Most of the instructors, including my counterpart and my line manager, are away from the college at the moment, selecting the new intake of students. The campus is extremely quiet as a result. Classes are due to start (I think) at the beginning of November. Until Kedir (my counterpart) returns, I cannot finalise the annual plan for the Cluster Coordinating Unit and it seems daft to start visiting schools alone, so I have been concentrating on setting up a Model Classroom - something that the College is keen on having. Personally, I am not sure how valuable it will be, especially [View Full Entry]

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Around 50 new volunteers arrived in Ethiopia at the end of September - which is the largest intake. Most arrived on two consecutive nights so the 6 of us (Steven, Clare, Mekdes, Bethy, Belachew and I) went to the airport (with Tamrat) in the middle of the night on Thursday and again on Friday. It was very good getting to work with Mekdes, Bethy and Bel - they work so hard behind the scenes. It was different to our In - Country Training (ICT), being on a campus in Akaki (south of Addis) and I think that many of the new [View Full Entry]

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Not only is there a different time system in Ethiopia (the day starts at 6am rather than midnight, so that 8am is 2 in the morning, local time), and a different annual calendar (New Year is in September and there are 13 months), but it is also a different year. So, this last week we were celebrating the New Millennium. There was a lovely atmosphere in Addis and Millennium Fever had definitely hit by the start of the week, with flags and banners appearing on many buildings in town. On New Year’s Eve (Tuesday 11th September GC) the Government announced that [View Full Entry]

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When I came to Ethiopia, almost a year ago, I had not intended to go back to the UK for a holiday ... but it turned out that it was my Mum's 70th birthday, so I decided to surprise her, by turning up unannounced. Six months of scheming, planning and lies was worth it! The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful, however I had a slight trauma at Schipol airport as the hand luggage rules have changed, so the alcohol that I had in my rucksack was confiscated. I was not happy as I had just flown for 7 hours with KLM, [View Full Entry]

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On Monday morning, our series of meetings continued and then we visited the Blue Nile Falls. Although the falls are used to generate electricity, (and I had been told that it is best to visit on a Sunday when the hydroelectricity plant doesn’t work), as it was the rainy season, it was very impressive. Locally, it is know as Tis Isat (Smoking Water). It was such a beautiful site - none of my colleagues had been there before either, which made the trip even more special. On the walk up to the falls, children selling scarves, gourds and other gifts mobbed [View Full Entry]

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On Sunday morning, we had a very useful meeting with a Road Safety Expert from the Road Transport Authority, and then decided to be tourists for an hour, visiting the Royal Enclosure (we had been under instruction from Ato Abebe, the Road Safety Chief to visit the castle in Gonder). It was very impressive, with different palaces built in the 17th and 18th Centuries. We then met Jill and Michael (VSO volunteers) for lunch, before collecting the Road Safety Expert to travel to a small town with him on the way back to Bahar Dar to demonstrate the speed radar to [View Full Entry]

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Sebsibe, Daniel and Bahayilu collected me and we set off for Bahar Dar. There were many pedestrians walking along the highway - impressively, I estimated that around 95% were walking on the left (i.e. facing the oncoming traffic. We stopped to photograph them, and Daniel did some filming. When people in Ethiopia are asked about their road behaviour (e.g. walking on the right or speeding) I have noticed that they always say “thank you for helping me”. I can’t imagine that happening in the UK when a driver is stopped for speeding. Changes in clothing style became notic [View Full Entry]

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The National Road Safety Coordination Office decided that they wanted me to visit Amhara Region to see a local pedestrian safety campaign, so on Friday morning, Daniel, Sebsibe and I set off with Bahayilu (the driver), for a trip to Debre Markos, Bahar Dar and Gonder. The trip consisted of a series of meetings with local officials, observations of pedestrian behaviour and pedestrian surveys, interspersed with visits to a few tourist sites. The road from Addis Ababa to Debre Markos was uneventful … until we reached the Abay Gorge. At this point, the tarmac ends and the unpaved r [View Full Entry]

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Addis Ababa was named in 1886 when Taitu, the Empress of Menelik II, was given land to build in a place called Filwoha (or “boiling water”), which she then renamed - Addis Ababa meaning “New Flower”. Menelik eventually moved the capital here. The hot springs still exist at the Addisu Filwoha Hotel, where the natural hot mineral water is piped in for hydro-massage. So, that is where we planned to go - just right for a cold day in the rainy season! Clare and I had also invited Anoushka, who works at the Bale Mountains National Park, in Dinsho. We met [View Full Entry]

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The next part of the celebrations involved a party at the Ethio Millennium traditional restaurant. The idea was that volunteers, who were in Addis, could bring an Ethiopian guest as a way of thanking them for their help. It was a great idea and worked very well. Clare invited Kalkidan, one of the trainers on the course she is organising. Kalkidan came to our house to get ready, and have a pre-party glass of wine, and then stayed the night too. I had invited Tesfaye, my line manager in Robe, but (understandably) as it is a day’s journey, he couldn’t make [View Full Entry]

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