Burning, twisting and training.

The net connection has been bad recently – no contact for a few days.

The power was off for an hour and a half last night.

The water has been ok.

The sun is currently reaching 77° altitude in the sky at its highest at the moment. In London, it only ever reaches 62° in the summer. The shadows are really short here around mid-day. In about 5 weeks it will be directly overhead.

Due to the hot temperatures, I have seen quite a few dust devils recently. Yesterday I went for a walk and managed to get a small one on video – very difficult to do as they mostly only last a few seconds.

Everywhere is blackened after the recent fires. I’m still not sure how many are man-made. I think most are, so that the dead grass and crop stubble is removed ready for new grass in the rainy season.

No-one showed for two of the three English Improvement courses in college and I had to postpone the third (see below).

Training on using number fans and counting sticks continues with some good sessions. I have three more schools to go. It will be interesting when we visit again in a couple of weeks, who – if anyone – is actually using them. I have been trying a new technique right after the training saying “OK, who is going to use these tomorrow in your class” and getting a volunteer. I hope it works.

I went to Chagni (the town about one hours drive away) on Friday to collect some large packets from post office, that didn’t make it to Gilgel. There was lots of food and sweets and stuff in them which was nice (including JIF lemons – I have had pancakes two days in a row now!!!) The most interesting one was a packet of chocolate buttons that had melted into one large flat square of chocolate!!!

On the way, the driver stopped and picked up ten people in the back of the truck (quite a squash) and charged them 10 birr a piece to go to Chagni – another example of a bit of cash in hand on the side. (You know, I wonder when I write about this low-level corruption and other problems whether I should be doing it, but I believe in telling it how it is – the good and the slightly questionable. Oh, and also this website is blocked by the government so no-one in country can read it!!!

While in Chagni, we also collected an order for my next lot of training – “Every Classroom should be a model classroom”. Last year, one of the only things the CCU (College Cluster Unit) did was have a few teachers to the college for training on model classrooms, then gave them some materials to make their model classrooms back at the schools. The idea was, they would share their knowledge with the other teachers who would then put up active displays in their rooms. What I actually saw in most schools in the cluster this year were a few displays set up in one model classroom and the rest of the classrooms bare.

My plan, as with the current training is to go to each of the schools (so all teachers receive the training, rather than one teacher per school coming to the college, who will never have time to pass on the information to the other teachers). We will take materials and college student helpers and give the teachers a quick 30mins training on active displays, then spend the rest of the time with them actually making and putting up displays there and then.

Tomorrow I’m supposed to be representing the Dean in a meeting with UNICEF (Is it because I is white?). He’s asked me to ask for books for the library, a new car, a medical centre for the students…

Last week I got an offer to work in Bahir Dar next year. It would be good re: accommodation (hot shower), having easy access to Addis by plane, being able to get Ferengi food and go out for meals in hotels, buy supplies etc but the downside is being in a tourist area and having all the hassles that brings. Also, the work would be more along the English Language Improvement side at the university, working with instructors and lecturers, another step away from the classroom. My favourite parts of the job at the moment are teaching in a primary school once per week, and actually training the teachers in primary schools. I’m still a primary school teacher at heart and don’t know if I could be away from it for a year. I have a bit of time to decide.

I’m loving being on my own in the house. Being busy at work, training and being able to come home to a sanctuary (inc. a clean toilet) at night and at the weekends is great. I’m not sure how I will feel when the family return in (an unspecified number of days – as most things here). I am going to ask them to follow a few house rules re: toilet (I have bought some buckets to use to flush when there is no water) and not spitting in the sink where I prepare my food etc.

Training, Religion and small change

Training went well yesterday – the driver for the 7:00 car arrived at 7:45 (Ethiopian time) and when we got the 25km on bumpy dirt road to the school, the teachers had forgotten our training (they had chosen the date) and were at a meeting somewhere!

We’re well into Ethiopian Orthodox version of Lent at the moment. For some reason the fasting (many people don’t have meat during this time) lasts about 60 days. I pointed out (using my limited Christian knowledge – anyone back home can correct me on this) that lent was supposed to represent the time Jesus was in the wilderness which was 40 days – like Lent is back home. I suggested that perhaps the government had added 50% lent tax.

The practical upshot is that I am now woken everyday by the calls to prayer, not just Wednesdays and Sundays.

Also, a semi-racist comment by one of the instructors backfired yesterday. He said, in a sort of derogatory way, that some Gumuz people believe The Moon is a god. I came back with, “well at least you can see their god.”

I suppose it’s good that I can make comments like that in Ethiopia without being sentenced to death… I’m only a few hundred miles from the Sudan (Mohammed Teddy Bear) border!!!

Today, I am starting an English Language Improvement course with some of the lecturers and support staff in the college. 6 out of 30 “needs analysis” forms came back to me, so I will be interested to see how many people turn up. As you can see, my healthy pessimistic attitude is still going strong.

The weather is going from hot to very hot, with quite a lot of wind, particularly in the afternoons, but it’s not a cooling wind, it’s like being in a blast furnace. Also, due to farmers burning stumble in fields and natural fires, for the last couple of weeks, quite a few days have started with a sort of smog. It soon disappears when the ground heats up.

Finally for today, I found in my wallet the lowest value coin I think I have ever held. It’s a one centime piece (there are 100 in a birr.) It is currently worth roughly 0.06p which means if you wanted to buy a Snickers bar, you would need 700 of them!!!

Training, the weather and scary nedj

I’ve done two training sessions in two schools in two days to a total of 32 teachers at the moment on number fans and counting sticks. Today’s was really enjoyable as there was a good rapport between us and the teachers. That was after waiting outside the college entrance from 1pm until leaving on the college bus (which was delayed then ran out of fuel) at around 2.30pm. We arrived at the school at 2.45pm for a 2pm training session!!

At the end, the bus was due to collect us by 1700 at the latest (I’m really having to think about these times now. I was thinking 11:00 which is 5pm in Ethiopian time) and at 12:00 still nothing, eventually it arrived at about 18:30. Apparently the fuel filter was blocked – probably after running it right out of fuel and churning up the dregs!

It was fun waiting this time as we talked to the teachers (who live in little mud houses in a piece of land next to the school) and then waited on the street and had lots of children out as an audience watching me. They were really funny as they were scared of me. When I took a step forward, some ran away! (Also a baby started crying!) Eventually I got some of them to shake my hand. (Nedj means “white” – white person in this case –thus I was a scary nedj)

We have six other schools (transport permitting) in the next two weeks, then we start again with the next lot of training.

Weather

It is very dry at the moment. All the little brooks have dried up and my hydrometer or hygrometer (I always get mixed up with them) is showing between 25 and 30% humidity which is well below the UK in summer. These temperatures and humidities are like a free tumble-drier for washing, but are probably bad for my throat, and also, for the first time since I have been here, photos on my wall are starting to curl. I would’ve thought damp would’ve done that, but it seems dryness does.

Another wedding and injections up the jacksee

Sunday 2^nd March 2008

So, I had been invited to the wedding of one of the staff, in Mandura. The car was due to pick us up at 10:00. Of course, arriving at the front of the school at 10:00 there was a problem – something to do with someone being ill and someone else visiting them in hospital using the car, but a problem none-the-less. (That’s the trouble with no-one being able to afford private cars.) We hung around, eventually at around 12:15 (yes, 12:15) back at one of their houses, we had a small lunch of tebs (meat) and injera (the sour, fermented grain pancake that is the staple diet out here). I think we finally left at 13:00.

The place turned out to be about 5km further on from Madura (the nearest village to Gilgel Beles with one of our cluster schools there.) It was an, at least 1km drive across fields in the 4x4. Once there, with incredible views of the ridge, the driver informed us he had to go straight back – which would effectively strand us. After a few phone calls he was allowed to stay. The place was a few round stick-and-mud houses in a compound surrounded by a stick fence – totally in the middle of nowhere. There was a small tent made for the wedding and I sat and was offered the local beer which, the minute you sip it, gets topped up. Then the wedding ceremony took place, with a few chicks running around under foot. All the local elders were on one side, a colleague had written a sort of marriage contract and had to hastily copy it out two more times – something he should’ve done apparently. It mentioned something about paying 5000 birr if they split up. This was read out and they all signed the copies. Next, pieces of toilet paper were hastily laid carefully on a plate on which the rings were placed, and then, like in the UK they both put the other’s ring on. Then the elders took a turn to speak – give advice or something – then dorowot (spicey chicken stew) and injera + an egg each, then we were off back to the college. This time, we had the bride in with the groom + maid of honour + more. The car, designed for 5 (two in the front, three in the back) which had brought 6, now had the driver, me, a colleague with someone on his lap in the front, and six in the back (two on laps.) Thoughts of the number one killer of VSO volunteers by far, came to mind – road traffic incidents. (I had managed to get a seat-beat on, on the way out, but this had left a dusty brown mark on my shirt as I think I was the first to use it in a while – no chance on the way back.) Oh, and there were another 3 in the trailer of the pickup.

When we got near Gilgel, the lap people were told to get in the trailer as there was a traffic cop in the village – nothing like health and safety!!

Next it was back to the groom’s house. Both bride and groom hadn’t spoken or really looked at each other the whole time, or looked happy – tradition apparently. There we had more wot, drinks - including a 75% proof (apparently) aniseed smelling, clear concoction – and various styles of dancing, some of which I had to join in. At one point someone came round with perfume and sprayed some under everyone’s arms – another tradition.

It shows my character that I don’t really participate with these social things, I just observe scientifically.

The Gay thing.

It’s really funny in Ethiopia that homosexuality “doesn’t exist” but men can be totally touchy-feely – straight men. You see male student friends walking hand in hand, like female friends might in the UK. Men were dancing with men at the wedding, again – straight men – totally normal here. The Dean had his hand on my knee for a while, while I was sitting – again, just a show of affection. Oh, and pink is like any other colour, so men wear pink shoes, pink hats etc. If a homophobe came to Ethiopia, they’d think the whole place was bent as a nine-bob note!!

It’s nice that people do have platonic physical contact though. It’s got so sterile in the UK that no-one touches anyone these days. I also like the way children here are much freer and not bundled up in cotton wool like in the UK. There’s probably a half-way point though as you sometimes see very little (2-3 year olds) children wandering around the village un-accompanied, and of-course a lot of young children do not attend school, they just work – maybe in the market, in fields, carrying stuff etc.

Throat

I went to the medical centre this morning (Monday) and after finding out about which cards to get and where to wait, I was seen by a nurse who offered me antibiotics (via the buttocks) and warned me it would be painful.

In the end I had two injections, one in each cheek and it stung when the stuff was going in. Hopefully my throat will get better now.

Training, Rich Italians and bowls

On Thursday we went to 7 of the 10 schools to book up training dates for them - the letters having pretty much failed. A couple were annoyed because we didn't show previously but that was beyond my control: I wrote a letter in English asking the schools for four dates when they could do training, and we would get back to them with a firm date when we sorted out a schedule. Well apparently something went wrong in translation as they sent back single dates when they expected us, some of which were when I was in Bahir Dar. Well not only could I not understand the replies, but I wasn't even there. You would've thought someone would've done something about it, but no. Anyway, the next three weeks are going to be quite busy as I will be
training in 8 schools (the other one we got a date from on Friday.) I will be accompanied by my "counterpart" who, in theory should be leading the sessions by the end so he can do it alone when I leave.

During Thursday, we had to return to the college mid-school visit as an Italian who had donated some money for a nearby building project was visiting the college. I showed him the model classroom before he continued his tour followed by all the college staff, it seemed. I found out
afterwards he name was Selene or something and he is the 33rd richest person in the world!!!

Saturday, started my washing just after seven and having now sussed the whole pre-wash thing with trousers and socks which pick up the dust and make the water go brown very quickly, I had a disaster when my big bowl fell on the floor and cracked. Now remember this is my bath as well as my washing tub and they only get them intermittently in Gilgel shops. It's not like the UK when you just drive to the supermarket and get a new one. Anyway, luckily the local shop did have one, but it's not like the luxurious 56cm diameter one I had before, it's actually 51cm and those 5cm make all the difference when you're trying to wash your whole body. I hope they get new ones soon!

In other news:

I've had a sore throat the last few days and felt a bit weird - in-fact I've been a bit bunged up since Bahir Dar.

Last night there were masses of mozzies about. As I went out of my room I could hear the cacophony of whining. The toilet was inundated so I gave a squirt of "Roach Killer" and returned a while later, cross-legged. It's one of those big decisions you have to make doing VSO: Wetting yourself, or getting Malaria!!!

Bahir Dar Trip and Associated Hassles

Pre-trip Hassles:

Well it all started out in the "come to expect it" fiasco. About two weeks ago I had asked the vice dean if there was a car going to Bahir Dar that I could hitch a ride with. The eight hour bus journey is not particularly enjoyable. He said yes, on Thursday (21st) returning on the Monday – this seemed ideal, but living the life of pessimism that I do, I was expecting some problem. As usual, I was correct. When I checked on Tuesday, there wasno longer a car going to Bahir Dar, but there was one going to Addis which could drop me off at Kosober on the way. Not as good, but going from 1000m to 2600m in a 4x4 is much more comfortable and quicker than in a bus, and Kosober to Bahir Dar is on asphalt road and only takes about 1h15 in a minibus so I could cope with that.

Wednesday afternoon, I again checked the arrangements aware that last time I was told 9am collection and they arrived at 7.30am. I am now told that the car going to Addis is a single cab 4x4 and there is no room for me. I can use my CCU budget to pay for 40… no 50 litres of fuel at 350 birr and have a car take me there. Well originally I only wanted to go by car if it was going anyway and 350 birr is 10 bus tickets so I'm not particularly enamoured at this option. The vice dean said it's not a problem as I have some transport money in my proposal so I can use this and says I just have to write a letter. I did query the whole thing and say it was very expensive and it not directly related to CCU (even though I would be doing some training at Bahir Dar University) but the Vice Dean seemed to think it was ok and seemed very in favour of my using the uni car. That, and the thought of the incredibly slow bus journey persuaded me to write the letter. It was getting towards the end of the day and eventually six copies of the order went to various departments, I received 350birr (the driver is not allowed to pay for the fuel and get receipts, the academics travelling have to do that!)

So, a bit concerned about the money, but remembering it's only £20 UK money and I could cover it with my own money if things went wrong, I at least had the thought that I could go at 8am after refilling water etc (which doesn't come on until 7.30am), having a pleasant start to the day etc

That was until the driver arrived and suggested (through an interpreter) that we leave at 5am. We finally got it to 6am, but that's the same time as the bus and I thought this is getting worse and worse. Apparently he needed to be back in Chagni for a funeral.

Thursday, 21st February

So I set my alarm for 5am and got ready and packed and was outside at 6am ready. By pure co-incidence when I looked at The Moon just above the horizon in the direction across from my house, it was dark and I realised it was in eclipse. I subsequently found out there was a lunar eclipse, and totality started about 10mins before I went outside the door. I remember there was
one (that I asked the children in my class to watch) on the day I went to the very first VSO open day, round about this time last year (12 full moons ago.)

The car arrived near enough on time, including two passengers – getting the free ride that I seemed unable to get, but I am on my way. (the tenses in this blog entry seem to keep changing!)

When we got to Chagni (the nearest bigger town to Gilgel) the car suddenly went off the main road and down a side street where about 100 people were gathered – the funeral, I guessed. They parked, and without telling me anything, got out and walked off leaving me to be a ferengi in a cage to be stared at. I started listening to my MP3 player. The driver came back crying
about 20mins later followed by someone who asked where he was going, and he pointed at me and said Kosober. We set off, me being driven by a distressed driver who would rather be at a funeral than driving me. Nether could speak each other's language. Great! I think I understood that it was a friend who was also a driver who had died.

After a quite tense 1h30 we got to Kosober and after paying for the re-fuelling I was off to Bahir Dar on a speedy minibus arriving around 10am.

I may be wrong, but I think the vice dean was so keen for me to use the CCU budget to a) allow the car to have a bit of extra fuel (left over from the journey) but mainly so that the three people, including the driver, got a paid-for trip to Chagni for the funeral. Now I know a funeral is a sad thing, but I wish they were honest about it all. It would've made sense for me to pay 33birr to go by bus, but then where would they get the money for the fuel to Chagni?

Once in Bahir Dar I got a mini-three-wheel moped taxi to the university, got the key from Elsa, who I would be staying with, minibused and walked back to her luxurious government apartment and had a sleep!

In the afternoon I went to the telecenter, and thanks to a letter from the Dean of the College, got my own internet account (which I paid for, it's about 60 birr per month with 900 free minutes) It means I can surf anytime, even while colleagues in the college are using the college account. Also, if/when I get a phone line I can use it then. I also went to the post office, on the off-chance of post and there was one item – I'm not sure why it hadn't been sent on to me, it was only a
magazine. I found a nice café on a first floor with a balcony overlooking the street, where I had a coffee and a very good chocolate-iced doughnut. I went to the supermarket and got some supplies. I was distressed to find no chocolate bars! Last time there were Bounty, Mars, Snickers etc! Back at the house I had the first shower I had had for six weeks – hot as well! When Elsa and Judith returned, I had a look around Judith's apartment – opposite to Elsa's. Again it is very large, with comfy-chair lounge and hers has a balcony which overlooks the street. The only disadvantage is that there is a bar below which plays music about 18 hours a day which is beginning to drive her mad. We then went out for a meal at the next-door hotel. Lots of
different veg etc – very nice, first "proper" restaurant meal for 6 weeks.

Friday, 22nd

After breakfast I went for a walk along the lake, fending off the usual "Do you want a boat" with "hulet wer befeet" – which means two months ago (I went). Also "gobinyee Idelehum" – "I am not a tourist" came in useful. After scrambled egg and bread (and another chocolate donut) at the café, I went to the university, prepared and delivered my presentation to 10 department reps from the university who have a special interest in English. There were also some students in the session as well. It went pretty well, and I even linked number fans to the electronic voting systems that businesses use to show number fans are not just for children, they are just an inexpensive way of getting feedback and allowing assessment from anyone.

After the uni, we went back to town via another supermarket that has recently opened. It had a larger variety of sweets – but all cheap "copies" of the big brands. As Elsa had bought more heavy shopping, she asked if we could swap bags because of her back. We got a minibus back and outside the apartment we discovered she had left my bag on the bus – luckily it had only 50 birrs-worth of stuff. Amazingly, about an hour later, the minibus returned the bag and I had the first yoghurt I had had since the UK.

Me and Judith had a meal at the Ghion (hotel where I had stayed before where the dining area over-looks the lake.) We had a good egg-covered fish.

Saturday, 23rd

Lazy start, shopping in afternoon and great smoothy fruit drinks! Me and Judith had a meal at a poshish hotel (still only cost around 60 birr (£3) including drinks.)

Sunday, 24th

Went to Judith's for eggy-bread (aka French toast) but there was a power cut so we went for a long walk around the lake, I showed her the doughnut café! We had eggy-bread when we returned. In the evening we ate at the Papyrus (where I stayed the first time in Bahir Dar) by the swimming pool. I had a burger and chips – the last meal like that for a while followed by the last hot shower I would have for a while.

Monday, 25th

Getting the minibus to Kosober was relatively painless, as was the bus to Chagni. The temperature was ok and I had a seat at the front so was pretty comfortable. Then it all went downhill at Chagni. I managed to get on a very full bus, at one point an announcement was made and lots of people got off, but apparently what had happened was that as demand was so high, they had put the price up from 7 to 12 birr to get to Gigel. The next 45mins was a hot, sticky wait without knowing when we were going to leave. When we did depart, it was the usual slow, stop-start trip and by the time I got to Gilgel Beles, six hours after departing Bahir Dar, I was hot, sticky, dehydrated and unlike previous feelings of being "home", this time I was angry and felt like I was back in a watered down version of hell to continue my sentence.

I also discovered someone had been in the house and it looks like they stood on the toilet to use it. It is the only solution to explain the muddy footprints on the seat. There seems to have been a bit of cleaning done and maybe the plants watered so I guess it must be the "friend" of the family who took the key.

My can of tuna slopped on the floor when I opened it – attracting the ants very quickly, necessitating a floor wash – and the temp was 35C! Also, I discovered my bag of flour had quite a few black insects in it, meaning I had to sieve them out – all extra jobs I didn't need on my return. Oh well, life goes on…

Day 150 news round up

Financial matters

I had a letter yesterday stating that the regional education bureau had accepted my proposal for this year for the Cluster Unit. I requested, and got, over 35,000 birr for our training activities including transport and refreshment costs, materials and resources used to make displays in all the classrooms and paper and copying costs for the training materials.

In Ethiopian terms, the amount is equal to about two years of my salary. In UK terms it is roughly £2000. I have already spent some of it ordering thousands of sheets of card and other materials for our "Every Classroom should be a Model Classroom" training sessions. The problem I found when I arrived was that most schools had only one classroom ("a model classroom") with displays and the rest were bare. My plan is to get basic displays in all classrooms. The training I have planned is to take a load of resources to the schools, have a quick 30min session on why displays are "good" and what you can use them for, then the rest of the afternoon will be spent by all teachers making and displaying materials in their classes.

Building?

There has been a large bulldozer clearing a vast area in-between the college and the staff accommodation. I thought it was for new buildings, but apparently it's for football pitches!!!

Dust and climate

Well into the dry season, the roads and pathways are really dusty at the moment. Leaves metres back from the road are covered from when cars, buses and trucks go by. Just a quick walk into the village turns your shoes brown. Doing the washing, especially trousers, I have to do a pre-wash to get some of the dust out, before I leave them to soak for a while. The water goes brown very quickly. It currently goes no lower than 16C overnight, and by late afternoon the temperature is somewhere between 30C and 34C. According to my astronomy program, the sun will be directly overhead in the middle of April which is supposed to be the hottest time when temperatures get to 40C! Then it is followed shortly after by the start of the rainy season. It is currently quite dry (35-40% humidity) and, though hot, the climate is pretty bearable. When the rainy season starts it will get very humid again (like when I arrived and it was usually about 80%) and I am not looking forward to that!

It still seems odd seeing The Moon directly overhead at night, and when it is a half moon, it is on its side.

Toilet

I am really enjoying being on my own in the house. I know that when I get home, I can shut the door and have my own space. The toilet has been really clean lately. No coming home at lunchtime to find a load in there. I even managed to tweak the cistern at the weekend and now the flush works properly, even stopping filling when the water reaches the top.

Night noise

I am currently being woken by a bird which peeps like an alarm clock and the usual call to prayer. At least there are no baby noises!!

Bahir Dar

On Thursday I will be going to Bahir Dar to stay, again, with a VSO volunteer there. On Friday, I will give my number fans and count stick - teaching aids presentation to a group of academics at Bahir Dar University. I will also be able to get lots of supplies to add to the box that arrived
from Addis yesterday. Then I'll be flush with tinned meat and tuna to last me a couple of months! The good news is that there is a college car going there so it will take about 4.5 hours in relative comfort instead of 8.5 cramped on a bus!!!

Day 150

On Saturday (23 Feb) I will have been in Ethiopia for 150 days. It will also be the half-way point as I plan to come home to the UK for a couple of months during the summer.

Mid-February Update

Personal space

Just as I was heading for the pit of despair re: personal space and privacy, I now, suddenly, find myself on my own in the house.

The man of the family is in Addis Ababa for three months at the Ministry of education on some kind of long, drawn out training. Last week, the sister of his wife, a young girl who is basically used as a servant to look after the baby, make breakfast etc, and also who was always watching me and seeing what I was doing (very un-nerving) went back to her mother for the semester. That left the wife and their 10 month old baby. Then yesterday she announced they were going to Addis to visit husband/dad. I asked how long (well actually I asked “what time?” in Amharic and she said 05:30 in the morning.) Once I had communicated the length of time, she said “und wer” which means a month, Hopefully I will be on my own here for a month.

It started well this morning when the water came on and I could hear the tap in their kitchen, on full. She’d left it on the other day and I turned it off to stop the kitchen flooding. Well today, now that she was gone, she had locked all the doors so I couldn’t get into the kitchen. Luckily I remembered the stop-cock tap outside and luckily x 2, it only turned off the kitchen tap and not the toilet etc.

At lunch time I had a sudden urge to clean and got the “Vim” powder out and cleaned the outside cement bucket sink and tiles which had months of food/washing debris caked all round it. It’s a Samaritan-effect thing. When we’re all there, nobody does it, now that it’s just me and will be mine for a month…

It was so nice tonight, coming in to my own house without baby noises, people following me around etc. I can get to the sink when I want (when the water’s on of course) the toilet will be clean with only me using it (and flushing it after). Bliss!

Other news:

The water was off for two days last week – now I have two big bowls and a bucket, I was doing ok. The electricity has also been off quite a bit. I did more cooking by siddist shama (six candles)!

I have been fully immersing myself in computer programming. I love the way you have to solve problems (that all have logical reasons, however obscure it seems at first (e.g. putting a colon instead of a comma in a global variable statement at the beginning of a program and wondering why everything was defaulting to 0 later on in a function calling that variable.) I also like thinking about new features I can add. At the moment I have written a 2D and 3D liquid simulation. You can design a river, and then make water flow down it. I even added rain and erosion. I don’t program the water where to go, I just tell the computer the rules for each droplet (e.g. if you are next to another droplet, move away, move down if you can with gravity – that sort of thing) and when the computer runs the program very fast with a lot of drops (about 15,000 drops updating 30 times a second) it looks like water. I added the ability to zoom in, show cross-sections etc. I am currently working on a Gundan (ant) simulation. They collect food and return it to the queen ant who lays eggs which hatch into more ants. They also collect sand grains to build a nest. I am working on having more than one colony and having them battle for food etc. The logical “in the present” state of mind that programming puts me in, is very good at blocking any worries about the past or future and it’s got me a through some hard times in the last couple of weeks.

There is a satellite TV in college café, which is often on Nat Geo Animal channel in English which is interesting – today it was a guy dressing up as a crocodile in a protective cage to get closer to them!

There is not a lot happening at work at the moment as the schools have been on mid-semester break. We are trying to book up training sessions in the eight schools, but it’s taken a long time to get colleagues to write the letters in Amharic. I have also been making count sticks. On Friday I was doing a lot of sanding and today I painted them (with some very smelly, probably carcinogenic) paint. My English class has been cancelled for two weeks (I didn’t know there wasn’t one today) and although I knew about the primary school being closed for two weeks, I was told they would be back last week, but I turned up and “Yellum lijotch” – no children. Hopefully Friday I can continue “One two, tie my shoe” etc. I’ve been saving all my tin cans for some drums!!!

Post:

I did get a whole lot of post after the last entry, but it has dried up again. Please write me something and tell me what’s going on in your life – whoever you are and however seemingly uninteresting what you’re doing seems – it’s the regular everyday UK life news I miss. It’s really good to get letters out here, so if you’re reading this and haven’t written to me yet, now’s the time – especially if you’re someone I don’t know is reading this. Even if it’s really short. Thanks very much. I have started a photo wall in my room so if there’re pictures of you doing anything unusual, I can add it there. I have some photos sent from someone who was on the London-Brighton Vintage Car Rally and lots of my niece and nephew at Christmas so far.

My address is:

Mark Sidey

PO Box 47

Gilgel Beles

Metekel Zone

Benishangul Gumuz

Ethiopia

Fwa fwa te 2 and candle-power

Sunday, 27 January 2008

First work: I had to prepare a proposal for the regional education bureau explaining how much money we would need and what we would use it for. I seem to have managed to get up to about 35,000 birr for training, more number cards and resources! It has been back to me a couple of times now – due to incorrect prices. Even though I asked my colleagues, they obviously didn’t know how much a ream of paper was. The latest is that I forgot to include the cost of drinks when we do training. The Dean came and told me Saturday afternoon at home… And so begins another weekend of lack of privacy and personal space – I had a sleep Saturday afternoon and at one point the girl who stays in the house held the baby up to my window and it was banging on it – all I can say is it is a good job she doesn’t understand English swear words!

Also at work, we may have finally tracked down an Amharic version of a CDP (Continuing Professional Development) course for teachers in Addis. If they really have found it, it is good news. It has everything we need to improve the teaching skills of teachers already teaching and it is delivered by one of the teachers in the school so is self-operating. What we will have to do is reproduce it, introduce it, give some training to the “facilitator” teachers and then monitor it. If it works, it will run in all ten cluster schools before the summer.

Yesterday I walked a bit more of the river after actually getting some eggs at the market. Then later in the evening just before dusk, the wind got up and the sky was amazing with dark thunderclouds lit up pink in the East and a good sunset in the West. I went out for a walk and up the first hill I had climbed over here. With the wind, it was quite exhilarating. It was dark by the time I set off back home and some Gumuz people asked where I was going, what I was doing etc, so I just spun round like Maria in the Sound of Music – well I couldn’t exactly explain in Gumuz how I was feeling! As I got near home I realised the electricity was off. A guard near the prison asked me some questions and then another said “Ferengi” so they let me go without shooting me.

Back in the house, I waited for a while to see if the power would come back, but it didn’t. Without Kerosene, I couldn’t cook using my kerosene stove, but I got the frame out and improvised… with some candles. In the end I had seven candles under my saucepan and managed to boil water and cook some porridge for tea.

Today I headed off back to the place where the rivers join and the waterfall, but either I took a wrong turning, or there has been a lot of cutting down of the reed-like plants. Anyway, I came across an Ethiopian and he asked where I was going, I said “Fwa-fwa-te” and he took me in the opposite direction to the other river (which was quite close) to the North. When we got there, there was a huge expanse of rocks and clambering over them, he showed me another (smaller) waterfall and lots of rapids in a mini-canyon. It was pretty impressive. I spent a long time there and followed the river west climbing over and round the rocks at the river’s edge. About 400m from the rapids the river was very calm and I sat and ate my banana and biscuit lunch. I walked back to the rapids and the rocks. The whole area was about 200m wide, and judging by the mud and debris, in the wet season I think the river covers it all.

I haven’t had any post for about two weeks. I hope it’s all stacking up somewhere and will all arrive next week. There are a few things I know people have sent that haven’t arrived yet.

Konjo Telick Fwa-Fwa-Te

Saturday, 19 January 2008

I got up and ready quite early today and was out of the house just after 0800. There were two buses going in the direction of the ridge I wanted to climb, but they were both full with lots of additional people trying to get on as well, so I switched to plan B. I had noticed on the map that the Beles River joins with another river about 7km to the West. Programming the location into my GPS and having no idea what the conditions would be like, I set off. At first I used an access road I had spotted previously, about 1km up the road to the North. It led to small hill which gave me some good views. Then after negotiating a field, I found a path which led precisely in the direction I wanted to go. I met a few people on the way – they wanted to shake my hand. Some were carrying lots of, I guess it was teff grain, and a couple of men were carrying large wooden tree trunks for building. After I had got a certain way along, I didn't meet anyone else.

About 1km from the "target" on my GPS, the path became very difficult to follow. There were little stretches that had been trodden, and some places where people had cut down trees, and finally at around 700m to go, there was no path at all. I just had the GPS to guide me. There was a lot of slow going as I trod down stems of reed-like plants, and I came to a couple of impassable dead ends. Finally though, I came out looking out right over the place where the rivers met. It was much higher than I had expected, I think I worked out it was 30m above the river. It was a great view. The Beles River, flowing from Gilgel Beles about 7km up-stream, was flowing fast and there were rapids. The other river was much slower flowing. I sat admiring the view having my lunch of biscuits and mooz (bananas) – the same as I had had for breakfast. I just had to get down to the river level, so negotiating a rather steep slope while holding on to branches and reeds I made it down. The rapids were quite impressive (and this is the dry season) and I noticed lots of butterflies. You can tell how strong the river gets in wet season as there were some huge boulders. At the other end of the scale, showing how violent the river must get, there were little "beaches" of fine sand. There were some very interesting rock formations looking like they had flowed down and solidified. I'm not a geologist, but it was either lava (I think they were layers of quartz) or some kind of sedimentary layers put down millions of years ago and twisted by various forces. It was then that I noticed that I was the lowest altitude I had been since Beirut on the flight out. I was at around 950m, about 60m lower than my house – oh the heady rush of increased oxygen!!!

While I was clambering over the rocks I suddenly noticed a waterfall (or Fwa-Fwa-Te in Amharic – Konjo Telick (means beautiful big)) in the distance. It was a bit of an added bonus as it wasn't mentioned on the map. It was about 300m up the Beles and I walked along the banks and took lots of photos. Then I climbed above it and had another snack after nearly burning my rump on the rocks - they were very dark and with the strong sun, they were scorching!

While I was sitting there, to my surprise a man appeared carrying a stick and about 15 fish he'd caught. I said the usual greetings and buhzo asa – "lots of fish" and then he took one off and gave it to me. I gave him a birr. I wrapped it in a plastic bag I had, but didn't know what I was going to do with it really.

A short while later I found another dangerously-steep bank to climb up and using my GPS I navigated back to the road. The GPS receiver makes it so much easier - with no paths, or paths that keep petering out all the time it was great to look at the tracks screen and see where I had walked before. On the way back there were some very good views of the ridge.

All in all, a pretty good day!

Bonus material:

My factor 50 sunscreen seems to be working – despite being out in the full glare of the noon sun I got away without any burns. I did use my umbrella when it got really hot as additional protection.

I took 2.7 litres of water with me and drank all of it before I got back. When I did arrive at the college I gulped down two Marindas (orange fizzy drinks) and spent the evening re-hydrating!!

I managed to cook my fish. I've never cooked a fish before in my life - I usually just get a frozen bread-crumbed piece out of the freezer at home or a Fillet-o-fish (pronouncing the t) from McDonalds! I chopped off the head and tail and eased the guts out, cut it in half and fried it. There wasn't much fish on it, but it tasted ok, and, considering it had been heating up nicely in my bag on the way home, it didn't smell which I believe (and hope) is a good sign. I did remember that it had been swimming in the Beles which is where people wash themselves, their cars and it's where all the waste from the Shintabet goes!! Oh well, I'll see what happens tonight.