Bill's Adventures - Ethiopia

From Bahir out into the country and to a village school via tuk tuk and transit van..
The principal of the village school came to get the two of us at quarter to 8 a.m. Tuk tuked to the edge of the city then.....the next mode of transport...the blue and white van...almost as numerous as the tuk tuks....the two are the transit system.
The vans are like the cars of Cuba...the driver is the mechanic....held together by tape and ingenuity. They are mostly older models of Toyota 9 seaters vans...we were three of 17 , not counting the driver and the " conductor" , who leans out the window hollering destinations....constantly. Goatherds , cowherds with clothbound heads barefoot/legged and white shawls over their shoulders; ladies with yellow jerrycans of water (a scarce commodity in Africa) or bags of produce, bags and packages..big things went up on the roof...
We stopped on the high way in the middle of nowhere and struck off through thick groves of eucalyptus trees , around huts and such to a clearing where there were a number of sticks and mud-walled sheds with tin roofs...we were at the school!
The yard was milling with endless numbers (752) of children ..  Gr 5 to 8...the 500+ primary come in the afternoon.....alternating by the week.
There were 15 or so teachers in their snow white lab coats.
We went first to the Kindergarten...specially coloured mud walls, little benches and mats on the mud floors. Such tiny children! The male teacher had them show off by calling out the names, in English, of the alphabet printed on the wall. There were only about 20. It was quite a cosy room...sunlight thru a small window and the space between the walls and the bamboo poles holding the ton roof. There were books and stuffed toys and a greenboard.
There was a special needs class of the blind with braille tablets and a teacher and a trained specialist ; a young woman.
This school was built by the villagers and the govt supplies the teachers...not the school. Most cannot afford go go daily to Bahir Dar to highschool; the principal is trying to unite nearby villagers to start saving to build a high school.
All the floors are bare earth . They have M/F and staff pit latrines. Water is carried in in yellow jerrycans.
The 57 grade 8 s have a large pail of fresh cow patties and jugs of water in the room....it will be their responsibility to mix this and plaster the potholed floors. Cow dung makes dustless cement like covering. There is straw mixed on the mud of the walls.
All have desks, texts, note books, and a qualified teacher. There is a rudimentary library with a librarian and a laboratory for grades 7 and 8 Physics and Chemistry.....rudimentary by our standards but there with a teacher .
We had traditional coffee ceremony coffee with the staff in a staffroom. All this in sticks and mud...The staff all in snow white , kind and welcoming and proud..
we might have been in a palace..
It was a most moving experience that I am still coping with!