Make do and mend

I guess it was bound to happen.  But over the months I've either had to make bodge jobs, make do or find ingenious solutions to basic problems:  So what have I achieved.

1. Made a badminton net from the netting on the inside of my trousers
2. Made a set of weighing scales from two bowls and a length of string
3. Made a bucket shower that uses the real shower head
4. Sewed up material to make a new pillow case
5. Collected melted wax to make candles that last longer.

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Time to think

Yechila is one place on Saturdays where I train secretaries and teachers in using their school computer.  Although after two visits, I have achieved nothing, as one trip there was no power and the other time someone had added a password and no one knew what it was.  Third time lucky I hope.  Still at least there are always school walls to look at.  Elementary school walls are often painted in bright colours; often showing a "map" of the world.  Sometimes this is replicated in the ground using stones.  However they also seem to have a fascination with parts of a microscope, the periodic table and diagrams of sexual organs.

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Seasonal Changes

Just thought I would include a comparison photograph of the change in seasons.  The left photo was taken just after arriving, whereas the right was taken last week.  Although 99% of days are dry, hot and sunny, you can clearly see the difference following the rainy season.

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Tekeze River

"7% own 84% of all the wealth on earth" stated Ian Brown.  I don't know if it's true but it made me think on my journey north, when I saw the major Tekeze river.  Famous due to the enourmous dam that has been built further up stream to create hydro-power.    Unfortunately, all that is left of this once wide, flowing river, is little more than a narrow stream in most places.  A question floated into my mind.  Should a river be dammed to supply electricity for 20% of the population, while removing a vital source of water for the other 80%, who probably do not use the electricity?

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A Very English Debate

Sitting next to someone who can type at speed in Tigrinian using a QWERTY keyboard to make the symbols used in the fidel script is worth watching.  They use a program called Visual Geez which, when installed, allows the 230 or more symbols to be created using combinations of our 26 letters (and a Ctrl or Alt or two).  I tried to replicate one word and it took 30 minutes.  This task is made more interesting when they are translating an English document, as of course it is not as simple as word for word.

 

This I think begs the question about the use of English around the world.  You see, when they start school in Ethiopia they use their local language (generally one of 3: Amharic, Tigrinya or Oromo).  Later they all learn Amharic (the national language) and after that English.  Why English?  Not just because it is seen as the language to know, to help get you on in life, but in a large part because the vast majority of the school textbooks are in English.  This is of course due to our kind donation of our old textbooks from the 50s (tongue firmly wedged in cheek).  So the upshot, you have children learning all subjects in their third language from texts that most of our children I believe would struggle to follow.  Having said that, those that continue through the entire education process sometimes have a far better grasp of grammar and vocabulary than me.  (How ironic, Word has just underlined the last sentence in green).

 

VSO (who work at the Ministry of Education) are in favour for all subjects to be taught in their local language.  However, that of course relies on each teacher being able to convert (not just translate) all key information onto a board or rewrite the book.  The government, I think, firmly believe that speaking English is a sign of intelligence and will continue to use English as the Language of Instruction.

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Following on from that....

I learned yesterday that actually the region I am in is called Tigry (rhyming with my), not as the spelling suggests - Tigray (rhyming with may).  You see when they translate, as we discovered on our language course, the instructors used the Roman alphabet to represent the Fidel sounds.  Not a straight forward task as you get different spellings from the same teacher one day to the next. 

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Spelling

It occurred to me an issue regarding phonetically based spelling.  As I explained in Sounds Crazy (November), the characters represent sounds and therefore words can be spelt more easily without rule exceptions.  However, as I have witnessed, even linguistically skilled teachers can sometimes read their own language slowly, sounding words out before taking onboard any meaning.  This situation seems to be born out from a lack of, or need for sight vocabulary.  Whereas, we learn the shape of words from an early age, particularly those words that forget the rules; they have no need for this.  It reminded me of a sheet brought into my class.

 

Teh bsaic ieda si taht teh bairn cna siltl raed wrdos taht aer selpt wnrog if lal teh lrtetes aer terhe adn ptuacrlailry fi teh frist adn lsat ltertes aer ni teh croerct pacle.

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