I know I like to make you wait for my blog entries.  Let’s pretend it has something to do with building the anticipation and leave it at that.  However, on this occasion I feel the need to share, but a short time after the previous entry.

So much happens here that it is impossible to put it all down in a blog and don’t worry I will have forgotten most of it by the time I come back and shall hopefully avoid boring you with endless tales of Ethiopia (although it has been a truly amazing experience so far – see I’m getting it out of my system now).  Note I am not making any promises!

So Christmas day, by which I mean that celebrated in the Gregorian calendar and not the Julian one… Let’s keep it simple, the day that everyone else on the planet recognises as Christmas day started (as predicted yesterday) as a normal everyday day (hmm, can I fit “day” into this sentence a couple more times?) here in Adola.  It was bright and clear and I awoke at 6.45 having planned to be well awake and ready for the arrival of my new serategna at, as I anticipated, about 7.30.  In true Ethiopian style she didn’t arrive at that time; contrary to Ethiopian style she arrived at 6.50.  I coped.

For the first time since arriving in Ethiopia, I had injera for breakfast.  Injera is the local staple – sort of like their bread although it is a more a sort of thin spongy product, which I realise I am not selling as particularly appetizing.  However, at times it can be positively delicious and at others not so much there seem to be several factors involved in this which I won’t go into now (bet you can’t wait for the Blog all about the wonders of injera).

Now, the thing about injera is it’s incredibly filling- like nothing else I have known.  And there were two of these served up for my breakfast (along with a sauce called wot – no jokes please).  I managed to get through about 1 ½ and felt quite proud of myself.

I had a busy morning observing lessons from participants on the course I am running here.  They have four sessions in the morning and someone I managed to be observing in all of them.  Lunch time came around and I wasn’t really hungry – still full from breakfast.  However, my lunch had been prepared and so I tucked in, wisely only taking one piece of injera.  I managed to eat most of it, but subsequently felt extremely full.  Suddenly I realised that inadvertently I had managed to fulfil one Christmas activity – eating until you can’t move.  Perhaps I was getting into the Christmas spirit after all.

This evening I was expressing disbelief at how anyone could eat injera twice in one day, only to be cheerily informed by my colleagues that sometimes they eat it three times.  I told them they were crazy and refuse to believe it possible until I see it with my own eyes. I haven’t had dinner this evening – I probably won’t need to eat until sometime next week now.

Back at the office (usually a two minute walk, but took about ten) I gave some feedback for the morning’s observed classes and then headed at 4.30 to the ICT classes I had agreed to give.  Probably not a wise move, but somehow I have picked up the Ethiopian habit of never saying no things (don’t worry I will relearn by the time I am back in the UK).

Within a few moments of arriving I realised that something was missing, and something that was really rather essential to the successful delivery of the lesson – namely the students.  The local, who has been assigned to work with me on the ICT project, arrived shortly after and delivered the startling news: there was a protest by the students and they were refusing to attend classes.  Now there had been some issues about spaces available for the ICT classes and several students had missed out.  At first I thought this was the problem, but it transpired that the situation was much more serious – someone had written an inappropriate message in the toilets.  The police were summoned (seriously) and the students were demanding that the college find out “who dunnit?” There are over 600 students in the college and despite some attempts to match handwriting there has been no success.

By now my curiosity was piqued – what could possibly have caused such an uproar and involved so many students.  Initially I was only able to find out that it was some comment about the Guji Zone – the best way to describe this as the local ‘county’ where Adola is situated.  Applying my finely honed investigative skills I was able to discover an approximate translation of the phrase, which I won’t repeat here; my blog is not a toilet.

In Ethiopia I have been frequently been shocked at the way they refer to each other- they are quite happy to call each other “fat”, “gap-toothed” and other such personal comments that would be totally unacceptable today in the UK and some of which would be considered racist.  It has really taken some getting used to and I suppose that my surprise at the reaction to the graffiti was increased because of this.  Clearly the students from the Guji zone were the most offended, and because of the location of the college they make up a significant number of the students.  However, the response to the incident has probably actually given the rather stupid person who wrote the comment the fuss and attention he or she wanted.  In addition it seems a bit extreme to refuse to attend classes because of this as it only damages their own education (and I am not just talking about the ICT classes here – which incidentally they do really need since almost all of them have never even used a computer before – but also all the classes for the evening sessions and that’s just today).

I don’t envy the college management having to deal with this situation.  This evening, when heading out with some colleagues to a local coffee shop a large group of students were holding a meeting in a nearby field.  They were being watched over by several police officers and a contingent of soldiers.  As we passed the meeting broke up and they started making their way back to the college.  May companion suggested we cross to the other side of the road and as we did so I told him not to worry as he was with me and the students seem to like me!  Still VSO tell us to avoid such gatherings – not sure how I am going to do this since tomorrow they will be gathering on the campus and that’s where I live.

In unrelated news Father Christmas made a delivery to the guards at the gate.  As we went out I noticed that they had acquired semi-automatic rifles.  At first I thought this was in response to the “developing situation”, but was told that they had been waiting for them since the college opened 15 months ago and it was just by coincidence they had arrived today.  It made me think of the series ‘Dad’s Army’ and how they started out with a variety of home-made weapons until their rifles arrived.  Then I realised that was unfair; these guards are much older.  Funnily enough it’s actual made the campus seem less safe – still they seemed to be quite excited to have them; maybe that’s why!