Blogs from Oromia Region, Ethiopia, Africa - page 13

One of the other things that I was keen to do, and that has taken a while to happen (for all sorts of reasons) was to teach in a local Elementary School, mainly to demonstrate that Active Learning Methods (which I teach on the Higher Diploma Programme) can be applied in Ethiopian schools with large classes. My first lesson was a nightmare! I expected better behaviour and the Module that I was given to teach suggested quite a high level of English. Neither assumption was correct. In my second lesson, I displayed ground rules and lowered my expectations. I teach one English lesson a week to a Grade 6 class (ages 10 - approx. 16). Now, lessons are going well and the students seem to have got used to my Farenji ways of teaching. It is, ... read more

I knew that yesterday was a public holiday for Timkat (Epiphany) but I didn’t know what it entailed as nobody told me. Although to be fair, I didn’t make a real effort to find out. Yesterday, as the College was closed, I pottered. I had a really quiet day, enjoyed reading in bed until 9am, did some laundry - I figured it was about time I washed my dressing gown that mum and dad sent out to me. Then in the evening, I hired the DVD of The Notebook, which is based on a book by Nicholas Sparks. I have read the book, seen the film before and still cried! It was such a luxury - watching the film and crying at it while eating veggie mince and onions with potatoes and drinking Gouder (local red ... read more

Liza (another VSO) and her partner, Rupert, came up to Robe on holiday. Hooray! More visitors with a vehicle! They very kindly took me out with them for a couple of days. They stayed with me on Saturday night, mainly because the Bekele Mola only had a twin room and the other nice hotel, the Bale Park, didn’t have a room that night. So, on Sunday morning, after an amazing number of cups of tea for Liza, we headed to Dinsho, the Bale Mountain Park Headquarters, with Elias their driver. We called in on Deb and Alastair on arrival, who recommended that we get a guide from the lodge and head to the Web Valley as we wanted to walk. It was wonderful. Such a beautiful, untouched place. One of the highlights was seeing giant mole ... read more

Today, which is Christmas Eve in Ethiopia, the flags are out in Robe, the fountain is working and 3 strings of coloured lights are strung across the main road through town. This is only the third time that I have seen the fountain working - it is switched on for high days and holidays only. However, the celebrations are not for Christmas, apparently, but because the new Mada Walabu University and the road are both officially being launched this afternoon. I went up to the College Hall this morning for a sneak preview of an exhibition. There are some lovely items on display to show the culture of Bale Region, but none were for sale. I particularly liked a model of a woman performing the coffee ceremony (although for some reason she was white not black!). ... read more

So we got on the bus at 10.30 got overcharged and were sat there waiting for it to fill up before leaving and it got under way at 11.30. There were alot of people and luggage on that bus, but even then the conductor put his head out of the wndow and started shouting out the destination in the hope of enticing more people on. The bus then abruptly did a u-turn and went back to the pickup point. People got off and we waited abit more. And waited. And waited. When I asked what the hold up was no one understood. This is rural Ethiopia, its probably a matter of education and resources was my first thought. So we waited. And waited. And waited... Eventually an english speaker got on the bus ans we started ... read more