Norma, the new volunteer, is staying in the Lammergeyer hotel while her house is getting fixed up. We all met up for breakfast in the garden this morning - it is such a beautiful garden.

I did one brainstorm on the training where I asked them “What is maths” – one group wrote that it was like the honey on bread – I think that is one Ethiopian proverb that doesn’t quite translate!

I missed Connie when I was getting ready for training – mind you, I can’t do multiple sets of matching activities here because the teachers just wouldn’t have the resources to duplicate them. The big yellow screen in the photo was for my matching activity!

Did I tell you that I have started a group for female teacher educators at the college? They wanted English language practice but I have subverted it a little to make it focussed on their professional development. I had them writing CPD plans in the last session! We meet twice a week and it helps me feel a bit connected with people.

The week before last we went to Addis for a meeting of volunteers working in Cluster units around the country. These cluster units are usually based in Teacher training colleges and they develop and run training for local teachers. I was great to be with other professionals and hear what people were doing. For me tho, the best part of the trip to Addis was my meeting with Beverly, who works in the Ministry of Education overseeing the Higher Diploma Programme (that Mike and I ran in Awassa). I had suggested some changes to the assessment system they used and arranged to meet up to talk about it. In the meantime I had proposed re-writing the whole module on Action Research – amazing what you will volunteer to do when you are stuck in a room on your own for some time. Beverly was a consultant in the south of England somewhere and it was great to talk frankly with someone from a similar background. So I have given myself lots of work to do!

I have also signed up for a course with the Open University. About 10 years ago I did a module for the Masters degree in Education (Leadership and Management) thinking I might work up to a doctorate! Well, you never know. Now I am doing a module called “Researching Mathematics Learning” – the set book is by John Mason, so my maths colleagues will need me to say no more. It looks like a fantastically interesting course. Sadly, I am already behind with my work as I signed up late and my books haven’t yet arrived from the UK.

What else is new? A new volunteer from Canada arrived the other day to work at our college – she is amazing, over 70 years old and this is her third VSO placement (so no excuses mum!). Very interesting stories to tell. Next week there should be someone else coming – an IT volunteer for college so maybe I will be able to use the internet at college soon!

Speaking of my mother, she is off in Cuba at the moment so I am looking forward to hearing all about her trip.

Ok, that’s it for now. I will add some photos. I have made a spinach curry and a dahl and Mike is finishing some crepes so I am off to stuff myself.

Don't forget, I can't get into my own blog here so there is not point in leaving comments. You can of course, email me at gilladams@yahoo.com with any feedback!!! Or you can write (PO Box 1090, Gondar, Ethiopia).

This is the second cycle training room - Michael is getting teachers to do a decision line on whether intelligence is fixed or not.

Oh… yes, well I had noticed the lack of number fans and mini whiteboards. Actually they have made mini blackboards but I haven’t seen anyone using them. I think chalk is difficult to get hold of for the teachers, let alone having enough for each class of 80! So, I did my best. We did an activity on angles on parallel lines – I sent them all out at break to find 3 straight sticks and we used bottle tops to mark the angles (coke still comes in bottles here as does beer and an awful lot of it is drunk).

Angles on parallel lines!

Caroline has shamed me into writing some blog! I know I haven’t managed to do anything regularly but I will try to improve! Anyway, I have lots to say now.

I’ve been really busy this week, it has made a nice change. On Friday and Saturday I ran training for second cycle mathematics teachers and the school supervisors. I was great to be training again. I am doing an Ethiopian version of the four day course, two days now, a gap task and follow up in schools, followed by another two days. I tried but failed miserably to get much involvement from the mathematics department here (the idea is that they plan and deliver the training with me and continue after I leave) and ended up doing all but one session myself. I did manage to get two of the department to come to a couple of sessions tho so I count that as an achievement. The first day was about learning styles, reflective teaching, the nature of maths and…. Yes, you guessed it, geometry! Saturday was more geometry and looking at planning. The feedback was really positive but I do wonder just how much people understood. I learnt a lot and would do some things differently if I do it again. I started with a starter on gradients of lines – I attempted to get them to imagine their bodies as the y axis, with the x axis running across their chest and then use their arms to show me the line y = x. Very reluctant! I asked them to show me a steeper line and one with a smaller gradient. They didn’t really like it at all!! I will persevere tho – probably it wasn’t a good thing to start with! I tried to do some of the stuff on loci from the Maths Study modules from the Key Stage 3 strategy but they found the whole concept of loci quite difficult. There is one where you have two points about 8 cm apart and you move a coin so that it is always the same distance from the two points – simple, you might think, you trace out the perpendicular bisector of the line joining A and B. Well, no. We grappled with this for some time. I got two people out to be A and B and then asked them all to stand so that they were the same distance from A and from B. After much persuading a couple of people got up and positioned themselves correctly, then some more and just as I thought we had cracked it more joined in and placed themselves in two more lines parallel to the bisector….hmm….. OK, so fortunately I had some rope so we measured the distance from these oddly placed people to A and B and showed that they weren’t the same. I think they got it eventually.

They want us to train using TALULAR at college. All very well I thought, but what the hell is it? No-one could tell us. Then one day I noticed a big sign just inside the college gate but obscured behind another.

	Teaching And Learning Using Locally Available Resources

This first picture is Piazza, the main square in Gondar. Note the sheep heading off to market!





A couple of weeks ago it was the celebration of Timkat. We got up around 5 am and headed down the road to Fasilidas pool where the crowd gathers.

We were too early, to be honest! There was a long period of waiting whilst the prayers continued.....

As it got light the crowds deepened, it was hard to move. Everyone was dressed in their finest clothes, looking fantastic. There was much splashing of water and then the procession of arks moved off, slowly back to their respective churches.

I’ve stopped taking Larium (anti-malarial – the one that can make you mad!). I need a break from the all-night movies, it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the effect to wear off. Most people seem to say the risk of malaria in Gondar is very slight, particularly at this time of year, when it is very dry. We have had only one or two short showers in two and a half months. So I am sure I will be more wary of mosquitos but after 13 months on Larium I figured I was due a break.

We’ve passed the one year milestone. On the anniversary we had quite a depressing evening – we went out for pizza with Lucy, a Kenyan volunteer who arrived at the same time as us. We are all quite cynical about the whole VSO thing – particularly in Ethiopia. Before you leave the UK you hear a lot about capacity building and sustainability but the reality is really very different. I think really people aren’t ready. At college is seems as though they just want someone to come in and do things – they want me to sort out CPD but management don’t really seem willing to get involved. Or maybe they just don’t realise that for any change to happen they need to lead. Actually, last week I had a very good week but only because I found things to keep me busy. I’ve been developing some training on Action Research, some mathematics training for second cycle teachers, working on some research for VSO on “Valuing Teachers” and started a network group for female teacher educators. I’d had a positive meeting with my line manager at the beginning of the week, raising a lot of concerns I had and getting some assurances that things would be different. One thing he had agreed to was to attend the CPD committee meeting on Friday to show how the college management were going to support the CPD programme. Five minutes after the meeting was due to start I got a message to say that the Vice Dean (my line manager) and two other senior members of the committee weren’t coming, they were doing something else. No apology of course – that is not the way here. Amygdala hijack.

Anyhow, you have to carry on. We had a great day yesterday, out walking in the hills around Gondar. And I am about to sign up for an OU course to ensure my brain doesn't die.