How can a simple man describe the last 10 days?
If you have read my blog recently you will realise I attended a British Council-run seminar in Addis Ababa. What was a teacher doing being sent all the way to Ethiopia? is an authority wide INSET not enough? Not if you want to link with an African school.
Along with 15 other teachers from the UK we met up with another 32 like-minded teachers from all over sub-saharan Africa: Sierra Leone, Senegal, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa and Namibia. (Apologies if I have left anyone out.)
Put simply the aim of the seminar was for each participant to form a tripartite partnership made up of one UK cluster and 2 clusters from 2 different African countries. We were taking part in the 2nd such seminar of 3 which will make up the 2nd Connecting Classrooms cohort. In a more in depth way we had to challenge our assumptions and perceptions of each other all the way. How many UK colleagues went to Ethiopia with an image of abject poverty and famine in mind I don't know, our African colleagues also had that same idea.
We were asked to examine our perceptions of each other and any assumptions we may have made on the way. At the same time we looked at how any organisation must base its operating principles on assumptions: these being the 8 Assumptions of Appreciative Enquiry.
Based on this concept we were asked to build a wall of greatness by identifying something about our countries about which we were proud, and something about our education systems which we liked. By doing this we were trying to ensure that in building a partnership we focussed on the positive aspects of what each partner had to offer.
Following this was the market place. This was really the exercise which everyone had come for. Everyone had a display highlighting their clusters' priorities all that was left to do was to sell ourselves and listen to others. talk about nerve wracking and stressful. It took a day and a half before our partnership was settled with one or idea changes along the way. So finally it was done. Our cluster (The Gordon Schools, Gordon Primary and Rhynie Primary) are now in partnership with a cluster in 
Windhoek, Namibia and a cluster of schools in the world heritage site of 
Lalibela, Ethiopia. I am so excited...even if I don't get to go to all of the places.
So what now?
I'm partnership co-ordinator for the 1st year and the aim is to establish regular reliable communication links, set out the nitty gritty details of what projects we want to carry out and of course organise a visit. My African colleagues will therefore be visiting us in september of this year.
For me this was a fantastic experience. I got to return to Africa, however briefly, I saw a small part of another country and I got to sh
oot the breeze with my African brothers and sisters again. we worked hard but we also had some fantastic evenings' entertainment both set up for us and on the spur of the moment. Highlights for me were the visit to the
Yod Abbyssinia Restaurant where I had my first taste of the Ethiopian national dish Injera with Wat.,and see some amazling traditional dances. second highlight was the informal party organised by thE British Council staff. Hilarious. But not as hilarious as the attempt to usurp the Igwe's power on the final evening. Thank you Victor. (Unfortunately this must remain under lock and key but I have the evidence)
However the most wonderful thing about the whole event was the enthusiasm, the excitement and the willingness of ALL the participants. We all felt that we were taking part in something that could turn out to be very important. The programme as a whole will directly touch 1.2 million children worldwide. Imagine this, each child involved goes home and talks to a parent. This parent talks to a neighbour, the neighbour talks to a friend. All the time assumptions and perceptions are being challenged head on. Could something like this have an influence on the future of our world. Why not? The song says, "I believe the children are our future..."
i spent an afternoon wandering the campus of the University of Addis Ababa speaking to students. I was in the company of a wonderful 14 year old pupil of Bole High School who had opinions about the world she lives in and who wanted to share them with a complete stranger. This 14 year old (whose name means "politeness") could be a role model for every 14 year old in this country. She is politically aware, culturally aware, spoke almost perfect English (not her native tongue) and was motivated and ambitious about her studies. I hope my own daughter will develop such awareness. A day later we visited their school. A secondary school with 6000 students, where IT facilities amounted to 90 PC,s, but a school whose community had banded together to build a brand new 3 storey block to house the senior students' classrooms. those with "shallow pockets" contributed their own hands and muscles to build it. It was a heart warming visit to a school where the education of the students really was a high priority and things were being done without waiting for governments to do it. BRAVO BOLE HIGH SCHOOL.
BANG. Yesterday I returned to my own school..."can I borrow a pencil, I forgot my bag." AAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!. Many of the Ethiopian students i spoke to think that they have a lot to learn from their western counterparts. I have seen both sides of the coin and I know that our cossetted pupils have far more to gain from their peers in Africa than they can even imagine...love, respect, ambition and awareness etc etc.
Our partnership is called WELWITSCHIA. it is taken from the Namibian national plant the Welwitschia Mirablilis. this plant lives in the desert and yet is recorded as living for 1000 years. We intend that our partnership will last as long. Here's hoping, but according to the 8 Assumptions of AI:
- what we focus on becomes our reality.
This map from Martin Varsavsky's blog (he's the chap who invented the Fon social wifi router) just illustrates my point perfectly. It's to do with the popularity of the various social networking sites around the world. Almost a whole continent (Africa) is missing out and even China with its huge push for modernisation is barely touched.
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