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

Not only is there a different time system in Ethiopia (the day starts at 6am rather than midnight, so that 8am is 2 in the morning, local time), and a different annual calendar (New Year is in September and there are 13 months), but it is also a different year. So, this last week we were celebrating the New Millennium. There was a lovely atmosphere in Addis and Millennium Fever had definitely hit by the start of the week, with flags and banners appearing on many buildings in town. On New Year’s Eve (Tuesday 11th September GC) the Government announced that all government offices would be closed until Monday. What a bonus! In the evening, our Landlady invited us to join the celebrations in the compound - a bonfire into which we all held a bundle ... read more

On Monday morning, our series of meetings continued and then we visited the Blue Nile Falls. Although the falls are used to generate electricity, (and I had been told that it is best to visit on a Sunday when the hydroelectricity plant doesn’t work), as it was the rainy season, it was very impressive. Locally, it is know as Tis Isat (Smoking Water). It was such a beautiful site - none of my colleagues had been there before either, which made the trip even more special. On the walk up to the falls, children selling scarves, gourds and other gifts mobbed us. The majority were young girls with an amazing stream of sales patter: “madam … you buy from me … you already have one? This one is different colour…you buy for a present … my ... read more

Sebsibe, Daniel and Bahayilu collected me and we set off for Bahar Dar. There were many pedestrians walking along the highway - impressively, I estimated that around 95% were walking on the left (i.e. facing the oncoming traffic. We stopped to photograph them, and Daniel did some filming. When people in Ethiopia are asked about their road behaviour (e.g. walking on the right or speeding) I have noticed that they always say “thank you for helping me”. I can’t imagine that happening in the UK when a driver is stopped for speeding. Changes in clothing style became noticeable as we travelled along. Between Debre Markos and Bahar Dar, most people were wearing green and purple - women in green skirts or dresses and young men in green shorts and wearing a blanket. More people had bare ... read more

Addis Ababa was named in 1886 when Taitu, the Empress of Menelik II, was given land to build in a place called Filwoha (or “boiling water”), which she then renamed - Addis Ababa meaning “New Flower”. Menelik eventually moved the capital here. The hot springs still exist at the Addisu Filwoha Hotel, where the natural hot mineral water is piped in for hydro-massage. So, that is where we planned to go - just right for a cold day in the rainy season! Clare and I had also invited Anoushka, who works at the Bale Mountains National Park, in Dinsho. We met Anoushka at her hotel, the Itegue Taitu Hotel - the first hotel to be established in Addis, built for Taitu by an Armenian architect in 1907. The hotel must once have been beautiful, and was ... read more