A Day in My Life

My life is easy here compared to in the U.S.  My salary is enough that I don’t have to scrimp every month.  I have two young women living with me who are the sisters of one of my friends from Wollega.  I give them a better wage than any “servant” (they don’t feel like servants since I know their family so well)  in Ethiopia, but they have to manage their money. They both pay for school each month.  I save part of their salary in the bank so that when any medical or personal need arises, they can pay themselves rather than being dependent on me to add more money.  Tarike and Sintayo wash my clothes, cook my meals, clean the house. It is something amazing for an American. Giving women jobs is helping them in some way, but they work for such low wages that it is not enough to go to school or better their life. They are simply at the beck and call of their employers.   Keep in mind that all washing is done by hand and all food is cooked from scratch. No fast food or easy meal.

You must wonder what I do with my spare time since I have so much help in the house. I spend time on the internet, although the past few weeks it has been almost non-existent. I plan some lessons and prepare for English Club activities. My days are spent at the university, preparing for class, designing trainings, and organizing English Club Activities. The latter seems to take most of my time, so I feel pressured with creating lesson plans. My teaching partner, Zelalem, is wonderful and  we work well together. I am really blessed to have a counterpart who I can get along so well with.  We have a hard time getting any students to speak English.  The women are really dominated by any men in the class and barely speak a word or hide their faces with their head covering.

I have a good social life here and make time to enjoy the culture.  I ride my bicycle every day to and from school and in the beautiful countryside. So few people have cars here that the roads are almost empty. So much different than Addis Ababa or Adama, where I used to live. 

About once a month, I travel somewhere in the country to teach a workshop. The State Department has something called the ACCESS program for high achieving high school students. They attend Saturday morning classes for two years to improve their English and learn a bit about American culture.  I’m happy that I am creating lessons for the students rather than teacher training for the reasons I mentioned above. I want to feel like I am making a difference in peoples’ lives and be challenged intellectually.

 

 Tarike and Sintayo washing clothes. They are my friend's sisters from Wollega.