Along with a couple of other teachers I visited Interlakes International School which is about 40km south of Addis. It was set up and is run by Dutch Christians. Entering the compound was a bit like walking into a little bit of Holland in the middle of Ethiopia. Everything appeared clean, ordered and lush with carefully planted vegetation. The Director explained that the purpose of the school is to provide quality education for middle income Ethiopians. The fees charged however, reflected that demographic and were ten times greater than those of the down-country school I had visited recently.  

As we walked up the neat shingle pathway to the staff room we could already smell the coffee brewing. There was a special event taking place to say goodbye to a Dutch teacher who was returning after spending a year working at the school. Thus we were included and were soon handed a kind of fruit moose which tasted rather good and a small muffin-like cake that had been specially prepared.

Three dogs were wandering around freely, the Director told us that they were his, but as they knew all the children it was fine. He began to show us around and we were intrigued by the distinctive uniform sported by the children, part of which was a striped orange jumper. It was bright and neat and fitted with the ambiance of the place. Quite different from the Government school we had passed on our journey where all the children were in pink-yes High school boys in pink trousers and shirts!

I was of course particularly interested in the Kindergarten and was pleased to see that there was a home corner, a role play restaurant and a ‘choosing board’ complete with photos of activities that the children could add their names to. There was lots of space and everything about the classroom and storage was ordered.

You will see from the photos that the rest of the school continued this trend. Assemblies (when the whole school get together) take place three times a year outside under the lunch shelter. Although ‘Bible’ is taught in the classrooms every day.

 When we were in the Library the Director pointed out that there had been a recent visit from Government officials. Rather than be impressed by the amazing facilities (everything from the smallest pair of scissors had been brought from Holland in suit cases), they wanted to know how many square feet the library was, how many children would use the library at once because the padded bench seat could not accommodate a whole class and where the maths books were on the library shelves. A totally different agenda.