Five Go Mad on Meskel OK it's more like 3 plus the pick-pocket and the Federal Policeman with the *big* stick. September 27th is Meskel - the orthodox Christian festival in Ethiopia - or the finding of the true cross. Legend has it that some ancient queen (Helena) had a dream in which she burnt a pile of wood and the smoke led to the place at which the true cross of the crucifixion was buried. Celebrated on the evening before (i.e. the afternoon of Friday 26th) the centre of Addis grinds to a halt as the 16-lane chaos of Meskel [View Full Entry]

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I am the Jonah Ok. Let's get the unhappy bit out of the way first. On February 2nd when I left the UK Arsenal were sitting pretty 5 points clear at the top of the Premiership. They were still in the FA Cup and Champions League. Granted Spurs had managed, after 9 years of trying, to finally beat the kids in the League Cup semi but I guess like monkeys and Shakespeare, if you keep trying long enough, something like that is bound to happen. The bottom line was Arsenal were set fair for a successful season. And since I left [View Full Entry]

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I finished attending a 2 day UNICEF review meeting and was asked to write a report after the meeting - a novelty for me to be asked to do something, made all the more interesting as the whole meeting was in Amharic! Al flew off to Addis on Saturday and arrived safely (well just, so I hear) ready for an IT workshop and he's also doing some work for VSO, so won't be back for about 10 days - the longest time we've been apart in a long time, I am sure it will be a novelty for a few days [View Full Entry]

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(child's sweet whisper) Inkou-tar-tash (tap, tap) (child's voice) Inkou-tar-tash (tap, tap, bang) (child's annoyed voice) Inkou-TAR-TASH (bang! bang! bang!) (child's shout) INKOU-TAR-TASH (BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG) (gang of children chanting & banging the gate) IINNKKOOUU-TTAARR-TTAASSHH!!!!!! (BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG...) Oh no. Please no. It's 6.45am on Ethiopian New Year's day. Last night was our New Year party and we got to bed at around 3am. It's OK . Ignore it and dig them (allegedly [View Full Entry]

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Woke up with a very sore head and children shouting outside! So our New Year’s Eve celebrations went well, more people than I expected turned up - most people we asked came and everyone turned up exactly on time. Not knowing the Ethiopian form on parties and food, we floundered for a little while as everyone sat around the edges of the room quietly, Al did a great job being in charge of drinks and making sure everyone had one (no surprise there then!) and then we told everyone to dig into the lovely food Marta had prepared (and a [View Full Entry]

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Today is Ethiopian New Years Eve, it’s a beautiful clear warm sunny day. Like Easter you can hear the bleating of the sheep everywhere and the crow of the cockerels, the birds are singing, it really is a lovely day. We have decided to celebrate New Years Eve as we would in the UK, so we’re holding a party for all our friends here in Assosa tonight. Many people travel home to be with their families and people will gather during the day tomorrow to eat and drink and celebrate, we have been invited to our Seurateunya (Worker) Marta’s house to [View Full Entry]

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Yes I’m still struggling to keep the blog updated. However I’ve been inspired, well, by two things actually, firstly an amazing adventure we had at the weekend and secondly we have a couple of Ethiopian readers in America, who know Assosa and have told us we’re not saying or showing enough of the good stuff here. So this one is for you Antenna and Asishu. We went on an incredible walk on Sunday, we headed off to Andreas’s house at about 9.00, it was raining a bit, but not too heavy. Andreas has been in Ethiopia for about 14 years and [View Full Entry]

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Come with me if you want to live... Ethiopian Airlines finally fixed their plane and we got airborne on the Sunday, four days and one wedding after our intended departure for Addis. The whole journey was smoothed out by Judith, a fellow Ferengi working on a Finnish sponsored water project in Beneshangul-Gumuz who has a car and driver in both Assosa and Addis - who kindly offered to give us lifts to the airport in Assosa and from the airport in Addis. Judith is the person who brought about 200kgs of cheese from Nairobi last month and gave us the feast [View Full Entry]

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We are gutted. The flight on Thursday was cancelled due to a mechanical fault (the weather was perfect) and no flight would be scheduled for Friday - probably not enough people - so they told us we would have to fly on Saturday. This meant we would miss Aynsley's wedding in Addis on Friday (yesterday). It's always a pain when the flight is cancelled because you pack up your bags, lock the valuables away, hand over the keys to another volunteer (ours is the 'safe house' with the medical kit and supplies) and ring at 11.30am for the check-in time. At [View Full Entry]

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Of M.I.C.E. and Men The last few months have been pretty damn stressful, what with being recalled to Addis, a month living in a suitcase, Dave being killed and having to help pack up the houses of 6 other volunteers. We have also said goodbye to our friend and fellow VSO volunteer Marta, who has flown back to the UK, via Yemen and just spent 3 days entertaining Patricia, our Country Director, while she assesses the future of VSO and therfore, us, in Assosa. Whether Patricia knows it or not, she is currently the most powerful person I have ever worked [View Full Entry]

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