Blogs from Robe, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, Africa

The bureaucracy at the College is quite amazing! I had to undergo ‘internal clearance’ before theywould write the clearance letters that I need for when I leave Ethiopia. This involves 32 different people each signing (seven times) to say that I have nothing belonging to the College and am free to leave. Most of the 32 have had nothing to do with my work here! Luckily, one of the office workers, Ture, was given the task of collecting the signatures for me. There have only been two slight problems … When I handed over the running of the Higher Diploma Programme to Kefyalew, we did not formally sign over the office equipment and furniture. We spent a couple of hours with two other workers, going through the list - we even had to account for a ... read more

Most of the time I feel a little bit like a fraud as a volunteer in Ethiopia, as my quality of life is so much better here than in the UK. I am often asked how Ethiopia and the UK compare economically - my stock answer is that it is difficult to compare because, of course, wages are much higher, but so are costs in the UK. There is no air pollution; just the dust of Robe to contend with in the dry season. And I rarely take work home in the evening or at weekends. I sleep well and eat locally produced, organic, food. However, over the last week or so, I have felt like a “proper” VSO volunteer. I have been running lots of workshops in Cluster Centre Schools for teachers. When the workshops ... read more

Two of my friends in Robe have set up a private training institute for Kindergarten teachers. When they first told me about it, I was impressed by their vision and the fact that they had recognised a gap in the market and acted on it. They are using an old clinic and have refurbished the classrooms. They asked if I would help them by teaching some classes, so I spend Saturday mornings teaching three groups. I don’t get paid, but the guys occasionally invite me out for a drink or dinner, which is a great deal. The sessions are about how to teach English to kindergarten children (not an area am I particularly skilled in, but thank goodness for the Internet), which I have based mainly on a phonics programme from the UK. One of the ... read more

On Monday, I had to deliver a letter to a village around 6 km from Robe, so it was a perfect opportunity to go by horse. Daamaa was being unusually stubborn and not far out of Robe, just stopped; no amount of encouragement would get him moving. Slightly embarrassing! Then an older man took pity on me and started to lead him. He obviously thought I was totally incompetent and when we reached the village and he had to turn off to his house, he handed the rope over to a woman who took great delight in stopping at the house of every one of her friends (and she had many) through the village to explain that she had to lead the Farenji on the horse - we even took a detour to her sister’s house. ... read more

Although it is not part of my actual VSO placement, I am privileged to have a small involvement with a vocational training project for deaf students, at Galema Elementray School, in Robe. The project was set up by Catherine, Emma and Elmy (previous volunteers in Robe) using funding that they helped the school to obtain from the International Deaf Children’s Society. Today was a celebration of the first graduation of students who have completed Year 10. There were several speeches, translated into sign language for the students by Aynalem - one of the Special Needs Teachers at the school. There were also two plays performed. The first, performed by hearing and deaf students, was the story of a couple who had a deaf child; they tried going to a priest and a doctor to get her ... read more