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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OK, at last I can get another update going; and, boy, I think it's my first 2-pager! Don't worry it's mostly photos. Mostly :) Today is a bank holiday in Ethiopia - Timkat or Epiphany - which celebrates the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. It's almost as big a festival as Easter. People will hit the streets in their sunday best and just like Meskel, it is a good opportunity (as Bekema tells us) "to find a girlfriend"! As I am happily married and we went to see the "tabots" (mini Arks of the Covenant that rest on every [View Full Entry]

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Don't Panic....ok, go on then P-A-N-I-C Our trip home to the UK at Christmas seemed like it was going smoothly and by the numbers. We had said goodbye to our friends, taken various orders for bits and pieces unavialable to people in Assosa, packed up the house, left money for bills and paid our seratanyas (Marta and Mulatu). All we needed now was our ticket from Ethiopian Airlines, booked 3 weeks prior through VSO in Addis. It got to the Wednesday, we were due to fly on Saturday to Addis and back to the UK (via Dubai) on Monday. I had [View Full Entry]

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Well it's been some time since the joyous Obama update. Can't say it's been writers block as if you have followed this blog you will realise I can jibber jabba utter rubbish with the best of them with very little encouragement whatsoever ;) No, more like being busier than a ZERO-legged man in an ar*e kicking competition! On Thursday I start a 5 day Cisco course. I am still writing Day 2. Doh. I have started teaching English and held 4 classes this week. Two beginners classes for women and two mixed advanced classes. As a bit of a perfectionist, I [View Full Entry]

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The last 24 hours have been interesting times indeed! The president of Beneshangul-Gumuz for the last 14 years has just stood down in favour of a new appointee from Addis - a result of last week's visit by three senior ministers, including (I am told) one of the founding members of the TPLF, part of the ruling EPRDF party that are currently in power and overthrew the previous military Derg regime in the early 1990s. President Yaregal was a Gumuz, one of the largest ethnic groups of the region, and he has been replaced by a Berta, the ethnic group located [View Full Entry]

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love from Al & Sara xxx [View Full Entry]

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Just what exactly are YOU doing for Ethiopians?? Well I guess I ought to interrupt the random (blog) thoughts of Chairman Al with an update on work. I will do a 'typical day' blog later this week (if I get some pictures/video) as it is quite a contrast to a typical day back in the UK; not because I do less work, just the timings and general environmental differences. Ok, I've not had to shoo any sheep out of the office yet, but we have definately had a couple of oxen wandering around the compund for two days, waiting for slaughter [View Full Entry]

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I had remained in Addis after the IT Volunteers workshop to carry out some work on the Programme Office network, so my flight back to Assosa was not until the Tuesday after Meskel. The flight itself was unusually uneventful. I did have the pleasure of 2 seats to myself, the only spare seat on the plane. Guess I ought to change my brand of deodorant? Maybe the other passengers (quite rightly) realised that the personal space allowed in a Fokker 50 is far greater when sat next to a slim Ethiopian than when seated next to some Ferengi who had just [View Full Entry]

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Since we have been back it's been feast of Johnny Morris tales. The rats have been running egg and spoon races in the attic space under the tin roof. Sara has had a sheep walk into her office, take a seat and start dictating a memo...well, almost. No doubt she will tell more but it was raining and her office gained an extra staff member for the afternoon. Not a common occurance at Jisc back home she says - but then maybe only because she's on the top floor and the sheep just can't reach the buttons in the lift...? The [View Full Entry]

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Here we go. After a lull in activity I'm back in full blogging fettle. In fact I'm thinking of having a 'blog week' to catch up on the entries - there is the whole field trip from April that needs doing! Not to mention my (work) day in the life of, Ethiopian names, booze, bugs, absent friends and the musings of a layman on the business of 'development'. This weekend I have hardly left the house. Work-wise I have been (as Neil would say) 'busier than a one-legged man in an a*se kicking competition' what with preparing and delivering training (that's [View Full Entry]

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