When I arrived to Debre Markos University I could not help notice its lack of beauty. Compared to Adama University, which has been around a long time, DMU only began construction five years ago. This may seem like a long time to a Westerner, but it is barely a scratch here in Ethiopia. Things take time. Construction is ongoing. Flowers and bathrooms will have to wait. In spite of that, internal beauty of the staff and students make up for lack of external beauty.
When I first arrived to Debre Markos, I was warmly greeted by Zelaylem, an English teacher and coordinator of the English Language Improvement Center (ELIC). Although it is required by the Ministry of Education, in almost every university the ELIC is an unfunded program that gets little attention. So imagine my surprise when I was told that my job would be to work in the ELIC. I literally had to beg for 5 weeks before they would give me classes to teach. So now I am scheduled to team teach two classes in December. Advanced Writing 1 and Advanced Writing 2. DMU, as well as many other universities, has started the Modular system. That means that during a span of 12 days, the students earn 3 credit hours. Class is 4 hours a day. Imagine. Worse than summer school. Like a night class every night. It is tough on both teachers and students. No one seems to like it but that is the direction things are going here in Ethiopia.
Zelaylem and I are in the process of organizing English Clubs and trying to make the ELIC more than an empty shell. Students have the choice between Drama, Music, Debate, or Magazine clubs, debate being the most popular and music the least. We've managed to talk several teachers into being club advisers and hope the clubs do not die a slow death once everyone gets busy. We are planning Talent Shows, English language films, Coffee Talk (sort of like Dear Abby, but the students solve their problems over coffee and popcorn), and a year-end field trip.
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