This one made me laugh till I cried But for all the wrong reasons 'Al and I took the opportunity to have an afternoon by myself', that's my husband the schizophrenic. Hope you got some peace sounded like it was getting pretty crowded :-)
Yeesh! Whoa, that sounds like a seriously rough time! I've had many experiences with a dodgy belly abroad, but this sounds way tough...
Get well (back to 100% that is...) Sara!
lol The future is busy lol, nice one.
One thing the public sector in Ethiopia good at is doing their propaganda. Every public office has an endless list.
Get together? Hey Al,
My husband and I are going to be in Addis (Aug. 8th-21-tentative). I was wondering if you guys would like to go out for a beer or two. E-mail me if you want!
Best,
Julie
http://theeyesofmyeyesareopened.blogspot.com/
By the way This online comment system filters out line brakes so all our paragraphs have been squashed into one big lump of prose. It's not my bad English, honest ;)
Salam Firew and hello I am really pleased to know that Ethiopian (or American/British-Ethiopian) people are reading our blog, though I always worry that I am not being complimentary enough!!!
We are guests in Ethiopia and would never want to spoil the welcome that every Ethiopian has given us by writing bad things in an online blog.
However it is important to balanced with our observations (they are just that) - as if we just wrote everything is beautiful and the people are wonderful it would soon get boring; and of course the reality is somewhere between the two extremes. I hope that our positive feelings towards Ethiopia, Ethiopians and the whole VSO experience are able to filter through.
You are correct about Ethiopia's relative integration with other countries and interaction with English speakers. I was sitting in the shai bet talking to Ayelnesh - a friend from work - and she said that I was the first Ferengi she had ever tried to speak English to! Beneshangul-Gumuz at any one time probably has less than 20 Ferengi's living there in total, so I guess it should not be a surprise.
I know I am fortunate to be a native English speaker when travelling as it is the default language for international communication. I also realise that the primary goal of language is to communicate, so I would not penalise people for not speaking "Queen's English" so long as I can understand them.
English is a living language. Ethiopian English differs from Kenyan English and Ugandan English. It can be quite amusing as both Sara and I have had Ethiopians telling us our English is incorrect! Which is fine. Whatever works for you!!!
I agree with ETC being shameless. If the ETC monopoly was broken I believe it would have untold benefits for Ethiopian development. Ethiopia would get a good telephone, mobile and Internet system. Communications between kebeles, woredas, zones and regions would improve, development efforts would be more effective, banking and electronic business would advance, education, health and government would all benefit from reliable access to email systems and the Internet.
Unfortunately, while Ethiopia does not have an effective taxation system, the government's main source of revenue (apart from aid money) will remain the national utilities like electrical generation, water supply and telecoms. Grab people's money back by charging them for what most people would call essential services.
Of course it might help if Ethiopians were more active in complaining :) So many times my friends just shrug and make a joke when the power cuts unexpectedly or the phone or Internet service goes down. I guess when you have been used to no power or no mobile service, even a dodgy service is better than nothing...!
Anyway I guess I am the one blabbering now so don't apologise. Please say what you like about our blog. Correct us when we are wrong. It is merely our observations and we only get to see and experience a fraction of Ethiopia and it's culture. The people in the Uk reading the blog are as interested as us in your thoughts.
Thanks for reading and please keep posting your comments!
Al
I think... ..that if you read the full blog that you will find out how much we appreciate the beauty of Assosa and the friendliness of the Ethiopian people we have met? We feel really lucky to have been placed here as volunteers and have made friends that we will hopefully keep for life.
You should also remember that this blog is for the benefit of our friends and family so they can follow what we are doing in Ethiopia - it is not a tourism and culture bureau advert for Beneshangul-Gumuz. I hope we are not too negative about life in Assosa, but I also think it is important to give a balanced view.
We are thoroughly enjoying our adventure in Assosa and I am sorry if this doesn't come through in the blog.
why? You are lucky that you visited the town, the only town in the world,whose identical has never been present,is not present currently and will never ever exist anywhere else.I am also happy that you managed to came and did it.but why didn't you show us the beauty of the beautifull town,particularly friendly people?I would be happier had you told us that.
First let me take the chance to thank you for the goods work you (Al and Sara) have been doing there. I have been reading your posts from time to time.
This post reminds me of the days when I was in high school, where at one point I decided to read 40 pages of some(any) English book a day until I moves up a level in my vocabulary power. I would prefer Sidney Sheldion like many other Ethiopians but everybody wants Sidney Sheldion's Book (I usually have to borrow books from some teacher or sth - the library condition is better left untouched). So I have to read Agatha Christie's "And then there were none". Oh, how I hated that book :-)
The system were you would teach students in their own language and treat English only as one subject proved disastrous in Ethiopian case. Because the only way you will learn English is through the school and if we do it as a subject only, the level would drop (had dropped when tried- u might argue where would it go from the current level but it did) . In many European countries English as a subject only works and most people speak good English. The reason being they have the luxury of watching TV in English and have to interact with some foreigner in English (not necessarily Native speaker). But Ethiopia is different from most other countries. Because of our history, the level of integration to the rest of the world is very limited (even compared to other African countries). By history, I talking about the bad image (famine, etc- ), our stubbornness to change things - eg. our confusing calender (I will definitely get some stick for this from fellow Ethiopians :-) ), socialist era etc. The lack of interaction with native speakers of English in real life or through tv is the main problem. The only Tv channel we have is the boring ETV. Thanks for technology, now there are satellite dishes everywhere and there is marked difference already. The younger generation are much better. I have heard Ethiopian Telecommunication Co. (ETC) is going to charge an annual fee for using satellite dishes (ETC is shameless!!!!).
The only way to learn a language (esp. when it comes to speaking skill) undoubtedly is through interaction. I bet the self appointed tourist guides in Bahir Dar (a tourist town in Northern Ethiopia) might speak better English than most people who went through the formal system. Excuse my blabbering, I will stop now.
I wish all the best !
Firew
P.S. I still feel ashamed about your friend that got stabbed. I hope he has recovered from it.
bako I have been searching online for months trying to find pics of Bako...my daughter was born in that area and was adopted to me in 2007. Do you happen to have any during your stay getting your tires fixed:-)
thanks!!
A hell of a story. Hopefully this experience will work for the good; I suspect a song will come of this. Maybe even a screenplay? You guys are doing brave work. Keep it up!
Best wishes Tim ( Melbourne)
Whoo! Well done Sara! This is awesome news, so big big congratulations! Also, a belated Happy Birthday to you too Al...
Loving reading this blog and hearing all the adventures,
See you soon, h
You made it! Hi Dee and Dave, Sara and Al. Sounds like you are all having a wonderful time. I hope you have a great time travelling round the other areas and I am looking forward to seeing some more photos and hearing all about it. Love to you all. Jan and Al xxxx
hi Hey guys, I've only recently discovered your blog - and I'm hooked. It's amazing to see your pics and hear about what you're getting up to. Such a positive vibe! x Rob
Tigers cheats - surely not! Can't believe the slanderous comment on the gentlemen Tigers - and what was the score in 2002? At least we have the chance this year to stick one up Barf.
Miss you both - and the snow is amazing!
AWESOME VIDEOS I wish I had known you were in Ethiopia. You might be interested to know about AWESOME VIDEOS. Here is the website www.wattsmith.com/awesomevideos
Nice blog!
WIth respect,
Watt Smith
Grounded I came across your blog when I looked for information about Asosa. I was thinking of going there for some research, but I just learned from Ethiopian Airlines that there will be no more flights to Asosa until February 8th. I hope that doesn't impact you. Best wishes in your good work.
Hi - this is Al & Sara's blog!
We are 2 VSO volunteers working in Assosa, Beneshangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia for 2 years from Feb 2008 to 2010.
Don't try to find us on the map, 'cos we don't appear. We are proud to announce a grand total of 0 entries in the Lonely Planet - Ethiopia & Eritrea and um, 0 entries in the Bradt guide. In fact as an "emerging region" within Ethiopia our area is pretty anonymous both internally and (clearly) internationally. With the mud strip airport being relaid with tarmac we had a 2 day 4x4 journey here from Addis. That said, Assosa is a regional capital, has a p... full info
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very amusant