...and What Al & Sara found there

Africa » Ethiopia » Benishangul-Gumuz Region » Asosa
January 10th 2009

Published: January 19th 2009

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Al and Sara

Another picture of Al and a pint

Hmm, seems to be a theme going on here...

OK, at last I can get another update going; and, boy, I think it's my first 2-pager! Don't worry it's mostly photos. Mostly 😊

Today is a bank holiday in Ethiopia - Timkat or Epiphany - which celebrates the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. It's almost as big a festival as Easter. People will hit the streets in their sunday best and just like Meskel, it is a good opportunity (as Bekema tells us) "to find a girlfriend"!

As I am happily married and we went to see the "tabots" (mini Arks of the Covenant that rest on every Orthodox church altars) carried to the river yesterday I can confidently sit here in the 30 degree heat and pen an update. I will do more on Timkat in a later entry but right now I need to finish up our whistle-stop trip back home.

Yeah, our tribe is all right!

So first up I have to say that for all the cold weather, living out of a suitcase and planes, trains and automobiles we had a fantastic time back in the UK and Ireland.

And for all the odd grumbles we heard about crunching

Crotty's Bar, Ennis

Missing the Dashen, St. George and Bedele Special? Er. No.

credit, the cold, evil flu bugs going round we felt a huge amount of warmth and good feeling towards the pair of us as well as interest in our double life in Ethiopia and how people could help.

I had decided my latest obsession would be raising money and gathering equipment to take back for our friend Matthewos's (pronounced Mattias's) under-13 and under-15 kids football teams here in Assosa.

Matthewos is a physical education teacher at the local junior school and with the patience and enthusiasm of a saint he trains and runs two kids sides on the dusty, stone-filled pitch in Assosa called The Stadium.

The kids have very little - 5 old balls between 55 players, no shinpads, no medical kit, few boots, no training markers, no goalkeeper gloves etc - yet they are so eager and keen to play.

Just like kids over in the UK and Ireland they want to grow up to be Premier League players - and in this case the first Ethiopian to ever play in the Premier League.

Any sort of help, equipment or support-wise helps keep their dreams alive and puts a smile on their faces.

Hastings Pier

Where Al taught Sara how to play "House of The Dead 2" (see, I knows how to treat a lady)

I will do a special blog entry on the state of football in Assosa (available soon from all good search engines) but in the mean time I put together a web site, so feel free to take a look (and contribute if you feel so inclined).

The webby is www.assosa-soccer.com and I will keep it updated with news and photos from the teams.

Anyway as soon as I told people, hands went into pockets, people ran upstairs to collect spare kit, trips were made into lofts and garages for balls and bike pumps, emails were sent round workplaces - it was amazing.

We were also offered spare mobile phones (rare and expensive to buy in Assosa), spare flash disks (everyone uses them to save data) and spare wireless equipment (I am trying to encourage the use of wireless technology in the bureaus).

Everyone wanted to help.

And with some people it took a while for the conversation to get going, but soon we were back just like before.

Maybe some people thought we would come back and pontificate about uneaten food and starving children - which neither of us think is the way

Solstice Tree

Get in there quick before Darth Vader feels your presents!

forward particulalry with our friends and family.

I guess the real difference is that in 10 months in the UK, relatively little has happened to the majority of people. I don't mean this in a rude way because I know myself that time passes pretty quickly when in a steady routine.

I mean I am 40 this year and if you asked me what I did in my 30's, I'd struggle to write a page or two! Yet here in Ethiopia (as you can tell) I can't stop scribbling!

We have probably met more people and seen and experienced more things in 10 months then we have in the last 10 years...

Again, don't take that the wrong way. When I was settled down in a pub with a mate and a pint of ale or enjoying and afternoon of aimless surfing on broadband Internet or sitting in a curry house talking rugby over a ruby I felt I was home again.

It really would be no bother to settle back into that routine again and I'd be perfectly happy.

But ultimately all people wanted to know was were we happy and still enjoying

Solstice Spread

Make mine a nut-free nut roast!

the experience and was it what we expected and hoped for?

The answer to those questions was a big fat yes...so break out the booze and mince pies 😉

A tale of two tealeaves

But to balance the feelings of warmth and love we felt back home, we ought to mention the kind thief at Heathrow.

We survived 10 months in the 7th poorest country in the world without being the victim of a crime of any sort.

Within 10 minutes of landing in probably the 7th richest country we got robbed.

I had burnt up some dollars in Dubai on 400 fags for a mate (to exchange for an Arsenal programme and scarf for Sara's colleague in Assosa) and in our travel-dazed and strung out state some charitable thief light-fingered the plastic duty-free bag as we queued at a cash point for some UK pounds.

Great! Thanks buddy. We spent a week's VSO allowance on those ciggies.

And then again, to balance this out (VSO like balanced information) we woke up yesterday in Assosa to find some equally charitable thief had stolen all four chairs from our little patio area outside

Festive Caption Competiton #27

OK then, lets see what you can come up with :)

the front of the house.

In fact it must have been more than one thief as the chairs were pretty damn heavy.

Our friend Bekema says they will be sold back to a furniture shop for about 100 birr each, so someone would be having a good Timkat at our expense!

We used to chain them up but had got careless as you do after 10 months without incident - whoops! I am a security professional, I shouldn't be saying that! I'm not like that at work, honest!

Plus after receiving a new baptism at Timkat today all your sins from the previous year are forgiven.

Maybe the thief had this in mind? Steal today and get forgiven tomorrow? No doubt this previous weekend just gone was pretty sinful 😉

Still, if the Assosa thief or thieves had a family then we hope he used the money from the chairs to feed his kids...

...whereas one suspects the Heathrow thief was merely feeding his habit.

Did we miss anything from Ethiopia?

For sure.

Our Ethiopian friends. Our VSO buddies. Our house. The sun. The heat. Blue skies. Smiling and laughing

Chris, Sue and Sara too

...plus some strange bloke outside preparing to moon???

people (the Ethiopian's we meet like to "play" and laugh a lot).

We certainly didn't miss the fleas from Addis or mosquitos from Assosa...(scratch, scratch)

..or the priests wailing all night (ah, the joys of double-glazing!).

What else did we really enjoy back home?

We did a few great little runs -

-> Running from Dee's house on the Loop Head peninsula of West Clare in Ireland.

On the road back from from the Loop Head lighthouse you have a fantastic view of the peninsula, with the wild Altlantic to the left and the Shannon estuary on the right. A sight you just can't tire of.

-> Running along Hastings sea front with the English channel to the right. A place where I have many happy memories of walks with Sara at the start of our relationship 11 years ago (almost to the day).

-> Running around Chelmsford on Christmas Eve - maybe not so scenic in the dark, but great to see houses all lit up and feel the town full of Christmas warmth as everyone gets ready for the festival.

We had some great food -

Beans on

Christmas Spread

I'll spare you the christmas cracker gag

toast at my Dads! With extra strong cheddar.

-> A veggie brunch at the Failand Inn with Jan & Ken.

-> Some outrageously good pizza and vegetarian lasagne at Dee's 60th birthday party in Limerick.

-> The veggie works at Solstice dinner with Chris, Sue and the two Kates.

-> Surrounded by my folks - Sara (wife), Brian (father), Anna (sister), Ollie (nephew) for a full monty Christmas dinner in Chelmsford.

-> Cheese and onion pasty at Bristol Rugby with Stu & Jo.

-> Ben & Jerry's ice cream on New Year's Eve with Sara.

-> Posh curry in Cheltenham with Neil, Mark and Rach.

We drank some great drink (no, no, not all at once)

-> Pint of cider at the Sportsman in Horfield, Bristol - it had to be done.

-> Guinness in Crottys Pub, Ennis

-> Entire bottle of good cava at Dee's do (wow! how good does fizzy stuff taste??)

-> Quality red wines at Chris & Sue's in Hastings

-> Far, far too many bottles of real ale at Christmas with Anna, John & Ollie

-> Bass Ales at Bristol vs

The Von Crapp Family Singers

Doh! Oh dear. Er...feeble dear

Glaws rugby

-> Barf Ales at The Welly

-> Champagne with Stu & Jo; thanks to whatever Axa marketing agency gave Jo that one 😊

-> and a pint of everything they had on draft at the Beehive Pub in Cheltenham

We had some great fun -

-> The fully kitted out Guitar Hero with Sara, Dad and Ollie at Anna & John's on Christmas evening

-> Singing 'The Field's of Athenry' at the new Thomand Park

-> X-factor final at Dee & Daves

-> Meeting the family and dancing (badly. well me anyway) at Dee's 60th

-> Watching the Two Towers and demolishing an entire box of Heroes with Chris & Sue

-> Meeting all the Twyford cricket guys at the clubhouse on New Year's eve

-> An entire afternoon catching up with friends at Brown's in Bristol

-> Another great Guitar Hero session with Neil at Rach and Mark's house in Cheltenham

-> An outrageous session with Dave, Biles, Stu & Jo after the Bristol game!

-> A happy hour

Sara (aka Slash)

Sweet Wife O'Mine

in a pound shop in Birmingham buying bits and pieces for Assosa (yikes! someone slap me with a pension book!)

And it was great to meet up again with Pam & Steve, Blod, the 'girls' in Birmingham, Marta (both at Heathrow and Gatwick)

We listened to some great music that will always remind me of Christmas 2008!

-> Hallelujah! (how could you miss it? Alex Burke version please...)

-> Katy Perry, Hot'n'Cold (dad dancing at Dee's do)

-> Killers, Human (MTV videos of the year, on by accident, and boy! what a song! what a video!)

And Finally

Did we do everything we wanted to? No of course not.

Didn't get to see the Arsenal, though could have borrowed back my old ticket from John for the Liverpool and Pompy home games.

I never got to see my mates Adam (& Christy), Andy R, Andy W, Alex, Jerry, Nath, Neil Hall, Tim or all the guys from Assureweb.

Never made it to see Jenny our neigbour in Bristol.

Didn't get to St Andrew's to see Matt or the guys from Congresbury.

Didn't see all the family.

And

X-Factor 2009, here we come!

...hmm, don't give up the day job just yet

those we did see we could have spent longer with...but hey, overall we did pretty well.

We also should say a special public thank-you to Pam and Steve who kindly lent us their car for 10 days to allow us to at least catch up with many of the people we did. Really very kind.

...but then everyone back home was so kind to us.

We really, really appreciated it!

We returned to Ethiopia recharged and enthused.

Thank you all!

In the words of Guitar Hero...

YOU ROCK!!!

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