Blogs from Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Ethiopia, Africa - page 8

"They cut the power! Whadaya mean they cut the power?" Oh dear this one has been brewing for a while so it's likely to be a long one. Sorry. So it has been one month since we returned from the field trip and life has settled back into a routine of sorts. Usually one that involves activities with power and activities without power, depending on whether we can turn the bedside lamp on when we wake up or not. Guessing which days we will have and will not have power has become a little game, as has side bets on what time the power will really return. In theory, a day of power rationing starts with a power out at 7am (usually pretty promptly) with a power up 13 hours later at 8pm (not very promptly ... read more

OK, so my blog numbering has got way out of hand but I'll try and rescue it from now on, honest :) We are in the middle of power rationing and IT is pretty hard to do without any power. As is blogging. So I am hoping to get this update done before tomorrow's all-day power cut. In fact there is a 10Mb video I will try and attach but if it goes wrong at 56k I may not have the energy left to try uploading it again. Fingers crossed... At last and much to Sara's amusement I am finally getting round to the entry for the trip from Addis to Assosa. It seems like months ago. Er, well it was months ago. February 14th & 15th to be exact. So here goes... We're on our ... read more

Around the Woredas in 18 days! And it was an amazing experience!! We covered over 2,500km across 9 woredas, stayed in 10 different hotels and visited over 20 villages and towns in 3 regions (Amhara, Oromo and Beneshangul-Gumuz). With between 9 and 13 people (plus luggage) in the long wheelbase Toyota Land Cruiser the journeys (up to 8 hour drives) were uncomfortable, but not unbearable and it was the same for everyone on board. Plus whenever there was additional comfort to be had (better hotel rooms, front seating when possible in the vehicle, catering for our vegetarian eating requirements) our Ethiopian colleagues were incredibly generous in offering it to us first without hesitation. In fact we both count ourselves extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to make the trip, especially together, and even luckier to ... read more

mango alleh (there are mangos) Sunday saw the end of our language training. We wrapped it up with each group doing a presentation to the rest of the groups. Luckily, as it was still fresh in my mind, we ended up doing a “at the market” scene. I was the ‘good’ market trader who sold the fruit at a proper price, as opposed to Jonathan who was playing the ‘bad’ trader charging “ferenji prices”. We got a few laughs from the teachers and it clearly struck a chord with the rest of the volunteer’s experiences from the market the previous day. Or then again maybe they were just laughing at our accents! Passing up the chance to go to an even bigger market in the afternoon, the pair of us took another opportunity to get online ... read more

It’s OK. Our field trip has been postponed! From Wednesday 10am, to Wednesday 1.30pm, to Wednesday 5.30pm. Then Friday morning. Now maybe tomorrow... ...or Sunday or Monday. Inshallah! :-) Anyway, it means I can at least explain where we are going and post my last few entries from training in Addis. The last Addis entry was a monster (10 pages). For those with short attention spans I have broken it down into 3 entries. Sara doesn’t even read my entries as there are ‘too many words’ so ration yourself if you please. Regions, Zones and Woredas (war-re-dahs) Ethiopia is divided into 8 regional states (Tigrai, Afar, Somali, Oromia, Amhara, Gambella, Southern People’s State and Benishangul-Gumuz) and 3 city-states (Dire Dawa, Harar and Addis Ababa) each having strong self-administrative powers. Each region is sub-divided into a number ... read more