bad timing...
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 25/Mar/2010 05:22, 34 days ago
I think I mentioned several months ago that I was applying for a grant from the bandaid charity to build a library in a local primary school? We got the go ahead and the money in January and since then I have been working with a colleague called Birhanu to project manage the build. We employed a local builder and things seem to have been running fairly smoothly (apart from the price in cement going up since the builder quoted the cost) until last week when I was sent an e-mail reminding me that the final reporting needs to be done by the end of March. Oops! Somehow time has flown by very quickly and although the building itself should be completed on time we still haven’t worked out how we are going to furnish or resource it! Instead I am going to have to compile an interim report and apologise profusely about the lack of progress. Hopefully we will get the chairs, tables and bookshelves built in record time because I am planning to go to Addis Easter weekend to buy the books.Tomorrow the guy I am supposed to give the final report to is coming to Ambo to visit. I therefore wanted to have some concrete evidence of progress to show him so that he is not too disappointed by the fact we haven’t managed to complete the project yet. I therefore took a trip up to the school this afternoon to take a photo of the library in its current state. Normally I wait for Birhanu whenever I want to visit the school as he can easily discuss progress with the builders in Afan Oromo and he also serves as a good deterrent for all the nosey children who are really excited to see a Ferenge! However, Birhanu was in a meeting all afternoon. I remembered that last time we went we timed it really badly as it was the end of the school day and we had more than the usual attention (although the caretaker had been very good at shooing the children away) . I was therefore determined to try and get their earlier to avoid this (especially as I would be visiting without Birhanu). I arrived at about 4.30 and thought I had a good 30 mins before school finished but I couldn’t have been more mistaken. Seconds after taking the photos of the library the school bell rang. Several thousand students piled out of their classrooms and lined up outside waiting to be dismissed. I thought if I walked fast enough I might just get away without them noticing but it was no use. About 500 were dismissed in the first batch and as I walked away they came running after me. Almost immediately I had about 100 students within about 10ft of me, hooting, screaming, whistling! They were so excited to see me! Some were pushing each other to get closer and so at one stage I had quite a few bodied bumping into me. It was quite funny and scary in equal measure. I spotted the caretaker and tried to take refuse by his side for a while. However... there were too many of them and his usual scare tactics were only serving to keep them at a safe distance (about 1m) and were doing nothing to get them to move on their way. As I stood by him I noticed another 500 students had just been dismissed and were also heading my way. It was no use... if I wanted a quiet walk home I’d probably have to wait by the caretakers side for over an hour! I therefore took the bullet and walked on. It was crazy... the kids were crazy...they had hyped themselves up into a frenzy and there was nothing I could do to calm them down. Normally it is about a half a kilometre walk from the school to the nearest taxi but my luck changed when I saw a taxi only 150m from the school gate. It was such a relief to get into the vehicle. I felt like someone famous as we tried to move away in the taxi surrounded by students on all sides banging on the windows, hooting and cheering! Phew... I escaped! I think next time I’ll wait for Birhanu and make sure I arrive even earlier!