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 [View Full Entry]

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So we came back from England feeling pretty lardy, with a few extra pounds from the Christmas celebrations. On our way back from Addis Ababa Al and I sat up front in the car and it was a tight squeeze I can tell you, I was almost sitting on the drivers lap, to say nothing of Al sitting on mine for the 14 hour journey home. We came back with good intentions of getting back into a regular fitness regime. But we didn’t realise quite how soon we’d be required to get our lardy arses in gear. Within a week of [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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...is it safe? Every time I sit in a dentist's chair I have a vision of Laurence Olivier leaning over me with an evil hook-shaped tool in one hand and a bottle of clove oil in the other, about to ask me the un-answerable question "is it safe?". Snapping back to reality, Laurence has been replaced by a bespectled Indian with an impressive face mask and set of ranged magnifying lenses attached to his glasses, not unlike the characature of a white-suited mad doctor that appear in so many computer video games. The drill starts whining, a grinning Nurse Ratched leans [View Full Entry]

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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 [View Full Entry]

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Herding Cats So thank you one and all for all the pictures of your little kiddies, new babies and toddlers that you email us. Very nice, but please, please check the file sizes as 10Mb pictures take approximately 2 hours to download! I thought to thank you, I would treat you to some photos and videos of our ickle 'babies' :) We don't know if mum was one of the posse that hung around our house about this time last year, but whatever, she seems to have formed an attachment...probably because we fed her milk, sardines and meat while she was [View Full Entry]

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OK well maybe not in the middle of a street. We actually live in an area of Asossa called Arba Betoch (40 houses) which is just next door to Hostel. It is all government housing. The other government area just up the road is Selsa Betoch (60 houses) and a couple of the other volunteers live there. We live in a small group of houses, we are directly opposite Mustophe, who is a UN Volunteer working at the Regional Education Bureau as an IT adviser - he sits next to me in the Planning office and has become a good friend, [View Full Entry]

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Keep Calm and Carry On First up, apologies for not updating either the blog, the football site or replying to emails. We have both been in Addis - Sara in her new role as volunteer committee representative for the Western region of Ethiopia and me for the IT Workshop. And even before that there have been ongoing problems with the Internet access, which have meant I have not been able to update both sites properly. Basically the Internet has died. Well actually its worse than dead. It kind if flicks in an out of some sort of comatose or vegetative state. [View Full Entry]

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The JISC Munky was adopted through PG Tips in 2008. He has travelled extensively in American and then decided to take a break from Bristol to volunteer in Ethiopia. This blog is ‘Ode to Munky’ as he returns to the UK to take up residence again. He is a Munky of few words, but hopefully these pictures tell his story. [View Full Entry]

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January is the Enemy of Girls Through an idiosyncracy of the Emirates airline scheduling we were given the happy honour of spending 8 hours in transit - from midnight to 8am - at Dubai airport. An extra minute of stopover time and we would have qualified for a free night in a hotel, but I guess you don't get as rich as the Emirates without paying attention to such minor details! Our consultant friend Judith had recommended we try one of the business lounges where you can pay a 'small amount' to upgrade from peasant class and enjoy some comfortable seating. [View Full Entry]

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