It is Friday and as with all Fridays the mothers of the
children come to the school, according to a rota, to help with the
cleaning. At 8am they were already
washing sheets, bibs, carpets… In
this way they contribute to a project that looks after their children and they
themselves. And, as you can see
from the photos they do it with good humour! As for us we continue sewing coloured belts on to the
uniforms to identify the groups.
Last year it was me who insisted on individual tutorials in the kindergarten,
in this way each baby identifies with one carer and each carer takes
responsibility for the child and for attending, informing and listening to its
families. This year it is them
that are demanding this type of organisation: lists, groups, numbers,
classifications by colours…I’m delighted that they have seen the benefits of
this system. And so we continue
sewing. It is lovely, while we
sew, organise, prepare the classes for the course, make lists of materials that
we need…in our ‘centre of operations’ which now is the storage room, the
children come to see us and eat us with their kisses.
A new boy has arrived.
His father is a beggar who is crippled with a badly formed leg and walks
on crutches. This boy, because of
his age, has entered into straight into the infant’s class; thankfully the
carers were able to arrange things so that he could fit into the class. He arrived as all the others on their
first day, very very dirty, in rags and with emphysema on his head. We gave him a bath, put lotion on him, and
gave him two new uniforms and also some clothes for home. Now he looks very handsome! In addition he had breakfast,
elevenses, lunch and tea. And of
course he played, sung and made friends…
Today was the last day of school for the teachers. Starting tomorrow they enjoy two months
of summer holidays. However, in
Abugida the children don’t only learn but also receive food, sanitary care and
a roof over their heads while their mothers work, this paradise never
closes! As there are two teachers
in each class one of them goes for holidays and the other stays and receives
double pay. The teachers organise
this between themselves. The
teachers that will be staying organise a coffee ceremony to say goodbye to the
four teachers who go on holiday. After
giving today’s course we went to the market and bought baskets for the children
to leave their shoes in at the front door of the classroom (there’s so much mud
that we do not allow them to wear their shoes inside) and potties for the
babies.
Today’s course for the carers (which was also attended by
the director of the school) covered hygiene (avoiding illness, reducing
contagion, making work more pleasant and keeping us more healthy) and baths
(utility, groups, the way to bathe a baby, how to use bathing as an opportunity
for education, precautions, gels, creams, oils, the bath and the emotional
component). We shall have to
continue with this subject on Monday, as there wasn’t time to finish. It is a long but important subject
(even washing hands, cleaning the classrooms and control of nozzles…) and takes
longer because we are explaining in Spanish and Zerihun has to translate
everything into Amharic. All the
carers are still attending the course and showing interest with their
participation, their questions and suggestions. I am able to tell you 1000 more things from this single day,
it seems that days here in Abugida last 48 hours, but it’s late and I’m tired
and tomorrow I have to get up early as at 8am a little girl will come to the
school who I have to take to the ophthalmist in Addis Ababa.
No comments:
Post a Comment