Blogs from Ethiopia, Africa - page 90

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

Well I've been in Ethiopia for just over a week or so. I have yet to leave Addis Abba... but we will get to that story later. I have to say I like what I've seen in Ethiopia so far. It is so laid back it seems. I had heard that is was really in your face and such. But I don't recall anyone yelling "faranji" (Ethiopian equivalent of Muzungo) to me yet. People just seem to mostly let me go about my business, maybe I just look... who knows. And hardly any traffic, and the traffic stops for people in the cross walk... that keeps freaking me out. A day hasn't gone by that I haven't seen laden and unladen mules being driven down the main streets. There is usually a herd of goats that ... read more

We seem to have slipped slightly on the blog writing front. So, by popular request here is chapter 3….. After the crazy bureaucracy in Sudan we might have been a little naïve in thinking things would be different on the Ethiopian side of the border. We crossed the 4m bridge separating the two countries and soon realised we needed to enlist a guide to help us navigate between the seven randomly placed shacks which apparently made up the immigration procedure. Customs consisted of a sole elderly gentleman looking us up and down and then nodding us on- our filthy backpacks clearly did not yield evidence of contraband. At passport control we sat for 45 minutes whilst two guys trawled through three large volumes- apparently checking we were not listed as undesirables! We were then ‘lucky’ enough ... read more

Right, first things first. Leave your stereotypes of Ethiopia at the door. Get those images of barren deserts out of your head. Eliminate any lingering images of starving, hungry villagers. Try to blink away that picture of Addis Ababa as a small collection of mud huts, surrounded by goats. Ethiopia has bad PR officer working on its international image. The reputation and the reality couldn't be more different. The vast majority of Ethiopia is a huge highland plateau, covered in a patchwork of verdant meadows, crashing rivers, and alpine flowers. The cuisine is some of the best on the continent, and great food - and even better coffee - is cheap, available, and comes in huge servings. And Addis is a big, developed, bustling, capital city - the third highest in the world, actually. But yes ... read more

On Sunday morning, we had a very useful meeting with a Road Safety Expert from the Road Transport Authority, and then decided to be tourists for an hour, visiting the Royal Enclosure (we had been under instruction from Ato Abebe, the Road Safety Chief to visit the castle in Gonder). It was very impressive, with different palaces built in the 17th and 18th Centuries. We then met Jill and Michael (VSO volunteers) for lunch, before collecting the Road Safety Expert to travel to a small town with him on the way back to Bahar Dar to demonstrate the speed radar to local police. ... read more