Final Days
on Joanne Cairns (Ethiopia), 31/May/2011 06:44, 34 days ago
Final Days Part 2 (of the Trilogy)So the food shortages continue, but I am still getting enough veg to keep the plumbing clear. This is more than can be said about the general plumbing in Ethiopia. As you know I have a deep loathing for the sanitation here– it is probably the thing I dislike the most and something I will never understand. Men peeing constantly in the street is bad enough but I am increasingly becoming irate at men here using the ladies loos, especially when not peeing. I shall go to the ladies room and it will be occupied – no problem – but then time is marching on and my lukewarm dinner is becoming increasingly cold. Then the noises start, usually a lot of grunting, and finally after an age a man appears. I take one look at the wet floor and the mess left behind, then I lay into them. They all claim that they did not realize this was a ladies toilet. If I can read the sign in Amharic as well as recognize the international symbol for a lady then I am sure they can. The reason they use the ladies toilet is that they have soiled their own room and have moved on to soil elsewhere. These men are disgusting. It is also true that Ethiopians do not know how to flush a 'Western' toilet. Can't / Wont? Even at the MoE no flushing took place!!!! Don't understand the people here sometimes. But in truth the general state of plumbing here is appalling. But one gets used to it. For example I cannot fill the kettle for a cupof tea while Paul is using the shower or said shower will stop working. If I use too much hot or too much cold water in the shower – shower will stop working. There are more plug sockets in the bathroom than any other room in the house – there is only one in the bedroom and there is no toilet cistern that actually works properly; there will be an array of plastic, wool, straw, string attached to the stop cock that needs pulled and every tap leaks – except when there is a water shortage. Which is required from time to time to dry out the bare wires from all electrical appliances.My new favourite electrical appliance is the laminator!!!! It truly is the best thing for Ethiopia. I have to makes sure, however, that it is plugged in to the right socket with enough voltage to heat it up. But I have been making resources for my last workshop and the best thing is that they can be re-used. Albeit not by me as I witnessed my colleague collecting armfuls of resources at the end of the workshop for which he did zero preparation and very little presentations during the four days. My second colleague was a bit distressed and went round picking up what was left. And of course not one thank you between them, it was all "I need this" and "I need that…" They were welcome to all my hard work. It was a rather strange workshop. I had organised two training sessions so all the trainers could get together and agree on a plan for the four days and decide who was responsible for which sessions. When the workshop started it was very clear my two colleagues had done NO preparation and had expected me to do ALL the preparation. I was feeling somewhat charitable in my last official duty as VSO volunteer and made up power point presentations for them as we went along, though my patience was tried when one colleague told me to wake up in the middle of her Amharic presentation and put certain information on the screen. She told me her next session would simply be a translation into Amharic of the session I had done that morning and I should use the slides I had already prepared. I reminded her that the slides were in English but this was not a problem. I wasn't really sure why there was an Amharic session using English slides. It was a bit like watching an English movie that had been badly dubbed into Amharic with English subtitles. Why were the trainers there I wondered. The workshop had already been cut by one day and the three remainingdays were shortened by 1.5 hours. But then I discovered not only were they getting a per diem they were being paid as trainers – more than half a month's salary for 3 days work. Not bad work if you can get it, especially if you leave the ferengi volunteer to do all the work!Final Part of the Trilogy to follow as will the Editors Cut on Ethiopia.