Future Talent Academy

FUTURE TALENT ACADEMY
First Impression:
School is nicer than I'd xpected. Doing a lot of improvements- painting, adding class rooms, pouring cement for a new play area, planting grass, etc

Second Impression:
Dr. Rod is not the hot Scottish Director I had envisioned. Instead he is a large, fat man. He is a little racist- at our first meeting he made lots of jokes about Ethiopians! I discovered that things here move SLOWLY.

Current Impression:
Is this just the third world or am I working for a horribly run school?
Things are not going as planned...
I still don't have a house- the school hasn't been paying the hotel bill and informed me on Thursday that they would not pay the hotel after Friday (but they still hadn't found me a house). I have been house hunting all week. The school finally found one, but the rent is above my housing stipend... I'm expected to move in and pay the additional 500birr monthly??? However the hotel won't let me leave until the bill has been paid- unfortunately the school can't pay the bill at the moment, so I'm at the hotel another 4 nights!

We were told that we would be reimbursed for our airfare upon arrival- having paid a few nights of the hotel I'm coming up on broke and really needed money before this long weekend. Our checks bounced - the cashier said No money in this account. The school has reassured us that we will get new checks next Thursday.

We were also informed that we are required to work more hours than expected (with no monetary compensation). Oh yeah and i found out that my salary will be taxed between 25-35%, something that might have been nice to know earlier.

Kindergarten teachers were to prepare and turn in lesson plans by this Friday, students were to begin class next Wednesday after the holiday weekend. However, our classrooms are not ready- they aren't even built yet! Since we couldn't move our materials into the classroom, didn't know the classroom set-up or even have a work space- lesson planning would be difficult. I decided to go to work and try to lesson plan anyway... but then I found out that I couldn't access past lesson plans and curriculum information because everything was still in boxes being unpacked in the library.

An emergency meeting was called with the Director, Dr. Rod, to adress the foreign teachers complaints. We "discussed" our concerns and were told- The Ethiopian teachers make much less money than you do, and they don't complain. The Director has a point... but in effect he told us to shut up!

Oh yeah- and all the administration talk crap about each other, roll their eyes about each other in front of the staff and more or less make them ALL look incompetent and unprofessional! (But I like Ms. Jill, she at least listens to us and tries to help us)

The next day we found out that Meles, the Prime Minister, is calling a mandatory week long training for all Ethiopian teachers. So... fortunately, while Meles is brainwashing and threatening the Ethiopian staff, my classroom will be completed and I'll be busy designing the K-11 English curriculum.