THANK-YOU to everyone who has sponsored me for the Great Ethiopian Run! Your help is much appreciated by both us and VSO! The last 6 weeks or so have been a total blur - in Assosa I've hosted our friend Marta (the ex-VSO from Assosa) and our French friends Christine, Bernard and Liana. Then in Addis Sara and I have hosted her sister, Jan and husband Al. Lots of nice pictures that are completley blog-worthy, but with time against me now I'll be working hard in moments of free time to update you all too. In the meantime I took a [View Full Entry]

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So here is the news - though I guess most of you know this by now - Sara is pregnant and going to have a baby!!!! We are both delighted as we were led to believe it was not medically possible. For many years we had hauled ourselves through the NHS infertility system (not much fun - lovely nurses, less lovely consultants) without success. After years of poking, prodding, samples, scans, diary-keeping, mucus feeling, pipe-cleaning, keyhole camera examinations and even reflexology and acupuncture (not on t [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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"Ta-fa?" (or "Ta-fash?" if you are good friends or female) Rough Translation: where have you been? I've been in Addis, helping train the 36 new volunteers (well, 33 volunteers and 3 accompanying partners), though that's another story :) For now I'll stick to non-ICT (In-Country Training) news only. Holy Light, Batman! Before I flew to Addis, we had been enjoying the extra power in Assosa. Instead of being off all day and night on no-power days, it was coming back at 8.30pm which is great for charging batteries, boiling water and an hour or so of not blundering around the [View Full Entry]

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Well I'm kind of responding to the "blog seems to be stuck in Europe" comment from one of my good blog reading customers... ... and as I'm providing a service here, I guess I ought to be sensitive to my consumers wishes and do a blog from where we are supposed to be blogging from - Ethiopia! Apologis to Christine, to whom I promised that the next blog would be about our day in La Rochelle. That will have to wait I'm afraid...but I think it might be worth it :) "This thing CAN'T be done" (I hope) So it's gone [View Full Entry]

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...détruit par un idiot! C'est une entrée très spéciale de blog au sujet d'un jour très agréable dehors pour tous les nous (Dave, Dee, Sara et Alan) dans la ville française de La Rochelle. Pour honorer nos amis de l'autre côté de la Manche que j'essaye de créer un blog écrit entièrement en français ! Malheureusement mon Français d'O-Level est très, très rouillé et plutôt que passent 2 semaines recherchant par un dictionnaire anglais-français, je va tricher (voir http://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com). Naturellement le produit final sera sans doute horrible en termes d'exactitude g [View Full Entry]

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...and the Ferengis are in the pool :) Dave and Dee had very kindly rented both a gite and a car for the week in France. The main reason was Ondine's wedding of course, but we were also really looking forward to a true, blue skies and beer, trashy novel by the pool-type holiday! We also were keen to enjoy the variety of food and drink tastes that are generally so limited in Assosa. - Apples! (golf clap) - Cheese! (sincere round of applause) - Bread! (cheers and the odd whistle) - Crisps! (hoots of "you da man") - Chocolate! (toss [View Full Entry]

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Billy Idle? May the fleas of a thousand scabby camels infest the underwear of my children's children for being so slack on the blog front. Not because I haven't done enough entries over the last month, it's just I still haven't finished the updates from our trip the UK and France!! (I know. What a slacker). I could use the excuse that the power here is still only available 50% of the time... ...so, hmm, yes, why don't I? Yep, sitting in the dark while the rain pings so loudly onto the tin roof that you can't hear Sara speak is [View Full Entry]

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Banksy vs Bristol Museum So I'm sitting here in Assosa. It's a dark and stormy night. No chance of a burglary (the three robbers are sat in a cave, telling tales). We just spent the afternoon waiting at the airport for a flight to Addis that never came. Delayed from 12.30 to 2, then 3.30, then 6. Right on cue at 5.15, just as the plane left Jimma, the sky goes black and we huddle in the departure lounge while the rain hammers down on the tin roof. Finally we get the good news. No plane today. Let's try again tomorrow. [View Full Entry]

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If you go down to the woods today So we were back in the glorious motherland once more! Having been back at Christmas we kind of knew what to expect this time. Apart from seeing friends and family again, we were looking forward to all the amenities we had missed - electricity, hot water, drinking water from a tap, flushing toilets, fully stocked fridges, huge choices of food and drink, TV, broadband...ok, ok I'll stop now...but having landed, all we really wanted was a nice comfortable bed and some recovery time. This visit was not a planned one. Sara's sister Ondine [View Full Entry]

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