Jamie's Christmas Crackers

Christmas dinner wouldn’t be complete without Christmas hats and Christmas crackers. We made the hats from some left over scraps of A4 paper which we selotaped together and then decorated. It was lovely because each hat was unique and some were themed especially for the person. For example Adam’s hat was covered in Christmas ‘dogs’ as he is quite a dog lover. We then made some crackers by using half an old toilet roll wrapped with some old Christmas and birthday wrapping paper. All very environmentally friendly- classic example of reusing and recycling! Inside each cracker was placed a cracker joke, a balloon and a haribo sweet.

Jamie and Phil were in charge of the cracker jokes and they did an great job of making them ‘Ethiopian’! Before I share some of these inspired jokes with you there are a few facts that I should share with you so that they make sense...

In Ethiopia coffee is called buna, tea is called shai. A Nutella is a white scarf worn over a woman’s head when she enters a church. It often has a colourful border. When someone is in mourning they will wear the scarf so that the ‘border’ is at the top. The only brand of fizzy water you can buy in Ethiopia is called Ambo. Not surprisingly, it is bottled just down the road from me in Ambo. The main dish served in Ethiopia is Ingera (a sour pancake type thing) with Wot (a spicey stew). In Afan Oromo a popular girls name is Shitae and quite amusingly the name means ‘nice smell’.

 

1.             What is brown and sticky and keeps your head warm?

2.             What do you call someone who drinks fizzy water with either hand?

3.             What do you call someone who is always calling cabs?

4.             What do you call someone who’s brown and sticky and smells nice?

5.             What is the best food in Ethiopia?

6.             Who would like some coffee?

 

1.     Nutella

2.     Ambodextrous

3.     Haile

4.     Shittae

5.     Wot is the best food in Ethiopia

6.     Don’t be shai

 

Ok perhaps these jokes won’t make into any ‘world’s best jokes’ book but cracker jokes are supposed to be cheesy and cringey! And they did their job... they made us laugh! Hopefully you enjoyed the jokes too and have also learned a few facts about Ethiopia while you are at it!

 

And finally...an old cracker classic with a Christmas theme...

At Christmas why are there only 25 letters in the alphabet?   Noel, Noel

 

 

The Sheraton

We had another lazy morning doing the crossword and then Nancy, Trish and I decided to walk to the Sheraton for a boxing day treat. Nancy had been given some money for her birthday a few weeks ago, with orders to treat herself to a banana split. We also new two people who had decided after 3 years as volunteers in Ethiopia to treat themselves to Christmas at the Sheraton so we thought it would be a good opportunity to be nosy and see their rooms. The walk to the Sheraton was typical Addis. Noisy traffic, potholes, beggars etc. Just before we reached the Sheraton we took a short cut through some slums which sit right next to the massive hotel. What a crazy contrast! The Sheraton reminds me of Vegas in more ways than one. It is total extravagance in a totally inappropriate place. However... just like Vegas,  where I initially thought I would hate it... or at least feel uncomfortable with its lavishness... but couldn’t help loving it! It was amazing! We marvelled at the shiny toilets with toilets that you could flush paper down, we gawped at the gorgeous furnishings, we got excited by all the Christmas decorations and we enjoyed the gardens which hosted a number of British telephone boxes. We then went for ice-cream. Nancy had her banana split and I had delicious cinnamon and chocolate ice-cream in a cone. We met Cath and July who were staying at the Sheraton and after lots of persuasion Cath convinced me to splash out on a pizza. Although double what you would pay anywhere else it was only about £4 and it was by far the best pizza in Ethiopia. For just over a fiver I had a pizza and ice-cream at a 5 star hotel! It is funny because in England you wouldn’t think twice about spending that on a lunch out but here it was total extravagance. Cath made me feel better when she pointed out that if I go home to visit I’m likely to spend more on a simple yet boring snack at Heathrow airport as I wait for my bus to arrive.

Some people feel very uncomfortable about going to places like the Sheraton when you are surrounded by such poverty. I’m not too sure exactly where I stand. I do know that I really enjoyed it and I don’t see why I should feel really guilty about that. I know that if I ate in a nice restaurant in England I wouldn’t be spending the whole time thinking of all the poor people in Africa (or homeless people on the streets of London for that matter)... should it really be so different when they are just next door? Although the people in the surrounding slums would never be able to experience anything like the Sheraton and the amount you spend on a night there is more than most of them would earn in a year it is not as if, if you didn’t stay there you would go and give all that money to those people in those slums. In fact on the contrary, by staying at the Sheraton you may actually be helping these people. The Sheraton employs thousands of staff who may otherwise struggle to get jobs and encourages rich tourists to stay in Addis who might not visit if there wasn’t such an establishment. These rich tourists or business men bring lots of money into the country. True that the money they spend isn’t very evenly distributed but I do think that as long as the money is being spent in Ethiopia it does eventually trickle down to even the poorest people. Not as much as might be desirable but surely that is better than nothing. If some businesses do well then the multiplier effect should mean that others should too? Perhaps I am just trying to make myself feel better for enjoying the Sheraton so much but I hope there is some truth in what I just said. It really was a very nice experience and I would love to go back.

Christmas in Addis

I had a most magical Christmas in Addis this year. It was one of those great times where you are so happy you can’t possibly wish to be anywhere else... you just wish all your friends and family could be there too so they could join in on the fun! I took Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off work and actually got a free lift to Addis in the university bus Wednesday after work.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve I got up bright and early as I was staying with Nancy who had to go to work. It was a beautiful crisp morning and unusually for this time of year I could even see my own breath. The way that the early morning sun bounced off the dew in the garden also made it look like frost. I had a lazy morning, reading the paper etc. but because I got up so early I was actually finished being lazy and ready to hit the shops by 9am! I ordered a custom made T-shirt as a Secret Santa present for Jamie and was amused by the fact that I would be able to pick it up at midday tomorrow (Christmas day). I also bought myself a lovely Christmas scarf (red tartan) and then headed to an expensive ‘Ferengi’ supermarket called Bambis to do the Christmas food shopping. In the supermarket (which is one of the biggest in Addis but not much bigger than a Tesco Express) they were blasting out Christmas tunes and I felt like I was back home. My phone battery died and I was pleasantly surprised when a shop assistant offered to find a suitable charger from upstairs and plug it in to charge while I shopped! It was a good thing too as my shopping list from Joanne was in a text. I was under instructions to get lots of things we normally can’t afford such as cheese, sausages and chicken. We all put money into a kitty and managed to have the most indulgent Christmas meal ever (no exaggeration) for about £5 each (including beer and wine).

  In the evening a bunch of us headed to St Matthews (the Anglican Church in Addis) for a Carol Service. If it had felt like England last week it felt even more so now. Amazing... like stepping in a portal and ending up in England. It was a candle lit service and it was beautiful. As well as an impressive choir (including Jamie and Mary), some lovely carols and a good sermon some of the highlights included a toddler who was mimicking the conductor and a teenager who set light to her hair during the service! After the service they served mulled wine and homemade biscuits and I revelled in the fact that it was cold enough to wear a T-shirt, jumper, fleece, scarf and boots. We then went to a lovely pizzeria for a really late dinner. What a great day!

Christmas Day

With our body clocks set to early we did well to stay in bed until about 7.30. 5 of us were staying at Nancy’s and we agreed to all put something into stockings for each other. So we while we ate banana pancakes with maple syrup we opened up our stockings (otherwise known as Nancy’s walking socks). They were great stockings! After breakfast we lazed about a bit before starting to make Christmas Hats and Christmas Crackers. The boys did a great job of making up some cheesy cracker style jokes with an Ethiopian theme. I think my favourite one was ‘’ what do you call someone who drinks fizzy water with both hands?’’ – the answer: ‘Ambodextrus’. Ambo, my new home town is home to Ethiopia’s only fizzy water plant and the fizzy water is called, unsurprisingly ‘AMBO’. The others (12 in total) arrived at about 11am with the rest of the food shopping and we got cooking. David was in charge of the meat and Mary took the lead with the vegetables but others contributed their Christmas specialities. I made sweet potato soufflé and sausage stuffing. Nancy made a great bread sauce. Joanne made a lovely mozzarella and tomato starter. Adam and Jillian made a delicious quiche starter as well as some homemade crostini with onion marmalade from Harrods! We also had leeks, courgettes, carrots, spinach, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, sausages and possibly the biggest treat, cauliflower and cheese! What a feast!

In between courses we danced to cheesy tunes from Davids laptop (I think the neighbours thought we were nuts), opened our Secret Santa presents and listened to Adam and Jillian sing a special version of the 12 days of Christmas written for the occasion. Then came the Christmas pudding and brandy butter! Yum Yum! We were very lucky that someone kindly donated a Christmas pud to our group after they were given several from some visitors. And as if we weren’t already so stuffed we could hardly breathe we then had cheese and biscuits.

The late afternoon and evening was passed happily with clearing up, playing all sorts of party games and people dashing off to other rooms to talk to family back home. Somehow we continued this until about 1am! It was such a great atmosphere.

A Christmas Party??

I guess it should have been obvious...with 25 of them and only 1 of me...that Ethiopian Culture was always going to win when I invited the secretaries round for an English Christmas Party. I made mulled wine and  served cheese and crackers but they were much more interested in the bread and honey drink they brought with them. One group had offered to bring some bread for the party and I suggested the other group bring soft drinks in case anyone wouldn’t drink wine. I was amazed by the amount they brought. Baterie put herself in charge of coordinating their contributions and baked bread that was almost as big as me! It was a large round loaf about 75cm in diameter. She also brought a large Jerry Can full of the honey drink (20 litres).

I had moved the party from Tuesday to Wednesday, as Wednesday is a fasting day and most Orthodox Christians don’t eat any animal products when fasting (therefore no cheese or chocolate). However... I had forgotten that some strict Orthodox Christians fast for the whole month leading up to Genna (Ethiopian Christmas) therefore there were a handful of people who couldn’t eat it anyway. I also forgot that Protestant Christians in Ethiopia don’t drink alcohol and so that ruled out my mulled wine for a few too! The bread and honey drink they brought was definitely a more inclusive choice of menu and I think they found my ‘Christmas Food’ a bit weird (a similar sort of reaction I probably gave during Meskel when I was served spicy doro wot for breakfast). We also had popcorn, chocolate and some sweets which went down well.

   Although I had Christmas music playing throughout the party my laptop speakers were no competition for 25 gaggling girls. We couldn’t hear the music so instead when it came to dancing they clapped and chanted to provide a suitable background for some typical Ethiopian dancing. They all enjoyed watching me copy their moves and I had more exercise than I have had in while! It was great fun! Later in the evening I tried to play Pictionary with them and was very amused by how much cheating went on!

Later still... I’d given out my cards and a small Christmas decoration each...wished everyone a merry Christmas and bid them goodnight...and was able to survey the damage! I can say without a shadow of a doubt that these Ethiopian secretaries are the messiest guests I have ever had! Every week during our classes I serve them kolo (a local grain and seed mixture) and am often bemused by the fact that at least a quarter of it ends up on the floor each time. However... with a whole selection of food to throw about this was something else! If they had had a food fight I don’t think they could have made more mess! I found lumps of bread as large as small loaves, in, on, under and behind the sofas. Cheese was mushed into the armrests and rug...mulled wine spilt over my table cloth, sticky honey drink spilt on the floor and popcorn and crumbs everywhere!  At one point in the evening I noticed that they were even using my open laptop as a plate! As a result my keyboard is a bit sticky and the space bar is a bit reluctant...hopefully this will get better with use as I dislodge crumbs!

So... I (and my laptop) survived my first Christmas Party in Ethiopia. Although it had little resemblance to any Christmas party I have ever been to before, it was great fun and the secretaries appreciated the opportunity to let their hair down and dress up in their finest (they wore the most beautiful traditional dresses). I’m not sure I taught them anything about a typical English Christmas and there wasn’t much English spoken all night but it was a lovely opportunity to get to know them a bit better and have a laugh!

 

back to the future...

You’d think after 3 months I would be used to the different way Ethiopians tell the time. However, I just seem to get myself more muddled each day as I try to work out whether we are talking Local Time or International Time. It seems the more thought I give it the more confused I get. It amused me the other week, on our HDP workshop, when we were allowed to use the internet in our breaks but had to sign our name and give the time and date of use. As I wrote 9.05am 14/12/2009 I noticed that the entry above mine said 2.45  02/03/2002. It really adds to the feeling of living in a parallel universe when you find that not only do they start counting hours 6 hours later than the rest of the world, but they also have New Years in September and are 7 (soon to be 8) years behind most of the world!

It's beginning to feel not at all like christmas...

Four days until Christmas and I’ve never felt so unchristmassy. I spent most of last week in Addis where I was at least able to see a few Christmas trees in the shops but it really didn’t even feel Christmassy there. We celebrated a friend’s birthday on Saturday by climbing one of the hills surrounding Addis and sat at the top having a picnic in the blazing sun. Later that day I checked facebook to find loads of photos of people having fun in the snow back in England. On Sunday I decided to go to the Addis Anglican Church ‘St Matthews’ hoping to sing some carols and get in a more festive spirit but they didn’t sing any carols! It was quite an interesting experience though as the church looks and feels exactly like a small village church in England... for a moment I felt I’d been transported to the Cotswolds.

Today I am back at work... I don’t think I’ve ever done any work so close to Christmas (the joys of teaching) and it really doesn’t feel right. I was also disappointed to find no post waiting for me. Up to this point I had only had three letters since I arrived in Ethiopia and had received none of the promised Christmas post or copies of the guardian weekly. Most people have said that the Ethiopian postal system is pretty reliable so I’m not sure what is going on! I went to the university post room to investigate and was happily greeted with two Christmas cards and one copy of the guardian weekly. Here is hoping that the rest of the week is filled with similar happy surprises!

With my two Christmas cards displayed proudly on my shelf and Christmas tunes playing on my laptop I am trying to get a bit more festive but instead I think it is just making me miss home. I am also frustrated by the fact that the internet isn’t working today. This is bad for two reasons. Firstly I cannot contact anyone from home and secondly I am limited in what work I can do and so have more time to sit and think about all the Christmassy things I am missing out on. What I would do for a mince pie right now! I really hope the internet picks up soon so I can get on with my jobs and stop fantasising about such things!

Tomorrow should feel more festive as all the secretaries are coming to my house for a Christmas Party. Between now and then I need to clean my house and make lots of Christmas cards. I’ve bought some cheese and crackers and chocolate from Addis and am planning to make some mulled wine but I can’t think what else I can serve that will feel Christmassy. The secretaries have promised to bring some local bread and I’ll make some popcorn but I feel our festive feast will definitely be lacking the normal Christmas flavours. We will have plenty of Christmas music though and I am looking forward to hearing the two groups perform their carols. If my internet starts working before then I may even print off a few song lyrics so we can have a bit of Christmas Karaoke.

RAIN AND HAIL!

It is raining cats and dogs (or donkeys and camels perhaps would be more appropriate) outside at the moment. The sound of the rain crashing down on the tin roof is deafening. Even more so now as I just realised that the rain has turned to HAIL! How incredible. I would be sitting here feeling really happy thinking it is like of wintery England coming to make me feel a bit Christmassy if it weren’t for a conversation I had with someone earlier about the rain. This rain/ hail is not normal at this time of year and could ruin the crops just as they are about to be harvested. Many schools in the area have already broken up in order to allow the children to help out on the farm.

Irregular rainfall- a symptom of climate change. It is important to remember that climate change doesn’t just lead to less rain and droughts or more rain and floods but instead unpredictable weather patterns which can have devastating effects on farming. With the majority of the country’s GDP dependant on agriculture this could really hamper development efforts in Ethiopia.

University Challenge...

When I was at university I remember my lecturers telling me that, in our final exams, if they only saw the information they had given us in our lecturers we would get a very poor mark. University was about becoming an independent learner, knowing how to find information out for yourself and learning how to learn. It seemed at times that this was more important than the actual content we covered. Certainly I imagine it is more often the skills we learn at university that are what attracts future employers than the facts we learnt.

Although my main focus here is to give the current ‘teacher trainers’ the skills they need to train excellent high school teachers for the future I am also trying to improve quality of teaching within the university (at least with my HDP candidates). The HDP course encourages the lecturers to take on board concepts like ‘active learning’ and ‘formative assessment’. At times it seems a bit hypocritical as I don’t remember many of my lecturers using these methods particularly. But then I remember that our lecturers were generally supplemented with tutorials where all these concepts were fully embedded.

Some of the candidates, especially those in the languages department, are already experts in active learning but then they are blessed with relatively small classes (40-50 students). Others seem very reluctant to hand over the learning to the students. They struggle with the fact that most courses are very content heavy with little emphasis on skills. They have large classes (at times up to 120) and are worried that if they don’t spoon feed the students the answers they will never cover the course and the students will never understand.

Lecturers who do try to try to get the students to think for themselves often come across a lot of resistance from the students who expect the teacher to do all the work. Most students have no experience of active learning methods from primary school or high school and so do not understand the value of working in groups or solving their own  problems etc. They also don’t necessarily know how best to work in groups, give presentations or carry out their own research. I remember when I was at university, as well as the courses which taught content, we had courses which developed our skills of independent learning (and that was after 12 years in school where we had probably also been trained to be independent learners).

Although some lecturers have taken on board methods such as ‘presentations’ to give the students a more active role in the class I was disappointed to find that often, the content for the presentation was given in note form to the students before they presented. This meant that all they were really doing was reading the lecturers notes out loud. When I questioned this and asked why the students were not left to find out the answers for themselves I was reminded about the lack of reference material. For over 4000 students there is a small library less impressive than most secondary school libraries in England. If they were told to look in the library for books they may be lucky to find one or two related to the topic they are studying. For a class of 100 students it wouldn’t be practical for them to all access these books. So what about the internet? There is no free access to computers for students. Some get access as part of their course but only during lesson time and for the rest there are a number of internet cafes just outside campus. Most students do not have the money.

Then, even if reference material is available (or the lecturer has given them a photo copy of the most relevant book in the library), there isn’t really anywhere that they can work sensibly in groups to prepare for a presentation. Due to the government’s efforts to increase the number of students in HE (probably to meet some millennium development goal or other) there just simply aren’t enough resources for the students. It seems at present the emphasis is on quantity rather than quality of education (I suppose that is why I have been drafted in to try to deal with some of the ‘quality’ issues... but without the resources to support this it is a real challenge). Currently most of the first year students are accommodated in temporary accommodation. These are made of corrugated iron and house up to 30 in a room in bunk beds. When I first saw them, they actually reminded me of a war time concentration camp. There are no lockers or anywhere safe to keep their possessions (they just store them on their beds) and no desks to work at. If students are lucky they may find an empty classroom to do their work in. The library has apparently been allocated a few extra books but with no room to display them they are mostly kept in a store room only accessible by special request.

Another issue brought about by the current trend to increase numbers of HE students is that fact that students are being accepted into universities with lower grades than before. This makes the task of the lecturer even more challenging as they are expected to bring the students up the same level as before but starting from a lower position. These weaker students need much more support and struggle to keep up with the lectures. Although ‘active learning’ and ‘formative assessment’ may help them to identify and fill gaps in knowledge and skills most lecturers feel that the content heavy curriculum allows no time for this.

Another major challenge is the fact that all lectures are given in English. The English of the lecturers themselves is not always that good let alone that of their students. Outside of lessons there is very little opportunity to use or hear English and so they do not have much chance to develop their English language skills. If they are lucky they may have access to BBC world service or a newspaper written in English but generally lesson time is the only time English Language is used. All the more reason why the lecturers feel they have to give them ‘perfect’ notes. When some of the students struggle to communicate basic concepts in English how are they going to communicate complex ideas using subject specific vocabulary.

So, for many of the lecturers they feel their role is to give the students all the information they need to know to answer the exams (after all where else will they be able to access this information) and they will be happy if they see this exact same information repeated back in the end of semester examinations. A far cry from the expectations of my university lecturers when I was a student.

Happy Camper

I had a very exciting moment this morning when I realised I could see my own breath – it was that cold! No doubt by the afternoon it will be scorching hot again but for the moment let me revel in the fact that I can feel all cosy in my fleece. It had rained hard all night and there was intermittent drizzle as I ate my breakfast looking out onto the damp garden. There had also been a been a power cut for the last few hours and so the normal blaring church megaphone had been replaced by birdsong. It was so lovely and peaceful. Although I knew around me many people were also up and about getting ready for work it seemed they did this in hushed tones, not wanting to disturb the peace. It reminded me of early morning camping before everyone is fully awake. Especially those camping mornings when the drizzle outside seems to keep people in their tents just a little longer than usual and makes people just a little bit more subdued. Happy memories.

Banks and Bureaucracy and Being Called a Liar.

I have been trying to get a bank account since I got here. The bank just doesn’t seem to want my money. I guess I can’t blame them...there is not that much of it!

 The first time I went to the bank they told me they needed 2 photocopies of my ID as well as two passport photos. I quickly got the photocopies done and managed to get a local photography shop to create two passport photos of me by editing a photo I already had on my flash drive. I quite liked the idea that, although it looked like a fairly normal passport photo, there was a huge plate of food edited out of the picture. I was back into the bank about 20 minutes later all ready to go.

However on this second attempt they told me that I needed some proof that I was a permanent resident in Ethiopia. Although quite frustrating that they hadn’t mentioned this earlier I did think it was fair enough. However it meant I had to wait for at least a month for my residents permit to be processed in Addis. I asked if they needed anything else like a letter from my employer and they said no.

So I went again yesterday morning before work armed with two copies of my ID, my residents permit and two passport photos. This was now not enough! They wanted a letter from my employee. Why? I have no idea. My colleague who went with me to make sure it all went smoothly also could not make sense of it. He has never been asked for such a thing when he has opened an account. I could understand if I wanted credit but I just wanted to put money in! As I was super busy yesterday with several one-to-one sessions followed by a two and a half hour lesson my colleague was kind enough to pass on the message to the Vice President of the university that he would need to write me a letter.

So, today I had another really busy day and got my first break (apart from lunch- which doesn’t count because everyone else is out of their offices so I wouldn’t be able to collect the letter) at 3pm. Knowing that the bank shut at 4pm I thought I had plenty of time. When I got to the VPs office I found he had not yet written the letter. So I waited while he hand wrote it. It was then passed to his secretary to type up and print two copies. I then had to wait a bit for him to return to the office to sign them. The letters were then passed back to the secretary to add a special stamp. With 30 minutes to go I thought I still had plenty of time, and was about to go, when I found out I needed to take the letters to the records office for further stamping. Luckily and Indian colleague was heading the same way and was able to show me the way. A large circular stamp was added to each letter and I went to take them. It seemed this was not enough though... they produced another stamp for the date. This was followed by a lovely little stamp of a hand pointing which they positioned so that it was pointing to the  ‘ Dear Sir/ madam’ part of the letter (I suppose to direct the reader to where he should start reading!).

With 20 minutes to go I got a Bajaj (small 3 wheel taxi) to the bank and was perched on the front seat with the driver, with my leg hanging out the open side. I arrived with at least 10 minutes to spare but it took a while to work out where I should go. The same guy who had dealt with me yesterday motioned for me to come over. He asked me why I had come so late. What did he think? I had just been sitting around all day waiting for the most inopportune time to open a bank account? Actually... probably. He told me that it would not be possible to open a bank account as the bank had to shut in 2 minutes. I think his watch was fast but I begged away and when he saw I had everything he had requested he offered to meet me half way. We would do the paper work today and then I will need to return tomorrow to deposit some money and open the account officially. Ok.

   So we filled in the paper work and he got annoyed with me for not using my father’s name as my second name. I tried to explain the English system was different and he eventually was contented when he saw my residents permit used the same strange naming system! I then had to fill in a number of details including my monthly income. When I wrote 2150 birr he laughed and said, ‘I don’t believe you’. I insisted, but he wouldn’t have any of it. He then asked how long I was staying and if I liked Ethiopia. Again he didn’t believe my answers. It is very frustrating being called a liar after a long hard day at work. He then asked if I had visited any interesting places. I told him I had been to Wenchi Crater. He told me that Ethiopians cannot afford to go to such places, it is only visitors who get to enjoy them. So I told him that the first time I went was with 40 Ethiopians from the University. Again he didn’t believe me. I was getting quite exasperated by this point! I felt it was important he believed me about my salary at least and tried to show him a document I have from VSO which explains, in Amharic and English, that I am paid at Ethiopian salary level. He refused to look at it and just continued that there is no way I earn so little. It is less than he earns. Besides, if I earned that little I would not be able to go to places like Wenchi. He said it is hardly enough money to eat with let alone to do other things. At this point I suddenly thought... oops was I supposed to have filled in my ‘annual’ salary? So I checked. No, It was the ‘monthly’ salary that was required. He insisted that it could not possibly be in birr and that it must be in pounds and that I had made a mistake. I insisted I had not. We agreed to disagree but I really did not like the fact he thinks I was lying. It doesn’t help that if he decides to check up on my account in a few weeks time he will be convinced that I did lie. This is because the reason I am suddenly so determined to get this bank account set up is that I need it to receive a large cash sum (about £4000) for a grant (from BandAid) that I have successfully applied for. This money is not for me. I will be using it all to build and resource a library in a local school (buying material, paying workers, buying tables chairs and books). BUT THERE IS NO WAY HE WOULD BELIEVE THAT!!

silly questions...

Sometimes I feel like walking around with a big billboard on me saying ‘fine, thank you... how are you?’ I reckon I am asked ‘how are you?’ ‘are you fine?’ close to 100 X a day (and that is not including the amount of times that I am asked it in the local language). Although I think I would rarely answer ‘fine’ to this question in England, (I think I am more likely to say ‘good’ or ‘alright’) I find if I deviate from the ‘set phrase’ here they can seem annoyed or at best confused. I know they just want to practice their English with a native speaker but there are 40,000 of them in this town and only 1 of me... it gets a bit repetitive! The other billboard I am tempted to wear would say ‘none of your business’. This would be in response to the other favourite question ‘Where are you going?’. At first I found myself being polite and humouring them with answers but then I started thinking... hang on... I don’t actually want these strange men to know where I am going (and I am rubbish at lying)...so now I feel lost for how to respond. I don’t want to be rude but I wish they would practice their phrases on someone else so I didn’t feel obliged to answer!

It's Official...I'm Fat!

You may remember that I decided to start up a small English social club for secretaries at my home which very quickly turned into two fairly large English Classes. I see one group on a Wednesday Evening and another on a Thursday evening. It has been very enjoyable and, although I am quite confident that teaching English Language is definitely not my forte, the secretaries have been very appreciative. We normally meet for about an hour and a half and go through simple dialogues that they may be expected to do as a secretary such as making small talk, taking messages or giving directions.

 Tonight we were just about to start when one of the secretaries kindly pointed out that I was fat. When I pointed out that this was not a compliment in England and that is wasn’t a particularly kind thing to say she said, ‘’yes, yes... you are fat’’, with a big smile on her face. I’d like to think that perhaps my teaching skills are so bad that she simply didn’t understand what I meant (and to be fair we haven’t covered that vocabulary yet). However, the fact that the other secretaries all nodded in polite agreement suggests it was more than a simple mistranslation. I don’t think she meant any harm by the comment (or I doubt she would have continued smiling) but all the same I may have to think twice about letting her come to my Christmas party!

I have decided to host a Christmas party for the secretaries. I am going to have both groups at once and give them a small taste of how we do Christmas in England. I think we’ll listen to Christmas music, sing some carols, eat something resembling English party food and perhaps play some classic party games like charades. I’ll also try and make them all Christmas cards and give them a small little gift. The good thing they were all free to come two days before Christmas as they don’t exactly have loads of other Christmas commitments taking up their time. This is for two reasons: firstly they don’t celebrate Christmas in Ethiopia until 7^th January and secondly because Christmas is apparently quite a quiet affair here. They say that they make more of a deal over other religious festivals such as Easter or Meskel (the finding of the true cross) in Ethiopia. They don’t even have any special Christmas songs or carols!! When I heard this I thought it was important that they got a taste of good old fashioned carol singing and so I am subjecting each group to learning a carol before the big day. I’ve tried to set it up as a little competition between the two groups to see which can sing an English Carol best but really it is to satisfy my need for a bit of home.

 I love Christmas so much and am really missing the manic Christmas build up back home. It is just not quite the same getting ready for Christmas when the sun is beating down day after day and no one around you is interested. I miss ...

·         Dark, cold wintery evenings

·         Shops full of stuff you don’t need

·         Christmas tunes blasting out of shops earlier and earlier each year

·         Christmas lights, Christmas trees and decorations

·         Mince pies, mulled wine, Christmas pudding and the excuse to indulge in all sorts of other yummy foods

·         A full social calendar filled with lots of Christmas parties and Christmas events.

·         Students asking if they can watch movies in your lessons from the start of December onwards!

·         Christmas cards.

·         Everyone stressing about Christmas shopping.

I am still determined to get as Christmassy as I possibly can and will spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Addis where I will be surrounded by lots of other volunteers equally determined to have a special Christmas. I will also probably be able to catch a carol service or nativity play at an English speaking International Church there. In the mean time I have been comforted by the fact that for some reason (definitely not Christmas) some coloured lights have been put up across the main road in town. There has also been a recent change in weather so that it has been quite windy and at times overcast. Although it is more like a poor summers day than a cold wintery experience, if I add a healthy dose of imagination it feels a bit more Christmassy than the usual scorching sun!

Bread Shop Education

One thing I really love about it here is that they reuse everything...nothing goes to waste. A particular example of this is that when you buy bread they wrap it up for you in an old newspaper or something similar, I guess in a similar way the way chip shops did in the past. I have found my bread wrapped in newspapers written in English, Amharic, Afan Oromo and last week I even had a French one! The English speaking ones seem to come from the Dubai as I often find my bread wrapped up in adverts for beautiful condos for sale or rent there, but occasionally I am lucky enough to get a bit of the paper with some actual news on it. Another favourite material used wrapping paper is old exam papers or school worksheets. For about 5 pence it is possible to get a baguette with a free physics lesson rolled in. Sometimes when I am sitting eating my breakfast I am tempted to give the questions a go.

calling names...

I am called different names every day. I have been trying to decide which I prefer. I’ve decided I really don’t like being called ‘YOU, YOU’. Sometimes I find I can forgive the little children who shout this after me because they really are quite cute and they don’t know any better but when it is grown men I don’t have as much patience. I’m also not particularly keen on the term ‘FERENGI’ , which means foreigner, as it just seems a bit rude to refer to someone as foreign to their face! However... they don’t seem to mean any offense by this and are happy for you to reply ‘habasha’ (local) back to them. I find it quite funny, from time to time, when I am walking down the street and someone will notice me and I will hear a long string of Chinese whispers going on behind me involving the word ‘Ferengi’ and a lot of pointing. It can be quite sweet how amazed people are to see me sometimes. Again I have much more sympathy for women and children and find it less sweet when I find a group of likely lads doing the same. My friend, Nancy, wrote in her blog that she really didn’t like it when someone called her ‘white’ (‘NECH’ in the local language) but I actually found it quite amusing when I notice someone call me that as they passed the other day. My favourite name though I think is ‘CHINA’. There is a lot of Chinese influence (especially in construction) in Ethiopia and so people are used to seeing ‘China’ (Chinese) every now and again. The other day a girl called out to me ‘ CHINA, CHINA’. When I turned, smiled and waved her Mum was beaming. She seemed so proud of her daughter for knowing how to get my attention. Oops... I guess I have just encouraged some wrong terminology. Still I would prefer it if they all called me ‘CHINA’ rather than ‘YOU’, ‘FERENGE’ or even ‘NECH’. Just on occasion I hear ‘HELLO’ , ‘HI’ or even ‘TARA’ called after me and that is simply bliss!

A Hair Cut

While I was in Addis (the weekend before last) I decided to get my hair cut. Most people go to the Hilton to do this as they have experience cutting white hair but as I only wanted a simple trim and wasn’t feeling too fussy about my hair I thought I’d go for a more ‘local’ experience. An experience it was!

It started off fairly normal. They wet my hair and added shampoo and washed it out. But that is where it stopped being normal. They then added more shampoo ( I did originally think this was conditioner but it became apparent soon enough that it wasn’t). Instead of gently massaging the shampoo into my hair they rubbed into it my hair so hard until my hair was a completely knotted mass on top of my head. I have never known my hair to be so knotty! Then, WITHOUT WASHING OUT THE SHAMPOO, they started to comb my hair with a BRUSH. I’m not convinced they were trying to comb the knots out or if, in fact, they were trying to put more in (i.e. back combing it)...needless to say it hurt and I quickly asked if I could be in control of the brushing. When they realised I didn’t seem to like this experience someone suggested that it might be better if we added conditioner. YES! So... the rest of the washing process went fairly smoothly although they yanked and pulled at my hair enough in the process.

Next step... the cutting! This was even more bizarre than the shampooing. Rather than combing my whole hair before cutting they combed just the bit they were cutting. When I say THEY I mean THEY. There were 3 of them combing and cutting my hair at the same time. Pulling it in 3 different directions I was yanked to and fro. Actually to be fair I think one of the girls was just holding bits of my hair out of the way while the other two got to work (maybe she just wanted an excuse to see what ‘white’ hair felt like).  I was amazed they could have any idea of what the final outcome would be when they hadn’t even combed all my hair before they started cutting. Amazingly, it turned out alright. They did a really good job with the hair dryer and it was only after they had finished their masterpiece that I was allowed to look in a mirror. Normally in England my hair dresser will go back over my hair with the scissors once my hair is dry just in case she has missed anything and to ‘tidy up’. However.. these hairdressers seemed content with what they had done and I didn’t want to argue and risk going through that whole process again! Besides it did seem fine! It wasn’t going to win any hairdresser of the year award but it also didn’t look ‘bad’.

 My hair now feels a lot shorter but despite all the backcombing and yanking about it does feel healthier – perhaps there is a method to their madness after all!

Evening Routines...

Recently I have developed quite a regimented but comfortable evening routine. After I’ve cooked, eaten and washed the dishes for the evening I set about squeezing fresh orange juice and boiling my milk. I have to boil my milk to make it safe and, if I don’t keep an eye on it, it makes such a horrible mess as it boils over. I have been on the search for while for an activity to do while boiling the milk which is a little bit more exciting than watching the milk boil but doesn’t let me get so distracted I forget about the milk. It seems squeezing oranges is perfect... it takes just about the same amount of time and I can do it right next to the hob. It obviously comes with the added bonus that each morning I now wake up to a lovely glass of cold (I am lucky enough to have a fridge) fresh orange juice! Once the milk has boiled my ‘routine’ continues. I use about a third of it to make a mug of hot chocolate, a third to make yoghurt and a third for milk. As soon as the milk comes off the boil I can make my hot chocolate. I then enjoy the hot chocolate (until last week, when my external hard drive broke, this was often accompanied by an episode of scrubs) while I wait for the milk to cool. By the time I’ve finished my hot chocolate the milk is usually lukewarm. I have found this is the perfect temperature for starting the yoghurt off. I was shocked to find out how easy it is to make yoghurt... all I had to do was leave one jam jar full of unboiled milk on the side for a day. Since then I use a spoonful of the old yoghurt  (to start off the culture) with boiled milk just to be on the safe side. I then wash up my ‘juicer’ and my hot chocolate mug while I wait for the milk to cool just  a little bit more. I then put the remaining of the milk into an old ‘Ambo’ bottle and into the fridge.

 I worry a little how much comfort I get from little routines like this. It seems a lovely way to pass the evening when I have no company. I worry perhaps I am getting a little too comfortable with my own company! I just had three days off (Friday was a Muslim holiday) and I barely spoke to anyone else for the whole weekend but I was totally content just pottering about by myself! Sadly this ‘milk and orange’ routine may be coming to an end soon. I have managed to find a colleague who is willing to share my quota of milk which will hopefully mean I only get milk delivered 3 times a week (instead of every day). I have put on a bit of weight since arriving in Ethiopia and although I can’t blame it all on the milk (it is probably more due to a lack of exercise) I am sure drinking hot chocolate every night can’t help! No doubt I’ll find some other equally mundane way to pass my evenings to replace this routine soon enough! I am busy enough at work all day... it is really quite nice to just potter about in the evenings.

The Strangest Thing...

I had a most bizarre experience on Saturday. My line manager within VSO sent me a text message which read, ‘no sorry that is without my knowledge’. Having not sent him a message previously I assumed that he must have texted me by mistake so I sent him a text to ask just that. A few minutes later he rang me. After the usual polite ‘how are you?’ etc I then asked him if he had meant to send that text to me. He said ‘ it was without my knowledge’. I then said, ‘yes, that is what the text message said... but did you mean to send it?’. He then repeated that it was without his knowledge and confused me further when he told me he didn’t have my number in his phone! After a few more confused exchanges I hung up the phone none the wiser! I am so confused! How did that happen?!

It is not rocket science...

During our ‘in country training’ (ICT) the director for ‘Save the Children’ Ethiopia gave us a talk about the development status of Ethiopia. During this talk he said about development, ‘It is not rocket science... IT IS MUCH MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT!’ The longer I stay here the more I agree. It is a mine field out there... and no one knows how to sort it out. The thing that worries me the most is that many attempts to make life better here (i.e. to help Ethiopia develop) are actually making things worse. I’m not certain I can totally exclude myself from that category either, which I don’t like. I will now proceed to describe some of the development issues which have challenged me over the last 2 months. Obviously I am only able to give you my own understanding of these issues and in many cases I would love to be corrected as I find some of the stories I’ve heard quite depressing. Please don’t take to following ramblings as fact but instead share my frustration as I find I really don’t know the truth! And I don’t think anyone does!

   Before I came to Ethiopia I often thought of those who work for charities as kind caring individuals who put other people or issues before their own personal gain. Obviously people get a lot out of working for charity (myself included) but I always felt that the aim was at least to put more in than you take out and in particular that this applied in terms of money. I think (hope) this must still be true of most charity workers in the UK at least where I am sure their salaries are significantly lower than what they may get working elsewhere. However... this concept seems to be turned on its head in Ethiopia (and I am sure in most other developing countries).  The best paid jobs are with NGOs. Even a lowly receptionist for an NGO may earn 3 or 4 times as much as a well qualified university lecturer with a PHD or staff in the Ministry of Education. Often NGOs will pay local staff western salaries which, although this may put them in line with their counterparts in the UK, actually translates into mega bucks when you consider the much lower costs of living here. A friend of mine said he did some work with an NGO whilst completing his MA and after a week had earned as much as he might earn in a year as a lecturer.  In a complete role reversal it seems that those who go after jobs in NGOs are after money and those who stay in jobs in education or government are the ones who are willing to sacrifice financial gain for the greater good. I guess it is true in every country that education or politics are not the place to go to get lots of money, but it is shocking how much less they get than those working in NGOs. I guess on the plus side it could be argued that it is a good thing to pay these NGO workers large salaries as that money will then be pumped back into the local economy as these ‘rich’ workers have a huge purchasing power. It is certainly better that, than paying large salaries to consultants from the west whose money goes straight to their home banks accounts. I’ll talk more about that later. However, don’t forget these inflated salaries are being paid out of charitable donations from well intentioned people in the west. Although it may be nice to give these workers a nice salary (and they may well deserve it) is it the best use of this money? Could the money be spent better elsewhere? Is this just creating greater inequality within an already very unequal society, where a small minority control the majority of the wealth?

    Of course NGO’s aren’t the only way that the UK and other countries are helping Ethiopia to ‘develop’. There is a lot of money being pumped into the country, through the government, via organisations such as DFID and the World Bank. As I work in Education I can only tentatively say a bit about some of the money that comes to improve Ethiopia’s Education. Often (because of worries of corruption etc) this money comes with conditions.

 One example is that money may be given, but only if it is used to pay for certain things. An example of this is paying for ‘Indian Lecturers’. Apparently this kills two birds with one stone as it solves unemployment issues in India at the same time as providing well qualified staff for Ethiopia. In theory it sounds sensible as Indians have recently gone through rapid development themselves and are therefore likely to be able to share knowledge that could help Ethiopia to develop. They also have good English in comparison to the Ethiopians and this could help improve the use of English Language at University Level. However, it seems there is a flip side to every coin. The Indian lecturers are paid about five times that of local lecturers with similar qualifications which can be very demotivating for the local staff. Many of the local staff are exceptional and if there were more financial incentives for Ethiopians to be ‘educators’ then more of the able would probably stay in education rather than running off to find jobs with NGOs. As well as receiving high salaries the Indian staff are also not always as qualified or conscientious as would be desirable. I am sure this is not the case for all Indian lecturers but I have heard some described as ‘incompetent’ and ‘lazy’. I was told that they often teach subjects for which they are not qualified as they come with the attitude that ‘if you give me the resources I’ll teach it’. This has even lead to some joking that they would even offer to teach the local language ‘Amharic’ if given the resources. In some respects this willingness to teach outside their subject should be commended however at university level it does seem a bit worrying. I thought this was all a big exaggeration until yesterday when I met an Indian lady who had done a PHD in Education and had been recruited to work in the Education Department. However, when she found there was in fact no job for her there, she has found herself teaching Physics. I know I couldn’t do that! After hearing that some staff resented the Indian staff I was worried about how I was viewed. Although I do not earn more than the local staff (my allowance is in fact less) the university does provide me with a lovely house far nicer than any of my colleagues. They assured me that they were happy with me being there but at times I do wonder how useful I really am and if I am worth even the low allowance I am given. I was at least feeling a little happier that I wasn’t costing the government anywhere near as much as the Indians (although in both cases I understand the money actually comes from the World Bank or DfID or some other source). However... I later discovered that the government is required to pay VSO 10,000 birr a month for my services (I receive just over 2000 of that). This is not true for all VSO staff, just those working under the Higher Diploma Program like myself. I really don’t feel comfortable with that! I feel like I am stealing from the country I am supposed to be helping develop. I suppose on the flip side the money isn’t really from the government but probably from some Aid Agency or the World Bank. Also the money VSO receives in this way can then be used to help lots of other projects become sustainable... but is still doesn’t feel right.

  Another condition that I heard was often tied to these donations to the government is that they are required to hire consultants to monitor and evaluate the impact of projects, such as the Higher Diploma Program. In some respects this seems a very sensible condition. If you are going to give money you want to ensure it is being spent on what it should be and that it is making a positive difference to the country. However, I guess due to worries of corruption or simply conflict of interest, they will not accept the view of Ethiopian consultants and therefore the government are forced to hire very expensive consultants from the West. In the end it seems the net gain goes to the West thus widening the development gap further! What seems really crazy is VSO volunteers working in the Ministry are often doing consultancy work. They carry out impact assessments and advice on possible changes. However, the World Bank (or whoever else is lending the money) will not accept these reports and will instead commission their own expensive consultants sometimes to do exactly the same work. A consultant might earn £70,000 for a few months work! A VSO Volunteer might do the same for £300 (although I suppose if you take into account things like training, support, flights, medical expenses etc the VSO volunteer may cost more like £3000- still way less!).

As time goes by it is hard not to get disillusioned by just about any development effort in this country. I have only touched the surface of some of the development issues I have seen and I know that I don’t have all my facts straight. I know the issues are far more complex than I am suggesting here and there is much more to it all. After all  ‘IT IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE... IT IS MUCH MORE COMPLICATED’. However, at times it is like watching someone on a tread mill... everyone seems to be working really hard but getting nowhere. It is not that Ethiopia is not developing, it is, but the rest of the world is just developing faster and so the gap between rich and poor gets bigger and bigger.

However, one thing that is keeping me going is seeing how determined the Ethiopians I work with are to see their country improve. To see how dedicated they are to education and to see how important they feel it is to the development of their country. I find my colleagues truly inspiring. They work very hard under difficult circumstances and have resisted the temptation to get a well paid job in an NGO because they believe they can make a difference where they are. I have also been encouraged by similar stories of determined, enthusiastic and hard working Ethiopians in the Ministry of Education who are also doing everything they can to improve the quality of Education in Ethiopia.

In complete contrast to the common images of corrupt African governments I am instead finding myself questioning the values of those who claim to support development from outside the country. I hope I am wrong. I hope the NGOs and World Bank are solving more problems than they create. I hope I am not making things worse. I am sure that in terms of personal experience I will gain far more than I give, but I really hope in monetary terms at least that my being in Ethiopia will be a net gain for Ethiopia.  

The Great Ethiopian Run!

I didn’t do it. I wish I had. Most of my friends in VSO did it as did as well as about 30,000 other people! I did at least get a chance to see it and for about 2 minutes (100m) I guess I could argue I was a part of it as I had to run with the crowd in order to cross the road. It was an incredible atmosphere. Everyone who was registered for the run wore a green T-shirt and so all you could see for miles was a sea of green winding its way through Addis. At the end of the race everyone who was registered (i.e. was wearing their green t-shirt) got channelled through the finishing line and was awarded a medal. I want one of those!! Some of my friends ran. Not an easy feat as much of it is up steep hills (someone tried to suggest to me the other day that 80% of it is uphill but that seems to defy the laws of gravity as it starts and finishes in the same place), it is very hot, there are lots of people in your way and it is of course at altitude. More of my friends walked the Great Run. I felt sorry for one volunteer who had completed the race but could not be given her medal as she was not wearing her T-shirt as it was locked in the VSO Program Office. In contrast another volunteer who was late for the start decided to join it on route only to find himself funnelled through the finishing line and being awarded a medal about 500m later! Although it was possible to ‘cheat’ and join the race at any given point it was an incredibly organised event (particularly for Ethiopia) and it was lovely seeing half the city pedestrianised for a few hours to support the event.

  So having told you how amazing it was... what was my excuse for not partaking in such an event? A very poor one,  I assure you! I am ashamed to say that when the e-mails came round asking if we wanted to be registered for the event I looked up the date and saw it was on a Thursday. I didn’t feel it would be appropriate to take a day off work just to go on a run. Only when it was too late did I realise I had looked up the 22^nd of October and not the 22^nd of November. I am determined to do the next Great Run and ...as I have a year to train... to do it properly and RUN the Great Ethiopian Run rather than walk it. This will be quite a challenge for me as I really hate running but I am in the country of runners so I think it would be wrong not to. My colleagues have been trying to get me to go jogging with them since day one so this should be a good excuse to start. I think for the time being I may try and get my fitness back by doing the ‘Devina Workout Video’ (that Al kindly downloaded onto my External Hard Drive) in the privacy of my own home as my lack of fitness at the moment is too embarrassing to be displayed in public, but by this time next year I hope to be jogging with the best of them (or at least some way behind!). As I hate running so much I think am going to have to collect a lot of sponsorship money to force me to keep my word but I’ll badger you for that nearer the time!

  Finally while we are on the topic of ‘jogging’ or ‘running’ I would like to share with you a very funny conversation I had in my first week here. First I will share it from my perspective (what I thought I heard) and then from Solomon’s perspective...

 

T= Tara

S= Solomon

 

How I thought the conversation went...

 

S: Do you like to joke?

T: Yes

S: Would you like to hear [a] joke?

T: Yes, go on...

S: Why don’t you come with us tomorrow morning?

T: Huh? Is that it? I don’t get it?

S: Would you like to come with us tomorrow morning?

T: I really don’t get it? Why is that funny?

S: ?

 

From Solomon’s Perspective...

 

S: Do you like to jog?

T: Yes

S: Would you like to here jog? [i.e. would you like to jog here?]

T: Yes, go on...

S: Why don’t you come with us tomorrow morning?

T: Huh? Is that it? I don’t get it?

S: Would you like to come with us tomorrow morning?

T: I really don’t get it? Why is that funny?

S: ?

 

Hopefully by November 2010 I will like to both JOKE  and JOG!

 

 

 

cars

I was really surprised the other day when I found out it would cost half my monthly salary to hire a car for the day (not including petrol). However on further investigation I could see why it may cost so much. The government has imposed a 100% import tax on all vehicles so that a car that might cost £5,000 in the UK would cost £10,000. This explains why there are so many very old cars that look like they are about to fall apart as they try to eek every last penny out of the car. However, most of these cars are only really comfortable on tarmac roads. A report from the World Bank claims that 47% of roads in Ethiopia are paved but it feels a lot less than this. For example only the one main road that goes through Ambo is paved...the rest are dirt tracks. This lack of tarmac means there is a big demand for more heavy weight vehicles such as 4 by 4’s. Most of the 4 by 4’s in Ethiopia are Toyota Land Cruisers. I understand these cost at least £50,000 and so when you add the 100% tax you are looking at £100,000. Clearly well out of the price range of the average Ethiopian. The GNP per capita is about £450 and even the average annual wage for a well qualified and respected university lecturer is only around £1500. Another issue to consider is that the government has made a deal with a particular dealership so that all new Toyota’s come through them. If you happened to purchase a Toyota from another dealership then you could expect to pay up to £2000 for a ‘safety check’ by the government affiliated dealership. No wonder so few people in Ethiopia own cars.  Most vehicles in Ethiopia are used for public hire (either in the form of taxi’s or hire cars) or owned by Embassy staff, Government Officials and NGO’s. Most people walk and use public transport. Transport in Ethiopia is both efficient and inefficient. Efficient in the fact that most buses or minibuses will not go anywhere until they are totally full. Inefficient as most people have to rely on public transport which can take days to get from one part of the country to another as it overcomes poor roads and stops in every small town and village. You can understand why these vehicles would like to get as much business out of every journey when the original capital needed to own the vehicle is so huge. And why it costs so much to hire a vehicle for the day. You can also see why there may be difficulties in transporting goods, such as food, around the country.

Food Glorious Food!

Much to my dismay I seem to be putting on (a lot of )weight. It seems especially wrong when there are reports of an impending famine in Ethiopia. You would not believe it if you were only to consider the region I am living in. The land is fertile and there appears to be plenty of food. I haven’t met anyone who appears starving and I have found the people are in fact quite wasteful with their food. I was brought up to finish the food on my plate (often with the thought that there are people starving in Africa so I should make the most of what I have). However, it seems it is the norm here to leave food on the plate at the end of the meal. This is perhaps one of the reasons I have put on weight while those around me stay the same. It is definitely not the only reason though.

 The Ethiopians are obsessed with meat and so I have eaten much more meat than I would normally eat. On top of that the food is often swimming in grease (like a curry). It is also quite rare to find any vegetables in a meal and so in an effort to stay healthy I seem to end up eating the local food then going home and cooking myself lots of vegetables later!  I also feel that it is important to try as many of the local dishes as possible and so do my colleagues. Yesterday my colleagues insisted I try some of the local raw meat, so on top of my normal meal I had a huge hunk of raw steak. Most of the food I find very yummy however, at times I don’t enjoy it. When this happens I have got into a bad habit of treating myself to something nice afterwards to wash it down. I have developed quite an addiction to peanut butter and am ashamed to say I have worked my way through 3 jars in one month!

Another issue I have is that I have milk delivered every day from the university farm. It is the only way to get fresh milk but it comes at a price as they will only deliver a minimum of half a litre a day and it does not seem to be possible to negotiate only getting it on alternative days. 500ml of milk seems like an impossible amount to get through- especially as there is no cereal. I have got in the habit of turning half of it into yoghurt and using the rest for my porridge or pancakes (another treat I really must cut back on).

My final excuse is that I don’t get nearly as much exercise as I am used to. I’m mostly stuck in an office from 8.30-5.30 each day and when I get out of the office it is dark. The only solution to this would be to get up earlier in the morning to go for a walk or something but as of yet I haven’t managed to get force myself up any earlier (most I think because I’m so tired from the disturbed sleep due to the local church megaphone). I plan to go for a nice long walk tomorrow but I don’t think that will put much of a dent into a month of excess.  Perhaps my body still thinks it is in England and is storing up some body fat for a cold winter? Whatever the reason I need to sort it out quickly or I will return from Africa quite unrecognisable!

Time Management...

I have finished teaching my second session on time management. The first was to the majority of the HDP group (about 18 people) and the second was a catch up session for those who missed it (only 4). I felt very hypocritical leading this session as my time management skills haven’t been very good recently (I spent much of the morning playing spider solitaire). I have not been very busy this last week and I find that when I slow down I find it hard to get back into the swing of working hard again. I do have plenty that I could be doing (sorting out my flea problem in my house, finding a language teacher and dedicating a couple of hours a day to language learning, sorting out my landline and internet connection, planning my extracurricular English Language lessons etc) but as none of these ‘need’ to be done urgently I find myself idling the days away with pointless tasks. Whenever I feel like I am getting back in gear I find some new thing comes along to change my well made plans. For example yesterday I was quite content after teaching a HDP session and was planning to start doing one-to-one interviews with each of the candidates which would keep me busy... but then was informed that our next session (Thursday) would have to be cancelled due to a fieldtrip to a nearby university that most of my candidates were expected to attend. So no session and no one around for interviews. So back to ‘spider solitaire’ for me then! I have rewritten the overall year plan several times already as I keep needing to make adjustments for unexpected events.

   My first session on time management I felt went quite well. The candidates could all see ways in which they could improve their time management and were happy make plans to implement these changes. However, in retrospect I worry that they were just telling what I wanted to hear. The second group was much smaller and with some colleagues I know very well so I think they were happier to be honest and speak their mind. Whereas the first group suggested that they should not get up and go for coffee whenever they are invited but should learn to say no and prioritise their work, the second group felt this would be totally culturally inappropriate. It seems if a friend asks you to coffee you are expected to join them (whether you are in the middle of something important or not). Whereas the first group was happy enough to plan their activities fairly rigidly into a day the second group claimed it was impossible. They say that most of their time is spent ‘stamping out fires’ i.e. responding to urgent issues, that most meetings are organised ad hoc and they rarely get much warning about changes to their schedule. Although they agreed it wasn’t ideal they didn’t see any way they could change it as it is a countrywide issue and as much as they may try to plan ahead it wouldn’t work if those working above them didn’t also plan ahead.

      I could certainly sympathise as my attempts to try and have a long term plan for HDP are constantly being thwarted by university events or even by the Ministry of Education. After carefully planning the year so that I could fit in some important sessions just before the students go on semester break I was told that I am to attend a weeklong HDP Conference in Addis Ababa instead. I was going to spend tomorrow planning and organising HDP and scheduling the one-to-one interviews, but about 1 hour before the end of the day the Vice President invited me to join them on the ‘fieldtrip’ leaving at 6am tomorrow.

    Even simple things like the dates for the start and end of term cannot be put in stone. Although the second and third year students have been here for about a month the first year students only just arrived (which means they will probably finish later). The reason...the government has requested that they take on a larger number of students this year. They had the staff in place but many other things like accommodation, canteen and even classrooms had not been completed to accommodate the increased numbers. So until enough of this was in place they had to tell the first year students to wait.

    Time management is often a difficult issue but I think here it is particularly challenging. I really sympathise with my colleagues who all work very hard but struggle to accomplish as much as might be expected. Everything seems to take so much longer here naturally (often due to bureaucracy requiring purple stamps for just about anything to happen) but even more difficult if you are regularly expected to drop everything for unexpected emergencies or simply to have coffee with a friend.

Things that have made me laugh in the last week...

After a less than cheery account of a funeral I thought I’d write a few things that have made me laugh in the last week to balance it out!

 

·         Renting out a movie after being assured it was in English to find that they were technically correct but it was accompanied by a very loud Ethiopian man helpfully describing what was happening in the film in Amharic (so that it was impossible to hear the English).

·         During a game of Charades a fellow VSO volunteer, who shall remain nameless but works in the Ministry of Education working on the national English language improvement strategy, tried to tell us that 100 is a word with 2 syllables.

·         After Solomon (my colleague) had been teasing me endlessly about the fact that I couldn’t say the Ethiopian T’ and K’ sounds and boasting that Ethiopians can say every sound I asked him to say ‘that thing’ and all he could say was ‘Zat Ting’!

·         The TV Show SCRUBS which someone kindly put on my external hard drive.

·         Seeing my friends faces first thing in the morning after staying at my house and witnessing an all night church service by megaphone...they now know I wasn’t exaggerating about the noise!

·         Getting my colleagues to try and say ‘ Conjuncta –skive-alitis’

·         Richard running towards the TV in the restaurant trying to catch the football scores...but forgetting he was still wearing the ‘party hat’ that we gave him for his 60^th birthday.

·         As a young man tried to get a bit over friendly with me, seeing a friend come to my rescue armed with an umbrella!

·         A letter from Lucy!

·         The fact that a local lad who had asked Joanne for money then got a birr out of his own pocket and offered to give it to her after finding out she was a volunteer!

·         A weekend filled with giggles as I had seven friends from Addis and two from Nekemte staying.

A Funeral.

Thursday 5^th Nov,

    Today I had the opportunity to learn more about the Ethiopian culture but unfortunately under very sad circumstances. The Administrative Vice-President’s one and a half year old daughter died yesterday and so today was the funeral. (I was amazed at how quickly a funeral is arranged in this country.) It was his first and only child and she had been sick for quite a long time but more recently had seemed to be making a recovery and so the death came as quite a shock. Most lessons were cancelled in the university as most staff (and many students) wanted to attend the ceremony and show their respects. I wasn’t sure it was appropriate for me to go as I had not had the opportunity to meet the AVP yet and often funerals in the UK are quite private affairs. However, I was assured that it was different here and funerals automatically have an open invitation for anyone who would like to pay their respects and it may even be considered disrespectful not to go. As I knew we would be attending church I went home and got my ‘Nutella’ (local white scarf) to cover my head and my colleagues seemed to appreciate this gesture a lot. As we walked to the home of the deceased they pointed out how all the women were wearing their scarves upside down as a sign of mourning.

   As we reached home of the AVP we were met by hoards of people and could hear sounds of wailing coming from inside the house. The family continued to howl and bawl as they loaded the tiny coffin onto a 4 by 4. The mourning was so much less reserved than in the UK and it was painful to witness such clear distress. As the car drove slowly past I couldn’t help but think of all the children I know in the UK around the same age as this child. No one could tell me what she died from but it is hard not to wonder if she would have survived if she lived in the UK. The Vice President is obviously comparatively wealthy and I am sure provided his daughter with the best that Ethiopia had to offer. She died in a well respected hospital in the Capital. How much worse must it be for families with no money here.

  The funeral procession continued slowly to the church (about 1km away). The university had laid on some transport for those who would find the walk more difficult and as I had been feeling ill that week and it was an unusually hot day I was very grateful to be bundled into one of the buses. The transport moved along at the pace of the walking crowd and so about 1000 people arrived together at the graveyard. There was lots more wailing and weeping as the coffin was taken to its final resting place. I stayed back from the proceedings with my colleague Solomon who finds funerals very difficult and so did not see exactly what happened at the graveside. The burial itself was very short (only lasting about 5-10minutes) and then the crowd gathered on the grassy mound in front of the church while the father (AVP) said a few words. I was disappointed to see that the local church did not stop blaring its music out of its megaphone. As a result, I imagine very few people were actually able to hear the words that were said. To me it appeared so disrespectful but it seemed everyone else accepted this as the norm. After the short ceremony the crowd quickly dispersed. The father (AVP) stood at a junction in the road and as we all filed past we bowed to show our respect. In situations like that when there are no words you can offer that can be of any comfort or that seem appropriate it was quite a relief to have a simple gesture such as a bow to turn to.

And so I have attended my first (and I hope last) funeral in Ethiopia. I don’t really know what else to say or how to close this blog entry. It seems quite insensitive talking about the funeral of someone I hardly know and I struggled for a while about whether I should actually mention it on my blog. However... in the end I felt it seemed even worse to just go on and pretend it didn’t happen. So there you have it, my account of a sad but all too common an event in Ethiopia.