Advertisement
Published: April 12th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Well I’ve got a good few weeks to catch up on on the blog front, including a few before we went on our field trip, but for now so you know I haven’t completely given up on my blog entries I thought I’d just say hello world and write a few lines about being back in Assosa.
Unfortunately is seems the power outages we experienced on our trip are happening across the country and today it's terminal. We haven’t had any power all day today - which is a first for us here. I’m using laptop battery and candle power now as the sun goes down. If this continues there may be a sever lack of blogging! Steven found a Reuters article which suggests that the Ethiopian power company is struggling with keeping up with demand at the moment, so there’s going to be periods when we’re just switched off. It said the problem was also related to the fact that some power is hydropower and water levels are not as high as expected. Anyway the article suggested 3 times a week for 6 hours, perhaps they are fitting it all in over a weekend, so businesses aren’t so badly
affected. If it does continue in the week it’s going to scupper Al's work at the Bureau - no power - no computers!
So we got back on Thursday lunchtime and for the first time it felt as if we were coming home, it’s also been lovely to catch up with all our friends in Assosa and find out what's been happening whilst we've been away. We’ve got new neighbours - Ellie and Mark have moved in opposite us, which is really nice, Ellie and I are running partners, so we’re now nice and close for encouraging each other to get our running shoes on (which we really haven't been doing enough of latley) and prehaps borrowing the occassional cup of sugar, or in our case a bucket of water as our water tank is broken and spouting out more water into the garden, than is actually being collected in the tank.
We said Ciao! to our new friends that we’ve spent the last 18 days with - what a lovely and interesting bunch of blokes, I really feel as if we’ve made some good friends, which is good, because when we first embarked on the trip I
seriously wondered how it was going to be sharing a very small space and all my time with seven IT blokes!
We spent most of Thursday getting our on-line fix of emails and web and had packet noodles for tea - something we had just discovered before we went on the trip, after realising that although it says chicken and beef flavour, they actually contain no meat whatsoever, totally processed, full of salt, and just what we fancied for our first night back, accompanied by a lovely bottle of Ethiopian wine and some chocolate sent by Mum and Steph, our very own gourmet dinner.
We went out for our usual Friday drinks and dinner with the VSO crowd. I’m going to have to update my favourite foods list as I realised since the trip I’ve managed to get totally hooked to Tagabeano (thick Shiro) and injera as I was desperate for a plate by Friday and a laughing cow triangle just doesn’t appeal at all (at last I hear you cry).
I’ve got a big admission to make this weekend- not sure I should do it on-line as it’s against VSO guidelines, no one at home will
Ambasha
Brown Bread be in the least bit surprised, but, well, this morning I accidently properly managed to entice the kitties into my arms (see pictorial evidence) come on - how cute are they? They are not allowed past the backdoor step, and they’ve been tucking into left over lentils - who’d have thunk it, veggie cats, they were rather surprised to be experiencing cuddles, but quickly adapted to the new experience.
So rationalising this situation - we’ll try not to be too friendly - but friendly enough that they stick around and when they are big enough keep the rodents away, seems quite a good set up to me, they catch the meat, I’ll provide the side dishes (that’s lentils and cuddles)
Talking of food, Marta introduced us to a new type of bread this weekend (something else to add to favourites list) it’s brown - first brown bread we’ve found, it’s called ambasha, Mulatu and I did the regular Saturday shop and we stocked up. Very tasty.
Also due to the lack of power I decided to dig out the Kerosene stove for the first time as I really wanted a coffee, it works pretty well - probably
Oops
Bad Kitty! better that the electric because the temperature is constant, so today I’ve spent the afternoon sitting on the back door step on a nice cool but bright day, making coffee and dinner with three cats rubbing against my feet and mewing at me.
It’s good to be home!
P.S Blimey, power just came on and I can actually hear the whole town cheering - really I’m not joking, it’s as if we live next door to a stadium and someone just scored!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.227s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 94; dbt: 0.1369s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
Dave White
non-member comment
Hi Al and Sara...I have just read through all your blogs right from the beginning. They are brilliant! Sara - Glad you are getting over your cheese issues. Al - Very interesting tracking your views of Arsenals demise since mid March, your experiences with ethiopian alcohol and of course the work you are both doing. Sounds like an amazing experience you are having. Hope you are both well, keep up the good work and keep writing...