Millennium
on J and M in Assosa (Ethiopia), 15/Sep/2007 09:50, 34 days ago
Happy Ethiopian New Year.Exciting week. Tuesday at 11am we were told that we had the rest of the week off in line with all government offices. On the way into Assosa for lunch there was great hilarity, singing and clapping on the bus. No work until Monday.When we got off the bus we met Mulatu on his bike and he had at last got his exam results for Grade 8 and has been‘promoted’ to Grade 9. He got 67%, pass mark 37%, and he is in the top 1% in his class of about 500 students. His brother, Kidanu, who is 2 years older is waiting for his Matriculation, Grade 10 results, and got 57% in his Grade 8. Mulatu usually has a beam on his face but on Tuesday it coveredhis whole face and his eyes were sparkling. He was delighted. We decided to celebrate in style and as we did not have to return to work in the afternoon we went out for lunch to the best hotel, the Bamboo Paradise – it was also Jeremy’s b’day so a double celebration.At the Bamboo Paradise there were about 10 Chinese engineers one or two of whom spoke very little English and no Amharric. Mulatu had to translate for them but found their English difficult. Jeremy had to translate their English for Mulatu and he translated into Amharric for the hotel! They also wanted to know what to do in Assosa– Mulatu found this even more difficult to answer. The Chinese are building the road from Assosa to Addis and live in camps beside their work and cook their own food with ingredients brought from China. They had decided to come to Assosa, their nearest big town to celebrate the New Year.We left them to explore the town. While we were walking home we heard the celebrations beginning with the playing of the Bertha horns and Mulatu went off to see what was happening. We arrived about 4 ish at the piece of rough ground by the Bank where the celebrations were being held. We arrived with Lesley just as the Chinese were leaving. There was a‘big screen’ supplied apparently to about 6 other towns by Al Mundi the owner of the Sheraton. It arrived on Friday and had been put together over the weekend and despite Steven’s input (VSO IT expert) it still was not working. No instructions came with it! However there was a lot of entertainment with Christian choirs, Bertha horns, a wonderful police jazz band etc. The President, the VP , the Christian and Muslim leaders, the Speaker of the House, the Head of Information Bureau and the Head of the Millennium Programme were all sitting in state behind a big desk. As there was no stage and there were lots of people it was hard to see anything but eventually we got to the front. Next thing I knew the President was beckoning, I did not think he meant me and I looked round to see who he was looking at, then a policewoman and one of the stewards came and brought the 3 of us over and wewere given seats behind the President which, after a couple of hours standing, were very welcome. The music continued with a few fireworks and at 7pm the President left with his entourage. We sat on but after 10 minutes the van came to collect the table and chairs and that was our cue to leave andeveryone else’s too.We returned to the big screen about 10ish but sadly there was nobody there and the place looked very desolate compared to earlier. We walked home and called into a local pub/ café to watch the celebrations in Addis on TV. The fireworks at midnight looked spectacular and lasted for over 20 minutes. An excellent event.Wednesday, New Years Day, by a cruel twist is a fasting day for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians and for Muslims the beginning of Ramadan. Mulatu and his older brother cycled to see their mother, sister, Adise, and brother Merawis who farms the small area of land the family have and will have the family meal together on Thursday.The brother in hospital was discharged for the day but had to come back to get his bandage changed. He was able to join in the family celebrations with‘doro wot’ (spicy chicken stew) on Thursday morning. The compound behind us had a sheep whose head ended up in our garden – horrible!We were invited to join Martha’s family ( the lady who washes and cooks for us) on Wednesday afternoon and spent a pleasant few hours with her, her husband and 2 children. They are Protestants so no problem with fasting.We felt we did our second Millennium proud.