‘Waste not want not’ was a phrase repeated many times during my childhood, growing up in the sixties. I certainly saw this mantra in action at home, but not to the degree that the attitude is applied here.

By the time I left the UK to begin work at Bingham I was well ingrained into the disposable society. Anything of little-perceived value was tossed in the bin. As I write this I have four bins beside me: one for scraps of paper (but not if they are coloured and can be used in the classroom); one for vegetable matter (used to feed the chickens two doors down); one for bottles that Seble takes home to share with her neighbours (they use them to store drinking water which is frequently in short supply); and one for general rubbish.

However, it is in school that cultural attitudes are so different. We have some large cupboards for storage of Kindergarten resources. Myself and LauraKay, our KG2 teacher, have been sorting one each week. As teachers come and go they leave books, photocopied sheets, laminated items and all sorts of resources such as hand-made puppets that they feel will help others that follow. However, both of us use the Internet to locate the latest resources and ideas now, so much of what we find has no immediate use.

Boxes were made up. One is for RICE school - newer than ours and just developing. Anything they don’t use I’m assured will be given to a local Ethiopian school. Another for Lemma’s school - a school in the countryside for very needy children. We had the privilege of visiting there recently with Hannah. It is so exciting to see the expansion that has happened since 2007 when we were first introduced to this school. The classrooms are largely bare and the posters are peeling off the chicka (mud) walls however the pupils are smiling, learning, and very well behaved! The final box was for rubbish, broken items, items contaminated by rats, and odd bits from resources that no longer exist. A cloud of guilt hangs over me whenever I put anything in this box as I know my wonderful teaching assistant will question my choices. Ruth has been brought up in a community where everything has value. All possessions are carefully guarded and preserved; nothing is replaced until absolutely necessary. I dropped a 5-6cm length of plastic beads on a string into the bin this week - it had a sharp piece of metal at one end where a clasp had once been. Ruth immediately retrieved this to see if she could repair it in any way.

Recently the gardeners kindly took a hose to our sandpit. The now damp sand has really improved its play value. Moulds and buckets have been utilized constantly and many a sand pie has been created. The buckets initially caused some contention between children. We had two - the split pink one and the well-used green one. I remembered and fetched the two brand new blue ones from the cupboard where they had been carefully secreted when they arrived in our annual resource order. I explained that we needed to provide for the children’s interest, although I could tell that Ruth was doubtful. To make room for the shiny new buckets I threw away a faded plastic pick-up truck with all four wheels missing. After all I told myself, what impression would it give to prospective parents when they visited to see the children playing with broken toys? “Why you throw that away?” Ruth asked me. I lamely explained. “But the children still play with it” she replied. She was right of course; children will play with anything, not just the toys that look good to adults.

I have so much still to learn from Ruth.