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Reflections of a Vo...
By Tara Sleggs

Sunday, 24 October 2010

Full Circle...

A year since I first arrived and I have been finding it amazing reflecting on all that has changed since then. It seems like yesterday when I nervously set off for Ambo and was dropped off at lunchtime, left alone to make the most of it. I knew no one. I was the only white girl in town. I spent most of the first month pretty dazed and confused and totally exhausted as I did my best to take it all in. Now everything feels so natural. It feels like home. I have lots of friends in Ambo and we are now three volunteers here. The contrast between then and now has been highlighted for me by the arrival of Rod. Like me, he arrived in the September intake and I can't help but compare his first experiences and impressions with how I felt. As he struggles to learn names and pick up the local language it makes me realise just how comfortable I have become and how effortless it now feels to communicate (all be it in pigeon Amharic- I can't pretend to be fluent after a year) with people around me.

My first real work in Ambo came in the form of a 3 week workshop that I assisted in running for newly recruited staff. It was a fantastic experience as it gave me an opportunity to work closely with others in the Education Department and get to know them as we trained 35 graduate assistants on student centred teaching methods. We are now about to begin the 3 week induction for the next set of graduate assistants this week. How has it come around again so soon?! It has been interesting noticing the difference between then and now. When I arrived last year I felt that we were all on fairly equal footing. I had more experience in active learning methods but my colleagues definitely knew more theory.  Now I feel they have more than overtaken me. They have the knowledge as well as the experience and skills to match and I am so impressed by the way the whole department has been working together to prepare and deliver workshops for everyone else in the University. As well as training up 45 graduate assistants this year they have also put on a series of smaller 5 day workshops for senior lecturers. So far they have trained up over 100! Last year, although I was impressed by their attempts to teaching in a student centred manner,  I wasn't always convinced by the content they felt necessary to cover in the training. This year I can't fault them on anything. They are invariably coming up with better ideas than me and not surprisingly are much better than I am at putting the material into the Ethiopian context. I have been pleased to see them using some of the resources from the Higher Diploma Programme but also even more excited when I've seen them adapt and improve on these and other resources. They really are fantastic and I am so proud to know them. Last year I commented that I thought my role here ''will not be to educate them in new teaching methods but rather to support them as they go about trying to create a cultural shift in education from a lecture based approach to one based on 'active learning' ''. A year later and I think that was very true and the exciting thing is that I think I have been able to witness the start of a very real culture shift here at the University. I really can't take any credit for this change though...the Education Faculty and the University Management have been the ones to take the big steps towards making that happen. Sometimes I feel my role here was more of a scapegoat if things went wrong than an actual instigator of change. They could blame it on the crazy white person who tried to change things. And if I've done a good job of providing a viable scapegoat then I am happy-job well done! It has been exciting to be a part of it all and I'm quite confident that as I leave in December they will no longer require a scapegoat as people are seeing for themselves the positive difference active learning makes. I am however glad that another volunteer will be arriving in February to continue to offer support. I think it will be great for them to have an injection of new ideas from a new face to keep them fresh and enthused.

So...a year on and things have changed. As well as changes in attitude and practice, within the University there have also been a huge addition of new buildings. Ambo town too is constantly upgrading itself. I'm often boring Rod with tales of how different it was a year ago...'this bar didn't exist', 'Solomon used to be in that office', 'there never used to be anywhere you could buy pizza', 'this stadium is brand new'. No doubt next year it will continue to change(and improve) without me. I'm sure I also have changed a lot since being here (and will continue to change when I leave) but that is a whole other story.


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Friday, 15 October 2010

Feeling at home...




I've been feeling pretty bad recently about the fact that I haven't been making such regular updates to my blog. It definitely isn't that I haven't been having fun, doing anything interesting or even that I have been far too busy. I think actually it is the fact that I am feeling so at home here now that finding anything 'out of the ordinary' to write about has been difficult. I decided long ago that I didn't want my blog to be a diary but more a series of ramblings about things that 'struck me' as interesting or unusual. At the moment everything is feeling very normal. Wonderful but normal and I guess I am now in danger of taking it all for granted. A few weeks ago I went on a trek with Brenda (a visiting friend from UK) in the Simiens...it was truly spectacular...we struggled for oxygen as we climbed Ethiopia's second highest mountain (4430m)...we were awestruck by stunning views near Imet Gogo...we spent hours oogling at hundreds of Gelada Baboons and a family of Walia Ibex and... we were truly spoiled by our guide and 5* cook [booked through Alex: alebachew_2005@yahoo.com]. It was one of those once in a life time experiences and yet it didn't 'strike me' as anything unusual or new to share on my blog.

A week later a number of us had a fantastic weekend in Addis...on Saturday night we danced away to a friend's band. The name of their band is almost as cool as the music they play. They are called 'Ishi, Baka, Chow', which is Amharic for 'ok, enough, goodbye' and I never did get enough of them or want to say goodbye! On Sunday we headed to Meskel Square for the annual Meskel Celebrations. We were joined by about 80,000 others and watched colourful church groups parade and dance their way past the VIP balcony. After several hours of singing, speeches and parading- just as dusk began to fall- the huge Meskel bonfire was lit, a few fireworks set off and suddenly the whole crowd was glowing as everyone lit a candle. It was a beautiful moment. All around people were singing and nearby a man accompanied on a flute...magic! Now I am writing this it seems ridiculous that this event didn't strike me as anything worth blogging about...it was really special!

The following week we continued our cultural immersion with another local festival. My friend Solomon insisted we couldn't miss it and I'm glad he did. The festival was Irecha, a favourite amongst people from the Oromo region of Ethiopia. My understanding of it is that people gather at this time of year (just after the rains) to give thanks to Waka (the one God) and to pray for the year ahead. The Oromo people believe that Lakes, Trees and Mountains are the best places to pray and so they bring an offering (in this case Meskel Daisies) to one of these points. Solomon agreed to wear cultural dress if we did and so I in turn convinced Rod (new Ambo Volunteer) to do the same! Birhanu and I had been presented with traditional Oromo outfits for our help in facilitating the build of a new library at Awaro Primary School. I wore my dress and Rod borrowed Birhanu's. When we met Solomon and his fiancée we looked like poor imitations...we really couldn't carry it off like they did but none-the-less it was fun dressing up! We were also joined by Megan and Miriam (Addis Vols) and the six of us enjoyed mixing with the throngs of happy people dancing and ambling around the lake. Rod (being 6ft 4 and dressed quite comically in local garb) attracted quite a bit of attention and we spend most of the morning walking from one photo shoot to another as people wanted a photo with crazy ferengi! According to local radios approximately 3 million Oromo's made the pilgrimage to Lake Hora (Debre Zeit) that day. Not wanting to get crushed in the crowd we opted for visiting the lake after lunch and by then we simply witnessed the peaceful aftermath as the last of the visitors made their way to give thanks to God. It was a baking hot day and the lake looked so inviting...surrounded by small hills it was also very beautiful. We thanked God then began our journey back to Addis. Again... now that I reflect on the experience it seems absurd that I didn't consider this event blogworthy...how have I come to take things like this for granted? How does this just feel so normal now? Now that I am just starting to prepare myself for my final departure in December, Ethiopia is suddenly feeling very much like home.

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Jambo Ambo

We had a very silly experience the other lunch time at a local bar/cafe. All we wanted was 2 Ambo (local mineral water) and a tagabino (local spicey chickpea paste served with ingera) to share...however...due to some spectacular miscommunication it seemed the establishment thought we were impatient and rather indecisive alcoholics! This is how the situation unfolded....

Me: Hulet Ambowa afalegalu [I would like two Ambo]

Waiter: Hulet Ambowa? [two Ambo?]

Me: Awo [yes].

5 minutes passed and I was really thirsty so I went inside to investigate the delay in bringing the water... the waiter didn't appear to be doing anything. I asked 'Yane ambowa yet now?' [where is my ambo?].

 He nodded and made an indication to suggest he was on top of the situation so I sat down.

5 minutes later a waitress came out with two Jambo (draught beer) and placed them on our table. Huh?! I was confused 'Jambo alfalegum. Yane Ambowa yet now?' [ I don't want beer, where is my  ambo water?].

Waitress: 'Yihi draught beira' [this is draught beer]

Me: 'Awo, gin biera alfalegum. Hulet Ambowa afalaglu.' [yes, but i don't want beer. I want two ambo.]

She looked totally confused and took the beer away.

5 minutes later and I feel like I am dying of thirst I go inside to investigate what is happening. Again I find the waiter and ask about my water. He doesn't seem to understand so in desperation I walk to the fridge and point to the Ambo water. Finally something clicks and he seems surprised that this is what I want. I wait for him to take the water out of the fridge because I don't want him to get distracted and forget. I'm SOOOO thirsty. He takes it out. I feel relieved and head back to my table and smile about the fact that he feels the need to put the water on a silver tray. I know the water is out of the fridge. I know the water has made it to the silver tray and yet we still sit there for another 3 minutes. Why? He was waiting for the waitress to come back so she could bring it to us....sigh.

So, finally the waitress presents us with our two ambo waters and I take this opportunity to order our food.

Me: 'And Tagabino afalegalu' [I would like one tagebino]

Waitress: ' biera?' [beer?]

CAN SHE BE SERIOUS?!!  Oh the joy of miscommunication!!  

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Tuesday, 5 October 2010

A Meaty Adventure

Normally I am frustrated by the fact that I can only get meat in the local cafes and not vegetables but yesterday it was just the opposite. A new volunteer (Rod) had moved to Ambo and was interested to see if it is easy buy the local meat in the butchers to cook at home. Maggie (my house mate) is a vegetarian so I don't normally have the opportunity to cook meat at home so I thought I'd chose this opportunity to show Rod just how easy cooking meat at home is....However, on this occasion...it really wasn't so simple. I hadn't anticipated that in the aftermath of the 'Meskel' celebrations 'Siga Bets' (meat houses) would be running low on meat...add on top of that that it was a Wednesday and so Orthodox Christians wouldn't be eating meat and the stricter butchers refuse to sell it. This meant that there was only one butcher in town we could find with meat. The meat itself looked a little bit dried out having probably hung in the butchers for a few days but we couldn't really afford to be fussy. Unfortunately this butchers didn't have a mincer and we had kind of got our hearts set on minced meat for a Bolognese sauce.

We went on to another butchers/ bar where I knew they definitely had a mincer and we had a very entertaining discussion, in pigeon Amharic, with several members of staff as well as anyone from the general public who felt like adding their two pennies worth. We eventually managed to convey our dilemma and one kind member of staff decided to show us where we might be able to get meat AND a mincer. He took us back to the butchers we had originally visited and after discovering for himself they didn't have a mincer (he didn't believe me) he offered the mincing services of his establishment if we bought the meat. So... we chose the least dried out half kilo of meat we could find, packet it in newspaper and a plastic bag then headed back to the second butchers. I don't think the other members of staff thought it was such a good idea that we use their mincer, but our kind helper persisted and a crowd gathered for the entertainment that ensued. After a 10 minute wait a sparkling clean attachment to the mincer was discovered in the kitchen and brought to the deserted Siga Bet. Our kind helper then spent a while working out how to put the two pieces together and power it up and finally... ACTION!!... The meat was beautifully minced to the delight of the onlooking crowd. Unfortunately half the meat got stuck in the mincer (I think normally the meat is forced out by the addition of extra meat) and so we probably ended up with only a quarter of a kilo of meat compared to the original half kilo we bought. They bashed at it...pushed it...pulled at it but no amount of efforts seemed enough to rescue the meat that was stuck inside the contraption. However, it was still more than enough for our dinner and we were just so grateful for all they had done to help us. Getting some minced meat had certainly become an adventure! I just felt sorry for whoever would now be lumbered for the job of cleaning the mincer (especially as it wasn't even their meat!). They didn't ask for any money (I think they had all kind of enjoyed the drama that afternoon) but we thought it was only fair to give them a token tip to say thank you. All in all, we probably took the best part of an hour, and spent more than the normal amount of birr bumbling our way through that adventure but it was worth every minute and every birr for pure entertainment value! Our meal that evening was pretty tasty too!

 

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