poor, communal compound where the landlady also lives. It has to be seen to be believed. Two sighted female staff include the finance manager and the secretary. These 2 young women play a role in accompaning the blind staff members when on business away from the office. They are all absolutely lovely people with a love of life, a playfulness and a sense of humour that is at least totally humbling.I was lucky enough to be able to work with a VSO colleague who normally works in a hotter place than me (near the Danakil Depression which is the hottest place on earth!) and hence had been sent to Addis for the hot summer for health reasons! Peter is a professional English teacher and so he was extremely helpful to me. We baseline tested the nearly 100 students who applied for this summer course over an exhausting 2 days and split the group between us.The majority of participants were students, either from school, college or Addis Ababa university, although the age range was wide as people are encouraged to enter education at any stage in their lives and schools cater for a wide age range.There was an equally wide range of English ability, so our challenges were significant;• These students can not learn using sight• There was no standard ability within one class• No set course or curriculum, or textbooks.• There is a need to respond to needs, initially unknown• A need to motivate and entertain, as much as to ensure learning.• For me, to construct a course in English tuition to answer the above when I have never taught English before and never worked with special needs!I was busy for these 6 weeks! Each day I came home in the afternoon and reviewed the success of the day and based on this and feedback, I planned the 2 hour lessons for the following day (2 hour class in the morning, repeated in the afternoon for another group.) Peter provided me with some really useful books and gave me ideas and soon I got into the swing of it. We both enjoyed this teaching immensely, because, as usual, the students were so lovely and so responsive, so appreciative, participative and so hard working, and actually fun to be with.We used to see them working their way with the aid of their canes, across the large open school courtyard before each class and we would walk out to meet our own students calling their name as we approached. Their faces would light up and a big smile would spread across and they would greet us like a long lost friend by shaking our hand and rubbing shoulders in the typical Ethiopian manner while always enquiring how we were.The studentsHow they survive and manage is astounding. Some educational institutions in Addis are supposed to be resourced to support blind students, which is why these students are sent there. However, in practice there is little support for them and they fend for themselves. Fortunately they build support systems with friends but frequently they are walking and travelling around the busy, crowded streets of the capital, where pavements are uneven at best, and at worst are non existent, or with gaping holes and surfaces resembling building sites which they often are. They travel on line taxis and have to negotiate a city which has NO provision for the blind, frequently by themselves. They are cheerful, friendly and resilient. Sometimes a feeling of sadness is detectable close to the surface and over the 6 weeks I got to know them it was easy to detect mood swings and their frustrations and sadness.They also have to endure the rainy season. Whereas I had my nice Berghaus rain jacket, good quality boots and even rain trousers and a Karrimor fleece underneath, these students had a jacket at best and at worst…nothing! No rain protection at all, arriving soaked through and sitting for 2 hours in dark (not to them), cold, drafty (window pains inevitably broken), Dickenisn classrooms in wet clothes which at best included a sweater. Most are extremely poor and have few changes of clothes.The timing of a downpour frequently affected attendance but there were the stalwarts who made the journey often through heavy rain every day! They deserved a medal.They liked a song and when it rained we sang,‘its raining its pouring, the old man is snoring’ and otherwise we sung ‘if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands’.On one occasion we had a hailstorm and as well as describing this to them, I went outside and collected some hailstones so they could touch and feel the hail and we started a good game of putting hailstones down each others neck!You also learn just how they develop their other senses, to compensate for lack of sight. We take for granted that the written word is a substitute for memory. We don’t try to remember everything, we write it down. They can’t do this so their memories are very well developed, as is their hearing. At one stage a piece of paper fell silently to the floor and I could see the students follow this with their senses, including their eyes. Their sense of directionand of the layout of their immediate environment has to be learnt the first time they go anywhere new.These students are bright. Will they ever be able to realise their full potential in Ethiopia in the early 21st century? I doubt it. Some will, like Emyshitaw who became a successful lawyer and started a charity, raising funding to help others like him.Blindness is appallingly common in the country and most of these people lost their sight during childhood due to disease, often under very harsh and stressful living conditions. They all wanted to know what resources and facilities are available in the UK for blind people and it was difficult not to depress them by regaling them with a standard of provision in a world that they can never experienceThe EndCertificates are well sought after in this country and people gather them like trophies. So we had a little‘graduation’ ceremony for the students at the end of the course. In addition Peter and I throughout had made audio cassette tape recordings for each student of our teaching, and the learning that had been covered. This was additionally time consuming but was highly valued. There were little speeches and VSO attended and it was a lovely occasion. I think the students were sad to see the end of the course as they prepared for their return to a new academic year.Why do they not return home for the holidays? Well some do no doubt, but many are too poor and ill equipped to travel the long distances to where their families live. Nearly all will come from rural backgrounds and be part of large families so their families may not be able to accommodate their needs in terms of the family’s daily work routines or to provide them with the facilities they need. In Addis they are provided for better and their board and lodging (such as it is) is paid for. Even actually getting to where they actually live in rural hinterlands may be an insurmountable problem. In addition, I learnt that their blindness can be the cause of a rift between them and their families and in a few cases some may even be disowned.SummaryMy 2 months in Addis was really enjoyable. Not only did I enjoy the work and the people, I felt that I was actually making a direct contribution, however small. We had great relations with the EfE and the staff and I hope to be able to continue to support them from the UK.Additionally the capital is an easier place to live in many respects and although I am glad that I was not able to use this more westernised environment as a comfort zone or crutch for the whole year and am grateful for exposure to a more real or typical Ethiopian environment, it was a nice way to end my year. There are more VSO volunteers in Addis so the social life is better. Although again, it is easy under those circumstances to stay within a culturally homogenous circle at the expense of extending your friendship to Ethiopian colleagues, it was great to be able to go down the Pride Bar of an evening and hang out with other vols and chew the cud, just for 6 weeks!