It's Official...I'm Fat!
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 03/Dec/2009 05:51, 34 days ago
You may remember that I decided to start up a small English social club for secretaries at my home which very quickly turned into two fairly large English Classes. I see one group on a Wednesday Evening and another on a Thursday evening. It has been very enjoyable and, although I am quite confident that teaching English Language is definitely not my forte, the secretaries have been very appreciative. We normally meet for about an hour and a half and go through simple dialogues that they may be expected to do as a secretary such as making small talk, taking messages or giving directions. Tonight we were just about to start when one of the secretaries kindly pointed out that I was fat. When I pointed out that this was not a compliment in England and that is wasn’t a particularly kind thing to say she said,‘’yes, yes... you are fat’’, with a big smile on her face. I’d like to think that perhaps my teaching skills are so bad that she simply didn’t understand what I meant (and to be fair we haven’t covered that vocabulary yet). However, the fact that the other secretaries all nodded in polite agreement suggests it was more than a simple mistranslation. I don’t think she meant any harm by the comment (or I doubt she would have continued smiling) but all the same I may have to think twice about letting her come to my Christmas party!I have decided to host a Christmas party for the secretaries. I am going to have both groups at once and give them a small taste of how we do Christmas in England. I think we’ll listen to Christmas music, sing some carols, eat something resembling English party food and perhaps play some classic party games like charades. I’ll also try and make them all Christmas cards and give them a small little gift. The good thing they were all free to come two days before Christmas as they don’t exactly have loads of other Christmas commitments taking up their time. This is for two reasons: firstly they don’t celebrate Christmas in Ethiopia until 7thJanuary and secondly because Christmas is apparently quite a quiet affair here. They say that they make more of a deal over other religious festivals such as Easter or Meskel (the finding of the true cross) in Ethiopia. They don’t even have any special Christmas songs or carols!! When I heard this I thought it was important that they got a taste of good old fashioned carol singing and so I am subjecting each group to learning a carol before the big day. I’ve tried to set it up as a little competition between the two groups to see which can sing an English Carol best but really it is to satisfy my need for a bit of home. I love Christmas so much and am really missing the manic Christmas build up back home. It is just not quite the same getting ready for Christmas when the sun is beating down day after day and no one around you is interested. I miss ...·        Dark, cold wintery evenings·        Shops full of stuff you don’t need·        Christmas tunes blasting out of shops earlier and earlier each year·        Christmas lights, Christmas trees and decorations·        Mince pies, mulled wine, Christmas pudding and the excuse to indulge in all sorts of other yummy foods·        A full social calendar filled with lots of Christmas parties and Christmas events.·        Students asking if they can watch movies in your lessons from the start of December onwards!·        Christmas cards.·        Everyone stressing about Christmas shopping.I am still determined to get as Christmassy as I possibly can and will spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Addis where I will be surrounded by lots of other volunteers equally determined to have a special Christmas. I will also probably be able to catch a carol service or nativity play at an English speaking International Church there. In the mean time I have been comforted by the fact that for some reason (definitely not Christmas) some coloured lights have been put up across the main road in town. There has also been a recent change in weather so that it has been quite windy and at times overcast. Although it is more like a poor summers day than a cold wintery experience, if I add a healthy dose of imagination it feels a bit more Christmassy than the usual scorching sun!