Blogs from Ethiopia, Africa - page 96

I was lucky enough to get a lift back to Robe on Wednesday with Dereje and Nigel (VSO doing research into Valuing Teachers). This time, we came via the usual Shashemene route, which took 9 hours. As I knew I was getting a lift, I shopped while I was in Addis - luxury items (porridge oats, noodles, coconut milk, cheese, crisps) that I have not found in Robe. Oh, how I shopped! On Thursday, I was back at work. I accompanied Nigel to Alii Birra Primary School - the school I can hear from my house as I am hoping to arrange to do some teaching there and thought it was a good way to introduce myself. In the afternoon, I ran a Higher Diploma session, which Nigel observed. In the evening, we went over to ... read more

Plse scroll down for English version Bonjour a tous! Je profite d'un cafe internet qui est ouvert et qui fonctionne pour envoyer a tous un petit message de Noel. Je pense bien a vous tous et j'espere que vous passez un bon Noel en famille ou avec des amis. Je suis a Gonder dans le nord de l'Ethiopie, voila une semaine que nous nous balladons en 4X4 dans ce pays fabuleux et etonnant. Nous avons passe le reveillon de Noel dans les Simiens Mountains a 3,000 metres d'altitude entoures de montagnes immenses, enfants bergers pieds nus, colonies de babouins, chevaux, anes, villages en pierre...bref un Noel bien depaysant! J'ai mis quelques photos (deja 450 photos!) pour vous donner une petite idee de la beaute des gens et des paysages. Le pays est grandiose, les couleurs tres ... read more

Moving to Ethiopia has obviously been a good way of fooling the Aliens that usually live in my bank account. (This may not make sense to some people reading this - but some of you will know exactly what I mean!) I went to the bank this morning, for the second time today - the first time was my first day in Robe when I opened an account. As I had been told there is often an initial problem with transferring money to the bank in Robe, I had brought with me, in addition to two months salary that VSO gave us before departure, some money of my own. I still have 500 birr of that left, but decided to withdraw money from my bank to take on my grand trip to the capital city - ... read more

When I asked colleagues at the College about getting to Dinsho, they again said that it is difficult. However, I figured that as all buses to Addis and Shashemene go through Dinsho, I should be able to get a bus early in the morning. In hope, I went to the bus station on Friday to enquire about bus times, keeping my fingers crossed for a later start, but, as I probably already assumed, I was told I would have to get a 6.30 bus. As the journey is only an hour, I decided that there was no need to get there at 5.30 (which seems to be normal practice to get a good seat) so arrived at just gone 6. There were 2 farenji on the bus - a couple of Spanish guys (one of whom ... read more

It cannot be said that my first visit to Goba, a town 14km south of Robe, was a roaring success! I had decided that this weekend I would go away, somewhere. I considered Dinsho, but nobody I spoke to was sure about how to get a bus there, and most said that it was even harder to get back. I was also told, that there is Internet access in Goba - the more I thought about it, the more I became obsessed about going there to spend many hours sending emails. I wrote emails in advance, saved onto a memory stick, and off I went. The bus journey was cheap (2 birr) and blessedly short - there is no tarmac on the road from Robe to Goba either. Goba looks like a set for a gold-mining ... read more