My Most Embarrassing Moment Revealed

November 2^nd, 2007

This morning was a whirlwind and I needed to scream. We went to school at 8:30 to see the flag-raising. Each grade lines up neatly for it. A different child is selected each day to raise the flag and they sing the Oromo anthem while it’s being done. The kindergarteners were so cute because they waved to us practically the whole time. I sometimes wish I could teach the younger ones.

It’s really disturbing because the teachers actually do use the sticks to whip the children! The first day that I was at class, I walked in just as they were whipping the late children on the leg with a piece of plastic. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and wondered what I was doing there. One girl cried and Matthewos consoled her by saying, “auzosh.”

Before my class started we asked Teka for next week’s lesson plan. Kate and I can’t even explain our frustration with how communication was going. Although we’d explain that we weren’t actual teachers, he still didn’t seem to get a clue. We wish there was more communication between FH in Uganda, FH in Addis, FH here, and the school. We just need to clear expectations from the beginning. Maybe that’s asking too much. I don’t know. Then we talked to Kassa for a while. He explained that he needed a lap top for the school because eventually they will get electricity. Personally I think they need copiers as well. He’s going to make a list of things they need. Hopefully Kate and I can figure out a way to get these things to them. He told us not to send things to the government for them because the government can decide to do whatever they want with the things we send. All of the needs of the school are so overwhelming. I hope I can fulfill those wishes somehow. Kassa said I didn’t need to teach my second class because I was too tired. I wasn’t too tired, but I didn’t mind not teaching. I think he just wanted to talk to us longer. During the class I did teach today Teka left partway through, so I was alone with no one to translate if they didn’t understand me.

Kassa’s daughter hung out with us most of the time and she was really cute. He and his daughter talked us to the compound and on the way we asked him about the hitting. He said that he knows it’s bad to hit the children, but there are reasons why it is still done. One is because most of the parents hit their children in order to discipline them. Consequently, they don’t think that the children are being disciplined if they ask them if they got hit that day and they didn’t. Secondly, a lot of the children will not obey unless they are hit because that is how they’ve always been disciplined. Kassa holds meetings with parents and tells them about the repercussions of hitting their children, so hopefully it will some day become an obsolete method of discipline in the home and in the schools. Sometimes changes have to be made slowly. I can’t help but wonder if it would be effective to stop the hitting immediately.

This afternoon we drove to the pink school and also saw Desta’s water project. Desta is in charge of water and sanitation. We saw an adult class which was being taught literacy. The building they were using used to be an office but it was changed into a classroom. A couple boys had some small balls which they were using for football and volleyball. I played volleyball with one of the boys. He was pretty good and it was a lot of fun. Then we went to the water pump which is the source of water for all the people in the area. Crazy! I think we interrupted a man showering. Luckily, he had shorts on. Then we played football (soccer) with tons of children. We played with a real football this time. One of the children was hilarious. He was probably the smallest child there and he kept stopping the ball and picking it up. He wanted to be the center of attention at all times. He would get low with his hands on his knees. We decided he was a natural goal keeper. Whenever I tried to give him a high 5 he would duck. He probably thought I was going to hit him, which is really sad. Finally, I was able to show him that I wasn’t going to hit him and he gave me a high 5. I love playing with the children and I wish I could do it more while we’re here. That is when I am happiest.

I hear the baying of the donkeys. They always sound like they’re dying or being tortured. Kate and I joke that we can’t sleep until we hear a donkey baying. It’s like our good night call. Andy gave us an assignment to find out which animal you would rather or rather not meet on the road. So far donkeys and cattle seem the most annoying. But goats seem to scurry pretty fast. I think I would rather meet a goat and would rather not meet cattle. I’m going to miss not seeing animals around, just hanging out in the middle of the road, when I return to the states.

Oh and how can I forget this?! Kate and I were on our way to school. A clinic right sits outside of our compound and men and women are always standing and sitting in front of it. Children were walking to school in front of me and behind me. Suddenly, my skirt falls to my knees! I quickly pull it back up. Kate sees me tugging on it and is like, “what?!” I start laughing hysterically because it’s hilarious. But at the same time, I start crying because I’m humiliated. And they weren’t the kind of tears that come from laughing too hard. They were tears of humiliation. I was thinking that the children wouldn’t respect me and that people would think of me of the white laughing-stock of the school from that day forth. I wanted to go back to the compound and crawl back into bed. But I didn’t. Kate consoled me and laughed at the same time. We both were in shock, but thought it was hilarious at the same time. Luckily, I was wearing my spandex under the skirt. I couldn’t believe that this would happen to me in a society where showing your thighs is completely taboo.

Now you wonder, ‘how did the skirt fall down?’ there are many factors which contributed to this untimely disaster. First, the skirt was already a loose skirt. Secondly, the skirt hadn’t’ been put in the drier for months so it has slowly gotten bigger. Thirdly, I had lost a little bit of weight since I had arrived there because of my dislike of the food. People always ask me if I have a most embarrassing moment and I usually say I don’t. But now, thanks to that skirt (which I haven’t worn since), I have one. I can tell you that I now do not ever wear a skirt without spandex underneath them.