Blogs from Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Ethiopia, Africa - page 4

Sorry for the silence! We've been in Addis for a one-day workshop that resulted in a pretty stressful 9 days away. While we were away it was my big 4-0 birthday and I'll cover that one in the next entry - hopefully later this weekend, power permitting (it has got pretty damn bad lately - one day on, one day off). We flew to Addis on Saturday 16th and had a birthday lunch planned the next day, followed by a farewell party for Jackie at Kev and Izzie's house. The day went pretty well (see next entry pics) but the following day (my actual birthday) we heard the terrible news that our fellow VSO, Jeremy, had been attacked walking home the previous night and was in hospital. He had been walking back home to the Gin ... read more

The Drums that roll upon my Soul... It is early morning. I feel like I have been asleep for a total of 20 minutes. My head is thumping. Not because of a large quantity of rather nasty, on-the-turn, cheap red wine - mixed with white wine when the red wine ran out - that passed my lips the night before; but because our neighbour has put on her holy drum music yet again. BONK-BONK-BONK (pause) BONK-BONK-BONK (pause) bink! (pause) bink! (pause) bink-bink-bink (pause) BONK-BONK-BONK (pause)..... This goes on over and over again for hours. During the run up to easter it was on every day, starting about 5am and would appear randomly during the day at equally high volume. Our house is adjoined to a mirror image with a thin (I guess) single-brick wall. There are ... read more

Here is a special guest blog from Dave! Dave and Dee (Sara's mum and husband) have arrived and we have just spent a great week in Assosa. Today we are off to Addis for two days before heading out in our hired car & driver to Wondo Genet springs, Awassa, Arba Minch, back to Addis then Wenchi Crater. We will not be back in Assosa now for 10 days and then may well be immediately off to the Metekel Zone for training - Sara with the Shinasha Development Association and myself with computer maintenence training... Could go quiet for a while :) And cross your fingers. Sara's 200,000 euro European Union proposal for the region's Development Associations was finished yesterday and will be handed in, hot off the press, on Monday! So Happy Ethiopian Easter for ... read more

BIG DISCLAIMER: After some feedback from part #1 I should add that the UN work in a lot more difficult places than Ethiopia so their advice is one size fits all. That said, parts of Ethiopia are a bit hairy and neither volunteers or tourists are allowed (or supposed) to visit these areas. As far as we are concerned - and we have both said it - walking around Addis Ababa at night feels safer than walking around Fishponds in Bristol. By some margin. Unlike the UK, the Police are still respected (and perhaps feared). Unlike the UK, older people are still given respect. And, unlike the UK, foreigners are still treated with respect. Yes, the roads are problematic, but hire a local driver who is used to goats, donkeys and humans springing out in front ... read more

Hah-Hoo-Hee-hah-Hey-Heurr-Ho! We are both learning to read and write Amharic. Why? Well, our attempts at learning to speak Amharic hit a bit of a dead end. We generally understand the gist of other people's conversation but we can't string sentences together to hold a proper conversation ourselves. Our vocabulary goes up slowly but it tends to be pointing and naming things rather than structured comment. Since we arrived various people have kept telling us that learning the language is much easier if you know the Amharic fidel (alphabet). "Amharic is easy" they say "it is not like English - you say it as it is written!". Now, strictly speaking this isn't exactly true. People speed up the pronunciation of various letters so they seem to be either silent or you don't pronounce the end of the ... read more