Africa » Ethiopia » Benishangul-Gumuz Region » Asosa
February 24th 2008

Published: February 24th 2008

Wonder where they are now?

It is currently the year 2000 in Ethiopia. It is currently the year 2008 in the UK.

In as brief a history as possible, here is the pre-Ethiopia time 😊

It's a monster entry this one, so make sure you read it while getting paid e.g. at work.

VSO Application & Early Training

We applied for a two year placement through VSO in January 2007. People ask us what made us do it and I guess it was a number of reasons. We have no kids, we were getting a bit stale at work maybe, maybe I was a bit fed up of dedicating my life to adding zeros to a milometer and a bank account and I guess we really just fancied a shared adventure. Better to do it and at the worst, regret it, than regret never doing it at all!

Our paper applications were accepted and we were invited for an assessment day at VSO in London in April. The assessment turned out to be a morning of group exercises with 3 or 4 observers in the room watching your individual behaviour during the exercises. This was followed by an hour-long individual interview

Wyvern Xmas Cracker

Santa, Mrs Santa & the 2 VSO fundraising imps.

where you were probed about all sorts of personal details about yourself and your relationship. The afternoon was back to the group exercises and more observation. We certainly earned our beer in the bar across the road by the end of the day 😊

Fortunately we were accepted pending successful professional and personal references as well as passing an enhanced criminal record check (CRB). I was relieved to find out that Sara was not a reformed bunny-boiling axe-murder and I'm sure she was pleased that I was not some registered paediatrician.

Next step - we were booked onto the 4 day Preparing to Volunteer (P2V) course at VSO's residential training centre at Harborne Hall in Birmingham in June. This course introduces you to the "development" industry; the history of development, colonialism, causes of poverty, good aid, bad aid, debt, the World Bank, VSO's part in it all and gently introduces you to some of the likely situations you might encounter. You are told you WILL be depressed, you will be euphoric, you will be lonely, you will be homesick, you will have problems adjusting to life in a developing country and you will have problems adjusting back to

Wyvern Xmas Cracker #2

We did it! Now where's them mince pies?

life in the "North" when your placement ends.

Some of the key messages are not to judge other people and cultures using your own values; you are there to share skills and do what people want to do, rather than tell people what you *think* they must do and also that it is an equitable arrangement - you will get out a lot as well as put a lot in.

The trainers were some of the best trainers I have ever had on any training course - and that's after 15 years of various IT and management courses, plus our fellow trainees were all prospective volunteers; enthusiastic, interesting and genuinely nice people.

The average age of a volunteer is about 38 - partly because you have to have a skill and experience using it, so that cuts out those under about 25 - they do an YfD (Youth for Development) volunteer scheme instead. Also people volunteer when the kids have grown up and/or they finish work, raising the average age.

I guess - though I have not seen VSO stats - that most volunteers are teachers or those working in education. Certainly this was the case

Harborne Hall

My second home - January 2008

in all the courses I attended prior to departure. I think there was on average one doctor, one or two management type persons, one or two IT people and the rest teachers in any group of 20 people on training. My experience on the courses was also of a higher ration of women to male volunteers, and certainly there were more single people than couples volunteering.

The object of P2V was to confirm in your own mind that you really wanted to volunteer, or, and VSO are quite open about the 'ongoing assessment' for VSO to take you quietly to one side and suggest you might want to reconsider. Luckily we left Harborne Hall totally enthused, excited and wanting to volunteer NOW!

Summer/Autumn 2007

Unfortunately the bills had to be paid and we had no placement offers yet anyway. Sara continued at JISC while I was lucky enough to get some part-time work at a local sports shop just helping out. I has resigned in December and left Assureweb in March after completing my 3 months notice.

We had been told that to find a placement together as a couple might be difficult and that should

Sara @ Harborne

Researching Ethiopian gender mainstreaming..(aka. reading hotmail)

an opportunity come up we should grasp it. We had agreed between ourselves that if it was impossible to place us both in the same town then one of us would still go as a non-volunteering partner. This is not uncommon. The non-volunteering partner does not get paid but gets some help from VSO to get to and stay in country with their partner. Our other option was to do a short-term placement, where it would be easier to be a non-volunteering partner. Two years without working would be difficult (and career damaging), but the short-term placements were from 2 weeks to 6 months and that sort of time as an inactive partner would be acceptable.

Once accepted and P2V had been completed you fill in a bunch of documents, do a VSO-specific CV and are assigned a placement officer by VSO to help match your skills with the skills requested by the various VSO offices around the world. While we waited for a placement match I had been very lucky to return to Assureweb as a contractor for 3 months. There are many people who have helped us get over here to Ethiopia and I am grateful to

Al @ Harborne

Big smiles. About to leave after 12 days and 4 courses on the bounce.

them all. Certainly Andy, Neil M, Neil P and all the guys at Assureweb played a huge part in making it financially viable for us by re-employing me.

While I was back at Assureweb we had been told that VSO Ethiopia were interested in my Cisco skills and that it might be possible to place Sara in the same town. Once a placement offer comes in you have 2 weeks to accept it and fill in a placement analysis form - something more advanced than some of the job application forms I have seen!

We spent 2 weeks contacting the current and returned volunteers (RVs) from Assosa in Ethiopia and the picture they painted was of a beautiful, friendly but remote town on the western border between Ethiopia and Sudan. We were told that there was also a job for Sara but someone else had first refusal. In fact we met the person who - lucky for us - refused it many months later in Addis! It meant however that we both had potential jobs in the same town if we were accepted.

Acceptance took 3-4 weeks, while we waited nervously for news. And then we heard

Final service @ St. Andrews

Matthew, our vicar, in front of church.

it was a done deal; we were going to Ethiopia - probably departure date 1st February 2008! Time to start planning our goodbyes.

Later in the summer we took up Alex, my Romanian buddy's invitation to his home town of Constantia on the Black Sea. All of Alex's family were so hospitable and we had a great time being shown the sights and tastes of his home town.

Had a lovely trip to Geneva to see Jay, Lisa, Lucas and the cows. Even managed 45 minutes for the "Geneva Scots" as a last minute substitute in one of Jay's footy matches. Also took a great trip to Belgium to see Brian & Rita. Shame we never found Karl Marx's house but enjoyed the run in the forest and particulary the pints in Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg all in one weekend! Both were trips we had been promising to make for years and it was good to finally do them.

Wyvern Christmas Cracker

Once more Assureweb saved my bacon after another spell 'in between jobs', when they took me back for a brief 6 week contract up to Xmas. During this spell we were training to run

St. Andrews - Congresbury, Nr Bristol

Our spiritual home.

the Wyvern Christmas Cracker with friends Anne & David.

Although initially against the request from VSO to fund raise, I had agreed to do this 10k along the beach at Weston-super-Mare with Sara. One of the reason's why I picked VSO, not many other 'volunteer' agencies, is that you are not expected to raise money for your placement. I was always a healthy sceptic of these 'help me raise £10k to climb up Everest' schemes. It's like saying, help pay half my holiday for me and give the other half to charity. Given my opinions and that I have annually taxed my friends and family to raise money for the Bristol Cancer Help Centre since my mother died of cancer in 2004, I didn't feel comfortable asking for more money. In addition, the overhead of having to organise events, canvass support and collect/deposit the money when we had a house and a life to pack up in boxes, goodbyes to be said and a mountain of life & business-related pre-departure paperwork to complete, seemed unreasonable.

Sara however was wildly enthusiastic and set a huge target of £5,000 for us to reach. Given I am normally the competitive one,

Final Bristol Rugby match

Bristol 0 - Cardiff 17. The hairy geezer with big ears is Brizzly Bear, the Bristol mascot.

I was amused to hear her desire to make the VSO "top 10" online fundraisers.

VSO do need charity money to continue operations however. About 60-70% of the annual budget is contributed by DFID (i.e. the UK taxpayer) but the rest has to be made up from charitable contributions. It costs about £15k per year to send one person overseas in flight costs, equipment grants, pre-departure training, support in country, injections, medical insurance and so on. As 2 year volunteers we would be costing VSO in the region of £60k so I reconsidered by earlier decision, bought the Santa suit and screwed the Bob Geldof head on.

The race was hard work. Heavy rainfall overnight had turned Weston-super-Mare beach into a muddy mess. A driving wind only served to make those with greater surface areas like me struggle and at one point it whipped round my Santa beard and almost garrotted me. Hopefully the wind also whipped away my very un-Christmas like curses from the ears of the watching toddlers!

Finished in a slow 1hr 1 minute, which was 10 minutes slower than our normal 10k times. Guess even Paula Radcliffe would struggle in a force 10

Bye to Ollie

Look after my cactus good buddy!

gale dressed as Father Christmas.

Christmas & New Year 2007

Christmas was a mad dash around the South East - Sara’s folks in Hastings, mine in Chelmsford, more of Sara’s in Kent before back to Bristol for the New Year. It was our 10th anniversary of getting together and we had arranged to return to The Golden Lion in Bishopston - the place it all started on New Year’s Eve 1997. After several changes in name, ownership and clientele it had come full circle and was now safe to drink in once more. We danced all night and Matt saw the New Year in with us over a bottle of champagne.

Harborne Hall Training

Having started on the larium - a much maligned horse-pill sized anti-malarial that is alleged to slowly erode the neuro-transmitters in your brain - I was starting to regret my decision to do my final 4 VSO courses on the bounce at Harborne Hall between 3rd- 14th January.

A 12-day stint of 11 hour days (residential courses start roughly 9am and finish at 8pm) was really draining the batteries. The daily post-course beer sessions at the Harborne Bar and The Bell

The Old Girl

Did me proud. 6 years commuting. 0 breakdowns.

were purely medicinal and to be fair, it is hard not to want to wind down in the company of some very interesting fellow volunteers. We had all made the decision to put our former lives on hold if not change them forever and I was certainly keen to find out the whys and where people were heading.

The VSO training was excellent once again. Of the four courses - Health & Safety, Skills for Working in Development (SKWID), Training Skills and Organisational Development I think I enjoyed Training Skills the most. To be fair, by the time OD (Organisational Development) was underway, it really was a case of OD. Still, three cooked meals a day washed down with a few evening ales was putting a few rings on the belly that should stand me in good stead overseas.

St. Andrews

There was an emotional farewell at St Andrews, our church, 20 miles outside Bristol, in Congresbury. We both have so many connections to the place. I was taken there as a child with my parents & grandparents, my grandfather Arthur was churchwarden there for many years, my parents were married there, I was baptised there, my

168,003 miles later

Never again...well not for at least 2 years.

grandparents and my mother are buried there and we were married there in 2006.

Also Matthew, the vicar, has become a good friend and we have thoroughly enjoyed our monthly visits on Monday nights for the learning/discussion groups (the Alpha course survivors!). The church support staff have been equally supportive and friendly and make us so welcome even though we so infrequently make it to the services. St. Andrews feels like our spiritual home and I know every time I go I feel like I get my spiritual batteries recharged.

Matthew knew we were in the congregation and in front of a packed house (it was a baptism and communion service) he asked us up to the front of the church to say a few words about our plans and to present us with a beautiful small wooden cross from everyone at St. Andrews. We were very moved and he must have been inspired as the cross has a painting of a village scene with dusty red earth and two chickens under a blazing hot sun. Assosa is famous for it's red dust and Sara had been saying for months that she wanted to get some chickens for

Big Al & Big Ben

Sightseeing with Alex

our house when we arrived!

It was hard to say goodbye and Matthew has been so important and supportive of us, from the death of my grandmother in 2002, to mum's death in 2004, our marriage in 2006 and beyond. I hope he enjoys his trip to Jerusalem this Easter and really hope he makes it over to Ethiopia.

Final Bristol Game

The less said about my last Bristol home game, the better. Needing to beat Cardiff in the Heineken Cup by 5 points and to deny Cardiff a bonus point, Bristol contrived to lose 17-0 at home. Had a very early try for Bristol not been disallowed it might have been different. I guess I jinxed the game. I went to take a leak just before half time at 0-0 and while I was away Cardiff scored 2 tries. Even the mascot - Brizzly Bear - looked dejected.

But, hey, my last pint of Bass and proper Cornish pasty for 2 years sure tasted good :P

Last Tour in 'Nam

Had a low key final trip to Cheltenham to say goodbye to Mark, Steve, Rach and the guys from Assureweb. Had so many

Alex & Nelson

London - prior to final Arsenal game

leaving do's now that they think I'm not actually doing VSO after all! Was good to spend some time with Mark, my work buddy for the last 4 years. He is really enjoying his new job and I'm really pleased for him.

Last Tour in Karkland

Final night of online BF2 fun (Battlefield 2). Never made it to my next rank but had a great night with Gizmo, Uni and the guys. Shame Frank, Reaps and Stella never made it online for a final round. Hope the <@> avinalarf clan keeps going. Will miss the guys, my gaming rig and 20Mb internet access. Spent many a happy hour fragging on the battlefield - sometimes to Sara's annoyance - with a bottle of red and a few tins of beer.

Don't worry guys, I have packed Bauldur's Gate - The Compilation and Fallout 1,2 & 3 as it's about all my laptop will run. Time for some fantasy RPG while I'm away. Also snuck in an old Quake 3 Arena CD and the free Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory CD in case they guys in Assosa fancy it 😊

Fundraiser

We had booked Racks, a wine bar in

Gonna miss this

View from my seat (We're the, uh, Yellow Quadrant, Em-ir-ates...)

Clifton for our fundraising/leaving do. So many people - friends, family, workmates, friends of family, neighbours - had shown such generosity in donating money to the event, even if they could not attend. People's kindness really touched us. People we hardly or didn't know giving us money and wishing us well, the owner of Racks donating a bottle of champagne for the quiz, John B preparing a quiz specially for us, one of Sara's work colleagues, Gary, obtaining a freshly signed Bristol City football for us (that fetched £130 in the auction), people (Pam/Steve/Tu'Linh/Jo/Dee/Dave) bringing gifts to auction, people making amazing donations to us on the Just Giving web site (Sara's mum Dee raised about £500 through her workplace and seemingly random donations alone), family & friends travelling miles, even flying over from Ireland to support us.

Everyone who came entered into the spirit, buddies from way back, friends from Twyford House CC, Grendel CC, Assureweb, cousins, aunts, uncles, family, in-laws, ex-work colleagues all bid well, quizzed well, danced and drank well (we easily passed the £1,500 bar bill required to keep our deposit). Overall we raised in excess of £1,600 on the night so many, many thanks to

Ethiopian Deli en route to the Arsenal

Injera and shiro to go..

everyone who was involved, either directly or by donation.

Ollie & the old warhorse

Saying goodbye to my only nephew Ollie and my sister, Anna, the day after the fundraiser was hard. Ollie has one of my treasured cactus plants to look after. He is 13, 14 this year and I am still able to hug him. When I get back he will be 16 and maybe too much of a man to hug his old uncle 😊 I hope not.

I also passed on my battered old Mondeo to my sister. She had done me proud over the 6 years I had commuted with her between Bristol & Cheltenham. Got me around the country when I visited the Salford and Huddersfield offices and took me up the M4 to the Arsenal without complaint. Never once broke down.

I gave her a good send-off with a "Gold" wash from Morrison’s, a new set of hubcaps and a valet from Al's top drawer valet services.

20Mb Internet disconnected

56k only from now on.

Final Arsenal Game

With Kevin Keegan back with the Geordies I was expecting a tough final game at the

Neil @ the Emirates

Won't be needing that scarf where we're going.

Emirates. I had got to London by train early to meet my Romanian rugby buddy, Alex, who had come up from Canterbury where he is studying. We took a spin past Big Ben and Parliament before I had to say a rushed goodbye to meet Neil at the Arsenal for a pre-match curry.

I owe Neil a lot, both from the Arsenal point of view - he is the guy who owns my season ticket - and also work, having initiated my return to Assureweb (twice) as a contractor to help pay my bills prior to departure. Through Neil so many friends and family have got to enjoy days out at both Highbury and particularly the Emirates.

So Arsenal did what Bristol failed to do - gave me something to cheer about on my way home with a 3-0 victory. Shame I'll miss the AC Milan game in the Champs League, but hope whoever uses my ticket enjoys it!

Blind Panic

Packing - final bills - cancelling accounts - changing addresses - copying data to disk - ripping DVDs - more packing away - tidying the house for new tenants - saying goodbye - packing for

Arsenal vs Newcastle

Last home game for me at the Emirates.

the trip - wished I had started this all sooner instead of being all laid back about it.

Dug out of the hole so much by Sara, Dave & Dee who worked like troopers on our house and were available 24x7 for box shifting and lifting without complaint.

Brian (my Dad) did his bit too and Seamus helped out with the loan of his van. Stu & Jo so kindly lent us their car at the last minute and put us up for the night on our penultimate night.

A few hours of Nintendo Wii 10-pin bowling was a brief oasis of calm. Stu & Jo breathed a sigh of relief as all their ornaments survived intact. Even had the Bristol Evening Post come round to take pictures and do a piece on us for Wednesday's edition.

We are on our way!

After weeks of saying goodbye and a last few days of packing panic we were finally on our way. We spent our last night in the UK at my Dad’s doing last minute re-packs to reach the 30kg limit each. Unfortunately we both had to make sacrifices. My Arsenal programmes missed the final

Arsenal 3 - Newcastle 0

"We're on our way, we're on our way, we're off to Mosco..uh, Assosa, we're on our way...."

cut as did Sara’s bottles of vodka.

Saturday morning up at 7am for an 8am departure to Heathrow. Dad did a great job driving us and 6 bags up the M4 in good time to meet Chris & Sue. Very lucky to ask a guy where to check in only to be offered the chance to be a guinea pig for the new electronic checking-in system and be fast-tracked through Business class check-in in 5 minutes. No comment about our 4kg overweight bags or my unfeasibly huge computer backpack I was taking on as hand luggage. Someone was watching over us for sure!

Sad to say goodbye to Dad, Chris & Sue. Ought to be used to it now.

Met up with Marta in the departure lounge who is also going to Assosa, who we did SKWID with. Also met Aynsley (SKWID) and Ruth (P2V) who are off to other places in Ethiopia.

Flight delayed by people stuffing unfeasibly large rucksacks as hand baggage into overhead lockers (surely not) but we finally get
underway about 45 minutes late.

Our seats are on the back row, not the expected extra leg-room exit seats that the "new