Visit to Anichow School

Wednesday 30th April

Tummy still feeling fragile – not a promising situation given that there is unlikely to be any toilets and very likely to be a bumpy ride at least part of the way.

I arrived at the office for 8 o’clock, checked the vehicle with Ato Mulat, rang Meleshew who had not yet left home and then Matt to tell him not to hurry – too late as he was already coming in the college gate. The vehicle arrived 10 minutes early. After half an hour, I rang Meleshew again – there were no line taxis... decided to ask the driver to go and pick her up despite this being in the opposite direction. Sadly, but predictably, the schools and supervisor had not been notified and my book had not been collected.

The journey took us off in a new direction – following the road up from the turnoff to the Goha hotel and past the village of Felasha, a Jewish settlement which I need to revisit sometime because it is apparently the best place to buy authentic Ethiopian ceramics.

The terrain was similar to previous journeys and, although the road was not surfaced, it was at least fairly even until we reached Abbaba school. The Director found us a guide to visit Anichow but was a bit miffed that we didn’t want to visit his school. We promised to return after our visit to the ABE school that was our priority for the day.

For the next 20 minutes, we bounced along a very rough track – the sort of conditions 4 wheel drives were invented for! Even so, we ended up stuck and it was all ‘hands on deck’ to remove the stones from the centre ridge and bolster up the wheels with small stones that the wheels could grip on (photograph – well somebody had to take photograph!).

Meleshew supervises, Ruth photographs!

This was followed by a 20 minute walk uphill – our imminent arrival announced by the hordes of children that arrived from nowhere to escort us on the last bit of the journey.

Meleshew had warned me that this school might make me think about the best way to offer any funds I might find available – she was not wrong. There are a lot of photographs to go with this blog but I make no excuses for putting in rather more of this school than I would normally. It is most definitely the poorest school I’ve seen so far and it is badly over-subscribed.


Seats, no desks

EthiopiaLink funded the building that you see – last year it was no more that a shelter. Now they are able to offer Grades 1 and 2 and have students ranging from 5 to 17. Two teachers politely requested help to build another two classrooms, one so that they could take in another Grade 1 class next year to meet demand and one for a Grade 3 class. These two young teachers had taken part in the model classroom training at Keye Ameba last month along with over 100 other teachers but hadn’t really had a chance to try out the materials and would welcome some extra input.


Teachers in front of last year's classroom

I promised we would come to Abbaba next week for some additional training and added that I would buy a volley ball and net for the playground. They will have to walk for at least one hour to Abbaba, there and back for next week’s training.

Matt promised to help fund the new classrooms and maybe the following year, they would look into providing toilets. The prospect of water is a long way off.


Smart Boards!

The children at this school gathered around us and followed us wherever we went – no prospect of classes with such exotic visitors to stare at. They asked for nothing. No begging. They have nothing. Their clothes are little more than rags, many of them have or have had ringworm. It is most unlikely that they have sufficient food. Seeing it and writing about it has moved me to tears – sadly, it will be one of the lasting images of my time in Ethiopia.

Class of 2000 visit to Anichow School

Planning to visit Anichow and Abbaba school

Tuesday 29th April

Not much better and sadly, my tummy got worse as the day wore on.

Went to visit Ato Mulat first thing to ask for a vehicle to visit the ABE school I have been planning to visit for some time.

A few more people at the office including Meleshew who came in late and caught up chatting with her friends. Eventually made time to see me and I brought her up to date with my work for the last week and plans for the forthcoming week. I told her that I would be visiting Anichow and Abbaba school in the morning and asked if she was going to come. Meleshew agreed to come and promised to be at the college early. She also promised to contact the supervisor and director to let them know we would be coming, to call in at a local school to her house and collect a book I needed to plan and English session on Friday and to arrange for copies of the new phonetic alphabet to be prepared. Meleshew then left and I took advantage of the power and internet connections to catch up with emails.

Arrived home to find that Mekdes had cooked me some dinner – shiro and a lentil wot served with the obligatory injeera – I was looking forward to a small bowl of noodles and an early night. I ate a little of the food and got the early night.

Sore Tummy...

Monday 28th April

Groan groan – definitely feeling the effects of too much food.

VSO health warnings said it was not a question of if but when - having escaped major disruptions to my health for 3 months, my stomach protested vigorously at the onslaught of meat. If that wasn’t enough to turn me into a vegetarian overnight, I went out early to buy some rolls for my guests breakfasts and walked past a pile of goat/sheep skins with various limbs scattered around the neighbourhood. A severed head by the house, covered in flies turned my tummy over!

A very quiet day at work – nobody around. Decided to leave early and try to book my tickets for Addis. That is such an understatement. Booking anything in Ethiopia is a mega activity. First, I go to the airline office. I wait patiently for about half an hour trying to work out who I might be following. Had just about got it sorted when a young woman came in and jumped up the minute an operator became free – I jumped as quickly and indicated in my best body language that there were a number of people waiting!

I booked 3 flights – one for the conference, one meeting Monty and one for saying goodbye. On the final flight in the middle of June, the operative informed me that I was the only person booked on that flight. I enquired as to whether that might mean the flight would be cancelled. He patiently repeated that I was the only person booked on the flight – only Englizawit would think of planning so far in advance! My enquiries as to whether I might pay with a credit card met with a blank response – cash only. I promised to return in the afternoon and started the long trek up through Gonder to the bank. The bank cannot give me cash on the credit card. Because of my impromptu decision to book the flights this afternoon, I didn’t have everything I needed e.g. bank book or traveller’s cheques. Nothing for it but to return home.


Small yellow bird in my garden

After lunch and a phone call from Matt at the Ethiopia Link office, I braved the fleas and caught a line taxi up to Gonder. Changed the last of my traveller’s cheques and trekked back down to the airline office through the heavy rain. I finished the afternoon with a visit to the LinkEthiopia office and negotiations with Matt for some funding for the CCU.

Back home to cook a very simple meal of pasta for my guests and an early night nursing a sore tummy.

Easter 2000

(Sunday 27th April 2008)

Officially 8 years younger! Yesterday, I felt it too. But this morning arrived and I had to brace myself for the carnivore feast to come. Being up early with the priests however, I decided on a little breakfast to enjoy the cheese that Allan had brought me from Addis before it went off. Kibebe arrived at about 10:30 telling us that the family were waiting. First meal of the day – doro wot – we declined the beer on account of it being too early in the day but Belete tucked in to the wine I had brought (for Adina, but we’ll let that pass!). The coffee ceremony followed – carried out by Adina. We sat back and watched the tv, music and dance celebrations from around Ethiopia with a short break for the BBC World News.

At 11:30 we said our goodbyes having promised (reluctantly) to return in the evening with Allan’s visitor for dinner.


Rainbow birds in my garden

Mekdes met us at the house and took us to her family home – a small mud hut in a compound full of children, dogs and cats. We were greeted by her mother, sister and various smaller children, one of whom was a rather shy brother. Allan and I were immediately served with a huge meal of meat – sheep, chicken and ... well I didn’t ask. Our plates were constantly being refilled despite vigorous protests from both of us and we realised that the only way out of this was to stop eating and trying to empty our plate. We were given a beer and then another – the second of which I had to leave.

The coffee ceremony was performed, photographs admired, more photographs taken and an impromptu dance from two young neighbours together with Mekdes’s older brother who had returned from dancing celebrations for a quick lunch.

Saved by a text message, after two hours, Allan and I left to go and meet Elidh at Piazza. Groaning with being overfed, we decided to walk at least part of the way. When the heat got to us, we caught a line taxi. Another juice, this time with pineapple was a welcome and healthy balance to the food.

The afternoon saw a major storm so I took the opportunity for a much needed siesta before returning to the neighbours for an evening meal. This time, we tried a little of the wine – which was rather like a medium dry sherry. As Belete refilled his glass, Adina reminded him it was her present! Though I think they would have been happy for us to stay the evening, I had had enough! I invited everyone round to the Leymeyer for a drink. Belete confessed he had already drunk too much but would come with me on Monday.

After some debate – which included my insistence that Monday night was not an option, we parted company with the parents but took Kibebe with us to the Hotel. She was very excited – 23 years old and never goes anywhere! The hotel was heaving with young, middle class Ethiopians celebrating and everyone was dressed in their finest traditional outfits. The music was loud but the atmosphere was bright and cheerful – very enjoyable.

Kosoye and the Semien Mountains

Saturday 26th April

Absolutely the best day yet and has to go down as one of the best ever.

Allan and I started out early in the morning along a new route that I had wanted to explore. We ascended a steep hill for quite some time but still ended up coming back down to the main road. Eventually took a side road off and mixed with a huge crowd taking and fetching goats/sheep from the market. There does not seem to be a general agreement on how to move one of these animals around once purchased so it varies from being carried around the shoulders, being made to walk on it’s hind legs whilst two people hold it’s front legs as though it was walking along hand in hand – except the poor animal clearly does not want this, to being dragged along with a rope round its neck or horns. The route brought us into the livestock part of the market – we decided to beat a hasty retreat!

Managed to attract plenty of attention from would be guides but it felt much easier being with someone else. One boy in particular was trying to guide us around the market. Having made several attempts to lose him, I finally told him that we didn’t need a guide and would not give him any money. He said that was fine, he just wanted to practise his English. So we continued around parts of the market I had not seen before. Whenever, I go with Mekdes, we have a list and she takes me to the appropriate shops or stalls and gets me out of there as quickly as possible.

It was tremendous fun browsing in and out of the stalls. The clothes area is so densely packed it’s like walking round a rabbit warren and not particularly conducive to browsing. Our young man eventually tried to get us to buy some Euros off of him. Both Allan and I were intrigued. He said he had been given them by tourists (about £10 worth). Not at all convinced that a tourist would give him euros! We explained that being British, euros would be no use to us. Gave him a birr for his troubles and then parted company.

By this time we were both feeling the need for a rest so sat out at a café and ordered a juice – mango, avocado and papaya in layers – delicious. (But I have never seen avocados for sale). Allan got out his guide book and said he would like to visit Kosoye – in the guide book it was listed as a place where Queen Elizabeth had asked to stop for tea because it was such a beautiful lookout point. Having nothing better to do for the afternoon, we decided to walk up to the bus station and see if was possible to get there by bus. We were assured it was but not at all convinced by the arrangements. We boarded one bus that we were assured was going to Kosoye but after a short while, all the other passengers disembarked. We were beginning to worry that the other passengers had been told of a change of route!

We decided to get off but by then, the idea of going to this place was firmly established in our minds. We trekked up to Piazza to see if we could get a good deal on the taxis. The taxi driver wanted 450 birr but said he would not wait to bring us back which meant we would not be able to walk. We continued up to the Quara Hotel and enquiries there produced two young men who said they could do it for 600 birr. We tried negotiating the price and appealing our residential status and eventually got them down to 350 birr. They went off to make the arrangements whilst we stocked up on water and lunch (mini pizzas – spicy but without cheese).

We had apparently hired a whole line taxi to ourselves! We had to pay 100 birr to the two guys who had organised the deal and told to pay 250 to the driver on our return. The driver and mate were very relaxed – almost too relaxed! They stopped at the local market to buy a bag of ‘chat’, water and pepsi. They sorted through their discs and settled down for the 32km ride with the ferenjis in the back. A bit anxious at first, I settled down to enjoying the journey when it became apparent that the driver had no intention of speeding or crazy driving. He was super careful and very relaxed.

The road was not much more than a track but because he was driving so carefully, we were not bouncing around in the back and were able to enjoy the views. I won’t try to describe them since Allan took some amazing photographs.

After about three quarters of an hour, the driver – Alemayhu - stopped and took us to a vantage point from where we could see the Siemien mountains. Strange, bleak, dark conical peaks set against a background of huge mountains and valleys. The sun was struggling to break through a mist creating an unearthly atmosphere. Continuing our journey, we eventually disembarked at our destination.


Semien View

The driver and his mate prepared themselves to ‘chill out’ for an hour whilst handing us over to a young lad to act as our guide. By now, the terrain was beginning to look decidedly wild - we accepted the guide gratefully. It was not long of course, before we were joined by several others, but our guide was very attentive and made sure he looked after this ‘mother ferenji woman’ offering his hand and shoulder when walking over tricky sections.

We had not gone far when we turned at shouts from behind. Alemayhu was waving frantically for us to return. Over in the distance was a herd (if that’s the right collective noun) of Gelada baboons. Alemayhu was determined to get us to turn around as it is apparently rare to see so many on the edge of the national park.


Baboons

We continued our trek along a mountain track admiring the views- my descriptions will never match the views and I didn’t think the photographs would do it justice – I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Our guide carefully directed us off the track at one stage down to the edge of a deep ravine – Allan became a little anxious at this stage. However, the two main guides held my arms firmly on each side and encouraged me to look down and there, on a tree at the bottom of the ravine was a family of small, black and white Columbus monkeys. I tried to take photos but my camera was not good enough. Allan finally overcame is anxiety about the height and came to take the photographs
.

Columbus Monkeys

A little more walking and then we sat and just looked at the view.

Time to get back to the line taxi and the journey back attracted yet more people - from where I have no idea. We saw no dwellings no signs of civilisation as we know it e.g. power cables, huts. But nevertheless we ended up with quite an entourage including some young girls, one of whom suddenly yelped and became very excited. Rushing down the hill not far ahead of us were presumably the same herd of baboons that we had seem in the distance earlier only this time they were startlingly close and the males were looking fierce.


Mummies and babies

They were magnificent with their long manes and bright red chests. Many of the smaller females were carrying babies on their backs. I have since told several people about what we saw and they have all confirmed that this was indeed a rare sighting – even in the middle of the mountains, you rarely see them so close.


Young Males

I tried to photograph them but realised that I was looking through a lens and at a screen instead of at the real thing! So I put away the camera and just looked. A huge moment, magnificent creatures in their natural habitat.


Not pleased to see us

No more Doro Wot

Friday 25th April

Writing this in arrears (i.e. it’s Tuesday not Friday) no electricity and pouring with rain so very dark – apart from my super dotty wind up lamp – going away present from the remains of the Wrottesley Road crew – it’s a godsend!

Friday was a very quiet day and I rested, slept, read and waited for Allan to arrive.

Blue bird in my garden

He sent a text to say he was on his way to Piazza so decided to go up and meet him. Having had such a quiet day, the contrast in town was overwhelming, sheep, goats and people everywhere. Found Allan and quickly caught a line taxi back. Called Nicholas who was fast asleep. Eventually, we all came together to eat Mekdes’ doro wot. NB - do not ask Mekdes for doro wot again. The boys made a brave effort but it was very hot and I could only pretend to eat. Finished off the evening with a trip to Lamageyer for some beers.

Coffee, emails and Rice Pudding (sort of)

Thursday 24th April

Quiet day at the campus! Nicholas called in to suggest coffee. Back for a short time and then Abeba came to ask me for coffee! So coffee morning. Abeba likes to talk. First about the language group we’re going to start next week, then about her mother who lives in Mekele with her younger brother. Since her husband died, the mother is constantly being moved around. Under the socialist regime, they were given a home because her husband was a teacher. The new regime have reprivatised the housing and now her rent is constantly being put up and she has to keep moving. Abeba wants to build her a house but thinks it will cost around 40,0000 Birr for one room and a toilet. With her salary around 2000 birr a month and her own family to keep as well as sending money to support her mother and brother, it is going to be difficult for her to save enough for this.

At home Mekdes and I decided to check her new email address to see if Michael or Gill had written. But Mekdes couldn’t remember her password. Spent the next half hour trying to explain the password and eventually realised that we hadn’t even agreed on the meaning of ‘word’. All prompts at getting her to remember her password failed so I sent for a reminder. Trouble was, neither of us could remember the basic information (including her birthday) that was required to get a password reminder. Nothing for it but to start again.

Setting up an email address should be easy but, if you don’t know when you were born, have no idea what the reminder questions mean (e.g. pet’s name, school mascot!) then this becomes a decidedly tricky business. Having discussed memory for some considerable time, I decided it might be better to write down all the information. For some bizarre reason, Yahoo also requires an alternative email address to send the password reminder to! So I had to give mine.

Then off round to see Kebebe, Adina and the rest of the family. Was served up something that can only be described as a savoury rice pudding but with wheat and no sugar. Extremely bland and rather a lot of it. I ate very slowly as I had been offered shiro as a follow up! Then the coffee ceremony and a brief look at the BBC World news before being escorted home after Adina had extracted a promise for her to visit me next week.

I was also invited around Sunday morning before I go to lunch at Mekdes’s house. Said I could not eat more than one doro wot in one day but promised to bring my guest Allan round to eat my share! Hope he’s up for it!

Trouble with English Lessons

Tuesday 22nd April

Good job I can touch type. Makes life a lot easier when having to work on battery power alone. Also very grateful for having brought along an extra battery! No power at home today. But power on at the office and the internet for at least part of the day.

Back to Kebele 16 school today to meet with the 2nd cycle English teachers and assess their training needs. There seems to be a problem over the book/s. The one they have is not the same as the one I have (which is much newer). Still haven’t got to the bottom of the book problem yet. It is that they appear to be using the wrong book. Spent part of yesterday looking through the teachers guide for Grade 1. This goes with a radio broadcast that I haven’t yet listened to. Thing is, it tells the teacher to ensure that she uses the correct pronunciation though I can’t find any guide to pronunciation in the book. I tried it out on them. Going through the alphabet it was clear they didn’t really know the sounds of the letters. After some prompting, they got the idea but agreed that they’re not teaching this. This means that a lot of the vocabulary is being learned off by heart and children continue to experience real difficulties in reading. As do the teachers!

I agreed to meet up with them again next week and do a demonstration lesson. And think about ways in which we could introduce the older students to the sounds of the language.

The Director, Eschete, walked me to the school gate and invited me to eat on Sunday. I said I couldn’t because I was going to visit Mekdes’ family. Totally undeterred, he asked what time? And suggested I go to his place afterwards. The thought of Doro Wot (chicken, egg and lentil – very rich) twice in one day was more than I could cope with. I apologised profusely and he was terribly disappointed.

I get the impression they’ll be quite a slaughter this weekend. Easter Sunday is a big day in the family calendar – 54 days of fasting (which means going without meat and dairy products) followed by a feast.

On the walk home tonight, I passed a group of lads I see most evenings having a kick around. Suddenly I heard my name called, looked over and they were asking me to go and join them – I laughed, they laughed. Sometimes, it feels great around here.

Back home to the remains of the food that Mekdes cooked for me yesterday. A spinach and potato wot and shiro served with her mother’s injeera.

Chocolate

Monday 21st April

Whoa hey! Trip up to Post office proved very successful. Oh, mmm, ahhh!!
A whole bar of Cadbury wholenut still intact though slightly soft.

But, a major dilemma. No indeed, two dilemmas.

Firstly, there is a notice on the bar that says it is for sharing - What? My first real chocolate in over three months and I have to share it!

With whom? Oh dear. So, if I scoff it all to myself, I will end up with a massive feeling of guilt. And, it’s Easter this weekend. I should give chocolate for Easter. But who to give it to? Can I get away with just giving a small section of it? That would look terribly mean.

Then again, it is a bit soft. I’m not sure it would last until Easter. So I will have to share it now or not at all.

Solution: just remembered, everyone is still fasting! No dairy products! I couldn’t possibly hand over a squidgy bar of chocolate as a gift. Nothing for it but to gobble it up....

No wait! There is another message. Something about my ever thickening waist – Oh no! not only that but a GDA message – what the hell is that? Ah ha! I see. A breakdown of all the stuff that’s in it that I am not supposed to eat. So one chunk = 35 calories and 2.2g of fat. Now what shall I do?

I’ll just take a little look inside...

I’ll just break off one little chunk...

Oh dear, it is soft and 4 whole chunks have come away together...

Now melting rapidly on my fingers...

Will just have to try some...

Oh... Mmm... oh... mmm...

Now how many chunks can I have per day?

Back to Atse Fasil

Friday 18 April

Back to Atse Fasil to carry out some lesson observations with Meleshew. The lessons are very long (120 minutes) and so the Director had organised for us to see two lessons in one session. This means that the observations are quite limited and it’s hard to do justice to a teacher. Meleshew and I used the information gathered to construct some additional ideas for the Training day on Friday.

On Friday, we trained 100+ Teachers of Grades 1 – 4 (7 – 11). The day was split into 2 with Meleshew and Mulugeta doing their usual session on Model Classrooms, whilst I did training in Lesson Planning and Continuous Assessment. I asked for a translator and the Director provided a 2nd Cycle English Teacher. We didn’t get a chance to discuss before hand and unfortunately, it took him awhile to begin to do what I needed rather than engaging with me about the nature and purpose of my planning. For example, he said the teachers already knew how well children in their classes had responded to the lesson because they were good at observing facial expressions and body language! Fortunately, I explained that the teachers had requested the training I was giving and they backed me up! The day was successful and I ended up with a very sore throat.

Lunchtime, Meleshew decided to take me out to lunch. We went to a local café and had injeera and a variety of veggie wots, a couple of bottles of pepsi and coffees. The bill for the 3 of us came to 27 Birr! (less than £1.50). Had I paid, it would have been substantially more! They agreed, laughing.

I also visited Kebele 16 school which is very close to the college. I had been promising Eschete the Director that I would visit. Lots of building work going on – to include new classrooms, a library and media resources room. The school had a fantastic atmosphere. Ethiopia link provided money last year for them to build a new staff room – built of breeze blocks so providing more shelter than the traditional wooden and thatch structure (but visually much poorer).

The teachers and local community have formed themselves into a committee PC3 Positive Change, community, children, care. The group have been given money, but I’m not quite sure from where, to support work with the school’s orphan children – approx 350, orphaned by aids – representing approx 10% of the school population. They have invested the money they’ve been given in a fridge/freezer to make ice lollies which are sold to students during the break at 10c a time. The money raised goes towards providing uniforms. They also received further substantial funds which have been invested in building two small shop units outside the school which are to be rented out. The income will also be used to provide finances for books and hopefully a meal a day. A good example of a sustainable project that will generate an ongoing income rather than just using a short term handout.

I met up with two English teachers who showed me the one book they have between them (grades 5 – 8) to prepare lessons and explained that some students had been able to buy copies of the book on the black market which meant that every class may have 2/3 books in it. Going back next week to discuss training issues.

A very quiet weekend. Again, I was intending to go out Nicholas had said he’d like to go up to town. I called Carlyn and she said a group would be meeting at abut 7pm. Then the power went off, it started raining and I read an email notice from VSO saying that the elections had caused some unrest in Addis and Asosa (on the border of Sudan). Decided to stay home.