What have you been up to?

Posted on 26/05/2015 by Mr Silver

Jack of all trades; here they are having me build desks. This is what will save Africa!

Often not an easy question to be asked, but I guess I can give it a bit of a blast after the last 20 months here in the heart of rural Ethiopia and the fine city of Adola. Okay it’s still only a town, but just you wait it’ll be a city one day – watch Addis!

Time Management – hmm the word late or similar comes up a lot. I wonder why…

“Just saving Ethiopia!” could be my reply. Fret not, I am not so arrogant to assume that my actions are going to turn this place into a developed country overnight, but I do hold some hope that what I have shared here is part of a massive effort on the part of countless people who have given a little of themselves and their experience to guide the country to new opportunities.

Students working

As I think about previous blogs I realise that mostly I have written about experiences I have had and very little about what I actually have been doing here. I want to take the chance to share some of this now, as I look back and reflect on my time.

The main purpose of my recruitment by VSO was to help out with the Higher Diploma Programme, which, in brief, is about developing different teaching methodology in schools – specifically in my case for primary schools. In order to work on this I was sent to a rural teacher training college in Adola- a town whose praises I have sung more than enough in the past.

Biology practical – 5 points for each Lab safety rule being broken!

As mentioned in a previous blog post, way back at the beginning of my time here, it took a while for the course to get started. In spite of some frustration in this, I soon adapted to the rather laid back approach and rather than get stressed out and angry, I decided it was better to go with the flow and make the best of it; making use of time when it happened.

Derese with the Grade 8 girls. The project was his idea.

At times it was an uphill struggle- there is understandable reluctance for change especially where the only experience people have had is in lecturing to students or being lectured to – imagine a teacher trying to lecture to a class of 7 year olds in the UK… for the whole 40 minutes (the length of a lesson here) and that followed by 5 more 40 minute lectures. I don’t think they class would survive until the end of the day!

Getting the students involved at primary level- good job HDP participant!

There were many arguments why they couldn’t encourage their students to be more active participants in their learning-“We don’t have enough time to deliver the course content”; “The class sizes are too big”; “We don’t have any resources.” What they couldn’t say was the real reason: “We’re scared to change.”

And using local materials as teaching tools – double points!

I realised I needed to encourage them to believe that they could change, that they can have an impact and that their students would actually learn far more by being active, rather than passive, in the classroom. I wanted them to change their focus from them “teaching” to their students “learning”. The overarching idea being that they then pass on this philosophy to their students- the teacher trainees- who in turn take it to the schools with them.

3rd year trainee on teaching practice trying to involve the pupils. The message is seeping through!

While I would love to say that Active Learning is now the norm here in Adola, I am not so foolish as to not recognise that these things take time. Some staff adapted more readily than others, but I have to say I was impressed by how willing they were to at least give the whole thing a try. And I wasn’t gentle – I really made them work hard and this became clear when, at the end of the first year, I went with two colleagues to the moderation workshop. The standard of what the participants here had produced far exceeded that of the other institutions. Not only was their work complete, it really showed depth and that they had engaged fully in the process. Most importantly their lesson planning clearly showed their efforts to implement active learning and assessment for learning – two key areas of the HDP.

One lecturer's imaginative contribution - active singing and dancing!

One lecturer’s effort – active singing and dancing!

The second year I handed over the mantle of the day to day running of the programme to local colleagues, which gave me a little more time to focus on some other areas. The Dean had not been shy in asking me to work in several areas and was open to my insistence in each case of working with a local counterpart to encourage a transfer of skills and sustainability. This certainly kept me pretty occupied during working hours.

Physics practical

Working with colleagues, we have helped the college to open and resource an ELIC- English Language Improving Centre (sic). It is still in the early stages, but has potential to be a great place for students to go and experience English in a lesson rigid and formal environment. This place has been a focus for two other areas I have been keen to work on- the quality of English language teaching and raising the performance of girls in education.

Students using ELIC

In the first case I have been really fortunate this year to be able to work with some of the students who have chosen English language as their focus. For the third year students this was a mixed group, but for the second years I asked to concentrate on the female students.

2nd Year Language focus students

In general they are more reluctant to participate in classes and by bringing them away from their male peers I was able to give them a chance to be more involved and the efforts that they have made have made it highly worthwhile, with some of them shining in a way that would not have been possible in a mixed class.

2nd Years Role-playing

When one of the English Lecturers at the college came to me to ask for help in delivering a programme to G8 girls I was delighted. Instead of being asked to generally help in one area, this guy had actually a focused plan on what he wanted to do and he wanted me to help him out.

Grade 8 Girls with Fikirta, a second year trainee

This, for me, was a key moment and at this point I realised that all my efforts had been worthwhile – the local community was not only identifying its own problems it was also coming up with solutions too. This for me is exactly where development needs to be- rather than someone from the outside coming in and dictating how the community should change.

G8 Girls using computers for the first time

I have loved the variety of tasks that I have been able to get involved in here. I have given ICT training and technical advice- it gives some idea of how much people here have to learn if they are coming to me for the technical advice! I have worked with lecturers, teachers and students as well as the college management and local government and have enjoyed every interaction. I have built desks and planted trees and all this was just my day job!

ICT training for support staff

If anyone were to ask the secret of my success here though, I would have to concede the glory to the people I have been working with. They have been open to new ideas, new ways of doing things and trying them out to discover what works for them. They have gone out of their way to involved me in the community and to make me feel welcome. There is no doubt that it is their effort that has made all of this possible and, as I reflect, I realise the part I played was really very small in the grand scheme of things, but I am glad that I have been able to make my little contribution to sustainable change in Adola and Ethiopia.

Tree of teaching – HDP work

Gotta Get Out of This Place…

Posted on 25/05/2015 by Mr Silver

Country roads

Don’t worry my enjoyment of life in Adola has not suddenly dissipated, nor am I in desperate need of an airlift to safer climes. Nevertheless, it is always good to get out and explore the local area rather than staying sat in at home watching films or reading the e-book; two activities which have possible occupied unhealthy proportions of my time here.

View from the hill

Adola, in spite of its many plus points, does rather lack in providing distraction. Consequently any opportunity to break out and enjoy the countryside is welcomed.

A resting place on the road

Unfortunately having no transport of my own (certainly a feature of my top 5 things I have missed the most) means that I am reliant on friendly others to fulfil this desire.

Green fields

Fortune has favoured me to some extent in the local community of Catholic priests. They don’t reside in Adola – rather they stay about 30km to the west in a beautifully tranquil place called Qillenso and come every week in turn to Adola. After Mass in Adola they travel out each week to different rural communities and have kindly invited me on several of these expeditions.

Country home

Not only is it a chance to see more of Ethiopia, it also has allowed me to experience very rural life in the Guji zone and helped me to appreciate all the more the little Adola does have to offer- and there were you all thinking that Adola was the remotest place on Earth- wherever did you get that idea? Most importantly though it goes someway to dispel the myth of Ethiopia land of desert and famine as I have had the opportunity to experience some of the most incredible vistas of lush green valleys throughout the year.

Massina Community

Illala Community

Being able to take part in these visits has been a great opportunity to explore how the communities have grown and developed over the time I have been here with progression from small wooden hut to extended wooden hut or, in one place, direct to concrete church – although they do need to fix the doors there.

First choice for a community

Zambaba Community with old church – now replaced by a concrete church.

The roads to the majority of these places are a little rougher than the lovely stretch of tarmac that now serves my beloved Adola and there have been one or two occasions where I have wondered if I might be walking back to town, however somehow the cars have always made it and long may that continue (as I think about the potential journey this coming weekend – sadly my last).

Country Roads

On Good Friday this year (one week later here) I somehow agreed to join the Catholic community on the way of the cross; imagining this to be a little jaunt around the town and then a couple of kilometres into the countryside to climb a hill.

Walking on the road

It soon became apparent that I was right on the first account, but not on the second. It turned out to be a walk of several hours, concluded with a climb up a pathless and steep hill.

Crossing a bridge on the walk

Clearly I am still in need of some fitness training in spite of the huge increase in the amount of walking I have done since arriving in Ethiopia. I also needed to bring a larger water supply as we were “blessed” with a beautiful sunny day.

Freshening up

Although I was assured it was nowhere near as hot as the first year they had done it, when no one had brought any water. I must confess to taking advantage of my friendship with the priest to take a ride back in the car. Most people had to walk. We did go back and collect a few after dropping off the first load though!

The hill approaches

Climbing the hill

At the top

The college has also been great for getting me out a few times. Recently we took a walk to a place a few kilometres from the college to plant some trees – several thousand, but light work for so many students and staff.

Hunduma needs a break!

The walk involved a fantastic bridge across a river, through some forest and up a hill (there’s always a hill!). I was one of the last to get to the planting area as I had been photographing the students crossing the bridge, of course I wasn’t hoping someone would fall in, but seriously 600 students – at least one!

The great bridge!

Getting there so late there were only a few trees left, but I managed to plant some.

Saving the planet!

We have also been able to visit neighbouring districts as well as the longer trips to Negele (see previous blog entries). One particular trip was to an area called Seba Boru. It took most of the morning to get there via Shakiso (the gold mining area).

Miners’ Huts

We met with the district officials for a couple of hours and then drove back; the purpose being to collect some data. Sadly (or conveniently!) there was no power, so, no data. Of course they promised to send it on later. The trip might have taken place more than sixth months ago. We might still be waiting. Naturally, I have no comment…

These mischievous girls are great fun. They kept hassling the priest to take them out and finally he relented. He couldn’t keep them out of the tree though!

The remotest place on Earth!

Posted on 24/05/2015 by Mr Silver

It may seem a little extreme to make this claim of somewhere like Adola and yet at times it can seem a little like that.

Every so often there is a news report or documentary about someone giving up technology and exploring how they cope. In these cases, of course the people have made that choice. Now it may of course be argued that I did make a choice by coming here.

I wouldn’t want to imply that I never have access to technology – clearly being able to put up this blog is a clear indicator that I do and for most of my time here that has been the case.

Adola remains the beautiful town it has always been – lush green hills spreading out as far as the eye can see and filled with friendly and welcoming locals. I still consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to come and work – most days!

Yet there are some days where life becomes a little challenging and which have shown that I clearly have an addiction to technology. When the power goes, which is a fairly regular occurrence, I can at least last for a short while on battery; the tricky part comes with cooking. Naturally at times like this the electric stove is just a useless kitchen decoration. The kindly supplied kerosene stove (from VSO) is useless as there is no kerosene available so out comes the charcoal stove and the chance to prove my manly fire-making skills. I clearly still need some practice! However, with perseverance I have discovered that I am able to get it going. It takes a long time, so if there is an alternative- such as the trip a couple of kilometres to a restaurant- I must confess to taking that option.

The charcoal burner – starting to glow after much fanning

The Ethiopian power company is also a bit of a tease. Imagine the situation. You have prepared the food you plan to cook and the moment you are about to start the power goes out. Following a brief period cursing the power suppliers and hoping for the power to miraculously return you finally decide there is no alternative but to break out the charcoal. You collect all the bits together – crumpled up paper to start the fire, a few sticks to catch light first and then the charcoal. You light a match, the wind blows it out, you light another – repeat. After two boxes of matches the paper is finally alight and you switch between blowing on the budding fire and fanning it with a convenient bit of cardboard. If your luck holds the fire catches to the wood (otherwise it’s back to the start) and after several minutes of fanning and blowing you may begin to see the charcoal glow. More energetic fanning and blowing and the heat eventually gets to the point where you can start cooking- generally this take about an hour. Following a whoop for joy you collect all your prepared materials together and at that point – the power comes back. I kid you not that that has happened almost every time I have managed to get the charcoal fire started! It’s tempting to just cook with the charcoal anyway, but I have returned to the electric, while keeping the charcoal going, just in case!

The challenge of power aside, the thing that is particularly tough is when the network goes off. Sometimes this is in concert with the power at other times just all by itself, but it is at these moments that the isolation of Adola really comes clear. Suddenly the world seems much further away and I have no idea what is going on. Being the only volunteer here makes that seem all the more difficult- there is no one to communicate with in clear English – the staff at the college are great and try hard, but English doesn’t come easy for them and I have struggled to learn the local languages to a sufficient degree to communicate. These are the times when I realise how isolated I am especially when several days pass in this manner.

Glowing nicely- this is the point that the power comes on normally!

As I have said before, water was delivered to the college by donkey and cart. I was surprised how little I found this difficult. I enjoyed the novelty and as long as I remembered to put out the jerry cans they would be filled and waiting for me by lunchtime. In January of this year there was great excitement when the college was connected to the mains supply from the town. The staff had been asking for this the whole time. However, the charm soon passed and I suspect there were people other than myself who began to become nostalgic for former days of donkey and cart. Now the water is turned off for several days on end and the lack of reliability means that the college accommodation for students still can’t be used. Finally I have felt the pinch of water shortage at one point running out – fortunately I was able to track down someone to fetch a jerry can of water for me- at a premium price!

Rather bizarrely the only place I can get water from is the shower! So I am still filling buckets and jerry cans to do everything – and making sure I keep up a good supply when the water is flowing.

Somehow I have survived, but there have been times when the lack of one or all of these has certainly made me appreciate the challenge of living in rural Ethiopia. There will be many things I miss when I leave, but those mentioned here won’t be among them.

Downfall

Posted on 24/11/2014 by Mr Silver

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Oscar Wilde

One of the many wonderful things about Ethiopia is the evenings. On clear nights the sky is truly spectacular, with the universe at its finest, something I was never truly able to appreciate back in Britain. Even on the rare occasion there is power through the evening, the minimal street lighting does little to take away from the moment. I often lament the street lights there that steal away so magnificent a sight in the UK. I always thought that if more people back there could see more stars they would appreciate it more, but here no one seems that interested, but then perhaps there are more pressing issues than pondering the infinite.

Last week the education team from VSO came to see Adola, I have no doubt that it was the highlight of their year; the beautiful scenic drive, especially the delightful stretch from Hawassa to the junction of the road to Adola, which has kindly been ripped up to deliver a more authentic experience of Ethiopian roads, is only the first of many delights before the hunt for quality accommodation in the town. The hunt is not a very long one, there may also be some comment on the success; I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. The many diversions offered by the town are sure to thrill and, after all, who can tire of tibs, where there are so many ways it can be prepared?

After some work during the day and the earlier mentioned hotel hunt, we arranged to meet in the evening to take dinner (Tibs ,naturally). Fortunately my game of find the bajaj was relatively successful and quicker than usual, so I avoided the not infrequent standing outside of the college looking lost look.

Tibs and a pleasant evening later, I started to head home at the hideously unseemly hour of 8pm. Surprisingly it was relative easy to get a Bajaj, unsurprisingly it only went half-way to the college (I may well share another time the trials and tribulations of getting a bajaj to the college). So, at the market I realised I was going to have to take shank’s pony the rest of the way.

Still it was a good night for a walk, clear beautiful skies and as a strolled the dark street of Adola I found my mind wandering onto many deep philosophical topics, such as can only occur on such a night. About to give a friendly nod to some locals heading the opposite away I suddenly discovered that the ground below me had disappeared. What I have feared and anticipated since arriving in Ethiopia had finally happened. I’d fallen into one of the many holes that are no doubt put for the purpose of trapping unsuspecting ferenjis. This particular hole was part of the drainage system and I could only be thankful that it hadn’t been raining the past few days.

Looks innocent enough – in daylight.

Recovering briskly from the shock I regained the street if not my self-esteem. How could I hold my head high again in the town? The locals had politely and quietly passed on, perhaps sensing my embarrassment. No doubt the story of the Ferenji falling into the drain would soon be spreading across the town, just one of the many diversions the place has to offer. Being somewhat unusual here, I am rather identifiable.

View from the other side. Not the best place to go…

The thing about a place with no street lights is that it’s dark, and the think about holes is, they are also, frequently, dark. It is quite understandable how the sequence of events came to pass and it is a sad indication of the wisdom of the locals who rather walk on the road than the pavement. Realising now my folly I plucked my phone from the pocket of my slightly battered left leg, intending to use the pleasingly powerful LED light to guide me the rest of the way home. I quickly decided that instead I would continue my adventures in the dark, the decision influenced by the shattered screen and the reluctance of my trusty mobile companion to turn on. Now experienced I appreciated the local way to tackle night time walking- I took to the road crossing to at least be sensible enough to be facing the majority of the traffic. I have to admit to chuckling to myself a few times as I made my way back to the campus, wondering what the locals must have been thinking as they saw the ferenji suddenly disappear. It must have looked hilarious from the viewpoint of the spectator.

Back home I examined my phone and discovered that it had taken quite a beating and had also contributed to the pain now being experienced by my left leg. Somehow I had even managed to bend the battery. By some miracle I actually managed to get the thing to start and although the hideously cracked screen makes reading difficult, the thing actually still works.

New Screen Style – the latest among the Ferenjis of Adola

I know what you are wondering, what is there left to do now surely I have experienced all there is to experience in such a place as this, however there is still one of my fears left to be realised; to be run down my a donkey cart. There is time yet, and after my latest experience, my new way of walking has just increased the probability of this significantly. Needless to say there is little more embarrassing than falling into a drain, but having to head home because of getting run down by a donkey and cart could just about beat that.

Not sure on the new battery design, though.

I am not sure on Oscar Wilde’s philosophy, but what I do know is that if I hadn’t been looking at the stars I wouldn’t have ended in the gutter.

School Trip 3 – The journey home or haven’t you forgotten to do something with my dinner

Posted on 25/09/2014 by Mr Silver

Getting ready to go underground

It was only a short time later that the vehicles stopped and we clambered down and made our way to the final part- the cavernous turbine hall that had been carved from the rock, partly by machine and partly by hand. From here a machine was grinding its way up to where the lake would be formed once the dam was closed, hoping at some point to meet the tunnellers coming from the lake. One of the officials we had collected from the camp earlier in the afternoon, having detailed the works in progress kindly switched to English to explain everything to me. It occurred to me during all of this and perhaps in part due to the reaction of the staff, that this would make good trip for school science club- a chance to make things more real than just what’s written in the book.

The turbine hall

This project along with several other similar projects is massively important for Ethiopian development. The irregularity and unreliability of the power supply must be a huge obstacle to progress in so many other areas. The challenge Ethiopia faces at the moment seems to relate to the fears of some of their neighbours that damming the water supplies of so much of East Africa will affect their access to water. Ethiopia seems to be the source of much of this and I speculate that this might be one reason why so much of this hydroelectric project is deep underground.

The staff go underground

Tour completed, photos taken we returned to the cars, which by this point had turned around and took us back blinking into the late-afternoon. A second group went in for the tour and we were given a short talk about the site before slowly beginning the return journey to Negele. By this time I was detecting some dissatisfaction among the staff, partly I suspect because they hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it had already been a long day. I had also been told that it was to be on this occasion that my trainers would be doing their public presentations of projects they had been working on. I think I knew early on that this was never really going to happen and by this point, with everyone keen for food and to get back to Adola I wondered how much it really mattered. The staff had had a good day out and although there may be some different perspectives on how hard they actually work, they do have to work a lot (especially weekends) and a chance to get away from the daily repetitive cycle was definitely a chance for “refreshment”.

Warning signs! Good to see that Chinese English has made it here too!

Back in Negele we went for food, I think all at the same place this time. It was quite an operation and understandably took some time. Tibs again it seemed – it seems that an Ethiopian can eat this 3 times a day, 5 days a week (fasting days Wednesday and Friday). I’m not sure my European pallet is quite ready for that, but it turns out I didn’t need to worry overly as a special dish called ‘Kort’ had been ordered for my culinary delight. I had previously refused this dish, but had said to just order it in future and I’d eat it.

One of my misconceptions of Ethiopia before I came out, albeit one of which I was not really conscious, was that they would eat, for a European, unusual food; you know, insects, lion’s eyeballs and so on. It turns out that they are quite particular about these sort of things, which become clear at the horror on their faces when I told them I had previously eaten horse. However, one of the things that they do sometimes forget to do is to even show the meat to any kind of heat source and this is the delicacy known as “Kort”.

Yes, I ate meat they forgot to cook

I thought it would be more chewy and I think I was I more concerned about texture than taste. Turns out that it was a bit like eating Turkish delight- texture wise, I mean. It certainly didn’t taste like Turkish delight- that would have been very weird. Actually it didn’t really have much flavour at all. Dutifully, I tried several pieces and the only way to add flavour was to dip it in a mustardy sauce that came with out. I wasn’t disgusted by the experience, but feel no great inclination to repeat it simply because of the lack of flavour to price value. I often jokingly question my colleagues about the raw meat being most expensive because nothing’s been done to it. The reality is that it is the best meat from the animal.

Looking into the valley

Now almost 8pm, it was time to tackle the road back to Adola. Fortunately these days most of it is sealed, but I wasn’t relishing the trip back in the dark. I was certainly relieved to have the “guest” privilege of being able to travel in the college car. It’s much quicker than the bus- especially as I’m not sure Amsala, the driver likes to use anything lower than 4^th gear. We were back in Adola sometime around 9.30pm (It took at least three hours to do this by car on my previous trip back in November). However back in Adola does not equate to back at the college. First we drove around the town to try and find accommodation for the camera crew that had joined us for the day from the Oromo TV channel.

Abraham explains it all

At last that was sorted and we began to head to the college only to have to stop again. This time one of the buses had been stopped by the police about 5 minutes from the college. The police officer suspected that there was some contraband on the bus (this could be something as mundane as women’s clothes smuggled from Kenya). He was surrounded by angry and, by this time, rather tired college staff. The dean stepped it, I think phoning the local police chief. Two more police arrived on a motorcycle, but my hopes of a quick solution were not fulfilled. Eventually the staff managed to get onto the second bus and return to the college, the stopped bus remaining at the side of the road.

Definitely been a day of adventure and new experiences and a chance to get a small insight into Ethiopian life and culture. A reporter apparently once asked the late Meles Zenawi why the police officers were so well fed in Ethiopia- his tongue in cheek response was “Ask the drivers.”

School Trip 2 – Holding back the waters

Posted on 24/09/2014 by Mr Silver

View from the hill

The buses eventually caught up and disgorged the college masses, but only I after I had had some time to enjoy the relative tranquillity. With the arrival I suddenly became the focus of people’s photographs. I told them that each photo was 50birr, they found it most amusing.

I’m still waiting for the money.

Rather bizarrely most of the people wanting pictures with me were people with whom I had never really spoken or people I don’ think I’d met before – the novelty of the ferenji has probably worn off for most of the teaching staff. Paparazzi moment over, some people were impatient to leave and horns were being blown in the hope to facilitate our onward journey. Clearly I have still not yet adjusted to the Ethiopian ways as I was back down to the car while everyone else continued to mill around the hill top (probably trying to put off continuing the bone shaking transport).

Finally we managed to carry on arriving at the entry to the dam where were stopped at a checkpoint – it seems that it is felt that there is some risk of terrorism (or maybe they have got confused with tourism here too [see previous blog – lost in pronunciation]). Although we had a letter from the zonal office as well as a zonal official with us there seemed to be some reluctance to let us through. Possibly because we were supposed to have been there in the morning and by this point we had crept into the afternoon. Colleagues on the bus had to line up and be searched, but it seemed those of us in the college car were exempt, although I did seem to be an object of curiosity. Some time and several chats on the radio later we were waved on. Everyone was back on the buses and we continued on to the recently built camp for the workers. It was striking how well built the site was, especially in comparison to the college buildings. We had another wait here, once again because we were running so far behind schedule that the officials for the dam had gone for lunch.

Dam under construction

When you can’t understand the language it’s tricky to know what’s going on exactly, but somehow it all came together and we followed an official up to the site of the dam. I have been to see dams before and Itaipu is far larger than the humble offering here, but this was under construction and that made it fascinating in its own right. There was a refreshing lack of health and safety and an opportunity to apply common sense- fortunately I still have some after years of being cotton wooled in Europe. It turns it’s shockingly easy to avoid being hit by the myriad of machinery by maintaining a healthy distance and keeping an eye on what is going on around you- amazing that nothing whatsoever happened to anyone in our group and none of them had any health and safety training.

Just don’t fall down or walk in front of the digger when it’s moving…

Being on the dam was great and having a passing interest in the world of Physics I put forward some questions about where the turbines and generators were going to be as it was clear that they weren’t going to be at the dam itself. Speculating aloud that it would be good to see these I rather fear that arrangements were made to satisfy the ferenji and we returned to our transport and were taken to the site, several kilometres away despite it starting to get late in the day and really time to start thinking about heading back. It was hard to get too worried about this when there was a fresh buzz of excitement as we collected hard hats and clambered into the backs of several pickup trucks ready to head underground where the turbine hall was being dug out under a mountain.

College staff on the dam

It’s quite a feat of engineering and not something I expected to see in Ethiopia. Many development projects in Ethiopia are currently in progress, particularly with regards to infrastructure and energy development supported by several foreign nations. This particular project is being taken with the support of Chinese workers who appear to have brought the expertise that is still being developed in Ethiopia.

Safety hat- there is a little thought given to this after all!

We descended into the darkness in a buzz of animated conversation, gripping tightly as the vehicle bumped its way along the tunnel …

School Trip 1 – The Long Road South

Posted on 23/09/2014 by Mr Silver

College trips are a little different here, they’re for the staff and not the students. It is a chance for the staff to go for “refreshment”, although it rather relies on the budget being released. This was done with about a month left in the financial year and so there was a mad rush to spend it all- as seems to happens in other countries with budgets, if you don’t spend it, you lose it. Consequently, and not unusually for Ethiopia a last minute plan somehow came into fruition and early one chilly morning the staff were standing at the entrance to the college compound waiting for the buses to come and collect them. Being a foreigner I had been given a start time half an hour later than everyone else – I am expected to turn up on time and not the local requisite 30mins to one hour later. I always feel for those colleagues here who actually turn up at the stated time- they must spend a lot of their lives waiting for the latecomers, but seem quite sanguine about it all – maybe it’s the chill of the early mornings that stops the blood running to hot, or perhaps just a more relaxed approach to life.

Dawn crowd awaiting the bus

Naturally the buses arrive considerably later and it gives an indication of why many people here don’t tend to worry too much about hurrying to places. Nevertheless there is a tangible sense of excitement in the air, the like of which I had yet to experience here and I realised that the staff are actually really looking forward to a day out involving a considerable amount of travel, in a standard local bus. Perhaps not the height of comfort, but filled with camaraderie and that’s better than a cushioned seat any day.

View from inside the bus

The staff did seem to end up divided, with support staff on one bus and teaching on the other, which was a shame – it would have been good to have seen a bit more mixing, but it was pleasing that all staff were invited irrespective of status within the college. Loaded up, we pulled out of the college and onto the road, the adventure about to being, only to grind to a halt 10 metres down the road. A hurried conference of management was followed by large flags, one Ethiopian, one Oromo being attached to each of the buses. How close we came to forgetting this essential item I thought as a tried to keep underwraps the disappointment that there had been no effort to get the Sussex flag put up on the bus with the Ferenji. Next time I know to come prepared, although I may need to explain what and where Sussex is – that’s next year’s project sorted.

Our destination was Negele, the principal town of the Guji zone (think Chichester and West Sussex if you want a comparison) or more specifically a dam being built about an hour’s drive from Negele.

One of many stops - note the Oromo flag!

One of many stops – note the Ethiopian flag!

The thing about journeys in Ethiopia is that they cannot pass without the prerequisite stops every so many kilometres. There are a plethora of purpose behind these ranging from a horde of teaching a support staff running through a small village to find an Ethiopia delicacy particularly renowned in that area, to a toilet break (mostly just for the boys) to just stopping for the heck of it because the view is sort of nice. Based on the last idea I’d never get anywhere – this area really is stunningly beautiful. Nevertheless we finally made it to Negele where we stopped for breakfast.

Breakfast is one of my favourite meals in Ethiopia because they have this amazing dish called “full”. I was especially looking forward to this as the first time had had it was in Negele. The great horde of Adola College staff emerged from the buses and spread out to find food places; I attached myself to some of them and went with the flow into a place that served nothing but Tibs. Now don’t get me wrong I like Tibs, it’s a fantastic lunch or dinner option, but when you have spent the last three hours dreaming and having Full while being shaken and bounced on unsealed roads there is an avoidable feeling of disappointment when it is not available and a little piece of you starts to question if you can push your colleagues (who by this point are pretty hungry) to moving to a new place. I finally resolved myself to the Tibs, although I refrained from joining my colleagues in the customary accompanying beverage.

Beer for breakfast?

And not just one!

Breakfast done we returned to the buses and drove a little way through the town before stopping again while waiting for an official from the zonal office to join us. Enough time for a shoe shine and coffee before the ferenji was upgraded to the college car. In an awkward moment I felt great disloyalty to the colleagues with whom I had already travelled so far, but felt I could not refuse the courtesy proffered by the Dean of the college. My guilt dissipated rapidly as we drove down the country road to the dam significantly faster than the buses could travel and certainly in much more comfort, even with time to stop and enjoy the view from a hill looking toward the soon to be dammed river.

The road to the dam

Don’t miss part II – to see if we actually make it to our destination!

On the twelth day of Gena…

Posted on 03/03/2014 by Mr Silver

Twelve days after Gena (Christmas), the Ethiopians celebrate Timkat; seemingly a much more substantial party than Gena. It is translated into English as “Epiphany” and I was fortunate enough to be invited by an Ethiopian colleague to join him following the procession through the streets of Adola on the eve of Timkat.

The procession from the church near the college

Naturally our conversation fell to proceedings and he was good enough to enlighten me as to some of what was going on. Eager to demonstrate my understanding of religious matters I started prattling on about the visit of the Magi. In true Ethiopian style my companion simply agreed with what I was saying and then proceeded to talk about everyone getting baptised. ‘Strange’, I thought, doesn’t really fit with Epiphany, but hey, this is Ethiopia, they do a lot of strange things here!’

Everything came considerably clearer at church on Sunday. Having carefully pre-read the Epiphany readings I was prepared to feign understanding as they were read in Afan Oromo. I am not yet fluent, but I can recognise some words, names mostly, and the names did not seem to match with what I had read. Leafing through the missal I had (apologies) an Epiphany. The readings were for the following Sunday- the baptism of Jesus. Suddenly everything made a lot more sense. This is what all the Orthodox Christians were celebrating. Quietly starting to curse the guidebooks and any other books that have misnamed this event, I remembered where I was and thought I’d better stop.

The colourful vestments of the priests

Back to the Saturday procession and what a fantastic procession it was, with singing, dancing and colourful clothing. The priests from each of the town’s churches come out with their congregations and head towards various spots where, somehow timed beautifully (and this is about the only thing in Ethiopia that is), two processions meet. The procession I was following started from just up beyond the college and met with the procession from St. Michael’s at a junction where there is one of the main mosques of the town. The meeting was of friends that haven’t seen each other for a long time and I noted that the clergy from St Michael’s had the honour of a carpet being laid for them to walk along. This is done by having two lengths of carpet and a posse of runners. Once the procession has moved off one carpet they quickly snatch it up and run to the front and place it down in time for the procession to carry on. Okay, it could have been smoother, but was still impressive to watch.

Where two groups meeting.. I’m sure the mosque appreciated the meeting point!

At the centre of this procession and coming out from each church is the Tabot – this is a representative of the Ark of the Covenent (think Raiders of the Lost Ark, but much smaller) and one lucky priest wears it on his head. I have heard two different stories as to what they contain. It is either a copy of the Ten Commandments or the transubstantiated body and blood of Jesus. I didn’t go and try to open it to look because I didn’t want to die a horrible melting death.

The priests with the rectangular “hats” are carrying the Tabots on their head. One is in white on the left of the picture and another in yellow nearer the middle.

Finally when all the different churches” Tabots have met they process as one to an open space under the watchful eye of the church dedicated to Mary. Several days of celebration follow- partly because the day after Timkat is the most important of saint’s days – St Michael’s day. I suggested to the college I should have this is a holiday. The dean thought I was joking and laughed.

The party from Adola CTE (plus various children trying to get into the picture)

I watched only some parts of the celebration and unfortunately missed the mass baptism – as I understand it everyone goes through the process to give themselves a clean slate. However I did catch the return procession as it went past the college gates on the Tuesday.

The crowds return to the church three days later (I’m sure more when back than came!)

If life gives you lemons… throw them at a woman!

I also learned about lemons. This, apparently, is the traditional way to get yourself a wife. You take with you some lemons (stashed somewhere about your person and the number depends rather on your throwing ability) and identifying a young lady to your taste you hurl one of these lemons at her attempting to strike her on the chest. Personally this all seems a bit risky to me with several possibilities for disaster.

You miss completely: try again next year
You hit the wrong person: look nonchalantly around and when she catches your gaze with quizzical eye subtly indicate it was the person next you who threw it.
You hit your target, but a little too hard: the marriage starts badly and never recovers.

One can only assuming that a willing recipient will hurl herself in the way of the lemon, which could of course lead to some interesting collisions if there are several ladies seeking attachment to the gentleman in question.

The custom seems to be dying out and I can’t help but make some link between the end of polygamy and this (imagine someone taking several attempts to hit the intended target).

I’m disappointed to say that I didn’t observe any lemon hurling, but will be looking out for it next Timkat – even if I have to chuck a few surreptitious ones myself while hiding behind local chaps just to see the result.

There are much bigger celebrations in other parts of the country with large pools where crowds of young men jump into the freshly blessed water, but I liked the intimacy of the celebration here in Adola and it felt good to be a little part of something in the community I belong to right now.

A Christmas Blog Part 3 – All is quiet on New Year’s Day

Posted on 01/01/2014 by Mr Silver

New Year, like Christmas, is celebrated at a different time here in Ethiopia. Unlike Christmas, the wait for the New Year revelries is longer than two weeks. New Year won’t be celebrated until 11^th September making me, by Ethiopian terms, almost a New Year’s Day baby!

So for me today was just another normal day at work, except, like Christmas busier than most and without the excitement of a student uproar. In fact today I may have been even busier than at Christmas with three ICT classes thrust upon me in addition to the observations, feedbacks and preparation for the HDP course, which I found out today probably won’t happen tomorrow because some of the trainees are out observing lessons in schools and the teachers from my programme need to be with them at the same time.

Now personally I don’t mind when the HDP classes happen, but with Genna (Ethiopian Christmas) approaching it is likely that several staff will be off to see families for next week, and will probably have left by Friday afternoon- the most likely time to have the HDP course. This then has a knock on effect down the line as to when we finish. Again this doesn’t bother me – I am happy to roll through with the programme until the end of July, but I know that most of the staff would like to go and see their families from early to mid-June. What I would appreciate is some help from the course participants in making sure that they get to do this.

However, as we sit down for an hour long chat or an evening coffee at the local buna-bet (coffee house) they frequently tell me how busy they are and how they don’t have time to do the HDP. I sigh as I consider how nice it would have been to only have to teach 12-15, fifty minute lessons a week rather than the 25 or 26 I had back in the UK. But of course I am forgetting all the other things they have to do here – (irony alert) thank goodness that isn’t the case in the UK. In their defence, however, they do have to attend a lot of meetings here at the college- several a week and often on Saturdays and Sundays. I would love to hear the reaction of some of my UK colleagues to that! Sometimes I am expected to attend. This is probably the greatest challenge I have faced here. I always struggled to look interested at meetings when they were in English and lasted an hour, imagine what I am going through here where the meetings are in Afan Oromo (the local language) and can last the whole day. If I deserve a medal for anything, it’s this!

An update on the “student situation” it turns out that the guns were connected to this event after all and they haven’t been seen since. Boxing Day, was another normal, but not normal, day at work, with a meeting lasting most of the morning and featuring pretty much all of the students. Some of the clever ones turned up about half-way through. All manner of officials from the local and zonal (county) education offices were in attendance. Even in a foreign language the politicians stood out a mile – oozing smarm.

Friday afternoon is club day at the college. The week before last I attended the English club – about a third of the students seem to be members. It’s quite a crowd. Last Friday, however they all seemed to be out tending the grounds sharing a limited number of tools. I mused on the fact that two days after the college had felt the need to have the gate guards armed with assault rifles they were handing out machetes to the students! Watching them in action it was amazing that nobody got hurt (by accident) and they seemed to be enjoying themselves for the most part. I don’t think it was planned this way, but it might just have been what the college needed to calm the tension of earlier in the week.

Lost in pronunciation

Posted on 06/12/2013 by Mr Silver

There is always a lot of fuss made about errors of translation, however pronunciation mistakes can also lead to some rather awkward moments.

Now I know it has been a while since the last post, but if you are good I’ll try and put another one up this weekend!

I have had a few problems with my serategna, mostly in terms of her not turning up when she is supposed to. This came to a stressful point where I had to actually do my own laundry. One evening after work I trotted across to the Vice-Dean’s house to borrow their bowl for washing laundry. I was greeted by a “get in” and finally managed to extricate myself 3, well-fed, hours later. By this point I felt that it was too late to start doing laundry. The following morning I was up and ready to dig in to the delights of hand-washing laundry.

Bowl – ready
Soap – ready
Hot water – ready

…and in I went. It didn’t seem too bad. There was some splashing around and a certain degree of water spillage, but all in all I felt I was doing okay. I’d got about half-way through when a knock on the door heralded the return of my serategna. She immediately insisted that she would do it – after all this is what I am paying her for (as well as to not turn up half the time aparently). I indicated the pile I had already done, rather proud of my efforts. She took one look, shook her head and threw them back in to be done again with the others.

On a second occasion of absence I had started doing laundry again, determined this time I was getting it right and again she turned up half-way through. I’ll leave it to your imagination what her feelings about my efforts were.

However, her irregularity led to my colleague, who had also hired her, to fire her and I was coming to the same conclusion, when she came to see me and quit. So now I am once more without a serategna and deciding whether I should do it myself. However, given the look of disdain I got for my efforts, maybe I’d better look for someone else!

And now my second tale for this blog entry. The Dean at the college told me about an important meeting to discuss tourism in the Guji Zone (which is the area around Adola and Negele Borena) that was going to happen at the college on the coming Friday. I thought this was good thing, and starting to rack my brains for ways that tourism could be promoted around here. Much as I like being the town foreigner, it would provide a useful source of income and there is certainly enough amazing countryside around here.

One of the great bonuses of this was the whole college got taken out to lunch and in the afternoon I was discussing with a couple of the staff here about the meeting. We talked about areas where it was common- in the North (Tigray and Amhara I agreed- where a number of historic sites are), in Addis Ababa and I kindly added Hawassa. I also went on effusively about how good it would be to have more in and around Adola – I have after all become quite attached to my home here.

The conversation progressed and to my horror the words “sharia law” were mentioned. With a growing sense of dread I realised that the meeting was not about tourism, but rather about terrorism. I can only hope that my colleagues misunderstood what I was saying and don’t now think I am a big advocate for terror in Adola…

Silver in Gold

Mr Silver goes to Ethiopia

Category Archives: Adola