Week 7/8 or Blimey, 2 months in Ethiopia already!
on Paul Stanley (Ethiopia), 30/Mar/2010 18:28, 34 days ago
Firstly, sorry for the delay in getting this written- It’s been a busy couple of weeks at work, and every time I have wanted to get this done something else has cropped up. So my normal weekly update has become a fortnightly one- I will try to get back to the normal updates after Easter. I’m off to Addis on Thursday for the holiday and a chance to catch up with some of the other VSO’s. It will be nice to get out of Awassa for a little while – it is strange to think I have been in the same town for 6 weeks now.The small rainy season definitely appears to have begun- there is rain nearly every day now, and when it rains here, it really means it. We have had a number of amazing storms in the last few days, and what consistently surprises me is the lack of any aftermath following massive amounts of rain. In the UK if it rained like it did here, roads would be flooded, and anything like a dirt road would be a quagmire- here, within hours you wouldn’t know it had rained at all! I guess it’s an indication of how dry Ethiopia is. The rain rarely lasts very long- and in between the rains, when the sun comes out it is still very hot. I think one of the big side effects is the evenings have become a lot cooler which is nice.On a brighter note, work continues to progress well. The bid for suppliers of network cabling services has now been published on notice boards all around the town - this is a major step forward. How long it will take from publication of the bid to the beginning of work is another question entirely. We have also had a door fitted to the server room- hopefully this will make the air conditioning function more efficiently, and make the room a little more secure. The power situation has also stabilised- we still get occasional power cuts, but these have become the exception rather than the rule now. I have been informed by many people that the new hydro electric power station will be coming on line in the next few weeks, and this will signal an end to all the power issues. We will wait and see.One of the common questions I am asked is what I am missing from home, and after two months a couple of things have become apparent. I’m not really pining for any major foods, though some cheese would not go amiss right now! It seems that dairy produce of any sort is not high up on the Ethiopian diet. I am missing the changing of the seasons- it was strange to think that the clocks went forward this weekend. The days here are aregimented 12 hours all the year round, and I know that I will miss the long summer evenings. I will probably not miss the short winter days and the cold so much though!I think the main thing I am missing is something I never really appreciated in the UK- anonymity. I can go nowhere here without being stared at continually or greeted with the normal cries of“Ferenji!” and “You, You, You!” I have experienced no malevolence or anger from anyone though- it is all very good natured. It is very strange when you cycle past a group of Ethiopian women and are met with a chorus of “I love you”. Even stranger is when you hear the same from a group ofmen! It’s hard some days, but I try not to let it get to me. My Ethiopian friends leap to my defence whenever we are out and deflect a lot of comments, which is always nice. What does make it all worthwhile is the sheer happiness that you are met with when you respond to anyone- I was cycling into work the other day, and as I rode by one chap he said “Hello, how are you?” I responded, “Hello, I’m good thank you”, to which he responded, beaming, “Hello, how are you?” The conversation was very short lived- like many Ethiopians the extent of their English comes from watching movies-many only know one phrase.I continue to adapt to the vagaries of Ethiopian culture- I have come to expect that a lot of my day is now spent shaking hands and greeting people. At college it is quite normal for me to have formally greeted 5 people by the time I get to my office after parking my bike- a walk of about 50 metres. I still find it strange to see men walking hand in hand or with their arms round one another. Unlike Europeans Ethiopian men are a lot more tactile and it is perfectly normal to see straight men walking along hand in hand.Well, that’s my little cultural examination of life in Ethiopia for the first two months. No doubt there will be many more things to surprise me along the road...Life continues for the volunteers– our regular Wednesday and Friday evening get together remain a highlight of the week.The Saturday before last we met up with most of the Southern Ethiopian US Peace Corp volunteers, and it was nice to find some new friends here in Awassa. The Peace Corp guys are all quite a lot younger than the VSO volunteers- most have come to Ethiopia straight from University. It is interesting comparing experiences with other volunteers- they have a 3 month training programme, during which they live with an Ethiopian family for 10 weeks, and because of this all are fluent Amharic speakers. Tesafay, one of our Ethiopian friends was blown away by how good their language skills were. We were really dropped in the deep end! We had a number of beers with the guys as a late celebration of St. Patrick’s Day (with green beer. Erm.), followed by pizza, and then my first taste of an Ethiopian nightclub (not a whole lot different to what I remember of UK nightclubs). The night finished at 11.30PM- which felt crazy and wild compared to our normal nights ending at 9 PM! Sunday was marked with my first Ethiopian hangover... Oops.The evening with the US guys also gave me a chance to meet John, an ex Peace-Corp volunteer who has settled in Ethiopia. John ran the“The Awassa Children’s Project” and has now married an Awassa girl, Maggie, and has an 11 month old daughter. Because of his work with the project John has access to a recording studio and we are hoping to get together to play some music – I will be getting to play the drums, which I am veryexcited about. I spent most of last Saturday hanging out with John and talking about music and movies. As soon as the drum kit reappears in the studio we will get to play- at the moment it is on loan to the local Pentecostal church.On Thursday last week the Awassa volunteers were visited by Wubshet Woldemariam, the country director for VSO Ethiopia. In the morning he came to my office and spent an hour just talking through any concerns or issues that I had with my accommodation, placement and life in Ethiopia. I think he is very keen to be on top of any problems that the volunteers are having, and I found this personal approach very reassuring. In the evening we were taken out for a very nice meal at the Pinna Hotel were Wubshet filled us in what it’s like to work for an NGO in North Korea - not a great deal of fun!On Friday I plucked up the courage to get my haircut. It was over 2 months ago that I last visited the hairdressers at home and my hair was getting bigger by the day. I had heard so many horror stories from other volunteers about haircuts by Ethiopian barbers that I was preparing for the worst. The main issue is the differences between African and European hair- and the general lack of fringes. I put myself in the hands of my colleague Abraham and let him make an appointment for me. At 4 o’clock we headed to the “Cozi Beauty Salon” (yes, its a barbers, not a ladies hair salon) and, following a quick beer to calm the nerves, I am placed in the hands of Abraham the Barber. I communicate if my best Amharic/English that I want a short back and sides, and not to short on top. Away Abraham goes with the clippers, and 30 minutes, 2 head massages, a liberal dose of liquid paraffin later, and I have a very neat haircut. And it looks almost identical to the one I had in the UK. But in Ethiopia, it costs 20 birr. Just about one pound. Wow! The only thing that was really strange wasat the end of the haircut Abraham proceeded to clean out my ears. Very odd: I decided just to relax, and go with the flow...Well, that’s me up to date for now. Next week, I will report back on the trip to Addis...