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Published: June 22nd 2008
Our home in Assosa
Check out the beautiful new fence :)We are back at last. And it has been exhausting.
Thanks very much for all the emails about Dave and the good wishes for Holly, Oscar and Pam. All three volunteers that were airlifted to Nairobi are out of immediate danger and have been operated on and treated. Holly's family flew over from the UK and she may be repatriated as she was due to leave Ethiopia in a matter of weeks.
Dave was given a wonderful and fitting send off on Wednesday. The coffin was brought to VSO and a short ceremony was held to remember Dave and his life. A great many volunteers travelled back to Addis, at their own expense, some journeys taking well over a day, to say farewell.
The ceremony was packed - not just with volunteers, but Dave's work colleagues came in a bus from Adama, the British Ambassador was there, representatives of the Ethiopian government were there, the Ministry of Education, the traffic police, the waiter from the bar where Dave took his last beer, even Dave's seratanya (maid). We saw some lovely letters of condolence from so many Ethiopians and fellow
volunteers and a Welsh speaker was found (no mean feat in Addis) to read a poem in Dave's mother tongue.
We all accompanied Dave's coffin to the airport as he was taken, coffin draped in both Ethiopian and Welsh flags, back to the UK.
That evening we all went back to the Pride Bar, which had been deserted by volunteers since the accident, got utterly drunk and danced the night away in Dave's honour. The Ethiopian staff had been so sad about the accident, our favourite waiter - one of Holly's buddies - came over and just talked at us in a great big emotional flood of Amharic, which none of us could understand, but you could tell from the sadness in his eyes and the odd word like gwardinya (friend) that he was trying to say how sorry he was about our friends.
In Ethiopia there is great sadness after a death and a whole series of rituals to mourn the dead for days afterwards. Then everyone gets together after 40 days, then 80 days and then a year to remember the dead person. I guess this helps the relatives and friends grieve properly, as not
..when we got back
Quick! Fetch the bamboo stakes everyone can let out their grief in the traditionally short time we set aside between death, laying to rest and closure that is typical in the UK.
No doubt the sight of 20 drunk Ferengi's dancing on the patio outside a bar, just days after and yards away from the spot of such a tragic event might have seen odd and even disrespectful to those without any concept of a 'wake', however it served its purpose and helped us all to remember our friend properly and celebrate his life.
Cleared for take off Come Thursday, the four of us that had been given permission to return to Assosa for good, were packed and ready to depart once more. Of course, in mid-May I had packed light for a short holiday in Addis that became a 3 week stay, so this time I had packed everything important for the anticipated 3 week stay that lasted just 4 days...
Due to the finale of a very, um,
interesting 2 day paper-chase around Bureau's, Ministries, government offices, banks and the central Post Office, trying to release from customs (it will make the blog in detail later) some Cisco networking
Garden before.
Glad Ali did all that weeding. equipment I had shipped over from the USA for training purposes, I headed off to the airport on my own, cutting it fine but ultimately joining Sara, Steven and Lesley for the flight back to Assosa, via Jimma.
We had spent the previous Saturday afternoon doing a 4 hour risk assessment for Assosa and come to the conclusion that our biggest and most likely risk was injury from a road traffic accident; little did we know how ironic that conclusion would be just a few hours later.
The assessment did highlight a couple of issues that we need to address regarding communications in the event of telephone network failure and also provisions for the safe house (ours in fact) should we need to hole up together before we are able to evacuate. VSO had clearly taken many sources of up to date information into account and agreed it was safe for us to return, though that status could be reviewed at any time.
Throughout the three weeks in Addis we had all, well mostly all, felt happy to return to Assosa. We had neither seen nor experienced anything threatening to our safety, apart from an increase in
Federal Police and soldiers in the area. And as the Defence Attache to the British Embassy remarked during our debrief - did the presence of so many uniforms make us feel safer or less safe? A good question.
Calling International Rescue Our main sources of security information were the UN and the IRC - International Rescue (I know, I know. Look they are
not puppets and no, we would be evacuated in a 4x4 and not Thunderbird 2...). Unfortunately the UN assessments are not always applicable to every NGO. They didn't even go to their equivalent of yellow alert in Assosa. The problem being that UN staff live and work in compounds, behind brick walls topped with razor wire, with armed guards and satellite phones. And if they leave the compound it is in a large 4x4 with a radio, marked 'United Nations'.
In contrast VSOs live and work in the community, protected by sagging, termite-munched bamboo fences. There is no razor wire, no armed guards, no radios and if we are lucky we have a mobile phone connected to a congested and frequently inaccessible mobile network. When we leave our 'compounds' we do so on foot
Fake banana tree.
How big do these things get? or by bike.
This means VSO's appetite for risk is understandably somewhat lower than that of the UN or other NGOs.
The Assosa Arat (four) So what has happened? Well, VSO realised that if we need to exit stage left, PDQ, then squeezing 11 volunteers into one IRC 4x4 might require a pretty big shoehorn and a visit from Norris McWhirter. And booking that number on the next flight to Addis might be somewhat of a challenge. So given all the information at hand, from the UN, IRC, other NGOs, our feedback from our 4 day visit and risk assessment, the British Embassy and bureau heads in Assosa, four (hopefully 5) volunteers will be allowed to return for good, though they must be aware that the situation is under constant review and they may be recalled to Addis at short notice.
We all were asked what we wanted to do and would we accept the uncertainty of being one of those going back to Assosa and me, Sara, Lesley, Marta and Steven said yes. At the moment Marta's position is unclear but we hope she will be allowed back soon. As for the other 6 guys,
Blimey!
This big and still going! well, they need to find other placements, ideally for VSOE, within Ethiopia or otherwise in another country via their own recruitment base. I will do a separate update on what everyone else from Assosa is up to, hopefully with more news when I get it.
Are we happy to take the risk of going back? Yes. Assosa is our home now and we don't feel at all threatened. We have made good friends here and trust them and our instincts to alert us if things deteriorate. We
are also aware of the boiling frog phenomenon - that if you put a frog in boling water it hops out but if you put it in cold water and heat it up slowly it actually boils alive and dies; implying that sometimes you don't realise how dangerous a situation has become when you are living in it and the deterioration has been gradual...
But then we have also made a decision to accept a slightly higher level of risk in our lives by swapping suburban Bristol for a remote town in Africa. Its part of the adventure, after all. That said, we are not foolhardy. If we are told to
Back in the saddle
Dawson's Creek to tha' max! PS. Nice slippers :) get out again, then we'll go - regardless of our own opinion on the situation.
Back to life... With big bellies - and clothes slightly tighter than before - we are back.
Living in a hotel, out of a suitcase and eating out every meal for a month becomes a drag. It's nice to lie in your own bed, enjoy some home cooking and drink your own water (instead of spending 5 birr a litre of bottled Highland). Addis is also so expensive when you are paid a local wage. I wanted to spend a night in a posh hotel with Sara for her birthday, so she could have her first hot bath since February, but the cheapest quote I had was $90 US (or 900 birr) which is over half our monthly wage. We get a 60 birr/day (£3) per diem from VSO, but when you consider you have to eat out for every meal and buy your own water it does not last long. Of course, if you are an Addis VSO you have a house and can buy the raw materials and make your own food. We get to pay Addis tourist rate on top of the usual ferengi rate.
And we want to work! I spent my time salvaging bits from the 5 broken PCs in the volunteers room and managed to put together 2 working PCs for volunteers to use for reading webmail and surfing the web. Previously there had been one flakey laptop that gave up the ghost altogether while we were there. True, most European/US VSOs have their own laptops but those that come from places like Uganda, Kenya and the Philipines often don't, besides you don't always have your laptop with you and in situations like ours, our laptops were 700km away in Assosa.
I also was asked to try and look into the situation with the currently congested 64k Internet link in the VSOE Programme Office. There is no dedicated IT resource and given my networking background I was pleased to help. I got to learn a bit more about satellite technologies, broadband wireless and what sort of services were available in Addis from Ethiopia Telecom. I composed a 10 page report and presented it to Patricia and Maheder (the part-time IT person). Hopefully something will come of it. At least I kept busy. Sara engaged herself looking at how environmental issues can be incorporated in VSOs next Country Strategic plan, which sounded pretty interesting.
We are both looking forward to getting stuck in back in Assosa. This month long hiatus has helped focus my mind somewhat. We could get pulled out at any time so I really hope to press forward with my IT training. I also have been asked to help some of the bureau workers with their English, so hopefully Marta can give me some ideas and lesson plans. I have so many projects in my head. Community wireless, network the government bureaus together, get all the government workers linked to Woreda Net and external email, set up a library, go to the local high school computer club. Just give me a few good people and the freedom to buy and install the kit. Of course, in true VSO fashion I need to engage my stakeholders and make sure they actually want me to do these good things 😉
Oh, yes. It has been raining. And the local guys were right - the smattering of raindrops we called rain in March were not really
rain. The heavens open and it just chucks it down, sometimes all day and all night. The plants love it and we have returned to an Assosan jungle. Check out the piccies! The goats, sheep and cows also love it. And when suitably fattened up, the local carnivores will be loving it too.
To celebrate her return Sara did an entire day's worth of Dawson's Creek yesterday. I ripped all 6 (or is it 7) seasons from DVD before we left the UK. I think she has just finished season 4 and is delighted to hear from Amy that Smallville episodes 10-16 are on their way over from Amy's brother.
Yes, we are back in business.
It feels good.
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Holly
non-member comment
RE the accident
Nice to hear what the lovely VSO Ethiopia family did when me and Oscar and Pam were shoved over to Kenya! I only wish I could have joined you (especially the Pride bit and Kindaleb's ranting!) rather than being stuck in hospital and then flown back to the UK to recover fully before being allowed back! Great comments and just wanted to say well done for all efforts to remember Dave, albeit a little ferenjified.. but don't expect he would've appreciated load sobbing and wailing sitting in a big tent for days! Take care and hopefully see you soon xxx