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Published: October 19th 2009
ICT for ICT
Do you like the VSO home page? (I'm a company man at heart)So onto ICT (or In-Country Training).
Where three current volunteers and two PO staff offer to welcome/herd/brief/assist/lecture and generally introduce 36 new Ferengi volunteers to the people's, customs, traditions, language and culture of Ethiopia.
Surely an easy task?
Er, not really 😊
So why exactly did I agree to do it?
Well firstly I am a volunteer. I guess volunteering is my thing..
..and also three guys did it for us - and did a great job - so it's kind of paying it back. Or is it paying it forward? All our ICT helpers have finished as volunteers now...
Besides I'm an opinionated guy who likes the sound of my own voice, so why not spread the thoughts of Chairman Al to a room full of spotless minds? 😉
OK, its more than that.
VSO needed an IT guy to (a) help with IT things and (b) brief the four new IT volunteers as there would be no IT workshop this time.
They also needed a bloke - the other two volunteer organisers were female - Doreen and Joanna. And I guess they needed someone who was objective but also
The Last Broadcast
Before the organised chaos begins! positive and someone who has enjoyed his time in Ethiopia, both on a work-related and an extra-curricular level.
Plus I was a regional (and rural) volunteer. Doreen is based in Addis and Joanna in Gondar (a big town and tourist destination). And I am based in..ahem...Assosa...
And if I was kind of honest - they probably needed someone with a few grey hairs to bridge the gap between the young twenty/thirty-something volunteers and the retirees 😉
The storm before...the storm All three organisers arrived a week before ICT.
Our job? Check the material, update documents to be issued, agree on the schedule, print off reams of documents, create training files, burn resource CDs, allocate bedrooms at the residential training centre, set up a three PC network with an Internet link, create name badges, identify all the volunteers and learn their names.
We also all agreed to re-write the Rough Guide to Addis document as it was a few years out of date. I offered to create a Good Beer Guide and also prepare a 45 minute presentation on Ethiopian Technology (Telephones/Mobiles/TV/Radio/Power/Internet and Computing).
In between these tasks I was nipping out to the
Doreen, Sara & Joanna
Looking all fresh-faced and full of beans ;) hospital with Sara (see next blog entry) as well as meeting with Patricia the Country Director to discuss a new and unexpected situation for Sara and I...
To be honest, Galeta and Seble (the VSO Programme Office Organisers) had done much of the updating of files from February's intake so we were saved a significant amount of work. Even so, it was hard graft.
The VSOE photocopier was running red hot and doesn't double side, so we had to batch up the documents and manually re-enter them into the copier. It doesn't collate either so each copy had to be sorted manually into piles.
Were we down-hearted? Not a bit of it. With chocolate doughnuts arriving and a free bottle of imported French wine on New Years Day (Friday 11th September), to coin an Ethio-English phrase "we were fine".
Plus Sara, Kev (from Nekemte) and Kelly (Addis volunteer) had been a great help along the way.
Incoming! The 33 new volunteers (with 3 accompanying partners) were due to arrive on five flights.
Most of the British (20), Irish (3), USA (3), Dutch (3) and the lone Canadian would arrive at 4am on Sunday
It's broadband Jim...
...but not as we know it morning.
Then Asha, the single Indian volunteer would arrive at 6am. That evening (Sunday 13th) Margaret Happy (the single Ugandan) would arrive at 7.30pm and the four Kenyans at 8.30pm.
Finally on Thursday, a British short-term (3 month) volunteer - Unni - was due to arrive for the last few days of training.
The five of us organisers had already visited the training facilities at the Red Cross Institute in Saris, on the Debre Zeit Road, kind of south, south west of the centre of Addis.
We went first to check the accomodation and agree that the vols should share room with an en-suite shower, as opposed to an communal shower; and then a few days later to move all the materials, training packs and equipment and set up the temporary office and computer room.
ICT lasts for 9 days in total and as per the last three ICTs, would be completely residential at the Institute. I had mixed feelings about this and I wasn't the only one.
We had been trained in the Management Institute just past Magananya roundabout for our ICT and the volunteers stayed in one of three hotels around Hiya
Didn't take 'em long?
The new volunteers found the Pub OK Hulet (either the Yonas, the Holiday or the Awaris).
It meant we could escape in the evenings and probably had a much better feeling for Addis and being out and about amongst Ethiopians.
True, the Red Cross is very comfortable, but it doesn't properly prepare you for many aspects of living in Ethiopia.
OK you get out a few times during the week and do some shopping and yes you learn pretty quickly when in placement, but for some people experiencing, for example, their first pit latrine, was a bit of a shocker after 4 days in the Red Cross :0
Then again, some people probably enjoy the gentle introduction from behind a walled and guarded compound with a generator, 24 hour water and some quality food.
The Red Cross certainly introduces you to one feature of Ethiopian culture it is hard to avoid - the noise!
Behind the residential accomodation was a bar, which jacked up the volume for any football match - not a problem for the daylight kick offs, but the mid-week European games start at 10 or 11pm and finish at 12 or 1am.
It also - along with
Dance Lessons
We call this one the Funky Chicken... (thx to Adam for the pic) a neigbouring bar - pumped out tunes until the early hours. Then the mosque kicked in a 4-5am and then the aerobics class in the ground floor gym started!
Every morning it was "AND-HULET-SOST" (or ONE-TWO-THREE) followed by some crazy techno hardcore, right out of an early 90s space-age-rave.
At 6am!
(well, there was a time techno at 6am was perfectly acceptable, but Im an old fella now 😉
Of course it was Ramadan and the mosque behind the compound kept the airwaves busy, with the odd local church chiming in with some decibel warfare, as and when it suited. If that wasn't enough we had the ubiquitous holy ice-cream van man, with a boom box on the roof and a wad of holy CDs to flog, parked outside; probably to annoy the mosque!
As a veteran of the airwave assaults I came equipped with my silicon implant ear-plugs and even brought a few handfuls of my less-effective foam ones for (a) stupid prizes in the general knowledge quiz and (b) to allow volunteers to get some sleep.
"Its Joanne - no it isn't - er, yes it IS!!..." After we had grabbed
Here comes Gurage!
Start sawing that log (thx to Adam again for the pic) around 3 or 4 hours sleep on Saturday night we were up again at 2.45am to head to the airport on collection duty #1.
We had all tried to memorize peoples faces and names from their passport pictures and had a little fuzzy-brained competition to see how many new volunteers we could identify.
Unfortunately at 4am we were still looking at hordes of Chinese men filtering by, just disembarked from an Egypt airlines flight from Cairo.
By 4.30am we were confused...well...even more confused then you can be after 3 hours kip at 4.30am.
And at 4.45am we were worried.
But then at 5am we spotted Michael Bobai, the Canadian IT guy and then it was game on.
Luckily we managed to get everyone's name right and gave them a warm welcome as they came through the arrivals gate.
Knowing names was one of the things we found really impressive at our ICT - and we thought we must repeat it. It makes people feel they are less of a stranger amongst strangers and most people really appreciate it.
The only minor hitches were that we didn't have any photos of Adam or
At the Pride Bar
Waiting for scavengers Trish from the States! Luckily Adam identified us from our VSO T-Shirts and we finally found Trish OK. So it was all aboard the buses and welcome to Addis, Ethiopia and AFRICA!
The Stragglers We had got back from the airport later than expected and had the usual issue with dead lightbulbs, missing towels and other minor room malfunctions. Soon everyone was tucked up in bed, meaning we could get into ours at last.
Sara kindly agreed to get up at 6am to collect Asha, meaning the rest of us could grab a few hours sleep before the programme started, though the aerobics and church music made sure our rest was short and light.
On our ICT in Feb 2008 we had been required to be up at something like 8am for a meeting, having had about 3 hours sleep. We were determined that those who needed rest could take it so the first formal meet was after lunch.
As it happened (we knew the feeling) you arrive in a new country (and continent) and are too excited to rest for long, so most people were up for a late breakfast and certainly no-one slept
First Back!
Maureen, Teresa and Adam through lunch.
The only activities on the first day were two parallel sessions - half the group met Patricia the CD (Country Director) for a coffee ceremony and welcome, while the other half met the ICT Organisers (us) for a welcome and breakdown of the 9 days of training.
ICT tends to follow a tried and tested formula that is tweaked here and there for every intake. It seems to work, though people find some of the sessions less engaging than others. You must always apply the 80:20 rule and while one person seems interested and absorbed in one speaker, another is tut-tutting and shaking their head, while a third just stares out of the window.
So while the new volunteers settled down to an evening making friends and chatting about their new lives in Ethiopia, Doreen went off to collect Margaret Happy from the airport, then Sara and I went off to collect the Kenyans.
Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, we were late.
Part of the reason was that the airport was rammed with people.
I have been there 20+ times and never, EVER seen it so busy. The car park was packed, there
Beers @ The Pride
The first of many in their VSO Ethiopia careers were people everywhere and the queues to get into arrivals were huge. We waited and waited politely while a guy tried to stop queue jumpers but come the third or fourth family/group of young men to just push in front of us I shuffled forward and the guy knew he had kept us waiting for long enough.
It was BEDLAM.
We asked someone why and they explained it was the DV Lottery flight to Washington, DC!
Ah! That made sense.
Although it is expensive to apply and fail, many many Ethiopians apply for entry to the USA via the "Diversity Visa" scheme. I think about 20,000 get accepted annually and it *IS* like winning the lottery.
Getting out of the country for a chance to live abroad is a dream for many Ethiopians; and when they get the chance their family thinks they have won the lottery too! Someone to earn US dollars and send money home, plus its expected that the person overseas should work to bring his/her family over when they get the chance.
So thats why it was packed. An entire aeroplane of lottery winners, being waved off by their extended
Victoria spots a straggler
Took a helicopter, not a line taxi? families on their journey to the Promised Land...!
Ultimately it meant we were late and the Kenyans had come through arrivals with no-one to meet them and had even had to call the emergency number to request a pick up.
We (Sara and I) were totally ashamed.
We couldn't help but feel that the night before all the stops had been pulled out to meet the Americans, Canadians and Europeans, but the Kenyans were greeted by an empty arrivals hall.
Yes, events outside our control played a part but even so, we should have been there to meet them.
And the thing is, the Kenyan guys were great about it! Relaxed, happy, chatty and amusing. We have to say that as far as generalisations can be made, the Kenyan (and Ugandan) volunteers we have met have been without doubt some of the most enjoyable volunteers to interact with.
Ok, let's not insult our fellow Europeans or friends from across the pond - many are equally great to be with - but I have yet to meet any Kenyans who can whinge like some of the volunteers from elsewhere can!
The early arrivals had
Say Cheese :)
Catherine and Jamie oblige organised a sing-song in the TV room in the residential area; we stayed up while the Kenyans ate and gave them a run down of the agenda for the week and an update on what they had missed earlier in the day.
Strategic Plans, Geopolitics and Beer Skipping the first two lets fast forward to the pub 😊
I had arranged an impromptu aerobics session - well, a screening of Davinas Super Fit workout - and followed it with a suggestion of a trip to the pub (I'm healthy like that, see).
A bunch of guys had headed off earlier so I was surprised to arrive at the pub, only to find it empty of Ferenge?
Eh?
How can we have lost 20 Ferengi already? Its only Monday and they only had to travel 25 metres???
(Ask guard) Ah OK - they've gone to the
pub.
Hmmm.
When I arrive, seated in a loose circle are our volunteers, screaming in each others ears or just sitting silent, having given up trying to talk over the deafening sound of Michael Jackson at 10,000 Amps.
As is usual, the Ethiopian music Thanks Drive!
On your right - the British Embassy (thx to Adam for the picture) seems to be replaced by Ferengi tunes whenever Ferengi turn up in numbers to a bar.
Clearly unsure of the way to order beers, someone had ordered/plonked 3 crates of different beers into the middle of the circle and shifty looking men and women eyed up the fresh entertainment from assorted dark corners and smoky tables.
I had thought "oh no, the new volunteers have gone and found the nearest whore-house and are busy supping beers amongst a gang of hookers and thieves..."
Galeta assured me it was fine, though not really my cup of tea - and I've seen a fair few Ethiopian drinking dens. Men did keep disappearing off through a door on the right and unless they had a serious dose of constipation, were failing to reappear on cue.
Half the volunteers got fed up of shouting and left, while I encouraged the rest to move to the quieter and more civilized venue, a stone's throw away.
Security, Emergencies and Logistics
Every day the What's in the box?
Getting to know your new best friend - the kerosene stove volunteers spent two hours learning Amharic, until day 4 when those going to the Oromo region started to learn Oromifa.
Probably kind of confusing but at least Oromifa uses a latin script (i.e. the 26 letters we are used to, not the Amharic fidel). They do seem to randomly insert lots of extra vowels, so you see Hotel sometimes written Hooteeliaa. But thats ok.
There are usually a few grumbles about the language training.
Teaching potentially two new languages and one new alphabet to 35 foreigners of varying ages, backgrounds, mother tongues and enthusiasm is not going to be a straight forward process. Particularly when you have, oh, 16 hours to do it. Its a bit like eating an elephant. Where do you start?
OK, the teachers try but the reality is you learn a lot, lot more once in placement than you can possibly pick up on ICT language training.
I actually listened in on one language session and thought it would be ideal for me - someone who has been in country for 18 months and has heard the intonation and words used before. For me I have the words but stringing them together into a coherent conversation is my problem.
So for some light relief we gave the new guys a session on security and emergiencies, while I helped Demiss run a parallel session on logistics.
The security session is the one where Patricia lines you all up in the order you would be evacuated in, which is usually quite an eye-opener.
Those with a British passport go last as they can bunker down in the grounds of the British Embassy. Us Brits don't run at the first sign of trouble - stiff upper lip, chap and all that 😉
In fact, those nationals with no Embassy get out first, then those who share an Embassy (I think the Aussies buddy-up with the Canadians, but I could be wrong and we had no Aussie vols this time round), then those with the facilities to keep people and/or strong historical relationships with the current Government go last.
One home-made (not VSO) plan for us in Assosa was to run like BF to Sudan (less than 50kms away) but that might cause more problems than it solves!
Logistics is where we introduce the vols to Demiss - the Little boxes, little boxes
The Ark of the Covenant is in there somewhere... man you need to keep happy! He looks after housing and how you get there. Its a bit tough on the new guys as understandably they all want 101 questions answered about their OWN house and situation when the session is a broad introduction only.
You can see some frustration start to creep in as people want to know if their bedroom is en-suite or not...(just kidding).
That night I had offered, with the help of any willing organisers, to play some Ethiopian music, show some videos and even demonstrate a few of the local dances. I had managed to go through the videos that Bekema and Mustapha had given me and had what I thought was a good selection of videos from Tigray, Amhara, Oromo, Gurage; as well as modern music like Tedi Afro and even some Ethiopian rappers.
The projector was set up. A crate of cold Meta Premium beer wheeled in. And off we went with Seble doing dance from Tigray...
...or maybe not.
Unfortunately all the videos I had chosen included men with guns running over hillsides and Seble refused to dance (I later was told I had selected a bunch Seble and Doreen
Ahhhh!!!! Sweet! (thx to Adam for the pic) of EPRDF songs that are not really suitable for an idiots guide to Ethiopian dance. Doh!).
So we moved swiftly on to Gurage - which is always a crowd-pleaser.
They say Ethiopian dancing starts at the top of the country and works its way down. So in Tigray you move the head, then in Amhara you move the shoulders, in Oromo its more the top half of your body and in Gurage (and Southern Regions) its your legs.
Now Gurage (pronounced "Gur-raggi") invloves lots of hand movements (imagine sawing a log with both hands side by side on the handle) and tapping your feet a bit like a cossack dancer. After a few beers everyone wants to play!
Next a bit of Amharic shoulder shaking (and some outrageous head shaking from one woman on a video) then some Oromo dancing.
Unfortunately we had no baboon-hair wigs but we gave it a go and I appear on a couple of video nasties trying to dance with Emile (in Nekemte). I'd post them on the blog but, you know, bandwidth limitations and all that :P
We tried a bit of Tigray "walking round the bonfire in Hell, yes. I know that feeling!
Joanna's batteries need a recharge a circle" dancing, which is a bit like doing a slow congo around the room, with the odd head jerk and stutter.
Now thoroughly exhausted (I had even done an aerobics work out beforehand) we sat down to nurse our beers and listen to some modern Ethiopian tunes.
We could be proud that at least these guys could hold their own now, come Monday night's cultural evening...
Embassy-visits and Scavenging for bananas
Although people have made it to the local bar (and "whore-house") they are yet to have been let loose in Addis to take line-taxis, use their Amharic and try out their essential skills in price negotiation. Today was the day for that.
Before the scavenger hunt the volunteers are broken up into groups and head off to their Embassy to register and get anything from total indifference (British Embassy. Usually), to a warm welcome, even when not expected (the Kenyan Embassy); and then collected by car and taken out to lunch with the Ambassador (the Irish Embassy).
I was buddied up with the four Kenyans and Rahel the Head of the Health Program, which suited me fine.
Although some logistical confusion Johnny Palapala
The Man with a Plan... (thx to Tara for the picture) meant we were not expected, we still were allowed in to meet a really friendly third secretary of something or other. He was a total gentleman and very polite. He even waited with us on the steps while our car arrived (45 minutes late from the Ugandan Embassy in Bole, half a city away).
The Kenyans were busy talking about "back home" laughing, shaking hands and chatting. Apparently one of the new volunteers had been to school with the chef at the Embassy. We were all invited back for the barbeque on Saturday, which apparently takes place every weekend, is open to all and a great little party (a bunch of current vols were planning on attending on Saturday already).
So back at the PO we were met with a bunch of irate volunteers, demanding when the scavenger hunt was about to start and what they were supposed to do.
Er, better get used to delays and some disorganisation guys! Remember your Harborne Hall training...
Off they finally went while the organisers retired to the Pride Bar to take a deep breath and enjoy an hour of relative peace.
What is a scavenger hunt you may ask?
Well the volunteers are sliced up into groups of 4 or 5 and sent one of three ways - either to the Kaldis Coffee at Tele Brass, the Lalibela Resturant at Stadium or a coffee shop in Arat Kilo.
Their mission is to catch a line taxi, answer some questions about local landmarks and fulfil some simple tasks - buy a newspaper, buy a 1/2 kg of bananas andg get your shoes shined. The first team back wins a couple of duff prizes (earplugs, bug spray etc) but the real purpose is to get people out and experiencing real Addis.
Of course its quite funny to see how much people get overcharged for bananas or (more commonly) for a shoe shine (locals pay 1-2 birr but 10 birr is the usual starting Ferengi price before negotiation).
Given that of the three destinations, Tele Brass is a short hop, Stadium a medium and Arat Kilo slightly longer, it kind of handicaps some teams, though fair play to a couple of the Arat Kilo teams: they showed initiative and hired an entire line taxi for the 12 of them! Cheating? No, lateral thinking 😉
Back OK test me!
Joanna, Jackie, Megan, Mike, Mike B, Alex, Martin, Trish, David, Maureen S, Dominic, Maureen G, Patrick (waving), Unni, Kathryn, Melanie, Nancy and Jamie... in the Pride Bar the atmosphere had changed considerably - getting out in Addis had really got people energised and engaged, which is kind of why I prefer the non-residential ICT option. As the beers started slipping down comfortably it was time to hop aboard the buses again and make our way back to the Red Cross.
Embassy Visit Revisited and One-to-Ones
For those who had not been to the British Embassy for the Health Briefing, today was a chance to go. I was helping co-ordinate and was amazed to see the quality of the DFID (Department of Foreign something-or-other and Development) where the meeting was held. Its like stepping into some hi-tech office in the UK!
It was now Thursday and all the organisers were slowly running out of gas.
I mean we had worked hard the week before in preparation. Then had about 3 hours sleep on Saturday night. Then from the moment we woke up to the moment we locked our bedroom door at night we were being asked (not unreasonably) thousands of questions.
I really didn't mind - I mean I signed up to help and am really pleased if people Variety Night @ The Red Cross
Rod Hull & Emu sent their apologies... (thx to Tara again for the picture) find the information I pass on useful.
But on the residential ICT there was kind of no rest for the wicked, whereas on the non-residental one, the organisers clock off when the vols get back to the hotel after the days training. Yes there may be evening events but its not full-on questioning breakfast, dinner and tea.
The solution is of course to take a break. We organisers should have factored this in and I hope future ICT organisers recognise this potential problem. Maybe give each organiser a full day off in the week to recover.
As it happened, once ICT ended Seble went on holiday in Langano for a week, Galeta slept all day and Doreen slept for 17 hours straight! Poor old Joanna was up at 4am for her flight back to Gondar (she wanted to be home for her birthday).
But tonight we had to be in top form though as we had been invited to the British Embassy to meet the Ambassador.
We were honoured indeed. Our intake had not been invited and neither had the subsequent two intakes. In fact it was in 2007 that the last batch of VSOs VSO's got Talent
Eefje teaches us how to dodge bullets like Neo... got the red carpet treatment.
I kind of had mixed feelings about it all.
Yes I fancied tapping up the Embassy for some free booze and nibbles - I mean they are servants of the people; and I'm a UK tax-payer (yep, they still tax you on your rental income and any savings when you are out of the country - you probably lose a whole host of other benefits but you still get to pay tax and try and submit annual returns over a 56k dial-up Internet link).
Yes I fancied seeing the world of opulence, just a 7-iron away from a city street full of beggars, cripples and poverty. It stinks but don't curse something you haven't seen or experienced.
The Ambassador had invited the Ugandan, Indian, Irish, Canadian and Kenyan Ambassadors too, so people got to rub shoulders with people they probably only ever read about in the papers.
No US Ambassador. The Obama regime is yet to appoint one by all accounts.
Mind you, he or she would still be busy with a chisel, removing and burning the pictures of the demonic three (Bush, Chaney and Rice) that - according Er...sorry...camera malfunction
Eefje teaches us how to belly dance... to an American friend who had been there - smiled smugly at you from the walls above.
Boy-oh-boy the Ambassador's reception area is posh. You are led in to sign the guest book past pillars adorned with the gold lettered names of previous British Ambassadors to Ethiopia going back a couple of hundred years.
Then into a room full of original etchings and artwork from the Victorian era.
You wander about while a team of Ethiopian waiters ply you with finger-snacks and red wine (which ran out - you get a 45 minute slot and I bet the Ambassador gives a nod and the flow of booze gets cut off), wondering how many figures from Ethiopian history had stood in the very same spot as you over the years.
Once you have quaffed and munched, nodded and made enough polite conversation you get herded out, onto the buses again and back out into the real Ethiopia.
I guess it serves to highlight the work you have ahead if this the sort of comfort Ethiopians (and the world as a whole) deserve to enjoy too...but you can't help feeling it's all a bit obscene...
33 Highland dancing with Joanne
The Gay Gordon sponsored by Meta Premium Blind Dates
Normally ICT ends with the partner workshop and then the cultural evening of Ethiopian food, booze and dancing.
This time it was feared that Eid, the muslim festival that ends Ramadan, would fall on the final day of ICT so the partner workshop was brought forward to the Friday.
Although there was a chance that Eid would be on the Sunday (or Tuesday) - it depends on the moon and a committee of clerics in Saudi I believe - it was not a chance worth taking. Plus it might actually encourage partners to attend; they get their expenses paid to go to Addis to see their family for the holiday weekend! Bargain!
And as it happened, all but around two partner organisations sent a representative.
I'm sure I covered the Partner Workshop in the blog about our ICT, so I won't repeat it. Basically its an opportunity for volunteers to meet their new bosses, go through the three-way agreement and ask any questions they may have; with VSO on hand to facilitate it.
I kind of took a back seat as I was still preparing my Ethiopian Technology Briefing for presentation to The ICT Organisers
I'm not sleeping on my feet, honest! (thx to Tara for the picture) the new volunteers on Sunday. It was also a chance to use the Internet link as the room had been full of volunteers trying to email, Facebook, blog and contact home for days. Here was a lull in the storm and an opportunity to get some online banking sorted.
Whats in the box?
Saturday was a trip back into Addis for the PO session of Tamrat's cooking and a run through of what each volunteer gets in their box of goodies to go with them on placement. I did a brief run down of the stabilizer and surge-protected divider and the guys went to collect their 1,000 birr shopping money...
The afternoon is free for current volunteers to buddy-up with new volunteers and take them out shopping for whatever is top of their priority list of items necessary in-placement. Some volunteers already know they have a house full of stuff waiting, but most will need items that are maybe only available in Addis; and the items will be cheaper in Addis than in the regions anyway, so best to buy them now.
Useful items? Kettle, good kitchen knife, tupperware, chopping board, mobile phone, bedsheets, towels...you get Strictly Cultural Dancing
Brucie Baby would love it the picture.
I took Mike (the Liverpool fan - we went to DSTV together on Weds), Eefje from Holland and Tara around Shola Market before heading back to the Pride to meet Sara and Clare (ex-VSO, still working in Addis). Ben (ex-VSO too) pitched up and we all agreed to go to the Zebra Grill with Mike, Jamie, Mary and Martin.
Ben was telling me he read our blog back in the UK to remind him of Ethiopia and remembered Sara's entry about ironing and singing along with iPod tunes. It's always good when people say they read the blog - inspires you to keep it going.
(Hello mate - will do you a special entry on our kitchen soon 😉
Addis Tour and VSO Talent Night
Sunday is kind of a slow day. After a learning cafe for an hour (I co-hosted one on gender issues in Ethiopia) I presented my session on Ethiopian Technology. Seemed to go down well. Lots of questions but I over-ran!
The volunteers then jumped on the buses and either carried on shopping where they left off on Saturday or went on a tour around Addis with a Seble cuts the cake
Optical Illusion #579: Life-like husband and wife model on top stop on the Entoto Hills.
Again I took a rain-check as I had to prepare for the evening's talent night.
As the sound-man I was busy downloading songs for the various acts while listening to the cheers from the local DSTV house showing the Manchester derby. Big cheers were Man U goals and little cheers were Man City goals (Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea fans making the noise).
The talent night was a great laugh!
Amongst quizzes, obsticle course races and an ICT song we had the Wild Rover from Patrick, Richard and Michael, Ugandan dancing from Margaret, belly-dancing with Eefje, folk-dancing with Victoria, Highland-dancing with Joanne and then a chaotic mix of Ethiopian dancing with everyone.
The volunteers also gave awards to everyone (The Voscars) for "best this" and "best that" and all the ICT Organisers were thanked and presented with some nice chocolate, which was sweet.
We ended the night with the dancing videos from earlier in the week (including me and Emilie - I had to recover it from the Recycle Bin!) and Sara and I's favourite feel-good video from U-Tube - the "Where the Hell is Matt?" video where he does Frits prays for something...
...surely not for ICT to end? his silly dance from landmarks around the world...
The End is Nigh
For those who started reading this blog entry in their morning coffee break, I'm sorry, its probably lunch time now 😊 Don't worry, it's almost over...
The final day is a presentation on Development in Ethiopia, the implications of the new NGO law, the possible issues around next year's general election and then it all ends with a big celebration of Ethiopian food, booze and dancing.
The evening was great fun! Doreen had arranged a good set of dancers, supported by a band and singer and the majority of the volunteers joined in using their moves learned from earlier in the week.
I have to say Frits was a superstar and clearly has a stellar career in Ethiopian dance ahead of him!
There was a nice closing speech from Patricia and we also all thanked her for her good work as Country Director for VSO Ethiopia. She is off in late October to work for an organisation in Jerusalem so it was probably the last chance for a big group of volunteers to say "thank-you" all together in one place before she leaves.
So the band packed up, the tables were cleared and the lights were turned off on another VSO Ethiopia ICT...
...a bunch of volunteers headed off to the bars (both the quiet and the noisy one) in search of more booze and dancing, but many would be leaving the next day and had packing and final preparations to do.
So that was it.
Our work was done.
The "noob" volunteers were now pretty much ready to face life on placement in Ethiopia!
Thanks to (deep breath) Asha, Margaret, Geoffrey, Unni, Nancy, Dominic, Emilie, Richard, Alex, Megan, Teresa, Tara, Victoria, John, Michael, Peter, Catherine, Frits, Valerie, Melanie, Jamie, Mary, Katherine, Jackie, Hazel, Maureen S, David, Patrick, Maureen G, Martin, Michael, Joanne, Trish, Eefje, Trish and Adam for being such a good bunch of guys!
Good luck, enjoy your Ethiopian adventure and don't worry...
...you'll be "fine"!
😊
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anonymous
non-member comment
thats cute