A DAY IN THE LIFE OF
on My VSO Ethiopian Adventures (Ethiopia), 18/Oct/2010 08:32, 34 days ago
The nights are rarely silent. It is usually the sound of the packs of neighbourhood dogs that fill the nocturnal air and this can be quite frenzied at times with intense barking and howling reverberating around. One assumes all sorts of territorial battles going on. During the day they are as quiet as mice and sleeping off the maraudings of the night in a little shade.Before dawn the first call to pray is heard. This is not a recording here and I marvel at the dedication of a handful of devout men who spend much of their day calling their Islamic faithful to pray. However, here it is very easy to confuse the tannoy calls from the mosque with those from the Orthodox church. Both compete for air space and between the 2 there are few times of the day when sermons or outpourings of some sort are not issuing forth through the hot and sultry air.Dawn brings the first chorus from the birds. We watch as sparrow type birds land in the courtyard of the compound to compete for dead and dying nocturnal insect pickings. Sometimes a butterfly is caught and coloured wings are left lying on the ground as the juicy bodies are consumed. Black kites are plentiful overhead in this area and whistle evocatively as they sweep back and forth.When we moved into the house I was delighted to see we had bunches of ripening grapes on our vine. However, despite watering, in time to our disappointment, they literally started withering on the vine. However the state of decay now appears to be just what the birds were waiting for and we now have flocks of mousebirds, sparrows and now glossy starlings diving into the thick vine for breakfast. The courtyard becomes increasingly covered with rotten, wet fruit.Porridge for breakfast (tins of oats imported from Malaysia?), the first shower of the day and a twenty minute walk to the university campus at around 7.30am before the heat sets in. Gradually the nights are becoming cooler and thus the early mornings are relatively fresh. However by 8am the heat sets in and by 10am sitting in the office I feel the first flow of sweat issue from my pores.On leaving we walk the small neighbourhood dirt road passing children everywhere all on their way to school. They are quite gorgeous and so polite. We are always the focus of attention and frequently a great deal of giggling, although I think the immediate neighbourhood is now used to these 2 ferengi older women living in their midst. The secondary school children mostly want to practice their few words of English and‘how are you’ is a common greeting. The answer is ‘I am fine’ as this is the standard phrase they have obviously been taught. There is a range of uniforms and thus a number of different schools; white shirts and maroon bottoms, or lime green shirts and emerald green bottoms, pale blue shirtsand dark blue bottoms. They so neat and clean and well turned out. Some are bold enough to come and shake our hand (hand shaking as a greeting at all times of the day is de rigeur in Ethiopia, which is lovely and so polite), and often you can tell that it is a dare!We then hit the long straight‘new’ road that leads to the university. This only opened 3 weeks ago as the new academic year started and it was a pleasure to walk along as it carried only people walking and it was common to see someone with his train of camels using the road.Now it is open to traffic, it’s a nightmare. The scrub bushes and trees that grow besides the road have turned from green to white as the dust from the loose surface constantly spirals up from the multiple of taxis (bajajs) and other vehicles. So, it’s a long, hot dusty road to walk along and we were doing this morning, lunchtime, back from lunch and again in the evening.In the heat of the day we hail a bajaj for the equivalent of 4p, but we are starting to learn (no-one tells us!) the times of the staff bus that take staff into town at lunch time and evenings, so this helps to cut down the amount of walking in hot and trying conditions.We hit the campus and it is not pleasant. It is one enormous building site and remember that this is a university in the desert, so the sand, dirt, rocks that have to be negotiated mean that wearing normal shoes is quite impossible and tough sandals or trainers are a must. I wash my shoes and feet twice a day.As the season changes and Ethiopia moves out of its wet season, in Dire Dawa the atmosphere changes from one of clarity and a relatively compact ground to a hot, dry dust filled haze which hangs heavily over the landscape. The dry wind whips up the dusty surface till your teeth are biting on particles of grit. Although this is the cool season we are entering, the lack of rain means the temperatures have increased, although the humidity has decreased which is easier.It takes another 10 minutes to walk across the campus to our office and this is exactly like walking across a building site– enough said! As I was preparing for this induction programme, I was having to walk across the campus several times a day. This is very trying in the heat and the dirt and dust, with heavy vehicles and the noise of the contractors.The lunchtime starts at 12noon and everyone disappears to the extent that the place is like a ghost town at this time. The exception is the student living area (most of the 7000 students live on campus in dormitories and are fed in a hangar like building with a sea of long tables filling the enormous space), where they are all washing from the outside banks of water troughs and then lining up patiently for their meal. Staff disappear home till 2.30pm when the afternoon session starts and work goes through till 5.30pm.Jenny and I eat bread which we can buy around the corner fortunately with tomatoes, peanut butter and bananas as a regular diet, because its all accessible and available. We are able to rest a bit and I take another shower and feel MUCH better.Leaving work at about 5.40pm is the most pleasant time of the day. The heat is now subsiding, as that electric heater in the sky is turned off. It is now dark by 6.15pm. Everything is quieter, calmer and the atmosphere is restful. The walk home (I will try to catch the staff bus at 5.30pm in future) is actually enjoyable. We have also discovered a‘local’ where we can stop off for a beer on the way home, where the people are very friendly and pleasant and good beer costs 20p!We have been living from hand to mouth as we still have not had our promised fridge delivered. Also, procuring the required items of food is quite challenging as choice is not great and the small market stalls and little shops (just the front of someone’s house) offer very limited and the identical range of items. Fresh vegetables are always available, but securing a source of protein requires trips further afield for us. We are not eating the local meat and so try to stock up with cans of tuna which can be found relatively easily, and pulses. Even beans and pulses – chick peas, lentils, pasta and rice have to be bought from bigger markets or shops. Eggs are also normally widely available and locally, but just when you want them, they may not be. So food needs to be planned and this is challenging with working long days and having no fridge, and not yet knowing where everything may be bought. Still we are getting there! We did a big shop this weekend, lets hope that we have what we need for a while. By the time we have cooked on our 2 electric rings, or our kerosene stove if there is a power cut, I am pretty exhausted and with thethird shower of the day, I tend to collapse under my mosquito net to read something escapist, till sleep overtakes me by 9.30pm. We are warned by VSO not to be out at night, although DD is known to a very safe town, especially if we stay in the main areas and we have been out several times for meals and meeting up with people. We try to eat out once or twice a week to bring variety and a respite from our own meagre rations. The choice is limited as we are after ‘ferengi’ food of course. I love to try local food and usually love what the country has to offer, but I am not keen on Ethiopianfood not least because its heavy on meat of dubious type and quality and because I have decided I do not like ‘injera’ the national staple ‘pancake’, described by some as foam carpet liner. Others may describe it thus, I could not possibly comment! The Bridge does good pizza and Paradiso does a passable lasagne of gargantuan proportion, which sits heavily on your stomach. Fish is often on the menu, but rarely available. The posh hotel The Samrat does an excellent range of Indian dishes, as it is owned by Indians. It also has air conditioning and international TV stations! I adore thefreshly squeezed juices, currently its Payapa, avocado and ambershoh (a new and interesting fruit to me), with some guava coming in. What is popular is to layer each fruit in a long glass – divine! Roll on the mango season, and pineapple, and watermelon!!