Have you seen the makeover programmes that transform a house or room in a short time frame? Well that has been my challenge during the last two weeks. I needed to get to know everything in my classroom and the outside store and organize it in a way that would be useable by both adults and children alike.

I found myself preserving and repairing resources that I never would have in the UK. For example the faded paper that had lined the walls last year I cut to a suitable size and will use for the children to paint onto. I have also washed and repaired with duct tape, sellotape or sewn many, many items.

The complication I didn’t anticipate were the rats. We hear them sliding down inside the walls of our apartment in the evenings, but fortunately they cannot get in (a colleague living upstairs has apparently trapped three during the last week). However opening the cupboard under the sink in the classroom revealed a large hole. The rats had obviously been having fun as I found evidence of their games in many places. They had chewed three children’s novelty cushions. Two I preserved (after all the stuffing might be useful in the future), but one I deemed beyond use or repair. So I took it to the school dump with a few other items. Someone must have seen potential where I didn’t however as when I returned five minutes later it was gone.

My second challenge has been to prepare an apartment for an incoming teacher’s family. I had to select items from various storage locations and furnish appropriately. I could book a few school Ethiopian workers to carry the heavy items. Did it all go smoothly? Well almost.

I should have been prepared for being in a windowless storage room beneath the main building, which was full of large furniture at the time, when the power went out. There I was without my torch and had to feel my way out through the pitch black.

I should have realised that workers who live in dwellings without multiple rooms, don’t have the experience to know where to put a bookcase. That’s why it ended up in the bathroom. When I began to relocate said bookcase I looked up to see that the clock had made it to the wall in the bathroom too. Neither is it natural for an Ethiopian worker who may not experience our regular floor coverings to be aware of the potential damage to clean carpets that muddy boots can do.

However it was all very good spirited and they were very patient with my attempts to explain the consequences of the lack of a bed base through gesture and role play.

One planning filled week to go till the new staff arrive, mostly from America this time, and Orientation begins. Happy Summer Hols UK readers.