Mark Sidey VSO Volunteer

About Ethiopia Site Update

2009-11-02T19:21:00.002Z

I've spent the day updating and adding to my "About Ethiopia" site. I've added icons to the front page, sounds of Gilgel Beles for you to listen to, and a large photo section. Don't miss visiting www.aboutethiopia.co.uk.

New "About Ethiopia" Website on-line

2009-09-07T22:25:00.003+01:00

Having just come back from a motivating VSO RV (Returned Volunteer) weekend, I've finally got round to starting a website where I will be gradually adding videos, photos, sounds, educational ideas etc over the next few months.

At time of writing, there are already a couple of videos, and my complete "Virtual Gilgel Beles" where you can "walk" around the whole village.

Check out the site at: http://www.aboutethiopia.co.uk/

I also plan to visit as many schools and groups as I can to spread my experience. Email me if you are interested. Contact details on the site.

What's it like being back?

2009-07-11T16:15:00.003+01:00

Well, I've been back in the UK for one week now.

It was very easy to get back into UK living - in the house at least. Everything is the same and I can drive a car easily even after not driving one for 10 months. I have had a couple of twitches on things like putting toilet paper down the toilet instead of a bin by the side. Also having an urge to keep a torch with me at night incase the power goes off.

At first I was a little overwhelmed with broadband internet and spent ages on it look at news, reviews, finding what films I had missed, TV sites, ordering books and DVDs on Amazon etc.

I have also bought a new TV (my old one was over 15 years old and a new TV was something I promised myself when I got back.)

It was weird it being light outside at 21:00. In Ethiopia it only varies between 18:00 and 19:00 all year round. My sleeping was a bit disrupted with this and all the technology I had to play with. It was like I didn't want to go to sleep as there was so much to do, watch, search for.

Outside the house I feel a bit slow, for example in the big supermarkets, like everyone is moving around fast and I'm just looking at all the stuff and everyone going by in slow-motion.

I also have a sort of numb feeling, especially at first, and felt like the last two years hadn't happened. (Apparently this is normal.)

During the week I went to my niece's sports day, my nephew's drama performance and my old school summer fayre. It was good seeing everyone again and I still have the programmed Ethiopian "shake hands" build in. It's like an instant reaction now to shake people's hands as soon as I see them.

That's it for now - back to all the technology!

Back in the UK

2009-07-04T21:51:00.004+01:00

I've just arrived back in the UK and have been able to add all the new posts for the last week. Don't miss reading them. (Start with the oldest first and work your way up to this one last.)

My journey home was something like this:

Friday 21:00 unable to have a shower as no water in the hotel (pump broken.)

22:30 Tried to get some sleep. Did sleep a little, but not much - kept waking up.

Saturday 01:15 Got up, took bags downstairs and was taken, by taxi, to the airport where I breezed through security - they didn't ask to look through my back-pack or cases, breezed through check-in (41kg total in the cases - no excess charge and they didn't notice my carry-on back-pack weighed in at over 12kg!!!) and straight through immigration with my exit visa.

So, not bad so far. It was 02:00, flight due to leave at 04:15.

The flight finally left at 05:10 - I was very tired by now and, like I said I am blanking my emotions quite a lot, so wasn't thinking about whether I am sad or not about going.

Arrived at Cairo 3h30 later and made my way through the checking to get to the connecting flight due to leave at 10:30. Boarded plane on time. By 11:00 they said they were waiting for air traffic control clearance in Europe and there would be a 10 minute delay. Around 11:30 they said that due to a "go-slow" strike by the Athens ATC, there would be a 2 hour delay, and could we get off the plane and go back to the gate. After another 10mins, still no-one had been allowed off the plane and they said that they had been given an alternative route, avoiding Athens airspace and around 12:00, 2h30 late, we took off. I slept on-and-off having now been awake pretty-much since midnight. When I was awake, there were some pretty spectacular views. When we got to the UK, I could clearly see from Margate, down to Dover and across the channel to Calais. While on the outskirts of Cairo I saw, for the first time in real-life, but from a long way away, the pyramids (see photo)

After a short delay to get a gate and a bit of a queue to get through immigration, I collected my luggage, which had joined me on the connecting flight, luckily! and finally met my parents after 10 months.

Within an hour, I was having a drive thru McDonalds, then home. Again, like last time, it was like I had never been away. It's really weird. Anyway, I will stop now, as I am very tired. I'll write more about how I am settling in in a few days.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in Addis Ababa

2009-07-03T21:18:00.000+01:00

Basically I spent the last few days in Ethiopia finishing off a last few jobs, and killing time.

One problem was no electricity for the entire three days (except a few hours over night which was no good to anyone, and a period of a couple of hours when the voltage was around 120V (it should be 220V)) Luckily the Yonnas hotel I am staying in has a generator which they put on from around 6pm until midnight.

The first job I had was to collect my passport from VSO and then change my remaining Ethiopian Birr currency into something useful in the outside world. The government is very tight on loosing dollars - which is a stable currency with world backing. The Birr, on the other hand, is only worth the paper it’s printed on outside Ethiopia.

The first two stops had no UK Pounds, Euros or even US Dollars and the last place said they could only change up to $150 without a resident’s permit and receipts from previous dollar to Birr transactions. My resident’s permit had to be given in to get my exit visa so no luck there. I began to think I would be stuck with a pile of paper, or alternatively I would have to splash out on lots of extravagant meals, souvenirs and a night in the Sheraton hotel.

One taxi driver offered me black-market dollars, but due to a misunderstanding of the accent, I thought he was offering 1 dollar for 40 birr (the bank rate is 1 to 11.3.) I realised afterwards he must’ve meant 14. Anyway, the risk of fake money was too great, and in-case anyone official is reading this, it is illegal so I didn’t do it!

I finally managed to sort this a few days later, in a legal way, I believe. I gave my birr to another volunteer who will be here for another year, and they electronically transferred money from their bank to mine in the UK.

Thursday’s job was to get police clearance by obtaining a “certificate of good conduct” that I will probably need in the UK when I get a police check to work in schools. This involved going to the Federal police department, queuing in several different queues, skipping some queues because I am white and handing over copies of passport, ID card and some photos. I also had to get fingerprinted (black fingers all day.) In about three weeks I will get the certificate (via VSO collecting it and posting it.)

On Friday I went to the VSO office to get my final clearance there and have an exit interview with my programme manager. I had a nice pizza on the roof of a 6-storey skyscraper looking out over the city for the last time, followed by a cake from a coffee shop. Then back to my room to see if I could do something about the excess baggage. (also finding out the water pump in the hotel is broken, so no shower!)

I think I managed to get the bags to within a kg or so of what they are supposed to be, so hopefully I’ll be let off with no excess charge. That’s as long as they don’t check my carry-on back-pack which is almost double the weight it should be!

Then it was watching TV and DVDs while I wait for time to go by before being taken to the airport.

This is the last entry written in Ethiopia.

In Addis - quick update

2009-07-02T08:30:00.002+01:00

I am now in Addis with about one day to go until I leave.

I have lots to tell you all, but the information is all on my laptop
which I cannot connect to the net at the moment as there has been no
mains power in Addis for two days.

Highlights include: college car breaking down, getting the squits just
before flying to Addis, being fingerprinted for my police clearance,
and more...

So stay tuned.

If not before, I will upload all the entries when I get back to the UK.

Tuesday: A typical journey to Addis

2009-06-30T22:00:00.001+01:00

First last breakfast at the Ghion hotel overlooking the lake – nice. Then back to the apartment where I spent a good two hours sorting my luggage. Incredibly, after discarding some stuff, giving some to Judith and using the vacuum bags to squash the air out of clothes, I had done it, although a bit over weight (later I found I the total was 46kg – I need to be 40kg for the international flight)

I then went for a last walk around the lake, stopping at a posh hotel for an egg sandwich lunch (26ETB instead of a usual 6ETB!) but I sat in the garden overlooking the lake, so didn’t mind.

Back to the apartment for a rest, then out for another last meal and lake overlook: Dinner at the Ghion.

Then, the slightly odd stomach feeling I had had in the afternoon drew towards a “wombat’s leaving the cave” scenario. I had no choice but to crouch over the urine-soaked seat of the hotel toilet and download. (It’s at times like this, you wish it was a hole-in-the-ground toilet – Much more comfortable crouching right down and you feel like you empty out better like this (as nature intended) anyway – but no such luck. Back at the table, I quickly finished my pudding pancake and fast-walked back to the apartment, just in time for a second broadband download (with 30mins until the taxi arrived to take me to the airport.)

I had had two Imodium at the hotel and hope this would stop any repeats.

So, taxi to the airport and then, for the next 30minutes, at least, my carefully-packed bags were gone through by the airport security having seen too many electronic devices, batteries and wires for their liking. At one point my keys went missing. I later spotted them stuck under the conveyor belt leading to the X-ray scanner and it took a small-handed woman to get them out.

Finally packed again, I checked in, having to go upstairs to an office to pay the expected excess baggage (internal flights only allow 20kg, but the excess is only 5ETB per Kg.) Then someone asked me to go to the scanning area and I fully expected to go through the whole unpacking-process again at this next scanning stage. (The first one had been to get into the airport; this one was for the luggage to get on the plane.) Luckily they spoke to the guy at the airport entrance and I didn’t have to go through it again.

Next, to wait for the flight: 10pm departure. My stomach was feeling a bit dodgy again, so I checked the instruction leaflet and ended up having another Imodium. Then the announcement came about the 30 minute delay – the incoming plane hadn’t arrived.

Now this is another “look on the bright-side” situation (see yesterday’s entry.) At 10pm I was forced to visit the airport toilets and have a third download. Now if the plane had been on time, this would’ve been a tricky operation during take-off, so maybe it was a good thing the flight was delayed. Of course the 30 minutes turned into an hour by the time we actually left the ground and we finally got to Addis at 23:40 (on a fast jet – it used to be a prop plane, but apparently they are servicing this old fleet and running one jet a day instead of three prop flights.)

My luggage came quickly, and I had arranged a taxi to take me to the hotel which we arrived at around 00:30. No power in this district in Addis, and they turn the generator off at midnight, so scrabbling around for a torch, I got to my room and finally to sleep around 01:00. (Thankfully, there were no more downloading activities during the night.)

Monday: A typical journey to Bahir Dar

2009-06-29T22:00:00.001+01:00

My last day in Gilgel Beles. I woke quite early and began to do the last bits in the house – burning the rubbish, emptying water bowls etc. I started getting a little panicky when I was packing as there was way too much stuff.

The car, as confirmed on many occasions for the last two weeks, was due to arrive at 10am.

At 9:20, with all my stuff spread all over the floor, the car arrived. I told them we had agreed 4 (local time) and they should come back then, so they left. I finally decided I would never have time to pack properly now and get it all down to two cases, so I got out a couple of big boxes and threw a lot of stuff there. I was ready at 10am, case, bag and boxes ready to load.

At 10:30am, still no car, I decided to walk up to college to find out what was going on. Anyway, after going round to all the offices and saying goodbye to everyone, we finally got into the car, drove down to my house to pick up the luggage and for the property person to check I hadn’t broken anything or stolen any chairs. We went back to the college so the property person could leave the keys (she was coming to Bahir Dar with us) and finally, at around 11:30, we were off… Goodbye college.

Now this bit is going to sound like I made it up, but it is true. Around 500m after the “You are leaving Gilgel Beles – have a good journey, sign” the driver stopped and told us that the rear suspension on the car had just broken. So, we limped back to the college.

It was like one of those horror films “You’ll never leave!” I’m so glad I’m a pessimist!

After lots of arrangements, we finally left in the college bus (used for taking students on teaching practice) around 12:45pm, stopping around an hour later for lunch.

As it happened, the bus was more comfortable than the car going over the bumps as I was sitting in the middle and it had a long wheel-base. Also, there was plenty of room to spread out as there was only a few people on it. Also, as the rain was heavy, it was much better that my stuff was inside the bus, instead of on the back of a pick-up truck. (Hold on, that sounds like I was looking on the bright side!!!)

We went through a good storm, fork-lighting flashing all around, torrential rain and at one point we saw what looked like snow on the ground – it was actually a huge amount of ice that had come from a hail storm we had just missed.

Finally we got to Bahar Dar at around 6pm, they all helped me get my luggage up to Judith’s apartment and we said our goodbyes. No power or water in the apartment of course!

Sunday: Parents' Day / Leaving Do.

2009-06-28T22:00:00.001+01:00

I went up to the school around 08:30 – found my recorder players, had a practice (the only girl player was missing – apparently she had missed the last two weeks of rehearsals as she was planting corn (girls have it much harder than boys in Ethiopia.))

The Parents’ Day programme included side-show games, traditional dancing from the various Ethnic groups, a gymnastics display, a report from the director (school principal) about the year in school, opportunities for the parents to ask questions, a speech from a couple of local education officials and certificates for some students. We were due to play at 04:00 (Ethiopian time or 10am.) We finally started at 11:45am – TIA (This is Africa!) They all took turns to announce the tunes and played very well in front of an audience which must’ve been at least 1000 people. I was really proud of them. As is tradition, someone stuck Birr notes on their foreheads to show appreciation (they do this with dancers as well.)

Afterwards, I was thanked for my help in the school by the director and given a present (see right)

I then had a bit of time to sort things out, moving cooking stuff into the store room etc before going to the college later in the afternoon for my leaving do. There were about 50 people there, instructors and support staff, (I’m not sure how much of the reason for this was a free meal!) but we had injera and meat and then speeches and presents. My first present was… well, different:

My second present was really good and will be useful if I do work in schools. (It includes some trousers as well.)

After that, back to the neighbour’s house again for some more card games (in candlelight – no power, obviously!) and finally back to mine.

Saturday: Last walk and Birthday celebration

2009-06-27T22:00:00.000+01:00

Went on a walk up to the market and briefly visited the fathers at the Catholic Mission (the old one who visited last week was wrong about the dates the mission will be closed) and had a quick chat to say goodbye. Then I went to the river and walked along my favourite spots. The water was almost as high as when I arrived back in Gilgel after the summer in the UK.

Back at the house I did a bit more sorting, then in the afternoon I was invited to my neighbour’s house. It was the middle boy’s birthday next week and the family wanted to celebrate before I left. I gave him a recycled card (I had cut the front off a card someone gave me from the UK and stuck in on new card) and a few bits that I had got from Addis. At the same time I did the same treatment for the oldest boy’s birthday (which is at the beginning of September.) We played some card games I taught them last week.

Last entry from Gilgel Beles

2009-06-26T09:14:00.001+01:00

This is probably (nothing is certain in Ethiopia!) the last entry from Gilgel Beles.

I’ve spent a couple of hours every afternoon rehearsing with the recorder groups ready for their performance at the parents’ day at the school on Sunday. One of the best players, a girl, has not been present and today I found out it is because she is helping with the corn planting in the fields at the moment. It’s a hard life for girls and women here in Ethiopia.

I’ve managed to finish off the last few admin things, tried as best I can to explain what I have left behind and what is happening next year, trying to get the college to hire the two guys who have been working with me. I have also added lots of my documents to the college computer, including recorder sheets and music. I’ve given recorder-related sheets and music to the local school and it will be interesting to find out how long any of it continues.

We’re well into the rainy season now, with very heavy downpours and storms at least every other day.

The water has been off for 3 days, and the electricity is off more than 50% of the time.

I think I am still blocking my feelings about leaving. Like I said before, I certainly won’t miss the lack of electricity and water etc, but I will miss the people, especially the ones I have worked closely with and the recorder group children. Maybe it will hit me on Monday after I have gone.

My plan is:

Fri 26 June: Last day at work

Sat 27: Clearing out the house and starting to pack (only 40kg and 2 cases back to the UK)

Sun 28: Parents’ day at local school + final packing

Mon 29: Driven (hopefully all the way) to Bahir Dar (5 hour drive – half on rough roads)

Tue 30: Day in Bahir Dar, then night flight to Addis Ababa

Wed 01 July: Get my police clearance (to say I haven’t committed any crimes in Ethiopia!)

Thu 02: Day in Addis

Fri 03: Exit Interview at VSO

Sat 04: 2am to Airport for 4:30 flight via Cairo to Heathrow.

My next entry will probably be from Addis on Wednesday or Thursday.

A Typical atypical day in Gilgel

2009-06-19T06:31:00.001+01:00

Well the day started with me knowing that I had to sort out a recorder problem. Yesterday, I had been running the group through all the tunes we would perform in the parents’ day at the local school and one boy was significantly worse than the others – he started off well with the lessons, then a few months ago he seemed to stop practising. Anyway, he got upset and gave his recorder back to me saying he was going to quit. It is at these times that it becomes very frustrating that I cannot speak Amharic and try and talk him out of it. After this, another good player said he would quit because the first one had.

So back to the day: I had just sorted out someone to come to the school with me for translation purposes when I got asked by the Dean to go and sort out the continuing problem with the CPD Certificates.

Time for another flashback:

We had given out two certificates at the ceremony the other day. One for those who had completed the course (which includes showing some evidence they had filled in things in the manual and participated in the sessions, and also had an attendance of at least 80%.) and a “have participated in some elements of the course” for those who did not do this.

So, ready to visit the other school, I was then called in by the Vice Dean who the disgruntled teachers had called on next, obviously not getting a satisfactory answer from the Dean.

I got their manuals and the attendance register and showed them why they did not get the full certificate. They claimed the attendance register was falsified and that the sessions were informal at someone’s house and all sorts of other stuff. (This was all through translation by the way.) They also said they had not filled in the manuals because they were not told to… Even though it said in the book “complete this table” or “fill in this chart” etc. These sounded like excuses coming from young children.

Anyway we finally decided to go and speak to the facilitators who ran the sessions on Monday.

Next, the Vice Dean asked me for some photos of the college – some people were here with a song they had recorded about Benishangul Gumuz Region and had mentioned Gilgel Beles College in the lyrics or something. So they wanted photos to make a VCD (Video CD - Ethiopia’s cheaper equivalent of DVDs.)

It was now that I said I had to go to the school to sort out the recorder problem. I went with the translator and we did arrange for the recorder students to come to the college in the afternoon, even though the whole of Grades 1-4 were not at school – a Grade 4 girl had died and they were all at church mourning.

Back to college to sort out the photos, which in the usual array of miscommunication turning into: “they needed a video clip of the singer miming to the backing music.” I started getting a little suspicious as to the amount of time and how involved I would be getting in this and kept confirming that they had someone to edit this and put it together with the music (something I suspected I would have to do.) They said they had someone in Addis to do this.

So, I was told I would be videoing the guy for the 6 minutes of the song miming and dancing away in front of the college. But of course they hadn’t arranged anything to play the music back on for him to mime to, so after 10-15 mins we had arranged to borrow the coffee shop tape player and bought some batteries from town and were ready to record.

But of course that wasn’t all I had to video. We then had to get some students to dance around as I recorded the whole song again in a different location, followed by filming a mock classroom setup where the lead singer is giving “sight love” looks to a girl, another setup in a dormitory room, and more “we have nearly completed” scenarios. In the end I got away for lunch a 1pm (we had started at 11am and I normal go for lunch at 12 noon!!)

Then of course they had no way to get the 3Gb of Video Data back to Addis so I used one of my own blank DVDs to copy it for them after convincing them that it is not a DVD as in “DVD Player movie”, but just a Data DVD like a Data CD.

I used to laugh at the cheaply made pop videos I saw on ETV (Ethiopia Television) but now I know why they are like they are. They turn up without any kind of storyboard, or even a camera, find a hapless ferengi to film it for them etc etc

So, onto the next thing: recorders. The players arrived; I found someone to translate and help me convince the boy with a problem to continue, which I did, just started the lesson with the others when a guy turned up with a satellite dish for Göran which he needed to take to the house. (It was from the other Swede in the village who is leaving tomorrow morning early.) I managed to get someone to go in my place with the house key while I continued the lesson. A few minutes after that, a rather old Catholic priest (who I have met a few times from the mission) turned up to say the mission is closing for the summer and no-one will be there for me to say goodbye to (had I not got the invite before? – Of course not). He stayed and listened to the recorder playing / practicing for quite while.

I’m loosing the thread now, I’m sure you are if you’ve got this far, anyway, next the pop video guys are back asking for maps of the area to copy onto CD. Ok, I said, but at 5pm because I need to finish a recorder lesson with a teacher (who had turned up for his lesson.)

5pm came, I went to find the guys, and at that point the guy with the satellite dish turned up again with some more boxes for Göran – needing to get back into to the house (oh and collect payment for the dish – money which Göran gave me before he left.)

Luckily, again, I managed to find someone to give the key to and go with him.

[Oh, I just remembered, our clothes washer, who is supposed to come twice a week, came last Friday, was due at least to show today (one week later), but didn’t. I’m out of shirts, with the dampness in the air it’s now taking two days for stuff to dry, so that’s a job I’ve got tomorrow.]

So, back to the pop guys and the maps: I showed them the photos of the “OS-type” map I had, and some GPS maps I had made, but no, they didn’t actually want maps, they wanted “beautiful photos” of Gilgel Beles. So the next hour was spent going through my photos trying to find scenic views, pictures of the bridge, the college, and as the music is sort of a pop-i-fied version of Gumuz music, I was asked if I had any photos of Gumuz women with no clothes on top (which admitted they do sometimes do (or don’t) but I haven’t got any photos of that kind of thing.)

It poured with rain at some point during all this, making it hard to talk at times as the droplets hit the corrugated metal roof.

I finally called it a day as I said I have to go and pay for the dish (which was true.) They asked me for a meal as thanks (which I managed to get out of – Göran.)

Then it was home to dump my stuff, (managing to get to my room past the huge satellite dish now inside the house blocking my way to the toilet) collect the money to pay for the dish, and, umbrella up, in the still-raining, dusk-time, I set off.

So there I am, at the end of this long day tramping through the mud and rain in the near-twilight, trying not to slip as I pass next to the “Nest Houses” (local mud and stick houses with conical roves) near our back gate, hearing “abba” and “ferengi” eminating from the interiors.

I got back safely and now have pork hotdogs and peas (rare in a can from BD) for tea, cooked by electricity in the incandescent light for the first time in four days, instead of kerosene with a head-torch.

.... How was your day?

Amazing Storm

2009-06-18T06:31:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday night there was another amazing storm. At around 1900 there was the high gusts of wind which usually signify an incoming big downpour. During the next 30 minutes, I estimate about 20mm of rain fell and the lighting was amazing. Each individual stroke was a multiple flash of maybe 5-10 rapid flashes, and there were whole sequences of strokes one following another right across the sky. Maybe more than one different stroke per second.

Unfortunately, most of the strokes were obscured by cloud, but every-so-often there was a stroke in the clear.

This picture is a composite image I made of one series of strikes over 1-2 seconds that went across the sky.

Usual problems with services + last signing lessons

2009-06-17T15:10:00.001+01:00

Well the power was off all day yesterday from 05:00 and didn’t come back until 00:15 this morning. That lasted until lunchtime when first it went off, came back on at around 100V (instead of 220V) then kept flashing on and off, then went off completely.

The mobile network has been Yellum (there is non) for the last couple of days.

Water came back at last though. I do still get quite impressed when a few days ago I had collected enough rain water to do my washing and cleaning the dishes.

Had a really fun last session with the four children and teacher in the sign language class today, including introducing them to blow football (I had found a polystyrene ball. At first I used it to show the difference between “b” which doesn’t move the ball, and “p” which does when you speak it. Then it evolved into table blow-football!)

I also used a function on my digital camera where you can see the noise level and showed Ahmed / “Jermal” the different levels of noises and how it drops off at a distance. Interestingly, he showed his hand sign letters to the camera as he didn’t know the difference between sound letters and signed letters.

CPD Ceremony

2009-06-16T06:36:00.004+01:00

After two years of battling for resources, getting teachers to train without a “perdiem” payment etc, we finally had a certificate presentation celebration today, for two schools-worth of teachers who have completed the 15 week, Ministry of Education CPD (Continuing Professional Development) course.

(The teachers from one of the local schools show off their certificates of course completion)

During the celebration, the Dean spoke, I spoke and then I had two of my best recorder players playing a few songs for entertainment. It went really well, and during feedback, the director of the local school said it was like I was a regular teacher at her school as I was in so often doing activities. The children had played very well and someone suggested expanding the program to other schools!

So all-in-all, not a bad finish to my time here.

Termite swarm

2009-06-16T06:36:00.003+01:00

That was a crazy half an hour: It started when I heard a fluttering at my net over my window. I looked and saw a four-winged termite, each wing about 4cm.Within a minute I could see about eight, and five minutes after that, around every light there were at least 50 I guess. The fluttering noise was pretty loud; they were like hundreds of little helicopters.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement on the ground. Two toads had appeared from nowhere and were having the feast of their lives, licking up termites left, right and centre (that was for mum.) It was an amphibians’ smorgasbord (that was for Göran!)

Very soon after that, more and more of them were dropping to the ground and beginning to shed their wings. I think I idea is they roam around, find a mate and set up a new nest.

Finally, the fluttering has stopped, and it’s a return to the chirping, cheeping, buzzing noise that is the usual Ethiopian cacophony of night.

Penultimate Recorders and more power problems

2009-06-13T08:49:00.003+01:00

It’s getting on for the last recorder lessons now. Because the school was being used for exams, I had all the players at the college. Judging by the reaction when they looked out the window, I think it was the first time some of them had been upstairs. Also, as a treat at the end, I gave them all a fizzy drink, and again, I don’t think it’s often (if ever) they get one of them. They seemed quite overwhelmed with it all. As you will see from the picture, some of them haven’t even got shoes.

I think working with the children: the maths class; whole class teaching and the recorder groups, is going to be what I will miss the most.

Electricity and Water

Following up my previous entry, just to check you were not thinking, electricity 80% of the time, what are you complaining about, you have to remember that that was an average. I repeated the same exercise for the last 20 days, and the average power cut per day then is almost 12 hours out of 24, or 50%.

Over those 20 days, the longest cut was 55 hours. Also, a fairly common pattern is off around 05:00 and back on at around 23:00. If I stayed here longer, I would definitely invest in a generator. The houses across the street and my neighbours are even worse off, they are on a different phase to my house and they haven’t had power all week.

Also, the water has been off a couple of days, and the generator at the college is broken, so today, what with no mains power as well, the place was pretty deserted. It’s a good excuse not to do anything when the computers are down. The secretaries just sit doing nothing all day in the offices. There are manual typewriters but I guess now the “rich” countries have spread their evil PCs to Ethiopia, there’s no going back to the old ways, after all, you can’t listen to music and play patience on a typewriter.

More cultural difference fun

2009-06-10T07:21:00.002+01:00

I woke early this morning, and at around 06:45 as I was about to eat my breakfast, a head pops in my window and asks me to read a draft reference. He has his laptop with him, so for the next 20mins or so I check and edit the Ethiopian English into something a little more British. I’m guessing this has never happened to anyone in the UK?

I felt a little guilty doing it, as the reference was going to be used for about 10 different people in the college (so not an entirely personal document then!), none of whom, as far as I’ve seen, come anywhere close to this glowing superhuman idol mentioned in the text. Apparently they are completely up-to-date in their current field of study, are innovative and are open to new ideas; they work incredibly well in a team and show absolute dedication to their teaching. They would be a superb asset to any educational institution in the country.

Oh and more water came through the roof in my room tonight during another spectacular storm where at least 20mm rain fell in under an hour. The house was pretty flooded as well, what with the open roof portion.

False hope

2009-06-08T07:30:00.003+01:00

I’ve written this before in a different way, but it’s an important issue effecting the development of Ethiopia (and I guess other poor* countries):

One of the reasons the country is not developing is because of “False Hope.”

I have based this opinion on many conversations I have had with instructors here in the college, other Ethiopian’s I have met during my travels, NGO workers and the findings of other VSO Volunteers. I am generalising, but this seems to be a very common theme in the country.

It seems that the goal of most people here is not to do things that would develop the country (e.g. learn trades that would improve and maintain the infrastructure, make agriculture more efficient etc) Instead they seem more concerned with how they can get as much for themselves as possible and this includes finding a way to emigrate to “rich” countries.

The reason they don’t try to develop is because they believe outsiders will come and solve the problems for them.

I’m not sure what order they should be in, but the three main outsiders that they believe will help them and change Ethiopia into a rich country are:

1: N.G.O.s (Foreign Non Government Organisations)

2: God

3: Obama

The first one (N.G.O.s) is based on experience. If they need a road or a bridge or electricity, or if they don’t plant enough crops and then there is a famine, don’t worry because some rich country will come along and lay the road, build the bridge or power station or drop bags of grain. Why bother planting and harvesting crops if all you have to do is wait for a plane to drop a bag of processed grain for you. The first thought isn’t “how can we solve this problem” it’s “someone from another country will come and solve the problem for us.”

Number 2 (God.) Well as an atheist, I would call this the first false hope. But I believe even Christians in foreign countries do not think that God is going to suddenly make Ethiopia a rich country with roads, stable power, food and clean water for everyone. Also, I’m sure foreign Christians would disagree with some of the arguments that I have heard along the lines of: “we don’t have to bother because God will come and sort it out.” I guess on the up side, religion does give a lot of hope to Ethiopians who do have a very hard existence; it also binds them together to a common cause. What I find very hard is that it also seems to be used as a control mechanism (like in Victorian times in the UK) with rules on what you can and cannot do and what and when you can eat. And these rules seem not to come from the bible, but from priests. I worry (worldwide) about organised religion and how unelected people, paraphrasing and selecting portions of the bible that fit their aims, can hold so much power. (But I digress – this is another issue.)

Number 3 (Obama.) You may laugh, but when Obama was elected, Ethiopia went crazy. I would even go so far as to say that some of the Ethiopians put Obama above God in the likelihood to save them. “Obama” bunabets, restaurants, Internet cafés and stationery shops sprang up everywhere as did the T-shirts and posters. I have had many conversations with Ethiopians asking “has he done anything yet?” “What do you think he will do?” “If American gives money to all the African nations, it won’t have any money for itself – is that going to happen?” but the false hope is very strong. Personally I think that Obama is the lightest “black” person I’ve ever seem, but that’s beside the point. I believe the U.S.A. is going to look after itself first and although it may donate the odd computer to Africa, it’s not going to make any real change here.

Well that’s pretty much the opinion I have developed over the two years being here. Hard as it is to say and depressing as it sounds, I believe that if Ethiopia (and other poor countries) continue in their attempt to become copies of rich countries, they are doomed to failure. They should concentrate on the foundations of their own society and develop themselves without external influence.

(Off course we’re all doomed anyway because of the oil running out and the greenhouse effect, it’s just that the Ethiopia will go down the pan first.)

*I decided that “poor” is the best description for countries like Ethiopia, even over the “VSO” and other NGO advice that this is not politically correct. They once called countries like Ethiopia “3^rd World” then “developing” and at the training I went to in England they said the latest name is now “south” – as in most of the poor countries are in the Southern Hemisphere and the “north” countries in the Northern Hemisphere are the rich ones. But, as Australia, for example, is in the “south” and also some of the poor countries are not developing (maybe because of wars etc), I think the financial “rich / poor” description is more accurate than any other term.

Electricity Stats

2009-06-08T07:30:00.002+01:00

I know I’m a slave to statistics but I can’t help it. I just find it interesting…

Since 1^st Jan this year in my house in Gilgel (not counting the days I was away) the average time the power has been off is 4h40m per day which is around 19.5% or looking at it another way, the electricity is only on 80.5% of the time.

Of all the days during this period, there was either continuous power, or only very short cuts on 48% of the days. This means on 52% of the days there was a power cut of at least 30 minutes.

Sometimes the power cuts are due to “rationing” the limited generating capacity of the country (which is all hydro), sometimes due to technical problems and other times due to power poles being blown down in the wind, or in one case because someone cut a tree down onto the power lines!

And we complain in the UK if it goes off for 5 seconds!!!!

This does link into my case for development here. In the UK, we sorted out the power system over decades, then, only after it was stable did computers and other technology which rely on a steady power supply come along. Here they have all these computers donated by US-AID etc and are trying to use them on this unstable platform. Another example of trying to run before you can walk (or looking at it another way: foreigners not really thinking about what they are giving. I guess they get tax-breaks on computer systems, but not if they help build more hydro-electric plants and give training to people putting up power poles and operating the system.)

Power and Green

2009-06-05T06:33:00.001+01:00

The power came back at 23:45 last night. Also there was yet another scorpion in the house. This time its end came via the handle of a broom. At least scorpions are relatively slow and easy to squash. Some just sit there. This is unlike spiders which see you coming with their top eyes and move very fast.

The place is becoming a little green again after the rains. It’s amazing that in about a week, in some places the grass is 10cm tall already. I guess it’s a combination of lots of water, lots of sun and high temperatures. This morning, outside the house I saw two oxen pulling a plough. It is very strange that there are some things here that are like the UK 200 years ago.

Windy!

2009-06-04T06:32:00.001+01:00

It was windy with very heavy rain last night and as usual we have no power now because some more power poles came down, this time about 100km from here. Don’t know how long that’ll be off for - a few days at least. This of course means the water is off – no pump working.

I love the storms here. In the UK, you see about one lightning flash a minute. Here it is just continuous across the sky – sometimes one flash being replied to by another in different part of the sky. I would say there are at least 20 flashes per minute.

During the storm my roof leaked. Luckily in the middle of the room where there is just floor – nothing electrical. I think it was a combination of the amount of rain and the direction the wind was blowing.

CPD Update

2009-06-01T15:00:00.002+01:00

I’m still blowing my nose a bit and coughing, but it seems to be tailing off at last.

There was heavy rain last night, but only after a gap of about a week. This time last year it was pretty much raining every day and was green everywhere. People are saying the rain is very late this year. The temperature is also back up. I think as I went to bed last night it was still near 30°C outside.

Today I went on a trip into Powe woreda (area) and visited five schools to check the progress of the CPD programme. We have two nearby schools who have completed, but I didn’t hold up much hope for the others, and I was pretty much correct. All five had completed less than 5 sessions (out of 15 in four months) and gave various excuses like “we were preparing for bazaar (fayre)” which maybe took one week, or we did not understand (they visit the college and could’ve asked and probably haven’t read the material as it is all explained in there.) Anyway, the college Dean is all for them doing the CPD program so will assign someone to find out what is going on and will push the schools to continue (or re-start) next year.

On the plus side, it means I don’t have to make as many certificates!!!!

I got the children I am teaching sign language to play a game today and it was really good to see them all laughing and playing together, whether they could hear or not.

Health and Scorpions

2009-05-29T10:56:00.001+01:00

Well I have had a rough couple of days. On Wednesday night I was coughing a lot, my throat hurt, blowing my nose, I didn’t feel that good and just wanted to watch DVDs, but at around 20:00 the last of my battery power ran out and the mains power didn’t come on until just after 23:00 (It had been off all day). Then, at around midnight and for the next two hours on-and-off, I was coughing up loads of mucus…. A few times I was sick and the other times I was just standing over a drain with my mouth open as a steady stream of sticky mucus dripped out… it was horrible. I was like that mother Alien in Aliens. Anyway, other than the cough, I don’t have a temperature and don’t feel too bad, so I guess it’s still just a bad cold (or two colds on top of each other.)

On the positive side, I went to my neighbours 5th birthday today, and then had a very good recorder session. This one girl is very good – can sight read and play very well. At one point there were over ten children in the room with us just listening quietly. They had drifted in from outside. Then it was Maths class, and again, we had about double the number of children we should. The others just came in and joined in. (see pictures of some of them.)

I’ve seen (and killed) two scorpions in the house this week and I also saw a huge beetle (see picture.) I recently heard that a VSO volunteer got stung by a scorpion last month. She may have stepped on it as she was walking along. She said it was incredibly painful, much worse than a bee sting, and after a while the whole of her leg started going numb. She went to the medical centre and was given anti-venom. When they examined her foot, they said she had been very rapidly stung six times!

How do I feel about coming home?

2009-05-29T06:37:00.001+01:00

After spending nearly two years in Ethiopia, and with only 37 days left, I’ve been asked how I feel about coming home.

It’s a difficult one, as I tend to block my feelings quite a lot and I tend of avoid big issues.

I will certainly miss:

The freedom I have here, to completely plan my time and projects that I do, whether it’s training teachers, doing recorder lessons, teaching demo lessons in local schools.
The freedom the children have to wander and play outside, no-need for risk assessments before doing anything, no parents’ permission slips, no nagging for the latest toy or electronic gadget.
The people I have met and built up relationships with, including the counterparts I’ve worked with, my neighbours, the children in the maths and recorder classes, the teachers at the local schools.
Being able to walk anywhere in the local countryside.
Being the centre of attention in the village. Some people hate it, but I love it when the kids shout out and come and shake my hand.
The unusual creatures (Big bugs, lizards, local birds etc)
The slower, less-stressful pace of life.
The enthusiasm of the children to learn
Not having to worry about money – the college provide the house and pay the bills and my salary is enough to cover food.

What I look forward to at home:

The Sea.
No power cuts
No extreme heat
Water being on all the time (and no need to boil and filter)
Always on, broadband internet
Not being stared at and pursued for money in the big towns
Driving myself around (on asphalt roads)
Being able to use phone or email to arrange appointments and training.
Knowing the people will be on time.
Quiet nights (no bugs, no churches)
Being able to order stuff for next-day delivery on the net.
Hot showers.

Both

Lack of TV/News. You know I really haven’t missed not having a TV. I have survived well with just DVDs and the odd recorded programme sent from home.
The bugs – I’ve got used to them, but don’t like the scorpions and potential of malaria with the mosquitoes.
The Language – I quite enjoy the challenge of teaching when I don’t speak the language, but can be frustrated if I trying to get a point across and can’t, especially when giving feedback to teachers.
Christmas – I liked the lack of a commercialised Christmas, but also missed my family get-togethers.

In Summary

On the whole it’s more technological things I miss and would like to come home to (with the exception of my family and friends of course!!!). As for the social and working life in Ethiopia, I could quite happily stay longer. I suspect that in maybe five years time, I may be off somewhere else.

How have I changed?

When I started to write this, I realised there were lots of personal things that probably shouldn’t be on the blog. I would say that as far as my personality goes, I’m pretty much the same - if maybe more tolerant of change and coping with difficult situations.

I noticed that the way I speak has changed - I have adopted some Ethiopian-English traits such as losing “a” and “the”. I assume it will change back when I am with people in the UK, but currently I use phrases like “There is problem” or “I went two weeks before.”

One thing I have learnt is not to be so worried about discussing race and appearance of people. In the UK so many people are so frightened of mentioning anything about the appearance of race of people because of “political correctness gone mad.” If someone’s skin is dark and at dusk it is hard to see their expressions, it’s not racist to say that, it’s physics. The same when Ethiopians with dark skin come through the door and are backlight by a bright sky: Sometimes I find it hard to work out who it is because they are like a silhouette. Again, it’s physics – dark skin does not reflect as much light as light skin. In fact, I would say that some Ethiopian’s are a little racist – they regard some ethnic groups with very dark skin as more primitive. I thought it was strange when I gave a photo I had taken of someone to them and they asked if there was a different one as they said they looked too dark. There is this underlying idea that the lighter you are, the better. Anyway, I know that when I came back to the UK last summer I noticed how old and fat everyone looked. No sweets or cakes, no sitting in front of computer games all evening, no driving everywhere and short life expectancy certainly makes more people here in Gilgel look more attractive and healthier to me. (Due to no sweets and no car, I lost about 10kg when I was here last year (which I put back on in two months in the UK!))

Well that’s it for now. I may add further thoughts as it gets closer to my leaving date.

Water

2009-05-26T08:07:00.002+01:00

Something you’ll never experience in the UK is how happy it makes you when you turn on the tap and water comes out.

You spend the next two hours cleaning dishes, washing clothes, boiling water to drink, flushing a few buckets of water through the toilet, filling buckets and bowls that have been empty for days. Generally luxuriating in the magical transparent liquid. Safe again for at least three days.

Update

2009-05-26T06:34:00.001+01:00

Well the cold, although annoying, seems to be just a cold.

Also, we found out today that Jemal is actually called Ahmed! There was some confusion with a friend of his and he couldn’t tell us. Anyway, it is very difficult for us to stop calling him Jemal now after a month! At least soon, when he has learned all the signs, he will be able to tell us (with finger spelling) what his name is!

We’re well into the rainy season now. It rained a lot last night, and was windy, and we have no power now – but the water is back and I’m on the generator at the college at the moment.

Workshop in Addis (part 2 + comments)

2009-05-25T14:19:00.002+01:00

Monday 18^th May and the N.G.O. problem

Well the leavers’ workshop wasn’t too bad. Found out a few things about what we have to do before we leave, like a police check, exit visa etc and had a chance to think about successes and problems we’d had during our time. I managed to get across the point that maybe N.G.O.s (Non-governmental organisations) are actually making the situation worse here. I have already written about this before, but I keep hearing more and more evidence, like someone told me that in certain regions they don’t plan and store food for when the rains fall because they know that an aid agency will fly food in if that happens.

It’s pretty obvious really: NGOs have built roads and donated transport for better food distribution, installed better/cleaner water supplies, given medicine and medical help and this equals fewer deaths. No education or cultural change re: birth control means this is not balanced with fewer births. The net result is a massive population increase caused by external intervention – a population increase that cannot be supported without continued aid from the rich countries.

I still think it is frightening to see the countryside when I fly from Bahir Dar to Addis. It should be tropical rainforest, but it is agricultural land as far as the eye can see. As wood is the primary building material and charcoal the primary fuel, without trees the population is in big trouble.

Tuesday 19^th May and the begging problem

First I went to the VSO Programme Office and sorted out a few pieces of paperwork and money, then got a line taxi to Meskal Square (sort of the Trafalgar Square of Addis used for parades and New Year celebrations etc) and walked the length of Africa Avenue (no trees) otherwise known as Bole Road which goes South to the airport. It’s the rich part of town with lots of “ferengi”-style supermarkets, electronics / computer stores etc. At one point it rained quite heavily but not the mega-tropical rain yet. I bought a few books, sweets and biscuits, had lunch at a sort of “Starbucks”-coffee shop and had the first scoop of ice-cream I’ve had since least summer. I was also checking out cameras for the guys back at the college. They all want to buy my one before I go home and I said I’d see if I can find anything in Addis. The cheapest basic one was 3000ETB (about £190) which in the UK would probably cost around £60. Something like mine (which is pretty decent and around £100 when I got it) was more like 4-5000ETB.

During the walk I had the usual beggars sticking their hands out for free money, children trying to sell me chewing gum or tissues, guys trying to sell me “original” DVDs in their photocopied pouches, other guys trying to sell me “Ethiopian Sex DVDs” (I was tempted, but then thought that they may involve unconventional use of injera and have badly produced synthesised Ethiopian jazz music in the background!!!) and taxi drivers stopping all the time to see if I want to go anywhere.

I have said before, but my policy is never to give to beggars. I am here in Ethiopia to share my skills, not my money. Helping one or two or even 100 beggars is not going to help the country. Some beggars are not genuine and earn more money through begging than working – some even fake limps etc. If I give to beggars it helps contribute to the “white man is rich image” which makes it even worse for future volunteers. It’s because in the past, unthinking, rich white tourists have given big (relatively) amounts of money to beggars, that there is the problem now. Finally, if I didn’t have this policy, every time I saw a beggar I would have to make a decision whether to give or not and it would be a nightmare on my conscience – You probably see about 10 beggars a mile and if you gave to all, you would be out of money, so you would have to choose – do you give to the woman with the baby? The man with a swollen foot? The old man smelling of alcohol? The guy with mental problems? The child putting their hand to their mouth saying they are hungry and need bread? The woman bent over shuffling along on all-fours with wooden grips on her hands because she can’t walk upright (or can she?)

With my policy, I never have to decide – the decision is already made.

Oh, and there is a very loud Mosque quite near the hotel which does many noisy calls to prayer, my favourite of which is yelled over loudspeakers at 5am every morning followed by the Christian Orthodox church which does theirs an hour later. Thankful I come from a culture which values sleep and has noise pollution laws.

Wednesday 19^th May

Went to VSO, no power there so went to a shopping centre where I had French toast and jam, had a quick net session (where I send the temporary blog entry) then got a few bits in the supermarket. Next to the airport where I got my afternoon flight to Bahir Dar.

Thursday, 20^th May

I went in to Bahir Dar University with Judith (another VSO I am staying with) and did a bit of computer installing etc. In the afternoon Göran arrived from Gilgel, we chatted then went for a pizza.

Friday, 21^st May

In the morning had a last face-to-face chat with Göran before he went to the airport to go down to Addis (then Asossa to do more computer training etc, then home to Sweden for the summer before returning to Gilgel in August.) Later, I went for a walk around the Lake path, only being asked if I wanted a boat twice!

Saturday, 22^nd May

Packed and was picked up by the college car and returned back to Gilgel. It was an interesting trip as there was some very heavy rain for the last half of the journey. At one point it was like a river was crossing the road and we had to drive through it. Going down the side of the mountain range with no crash bars on the side of the road (just a drop-off) while the road was like a river was fun! When we went through Chagni, it was like a ghost town – no people on the streets and all the shops seemed to be closed in the wind and rain. Even the goats were squashed up against the shops trying to get some shelter. At one point, there was a few seconds of hail. I never thought I’d see ice coming from the sky here in Ethiopia.

At times I think of Gilgel as home, but when I got back in this strange humid, wet and overcast place, it seemed so different to when I left that it almost seemed a different place. I remember this happened last year when I went to Addis for a workshop and the rainy season got underway while I was gone.

There was electricity, but apparently the water has been off since last Sunday, so that is not good. I still have a bit saved from before I left, but I’m going to have to find a source on Monday. I am currently collecting rain water to flush the toilet.

Health

The bad news is I started another sore throat on Thursday which meant the start of another cold. I must’ve picked it up from one of the people in Addis at the beginning of the week. I don’t believe it – none for two years, then two come along at once. I was at the tail end of the first one and was on medicine to stop my irritating dry cough and now I have a new one. In fact on Friday morning and evening I was coughing (and sicking) up a lot of mucus. I was having flashbacks to the chest infection I had a few years ago.

Workshop in Addis (Part 1A)

2009-05-20T08:19:00.001+01:00

I'm in an Internet Cafe in Addis at the moment so do not have my
proper blog entry which is on my laptop. I will add that later.

Basically, the workshop was ok, I've eaten lots of sweets and
chocolate doughnuts, burgers, cheese sandwiches and french toast,
visited lots of malls and felt a bit like being back home (except for
all the beggars, the open sewers etc.)

Anyway, more when I can connect my laptop.

Workshop in Addis (part 1)

2009-05-17T14:00:00.002+01:00

** Thursday 14th May

Got the college car to Chagni arriving around 09:00. I knew I would
have to wait until the afternoon to make the next part of my journey
so I checked into a hotel and watched a movie on my laptop. (They
didn't charge me for the room, which was nice!)

The people taking me the rest of the way arrived early (at 12:00)
which was good. We ate lunch together then set off for Bahir Dar at
around 13:00. They are part of another NGO (WASH) who Göran has had
dealings with. The journey was smooth (well bumpy until Kosober and
the asphalt road) but we made it to Bahir Dar by 16:00.

Since then, I've had pizza, lots of peanut M&Ms, ran a short workshop
at the catholic school (continuing from the previous workshop we did a
month back) about how to use resources and active teaching with the
English department. It went well, and I think I might have convinced
them to spend a week looking at children's books and getting the older
students to actually write their own books to then be read to the
younger ones.

** Friday and Saturday 15th and 16th May

Pretty lazy really, lots of spriz-smoothies (Guava, papaya, mango and
avocado) and coffees and a short walk along the lake (fending off the
usual "do you want boat?" or "gimme money" etc)

** Sunday, 17th May

Flight had been made earlier, but it all went pretty smoothly and I
got to Addis Ababa around 13:00. After a short nap in the hotel I have
come to VSO programme office and after adjusting my proxy settings, I
am now writing this.

Tomorrow we have the leaver's workshop which, mostly, we are not
looking forward to. When I asked someone why we were going, they said,
well it's sort of like a funeral – you don't really want to go, but
you feel you ought to.

Tuesday I plan to have a look round Addis, Wednesday I fly back to
Bahir Dar at lunchtime and hopefully the college car will be able to
take me all the way back to Gilgel on Thursday or Friday.

Last Thursday, before I left, was the last time I would ever be in the
house with Göran. We will meet in Bahir Dar next week before I go back
to Gilgel, but then he is off to Asossa in the South to do more
computer training before he goes back to Sweden for the Summer. He
will return to Gilgel, but I will be back in the UK by then.

So, (and this is for Jorhan:) no more ancient sumera, greenhouse
effect, Oil etc etc!!!!)

Sign Language Lessons + training

2009-05-13T07:03:00.001+01:00

Had another sign language lesson on Monday for Jemal (who has total hearing loss) and his friends. It’s funny as I forget to speak and ran the whole session through gestures and signs (as I can’t speak Amharic) so it actually means all of the children are at the same level with me, including Jemal.

Here is a photo of them signing the first four letters in American Sign Language. It’s going well because the class teacher is practicing with them back at the school.

Also, my MS Office training on Friday went like this:

Of the 25 instructors due to come, 11 came. The session was due to run from 14:00 to 18:00. Three instructors were present at 14:00 and the rest dribbled in until the last one at 14:30. At 15:40 I was advised that half of them had to teach now, so they left, and I was left teaching five!

This is a pretty typical scenario in Ethiopia!

I now plan to put up a poster / tell the heads this kind of thing:

I am happy to teach you, but you have to sort yourselves out, organise the session yourselves and tell me when you want me to come.

Additional: There were little rat footprints in the dust on the table yesterday morning! The dust in the air has now cleared.

Dust "storm"

2009-05-11T08:40:00.002+01:00

Last night there was a strange smell in the air and the beam of the torch (there was no mains power) was very visible. This morning when I woke up, everything was orange. It was like a mist of dust everywhere. We actually made footprints in the house in the thin layer that had landed on the surfaces. I guess the dust has been sucked up from a desert area, maybe in the East of Ethiopia or Sudan and has now reached us and is suspended in the air.

At the weekend it was a local celebration linked to the local church, but which mostly consisted of two nights loud music, eating, drinking, singing and dancing until late. I went to one night, Göran managed to think of several excuses and managed to keep away from both nights!

Recorder Concert 2, training, cold and ants

2009-05-08T06:24:00.001+01:00

Yesterday my recorder groups played their second concert to their class. This time they played one tune each as a solo followed by some ensemble pieces. It went well.

Today I will be running a four hour training session for instructors here at the college on Microsoft Office and skills relating to good design / good practice when working with text and photos etc.

I’ve had a nasty cold for the last few days (got through a day’s wages on toilet paper to blow my nose!) – it’s the first one I’ve had since 2007 back in the UK – and I caught it from a ferengi – Göran!!)

On Wednesday night there was a large number of ants coming in from the outside and going into a pipe that comes from the roof gutter. I couldn’t work out what was attracting them so by using my camera and a torch I video'd up the pipe (it was too low to look into by eye) When I played back the video I saw a brownish mass covered in ants and it wasn’t until I freeze-framed it, I suddenly realised it was a donut about 2m into the pipe. Then it clicked. We have a rat in the house which regularly uses the pipe as an access and it obviously stole the donut, tried to get it along the pipe, got it stuck, and later the ants found it. I have also had a number potatoes go missing over the last few weeks and it took me a while to notice – it was the rat again.

Latest Update from Gilgel

2009-05-01T07:20:00.001+01:00

On Monday, I started session with boy with hearing impairment and his friends, teaching them the signs for numbers and A to E. The teacher was present and will continue to practise with them until next week.

Recorders and Maths lessons are continuing. We plan to do a recorder “concert” to the class next week.

Wednesday we did our last “active teaching” workshop to the “civics” second year students at the college. This means all 200 students have now received the training. (In every session at least one or two drew a 9cm line when asked to draw a 10cm one (they started at 1cm on the ruler instead of 0cm – this is down to them going right through the education system without using a ruler.))

It seems like the rainy season has started. We’ve had a couple of overcast days with some rain. This was preceded by some really hot days (when it was still 32°C when you go to bed in the evening.)

The electricity and water seem much more stable at the moment which is good (1 day off every four.)

I had another scorpion in my room last night – not as bad as someone in the village who recently woke in the night with one on his stomach – I’m glad I have a net tucked in over my bed.

Went to a wedding reception on Sunday and ate… Injera and spicey wat!!

It’s only about two months until I return to the UK. I have a leavers’ workshop in Addis Ababa in a few weeks – I will go via Bahir Dar and flying down.

Fasika (Ethiopian Orthodox Easter)

2009-04-20T07:28:00.002+01:00

One week after the ferengi Easter, we had Easter here. The locals all seen very happy. I’m not sure if it’s because Jesus was resurrected, or because after 60 days of fasting, they can now eat meat again. There were a lot of nervous sheep, goats and chickens yesterday!!!

I had lunch at my neighbours – the children were wearing Easter outfits that are a blend of traditional and modern. Mum had sent out a box of miscellaneous Lego pieces and they enjoyed making cars etc.

Then it was on to another house on the campus to be hand-fed sheep meat, then later to a house in the town currently occupied by another Swede working with an NGO working in the water supply business. First Göran fixed his electricity supply (second one in two days – that’s the trouble when you used to be an electrician,) then we had rice and chicken in a nice sauce.

It’s been really hot again in the last couple of days. After a brief rain shower tonight I felt chilly air coming in the window. The temperature of the air according to my thermometer was 26°C. I don’t think anyone in the UK would regard 26°C as chilly, but being as our lounge has been up to 36-37°C this afternoon, it’s quite a lot cooler for us.

People will slowly return to work this week from spending Easter with their families, but if it’s anything like last year, nothing much will happen until next week.

Latest Project: Boy with hearing impairment

2009-04-15T15:44:00.001+01:00

Before we went to Bahir Dar, a first grade teacher at the local primary school asked if I could help with a boy he had in the class with a hearing impairment.

He is 12 years old and completely lost his hearing due to an illness when he was 7 years old.

I met him today and he seems quite bright and has some lip-reading ability. He can count and relate numbers of objects to digits. He can copy Latin/Roman letters and fidel (Amharic writing) but does not know the alphabet and cannot read. (Remember, even though he is 12, he has only just started school so is in Grade 1 where most of the class are at the alphabet learning / number learning stage.)

I found it quite easy communicating with him as I am now very used to communicating with children who do not understand English. I use lots of actions and gestures as it is with children who only understand Amharic, so it actually wasn’t that different communicating with someone who can’t hear.

I also met his father and we agreed to work on some flash cards and a mat for his desk with some key words (in Amharic, pictorial form and English.)

Today, I managed to find the American Sign Language alphabet (one handed) on the net (it is possible sometimes!) and over about 30 minutes taught myself, so I can teach him and some of his friends now.

I’m not sure if there is a fidel sign language system – I have sent out some emails to find out. I would really like to help him, but my main problem is I have very limited Amharic and I could help much more if I was teaching English.

I think it’s really good that he is in a mainstream school but it will become more difficult if the teachers have no training and there is no support for him.

Anyway, together with a couple of teachers working with me and my neighbour’s son, I will work out a program to see what we can do to help.

Recent occurrences of 37.

2009-04-13T15:45:00.001+01:00

After the power cut tonight, I switched on my computer to find 37% battery power remaining.

I have a tin containing 10’s and 1 birr notes. I counted the 1s to find I had 37 of them.

When in Bahir Dar, I had some photos printed for my neighbour. One big one at 25 birr, and 4 small at 3 birr. The bill: 37 birr.

Training visit to Bahir Dar

2009-04-10T06:57:00.001+01:00

As part of the training for my small group of guys from the woredas, I took all four of them to Bahir Dar for a quick trip over the last three days.

The main highlights were:

Two of them frightened to use a ferengi shintabet (western toilet) and having to go to a hotel with a hole-in-the-ground-style one to complete their business.
Visiting the ELIP (English Language Improvement Centre) at Bahir Dar University where some other volunteers are working, to allow the guys to do some research.
Having pizza at one of the many “Obama” restaurants that have sprung up recently!!!!
Seeing two overturned trucks on the roads on the way (and two days later, still there on the way back.)
Suddenly finding out that the college car that was due to take us back after we had gone halfway in the minibus, had broken down 50km away and we had to get a bus – something I’ve previously mentioned as being pretty horrific – coupled with the fact that at first we were told there had been no buses today and only by chance did one come, which the guys managed to scramble and push on to, to reserve us seats.

Training at the Private Catholic School

One of the main reasons we went, was to do our training at a private catholic school on the outskirts of Bahir Dar which had contacted the VSO people at the uni.

It was a very busy day. We were collected before 8am and spent the morning looking at the resources and observing lessons – this would feed into our training in the afternoon.

The school has around 350 paying students from Kindergarten to Grade 8 with an additional 150 from the surrounding community who have free sponsored places.

The guys with me were a little overwhelmed by all the resources: the brick-built buildings, the large, well-stocked library etc, but as soon as we started observing the lessons, we realised the teaching was not so good. In fact, in some classes we observed, the classroom management was much worse than in the mud and stick government schools back in our area. I was really pleased in a way, because it proved a point I had been making with the guys which is: “Money and resources are of very little importance to student’s learning. It is the teacher and the methodology that is important.”* So much time was wasted by the students not doing any work. Some able students finished the work on the board quickly and had nothing to do, others didn’t understand and just copied the questions, others queued in a long line for the teacher to mark their books etc. There was one boy crawling under the desks, a girl was hitting another on the head with a pencil. In another class the usual “copy all the questions so it looks like I am working, but actually I don’t have to think” was observed being used by many students.

Anyway, in the afternoon, all five of us took turns doing the training on active teaching/learning and introducing number fans. I just did small parts and the rest was performed in Amharic by my “trainees” who did a really good job, were expressive and really got the whole “active method” idea while they were training. This is what VSO is all about. I’ve passed on my knowledge to local people and have stepped back to allow them to take over and do the job at hand.

The training was received very well – comments like (and I’ve put it into my own words here), “we’ve had training before but it’s not been relevant and has had no impact, but this training has really hit a chord with the teachers who have found it very useful.” The “sister” said she will start getting the teachers to use number fans tomorrow.

We ended the day by discussing some of the observed problems (in a general way) with the head, deputy and sister who really seemed to take everything on board, so hopefully we have had a big impact. I should be able to make a return visit in about six weeks and see if there are any changes.

*a recent VSO-conducted survey of teachers in a different locations in the country found that they mentioned “lack of resources” as the major concern and reason why the teaching wasn’t so good and if they had more money and resources it would be better. It’s pretty much the standard psychological “externalising their problems” thing (they think that if it goes well, it is because of themselves, if there are problems then it’s due to something outside and beyond their control (and in this instance is because the schools have no money and no resources.))

I wish more Ethiopian teachers could have the experience my guys have had over the last few weeks – firstly having success teaching maths actively and student-led with nothing more than bits of card and bottle tops, and then seeing a “rich” school where the children are not learning very effectively because of “bad” teaching.

VSO, CPD and other acronyms

2009-04-03T06:24:00.001+01:00

I had a visit from my VSO program manager today. It went well and he visited the recorder and maths lessons, although there were only three students in the maths lesson – we found out this was because a young girl had been shot last night and the school had been closed in the morning. We discussed my work and future plans for the college and any future VSO volunteers.

Before that, the two woreda reps and I had visited some of the schools to check on the CPD programme progress. Some schools find it very hard to start and they make all sorts of excuses as to why they hadn’t when we get there. You know they’re stalling when you ask the first question “which session are you at” and they mention a page number in the book because they say they are not sure - A low page number that I know is round about the first session!

I made a really bad decision at one school, mainly because I was getting bored. One head was moaning that they needed note books (4ETB each – about 20p) to keep a record of the work they do on the CPD program for career development and in a moment of weakness (and to make them shut up about the books) I gave them 50ETB to buy a book each for the teachers on the promise they get a receipt so I can get the money back from the college.

The repercussions could be enormous – every school in the region asking every ferengi for money to buy books… we’ll see. At least I didn’t just say it was from me, and that I would get the money back from the college when I get the receipt from them.

It’s now less than 100 days until I return home and next week I will have been in Ethiopia for a total of 500 days.

Photo update

2009-03-27T05:32:00.001Z

Here are some photos to go with some earlier entries:

The new recorder group.

The maths group (notice me and the three woreda reps in the background – can you find the twins?)

One of the woreda reps teaching using bottle tops as teaching aids. The card represents 10 “corkie” or bottle tops. Can you see the children looking in the window? – can you imagine in England children staying behind to watch a maths lesson through a window? Also, some of these children are so enthusiastic, they arrive two hours early!!!

Break in!

2009-03-25T05:16:00.001Z

When we got back from lunch on Monday, we started noticing a few odd things: First Göran noticed there was half a banana in the fridge. Then we started noticing more things: There was orange powder on the table and on the floor; two glasses were dirty that I knew I hadn’t used; the tap on my water filter was at a funny angle; there were dirty finger prints on the fridge door; one of the snickers we had in the fridge had been eaten and the wrapper had been hidden behind other bars; Göran’s bar of chocolate had been eaten and the rest replaced; two of my “laughing cow” cheeses had been nibbled.

Anyway, we knew it was either a very large, intelligent rat that can open screw-top jars and use water filters, or someone had been in the house. There was a birr note left on the table and nothing of any value had been touched so we suspected children, not any kind of organised burglary outfit.

The mystery was solved pretty quickly when we asked the neighbours if they had seen anything, and one of the boys said his brother and another boy (both around 4 years old) had been in and had a little feast. It’s the parents’ reaction that is so different here: At first they laughed and said it is cultural to go into people’s houses. I followed this with, what and help themselves to things in their fridges and leave a mess? They said, no, and they apologised.

This is like a previous occasion when someone’s son of about two years old threw stones at me, and the father just looked on and laughed.

Later both sets of parents apologised and as the boys were only four, we’re not too bothered. It’s good to know who it was.

The problem had been caused by a series of errors leading to the back door being left unlocked. I always lock the back door every time I use it, but Göran does not – he checks it before he goes out. I knew I had locked it the night before and when I took the key out in the morning to give to the cleaner I didn’t check it first. Anyway, it turns out Göran had been out the back first thing in the morning and not locked the door, and when he went out of the house later, he checked the door (which is stiff) and assumed it was locked. Also, the cleaner didn’t come like she was supposed to, and if she had, she would’ve been in the house and the boys wouldn’t have come in. It’s like an over complicated butterfly effect.

Anyway, problem sorted and it did make another, hopefully interesting, blog entry!!!

Electricity

This is driving us mad. Apart from being off for extended periods, as I mentioned in a previous entry, it is now going off for short (minute or so) bursts, maybe once an hour, or maybe every 15 minutes. If anyone is watching Ethiopia from a satellite, it must look like a lighthouse!!! (And the mobile phone network is off, the internet didn’t connect this morning and the water if off!)

Workshops for college students and other news

2009-03-19T05:14:00.001Z

It’s all go at the moment. I suddenly got involved in running a series of workshops for the trainee teacher college students. I had been planning to do it, I just didn’t know when and then all of a sudden I got the chance.

On Wednesday, I had around 40 chemistry students and spent three hours demonstrating and explaining active teaching methodology with examples and use of number fans. I then moved on to classroom displays and teaching aids. They all seemed to enjoy it – I managed to get quite a few laughs in, especially the “draw a horse in one minute” task to show them that sometimes an iconistic picture is enough and there is no point wasting time drawing photographically accurate pictures.

The students all got to use rulers and, like last year, I caught a few starting measuring from 1cm instead of 0. It seems really funny that in this part of the training I am teaching 18-20 year olds the same lesson I give my 8 year olds back in the UK. Of course, some of these 18-20 year olds have never really had the chance to use a ruler – certainly not in primary school.

Another big laugh came from a number fans demo when the students have to select a picture from the 0 – 9 board. There were pictures I had drawn like “Mr Men” for different sizes, colours and shapes, so for example I would ask “Which one is the big, red, square.”

Well this time I asked “Which one is Dibaba? (the college Dean.) It’s really great when you can tap into humour when the people you are talking to have English as a second, or third language.

Now, as part of Negessa and Aberham’s training (The guys sent from the remote woredas to work with me for two months), they will be giving the training to two more groups of students on Thursday and Friday.

Recorders

Recorder groups continue, including the group where two of my students are teaching a new group. This gives me yet another insight into teaching. I can watch people who are not trained teachers trying their ideas of teaching. Last week they were a little nervous but the main thing I noticed was that they were forgetting that what they know, their students do not know.

Home Alone

Göran is away for the week following up his training in college last week (training that, due to some guy in an office 700km away translating the time, the duration and the number of attendees wrong nearly didn’t happen!) He will be helping people from different woredas get their computers up and running (themselves hopefully!)

Rain

We’ve had the old spot of rain over the last couple of weeks, but over the last couple of days we have had sudden periods of very strong wind and on Wednesday, this was followed by moderate rain. This is quite a bit different to the pattern of weather last year. The up-side is low temperatures, the downside is increased humidity and mud!!!

Electricity

The power situation has been pretty bad recently. So far, in the 18 days of March we have had long blackouts on 12 of those days.

Creatures

I found a small scorpion in my room on Wednesday morning and in the evening I kept hearing a knocking on my door. It turned out to be a frog jumping towards it, maybe thinking it was a large hole.

Mini tornado. fire and recorders

2009-03-13T12:15:00.002Z

On Sunday night there was a mini-tornado. At first I thought it was another weather-front gust, but very strong. Big clumps of straw from our roof fell into the centre of our house and lots of debris was blowing around outside. A few minutes later the power failed and apart from a brief hour on Monday, it remained off until Wednesday night. On Tuesday afternoon I found out why the power was still off: Power poles all along the “high-street” were down – they were just snapped off at the base. The wind caused a domino effect I think.

It wasn’t a dust devil as these occur during the day, are caused by heated air rising from the ground and only last a few seconds. The wind we had was in the evening and must’ve persisted quite a while to travel to town and do the damage after it left us, so I guess it must’ve been a tornado – albeit a small one.

A side-effect of no power, is no water (as it relies on electricity at the pumping end.) On Wednesday, the college arranged a delivery of two Jerry cans, but me and Göran couldn’t help laughing when we emptied them into a bucket – they contained big globs of oil (the Jerry Cans originally held cooking oil), and the only thing the water was any good for was flushing the toilet.

On Thursday morning the water was back – hooray, but Thursday night the power is off again!

Recorders

In other news, I have had an interesting week with the recorder players – the same kind of thing that I would get in the UK, based on the players that are not so good being jealous of the best one (who also happens to be a girl) and the one I have chosen to teach others. I think it is now mostly sorted, by re-arranging groups, and by using the translation help of one of the guys from the woreda who is with me. I am getting on really well with him and he is really good both with translating, and with active teaching in general. He seems to have a good teaching style even with younger children (he usually teaches older students.)

On Thursday, the students began their first lesson teaching younger children. It went quite well although they tried to move too fast, forgetting that what they know, the students do not yet know and need repetition. Still, not at all bad for a first teaching session for them.

Fire

On Wednesday the sun was a weird orangey colour due to huge amounts of smoke in the air and in the evening, just before I went to bed I saw fire on the hill near where I live and the sky was yellow with fire in the distance. I woke up around 1am and could hear the crackling of the fire. When I looked out of the window, I saw a long line of fire in the distance, maybe 500m away from the house. This also happened last year. The farmers, I think, burn the stubble from the fields before ploughing, but whether by accident or plan the fire usually spreads over huge areas. Luckily it never made it to the house. Lots of the area around the campus has been pre-burned in a controlled way to stop these wild fires doing any damage.

Heat

2009-03-09T06:38:00.002Z

It’s amazing the temperature here. As I write this at 6pm the outside temperature is 35°C – and that’s after it’s been mostly overcast all afternoon. So far, my data logger has registered 39°C as the maximum temperature in the shade and that was about a week ago. The average temperature (averaged over the whole 24 hours – so includes night temperature) went from a low of 21°C in December to around 29°C at the moment. So to restate that: the average temperature, including the overnight lows is around 29°C.

Last night was interesting. At around 2000, there was a very strong wind (which is rare here) and the temperature shot up about 3°C to around 35°C. I guess it was a weather front, but to stand outside at night and be blasted by almost body temperature gusts is very strange. Also strange, and something that makes you realise how hot it actually is, is when you touch things at the moment: they are warm to the touch. Maybe in the UK, if something has been in the sun, you expect it to feel warm of hot, but when you touch the door handle here which has been in the shade all day and it feels hot, or a mug which feels like it’s come out of the dish washer, it is very weird.

I have adapted quite well. I notice I am sweating, but I’m not really aware of how hot the air is, that’s why it comes as a surprise when all the surfaces and objects are hot.

I’m glad I have access to a fridge this year (when the power is on!)

Doing some good!

2009-03-06T05:01:00.001Z

It seems to be working well with the two Woreda guys. They have seen me teach actively and I have got them to teach some lessons to younger children in the local school and given them feedback. I have also been teaching them some computer skills.

My favourite project at the moment, started this week is twice weekly sessions for ten grade 2 students (about 8 or 9 years old) who are less able at maths. I have been teaching them, with the help of translation from the guys, and also the class teacher is in watching. At first we checked their basic skills and have had to go right back to one digit addition. I have introduced using bottle tops as counters and also number lines to help them count-on. I realise how much I enjoy teaching, and this is good all round as it is part of the training for the two guys, training for the class teacher and is also helping the ten children.

I also, within the week, will have one of my recorder players starting to teach younger children. Hopefully this will continue next year, when I am gone.

Sometimes I get a praying mantis sitting on the netting covering my window and a couple of times in the morning a bird has suddenly flown up and eaten the mantis straight off the net. Last night was a first: I was just sitting there watching a movie on my laptop and knew another mantis was on the net when suddenly something flew up and did the same thing. This time it wasn’t a bird… it was a bat.

Actually Sharing Skills!

2009-02-24T05:38:00.002Z

Good news:

Two people from two of the Woreda’s (small regions) have arrived in Gilgel and over the next few months I will actually be sharing my skills with them. Then they will return to their Woreda’s and pass on the information, including starting the CPD Programme in their areas.

I began training them today with introduction to Number Fans and active teaching methods. Later this week I will get them into the schools practising some active teaching themselves.

What with the conference a few weeks back, it really seems like I am beginning to spread my knowledge much further – things are looking up (at the moment!)

Training, the bad and the good.

2009-02-20T05:29:00.002Z

I used to think that the problems I had with training were quite interesting as they would make a good blog entry. Now I’m getting bored. On Tuesday, the 8:00 (local time) car was not in sight – we finally left at 08:25 after the driver was tracked down. Arriving at the school where we had training organised by one of the Vice Deans there were no teachers – one lot were “too busy” and the other lot claimed they had not been told.

Sometimes you get very close to giving up. This came on top of my counterpart, who I had arranged to accompany me from the college to the local school at 3:00 (local) ringing me from the school at 4:00 (wrong place and wrong time.) We doubled checked tomorrow’s training (as much good as that will do).

The latest problem with the CPD course at the local school is that they want certificates but also are getting the facilitators to falsify attendance at the training. I tried to explain that if we just give out certificates to teachers whether they attend / participate / do the work or not then all the certificates are, are pieces of paper.

On Wednesday, over the day we did successfully manage to train the two shifts of teachers (it’s a big school and half the students and teachers come in the morning, and half in the afternoon). They seemed much keener than teachers in other schools, so there is hope for this seventh school we have trained. During the time between training sessions, I had lunch at someone’s friend’s house. They pay 100ETB per month rent (£5.) The walls (which are mud-based) are covered in newspapers and old product packets cut open and stuck there.

Thursday was also successful. We again performed training to a two-shift school – the largest in our cluster with 50 teachers and around 3000 students. It all went well and they do seem interested.

We have one more training session next week to two smaller schools together and then the task I started about one year ago (when I first knew about the CPD course) will be fully in action in all ten schools of the cluster. Our next task is to monitor the progress in all the schools.

Training update and other news

2009-02-13T06:09:00.001Z

The CPD manuals are printed, the training is booked for next week, so (at the moment) all looks on track to get the last four schools started down the path!

Recorder group went well yesterday, I was getting them to score music from my playing.

Also, I have heard that representatives from the different woredas (small regions) will be coming here to spend the next four months learning from me, so that when I leave they can go back to their respective woredas and begin training and introducing the CPD Programme there. I’ll believe it when I see it. They were supposed to arrive on Monday… It’s Friday – but excellent news and a good finish to my time here if/when it happens.

I weather had cooled slightly, but in a couple of months it will be over 40!

Rain! (and CPD Booklets, the ever continuing story)

2009-02-12T05:51:00.004Z

Like round about this time last year, we had a few spots of rain on Monday night. It really was a short few plops, but the last rain we had in Gilgel was on 18^th November, so it was quite an event! Maybe it will trigger a few insects to invade!

I did my talk to another 200ish teachers on Monday. It went without a hitch (except for a faulty power adapter that was quick to fix), and the teachers all seemed enthusiastic about using number fans and some of the other ideas.

Next on my schedule is to introduce the CPD course to the remaining four schools in our cluster.

Additional (written two days later)

The day after the rain was pretty horrible, weather-wise. It felt much hotter than before. My logger shows that the average temperature over the 24 hours after the rain was 3-4°C hotter than the running average for the last few weeks, and the maximum temperature in the shade hit an all time high of 36°C at around 14:30 in the afternoon. (How’s the snow in the UK?)

Checking up on my CPD manuals that one of the vice deans had promised to re-print (as he sold* lots of my other stock about two months ago.) The print-room guy had stopped because he was out of toner and master sheets.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong but in the UK, if someone is in-charge of the print room, they firstly make sure there is spare toner and other printing related consumables. Also, should the said UK print-room person run out of the aforementioned supplies, he would arrange for replacements PDQ.

Not here in Ethiopia. It’s like: “I’ve run out of toner. FULL STOP.”

I’m already dangerously close to not having enough time for the schools to do the CPD course before the summer vacation because it takes 15 weeks and I have had so many delays with printing, bureaucracy, fuel shortages etc that we are about one week away from that deadline.

I have been promised that the new manuals will be finished ready for the introduction of the course which we plan to do in the four remaining schools next week. (Yeah, like that’ll happen. Why didn’t I realise when I said ok to the Vice Dean to sell them two months ago that the manuals would not be replaced.)

Well, as ever, I’ll believe it when I see it!

* it's OK, the CCU did get the money for them.

Comment on the Situation in the Developing World

2009-02-12T05:51:00.003Z

This is like a mixture of my own opinion, but extended to an extreme to get you to think and comment about it. I have no accurate facts to back it up, and have no other experience than what I have seen in this small corner of Ethiopia. Even so, I’d be interested in what you think.

You know, I think the trouble out here, and the difference between the developing world and the developed world is that it took hundreds of years for the UK (for example) to sort out offices, bureaucracy, technology, filing, meetings, punctuality, deadlines etc until it was in the reasonable state it is in now. Out here in Ethiopia they are being given computers and foreign ways of working to use, but there is no underlying cultural discipline. There is no support network for the offices, electricity, the water, the mobile phones, the computers. No-one has the skill – it hasn’t developed in the culture over generations, it has been imposed. (A bit like the “they haven’t earned the knowledge” speech by Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park.)

This is why I believe in the whole VSO “sharing skills” idea. Although not perfect by any means, we do need to spend more time getting the underlying principles and ideas and technically skilled people in place here before we start dumping “tax-break” computer systems on the country – computers that, without support become riddled with viruses, break down and are either sitting there useless, or being used to listen to music and play patience. They never seem to be used for anything more than typing Word documents, often re-typing the same memo each time. You might as well use the money to provide more paper and pens to school kids and stick with manual typewriters! (A side issue here is: why do I read about schools in the UK sending paper and pencils to Africa. There are thousands of exercise books and pencils in the shops here in Gilgel costing significantly less than the ones purchased and sent at great expense (and oil) half way across the world! I’m sure this is true all over Africa.)

I also wonder if most of the people here are better or worse off with this interference from outside: Some of the Gumuz people around here (for example) living in their mud, wood and straw houses, growing crops, having families, selling things at the market seem a lot happier than the instructors in the college writing up Chemistry equations on boards for students to copy and ultimately never use in practice because there is no money, no labs and no jobs in that field, all longing to go to ‘The West’ having seen the idealised version on the television. Would it be better if they didn’t know what it was like in ‘The West’?

And the population: I think the population in Ethiopia has doubled in about 30 years. Huge areas have been deforested for fuel and shelter and it is getting continually worse. Any kind of natural control (for that read disease and famine) has been bypassed with medical help and foreign aid, but again, without any underlying cultural change that ‘The West’ was forced to develop a hundred years ago (birth control in particular) and relative population stability – are we making it worse with our “help”?

I think it is possible that all ‘The West’ has done, is changed a country that had a relatively stable population (but admittedly with high infant mortality and low life expectancy) to an ever increasing population that is very close to using up its natural resources and food growing potential. Instead of a million people dying a year, in a few years it may be tens of millions.

Well this all seems very negative, but like I said at the beginning, this is more like a “discussion” document than my opinion, but we really do need to think about what we are doing when we send a box of toys or clothes out to Africa to get rid of that niggling guilt about our fellow humans. But we also need to think, are we doing the best thing? Humans evolved to live in small groups and for tens of thousands of years lived off the land. We seem a heck of a lot more stressed in the “modern” world and are becoming less and less fit. Most people I see in Ethiopia are thin and strong and have a pretty good immune system, because anyone who wasn’t strong when they were young, died. Natural selection continues here. In the UK all sorts of people are surviving who shouldn’t. For the first time in the history of life on Earth we are weakening the gene pool – it’s not survival of the fittest – it’s survival of the richest. I for one would not have got that far a couple of hundred years ago. I would certainly be unable to hunt with my eyesight and probably not even be able to find berries!

Anyway, I seem to have drifted into several different issues, so I’d better stop now.

You can leave comments on here (they will be checked before they are published in the blog) or email me.

Biggest training session ever!

2009-02-09T08:13:00.001Z

On Sunday evening I held my biggest training session ever to between 300 and 400 teachers in the auditorium at the college. Last week I checked the microphone and amplifier (a bit of re-wiring needed!) and got a Powerpoint presentation ready. It was a combined talk about using number fans, the CPD programme and my new “Quick and Easy Active Learning Methods” guide.

Anyway, it was a little dicey when the power went out for a few minutes before I set off out of the house, and a couple more times while I was setting up in the auditorium. I also had a few problems with screen settings on the computer etc (primary / secondary display) There were know problems with the projector not showing red + the microphone could not be moved or it crackled, but I ended up standing for the presentation - but still - so not very dynamic!

The teachers started coming in – I had some music videos playing (including “Listen to the Voices” sung by my old school choir from a few years back) and then the power went again. We had a guy on standby for the generator, but luckily the power came back and stayed on the whole hour of my talk.

The talk pretty much went without a hitch. All the photos appeared when they should, all the video clips played etc. I used number fans (300-400) with all the teachers – the biggest simultaneous use of number fans I (and probably anyone) has ever done (you can’t say these trainees weren’t active)! I made some jokes about teachers giving wrong answers to simple questions and they laughed (cross-culture, second language humour is always difficult so a couple of laughs was pretty good). I also slowed myself right down and pretty… much… separated… every… word… I… spoke… so at least some of them would understand.

Afterwards two Vice Deans (including my line manager) told me it was very good and they were impressed and the teachers were all clamouring for my guide (one of the same Vice Deans had only let my produce enough for one per school!!!!)

So, all-in-all a pretty successful day, “Sharing Skills” with so many in one go can’t be bad. And my potential – maybe – next year counterpart was there and I said “You’ll be doing this next year.”

Now I have another 200-odd teachers on Monday for the same again!!!!

Quick and Easy Active learning

2009-02-05T07:18:00.001Z

I have finished my guide with some simple ideas to make lessons more active. It incorporates some of my sketches of example lessons, and I also got it translated into Amharic and am having a bilingual version printed.

I will be giving out copies when I do a presentation to two groups of potentially 500 teachers next Monday.

Next week should also see the continuation of getting the CPD course into the remaining four schools in our “patch”.

More news next week.

Dates and Stats

2009-02-02T05:55:00.001Z

Dates

On Jan 26^th it was the latest sunrise here in Gilgel at 06:59. This means, that from now on the sun will be rising earlier, giving it time to heat us up more quickly to reach the peak at the end of March where I measured inside temperatures last year in the upper 30s.

6^th Feb is the halfway point of my second stay in Ethiopia. I’ve been here the second time for around 5 months and have 5 months remaining.

7^th Feb I will have been in Gilgel Beles for 1 calendar year (365 days.) At that point I will have been in Ethiopia for 438 days in total.

Temperature

Using the data I have recorded since I set my data logger up outside on 19/10/2008:

The hottest shade temperature was 34.5°C on 9 Jan.

The coldest temperature was 10°C on both 17 & 18 December 2008.

The overall average temperature (24 hours so that includes and average of day and night temperatures) = 23.3°C

This average temperature has been fairly constant, but it is the range of temperature that has increased. At the start the range was around 16°C to 30°C (14°C). By the end of January the temperature was changing over a day from 12°C to 33°C (21°C change) This is linked to the decrease in humidity after the end of the wet season (less water in the atmosphere to hold the heat during the night and heat up during the day). During the measuring period the average daily relative humidity has dropped from 80% at the end of October to 40% at the end of January.

Power

Sometimes here, there are short power cuts of a few minutes, and sometimes they have happened while I have been asleep or away from the house, but otherwise, I have been making a note power cuts.

Statistics for January 2009:

Of the 31 days in January there were 10 days with long power cuts.

8 started around 1830-1900. 7 finished around 2100-2200

The average length of a power cut is 2h30m during an evening although on Sunday 18^th Jan, the power went off from 10:30 to 16:50 and then again from 18:50-21:20.

Apparently these cuts are due to insufficient generation capacity. The hydro-electric generators cannot supply enough electricity to meet the country’s demand. (I also heard rumours that they sell electricity to neighbouring countries rather than supply their own population completely – but this is just a rumour.) The solution is to “ration” the electricity and switch off different regions on different days. If the pattern follows last year, it will get worse during the dry season as they have to slow down production or they will drain the dams and lakes. In this period the power usually is off for a whole day, every other day, or sometimes worse.

! ! ! Warning, more political, philosophical, ethical discussion ! ! !

2009-01-30T14:27:00.002Z

We have been having discussions in our house about global issues that concern all of us, and thinking about why most people don’t do anything about them.

Scientific evidence clearly shows that global warming is happening (even if the media tries to water it down.) It shows that the temperature of the planet is rising dramatically, due to the (mostly oil-caused) green-house gasses. This will cause droughts, floods, sea-level rises, dramatic cooling of some areas while others become much hotter. It is now at a stage that this outcome is inevitable and it means that millions if not billions of the population will die in the next hundred years as a result of these changes.

Oil will run out in around 30 years. Pollution and waste is increasing. Animals are becoming extinct.

Why don’t people seem to care?

My contention is that our biological make-up causes most of us to behave in these ways:

Our main concern is living in the present: where are we going to get our next meal from? How are we going to get the most pleasure in the next couple of hours – eating? playing computer games? going for a walk? reading? We don’t really care about what happens to us in a couple of years, let alone what happens to everyone else when we are dead. (e.g. smoking, over-eating etc – it’s all about the pleasure now, rather than problems you might get later.)

To allow the survival of as many of our genes as possible, we are programmed to protect our children first, followed by ourselves, then close family (who share some of our genes), then relatives. There is also some concern for our small local social group of friends, but outside of that there is not much concern. For example, if you had fallen down a cliff with two people and had one hand free to rescue someone, you’re going to rescue your son over a friend who has no genetic connection.

If your child is ill, you are most concerned, if it is a friend or a relative, you show concern, but ultimately it doesn’t matter too much to you. If 1000 people die in the developing world of an outbreak of cholera you hardly even bat an eyelid.

I’m not saying we’re all “bad” it’s just the way we have evolved to take care of ourselves and close social group and also to do this using a range of short term solutions. Even government’s primary goals are only looking a few years into the future, mostly designed to get them re-elected. We are not designed, as a race, to care for our planet.

My prediction for the future:

We tend to be reactive rather than preventative – seat belts get fitted to school buses after one crashes killing children, river defences get built after an area has flooded, people get burglar alarms after they have been burgled.

I think this is what will happen with global warming. When coastal towns and cities start getting inundated with water as the ocean’s rise, the government will start to react as the people will want solutions and elect governments that do something about it. Of course by then it’s going to be a bit late and it will take hundred’s of years for the carbon dioxide to return to a reasonable level.

Also, the world is overpopulated. Maybe global warming is the Earth’s way of thinning us out a bit. Maybe some people think it is a good idea to let global warming continue and kill off a few billion (mostly developing world population as they will be most effected by the changes due to desertification, flooding – Bangladesh etc.)

Humans really are like viruses (as mentioned by Agent Smith in “The Matrix”) we consume all the resources in one area then expand and consume more in other areas until the entire planet has been taken over and laid to waste by humans. When a virus consumes all the resources in a person, they die. Will the same happen to the planet?

- Normal service will be resumed in the next blog entry (power cuts, no water, toilet troubles etc) -

Explotation of the developing world

2009-01-28T06:08:00.002Z

Gold

I’ve been reading an article in the latest edition of “National Geographic” on Gold and how the environment is being ruined to extract it. In some places it needs 250 tons of rock to be removed to obtain 1 ounce of gold (yes that’s tons – the gold is only there in tiny traces.) The waste is dumped, covering massive areas of rain forest. The mines themselves are vast holes in the ground and there is also a problem with the chemical waste used in the extraction of the gold from the rocks.

Diamonds

I have also just watched “Blood Diamond” about the “conflict diamonds” in Africa – diamonds that are fought over and sold to pay for weapons. It’s a dramatisation but based on some real events.

In both these instances governments and rebel groups fight over the money that can be obtained from these items (often used to pay for weapons), people work in dangerous conditions and are very poorly paid or are forced to work in mines or search for these items.

Oil

To complete the trio, last week I watched a film called “Crude Impact” about the horrors of oil. It seems that so-called developed world (in particular the U.S.A.) will stop at nothing to keep the oil flowing. In recent times they invaded Iraq under the “weapon’s of mass destruction” - guise, but many believe the real goal was to secure the oil supply.

There is evidence of the U.S. interfering with other governments (supporting current government’s suppression of the people – see Saudi Arabia) or funding and providing weapons to rebel groups to aid in over-throwing governments that don’t want to play.

Also, “developed world” oil companies seem to have less concern for the environment, waste and health and safety in the developing world when they are extracting oil from there rather than their home countries, for some reason…

Conclusion

Maybe it’s a good job Ethiopia doesn’t have any natural resources. I guess poor and peaceful is better than rich with others exploiting you and fighting over you.

(If Jorhan (probably spelt in some weird Swedish way) is reading this, I wonder if he knows who’s been talking to me!)

The continuing story of CPD and walks and counterparts

2009-01-26T06:00:00.001Z

I managed to introduce the CPD course to two more schools of teachers last week, which means I’ve now covered 6 of the 10 schools. It’s the “end of semester” break here this week, so the last four schools are on hold. We will also need to check that the schools it has been introduced to have actually started the course.

I suddenly found out on Friday that all the teachers from the zone will be coming to the college in a couple of weeks and I can do a presentation on active learning to them (all 500 of them!!! – should be fun.)

I also found out that due to mainly bureaucratic reasons, the local government office absolutely will not release the teacher who was going to be my counterpart – so with 5 months to go, I still haven’t got a counterpart.

Walks

I went on my favourite 18km walk on Saturday (3 litres of water, 6 hour trip) to the place where two rivers join, there are some fascinating rocks and a beautiful valley leading up to a 10m high waterfall.

Last Sunday I went on the same walk I took when I’d just got back here in September, when the rainy season was still going. I matched some photos I took then to compare vegetation, river level etc. Hopefully two of the shots are included in this entry. I took all the photos and made them into a video slideshow to music – matching the beat and pace of the music.

Recorder concert

2009-01-16T06:05:00.000Z

Yesterday was the first performance of my recorder groups. They performed to their class (of about 50 students) and their teacher and it went really well. They played about 10 tunes including nursery rhymes, blues, waltzes and more. I joined them for one tune, a kind of Spanish tango, but they played the rest on their own.

CPD Programme, latest developments

2009-01-16T05:18:00.002Z

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will be aware of the trouble I have had starting the CPD (Continuing Professional Development) course in the ten schools of our cluster. First, last year, it was not having the Amharic translation, not being able to get enough paper, the print machine being broken etc etc. Then on my return to Ethiopia, it was not having a counterpart as promised, problems with paper, toner, master sheets, the print-room guy wanting extra money for printing (on top of his salary) etc etc. Then when we were finally ready to go, and introduced it to the two nearest schools we used as a test, they rebelled and wanted paying for doing the training, even though, as in the UK, you are expected to do a certain amount of in-service training as a teaching professional. This we finally solved through a lot of long meetings with zonal (big area) and woreda (small area) officials.

Now that we were (reasonably) happy that the first teachers were doing the course, we planned to introduce it to more of the schools. Delays with transport again caused problems (the college only has one car for all its business now – it cannot afford repairs to the others which are broken – most likely because of the uneven road surface.)

Anyway, last week, after visiting the schools, we confirmed the dates when we could introduce the course to the teachers. I booked the car, I re-checked the car several times at several different levels of hierarchy including before lunch on Wednesday, the day of the first training session. All ok.

I arrived back at the college after lunch, collected my materials, walked to the car and with the mobile network down and 30 teachers waiting 25km away in an hour, was told the Dean said we couldn’t use the car because there is not enough fuel.

There is a bit of a fuel crisis in Ethiopia at the moment. Apparently it’s to do with the global fuel price fluctuations and the merchants wanting the government to absorb some of the cost changes. Anyway, there is currently no fuel in Gilgel, or Chagni our nearest town 50km away or even Kosober which is the first link to asphalt road, about 100km away. Even Bahir Dar has huge queues of trucks and buses waiting for fuel. So I guess the Dean had a little point, but they would’ve known this days before. As it was, I was told 10 minutes before I was due to leave!

Anyway, I went to the Dean and managed to change his mind, with the help of some others. On the way, we told the four schools due for the course on Thursday and Friday we would have to cancel. We finally reached our destination and, working as a team, with most being done by my colleagues in Amharic (passing on my skills and knowledge so that others can do it is working a bit!), introduced the CPD course to a group of teachers from two schools. They reacted positively, and hopefully will start the course very soon – we will be back to check in a few weeks. We thought it went well.

Now we have to figure out how to get to the other schools…

On the way back, a “quick” stop to pick up some computers for Göran to fix from another school turned into a one hour marathon: The “so you’ll have the computers boxed up and ready for collection” turned out to be “the computers are still in situ, we don’t have any boxes, and the woman who has to sign and stamp the release form lives 30mins round-trip walk away.”

Oh, and since getting home, we’ve had another 3hr power cut. I’m writing this on batteries!!!

Life in Ethiopia…

Additional:

Sometimes I think I am living my life in “Blog moments.” When something happens, I think ‘that’ll be good on the blog.’

Mouse, Power and joke

2009-01-12T05:40:00.001Z

This is an Ethiopian joke someone told me about the English language. It works best spoken, but I will try and tell it written:

Two teachers are arguing about the pronunciation of the word “knife”. One insists it is pronounced ‘nife’ and the other ‘Ker-nife.’ In order to settle their dispute, they go to the school director (head teacher) and explain the situation.

The director replies, “well, I’m afraid you are both wer-rong…”

Mouse

We’ve had a little friend in the house for a couple of weeks. A little mouse with a body size of about 5cm. He’s been in my room nibbling on a box and sitting next to Göran on his bed while he was lying there. The funniest thing was one night when we heard a tapping noise and finally discovered it was the mouse. It had found some pasta tubes and the only way it could move them was to grab them in its teeth and leap across the floor in little bounds – each time making the tapping noise as the pasta hit the ground.

Power

I still think it is funny when the power comes back on at night after being off for a few hours because out of my window I hear cheering coming from the prison. Every time there is cheering. It happens in the village too.

Second Ethiopian Christmas

2009-01-09T05:43:00.002Z

Orthodox Christmas (7^th Jan) here in Gilgel went pretty much like last year. Everyone goes to everyone else’s house and you have the same food and drink in every house – popcorn, meat and injera, tella (home brew), coffee and Ouzo. I am being fed, which is an Ethiopian custom for friends to do! As all the houses are built to the same design and you’re eating the same food it gets a little confusing as to where you are. Our first invite for “coffee” was around 11:00 and we finally got home after visiting the dean’s house, at around 21:00.

Web design

For the last couple of days I have been working on a web-page front-end for some documentaries and audio lectures Göran will be taking to Bahir Dar University for the English Language Improvement Program resource centre. We will also use something similar here (on a smaller scale) when he returns with two computers for the library.

Utilities

The water has gone a bit like last year, only being put on for a few hours a day. I guess it will stay like this during the dry season. The electricity was also off for three hours last night.

Recorders

The two teachers who said they wanted to learn the recorder so they could teach children when I leave have currently an average 38% attendance record, so not good. The children, on the other hand, are doing much better. They are always early and some have attended all the lessons, twice a week, for the last ten weeks.

Roaches, Power and Pawi

2009-01-02T05:15:00.001Z

I was putting up some more photos of my family I had got printed when I went to Bahir Dar when I heard a noise behind some other ones. Then a cockroach poked its head out and as I touched other photos on my wall more roaches came out. There must’ve been a whole extended family living behind my photos. The “Roach Killer” spray came in handy.

Power

The power has been off a bit lately. Last night it dropped to 160V on my meter and 40Hz which can’t be good (it should be 220V 50Hz), then after a minute it failed and went off most of the night.

Weather

It’s 22:00 at night and outside the temperature is 22°C. Overnight minimum last night was 16°C. What’s it like in the UK? Also the dust is getting quite bad now when buses and cars go by on the unmade roads.

Continuing CPD Problems

On Wednesday there was a meeting at the local school sharing their experiences about the CPD course. I didn’t understand anything and couldn’t read anything, but their posters of writing were colourful. The main problems they are still whinging on about are:

1: not being paid to do the training (I already explained there will be 200 teachers doing this and even at 10ETB per hour, that would be 60,000ETB (£2000) which is well beyond anything we have available). Also it is in their contracts to do a minimum amount of CPD training each year. I still think that if you want paying to do the training then you are more interested in the money than improving your teaching.

2: They can’t seem to understand that when it says “see Resource page 2.3” that this means in the appendix where all the Resource pages are, and not page 23 or 2 or 3 or 2.3 – I guess this is a cultural thing.

3: They complained there is no-one from the college supporting every group session. It is not designed to be like that. Over our 10 schools, there will probably be around 40 groups running. I also have said several times in the past that if they have questions or problems to come and speak to us at the college (or to me when I am in the school – which is often) but no-one said anything until now.

Anyway, at least it is happening.

Pawi – more tales of Ethiopian organisation

Today (Thursday) I had another typical trip into Pawi Woreda (a small region) to arrange the initial CPD program meeting with the teachers in five more of our schools.

This is going to sound familiar, but here goes

Car arranged for 2:00 (8am) – at 2:15 told there is no fuel and no fuel in the village. Finally depart at 3:15 (9:15am) after borrowing fuel from local construction site.
Get to first school (Village 7)*, director not present, but manage to arrange with the vice director a training session in a couple of weeks.
Driver now disappeared with the car. We take about 20 minutes walking to the village centre – still no car. My counterpart suggests a coffee.
Car finally reappears; we go to the Village 7 secondary school and arrange to use that for the training session. Visit next school (Village 30) and managed to get them to agree to come to that training session. (This needed translation. I knew it would be a problem after I said “Have you got this book?” to the guy and received a blank look in return.)
Went to next school on the list (Village 5) and it was empty. There was some sharing thing going on at the next school along. Went to this one (Village 4) and after been assured by my counterpart that it was Ethiopian culture to interrupt people during events and things, managed to arrange another joint training session in a couple of weeks.
Got back for lunch and nap. In afternoon I taught recorders for three hours.

*The children went berserk when they saw me. They were at break time and flocked over and were cheering/screaming and over 100 followed me to the office still making an incredible noise – well this is a very remote school and I am white.

Bahar Dar for Christmas

2008-12-30T05:15:00.004Z

So me and Göran made it to Bahar Dar for Christmas. We set off in the college car on Christmas Eve and as we drove around Gilgel collecting people, I foolishly thought that when we had three people in the front and three in the back that would be it, but no, another guy got in the back with us, making seven!

We stayed with volunteers in BD with nice apartments and I looked forward to a nice hot shower (my first in about two months!) So there I was, steaming water flowing, head shampooed up and then… the water stopped. I managed to find the taps to get a little water to get the soap out of my eyes, and then I waited, planning to use a bucket of water in the bathroom, but after about 5mins I heard some guys downstairs start the pump for the water tank and a minute later the water came on again, and I had a luxurious shower at last.

On Christmas day there were 11 ferengi round for Christmas dinner. We had fish in sauce and quiche that one of the volunteers had made, along with lemon rice and lots of different prepared veg. There was also Canadian salmon on biscuit starters. The nationalities of the ferengi were: 5 Dutch, 2 Canadian, 2 English, 1 Indian and 1 Swede.

On the other days, we bought lots of food shopping (I bought biscuits, sweets, jam, honey, peanut butter, syrup and tins of hotdogs and tuna – healthy stuff then!) I also bought some other bits and pieces like mugs, and had some photos developed. Göran bought some jeans from the market, which was fun. Apparently the style is flared at the moment. Check out the picture which shows his flower-power roots!

We also walked around the edge of the lake which was good, and fended off the usual barrage of people asking usif we wanted to buy stuff, go somewhere on a boat or taxi, give them money or bread etc which was not so good. And we had a pizza one night.

During the stay, Judith’s drains blocked and every time someone from upstairs used water, brown, smelly water came into her kitchen and through into the living room. At one point there were little 1cm worms in the water as well. We used some caustic soda and eventually the problem seemed to be fixed.

On 28^th December, almost one year to the day I went last time, we went to visit the island monasteries on Lake Tana. Göran agreed that it was a bit “Disney monastery” – like the paintings are done just for tourists and the real monastery is down the hill or something. Also the monk telling us about the crosses and goat skin bibles was like a tape recording and questions only diverted him for a few seconds before he got out another Cross to show us, or tell us how a peacock’s tail represents Jesus’ love all over the world etc.

Today, getting a Bajadge (three-wheeled taxi,) the driver started with 30 ETB (white-skin price), but using my limited “I’ve been here a while” Amharic, I eventually got him down to 5 ETB to get us to the bus station. This is the usual thing that happens in many places, although a 600% mark-up was a good one!

On the way back to Gilgel the minibus stopped for a priest who came on and blessed people and let them kiss his cross. For this honour they paid one birr. I said in quite a loud voice: “God is free in England.”

The college car collected us at the end of the asphalt road and drove us back home, which is so much nicer than getting two buses.

Betting

Me and Göran have been placing a series of one-birr bets. In the house it has mostly related to when and for how long the power will be out and will someone be burning the grass around the houses as we walk home.

On our BD journey, the bets were:

We will leave between 3-5 local time (Göran won)

The driver will play the Amharic version of Staying Alive from his favourite tape both ways (Göran won, he played Sudanese music both ways, no Staying Alive.)

There will be a power cut of over 5 minutes on Christmas Day in the apartments (I won, it was only a minute on that day)

There will be some kind of live animal, such as a chicken, on the back of the car when we drive home, like last time. (I won, there were no non-human animals.)

We will stop for more than 10 minutes in Chagni. (I won, we stopped for 12 minutes to wait for, and collect the college Dean.)

So overall, I am up one birr!!!!

Food cache

My current canned food situation after having a delivery from Addis Ababa and our trip to Bahar Dar is this…

Tuna 28

Sardines 2

Beef Luncheon Meat 6

Chicken Luncheon Meat 14

Pork Luncheon Meat 16

Corned Beef 7

Pork Franks 16

Chicken Franks 12

Chicken and Beef Hotdogs 3

Total 104

This means that I can survive here until 12^th April on one can a day!!!!

Day 400 and New Year

New Year’s Eve is my Day 400 in Ethiopia. I will have about 6 months left until I come home.

Happy New Year to all of my readers.

Water and RatMan

2008-12-23T19:14:00.000Z

It’s been good since I’ve been back as, unlike last year when the water was on an hour or two in the morning and again in the evening, the water has pretty much been on over 90% of the time this year. The only problem we still have is that the toilet isn’t flushing, so we are using buckets all the time.

Today someone came to repair an outside tap which had been dripping badly since we’d moved into the house. They did this while we were out and unfortunately the kitchen tap which it was connected to was on – we didn’t know as it had never worked. As you can imagine, after they had repaired the outside tap and turned the water on, the kitchen tap sprang to life and flooded the kitchen and water had started to come into the living room before we came home, turned it off and then spent half an hour brushing the water out and down the outside stairs.

RatMan

There is an ex-instructor of the college back here at the moment. He is in the middle of his 2^nd degree and is researching small-mammal pests to crops. He has several different areas (woodland, crop, scrub etc) which he is studying and lays traps for small animals. After he catches them, he measures them and identifies the species. One day he came into the college and produced a computer keyboard box. Inside the box were strips of cardboard, on which were stuck the skins of rats he had collected. It was like a set of rat lolly pops!!!!

Pre-Christmas

2008-12-22T08:11:00.004Z

Yesterday afternoon I told my neighbours and children about “Ferengi” Christmas. (Remember Ethiopian “Othodox” Christmas is on 7^th January.) I showed them photos, got them to make paper chains and glitter cards*. They also sampled mince pies and Christmas pudding that mum had sent in the post. The children liked the food, but the adults found it a bit sweet. I don’t understand how they have coffee and tea with about 6 spoonfuls of sugar, but find our cakes and puddings sweet.

Me and Göran are still on target to have actual Christmas Day in Bahir Dar with some other VSO volunteers… we wait with baited breath to see if the car happens.

*The glitter came from Kenya – thank you Diana!

"Cold" mornings set in

2008-12-22T08:11:00.002Z

Well last night, according to my thermometer, the temperature here in Gilgel went below 10°C for the first time since last winter. The days are now “only” 11h30 long near the shortest day on Dec 21^st. The sun rises at around 06:45 and sets at 18:15. In the day, the temperature still goes above 30°C.

More hold-ups with my counterpart, who we “hired” about two months ago. A letter came, at last, from the regional education bureau permitting him to work with me for 3 days a week and I foolishly became optimistic that next week, starting Wednesday, I would have someone to work with and share my skills with, who could carry on the work when I leave. Yesterday, however, the next level down, the woreda department refused to let him go due to funding (and maybe still something to do with the fact that we didn’t choose the wife of one of the woreda officials – although this is just speculation.) We are talking about a payment of £28.00 per month here (3/5 of his salary) and I’m almost tempted to pay it myself, but that would give the wrong idea. In general, I’ve found that here in Ethiopia, from what others have experienced, that just giving money to people always causes more problems than solutions and perpetuates the “white people are rich” myth making life more difficult for others who follow.

When I came back to Ethiopia this year, I had been promised two fulltime counterparts who I thought would be in-place when I arrived. I had to advertise for, plan the interview/assessment, speak to officials and generally organise my own counterpart, who gradually got knocked down from fulltime to 3 days a week and at the moment, not at all. This has all taken three months! On top of that, I am trying to start the CPD programme in more of the cluster schools, but the car is broken, so not a lot is going on here at the moment. At least my recorder lessons are something I am in control of and happen twice a week regularly. The first group can now sight-read B,A,G,E,D and I may have a line on two teachers who would like to learn so they can continue teaching when I leave.

The Market (and Christmas, power and chanting)

2008-12-15T06:19:00.002Z

The power finally came back after six days without. It took two days of repairing, and now it looks like someone just twisted the broken ends of wire together up on the power poles!!

Of course that doesn’t mean continuous power. It was off again on Friday night for an hour-and-a-half after dusk.

It’s coming up to Christmas, but the only sign of anything here is… absolutely nothing. No tinsel, no lights, no people going mad spending lots of money and no shops and TV showing Christmas this, Christmas that offers etc. Ethiopian Christmas (Orthodox church) is on 7^th January and other than people visiting their families and lots of food (injera of course,) things are pretty normal.

The local Orthodox Church went completely mad on Friday morning with the P.A. up to maximum, waking both me and Göran up at 6am with chanting. Apparently it’s not just a “call to prayer” but some of the service as well, so if you’re too lazy to get to church, you hear the service anyway. I prayed for peace and the ability to lie in a bit longer and was rewarded with a power cut which silenced the priest, but unfortunately his power of prayer was stronger than mine and the power (and chanting) was restored after only a few minutes!

The Market

The twice weekly market in Gilgel sells spices, vegetables, fruit (oranges and bananas), posters, clothes, old bottles, goats and chickens, eggs and more. It’s open air and very busy. Here is a selection of photos. (Remember to click on them to see them in detail.)

Note the traditional balance scales and, fascinating to me, all the bees around the shiro powder. I’m not sure why the bees like the powder so much – it’s mostly ground peas and spices, but they get covered collecting it.

Holiday or not

2008-12-09T06:24:00.002Z

Last year on this day there was a new “National Ethnic Diversity” Day created. The trouble is this year is that no-one knows if it is a holiday or not. Schools are closed, but here in college people are asking if they are supposed to be here or not. That coupled with Islamic holidays that may or may not be on a particular day based on The Moon, holidays are a bit mixed up here.

There is still no power in the house.

No Power and Language understanding

2008-12-08T08:32:00.002Z

Well the water is doing pretty good, but the power has been off in our side of the village for over three days now. The reason is some people were cutting trees down near the prison and one fell on the power line. As there is a public holiday today (Id el Fatr – Muslim) and a national holiday (ethic diversity or something) on Tuesday, it could be a while before it is fixed. Me and Göran are well into our kerosene stoves now. Luckily, as the college is powered from another line, we can charge things there. Yesterday I was charging batteries for my torch, my electric shaver, my phone and my laptop while I went for a walk.

It’s really funny with the language here: many of the instructors say they can understand Göran and his Swenglish (Swedish-English) better than they understand me. I said “But we invented English!!!” I realise now it is the speed I speak at. We don’t realise how much we blend words, like answering “where is it?” by saying “s’overthere” (It’s over there) and “wherey’goin’” (Where are you going) etc. Because Göran is speaking slower and pronouncing all the words (even if he does have a problem saying “ch” as there is no “ch” in Swedish)* they understand him better. When I am speaking to people with poor English I make a point of slowing and pronouncing all the words, but when I am talking to the instructors who have better English, I sometimes forget and go into fast English.

*As Göran pronounces “ch” as “sh” it would be fun for him getting something for his feet. He would Shoose Shoes.

Astronomy, VSO visit, active teaching and Recorders

2008-12-04T05:08:00.004Z

On Monday night I saw a pretty cool alignment of a couple of planets and The Moon. If you enlarge the photo (that should be here soon) by clicking, you’ll see the view I got. (The photo was taken on maximum zoom on my camera.) It shows Venus on the left, then The Moon, then Jupiter. As the night went on, it was like The Moon passed through the gap between the two planets. I checked out my Astronomy software and found that from my home in the

, The Moon would actually pass in front of Venus.
On a pretty gross note, when I closed the window after taking the photos, I heard a kind of rustling noise by the window frame. It was dark as we were in the middle of a three hour power cut, but using the torch to see, I opened the window and a lizard tail plopped on to the floor and continued wiggling for quite a long time. I must’ve accidentally shut the lizard in the window! Yuck! At least lizards can grow their tails back!

Tuesday was very busy: Our programme manager from VSO visited and had meetings with us and our line manager. Also, I had to arrange a group of teachers to attend a discussion with someone else from VSO. I also taught two English lessons (to Grade 2 and 4) showing the teacher how you can teach using games and number fans to make the lesson more active. Then, in the afternoon, I taught more recorders, including the second session with “Group 2” which included the introduction of “G”. There are two boys and two girls in the group.

On Wednesday, I had some students in making number fans. During the small-talk I asked about one of the student’s hometowns and asked if he would be visiting his family for Christmas. He said no. Then my brain ticked for a bit… “You’re a Muslim aren’t you?” “Yes”!!!

Also, on Wednesday, I taught again in the local school. This time the teacher didn’t watch as she went to collect her salary – this is not in my plan. They are supposed to be observing to see the techniques I use. Still, it’s a crazy system here where the teachers have to go by bus about 15km once a month to collect their salary leaving the class unattended! One month I remember a whole school of over 1000 children being looked after by about three teachers as the rest had gone to get their salary. As it was, after I had done the hour in the grade 2 class, and was due to teach in grade 4, I just had to leave the grade 2 class unattended for the rest of the morning with no work or anything – it wouldn’t happen in the UK!

BTW the fish tank thing in a previous entry was to check if one of Göran’s friends was reading this blog! (It’s a pain typing Göran’s name, as when I get to the “ö” I have to press “Num Lock” then hold down “Alt” and press “0 2 4 6”!)

Big problem

2008-12-01T05:04:00.002Z

Göran had a big problem today: There was only 11 minutes left before he had to give his afternoon computer training session and he still had pillow lines on his face from his lunchtime nap!

Numbers

2008-11-27T05:17:00.004Z

Today (27^th November) I hit day 366 in Ethiopia so have completed a whole year here. On Saturday I also hit another landmark, Day 300 in Gilgel Beles.

Yesterday, while being watched by the class teachers, I taught Maths (or Hesab) to a grade 2 class (8&9ish years old + older ones) and a grade 4 class (10&11ish + more older ones who didn’t get schooling the first time round.) I used number fans a lot to easily assess the level the children were at, which, on the whole, seemed to be at a much lower level than the work they usually copy off the board. Luckily I managed to get by without an interpreter (they were both busy) and when doing units, tens, hundreds etc, I luckily knew that in Amharic the columns are called “und-bet”, “asir-bet”, “meto-bet” etc (or one house, ten house and hundred house etc.)

On Tuesday I visited the Catholic Mission School (for about 150 under 7s) which is really strange compared to the national schools as it is well funded, has brick built buildings, little mats to sit on, posters on the walls etc. It was really nice. The teachers are all Ethiopian and don’t have to be Catholic. I think they are Orthodox Christians. The children were really cute, and as the priest and brothers at the mission are European and white, the children didn’t really react that much to having me there as well.

Virtual Gilgel Beles

2008-11-24T05:11:00.002Z

I have just finished “Virtual Gilgel Beles”.

It is a website of over 400 linked photos with notes of Gilgel Beles that you can “walk” around to find out what it’s like living here. I designed it, along with a video I made with my neighbours’ children to give people a greater understanding of Ethiopia. I have posted it to the UK (it would take far too long to email the 40+ Mb) and then I hope it will be seen by lots of people, especially my old school.

Eventually, when I get back to the UK, I will publish it on the Internet.

Weather

The weather is great at the moment. Now, in my room at 20:00, it’s 21°C, and in the mornings it’s a fresh 10°C outside. There is no rain, just sunny blue skies and the humidity is reasonable as well. I remember from last year, this is the best time of the year, weather-wise. I don’t look forward to March/April when the temperature hits the upper 30’s and the water supply and electricity supply becomes very unreliable.

Little things

It’s the little things in life that please. I am currently very glad I have: my nice new pillow (instead of a second pillow case filled with clothes); my huge bowl, which I put my normal-sized one in, and it catches most of the spilled water when I have a wash in my room; a tin of orange drink powder – I found you can buy it in Gilgel; my large-digit clock radio I brought from the UK so I can see the time when I wake in the middle of the night; and I got eggs from the market on Saturday and made egg-bread (French toast) and had marmalade on it - yum! Compared to this time last year, I am really enjoying it here at the moment. Mostly because of living with Göran instead of in the house with unhygienic toilet / sink, baby running around, no privacy etc.

Fish

I’m thinking about setting up an aquarium out here and wonder if any of my readers have any experience and knowledge on this subject?

Observations + breakthrough!!!

2008-11-19T14:23:00.002Z

It’s been a busy couple of days. I did an observation at the local private kindergarten (KG), taught them using number fans the following day and wrote a report with some active learning improvement suggestions.

I have also started the mini “active teaching” programme, beginning with observations of two teachers at the local primary school this morning. Next week I will do some demo lessons for them, leading to team teaching active learning lessons, then observe the “hoped for” improvement.

Of course there was the regular recorder lessons and making number fans.

A breakthrough today, was actually observing the start of the CPD programme at one of the local schools. It’s taken so long to get the course in Amharic, get it printed and once given to the teachers, a month to convince them to do the course without payment. It’ll take a while to sink in that it has actually started.

Now I have to convince eight other schools.

Also, surprisingly last night there was a moderate amount of rain. It was unexpected, but also, after just getting comfortable with lower humidity over the last week, it’s back up again with all the evaporation. What a pain.

Clean undies.

2008-11-17T13:53:00.001Z

At Goran’s request, we now have a maid visiting twice a week to do our clothes. I don’t actually mind doing them, but it was the first day today and she can certainly get the shirts a lot cleaner than I can. The only thing which was odd was that our socks and underwear were left in the bag. We found out later that she won’t do those as they are “personal.” I think a couple of my boxer shorts got done, but I guess Goran’s g-strings put her off!!!! I can’t understand why she won’t do the socks though… maybe she saw the opening scene of “American Pie”!!!!

So… no clean undies!

Buna bet shocker!!! (coffee house / café)

2008-11-13T14:06:00.002Z

Our college café closed for a day a couple of weeks ago in a big shock. Goran and I were wondering where on Earth we were going to get our daily supply of “sambusa” and coffee. It turned out that the reason was that the café owner had signed a contract with the college to supply drinks and food at a fixed price, and with the inflation in Ethiopia, he was now losing money. The only thing he could do, was close and force them to re-negotiate the contract. Buna (coffee) is now 1birr25cents (up from 1birr) soft drinks are now 3.50ETB up from 3ETB!

One of the instructors got a new satellite pay-TV card from Addis Ababa the other week meaning the TV in the buna bet is on all the time now with films, news and sport and they can all watch UK Premiere-league football when they want to in the evenings. This means productivity in the college has dropped somewhat!!!

The electricity is always on and off, but the other night it went off and we found out later it was just our house. Luckily, with Goran’s background in electrical work, he discovered there was a problem with the underground cable between the meter on the power pole and the fusebox in the house. He has now rigged up an external cable that runs into the house and we have power again… well, actually we don’t as it is off in Gilgel Beles at the moment, but when it goes on there, it will go on in our house.

I’m still on B, A and G with my recorder group, but they are gradually improving. They’re now attempting to play along with the CD that came with the book I am basing some of my teaching on. It’s good fun, and something that is working without lots of bureaucracy!

Recorders and Counterpart II (and Guy Fawkes)

2008-11-11T05:23:00.005Z

I took the third recorder lesson today – they now know B, A & G. It’s fascinating how different they all are. There are a couple who are picking it all up very quickly, reading the musical notation etc, one who I believe might be dyspraxic – he is very bright, but has trouble with which hands to use etc. Then there is one girl who really isn’t getting it at all. When I get some more recorders from the UK I can start new groups and maybe ability-mix them a bit.

If you would like to purchase, or have a good condition second-hand recorder (descant) and you would like a child to have it here in Ethiopia so I can expand the lessons, then please send it to me at:

Mark Sidey, PO Box 47, Gilgel Beles, Metekel Zone, Benishangul Gumuz, Ethiopia.

Thanks very much.

(I guess a decent new recorder will be anything from £6 to £15 and the postage will be around £5.)

In return you will be giving a child here in Ethiopia a chance to learn a musical instrument and musical notation and you will receive a photo (or email picture) of the child you have given a recorder to. (Don’t forget to include your email address.)

No fireworks though!

I told my “sort of” current counterpart about Bonfire / Guy Fawkes’ night on Wednesday (5^th November) and we had a small fire and he drew a little guy… English culture in Ethiopia!

Counterpart

Getting my new counterpart is still proving to be a problem, partly because one of the unsuccessful candidates has a husband who works in the woreda (small region) education offices and is causing problems saying that his wife should’ve got the job. They are making any excuse they can, like the one who got the job was observed teaching a class that was not his normal class (he was showing he could teach a younger class that we will be focusing on, instead of his regular older class) also, and this is petty, that he was born 300km away and may not be committed to stay here! Watch this space! In the meantime, I have been told that another instructor in the college will work with me until the fulltime counterpart has hacked through the bureaucracy!!!!

Weather

The days are getting a little shorter (not compared to you) - the sun sets at its earliest in about a week at 18:08 and it's currently rising around 06:25.

Last night was the coldest yet - it went down to +13°C !!!!

US Elections

The instructors here are all fascinated by Obama winning the US elections and keep asking me about what I think. I pointed out that although they keep quoting Martin Luther King:

"Judge a man by the content of his character and not by the colour of his skin." (paraphrased)

The main thing that is being mentioned on the news is the colour of his skin and not the content of his character.

Additional added 9 Nov (couldn’t get a connection on Friday)

On Saturday I did a 14km round-trip walk to the rapids on one of the rivers. It’s an amazing place, about 100m wide across the river “valley” with lots of rocks, some smoothed by the water. Last time I visited this place was back in March and although the rainy season finished a couple of weeks ago, there was still much more water going through the system at this time, with many more little water falls. I saw a little crocodile (I think) zip through the water and up rocks away from me, and later I heard rustling in the bushes and thought a person was coming. Then I saw a large lizard head. The whole thing must’ve been around 2m long with tail. Luckily it ran off when it heard me!

The electricity was off from 2030 last night until 1730 today.

Each Sunday I teach English to my neighbour’s son and in return they give me coffee and a meal (injera and tagabino (sort of a paste made with pea-powder and spices).) Today was tenses, especially with “to go” (partly because he started the conversation with “yesterday going of Chagni.”)

Additional additional added 10 Nov

Still can’t get through on the net. Today we held a meeting with the teachers who are supposed to be doing the CPD programme but are refusing because they want “an incentive” (for that, read money!) I started by telling them that if we gave them all 20ETB for each session, for all the teachers in the cluster that would cost us 60,000ETB which is impossible. I also told them about how good the course is and they will personally benefit and their teaching will improve. Eventually they agreed that, providing they got a certificate signed by the zonal officials, they would do the course. Watch this space.

Bahir Dar ICT purchasing trip

2008-11-03T05:42:00.007Z

We were supposed to leave on Thursday at 0700, so both me and Goran got up early and were ready by 0700. We finally left Gilgel at 11:20. What can you expect! At around 0800 we went up to the college to find out what was going on. After a lot of questioning of various people, it turned out that the cashier was off with morning sickness and she is the only person with the key to the safe*, and in the safe was the 10000ETB needed by the purchaser who was going with us to actually pay for the computer equipment that Goran needed. Finally they dragged her in with her key, we were picked up from our house and after sitting 5mins outside someone’s house while a fridge was loaded onto the car, for another 20mins outside the college entrance while some paperwork was completed and a further 5mins outside another person’s house while a bike was loaded on, we were off.

We, of course, stopped so the driver could have lunch about 45mins later, but then we were really off and had travelled the 94km to the start of the asphalt road by 13:50. We covered the remaining 116km to Judith’s apartment in Bahir Dar by 15:30 (after another brief stop to pick up Goran’s and the purchaser’s bags from the road after they had blown off the back of the truck!)

At least it was more comfortable in the Toyota Hilux, than the bus and there were some good views on the way, including the highest point of 2646m

We had a look around town and ate overlooking the lake (as usual) but that night I felt very nauseous. The following morning I had a mini-squits and felt really weak and achy and basically slept the whole morning. I managed to get up for the 1400 rendezvous with the purchaser and driver to buy computer stuff with Goran, but we phoned them around 1420 and they told us at they would not be ready until 1600… I took Goran on a short lake walk, then we purchased our own supplies and by then I was all-in again and went back to the apartment while Goran was collected (at 1640) to do some purchasing.

I managed to eat a pizza later in the evening and pretty much felt back to normal after a good night’s sleep.

The next day I went with Goran to do some more purchasing (both for the college and for me) and on-and-off that took most of the day. We had a rather disappointing “special Chinese fried rice” which was basically “egg-fried rice” with no veg or anything else – but that did mean we got out of going to an Indian dance thing to celebrate 60 years of freedom or something. We did have some good chips (which took so long, I commented that they probably had to go out and kill the potatoes) and we laughed when they came up on the bill as “Plain of Cheeps.”

On the final day, we did some last minute purchasing and checking out the market, then left Bahir Dar around 1100. The highlights of this journey were big bowls falling off the back, the tyre deflating, being “mended”, deflating 15km down the road and being mended again – lots of coffee at each stop, a chicken being transported with us on the back, a very heavy rain storm (which never reached Gilgel by the way) possibly soaking all the paper that had been purchased in the back of the truck, and certainly soaking the chicken. The tyre deflating again, being “repaired” by two guys with a sledge hammer completely ruining the rubber of the spare tyre and making dents in the rim of the hub.

Anyway, we are back in Gilgel finally, after nearly 7 hours, and it is good coming back to our own house. The only problem so far was that Goran saw a bird fly out of one of my hanging shirts. I looked inside to see lots of moss and twigs etc. When was the last time you arrived home to find a bird making a nest in your shirt?

*I commented to the vice dean, that with only one person holding the safe keys, what would happen if she was in a car accident and she and the key were lost, to which he replied “She’s been in car accident?” and it took a while to explain that my comment was hypothetical. Goran was almost in hysterics at this point as you get kind of “high” when you’ve been hanging around for a long time. A similar thing happened in a computer repair shop when a miscommunication resulted in the answer to “When will the repair man be back from lunch?” being “one week.” “He’s gone to lunch for one week?” (It was the time the repairs would take!)

Recorders and counterpart

2008-10-28T14:35:00.002Z

I have just finished my first lesson teaching the recorder to five children in grade 3 (they were in the class I taught in last year.) Hopefully dad can upload a picture I took. Yes I can! I selected them last week by a class test and then individually assessing their musical ability. Some are picking up reading the notation really quickly. Today was A&B. This is a bit of an experiment (I pre-prepared a phrase-sheet in English and Amharic which I used to say stuff like “blow softer” and “check you have covered all the holes".) If it works, I might ask for more people in the UK to sponsor a recorder and postage to send it out here, then I can teach more children. I also want to train a couple of teachers so they can continue when I leave.

The latest on the counterpart is that there was one person who was clearly better in the interview and in teaching (he used teaching aids I had trained last year and made some of his own.) More news when all the bureaucracy is sorted and he is actually here with me in the college.

I go to Bahir Dar for a couple of days with Goran tomorrow. He is going to purchase computer bits for the college and I’m there as a guide (and to get supplies).

Ant Invasion

2008-10-28T14:01:00.001Z

On Sunday night I went into the toilet and saw hundreds of ants coming from behind the cistern. There were regular-sized ones and larger, big-jawed soldier ones and many of them were carrying eggs and white, ant foetuses. It looked like they were trying to set up a new nest.

Our first counter-attack was extensive blasting with “Roach Killer” insecticide spray. They started trying to escape along the place where there would be a skirting board in the UK, into Goran’s room, but he blasted them there. Then we poured a bucket of water to wash them all out. We went to the outside to try and find where they were coming in and sprayed again.

While all this was going on, there was loud crashing and running noises in the roof. We also have a resident rat family and the high pitched sound of the aerosol cans was probably freaking it out.

Also, on the subject of bugs, the other day I saw a spider “running” round and round in circles on a wall. It had caught a fly and was “tying it up” by letting out sticky silk and running round it lots of times. I’ve never seen UK spiders do this. It was quite funny to watch.

Monday update – How often do you flush the toilet and ants come out? When I flushed the toilet this morning (about once every three days it flushes) ants, left over from our battle last night, flushed down with the water. They must’ve been in the cistern!!!

Counterpart interviews and recorders

2008-10-24T08:31:00.002+01:00

Recently, I planned and arranged the interviews and assessment of three possible counterparts for me. The assessments included making a teaching aid, role playing an interpretation between me and someone who could only speak Amharic, translations from English to Amharic and Amharic to English, and then there was the interview. Next we are going to visit their schools and assess their teaching.

At the local school I have been assessing the musical ability of children from the class I taught last year. From that, I have chosen the first five children to start learning the recorder with me. That should happen next week.

Last night, when we were outside, Goran was scared by a short, furry snake running past in the dark, purring.

One Year on

2008-10-20T06:51:00.002+01:00

Last Friday (17th October 2008) was exactly one year since I arrived in Gilgel Beles!

I remember it like it was a year ago… the heat, the humidity, my water filter candle breaking, no ferengi food etc

Back to this year, I am still trying to sort out a counterpart – some people have applied for the job and I’ve got to sort out how to assess them and interview them. It’s still going to be a while, even if one of them is suitable.

I can’t believe the bureaucracy here. I need to get more CPD booklets printed and instead of just giving the master copy to the photocopy-guy, I have to write a request to get paper from the store, sign for it three times, collect it, write an order to get the purchaser to buy more paper to go back in the store. I also had to write a request, sign for, and collect toner and master sheets. By the time I had been backwards and forwards to get things done, I was exhausted. I has taken about three days (on-and-off) of chasing different people to sort it all out and at one point, I even said to one of the vice-deans “Is it because I is white?” – of course the inverted Ali G reference was completely lost on him. Anyway, now I think the printing will start. Then I can start thinking about getting the teacher training (CPD) programme going in the other schools.

I also plan to do some demo teaching in classes in the local schools. This should allow a more personal, direct approach to improve a few teachers’ teaching styles.

The rainy season is nearly at its end. There was a heavy downpour a few days ago, but that is becoming less and less. The electricity is being pretty good now – on most of the time with just the odd short power cut. Also, the water is reasonably reliable.

Goran and me are really enjoying our new house and are settling in well. Today (Saturday) was a day of jobs. We put up mosquito nets on our windows (glueing them to the window frames) – (Question for PTCPS: Can you remember why mosquitoes are bad?) I put up some curtains in my room (using some nails hammered into the wall, an old metal pole, and some old, dusty material we’d been given) I did a bit more clothes washing in bowls, put up a new washing line and put the external sensor of my thermometer outside. At the moment it’s 7pm, inside the room is 26C, humidity is less than it was a week ago at 77%, outside is 24C, but it got up to 32C this afternoon.

I seem to be getting bitten a lot more than last year. I have bite lumps and scabs all over the place, especially around my ankles and on my arms. Some of it must be flies and mozzies during the day, and the rest could be fleas in my bed. It’s very irritating.

I’ve nearly finished “Blue Mars” by Kim Stanley Robinson. It’s the last book of a trilogy “Red Mars”, “Green Mars”, “Blue Mars” I started about 10 months ago in Gilgel. It’s an amazing story that covers about 200 years from when the first people land on Mars and what happens as more and more people come from Earth to colonise our neighbour planet. It reads like it really happened as a lot of the science is based on current scientific ideas which have been extrapolated into the future. It also covers psychology, sociology, economics, ethics and more.

Next in line is the second book of a new series by Garth Nix (of Mister Monday and Sabriel fame). It’s called “Castle.”

Moving Day at Last!!!

2008-10-15T08:25:00.003+01:00

Well yesterday was the day.

I finally moved across the “road” (aka dirt track) to a new house. I am in an identical room to the one I had before which is quite weird. The only difference is the house is rotated 180 degrees so the sun is in different places at different times of the day.

I started transferring stuff Monday night, but still slept in my old house, then, yesterday morning I transferred the last of my things from my main bedroom, and the next family started moving in, freeing up the room Goran was going to have. Then I transferred my “kitchen” food supplies, bowl-ful at a time to the living room of the house while the kitchen /store room of the new house was emptied. The cleaners came in and did the floors and that took a while. It was all quite complicated logistically!

We had a lunch break then started work – nets up in both rooms, a bit of personal sorting, then Goran started on the toilet (using a razor blade to remove the brown from the seat (yes we have a seat) after the bleach failed to remove it.) At the same time, I got stuck into the sin k which was covered in a thick gunge that was green in places, maybe 1cm thick in the bottom. I guess it hadn’t been cleaned since it was installed. It took ages and I thought I may contract something, but at last it looked like concrete and everything was solid and not squelchy. I later commented to Goran that it is nice that our sink isn’t photosynthesising any more!

We ate together in our living room looking out on a nice sunset, then continued sorting.

The kitchen is a complete mess and we’re leaving that until “phase-2” of the clean-up operation. There is a shelf unit which looks like the leaning Tower of Pisa., the ceiling is covered with cobwebs and the light doesn’t work… oh, and the tap in the sink doesn’t work – a tap which is too tall and doesn’t allow the window to open as it bangs on the tap!!!

But, despite that, at last I can leave doors open without old wee-feet coming in, and hopefully won’t have anyone staring at me through the windows. And, there shouldn’t be poo in the toilet when I go in there, and we can sit down without contracting anything, and I won’t be woken by a baby crying or kicking a football at my door.

Our New House (Still Not!)

2008-10-13T06:37:00.001+01:00

CPD

On Friday I ran a training session for the facilitator teachers who will be leading the groups of teachers on the CPD course. It went ok, but I had a little trouble with the interpreter. I was making general statements like “On the first page of each session notes you see the learning objectives” and he was translating it by reading out all the learning objectives and taking ten times longer than me and slowing the pace. I was being general, he was basically reading everything in a specific session out.

Also, the facilitator teachers were being very negative about any other teachers showing up. I think we (from the college) are going to have to attend the first few sessions just to make the course seem more important!

House

One of the instructors, who is usually very happy was complaining about feeling unwell and was not his usual self. We couldn’t find out what it was. Later, the truth was revealed. We found out he had been told that he might have to move out of his house to allow me and Goran (pron. Your-Ran) to move in. On Saturday, however, we found out another instructor will be leaving and we can move into that house – just opposite the one I am in now. We were told Saturday, which became Sunday and now it’s Monday. It should be today or tomorrow…

Health

I had my first minor case of the squits yesterday (and today) – I attribute it to a piece of roasted corn on the cob I was offered on Saturday which was handed to me by someone with a questionable hand-washing regime.

My neighbour’s son was hit (accidentally) by a stone in the face last week. It must’ve been hard as there is a large bloody area by his nose and his eye is bloodshot. Yesterday he was having trouble keeping his eye open (it had been ok before). All I could offer was some sterile eye-wash solution and an eye bandage. He is going back to the medical centre today – hopefully – although there are no doctors there – nurses only.

New house... not!

2008-10-06T06:54:00.002+01:00

Current situation report:

Electricity: ok (minor cuts for a few minutes, but nothing too bad.)

Water: ok (seems to be on regularly in the morning and evening.)

Washing: underwear backlog cleared.

My stomach: No problems so far!

Bugs: No more tarantulas. One big beetle. No scorpions. I am being bitten by something at night though – fleas or bedbugs I guess.

Toilet: Relative of my family staying with them so flushing poos is inconsistent.

Weather: Quite pleasant. Not too much rain, low 20Cs at night, rising to mid 20Cs in the day. Humidity 75-80%

Work:

I have a meeting planned today with two directors (head teachers) from the local primary schools, and the printing of the CPD (continuing professional development) program has at last (after 6 months of chasing) been printed, so things are looking up.

I still do not have a counterpart (which is pretty important, as the whole idea of VSO is that we pass out skills to someone, and I have no-one to pass them to, so I am effectively taking an Ethiopian’s job at the moment.) We have sent a job description to the local schools to get a teacher to be a counterpart, but I’m not holding my breath!

House:

Well of course Goran was told we would move into the new house on Saturday, so…

I am still in my house, he has moved from the local hotel on campus, but not into the final permanent house. We are told that it will now be next Saturday. I’m not holding my breath on this one either (except when I go into the toilet.)

Meskel, Goran and Tarantula

2008-09-30T06:44:00.002+01:00

Goran has arrived, except you pronounce his name Yoran which is going to take a while to get used to. He has loads of gadgets like me and he knows the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show. I’ve been showing him around Gilgel and it’s good to talk to someone with good English, but more importantly, someone who has a similar cultural background. Sometimes it can be hard here when you can’t refer to anything from modern culture or films. For instance, no-one here has heard of John Lennon – that kind of thing, and Darth Vader would be meaningless. He also doesn’t seem to mind my instant cooking – like some instant noodles with a tin of tuna we had tonight!!! It’ll be good when we share a house – I was woken by the baby again this morning, and what with the family going to bed around 2030 – it’s a bit limiting.

It’s Meskel at the moment (I remember it from just after I arrived last year) – it’s a Christian festival (the finding of the true cross – I guess someone tried to sell someone a fake one in the past or something.) Anyway, I basically spent an hour and half following the priests with their colourful umbrellas, then hung around in a field listening to Ge’ez (pre-dates Amharic language) before they lit the traditional fire after walking round it twice chanting – maybe it was the Ge’ez version of “Here we go round the mulberry bush”. The only thing that kept me sane was watching the children who were as bored as I was, doing gymnastics, running around and getting told off for doing gymnastics and running around. A highlight was when one little girl walked up to a priest and tried to pull his strap-things off.

Last night I found a 10cm tarantula outside my bedroom door – the first one I’ve seen in Ethiopia. I’ve seen a number of large spiders, but not an actual tarantula. So that’s five snakes, two scorpions and one tarantula. I feel a bit guilty to say that as it was nearly midnight, I didn’t have the energy to catch it and put it outside, so I sent it to the big web in the sky. I’m just glad I have bamboo at the bottom of my doors to block the big gaps (initially to stop the rats getting in the kitchen) otherwise it would’ve been in my room.

Additional (Monday)

I’ve taken Goran on some walks around Gilgel. He is staying in the hotel, but allegedly we will be moving into new house in a few days.

On the work front, I’ve had some meetings and seem to have had some success chasing the card, pens and paper order from six months ago. And, my line manager and I will be visiting the local schools tomorrow to find out if we can recruit a full-time counterpart for me.

The electricity has been good for 4 days, there was very heavy rain and thunder last night, it’s very hot and sticky and I feel sleepy a lot!

New Ferengi due to arrive in the village!

2008-09-26T07:36:00.001+01:00

Hopefully in my next entry, I will be able to tell you that the other volunteer, Goran (from Sweden) has arrived. He is due later today.

I tried to get more Kerosene for my stove yesterday, but Gilgel Fuel station is out. Hopefully I can get some from Chagni sometime. I still have enough left for a while. It doesn’t use much and is actually probably much cheaper than electricity.

I’m getting post through from the Post Office here. Remember, if you want to write to me (new people are most welcome), the address is below. Remember to include your address if you would like a reply.

If you send a photo I can stick it on my “post” wall in my house. I have quite a collection now.

Mark Sidey

PO Box 47

Gilgel Beles

Metekel Zone

Benishangul Gumuz

Ethiopia

I now have two sets of speakers here (one set is a small battery-powered set, which is useful during the frequent powercuts). Anyway, due to “doing-in” my output socket on my laptop, I got an external sound card. The good thing is that the quality is much better (especially with headphones – no hiss) and it does surround sound. So here I am in the middle of nowhere watching movies with 4 speaker surround sound!!!!

PS/ For the techheads amongst you, I’ve just pinged the bbc website and the average time was 2055ms !!! (At least all the packets were returned this time)

Sad News

2008-09-24T06:44:00.001+01:00

I found out today that one of the small group of eight children I taught English to just before I came back to England died a few weeks ago. He was bitten by a dog before I left and it must have been infected as rabies developed and two months after the bite he was taken to a hospital in Bahir Dar where he later died.

He was nine years old.

Going downhill (already!!)

2008-09-22T08:12:00.001+01:00

Well the electricity has been off for two 18 hours stretches in the last two days. It’s back to candles and kerosene stove for cooking.

The baby is really getting annoying – as I mentioned before, every time I open a door he’s in there, and with urine-soaked feet and a potential to poo at anytime, it’s a nightmare. Also, all I hear is the mother or sister saying “abbi na… abbi na” which means “baby come here” every time he wanders near to something he shouldn’t. It gets grating when you hear it over and over again.

I also discovered that all my work on the Graduate publication before I left was pretty much a waste of time: the print shop couldn’t use the Microsoft Publisher format I used (as instructed) and the preview prints were basically scanned in (at low quality) and re-done in a garish format. It looks pretty rubbish really.

On the good side, I’ve been out walking in my favourite places. The river at this time of year (towards the end of the rainy season is very high and fast flowing. It’s amazing seeing rocks that were 2m out of the water that I climbed on before, now completely submerged.)

I had my first pancake session last night, starting with a tuna pancake, followed by a lemon and sugar, then a maple syrup one! (I had to buy some new flour, my old tin of flour is like a zoo full of weevils (black adults and white larvae worms!)

There doesn’t seem to be nearly as many insects and bugs around as last year. Maybe in the rainy season there is plenty of food outside and they don’t need to come in.

I have my key!

2008-09-19T08:55:00.002+01:00

The instructor with my store room key returned last night so I now have access to all my things. I have started to boil and filter water again, had franks and tinned mixed-veg for dinner, and did some washing. Now I have all my things it’s seems easy to settle back into the routine. I have had email contact from Goran (the Swedish volunteer who is currently in Addis and will be joining me in a couple of weeks.)

The toddler in the house is cute, but a pain. Every time I open a door he tried to come in, and they wash him in the sink I use for cleaning my food stuff – so hygiene is not good!

Back in Gilgel Beles

2008-09-18T06:56:00.001+01:00

This blog entry means I have internet access (albeit dial-up) at the college.

The journey here was not too bad. A bit of hassle at the bus station as I was white, the minibus was a little uncomfortable, but the college car was waiting for me at Kosober and it was a smooth journey home.

It must’ve just rained when I arrived as there was basically a lake between my house and the college which I had to paddle through. There is about a month left before it stops.

I have spent yesterday and today meeting people again, checking the post office (three months-worth of National Geographic!) and going around Gilgel. It feels very easy switching back into “Gilgel mode”. The only problem is the guy who has the key to my kitchen/store room is away so I’m locked out. The room is where all my food, water filter, buckets, bowls, jugs, cups etc – basically all my stuff I locked away before I left as some people used my bedroom while I was away. He is hopefully arriving tomorrow, when I’ll be able to have a proper wash using the bowl and start washing some clothes.

The climate is hot and sticky. Having come from the pleasant 21C 70% humidity in Addis, it’s now around 25C and 80%.

On the work front, I have a couple of weeks before the schools go back to sort things out. The biggest problem so far is that the two counterparts I was promised to work with have not materialised and probably won’t, which is a big blow as I would’ve been able to get a lot more done and really felt like I was doing what VSO is all about and passing on my skills.

Oh well – be flexible!!!

The power was off for about 2 hours last night and some of the door handles in the new classrooms block in the college have snapped. How cheap does the metal (if it is even metal) have to be for that to happen?

Bahir Dar cycling

2008-09-14T13:25:00.002+01:00

I spent my last day in Addis sorting paper work, then I left half my luggage and all of my food shopping at the VSO office so that it can be driven up to Gilgel in the college car in a couple of weeks when they come to collect Goran, the VSO volunteer who will be staying with me. This means I will only have to travel with one case and my backpack, which is a lot easier.

Getting from the hotel to the airport, the flight and transport at the other end to get to Judith's (VSO Volunteer) apartment went smoothly, with the exception of waiting for the flight. They were trying to get two different flights-worth of people through one gate (even though all the others were free,) and it was raining very hard and there was lighting. Just before we took off there was lightning which didn't give me much confidence. Anyway, we took off, and other than a few lurches in the turbulence, we made it.

Today, after French toast breakfast in our favourite hotel overlooking the lake, Judith and I went cycling. We crossed the Blue Nile River (which is very high now as it is the wet season) cycled along a dirt track, passed rich ferengi houses overlooking the river, up a steep hill with a very good view to where Haile Selassie's palace is. The guard was most off-put that we were walking along the driveway in the middle (no cars or traffic of any kind of course) but we have to keep to the side. We weren't allowed in as there was an official there, but I took a few photos. It wasn't that impressive really.

We cycled back on my hire bike (stuck in one top gear with one break rubbing – so a nightmare going up hills) to a monument to soldiers. It's a huge area with marble steps and when there are visiting officials, water cascades down to the river in large steps. The spire itself must be over 20m high. (See if you can find it on Google Earth. Find Lake Tana (the huge lake in Ethiopia) follow the river coming out of the South and a short way down on the East Bank (on the right) you should see the huge complex.

Here are the co-ordinates:

11d 36.138' N 37d 24.752' E

It must've cost millions of tax payers' money, but we leave it to you to make your mind up about that one – I mean, we do the same in the UK, spend thousands on sculptures in city centres using council tax that could go to schools.

I should be going back to Gilgel Beles in the next few days and will not know until then if I will have Internet access. Obviously if I do, I will add another entry.

Melkam Addis Ameut (Happy New Year)

2008-09-11T09:39:00.004+01:00

I’ve just been hanging around - sorting out forms, doing some shopping at the moment. Today is New Year’s Day in

Ethiopia

. It’s 2001 (“Open the pod bay doors please HAL".) Yesterday afternoon I was absolutely exhausted – tired and a bit headachy. I basically slept and didn’t go to the New Year Party, although everyone had forgotten that the Ethiopian Day starts at 06:00 our time so staying awake until midnight wasn’t actually correct! Still, this morning the hotel had a coffee ceremony in the foyer and we got bread, popcorn and a glass of Tella (the homebrew.)

I am flying up to Bahir Dar on Saturday, and will return to Gilgel next week.

The weather here in Addis is pretty like the

at the moment, around 20C and intermittent showers.

I’ve just finished “Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox” by Eoin Colfer and am currently reading “Superior Saturday” by Garth Nix. If there is anyone from PT reading this, you will remember I did the first in the series of these books with some reading groups about five years ago (“Artemis Fowl” and “Mister Monday”) I’m still reading the series.