March 4, 2009

So to finish the last story…..

Just before Kassa arrived, Deborah Zinn had a book for all the women to sign. You should have seen their faces when she explained that this moment would be kept forever on a record. She handed the book to the first of our women with the assumption that she may not be literate enough to write her name. Now for the magic…. This woman has been with us for a little over one year. So she has been attending her literacy program faithfully. Instead of just knowing how to sign her name, she asked Deborah if she wanted it in English or Amharic!!!!!!!! That second in time made this all worth it. We really can give hope to at least a few.

Most of my days are spent at the office working on reports, dealing with office problems, developing better programs and learning how to fix the mistakes I made before I understood Ethiopian law and at least some of the culture.

The labor law here basically says that once you have been hired you never have to do a good job, you never have to do anything that is not in your job description, you can never get a decrease in salary, pretty much slavery is present here but it’s for the employer who would like at least some work done in a day.

We have two WONDERFUL employees including Kassa, our Representative and Manager and Tesfay, our loss control officer. A few more are at least at 80%. But… yesterday I noticed that our embroidery trainer sits every morning staring out the window. I asked Kassa about it because she is supposed to be a literacy trainer in the morning. He said that what happened was that when her job description was written the secretary left out the literacy training part by accident so we have no right to ask her to do anything.

Of course I knew that she would prefer doing something to nothing so I called her into my office to talk to her. She crossed her arms and said she would not do one single thing more unless I gave her more money (she is already paid about three times the market rate) So…. again this morning she is staring at the wall. GRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

To be fair, in my opinion there is a new program in the Federal government that has improved the customer service overnight. What used to take half a day at the bank can now be accomplished quicker than at home because in Colorado I always take more time there to say “hello” to Norma. I’ve been impressed. There really is hope!

One of my bright spots is Covenant Academy where our little girls and now Kassa’s children are attending. The school has given me such freedom to stop by and give all the little ones a hug. I love it!!! Tomorrow I am teaching the older students about positive affirmations. We just might see this country change from this group. Our little girls are making friends (can we get cheer leading started here?) and learning English quickly I believe! I believe!

For all of you who have sent personal emails and have not heard back from me this is a two-fold problem. One, the connection has been almost impossible for me to send mail and the letters I have sent don’t seem to get through. So, please keep writing. I love to hear from you.