Monday 26 November 2007

Up-to-date-snippets

Weekend 17/18 Nov – Shopping and Walk

Put one lot of washing in and then headed for the market to make sure I got eggs. Unfortunately the market wasn't set up so I continued uphill and found a way to get down to the Beles River at the east of the town. It had big rocks, pebbles and sand. In the rainy season it must be much higher. I walked along part of the river and then back to the market, where I managed to get potatoes, limes and nine eggs! I walked back home, cleaned the kitchen and my room. The water was off so I couldn't finish my washing until later. I had franks and beans for lunch, which was good and then went to a coffee ceremony with the family. I watched more "Coast" and then later went for another walk west along the Beles. The river is orangey-brown all the time with carried mud, as it is quite fast-flowing. On the way back, near home, I saw a bees nest inside a concrete power pole and took pictures. I got too close and one came out and stung me on my
camera trigger finger, followed by another on the arm. I legged it as I remembered about the pheromone the stings give off to make the other bees attack, and at least one followed me almost to the gates of the college. I managed to get away with only two stings!

Night sounds and water

Normally I am woken some nights here by the local church "Calling to prayer". They use a PA system and sing/yell a chant over and over again. I think it's the Christian Orthodox Church. The worst ones are the 1am and 5am calls which I think are mainly on Sundays.

I was woken by a different sound this weekend. I heard gunshots, and quite a lot of them. There is a prison next to the college campus and apparently there was a break-out and around ten prisoners escaped. Well actually, about seven escaped because three were shot dead!

I am getting used to only having water a couple of hours twice a day but for the last two days it has not come on at all. All my reserves of cleaning water were used up by the end, so no washing of cooking equipment or me! Luckily it hasn't been quite so hot for the last few days and so I don't pong too much ....... don't ask about the toilet though!

Finally, the management have come up with a solution for my non-flushing toilet. Yesterday they gave me a can of air freshener - seriously, that's what they did - together with a can of "roach" spray for the termites in my roof which continue to drop piles of wood dust in certain areas of my room.

Viruses

The college computers are riddled with viruses. When I need to print something, I put the file on a memory stick, take it to a college computer and print. The next time I put the stick in my computer, my virus checker sounds an alert and finds lots of viruses on it. Luckily, my subscription to an anti-virus programme is still active and I have been downloading the latest up-dates since I've had an internet connection, but the college can't afford this. I found a copy of McAfee on one computer yesterday that was last updated in May 2005!!!!

1 comment:

Marta said...

Hi Mark
I enjoyed readjng your blog. It sounds quite tough. I am expecting to go to Ethiopia as a VSO volunteer in February. I may be going to Beneshangul Gumuz as regional co-ordinator of ELIP, based in Assosa. If this happens I may be going to where you are as part of my work. Assosa is meant to be quite "remote" but at least it's on the map. I can't find where you are on either of the maps which I have.
I was originaly meant to go somewhere else but waited for two months for confirmation which didn't materialise.
Good luck with what you are doing and I may see you in a few months.
Best wishes
Marta