Blog-17th November 2007
on J and M in Assosa (Ethiopia), 18/Nov/2007 18:06, 34 days ago
If you are reading this on the blog don’t think that our internet problems are over. It just means that thanks to a friend I have been able to publish inEnglandwhich is very helpful. I just have to be able to get the original to him. Actually I have now got quite used to redialing approximately every 10 minutes and accept that you do not sit down to e mail for just 5 minutes.I have been on my own for most of the week as Jeremy went back to Addis on Sunday 11thfor a VSO Workshop about secure Livelihoods which is a new sector which VSO is going to venture into inEthiopiafor one years trial period. The plan was for him to return on Tuesday 13thand I was quite happy staying on my own for 2 nights but then the MI thought it was a wonderful opportunity for him to check out some things for them in Addis and so his stay was extended until Thursday much to my irritation. This has meant I have been on my own at work for 4 days this week. Well almost on my own as Diana my fellow VSO volunteer has been coming to the MI this week for training on Monitoring and Evaluation. The trainer was young and inexperienced so Diana who is a rather dominant lady and with 25 years experience behind her gave him a few tips! Thankfully otherwise the training might have been a complete disaster.Diana has been aghast at our hair raising journey to work by bus (this is better than we had a year ago!) and the fact there is no running water so no western toilet facilities that flush and that the lunch hour is reduced to 30 minutes because of the journey. She is going to speak to her Head of Bureau about it! It transpires that if she needs to go to the toilet at work, she goes home at any time! As somebody said recently there is volunteering and there is volunteering.I have spent the week explaining to the staff at the MI that Diana is English and yes we have many black people inEngland.Ethiopiahas never been colonized so they find it difficult to comprehend. This despite they are avid football fans and must know that there are players from many countries on the English team.The fact she is very large also astounds them as they are all so small and thin. Diana would have been better to go to a country likeLesothowhere the fatter you are the higher your standing in the community.To get back to training we had a bit of a set back this week as apparently country wide the World Bank has stopped paying for training. This means that the World Bank must be unhappy with some of the major projects and so terminated them all for the time being.This is a shock as we recently heard from a World Bank official that they were pleased with progress in this Region. We must think again if the MI courses are to continue. Because of the World Bank money the Bureaus have not budgeted for any training for this financial year which ends July 08.It also means that our last course due to start on Monday had to suddenly be postponed/cancelled on Wednesday. I can see why they have not learnt how to plan ahead. There is no point when things can change so quickly.Perhaps the most annoying thing this week was to be told by one of our more capable graduates that because we come from a rich country then we are rich. This means that we personally should have lots of money to pay for anything that is needed at the MI. It follows on from the fact that countries become dependent on aid and then see no point in improving their situation as that would mean the aid would stop. Something wrong here somewhere.