9th December 07 Events in Assosa
on J and M in Assosa (Ethiopia), 09/Dec/2007 08:32, 34 days ago
A quieter week in the town and I suppose people just have to get on with life.The Evaluation Meeting of the Bureau Heads continues and rumours are rife as to who is going to lose their job, who is going to gain etc.Uncertainty is everywhere.It has now hit the MI as our General Service Manager has just been jailed for 3 months. He has been missing from the MI all week and then on Wednesday we heard he was in court and on Thursday that he was in jail for irregularities in procurement. The people we talk to in the MI seem to be in a state of shock. We just hope he is not the pawn. He and only he has the authority to purchase any items which the MI needs to carry out its duties. So at the moment we have no flip charts, no printer ink. I am told that someone else will be appointed to his job in time.Potential fraud is a major issue at the MI in ways we would not contemplate. For example if residential training is booked for 2 weeks and then the course finishes 1 day early there is aproblem as the food cannot be paid for if there are no trainees signatures for the day. The auditors will ask– why did you pay for food when there were no trainees. Despite the fact the hotel supplying the food has been contracted for 2 weeks and the bureau has paid for 2 weeks. The auditors will think that a member of staff at the MI has fiddled things. To pay for the food the auditor insists on seeingthe attendance sheet for that days training and then will only pay for the numbers present.On Friday we organized a follow up workshop from last year’s. It was rather successful with the emphasis being on interactive teaching. Whether the trainers of the region will be brave enough to try some of the new ideas remains to be seen. It is one thing to say that is great but another to implement it. However it was good to see them all enjoining theenergizers etc.In addition, it was rewarding to see how much progress our experts at the MI have made. They were really confident in delivering their presentations and enjoyed using power point. We felt it was a fitting end to our 2 years.We had a pre Christmas Assosa meal last evening (Saturday) at Diana’s house as next Saturday is the start of the 6 of us dispersing for the Christmas period. Only Robert will remain in Assosa. Diana had been preparing for the event all week so expectation was high and we were not disappointed. We were joined by a German woman,Lena, who has just come to Assosa to work for the Red Cross for 2 years. As this isLena’s ‘proper’ job she has a car and as Diana does not like to walk too far especially in the heat she is keeping in close contact! Also as Diana admitted they are more of an age (40s).Steven is also trying to get in on the act withLenaas he would like to get out of Assosa at weekends. How to be popular in Assosa– have a car! Diana is going to the Sheraton at Christmas( not on our salary!) and Steven is going walking in the Bale Mountains (the other extreme) so the car will only be important again when they return to Assosa in January. We have lost interest in driving, certainly here, and just hope I canremember how to drive on return to theUK.