Saturday 31 May 2008

Blue Nile Falls


I’m back in Gigel Beles and it’s taken a little while to adjust again. While I’m here it’s ok, but after being away for nearly two weeks in the comfort of a hotel and then apartment with hot showers, supermarkets with sweets, restaurants with ferengi food etc, it comes as quite a shock to return to no power, no water, smelly toilet and also to find it’s been raining for the last week and everywhere is slippery mud! I had the “what am I doing here – what a hell-hole” experience for a while.



Going back in time: on Monday I flew back to Bahir Dar after leaving most of my shopping with Belay (my programme manager) who will bring it when he visits Gilgel next week. On Tuesday, another volunteer, Marta, joined me – ready to return with me to Gilgel for two weeks to help with ELIP (English Language Improvement Programme) and on Wednesday, Marc, a German VSO Volunteer joined us – he was also coming to Gigel to do a quick one week computer sort out. He was one of the volunteers evacuated from Assosa.



On Wednesday it was a public holiday and all five of us (including Judith and Elsa who are based in Bahir Dar) went to visit the Blue Nile Falls. We knew it would not be “full power” as most of the water is diverted to the hydro-electric power plant and only turned on full on Sunday, but it was beautiful countryside and the falls were still impressive. We will return in the rainy season on a Sunday to see the difference. The walk around the valley involved paddling across a stream at one point, and getting a boat across the river above the falls at another.



The three of us returned to Gilgel on Thursday. It was the usual “run the gauntlet” at the bus station in Bahir Dar with all the attraction of three ferengi, but we got a fast minibus down to Kosober. Then we were lucky and got three seats on a pretty speedy bus to Chagni – much faster than last time – the bus was smaller and the new stretches of road are now accessible. It took us about 4 hours from entering the bus station at Bahir Dar, to reach Chagni. The next part was fairly horrendous. From arriving in Chagni at around 7:15 (local time = 1:15pm ferengi time) it took about three hours of waiting on the bus for it to go, stopping to drop off and pick up people and just generally being very slow on the bumpy, unpaved road.



Back in Gigel, it must’ve been raining a lot as streams were filling, the place was really green, but the downside was the unpaved streets were muddy and slippery. I paid a guy to carry my suitcase back to my house, and then went straight back out to help Marta and Marc. I had rung the college to book rooms for them at the local hotel, but as expected it doesn’t really work in the sticks and they ended up with rooms without a shower, toilet or any furniture other than a bed, and this meant they would have to use a stinky shared pit latrine and have no water in wash. It has now been sorted though and Marta and Marc spent the day in college do their thing.



I collected my post, including the January issue of National Geographic – I think it had been all around the country as the address was incorrect and instead of using Metekel Zone – where Gilgel is, they had put Makale – which is a town the other side of the country. Anyway, it got to me!



A rat has been visiting my kitchen while I’ve been away. There were droppings on the shelves and a couple of plastic lids had been nibbled! (Oh, and I saw it tonight.)



Numbers



Today (Saturday, 30th June) is 37 days to go until I come home for the summer.


Sunday 1st June will be my 200th day sleeping in my house in Gigel Beles


Monday 2nd June is my 250th day in Ethiopia


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