Left For Dead

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Sorry for the silence! We've been in Addis for a one-day workshop that resulted in a pretty stressful 9 days away. While we were away it was my big 4-0 birthday and I'll cover that one in the next entry - hopefully later this weekend, power permitting (it has got pretty damn bad lately - one day on, one day off).

We flew to Addis on Saturday 16th and had a birthday lunch planned the next day, followed by a farewell party for Jackie at Kev and Izzie's house.

The day went pretty well (see next entry pics) but the following day (my actual birthday) we heard the terrible news that our fellow VSO, Jeremy, had been attacked walking home the previous night and was in hospital.

He had been walking back home to the Gin Palace at about 10pm after a few beers (he had left us at Jackie's party earlier that afternoon) and was attacked near the mosque on the main road by Shola market.

Two guys attacked him from behind.

He was pushed to the ground, kicked in the face and stabbed three times in the chest with a kitchen knife. His backpack was stolen but with severe stab wounds he managed to crawl to a nearby block of flats.

One of the tenants put him in his car and kindly drove him to the nearest hospital, where after changing hospitals 3 times he finally ended up in the Korean Christian hospital.

Fortunately 2 of the knife wounds were not life-threatening but one was nasty but under the care of two Norweigan doctors and the good work of the hospital staff he pulled through.

Now this news made me both angry and sad.

Angry that anyone - any human being - could attack a 59 year old grandfather from behind, in the dark, kick him in the face and knife him three times in the chest when he was down.

To stab someone in the chest 3 times and leave them for dead? Over a backpack?

And what did these attempted murderers get for their trouble? An umbrella.

It makes me sad because it happened to Jeremy, who has been friendly, happy and hospitable to both of us since his arrival last September. As one of the three tenants of the Gin Palace he was always kind enough to let us stay in the spare room and was always keen to have a chat about our placement in Assosa and how we were getting on.

He was enjoying Addis and his placement and was also getting out and about seeing the rest of Ethiopia and helping out his colleagues at the Ministry of Education.

Just hours earlier we'd been having a chat about his recent trip to Dubai and then (of course) football.

It also makes me sad that it happened in Ethiopia - a country we have come to enjoy and a people we have come to love.

It's an old cliche, but it really could have happened anywhere. In general Addis and Ethiopia both feel (and statistically probably are) a lot safer than, for example, our suburb of Bristol.

It yet again highlights the fact that the VSO experience is completely different from that of usual ex-pats in Africa. We live in the community, we walk the same streets as Ethiopians, we don't see the world through the blacked-out windows of an NGO or diplomatic 4x4, or live in fortified compounds.

It cuts both ways however. We have a much closer, more equal and potentially more fulfilling relationship with the Ethiopians that we come to help than the big-earning NGO consultants; but then when a drunk bus driver mows down pedestrians or a couple of thugs go out on a late-night mugging we are the ones that are in harm's way too.

And the Ethiopians we meet feel it too. People are so apologetic and concerned when they hear about incidents like Dave last year and Jeremy this year. They take it personally and and are angry and distraught about harm coming to guests in their country.

So I want to end this short, sad update as Jeremy would want - in a positive manner.

While cursing the two attempted Ethiopian murderers you have to praise the Ethiopian guy who put Jeremy into his car and drove him to the nearest hospital, regardless of the possible consequences (imagine if the worst happened and the police stopped the car covered in blood with a dead Ferengi in the back?).

And on a much lesser scale we came across a kindness on our arrival in Addis the day before the stabbing that typified the generosity of many Ethiopians towards guests in their country.

When we exit the airport in Addis - even if only from a domestic flight from Assosa - we are descended upon by people wanting to carry cases and put you in a taxi that costs 3 times what an Ethiopian would be charged (and 70 times the price of the local bus).

As VSOs earning an average Ethiopian salary we are not able to afford this price hike so Sara, Anithya and I swerved around the taxi rank and headed off, struggling with heavy bags, for the local bus (line-taxi) service about 1/2 kilometer away.

As we crossed the main road a yellow cab pulled up along side and an Ethiopian stranger urged us to "get in". He said he recognised us from Assosa airport, knew we were volunteers and would take us to our hotel (even though it was several miles out of his way) free of charge.

Yes, in Ethiopia you get opportunistic con-artists, yes you get muggers and you get attempted murderers BUT you also get - and they are certainly in the vast majority - a nation of generous and gracious people who are only too willing to do their utmost to help a visitor to their country.

These Ethiopians, along with the all rest of us, wish Jeremy a complete and speedy recovery...

UPDATE: Jeremy is back in England, out of hospital and the stitches are coming out. He says it is too early to think about the future but we hope he takes only good memories from his time in Ethiopia.

We hope to see him again, either in the UK next month or (ideally) back in Ethiopia for a jambo and a night of laughter at the Pride Bar in Addis.

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Comments

[Tim Spencer]

A hell of a story. Hopefully this experience will work for the good; I suspect a song will come of this. Maybe even a screenplay? You guys are doing brave work. Keep it up! Best wishes Tim ( Melbourne)