Thursday 20 March 2008

Public Holiday - Maulid

March 19th

It’s a public holiday today (Maulid – the birth of prophet Mohamed) so I went for a long walk following the course of the river to the North East of Gilgel – something that would not have been possible in the wet season with all the vegetation. After the dry months and the recent fires to clear the land it was easy going, but a very strange landscape. It’s quite scary how much deforestation there is. Before the burns, lots of young trees had been cut for building materials – even, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. I saw quite a few dust devils again.

After the start I was followed by one guy, then another. Being suspicious, I asked, after a while, if they were coming with me for money, but apparently it was just to see the “natural resources”. One of them turned out to be a teacher at one of the local schools. Eventually, after they had gone far enough and wanted lunch, they turned back, so I had some time on my own. I had my lunch of bananas, biscuits and a left-over sambosa from yesterday. My stomach had been a little upset in the morning and a bit later, on an exposed hillside, I had to have an emergency evacuation – the first time I’ve had to do that in the middle of nowhere. There weren’t even any bushes to hide behind but luckily no-one walked passed. Well I suppose VSO does open you up to new experiences!

I got a bit stuck at one point trying to cross a stream that, unlike most in the dry weather, was still quite deep. Luckily, “GPS to the rescue” as I had previously marked crossing points on walk I had a few months ago that I could intersect and I found the crossing was only a couple of hundred metres away.

Arriving back in the outskirts of Gilgel, I saw lots of new houses being built. I noticed it yesterday in the bus. It’s like Essex gone mad with “new-builds”. Of course, instead of piles of breeze blocks, bricks and tiles, there are piles of long logs and grasses as building materials. (I’m sure I’ve spelt breeze blocks wrong, but I only ever hear the word. I don’t ever remember seeing it written down.)

Oh, and during the walk, the sole of my boot came away at the back. We improvised by tying the lace around the sole to keep it on. Not a lot of chance of getting new boots in Gilgel!!! I bought them about 10 years ago in Kirkwall, Orkneys so I guess they haven’t done that badly. Maybe I can try UHU. It worked on the fronts of my black work shoes.

Yesterday I had another training session at quite a large school. While I was there, a group of Ferengi’s arrived with big UN 4x4s to see the new library that had been funded by UNICEF. I spoke to them, as I was setting up to train in the library. I forget their names, but I know one was a head of UNICEF in Ethiopia, and another was the Dutch ambassador so I was mixing with big wigs!

Tomorrow (if all goes to plan – so 50% chance there then) I will complete the first round of “teaching aids” training and will then begin the next round – getting all the classrooms to have basic materials on display.

Also, in the next few days, I should have some company, as a VSO Volunteer based in Asosa (this region’s capital) is coming to sort out (I hope) the Virus problem in the college. It will be good to be able to show someone around. There will also be another couple using Gilgel as a base and sorting out other computer problems in the area.

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