Blogs from Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Ethiopia, Africa

Here's a blast from the past in your inbox, eh? Another blog entry from Al and Sara! Three years have passed and as promised we have returned to Ethiopia to see our friends and introduce Sahai (T'sehaye) to the country where she spent 6 months bouncing aorund in Sara's tummy and the country that gave her her name. Flying out to Ethiopia on the Thursday 22nd November overnighter, we landed in Addis very early in the morning for us (not Ethiopians, who had probably been up several hours running, praying or both!). After a curious mexican stand off where we sat in the shai bet (coffee shop) in the airport waiting for Debebe and Zikargechew and Debebe and Zikargechew sat in the car park waiting for us, I finally borrowed the mobile phone of a cleaner ... read more

Time for this slack blogger to go back to March 2008 (ouch!) and extend the entry on our field trip to the remote parts of Beneshangul-Gumuz Region (see "Around the Woredas in 18 days"). Clearly there is some demand for pictures out there (if not my interesting and amusing commentary). My site statistics say the Woreda Trip entry has been viewed over 1,000 times. More than double my *better* blog entries, and ten times more visited than a typical entry! I suspect good old Google returns our blog at one of the top hits if you search for "woreda ethiopia beneshangul gumuz" (in fact I just tried it - number 9 in the list!). From the comments we have had on the blog it seems that Ethiopians who have emigrated abroad, people with adopted children from ... read more

The Past is a Foreign Country... Six months have passed now since my exit from Assosa but in many ways it seems like a lifetime ago. I am firmly back into the world of work and kept even busier in the world of fatherhood. Events here happen so quickly: social invitiations arrive by email, text message, telephone call, mobile and smartphone. Diaries are filled months ago. Weekends seem busier than weekdays... During the occasional lull in the storm of work, parenting and appointments, I look back fondly on our time in Ethiopia and worry that I haven't yet finished (if yet really started) my reflections on our experiences overseas and make a mental promise to myself that "next weekend" I'll sort through and order my photographs, reach the magic 100 blog entires and spend some quality ... read more

Unlike the last entry, I am committed to doing this one properly; I have to admit, however, that I am not quite sure how to do that. Last week I was in the field, touring a number of our (CPAR’s) project sites and ongoing activities, discussing with the field teams what challenges are the most prevalent/discouraging to the communities in which they work and what opportunities there may be for CPAR to intervene and mitigate these issues. I got the opportunity to experience some truly unique and touching things this last week. As a result of this, and because our team and the people we work with are so incredible, I had a great time. But I do not feel that saying this does justice to the trials that these incredible people face every day; I ... read more

With some sadness this will be my last blog update while actually in Ethiopia - however there WILL be lots more blog entries from the UK about Ethiopia. I have a yellow A4 folder full of notes and a hard disk full of pictures :) My aim was to quit on 100 blog entries and that is what I will do. The last 10 days have been a whirlwind of parties, presentations and goodbyes. It's been such a rush it's been hard to get time to reflect on our wonderful experience in Ethiopia. That will come later. Tears only twice (but we have 3 hours left for plenty more). Here are a couple of pictures to give you a flavour; and as I say, stay tuned for some belated updates and some great pics (uploaded over ... read more