Bahar Dar... the continuing story

Having stayed at a local hotel last night, with a couple of
cockroaches scuttling around the bathroom, a non-flushing toilet and a
shower whose plug sparked when I plugged it in as there must've been
loose wires, I waited at the VSO office all morning and was taken to
the airport at 12:00. I had about 70kg of excess baggage which
totalled 350 birr (about £20) which I guess is pretty good! The VSO box was
the heaviest with two blankets, my kerosene stove, voltage stabiliser,
electric hotplate etc.

After waiting until 14:10ish (the boarding time on the ticket was
12:35) we were given a free lunch on the house (or airport) which was
actually quite good. Then at around 15:00 we were told the flight had
been cancelled (due to not enough planes!).

So I'm now back at the VSO office having checked back in to the hotel!!!

The worse thing is the driver from Gilgel Beles TTC has been waiting
at the airport since about 11:00 and doesn't have a mobile phone. I
think someone has managed to contact him though, and he will stay in a
hotel in Bahir Dar for the night.

I hope my flight goes tomorrow!

(If you don't get another blog entry for a couple of weeks, then my
flight went!!!!)

Latest on Gilgel Beles and Addis Shopping 2

On Monday all of our partners from colleges and universities all over Ethiopia came to the university here to meet us and have some joint training. The volunteers all dressed up smartly (shirts and ties) to show respect. It was funny seeing everyone like this after being in T-shirts and unshaven etc for two weeks.

The Dean of Gilgel Beles Teacher Training College looks very young, and was accompanied by my line-manager who is one of the Vice Deans. They both seemed friendly and easy-going and told me about the person who would be my counterpart – a young graduate who will take over the cluster management after I leave (sustainability in action!). Apparently he speaks very good
English, which is good. The Vice Dean told me about the schools in the cluster. There are ten main ones scattered about 20km in both directionsfrom the college along the main road. I asked about a map, but there isn't one and the Dean asked if I could make one. I should be able to make a simple one using my GPS Receiver which I have with me.

The main problem was there had been no accommodation arranged for me. The Dean suggested I stay in a hotel in the town, but staying in a hotel in a small town, possibly sharing facilities with all the other guests for two years is not my idea of fun. Eventually he agreed that I might be able to share a house on the college campus with an Ethiopian academic - if one volunteers to share with me!!! I am also still uncertain as to how I will be getting to Gilgel Beles. At first I was going to be driven over two days, but I think now I will be flying to Bahir Dar (near the huge lake in the North) and then being picked up by a GBTTC driver and driven the 4-5 hours
to the college.

At 6 o'clock there was a cultural evening. There was an Ethiopian band playing music and Ethiopian dancing which lots of us joined in. Some of the volunteers including me sang "Lean on Me" to our Ethiopian partners. A couple of people were on guitar and I played my whistle in the chorus.

Yesterday I manage to hitch a lift with a VSO vehicle to Addis with another volunteer to continue shopping. At first we went to a market, bartering for things like saucepans, a belt, an umbrella etc. Then we got a line taxi to another area and hit all the supermarkets. I got an electric kettle for 170 birr and a few snacks to take with me – I don't know what I will be able to
get when I am in GB. After walking all day, not having lunch, we arrived back at the VSO Office at 1600 to find a vehicle had left 15 minutes earlier. In the end we had to wait until 2100 before we could get back. In the meantime, we went to a local restaurant and had ferengi food (ferengi = foreigner) which in this case was my first burger and chips since the UK! It was luxury not having injera and wat (the lentil or meat-based stews) for once.

As well as modern features in Addis, including an amazing huge circular bank with two layers (the top layer being open so you can see the one below) there are huge holes you have to watch out for in the pavements (1m or deeper!) some containing open sewers. Also there are no public toilets so there are areas where people just pee up against the wall (the same as some places in the UK!) Also the pollution from the cars is bad – you come home very dirty.

I now have my Ethiopian mobile phone and SIM card and people from the UK have been calling me. This is only a short-lived luxury as there is no coverage in GB or even the town 40km away!

Line Taxis, Food and Begging

On Thursday I had a phonecall from my school. It was great to hear
from them. Some children asked questions, the first one being "What
are the differences between Ethiopia and England" - a nice easy one to
start with! Apparently the conversion was on a speaker phone. It was recorded,
then played to all the children in the different classes which was
brilliant. Hopefully I will be able to do another "live link" when I
come back to Addis for training in November.

Saturday 13th, October: I have been in Addis today, using the line
taxis to get to different places. They are minibuses and you listen to
where they are going (usually a man or boy shouts where they are going
and drums up business.) Then you get on and on the way they drop off
and pick up other people. It costs no more than two birr (10p) to get
anywhere in the city and often a lot less for shorter journeys.

You really have to get used to driving in Addis. Cars, trucks and vans
come at you from all over the place. I'm surprised there are not more
accidents. Most junctions do not have traffic lights and it's
basically a free-for-all and everyone just pushes in.

First, I went to Piazza which has some electrical shops. Whilst there
a young man attached himself to me and said he wanted to practise his
English. Then he got onto needing to improve his English and how books
and a laptop would help. I made it clear I had no money to give him
and couldn't help him with sponsorship, but he followed me onto a line
taxi and eventually gave me his email address then got off. It's very
hard not to be sceptical and assume people are trying to scam you or
ask for money. He could well have just been trying to get on in life
and improve his English.

I visited some supermarkets and got a chocolate bar. Then I remembered
it is rude to eat while walking on the street so put it in my pocket.
Unfortunately it was showing and within seconds two children were
pointing and asking for it. I broke off a bit and gave it to a girl.
So far I have adopted a "no begging" policy - if you had to decide
each time whether the cause was worthy or not you would go mad with
guilt. Also, although this is a horrible comparision, just like
throwing food to a pigeon and loads more fly in, if you give to begger
one, you will be immediately a target for others. It's not really
very bad here. Most beggars are sitting and just hold out a hand,
those that do follow you only need one "no" and they go.

I stocked up on a few supplies. I'm starting to think birr prices, but
it's hard not to convert to English. I had a coffee followed by a coke
in a roof-top cafe with table service and it cost 7 birr (35p.)

Tonight I will pack, and tomorrow I will go to a hotel near the VSO
Office in Addis. Then on Monday I will fly to Bahir Dah (by the giant
lake) and if all goes to plan, Gilgel Beles college will send a car to
pick me up and drive the 5 hour journey to the college. When the Dean
and Vice Dean visited on Monday, they showed me their driver. He
studied me intently, and afterwards the Dean said the driver was
looking at me carefully as he finds it difficult to tell Chinese
people appart!!!!

Bar Quiz and Shopping Day

Yesterday, we had more language (we're learning verbs and stuff and
how to conjugate them!) Before lunch we had a break and a few of us
walked up the nearby hill (like we did the other night). The view was
really good – lots of green. There were also lots of large cacti. On
the way back we went past a village where all the houses were
"home-made" from mud bricks and corrugated iron. It's funny here:
there are areas that are really poor with shack houses, then only a
few hundred metres away, posh skyscraper buildings.

In the evening, a couple of the volunteers had organized a "pub quiz"
and we answered questions on a variety of subjects. Our team which
included a Finn and a Kenyan, came second out of nine which wasn't
bad. It was really funny being in the middle of Africa doing a pub
quiz!

This morning we were shown what VSO will be giving us to take to our
placement. We will have a mosquito net, a single electric hot plate
and a very dodgy un-safe-looking kerosene stove. We have to put the
flammable liquid, kerosene (like petrol) in and it has about six
string wicks which you light with a match. When you blow it out at the
end, you have to put it outside or it will stink the house out. The
reason I will need this is because sometimes I will not have
electricity. Also Kerosene is cheaper than electricity for cooking.

The "highlight" of the day was going to Addis to shop for things we
need in our placements. Some people will have lots of things they need
already in place, as they are taking over from other volunteers. I
will be going into a house with nothing but the basic furniture and
have to buy everything. I was led round by a volunteer who first took
me to the "Hilton" Hotel. It was really weird, even after only being
here for just over a week, to go into an air-conditioned, luxury
hotel. I had to go through a metal detector and my bag went through an
X-ray machine – personal first for a hotel! There I had one of my
dollar travellers cheques changed into Birr cash (they're the only bank
open on a Saturday in Addis) and I used the posh loos – the first time
I have been able to dry my hands in a public loo since I got here
(mostly at the uni you shake and drip dry!)

Next we hit the supermarkets and shops (again, it was weird to have a
cash-till and aisles of food and products. If I'm like this after a
couple of days, I wonder what I will be like after staying in Gilgel
Beles for a few months.) I managed to get a knife and fork, mug,
plate, big cooking pot and frying pan, bedside light, sheets for my
bed etc. I will also be getting a stabilizer (for the electricity – it
is a big box that makes sure the electricity stays at 240 volts. The
mains can vary a lot from 160V to 280V and the stabilizer makes sure
my laptop doesn't blow up by keeping it constant!)

Hill climb and scavenger hunt

We've been having more sessions on the culture and history of Ethiopia and more language lessons which are very hard. I can count to thousands, say "please", "thank you", ask how much stuff is, complain it's expensive and ask them to lower the price and I know some important words like "coffee", "bananas" and most importantly "soft" which means toilet paper. Sorry to mention toilet paper again, but it's quite important!

Yesterday after the training sessions a group of us climbed a hill
near the university campus where we are staying. There is an open quarry which we go past on the way – which may show up on the satellite image to the East. I'm not sure what they're digging up though.

Today we had a scavenger hunt. We were dropped at the VSO office, then had to go into the city using a "line taxi". These are minibuses which pull up and someone shouts the destination. If it is where you want to go, you get on and your fare is collected on the way. (It's 2 birr maximum which is about 10p). We had to buy bananas, get a newspaper, something with the Ethiopian millennium on it etc. Our group was the last one back as we had to travel the furthest and it was hard finding a line-taxi that would take all four of our group. It was quite fun, but you have to be relaxed about it all and one of our group was
getting a bit stressed.

There wasn't too much hastle. There were a couple of people asking for money at the roadside and some followed us, but we just walked on and they left us alone.

It's funny getting used to Birr. You can't really convert to pounds because it doesn't make sense when you're living here rather than being a tourist. In one sense, compared to pounds a Birr is worth about 5p, but compared to the salary I will be getting, it's sort of like 50p to £1. I will have a better comparison later.

I took a lot of photos on the journey today, mainly because before
when we went into the city I was focusing on what was different, but there is loads about Addis that is the same and I took pictures of similar things today. There are new blocks of flats, petrol stations etc

I've started taking my anti-malarials, second one tonight. I don't know if I'll have any side effects.

That's it for now.

Mars Bars and Coke

The last couple of days I have had meetings and a talk from a medical advisor at the British Embassy in Addis. Also, I have been continuing to learn Amharic.

I have found out more about Gilgel Beles. First, I think it is the most remote VSO placement in Ethiopia at this time. I am down in the "isolated volunteer" category. There is a small medical centre there, a post office (very unreliable apparently especially for incoming mail so if you send me a letter or something when I have an address, you'd better photocopy it and send it a couple of times), a couple of hotels, a church, a mosque and there is even a prison marked on the rough map made by the last (and only) previous volunteer a year ago.

I have also found out more about the school system.

Children start school at age 7 in Grade 1. Grades 1-4 are called the "First Cycle" and Grades 5-8, the "Second Cycle" Children leave Primary School after Grade 8 when they are 15. Then they go to General Secondary School for two years (Grade 9 and 10) and at age 17 they take a national exam. If they pass they go to Prep school for two years (Grades 11&12) which prepares them for university. If they get low marks they go to Teacher Training College for three years to get a teaching diploma. Teachers are paid about 400 birr per month (£25) and many only do the job for the little money it offers, although once in post many do what they can to help educate the children in their class.

The location of the VSO office is: 09 01.042'N 38 47.220'E.

This afternoon I bought a Mars bar from a shop near the VSO Office at 6 birr (it is a luxury item and the price cannot be haggled down.) I also got a bottle of Coke at a nearby stand for 2 birr 50. I was doing ok until the shopkeeper kicked up a fuss about me leaving with the Coke and wanted 5 birr more and I though it was some kind of scam. I soon found out it was a
deposit for the bottle that he wanted. The glass bottle is worth more than the contents and he didn't want the bottle going anywhere. I walked around eating my Mars (I haven't missed them and it wasn't really worth it.) I got my money back when I handed back the bottle, so all was well!

In the UK a bottle of Coke is about two times the price of a Mars, here it's the other way round. I guess it would be a bit like a mars bar costing around £1.50

[PT I dare you to read this bit out in assembly!!]
Something a bit dodgy we found out today. The sewer system here (as in some areas of Europe apparently) is not designed for anything but body waste. I mean anything. We were told that we have to put all used toilet paper in a bin next to the toilet. Our bin was an open wicker one… Luckily, and miraculously, when I got back to my room after lunch, I found a plastic peddle bin with a lid in place. Still, I hate to think what it'll be like in the bathroom in the morning!

On the drive home today, the children were walking home from school and looked really smart in their uniforms. They have different coloured ones for different schools like we have at home. Some areas have well cared for flower beds and in the centre of a roundabout near the airport, there are letters made of grass. There is also lots of building work going on with quite a few areas with new, big blocks of flats.

Anyway, dinner calls, as do the gym showers (or trickles) which have hot water.

Sunday 30th September 2007

Today we had a late start which meant a lie in! Then it was language
training – recapping yesterday. I wasn't too bad as I had made up some
visual ways of remembering the numbers, for instance "thirty" in
Amharic sounds like "so-laster" so I pictured a needle and thread
sewing a plaster with 30 on it. Then we learnt lots of new
greetings and hit overload when we had to learn the male, female,
plural and formal endings!!!

In the afternoon we went to a town 25km South of where we are staying.
We walked through loads of people who didn't give us any hassle, maybe
because we were in a big group. Then we walked up to a volcano-crater
lake and loads of children followed us. Again, they were just being
friendly. Some spoke English and talked. I practised my Amharic
numbers on them and took photos, then showed them pictures of
themselves on my camera. Finally, we went to a hotel and had a Coke. I
don't think they do diet coke out here - certainly not citrus diet
coke. It cost 5 birr (about 25p)

The traffic was really bad on the way back, and I don't think people
stay in lanes on the road, there seemed to be cars, buses and trucks
passing on all sides, including the grass, hooting etc.

Tonight there are hundreds of mosquitoes and midges around – maybe
because unlike the other days it didn't rain heavily this afternoon.
At least they're not like Scottish midges with their vicious bites.

Saturday 29th September - Language Learning

I managed to get to breakfast for the first time today. There were eggs and bread and porridge, cereal etc. I took a spoonful of something that looked interesting, then noticed it was fried injera. At 8 o'clock in the morning, eating a fried sour vinegary roll of bread-like stuff is not good! (Actually the texture of injera is like a crepe on one side and the airy holes of a crumpet on the other and overall it feels like a rolled up sponge.)

Then to our first real training sessions – in the morning we talked about why we were here and what our professional and personal goals were. I have been a little dizzy now and then over the last few days, but at one point I came across really dizzy and had to sit down. This is probably altitude-related. I didn't have the headache or nausea of altitude sickness, but I did feel dizzy. Pleasantly dizzy as it happens – sort of spaced out. I was told to drink lots of water, which of course meant I missed parts of following sessions, going to the toilet! Later on in the day I felt better.

In the afternoon we started our Amharic language learning. My numbers skills I had learnt from the CD-ROM came in useful, but it was so hard remembering other words. I could remember one for a bit, then when we were told another, the first one went out the window. The hardest one was "ah-may-say-gan-ah-lu" which means "Thank You." It has six syllables and trying to remember them in order is a nightmare! There are also about 7 phonemes that we don't have in English with tongue clicks etc – it's very hard to speak them.

After that, I went to the computer room. Steven the VSO ICT guy had set up a network switch and seven of us with our laptops were connected to the VSO laptop acting as a server to a dial-up internet connection. Now remember how slow I said it was with one machine connected. Now imagine with seven sharing the line. (Broadband is usually 1000kbps+, the dial-up line was connecting at 40kbps and sharing between 7 laptops…) Anyway, I got through a whole charged battery and had only managed to see the welcome screen to my webmail. I tried signing up to Yahoo and Gmail because others were having luck with them, but that failed. Finally, and hopefully I sent in yesterday's blog using someone else's email. Then my webmail finally came through and I sent an email home after two and a half hours.

At Dinner, I sat with two Ugandans who were recruited by VSO in Uganda. It was really interesting hearing about their country. There's also a really nice guy from Kenya in my language group – also a VSO Volunteer. After dinner I sat outside and one of the volunteers had brought a guitar and people were taking turns singing. There was one young woman who sounded like Joni Mitchell and was really good. I don't think they're ready for Mr Bojangles yet, although I may get the old tin whistle out soon!!!

I think I mentioned the plumbing and fittings. Lots of money has been spent on this university, but it seems there has been no attention paid to the little things. For example: when the floors were tiled and grouted, it's like no-one bothered to wipe up the excess or dropped bits, so the floor and shower look dirty. Also, almost all the taps have not been tightened so when you turn a tap control on, the whole tap including spout rotates. The shower drips (also, still no hot water), the toilet leaks after flushing; in fact there was a major leak in one of the toilets near our training rooms. I know I don't know anything about the bureaucratic systems here, but I'm sure if someone paid a couple of qualified plumbers to come in with a few tools, they'd have the whole place sorted in a couple of weeks.

Of course all of this will probably seem like luxury to me in a couple of weeks time…

Thursday 27th continued and Friday 28th

It was quite difficult emailing off the last blog entry. The office staff at the university where we are staying wanted to go home. Also the internet here is slow. I'm not just talking about it being a dial-up connection, it's the time it takes from the click on a link to retrieving the page that takes ages. (see below.) After emailing we had dinner – more injura and separate dishes with different meats and non-meats to eat. It's a good spread.

It is a religious festival today (Meskel – Finding of the true cross) and there was a bonfire and the people danced around it clapping and chanting. Then we went to an even bigger one and there was an outside disco and bar – as well as the festival, it was the last day of another group (Ethiopian) training here at the university.

Oh, a man came about the shower this afternoon, fiddled around with the hot tap (it fell off in his hand) and said it needed a plummer. He may have also said in Amharic ((inhale) that's gonna cost yer!) but I'm not sure !! So I had to have a cold shower. The water isn't as cold as in the UK, but it was still very cold and I didn't stay in there long and probably said a few words I shouldn't have as I was rinsing off.

Friday 28th

Laid in again. Cleaner popped in again. Got up at about 0930, got ready and started to sort my stuff out a bit. I also took some pictures of vulture-like birds soaring in the distance. The cleaner came again twice, and then two of them appeared and I had to let them sweep and mop my room. They wanted to make my bed, but it was covered in all the stuff I had been sorting.
Then I got really tired again and had a nap until it was time for lunch. This was delayed a bit so I went to the computer room to find all the PCs had gone (I thought they were university ones, but they belonged to the people on the other course which explained why they were so anxious for us to finish using them yesterday.) A VSO guy had set up a laptop and I again tried to email. It was incredibly slow (lunch time is bad as everyone is using Internet cafés in Addis at that time and the phone network isn't up to it.) Anyway, after a long time waiting for the blue line to
slowly progress across the bottom of the screen (probably 5 minutes) I got to the log in page of my web mail!. In the end it took about 20mins to send a short message and read one of the 13 waiting in my in box. Someone else was waiting and as it took about 2mins from message to message, I didn't dare read any more.

Then I went to lunch, more injira – I'm getting used to tearing off a piece of the roll using one hand, collecting food in it, then eating it – all with one hand.

The altitude isn't affecting me much, although I seem to get a little more out of breath than usual, and every now and again I get a little dizzy spell. Some of this could also be tiredness though.

Tour of Addis

After lunch we had a bus tour around Addis Ababa. When
we got to the outskirts, there were hundreds of
"shops" lining the roads. They had no lights inside
and all the goods were out the front on display.
Everywhere you look you see corrugated iron. It's used
for fences, walls and roofs in the city, the shops
were also made of this. What was strange was seeing
modern goods like trainers, backpacks etc all on
display, but in these small dusty corrugated iron
shops. As well as the shops there were little stalls
(maybe even just mats) with fruits and other goods in front of the shops, or anywhere there was a free patch of ground. There were lots of children running the shops, and at one point I saw a boy who was probably about 6 or 7 under an umbrella, in the mud, selling fruit. (PT – I saw some shoe-shine boys!)

I knew the culture was to be smart in Ethiopia but it was funny seeing one family – a dad and his two sons (one only about 5) wearing suits in the market. Also, our tour guide on the bus was wearing a suit.

Of course you tend to look at and seek out the different, or what you're not used to, but among
everything I have written about above, there were also buses and cars, lit shops with windows, tall modern skyscraper buildings, people in sweatshirts, jeans and trainers etc.

I know we were isolated in our tour bus, but even through all the differences, I had a very big sense that there are a lot of similarities also between us in the UK and here. There were people selling things, buying things, getting on with their lives. I know this is a big city and it will be very different where I am going and that this is a bit profound or "lecturey" for this early in my tour, but I think it's easy to see we are all the same, we're all humans on this planet and we should just all get along!!!

It began raining heavily again and all the people crowded under shop fronts, or even under the shelter provided by telephone kiosks.

As we drove around, the roads were bad and traffic seemed to be everywhere, but as the guide told us, this was a holiday and it was much better than usual.

We passed some important buildings like the Ministry of Education, the university, the US Embassy (heavily fortified) and through what is apparently Africa's largest open-air market.

There are lots of decorations up (Ethiopian flags, and huge banners of the Ethiopian flag colours
"wrapping-up" buildings – this is for the Ethiopian Millennium (their calendar is 7 and a bit years behind ours and it was 2000 only a couple of weeks ago)

Some other things I noticed: The satellite dishes that are around in the city are basically pointing upwards – this is because we are near the equator and the satellites in geosynchronous orbit are basically zooming round thousands of miles above the equator. Also, the scaffolding on buildings being repaired or newly built (even up to about 5 storeys) all used wooden poles, not metal like at home.

As we got to the far side of Addis we started climbing (very steeply) up a mountain that over-looked Addis. It was a bit misty, but the countryside was beautiful – green, lots of trees and the view was very good. Apparently, when we were at the top it was 3200m high.

Finally, we arrived at the VSO Ethiopian Office which is surrounded by a high wall and is like a very large detached house building. Some people emailed home, some rang home although they only had about 30secs and we could all hear them! At the office, we also got our
Ethiopian money. My US$100 had been changed to 905birr. The 5 birr note (which is worth about 25p) looks like about a thousand people have used it before me – it's brown with all the wear.

The volunteers that had arrived early this morning looked very tired – like I was yesterday and I felt a bit sorry for them as they probably didn't enjoy the tour as much as I did.

It's true what they said about the sunset in the equatorial regions. We left the VSO office in dimmish light, and 30 mins later it was totally night when we got back to the university.

Once there, it was straight into dinner – variations of the same. It's becoming natural to use the injira as cutlery although I tend to use too much and need to get another roll to finish my food, or too little and the food goes all over my fingers.

This next part is a special request for Lynda: It's 21:15, exactly a week after you asked me to tell you what I am doing. (I can't believe it was only a week ago I was having a school leaving do!) Well, I'm typing this blog entry to send tomorrow, sitting at a table in my room – so that's a bit boring, although the noises outside are very different: There is traffic passing on the road a short distance away, and a little while ago I heard the call to prayer of the mosque next to the university, there is that cricket-type sound you hear on all videos set in Africa, but the worst are these very noisy birds that sound like smoke alarms going off in 5 second bursts every 30 seconds or so. Worst, because of trying to get to sleep! As I look to my left I see my A3 paper
blutacked to the window as curtains and two mosquitoes have just flown in front of my laptop screen. (We have been assured there is no malaria up here in Addis. I thought that meant no mozzies, and to be fair, there are probably less flies and insects buzzing around than there would be at home on a mild summer night, but still!) The temperature is 20'C in my room and
18'C outside. I really have been given a gentle introduction to Africa!

I'm not going to write this much all the time, it's just all so new at the moment and I keep noticing everything that is different.

*** I have literally taken 2h15 to send this blog entry. The first 1h45 then the battery failed. I
started again and have finally used someone elses account ***

___________________________________________________________
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I'm here

After all the planning, preparation and the highly stressful last couple of days trying to pack everything and completely set up and restore my laptop, I am now in Ethiopia.

Yesterday: With all the last minute reloading of the computer, I finally got to sleep at 0600 and woke at 0700 so I was just a little tired! I got to the airport after a couple of hold-ups on the M23 and M25, checked in, in plenty of time, had a last drink with Mum and Dad, said our goodbyes and went through security. Luckily, my bag wasn't searched – there were a lot of gadgets in there!

The plane left a bit late (about 1500) and our first destination was Beirut (Lebanon) to re-fuel, change crew and off-load a few people. After that, the plane seemed to mostly contain VSO Volunteers and we could spread out. There were 20 of us, 10 more arrive tonight, then 12 more on Saturday. I managed to grab some sleep.

The plane had LCD screens and you could either watch one of seven movie / comedy channels, or choose programmes on demand which kept me busy. On one channel you could see the flight status and a map of where we were which was very good. We mostly flew at 10000m and the outside temperature was about -50'C! I had my pressure sensor watch with me. I reset it to 0m at Beirut, and when we climbed after take off, the pressure in the cabin dropped to an equivalent altitude of 2100m. (That's what makes your ears pop – also I noticed when we had a snack that the packet of crisps were blown up like a pillow because the pressure inside the bag is much higher than in the cabin!) My ears didn't pop landing at Addis Ababa as that actually is at about 2100m. (see below.)

I flew over the coast of Africa at 21:27 (BST) (the first time I have been in this continent) near Alexandria.

I will now use Ethiopia time (ET) which is GMT+3 (which means at the moment it is 2 hours ahead of Britain and in the winter it will be three hours ahead.)

We landed late - after 0300 (ET), so 0100 back home. I thought it would take ages to complete all the formalities, but ours was the only plane in, and the airport is fairly small. It was very quick (maybe 10mins) filling in a form and going through immigration – (they let me in!), then baggage claim was quick, and through customs (I didn't have to fill in any forms, they let me straight through) to meet the VSO staff with their big sign. We didn't get any hassle as there wasn't really anyone else about.

Next we went to a bus which was taking us to the university campus we are staying at. It was all done up at the front with flowers and pictures, like a shrine. At first it could've been the UK – the road signs have the same pictures and were in English, then I saw a petrol station where the illuminated sign looked just like a BP one, but all the prices were in Amharic characters. Also, we had to slow down in a number of places where there were huge holes in the road.

We got to the university at around 0530, collected our cases and two big bottles of water and went to our rooms. They are university staff and student accommodation. There is a lounge downstairs and a small kitchen, and upstairs a bathroom with flush toilet, shower (which only does cold at the moment – one of the pipes is broken – may get fixed tomorrow – could be a cold shower tonight!!!)

My room has a table (which I am sitting at now), two big lockable wardrobes, drawers and a door to a balcony. There are no curtains anywhere so I have to be careful changing with the light on!! But basically this is a very gentle cross over into Ethiopian culture. After a quick wash and doing my teeth (remembering to wash my brush and mouth out with the bottled water – it was hard as I kept reaching for the tap) I basically crashed into bed and put my earplugs in. There is a busy road about 100m away, and I heard the first "call to prayer."

I woke a few times, but eventually at 1030 when I heard the downstairs door unlock, someone walk up, unlock my room and (without my glasses) I saw a blur which peeped in the door and said "sleeping." – I found out later it was the cleaner.

As I mentioned before, the pressure is lower here because we are much higher than at home (my GPS says 2050m) and I have felt a bit dizzy every now and again. At sea level the pressure averages 1000mb, but here, this morning is was 794mb (so there is 20% less atmosphere here between me and space!)

As I mentioned, at the moment I could be in a training centre in England, but there are a few things I noticed that make it different:

1. Out of the window I saw a bird with a long curved beak sipping nectar from a flower (not as fast as a humming bird and bigger.)

2. I went outside after a quick sort and locking stuff away at midday. Then I noticed the sun almost straight above me (as I am near the equator.) My shadow was tiny.

3. There were a number of ant trails, they are black, but much smaller than the ones in the UK.

At lunch it was very nicely set out and I had my first taste of injera (the national bread made out of keff – a kind of wheat. It is rolled up like a toilet roll and you unroll it and use it (with your right hand) to pick up the meat and other food and then you eat all of it. The injera has a sort of vinegary taste. I'll have to get used to it, as it will be my main diet for the next 2 years!!!

Then we had a welcome from the head of VSO Ethiopia and a coffee ceremony – incense was burnt and we all had a cup of the very strong Ethiopian coffee.

Using my GPS, I have the co-ordinates of my room. For those of your with Google Earth (or similar) the coordinates are: 8d51.389m N 38d48.248m E (in Google Earth you enter: "8 51.389'N 38 48.248'E"

That's it for now. We are going to visit the capital tomorrow then have two weeks of training including language and customs. Stay tuned.