Blogs from Oromia Region, Ethiopia, Africa - page 11

For the second consecutive Saturday, Hannah and I had intended to visit the Bale Mountains National Park HQ at Dinsho … but failed to get a bus. There was an Addaba-Dodola bus that we could have got to drop us off in Dinsho, but because we are Farenji, and the assumption is therefore that we are rich tourists, they told us that the fare is 20 birr. I happen to know that that is the price of a ticket to Addaba, and that to Dinsho, the fare is 10 birr. I was loathe to pay the inflated price as, being volunteers we are paid a similar wage to Ethiopian colleagues (in fact less than many of my colleagues!) and would be doing no favours for tourists, especially independent backpacker types, if we paid the inflated price. ... read more

Sama, the Ethiopian Tourist Guide with four German clients, had said that he would phone me when the group left Dinsho - the plan was for Hannah and myself to join them on a trip to Sanetti Plateau. Liza, a friend from Addis Ababa, had met the same group when her and Rupert were trekking in the Simian Mountains - the German group were then heading to the Bale Mountains so Liza had given Sama my phone number so that he could contact me for advice about the trip. He phoned at 7.30am to inform me that they were already in Robe! I, in turn, phoned Hannah, who managed to get dressed and be ready to leave to meet them at the Bekele Molla Hotel (where they were having breakfast) in 10 minutes. Their mode of ... read more

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 as I would like to do most of the In-Service Training in the cluster schools. But it has been fun to do! I have included a book corner - using big books and reading books ... read more

2nd - 13th July 2007 I have been learning Afaan Oromo since living in Robe, as the majority of people in the town are Oromo. Amharic is the national language, and is the first language of 32.7% of the population. Afaan Oromo is the first language of 31.6% (according to the World Factbook from the CIA). VSO organise a 2-week intensive language training course for volunteers, held at the Fura Institute in Yirgalem, half way between Awasa and Dilla, south of Addis. Most of the participants were learning Amharic, but two of us (me and Jane from Nekemte) were taking lessons in Afaan Oromo with Solomoon. The course was excellent! And not as intensive as it could have been! Unfortunately for Jane, I accidentally had a cup of ‘sprise’ (mixed tea and coffee), which is popular ... read more

What is the point of having access to a horse and walking yourself? Apart from the fact that it would be faster! Daamaa is the slowest horse in Robe, and possibly in Ethiopia - old women on foot overtake us! Being a Sunday, I decided that we should go out for a trip, especially as I would be away from Robe for the summer. I chose Hora Boka as one of the schools I will be working with next year is there and it was as good a destination as any. The ride there was very pleasant … and very slow! There are no cars on the road and we were very quickly (or slowly in this case) out in the countryside, ambling past teams of oxen ploughing in the fields. Once in Hora Boka, ... read more