Life as a VSO volunteer

2007-09-26T08:10:00.000+03:00

Bet Giorgis (St George's Church)

The priest in most of the churches was happy to pose. "Elvis" here insisted on wearing sunglasses to protect his eyes from the flash.

From the plane back to Gondar

An indication of how underemployed at work I am is that I have nothing really to say about it. I’m still waiting for the college to select the instructors who will work with the Cluster Unit on the in-service programme, and keep getting told that it will be “soon”.

Gill and I have used some of the slack time to get serious about what we will do when we return to the UK. We spent most of a day working on our CVs, have signed up for various automatic email education job alerts and looked carefully at a few advertised education-related jobs on the internet.

If we can’t work because there’s little of value to do then we might as well do something for ourselves. We went to the town of Lalibela over the weekend; flying there on Friday morning and returning on Sunday afternoon. Vincent, a visiting lecturer in Physics from UMIST who is spending a couple of weeks at Gondar University, came with us. Lalibela has been described as one of the wonders of the world, and the most remarkable thing about it is that it is almost completely unknown by most people outside of Ethiopia. What Lalibela is famous for is its rock-hewn churches. Created sometime around the 11^th century the churches are the most important site in Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity and one of the most important in all of Christianity. The churches were carved from the bedrock using simple hand tools, probably taking around 25 years and involving 40,000 people. These churches were not built out of blocks of quarried stone, like European cathedrals, but were actually carved as one block from the rock and then hollowed out. To walk around them is really quite amazing. But what really is amazing about Lalibela is that it is a living place of worship. It is not deserted ruins or preserved like a museum, the churches are still operational in a way that hasn’t really changed for hundreds of years. UNESCO are busy constructing a canopy over each cluster of churches to protect them from weathering which meant clambering at times around ugly scaffolding.

We stayed in a cheapish (for Lalibela) hotel after a 40 min flight from Gondar. As long as you know in advance that the prices will all be inflated tourist prices then that’s not so bad, but some of the prices really were silly, especially for Ethiopian food which wasn’t really up to much compared to what we know is good. We joined a group of Ferenji tourists with an official guide, Berhan, and went round two clusters of churches on the Friday afternoon and the remaining cluster on Saturday morning. The sense of awe I had about the churches was a bit dampened by having to pick our way around poor Ethiopians who were attending services or trying to pray. The tourism brings in much needed money, but as far as I could find out local people don’t benefit directly which surely has to be sorted out. Why can’t some of the entrance fee for the churches (200 birr per person!) go directly to organizations or activities which benefit local people instead of all going to the church?

Lalibela is one of those places that you “must” visit if you are in Ethiopia. My preference is always for wild places, natural history, etc but it has been a very interesting experience to wander round Lalibela. It’s certainly impressive, but somehow not quite as impressive as I imagined. After living and working here for a year and a half the Ethiopian setting, the poverty and the traditional way of life held no novelty value for me, which would be a big factor in the overall Lalibela experience for any tourist. Developing a cold (yes, a cold) while I was there didn’t help. Vincent was good company and had some interesting views from his perspective as a short-stay visitor.

2007-09-13T12:51:00.000+03:00

Debre Birhan Selassie church

After a couple of recent trips to a local workshop to cut-up wood and produce a blizzard of wood chippings, Mulugeta has been happily banging and sawing away in his workshop for the last few days. He’s finished a new noticeboard for the cluster unit, to be displayed in the main admin building, and has also been producing counting sticks for Gill to use in mathematics training. My main task for the last few days has been assembling pictures and blurb for the noticeboard. I like the creative part of it but it’s hardly a full-time job at the moment.

Our somewhat limited social life is one of the things that keeps us going. We had lunch at Steve & Gemma’s on Saturday (veggie curry) followed by wandering up to Debre Birhan Selassie church to take a look around. Debre Birhan Selassie is one of the most famous churches in Ethiopia. The original site is several hundred years old and was supposedly built to house the Ark of the Covenant (Ethiopian Orthodox Christians believe the Ark is in Ethiopia, currently in a church in Axum). The feature it is perhaps most famous for its ceiling, which is decorated with the painted faces of 80 angels. Although we had to pay 25 birr for entry, the churchyard was just as beautiful as the church itself. The trees inside have been protected from being chopped down for firewood and the whole place had a soothing and tranquil feel to it.

An often-quoted slogan in advertising about Ethiopia is “The Land with 13 Months of Sunshine”. Ethiopia uses a Julian calendar, which means there are 12 months, each with 30 days, and a 13^th month with 5 days, or 6 days in a leap year. Several hundred years ago the date of the birth of Jesus was re-calculated and most countries changed their calendars at the time to reflect this. Ethiopia didn’t so yesterday was the first day of the year 2000. For months people have been looking forward to the millennium celebrations, with many diaspora Ethiopians expected to return from abroad. The most visible sign of the approaching millennium has been the sudden rush to repaint many of the buildings around Piazza, the centre of Gondar. Some extra lights have gone up and masses of T-shirts have been printed with millennium slogans on them. I’m a bit cynical about it. Apart from the fact that it is just an arbitrary date (and the often ignored fact that the 2000^th anniversary of Christ is actually at the start of 2001) I don’t really know why anyone is celebrating. Ethiopia has a rich and glorious history, but in the last hundred years it was a rigidly feudal society which was replaced by a brutal Marxist dictatorship which was in turn replaced by a democratic government which isn’t worthy of the name. The country is one of the poorest in the world (171 out of 176 countries on the UN Human Development Index) and has a whole heap of problems which I don’t see getting any better. Nevertheless, people have been looking forward to it. On the streets for the last few days there have been lots of undernourished sheep and goats hanging around in forlorn-looking groups ready to be sold and eaten. With the heat and sunshine in the afternoons it's hardly been a Scottish hogmanay, although the sight of scrawny creatures hanging around in the streets with bugger all to look forward to did kind of have a Scottish ring to it. So yesterday was a holiday which people spent with their families. New Years Day was a Wednesday, which is a fasting day (no animal products) for Orthodox Christians. The government announced only the day before that Thursday and Friday will also be public holidays (the coming of the millennium has only been known about for two thousand years after all), which is probably a smart move as most people in this carnivorous society will be gorging on meat today and will be ill on Friday as a result.

We were invited round yesterday (New Year’s Day) by a neighbour for a coffee ceremony. We were also plied with misir wat (spicy lentil stew) and injera. We are slowly getting to know this neighbour. One of the daughters, Kibub, came round to our house a few days ago and, for an Ethiopian woman, was surprisingly confident and forward about asking questions about us and our lives. Her look of horror on discovering our non-religious views was a picture and I’m fascinated to pursue further her stated non-belief in the theory of evolution. When she was together with all of her family yesterday she went back into shy Ethiopian woman mode. I think on her own we can discuss a much wider range of topics than when her father is around. We all sat together for a chunk of the afternoon and watched the Ethiopian TV, ETV. There was lots of coverage of the millennium celebrations in Addis Ababa which did actually look quite impressive. Ethiopians with money ($150 per ticket apparently – at 1400 birr that’s our entire month’s allowance!) could go to the new Millennium Hall in Addis and hear the Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, give a speech. Having sat through many many official speeches here I can confidently state that it would have been a tedious waste of money. Still, we had a nice time chatting and drinking coffee.

On New Year’s Eve we went to a party at the house of two physiotherapy non-VSO volunteers, one Canadian (Katie) and the other Japanese (Micky). A couple of dozen of their Ethiopian students were there, so instead of the usual UK syndrome of everyone getting hammered there was lots of singing and dancing to traditional Ethiopian instruments. One of the students did unfortunately manage to get drunk enough to pass out and vomit, giving the whole event a certain British-style charm.

Today, the day after New Year, there’s a noticeable lack of sheep in the streets and piles of freshly removed sheep skins and fleeces are appearing on street corners for sale. The meat consuming has begun in earnest.

2007-09-06T07:53:00.000+03:00

Mulugeta and I did some work together on Tuesday. I helped him carry some wood to a workshop a few streets away to be chopped into pieces he can turn into counting sticks and other maths resources. The “workshop” was actually the front yard of a house and was a health & safety nightmare, although after a year and half here I get less fazed about that sort of thing now. In a small room was a circular saw surrounded by piles of sawdust. Moving the sawing bench into a more convenient position was achieved by the operator kicking it across the room while it was on. I spent the next hour watching him spray the area with wood chippings and sawdust.

A lot of the time I want to be in charge of the cluster unit so I can make some necessary changes, but then occasionally I’m really glad I’m not. A few days ago I was told by the instructor who is “in charge” of the unit that we have 20,000 birr left over from last year to add to the 50,000 birr we have been allocated for the coming year. Yesterday it turned out that we supposedly overspent by 23,000 birr last year. Given that the 50,000 birr has already been allocated this leaves us with a few problems. As usual I was left stunned by the lack of any proper systems that would allow people to track important things like budgets.

At least Mulugeta was happy yesterday. Being busy making something makes Mulugeta very happy and contented. We want to put up a noticeboard in the entrance to the main admin building to communicate what we do in the cluster unit to the college staff. I’m hoping that this will help to get instructors onboard about what we do and make it easier for us to get instructors involved in the in-service programme. Getting this thing up and running will feel like a big achievement in the current climate of chronic under-work.

2007-08-30T06:12:00.000+03:00

After nearly five weeks of normal bowel movements while in the UK (now that’s what I call a holiday) Gill was the first to return to normal Ethiopian service, followed by me yesterday. I might have Giardia so our first stool test since our return is probabaly iminent.

Our spirits continue to see-saw, not helped by having bugs. The near-continuous rain yesterday didn’t help either and we both realised that we are suffering from homesickness. Today is hot and sunny and my mood has lifted as well. I’ve managed to get Mulugeta busy on preparing a new noticeboard for the cluster unit and he’s also busy sorting out Science Kit training for the college for the next two days.

Debbie (Canadian IT volunteer) left today. She is spending a few weeks in Awassa before going home. Although we don’t have our futures in the UK anywhere near sorted yet, I’m envious of her. Feeding our West Wing addiction probably hasn’t helped either. I just can’t remember watching a TV drama that is so completely absorbing. After only two weeks or so back here we have finished series 3 and are half way through series 4.

2007-08-28T07:36:00.000+03:00

We’ve been back from the UK for only two weeks, supposedly refreshed and recharged to give what we can. I feel like moaning. We always knew that the second half of the summer would be slow, but I’m starting to climb the walls already. Mulugeta occasionally pops his head into the office to ask what he wants me to do. All this does is wind me up partly because I don’t know what he should do as it’s too early to prep for school training, and I’m still waiting to find out who in the college we are supposed to work with. What really winds me up is that he even asks the question. Right now I don’t know what he should do, I’m not in charge and what about making some constructive suggestions yourself? What I find hard is having no demand made on me. I end up wallowing in a feeling of purposelessness which leads me to feeling passive and then completely fed up. There are times when I feel angry about the appalling state of almost everything here and I feel an urge to try and do something about it. My anger has deserted me for the time being and I just want to go home. I feel more interest in playing a part in my own society at the moment than I do in this one. In a couple of weeks or so we’ll start gearing up to work intensively with schools and that will be good. I’ve just got to hang in there until then.

2007-08-18T18:26:00.000+03:00

The appliance of science never stops impressing me, especially here where we get left out of most technological developments. I've written this entry using “StarOffice Writer”. StarOffice is an opensource equivalent to Microsoft Office, supplied by the Open University as part of the materials they supply you with before commencing a course. It's free, includes “Writer” (equivalent to “Word”), “Impress” (equivalent to “Powerpoint”) and “Calc” (equivalent to “Excel”), and I've just installed it on our laptop, out of curiosity. Not only does it do everything Office does but it appears to be better AND creates files in conventional Office formats or opendocument formats. Guess what: the opendocument formats produce smaller file sizes than Microsoft Office formats.

It's been a very slow return to work. Meleshew is away all summer at Mekele University (which I knew about) and Mulugeta has apparently gone to Harar (in the east of the country) to visit his family, but he hasn't returned yet despite being due last Friday. The fact that I'm counterpart-less is an issue for what I do with myself, but nowhere near as big an issue as the fact that nobody at college seems even slightly concerned that he is now a week overdue. He could have been killed in a road accident and his late return from holiday would be a possible disciplinary issue in the UK, but here everyone has just shrugged their shoulders and said that maybe he'll be back at the weekend. So I've done some small bits and pieces at work (such as rewriting the placement description for the volunteer who will replace me; a surprisingly enjoyable activity given I still have five months of work to do) but nothing to keep me fully occupied.

While walking to college on Thursday morning we passed a couple of children squatting by the roadside in full view and defecating, smiling at us and shouting “hello”. I'd forgotten how normal that is here.

What has been nice is the number of college staff who have welcomed us back with a feeling and expressiveness that's usually absent. Welcoming back people who have been away on a trip is an important social convention here, and all of the welcomes include being asked about the health of your family. This to me gives three insights into Ethiopian life: the importance of family, all non-work related trips are to visit your family (there is no concept of a holiday for fun/pleasure/interest/recreation/etc in the “developed”-world sense) and the state of your family's health is an important matter given the very poor state of health care. We've been surprised by some of the staff who have greeted us with enthusiasm when they normally wouldn't make any effort to talk with us.

I've found the last three days quite difficult. I loved being in the UK and to come back here to no work is a bit of an anticlimax. I've been more conscious of the poverty here since I returned and a wee bit guilty about how much I enjoyed all the opportunities to consume (even if I couldn't afford it) while in the UK. Ethiopia seemed a long way away, mentally, while in the UK and the reality of the state of the place has had to sink in all over again. My spirits lifted a lot last night when Gill and I went out to a tourist restaurant called Habisha Kitfo to meet Steve & Gemma. The restaurant is a “tourist” restaurant in that it's decorated with all the trappings of Ethiopia you'd find in an Ethiopian restaurant in London. It was though, very nice. The food was good, but the company was a tonic. As well as Gemma & Steve, we were joined by three British 1^st year medical students on an exchange visit to the University Hospital; Jacob & Lea, two Belgians who BICYCLED from Belgium to Ethiopia (via the Middle east) and are working in an orphanage in Gondar; a Finnish couple, who are working with Gemma in the eye clinic; Kate, a Canadian physiotherapist working at the hospital for a few weeks; Micky, a Japanese physio also at the hospital; Nigist, an Ethiopian who works for an NGO caring for the 2000 street children in Gondar; and an Italian who could only speak Italian and French (the Belgians being french speakers were very useful here). What a great night. I think both Gill and I had been feeling a bit down during the day. When you both work in the same place but have no work to do it's very easy to hit a low spot where you both have absolutely nothing to talk about. Blethering with people from a “northern” culture was a real boost. Yes, it's not always good to socialise with ferenji, as it hardly helps you to integrate into local culture, but sometimes I just can't be bothered with the whole integrating thing. It's nice to be able to talk in a culturally familiar way about culturally familiar things without the extra drag of doing so in slowly pronounced English so you might be understood. I like learning new things about Ethiopian culture, but I'm also more honest about how integrated I want to be or can be given the time we have left to us. I am afterall here to do a job, a job I care about and believe in, and am not looking to immigrate.

We went for our first run on Friday morning. Getting up at 4.45am was the usual horror, but the starry sky and that beautiful crescent moon, with the crescent along the “bottom” edge of the moon, is something I wish I could photograph. My running performance left a lot to be desired. I'll blame it on having to re-acclimatise to the altitude and four weeks of UK food.

2007-08-15T21:40:00.000+03:00

The Fife coast

Cadderlie bothy

Cadderlie bothy with Dave and Ian

Gill half way up a Munro

Finishing an orienteering course after my usual bad run

When we left to go to the UK I felt very happy to leave everything behind and not think about our house. Returning to our house yesterday was like walking into a rented villa in Greece at the start of a holiday. The sun was shining and we could walk barefoot on the the tiled floor. After nearly 24 hours of travelling being home was a relief. Our flight left Heathrow at 1300 on Monday and arrived at Addis Ababa at 0030. We then had to hang about in the airport until our flight to Gondar at 0710. Our various attempts to sleep in the airport weren’t very successful but at least we did manage to sleep a bit on the plane to Gondar. We hadn’t even boarded our flight to Gondar when I had my first truly Ethiopian experience. We spent most of our time trying to sleep in the International terminal because the Domestic terminal didn’t open until 5am. As we were getting ready to make our way to the Domestic terminal, I stepped outside one of the exit doors from the International terminal to see if it was raining. The policeman at the door watched me step outside (literally ONE step) and then refused to let me back in. My attempts to point to my bags lying just a few steps inside the terminal and the fact that he had seen me hanging around inside for several hours were pointless. I had left the terminal through an “exit” door so I could not enter throught he same door. Hmmm...OK. As there’s no point arguing with a man with a gun I walked up to an “entrance” door a few meters away. However, you need a flight ticket to get in which of course was with my bags inside the terminal. The policeman on the entrance door wasn’t going to compromise. I applied the principle of not arguing too much with a man with a gun and walked back to the exit door, where the policeman was waiting to see if I would threaten national security again. Fortunately Gill had seen me stranded outside through a window and came out with all the bags. Welcome to Ethiopia.

Visiting the UK and coming back to Ethiopia has felt quite different from our last visit one year ago. Last time, being in the UK wasn’t always comfortable and coming back to Ethiopia felt like coming home. This time I enjoyed almost every minute of being in the UK and have very mixed feelings about being back here. After an eventful year in Ethiopia I loved the UK. It’s a beautiful country. Transport is so good it’s a pleasure to use (even in London). I can buy almost any food I want almost anywhere I am. I can sit in a café with a coffee while reading a paper and be completely ignored. I can walk the streets and be treated like anyone else. The trees are stunning. I can understand anyone speaking (apart from in London). I can use broadband internet (the term world-wide web is a complete joke – most people on this planet cannot access the web even if they know of it and most web content is effectively inaccessible with a dial-up connection, which is the only way most people in most countries can access the web). There are opportunities everywhere to do almost anything you want. Even the smallest town has at least one bookshop where I can choose from a bigger selection of books than any Ethiopian will ever have access to in their lifetime. The one aspect to life in the UK I really noticed more than anything else was that most people are more friendly than I remembered. I think I just didn’t notice the friendliness of most strangers in the UK before I came here. Perhaps I’ve been too cynical and closed to notice.

During the weeks leading up to arriving in the UK we planned our visit like a military campaign. I still remember the child-like pleasure of booking cheap UK train travel via the internet from Gondar. As a result after spending the first couple of days in London I visited a friend in Salisbury for two days, met my PGCE Tutor for career advice, bought some bits and pieces that we need in Ethiopia, travelled to Leeds to meet a previous VSO vol to discuss a trial of a textbook he developed, spent a week in Edinburgh with my mum and sister, spent two days walking the Fife Coast Path with my mum, hung out for three days with two friends in a bothy in the Highlands, walked and camped with Gill for a week in Scotland and finally camped in Speyside for the Scottish Six Days Orienteering Event (Gill ran all six days while I made do with four). We returned to London via Easyjet from Inverness (cheap via the net but environmentally costly I know) for one more day in London before leaving the UK. Sue and Sue in London were very hospitable in putting up with us descending on their house and cluttering it up with our stuff for several days. A great trip.

Within an hour of landing at Heathrow we were sitting in a Pret a Manger in Piccadilly eating sandwiches. I can’t do justice to the simple pleasure of that sandwich. Every part of it was delicious: the brown bread that didn’t turn into dough when you squeezed it, the humous and the salad that was safe to eat. I think we both felt during the first day that we were mentally and emotionally ready to come home to the UK for good. I have lots of work to do in Gondar, in fact the next six months should be my busiest time, but I’m ready and want to be part of UK society. In our remaining time as VSO volunteers (at the moment it feels like serving out the rest of my sentence) I have lots of training to develop and lead for Gondar schools, we both will be doing Open University courses and we need to sort out what we do next with our lives. We both want to move north and want to be involved in education. After that, we have a lot of exploring to do.

2007-07-10T08:14:00.000+03:00

After a quiet and dull couple of weeks we're almost off to the UK. I fly to Addis Ababa today and then we both leave Addis at the awful time of 0335 on Thursday courtesy of BA. I can't wait. I need a break although not a slobby lazy one. We get enough dead time here to make the prospect of four weeks sitting around in the UK sitting unappealing. Instead we've managed to put together visits to family and friends, camping in Scotland, three days in a bothy with friends and a week-long orienteering event (the Scottish Six Days) in Speyside. We're back to Ethiopia on August 14th, hopefully mentally recharged.

2007-06-27T21:39:00.000+03:00

The absence of one of my colleagues for the last two days was explained when she slowly shuffled into the Cluster Unit this morning: headaches and dizziness. A doctor has diagnosed anaemia and and prescribed lots of meat, milk and soft drinks (soft drinks for anaemia?). Any mysterious symptoms here must be a cause of worry when there isn’t much of a healthcare system to speak of. Ethiopians tend to have a hefty dose of stoical fatalism about them and I can see why.

I spent part of yesterday afternoon chatting with Norma, a Canadian VSO volunteer here in the college who is supposed to be setting up an ELIC (English Language Improvement Centre) as part of the ELIP (English Language Improvement Programme). Since she arrived in February she has achieved almost nothing. The reason is simply lack of drive, leadership and vision from the college. Much to Norma’s frustration she spends an awful lot of time doing nothing while waiting for people to do important things necessary for getting an ELIC established. We both blethered for a bit about a curious aspect of professional Ethiopian behaviour. People here (generalising of course) simply will not assess themselves as anything less than “good” on a self-assessment task. Norma’s needs-assessment questionnaires, which she sent out to the staff ages ago, were returned with self-assessed English proficiencies of “good” or better. Yet, it is so obvious to us that that isn’t true. During conversation, Ethiopian colleagues will say they want to improve their English, but that sentiment is simply never translated into action. One of the many curious policies (tragedies?) implemented by government is that Grade 7 and above in schools, and all instruction at college level, must be in English. The English of most instructors, and cetainly most students, simply isn’t up to it, but this difficulty, which most people are aware of, doesn’t result in a demand for support with language skills. The passivity is striking, but I have to remember that government regimes in the recent past have hardly encouraged actively questionning or pushing for change. Unfortunately knowing this doesn’t help with the frustration. Both of my colleagues want to improve their English and, more importantly, see themselves as having plenty of room for improvement. Because they do not have degrees, the college instructors look down on them. As a resullt, my colleagues don’t have the inflated view of their own importance that many of the instructors have.

Today I’ve helped Meleshew set herself up with an email address. She had the same excited reaction I remember having when I got my first email address.

2007-06-25T20:47:00.000+03:00

I might be fortunate enough to be part of making a difference to the lives of people who are the most disadvantaged, but it can also be very tedious at times. One of my colleagues wasn't in college this morning while my other colleague pointed out we could finally deliver a pile of certificates to schools for teachers who have attended our training. During the run to town it poured with rain. Gill and I had been for a run, in the rain, this morning and enjoyed the soaking. Getting soaked again while delivering certificates to schools was no joke. During the afternoon both my colleagues were missing. There really isn't much point doing things without them so today has felt like a waste of time. I spent a chunk of the afternoon drawing a map of Gondar using Powerpoint. A great morning run followed by a slow and tedious day. I'm really looking forward to being in the UK for a break now. We head home on July 12. The thought of walking in a familiar environment and being invisible on the streets is just so appealing.

2007-06-24T12:03:00.000+03:00

For the first time in ages we spent some time being tourists on Saturday. The day started with a run, picking up Debbie on the way to show her our route. Breakfast was with Marjo (Dutch VSO physiotherapist volunteer) and her night guard at the Quara Hotel (mango juice, coffee and “egg sandwich”: omelette in a white roll) and then together we spent a couple of hours wandering around the Royal Enclosure. Gondar was made the capital of Ethiopia by Emperor Fasilides in the 17^th century, and it remained the capital for two hundred years. A series of small castles were built within a walled compound over this time by different emperors. Most of the buildings are semi-ruined but the architecture and design is very interesting. The Lonely Plant book describes the design as a mixture of Indian, Moorish, Portuguese and Aksumite (the pre-Gondar Ethiopian kingdom). Sadly, there is a lot to be learned about developing and encouraging tourism here. There are no information signs or guidebooks available in the enclosure and there isn’t even a map on display. There are official guides, for a fee, but being volunteers we used the Lonely Planet book instead. Something that is a constant irritation here is that being a volunteer doesn’t make any difference to prices. Ferenji are charged 50 birr to enter the enclosure and Ethiopians are charged 5 birr. I have no problem with such differential pricing, as I believe that local people should be able to access their own cultural heritage and foreign tourists should pay more, but as volunteers here to help receiving an allowance equal to (or less than in our case) our colleagues it would be nice if we were charged a reduced rate. Anyway, the ruins were quite interesting (not being a big fan of ruins) and we enjoyed being tourists for a while.

While we were wandering around the ruins, there were two other groups of foreign tourists. The total number of tourists who come to Ethiopia each year numbers only in the tens of thousands. There is so much tourism potential here, but the country is only slowly developing the skills and knowledge to build on it. For example, there are more UNESCO World Heritage sites in Ethiopia than in Egypt and there are 11 national parks. The tourism infrastructure is poorly developed and there seems to be little awareness of the level of service that needs to be provided in order to encourage tourists to come here.

In the afternoon I spent an hour with Mekdes trying to teach her to tell the time in English. She concentrates so hard and really wants to learn that I get caught up in her enthusiasm, even if I really wanted to doze on the couch after being up since 4.45am.

Our evening movie was “The Constant Gardener”. This is another movie we saw in the UK before coming here, but watching it again here magnifies the effect of it.

2007-06-22T20:27:00.000+03:00

The plan for next year is now finally ready. All that is needed now is for the Vice Dean to take it apart and misunderstand it next week.

Mekdes is busy improving her English. She's really good at learning new words, but has real trouble saying "stove". It comes out as "stolv". A challenge for both of us.

2007-06-21T20:56:00.000+03:00

Two days of extremes. Just when everything was looking like it was going well, if slowly, the latest inept and ill-considered action by the Vice Dean came crashing in. He was supposed to send a letter to VSO confirming my extension until the end of the 1^st semester of next year (January 08), which I received a copy of on Wednesday. Given our recent clashes and misunderstandings, he just had to try and have the last word in this letter. As well as confirming my extension, he described how I had accepted that the recent misunderstandings were all my fault and that I had accepted this. His final sentence implied that the next volunteer (starting in Feb 08) should have more experience of the cluster programme ie I am lacking sufficient experience. Fuck off! I was furious. He who couldn’t organize a piss-up in a brewery casting judgment on me. His inability to listen and empathise is breathtaking. The sheer childishness of his letter is sad. If I actually had to work with this guy on a daily basis I’d quit. The understanding barrier between us would be insurmountable. Fortunately I don’t work with him. More importantly I’m not here being a volunteer for him, but for my two colleagues and Gondar teachers & children. I feel as committed as ever to helping the unit to develop next year and I’ll put up with him in order to work with Meleshew and Mulugeta. Leaving now would leave them in the lurch.

Today, Thursday, has been much much better. I’ve been able to put the Vice Dean’s attitude into perspective and keep hold of what is actually important: supporting my colleagues. Tempting as it is to storm off from Gondar in a justifiable huff my colleagues would suffer. I spent more time today working with Meleshew on her CPD plan. I also introduced Mulugeta to using Word and other basic computer skills. Both of them are so obviously delighted when I work with them individually to learn something new. In an education system where many children are lectured to in classes of 100 or more, to have some individual attention from someone willing to teach them is a real privilege. Their delight and enthusiasm really lifts me up spiritually.

2007-06-19T20:59:00.000+03:00

After one abortive attempt to fly back to Gondar on Friday (when her booking had been mysteriously cancelled when she tried to check-in), Gill made it home on Saturday afternoon. The pleasure of her return was enhanced by the bag of leeks and other food goodies she was carrying. Tofu marinated in soy sauce, lime juice and garlic; with noodles and carrots; a roasted sesame seed garnish; followed by tinned pears with custard was our Saturday night feast. Steve & Gemma, who joined us for dinner, were suitably impressed. It doesn’t take much to make volunteers happy.

In the morning I had visited the Ploughshare Women’s Crafts Training Center, about 3km out of Gondar, with Liza, an Addis-based volunteer visiting Gondar. Ploughshare takes batches of women, who are single mothers, from different regions and trains them in weaving, pottery-making and other simple crafts which they can use in their home villages to make money and support themselves. This was a good example of a small scale scheme which helps people with few opportunities to help themselves. The Center is self-supporting from the proceeds of selling its crafts (which were all of impressive quality) and gets various bits of equipment donated by foreign embassies eg the British embassy paid for a new kiln for firing pottery.

Sunday afternoon was spent with all the Gondar vols at our house while I led a security & emergency planning session, with my Gondar volunteer representative hat on. After a productive two hours working our way through a scenario where Marjo had been flattened by a line taxi Tilahun, our night guard, turned up looking unrecognizable. He had been beaten up the night before and had stitches under his right eye, a puffed up face and heavy bruising. Given he was attacked at 8pm, a time when none of us think twice about walking alone, on a street that always seems perfectly safe, his battered appearance was somewhat ironic as we finished discussing emergency scenarios. Fortunately he’s OK.

The pace at work is slow and steady. Since we’ve decided that I am not the unit leader, but they need me to provide leadership, I’ve been pushing for some systems to be established. I’ve also made some progress in getting Meleshew and Mulugeta to consider how they want to develop professionally. As a result, I’ve started training both of them to use the cluster unit PC, starting with learning to use Word. The delight on their faces at receiving some individual attention and really learning something new has been great.

2007-06-15T06:55:00.000+03:00

It’s so nice eating at Gemma & Steve’s as they have an oven. On Wednesday night I was indulged in chips and omlette. Afterwards Steve and I went to a Tej Bet, a small traditional bar to listen to Mesinko player. A Mesinko is a traditional Ethiopian instrument that’s a bit like a mini-cello except it’s held in the hand, played standing up and has only one string. To the accompaniment of the Mesinko there was a woman in traditional dress dancing and improvising songs around the names of the people listening. I love the music and the intimacy of a small room atmosphere when traditional music is played. The downside came when they tried to charge us 10 birr for a beer. 10 birr! A normal price is 4 birr.

Everything moves slowly here. My plans yesterday were spend more time with Meleshew on her professional development plan and, and with Meleshew and Mulugeta on the cluster unit plan for next year, came to nothing when Meleshew stayed home all day to look after her sick daughter. I’m reaching my tolerance limit for sitting around waiting for other people so I ended up taking an extended lunch rather than pretending to be working in the unit. During the afternoon I did manage to spend some time talking with Mulugeta about his professional development needs. He’s clear that he wants to develop computer skills and agreed that he wants to develop training skills, but I think there’s a wee bit of telling me what he thinks I want to hear. He doesn’t really seem to be interested in doing training. Usually he’s quite happy to be in his workshop making resources. He can be great to chat with and has experienced many things in Ethiopia, but he is too ready to see me as the expert who knows everything. He frequently says that he will do anything I say, but that isn’t the way forward. Trying to help him understand that if I write his CPD plan for him then it isn’t his plan is not easy. I’m still not convinced he gets it.

It poured with rain again last night after a fairly hot and sticky day. With Gill being away these last few days I’ve started to realize that boredom would be a serious problem if I was here on my own all the time. At times it seems paradoxical that I can be part of something good, that I feel proud to be part of, and to see my colleagues grow personally and professionally, but at the same time feel understimulated. Too long without adrenalin maybe.

2007-06-13T06:11:00.000+03:00

This evening wins the prize for the most incredible torrential downpour I have seen. Fortunately it started just after I got home, although Tilahun (our “night guard”) managed to get wet. The thunder continues to rumble overhead.

It’s slow at work. There’s about four weeks left of the academic year and schools are busy with exams and report writing, which means no chance for us to do any work with them. Instead, I’m using the time to get a good plan for next year licked into shape with my counterparts, and also to get some proper systems running in the Cluster Unit. I spent most of the day teaching Meleshew to use Word to create an attendance list for when we do training. Her computer skills are very poor so together, over several hours, we created a table and Meleshew learned from one of the college secretaries how to use a Word add-on called “Power Ge’ez” that lets you write Amharic script. I’ve been really impressed with her patience and determination to do as much for herself as possible. A slow and undemanding day for me has been very satisfying with seeing the sense of achievement in her face.

The plan for next year is slowly coming together. I’m convinced that the faffing about we’ve done this year will pay off next year with an improved approach to how we support schools.

Mulugeta has been very happy for the last couple of days. One of the college science instructors has been using one of our rooms to deliver training to students on using Science Kits (the box of basic items for schools that allows many science demos to be done). Mulugeta has been helping out and has enjoyed being busy.

Gill is in Addis Ababa again (she really should get airmiles from Ethiopian Airlines!!). She headed off yesterday for a workshop on improving the Higher Diploma Programme and comes back on Saturday. Unfortunately she was clobbered with another amoebic infection on Sunday. Yet another stool test on Monday morning confirmed the diagnosis and she’s now back on those tablets that make your mouth taste like it’s coated with rust. At least in Addis she can get another test at the British Embassy clinic. Since arriving in Gondar we’ve been really hit by many digestive system bugs, Gill more than me. Gill wonders if it’s the spinach we’ve been eating as we were warned about it being contaminated even after cooking. I think the most likely culprit is when we have drinks in cafes. Although the water for tea and coffee has, in theory, been thoroughly boiled the glasses are often wet from being washed and are therefore contaminated by unboiled water. The sanitation in Gondar is exceptionally poor. Most people simply crap onto the ground without burying or covering it. All along the wall near our house there are dozens of piles of crap from the federal police whose barracks is near our house. There are no such things as public toilet facilities and many people, especially poorer people, have actually never used a toilet, wouldn’t know how to and certainly wouldn’t choose to even if they had the option. With human excrement everywhere and billions of flies it’s no wonder there are so many health problems here.

2007-06-10T08:16:00.000+03:00

Student English Club

My line manager, the Vice Dean, called a meeting of the Cluster Unit (my two colleagues; and the unit co-ordinator, an instructor in the college) on Wednesday afternoon. The meeting was polite and much calmer than our last meeting. The Vice Dean read out the report of the meeting from VSO (which I had crafted with Belay, my programme manager) and then proceeded to explain that he had been surprised at my apparent lack of understanding of my role or the role of the other people in the unit (which simply demonstrated his lack of understanding of what I had previously tried to discuss!). This time he allowed some space for people to contribute. I was able to clarify my views and explain that the main misunderstanding from my point of view was our differing interpretations of “line manager”. Overall the meeting was satisfactory in that everyone has agreed with my extension until the end of next semester and I was able to explain my version of some of the issues. The Vice Dean’s manner at times was patronising and his understanding of certain issues was simplistic at best, but the atmosphere is now much better and he apologised for any misunderstanding on the part of the college (note: no apology for his behaviour). So, progress has been made and maybe all of us have learned something from the experience. Afterwards, Meleshew explained that in her opinion the Vice Dean is much “better” this year in how he deals with people. Last year he and the previous volunteer had more than one serious argument leaving the volunteer in tears. He apparently doesn’t shout at people so much now.

One thing which did surprise me was when he raised the issue of the small amount of teaching I had done in the 1^st semester. It turns out that all of my colleagues did not approve of me teaching and completely misunderstood why I wanted to teach. I thought I had been clear at the time that my main reason was to get some inside understanding of the pre-service training in the college and the issues faced by trainee teachers, trainees who will go on to be teachers supported by the Cluster Unit when they graduate. NOBODY questioned me on this or raised any concerns about me doing a small amount of teaching. The Vice Dean explained that because my decision had been “conscious” then he could not challenge me on it without causing offence, and the only people who could challenge or question me were VSO! This was perhaps the most revealing part of Wednesday’s meeting. I am left thinking that VSO need to improve their partner induction processes so that the partners have a better understanding of how VSO works now (as opposed to 10 years ago), the professional culture the volunteers come from and exactly what the expectations are of the designated “line manager”.

So, the Vice Dean will send the extension acceptance letter and, for now, all appears to be OK. The conclusion seems to be that the Cluster Unit Co-ordinator is “in charge” (which I always knew), but because he is an instructor we should not expect any leadership from him i.e. I should effectively provide leadership even though I am not the leader. This is supposed to be “clarity” but I can work with it!

Friday was quite a satisfying day. I spent a chunk of it teaching Meleshew how to use Word on the unit PC and she clearly enjoyed being able to produce certificates for the teachers who have been for our training. I also spent some time working with Meleshew and Mulugeta on putting together an action plan for next year. Given that there is now only four weeks until the end of the academic year getting next year’s plan sorted out is a priority.

Teaching English to Mekdes, our “day guard”, on a Saturday morning seems to be a regular event now. I improvise a lot, given my lack of knowledge of language teaching, but we seem to be making progress and it’s enjoyable for both of us in different ways. I like feeling that I’m giving something valuable to somebody else. I just wish I could be more confident that I’m doing a decent job of it.

The afternoon has been spent at college as a guest of the student English Club. I was invited to a coffee ceremony while they engaged in various poetry readings, debates, quizzes and role plays to demonstrate and practice their English. Their energy and determination to develop their English in the face of apathy and lack of support from the college that’s supposed to be supporting them is remarkable.

2007-06-05T21:30:00.000+03:00

Needless to say my line manager has not come to see me to apologise or just to talk about what happened in our meeting. I tried to see him the following day when I planned to take the moral high ground and apologise for any offence I might have caused. His response to my request to talk was met with “I’m busy all day”. I can deal with him behaving like a child as long as he doesn’t cause difficulties for the sake of it.

This whole incident has focused my thoughts on the perceived roles we each have in the cluster unit. Alemayehu is supposed to be in charge. He is an instructor who also has the title of Cluster Unit Co-ordinator. I’ve always seen my role as supporting, advising and developing training, while trying to develop the capacity of my two colleagues. In reality everybody seems to look to me for leadership and little happens unless I make it happen. Now I just have to wait to see how things turn out while I focus on what’s important: my work with my immediate colleagues.

Friday night was spent at Gemma & Steve’s. They have a particular luxury: an oven. We spent the evening eating baked potatoes while sitting on their balcony by the light of the full moon. Fantastic!

Work is painfully slow but sometimes seemingly small activities can have a positive effect. I’ve wanted to re-arrange the cluster unit office for a while and finally got Mulugeta and Meleshew to help me shift furniture around. When I tried to sweep the floor Meleshew practically ripped the broom out of my hand. Men don’t do domestic work in Ethiopia. Having transformed the office as a working environment Meleshew then announced that she would help Mulugeta sort out his workshop, which I’ve been hinting at for a while. The power of inspiration!

Gill and I watched Brokeback Mountain on DVD last night. It’s easily the most beautiful and moving film I’ve seen in ages.

2007-05-30T21:17:00.000+03:00

The most bizarre meeting of my life has really unsettled me. Belay, our new Programme Manager, visited us from the VSO office. After chatting with him the two of us then had a meeting with my line manager, one of the Vice Deans. He was very pleased with the work I have done, but what I expected to be a formality of a meeting plunged rapidly downhill when I started to raise some very innocent and appropriate questions about how the cluster unit might work next year. He became very defensive and then quite aggressive. He seemed to misinterpret everything I said and resorted to his usual tactic of not listening. I couldn’t believe how defensive, aggressive and outright rude he became. Belay looked a bit stunned. It seems to me that he simply did not like somebody raising questions and I think he interpreted questioning as criticism. I was simply seeking clarification of various points, but I think he interpreted questioning as insubordination. After an hour of this we ended on a sour note. Belay was astonished at his attitude and rudeness, and was very good at calming me down afterwards as I was furious. I’m pleased with how I handled myself during the meeting as I do try and seek to understand rather than jumping to conclusions, but there was a point where I wanted to walk out shouting at him where he could stick his placement.

So now I’m left with a horrible sickly feeling. I can deal with confrontation but I’m mystified about what happened and why. He’s a difficult and abrasive person to get along with who seems to have a very black and white view of how things should be. Maybe I will not be here afterall until Feb if I have to deal with his obnoxious behaviour.

2007-05-25T20:55:00.001+03:00

Jordan and Debbie, the IT vols, temporarily fixed up the cluster unit PC this morning, which will make my life a bit easier. I just need to get another voltage surge protector from the college store as the current one didn’t stop of a voltage surge of over 350V from frying the cluster unit PC!

I had planned to visit Abera, a science teacher, at Ediget Feleg School today, but because Meleshew wasn’t around yesterday we had to make some last minute arrangements this morning. Last minute arrangements are always a bad idea, even though most people seem to work in “last minute arranging” mode. Meleshew had to go back to the local authority offices so I got a lift in a college vehicle and managed to arrive ten minutes late. On meeting the school Director he told me that Abera had finished for the day and gone home. What would have seriously pissed me off a year ago just made me shrug and smile today. Shortly after leaving the school to trudge back into town I bumped into Abera. He had been off to get some exam papers photocopied as he had no lessons this afternoon, even though he had arranged a lesson observation this morning with Meleshew. Ah well. I’ll see him next week and I’m looking forward to it. During the training I did for Science teachers he struck me as being particularly sharp and has good English.

Walking back to the centre of Gondar was quite interesting despite the baking heat. The school is in a predominantly Muslim part of town near the big market. I haven’t wandered in this part of town before and I was struck by the bustling feel. The kids were curious in a relatively quiet way and I was enjoying the walk until somebody threw a large stone at me, which just missed my head and clattered across the ground. It isn’t easy being white.

On the walk to the college I stopped at the post office and collected a parcel from mum, containing several packets of drinking chocolate, chocolate bars and some magazines (thankyou mum!). Thank God for treats.

Gill returns from Addis Ababa tomorrow. It’s been an interesting experience being here myself for a few days. Overall I’ve enjoyed it and been much more aware of lonely and anxious moments. Regardless of whether you are on your own or as a couple, you have to be quite self contained to do this. Most of the time I feel strong, emotionally well-equipped and happy living the VSO volunteer life, but there are times when I feel lonely, vulnerable and emotionally shaky. The seemingly small things take on a huge importance. Our radio is one of the key coping tools. Sometimes it’s the sound of other peoples voices that matter and sometimes its music. Most of the time the BBC World Service makes me feel that there is a big wide world out there that I can keep some connection to.

Another essential requirement to do VSO is to love lentils. Potato & lentil soup, in many different varieties, is staple food. I do though still miss beans on toast.

2007-05-24T21:06:00.000+03:00

A storm! The clouds dumped torrential rain for most of this afternoon. With the grey overcast sky, strong breezes and drop in temperature the weather made me feel happy and lightened my mood. In UK-speak, this afternoon’s weather was “miserable”. In overheated-Brit-in-Ethiopia-speak, this afternoon’s weather was “lovely”.

Actually the weather has been the best feature of today. I wanted to do more observing in schools with Meleshew, but she was at the local authority offices all day sorting out a dispute with her neighbour. I finished most of the tasks on my to-do list, with the remaining tasks requiring either Meleshew or the Cluster Unit PC to be fixed. At least Mulugeta has been busy. His workshop has been continuous source of DIY sounds: hammering and sawing. Following the recent training we did for Science teachers, in which I demonstrated using a cloth board as a teaching tool instead of just as a display tool, I wanted to have at least one board per school manufactured. Initially Mulugeta wanted the teachers to come to us and help him. Once he started work I think he remembered how much he likes making resources. The boards are very simple, consisting of a rectangular wooden frame (about 1.5 m x 1 m) with cotton cloth fixed to it. Words and pictures drawn on paper can be stuck to it using pins. Apart from being colourful and more visually interesting than a blackboard, these boards can be used actively during a lesson and can then be left on display. For the last week or so Mulugeta has been producing 24 boards. It’s good to see him happy. HHHHe really only wants to be left alone in his workshop and make resources. I get occasional glimpses of someone who has been bruised by the system and has learned not to stick his neck out in other peoples business. Like many people he’s had direct experience of police brutality and has a somewhat cynical and pessimistic view of his fellow Ethiopians. As long as he’s happy making display boards then that makes my life a wee bit easier.

I blethered a bit this morning with the Head of the Maths Department in the college, Getachew. He was very disappointed that Liverpool lost the Champions League final last night to AC Milan. We went over the road to a café for coffee only to find that their coffee machine was out of action. For him the café next door was not an option as they don’t do Machiatto. A Machiatto is an institution here, being basically a small café latte ie coffee with steamed milk. I love these small but significant features to life here. Ethiopia may have many many huge problems but people like their machiatto! Getachew is an interesting person to talk with. He has worked with Gill a lot on the maths training she has delivered, and is unusual in that he is hard working, dedicated, believes in his profession and wants to learn. I guess he’s in his fifties and he’s experienced many changes in Ethiopia. He repeated what I’ve heard from many people, that progress, especially in governance, have gone rapidly downhill since the last elections about two years ago. The political repression that followed has taken its toll on the general level of optimism and belief that maybe things could get better. Once again, my own worries and anxieties about myself and my future seemed overshadowed by people who love their country but don’t see it going anywhere good.

In amongst the frequent heckles and hassle we get when we walk in the street (such as “you!”, “Ferenji!” and “money!”) there are many people who say nice things such as “good morning” (even in the afternoon!) and “welcome”. Unfortunately there is also the occasional abuse in the form of “fuck you”. I was shocked when small children would swear at me in English until I realized that many of them have picked it up from movies and don’t really know what they’re shouting. What I am increasingly aware of is how many comments we get in Amharic which are abusive or racist. Most Amharic I get from passers-by just bounces off me as I don’t understand it, but I am starting to pick up certain words which I know are less than flattering. There’s a word which means “red person” and I’ve had “whitey” (in Amharic) shouted at me a few times. Maybe the intent is not aggressive, but it does get annoying when a group of school kids make comments to me in Amharic which cause the whole group to fall about laughing. The only plus side is that my skin is good deal thicker than when I arrived here.

Balancing the hassle are the acts of kindness that mean so much. Yesterday, after visiting Rekebnaha School, I went to the water supply offices to pay our water bill. Queuing is unknown here and everyone, old and young, just pushes each other to get on buses or get served in shops. The shoving is not meant to be rude or aggressive, but it does make me feel extremely British. At the water offices I stood helplessly near a counter to collect the bill, while a dozen people swarmed the counter to get their bill first. The people who were waiting encouraged me to sit and wait with them but I could see me being there all afternoon. Just when I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed and pathetic I was spotted by Birhanu, the Head of the English Dept at the college, who was also waiting. He explained how it worked, realized I was a bit unhappy and then just pushed his way to the counter and asked the official to deal with my bill next. Although I felt a bit embarrassed at the preferential treatment I also felt very very grateful. Birhanu then invited me for a cup of tea in a small café next door before I went back to college. I can’t explain how appreciated and needed are the hundreds of small acts of kindness, often by complete strangers, I have had here. At moments when I’ve felt adrift in a threatening world somebody giving me a moment of their time has made all the difference.

2007-05-23T20:49:00.000+03:00

Meleshew

Mulugeta

Looks like we might not be doing much more training with Walya school in the near future. During a chat with the Vice Dean yesterday, he explained that the college has officially told the school that it will not be supported. Last year Walya School refused to accept college students doing their “practicum” i.e. teaching practice. As a result the college decided that if the school will not support the work of the college, by accepting its students, then the college will not support the school. The school can get away with refusing practicum students because it is privately owned, but that refusal might now prevent us from doing any more work with it. I feel sad about that, as they have been very pro-active in seeking our support, but I do also see the college’s point of view.

Gill went to Addis Ababa yesterday afternoon to do some work in the Ministry of Education on the Higher Diploma Programme. This work might build into even more consulting-type work for her which will fill the gaps in her placement in college. So, I am alone until Saturday and have another opportunity to experience and reflect on what that feels like. Of course I miss her. However, it’s also good to experience some space to myself. Perhaps I rely too much on having somebody else I know at college instead of building more bridges with college staff.

This afternoon I observed a science teacher at Rekebnaha School, another one of Gondar’s private schools. I’m always struck by the difference in quality and amount of resources, general condition of the compound, and “feel” of the private schools. Why can’t state schools be like that?

We have another new VSO volunteer: Debbie, from Canada, arrived yesterday. She will replace Jordan, who goes home on Saturday having completed his three month short-term placement, as an IT person. Debbie, who spent the last six months in Awassa, is herself is a short-term volunteer and will leave in September.

To keep me occupied in the slack moments, I’ve been assembling a Cluster Co-ordinating Unit (CCU) notice-board. The idea is to raise the profile of the unit in the college and to inform the college students (and the staff) who we are and what we do. I like the creative part of it and I had some fun today getting mugshots of Meleshew and Mulugeta, my colleagues. Soon everyone in the college will not only know who Meleshew and Mulugeta are, but also who the hell that Ferenji is who walks fast around the campus.

2007-05-20T21:39:00.000+03:00

Working with Walya School teachers

Back into action! Friday afternoon saw Gill and I delivering training on active learning methods to Walya School, a private 1^st (Grade 1 -4) and 2^nd (Grade 5 – 8) cycle school. Two teachers from the school had specifically asked us to come and give training and, during a brief visit on Wednesday, the Vice Director was very keen for us to do anything that developed the skills of the teachers. Being a private school many of the teachers do not have any teacher training. We were very happy to put something together for them as they are one of the few schools that have shown initiative and approached us to ask for training.

Over the course of two hours we worked with all 30 teachers using a variety of activities to give them some experience of active learning. Unlike may of the Gondar schools, most of the Walya staff are young and had quite good English. There seems to be a hierarchy of new young teachers starting off in rural schools, where nobody wants to work, and the older more experienced teachers graduate to jobs in towns. In our experience the younger newer teachers are easier to work with, as they have some enthusiasm and energy for learning new ideas. Walya fitted nicely into this picture and we both enjoyed working with them. I am particularly keen to work more with the science teachers and will meet them on Monday morning to discuss possibilities. Other highlights of the afternoon include the room we used for training acting like a wind tunnel, so that when anyone took their hands of their notepads bits of paper would be whipped up and sent flying across the room. There was also the older man, who looks after the school pedagogical resource centre, who Meleshew, my colleague who was participating in the training, refused to work with as he had clearly been drinking and smelled of alcohol. I tried to work with him, but from his responses I’m not sure he was on the same planet as the rest of us.

Saturday at home seemed to pass with pottering about, reading, sweating in the now daily baking afternoon heat, and listening to live coverage of the FA Cup final on the World Service.

Today, Sunday, has been, well, varied. I called round this morning to a neighbour’s house to talk with Belete, an English teacher at Fasilides High School. He has seen us around and stopped to talk with us one day to invite us to call round and chat. He’s been a teacher for over thirty years and is keen for me to visit his school and the private college he teaches at part time. We talked about many aspects to life in Ethiopia. When he talked about his experience as a child of being taught by an American Peace Corps volunteer, more than thirty years ago, I was reminded of how much impact it’s possible to have on people, often years later. The volunteer has perhaps forgotten about Belete, but Belete talked with real feeling about what he learned from their time together. As for his hospitality, Belete apologized for not being able to offer coffee as his wife and daughter had gone out!

Lunch at home was interrupted by a chicken from next door escaping into our yard and trying to eat one of the very few tomatoes that Mekdes, our day-guard, has successfully grown. The chicken’s owner and his son came round, which was the first time we had met, and after a bit of chasing and stick waving the chicken was persuaded to jump back over our fence. With the sheep that graze outside our fence, the chickens that now live next door, the cattle that wander around the streets and the hundreds of donkeys that work as pack animals carrying loads everywhere, sometimes living here is a bit like living on a farm. Of all the animals I love the birds the most. There are literally dozens of birds of prey, mainly Black Kites, which live around our house. I never get tired of watching them glide and swoop for bits of meat from peoples houses or listening to them calling when they roost in the trees by our fence.

This afternoon was quite illustrative of some of the rules of socializing here. We had made an arrangement to visit again Tesfaye (an instructor at the college) and his wife at their house. We have been invited to their house before (when their son had to cook for us because she had clearly forgotten about us coming!) and we agreed to call round at 2pm today. At 2pm their gate was answered by their maid (“servant” as they are referred to here) who told us there was nobody home, but we could come in anyway and eat some injera! We politely declined and went home wondering if Tesfaye and Co would call round at our place. Sure enough, at 4pm they both turned up. As I invited them in they said something about having been visiting people in another village. At home this would call for profuse apologies and maybe embarrassment. Not here. Time and appointments simply have different meanings here. We all chatted for a bit with a wee bit of awkwardness. When your guests have limited English there’s a limit to the conversational “flow”! After a while they said it was time to go and left us with a bag of fruit (the traditional gift when visiting somebody) and a 1litre bottle of Araki, a strong vodka-like Ethiopian spirit (definitely not a traditional gift!). Despite the awkwardness there was something really touching their visit. Their willingness to try and befriend us despite the fact that it can’t be easy for them to socialize with us is really nice.

2007-05-16T18:23:00.000+03:00

VSO Programme Office in Addis Ababa

Mugshots and locations of all current VSO volunteers in Ethiopia

Coffee ceremony at the end of the Leavers Workshop

Yet another trip to Addis Ababa. This time to attend a meeting of the Volunteers Committee (I am the rep for the North West area) and to go to the Leavers Workshop. VSO hold a one day workshop to help volunteers prepare for going home in May and December. Since there is (was?) a possibility that we would go home before the end of December were we advised to go to the May workshop. The workshop itself was quite good, with a lot of time spent enabling us to explore and share our experiences, highs, lows, challenges, etc and to explore what skills we have developed in our time here. Although we have already been thinking a lot about what comes next, to have some structured time with other leavers was useful, if a bit strange as I am almost certainly not leaving until February! What was really nice was spending time with some people who are leaving in the next month or so, including Emma, Michael and Amanda from our Feb 06 intake. A good day together was spoiled by lack of organization by the VSO programme office. The Leavers Pack, containing all the info and procedures to get ready for leaving, was sent out late and some people at the workshop had to extend their stay in Addis to get their Police Clearance done, as they were not told what documentation to bring with them. I have to say that I am proud to do voluntary service with VSO, would consider doing it again and would recommend it to others, but at times VSO can’t organize a piss up in a brewery.

Saying goodbye to Emma, Amanda and Michael was a bit sad. We came here together, bonded during in-country training, have crossed paths two or three times in the last year or so and now they are done, finished, heading home for good. Unfortunately Amanda & Michael had problems with their employers and have decided to leave early, and Emma has been clobbered with illness (malaria twice) so much she feels she has given enough, despite having a good experience.

I met with my new programme manager and clarified that I feel committed to my work and what can be achieved enough to want to stay until the end of the next semester (Feb 08). Gill has made it clear to VSO that they need to help her get the college sorted out with using her properly or she is off in July. However, there may be enough of other bits and pieces which make good use of her skills for her to stay until Feb as well. The next month should hopefully see some progress.

As usual, we came back from Addis on a bit of a high. This also, as usual, turned into a crashing low for a couple of days. Yesterday evening I could have cried with a pent up mixture of frustration, lack of demand at work, tiredness and simply needing a break from dealing with being here. Today has been the complete opposite. After a low energy start while visiting a school my mood and energy picked up during the afternoon. Sometimes the extreme emotional roller coaster leaves me exhausted! Some stability would be appreciated, as would a reduction in the appalling heat of the last few days.

My colleague, Meleshew, was unable to do some lesson observations while I was away as all of the key teachers have been summoned by the government to be data collectors for the census which starts this month. At home, a form is sent to every household, here people have to actually visit every household. With a population of approx 80 million and most people living more than two days walk from a road, that’s a big task.

I’m hoping to get involved with some other bits and pieces of work as well as my main role of in-service training for teachers. I want to organize a regular get-together with the students on the physics degree course to practice problem solving, explore contemporary issues, etc. I’m also trying to organize a trial of a Grade 7 Physics textbook developed by a previous VSO vol but not tested with teachers and students. Hopefully useful to all and stimulating for me.

2007-05-04T21:20:00.000+03:00

After three meetings together we really are making progress in the cluster unit in planning for next year. We haven’t actually started to create “the plan” for next year, as I am deliberately engaging my two colleagues in a very slow process of exploring the various issues we have to deal with. I’ve really learned that there’s a big advantage in taking time and giving space to the issues and trying to fully understand them. To my surprise, Meleshew and Mulugeta have responded to this slowness enthusiastically and positively. They have both really engaged with chewing over issues together and, with some gentle pushing from me, are engaging more with series of “why” questions instead of just stopping with the first simple explanation they can think of for why something hasn’t worked. As far as I’m concerned we can keep doing this for the next month if the action plan we finally produce together is one we actually use to guide our work. Some of the suggestions that have come out of this process have been good and point the way towards how we should work with schools next year.

After several aborted attempts we finally got to meet the college academic commission (a bit like a senior management team) on Tuesday morning and share our experiences of working in the college and how we think in-service teacher training and professional development for the staff can move forward. There was a certain amount of interest, pessimism and polite attention and a distinct lack of interest from many in being involved in making some of the better ideas happen. We’ve done our bit and just have to hope that something shifts.

Gill and I are talking a lot about the immediate future. Gill’s placement is still almost non-existent due to ambivalence and sheer crap leadership in the college. She is underutilized, unappreciated and undervalued by the college and is either going to have to find some other role for herself, in Gondar or elsewhere, or perhaps go home early. For me, I’m often bored and understretched, but I’ve been feeling more and more committed to what we can achieve in the cluster unit as time has gone on. After five months I can see how the unit and its support of teachers can more forward and I believe we really can make a difference in the coming year. I’m a bit surprised about how much I care about my colleagues, their development and what we can do for schools, even if trying to work with them all frequently drives me to the edge of tears with frustration and anger. Frankly I’m jaded and tired with dealing with living in Ethiopia and need a break, but I also feel like I have a mission and can make a difference.

Speaking of being driven nuts, yesterday morning provided a good example of what to me, as someone from “the north”, is a crazy way of working. At 10am morning 48 teachers and a school director from Debre Tabor, a town about 50km from Gondar, turned up at the cluster unit to see the model classroom and learn how to make and use resources. They had made no prior arrangement and hadn’t even phoned to let anyone know they were coming. Meleshew and Mulugeta were not around, so I was supposed to just drop everything and “show” them how to make and use all the resources on display and how to use active learning methods. If only it was that easy! Swallowing my irritation, I politely explained to the director that if they made an arrangement with us in advance then we could prepare something useful. Besides, we already have a plan to go to Debre Tabor and work with the teachers in their schools. He finally got the point, apologized and I managed to improvise a 20 min session explaining how we can support them. On the bright side, these teachers were enthusiastic and want help to improve their practice, so full marks to them for dedication. Unfortunately, turning up and expecting attention is how people work here. Making prior arrangements is an alien concept.

Today I’ve done mundane things like make a checklist for Meleshew and Mulugeta to use when we are preparing to deliver training. I also visited Kebele 16 primary school, with Hiwot who delivered some of the science training with me, to observe Loza, a science teacher. Loza’s lesson was really quite good. She used a variety of methods and two demonstrations using simple pieces of kit. The kids (Grade 5) were interested and her manner was positive and encouraging. She impressed me during the training and impressed me again today.

2007-04-29T21:56:00.000+03:00

To go home or to not go home, this has been the issue for us over the last week. We both need a break and want to visit the UK. We have to go to Addis Ababa in mid-May for a VSO workshop so had thought we would go home from there. However, after lots of discussion and thought we’ve decided that it’s better for our colleagues and the work we are trying to do to stay until the end of the academic year at the end of June. On one level waiting feels right, but I’m also a bit daunted at another two months.

The week started badly with a rapid plunge in spirit and energy, improved on Friday morning and then threatened to plunge again. I sat with my two Ethiopian colleagues and had a pretty honest conversation with them about what has worked well this year and what hasn’t. There have been many successes and I was pleased that we could also identify several things that could have been better. What I need to do is work towards supporting them to take more initiative instead of waiting for me to issue instructions all the time.

2007-04-26T07:34:00.000+03:00

Two things are exhausting me at the moment: the heat and the emotional roller coaster. The trouble with being on the roller coaster is that when I descend into the lows I expect them to last forever. I came back from Addis on a bit of a high, full of ideas and inspired to push forward with teachers and the college. The high rapidly turned into a low on Monday. The apathy and passivity in college can be very infectious, and it can be so difficult getting anything done that the college can feel like an energy vacuum. Tuesday wasn’t much better and left me wanting to pack it all in and go home. Today, Wednesday, started off the same way until my colleague Meleshew arrived from Addis and we were able to do some planning for the next few days together. Once I had something to get on with my energy level and motivation started to pick up. Since the conference, and partly because of what I learned about effective professional development while preparing for my session on training, I’ve had some ideas about how to work with the Gondar teachers more effectively. I think we should work intensively with teachers in one cluster of schools until they are able to independently implement sustainable improvements, and then move on to another cluster while continuing to provide support to the first. This way we don’t spread our effort, and therefore effect, too thinly. However, my colleagues are not going to like it. Disagreement I can handle, in fact I can enjoy it as it leads to a dialogue about the best way forward. Unfortunately, the tendency here is to simply agree, or even to say what you think the other person wants to hear, instead of voicing your concerns. I know Meleshew is not quite happy about how I am using what was the Pedagogical Resource Centre as a training room, but she will not say anything to me about it. However, one of the conference sessions called “From Vision to Plan” was very useful and has given me some specific ideas on how to plan collaboratively with my colleagues for next year. We really need to explore our roles again and I need to be better at helping Meleshew to identify what she can get on with without waiting for me to assign tasks to her.

2007-04-23T17:53:00.000+03:00

A group of shoe-shining boys

I seem to go to Addis Ababa so often that the journey is starting to feel like a commute. I’m not complaining as any opportunity to get away from your placement is valuable. Thursday and Friday were a VSO Cluster Conference. All VSO vols involved with the programme, their Ethiopian counterparts and other people in placements related to Clustering were involved, and the two days were a good experience for all concerned.

Different vols had volunteered to lead a session and, because Gill didn’t go, I ended up leading a 90 min session on “Best Practice in Training” and a session on the second day about “Future Plans”. Preparing for my Training session turned out to be a very valuable and stimulating experience, and made me realize that I enjoy thinking and reading about educational theory. I also enjoyed delivering my session.

The really enjoyable part though was feeling part of something that’s bigger than my own small world at Gondar College. It’s so easy to stop feeling connected to the big picture. It’s also very easy to feel isolated and I know I’m especially prone to feeling self critical about how much I’m achieving. Being able to engage in professional dialogue with peers and discover you are not alone in your worries gave me a real emotional lift. I miss that daily contact with colleagues, and the stimulation of sharing ideas and criticisms. I have an important role here in trying to work with my Ethiopian colleagues to help them develop their skills, but it can be a lonely experience.

As usual, any trip to Addis demands a trip to Zebra Grill for bean burrito and an evening at the Yonas Hotel, the usual VSO haunt, to blether over beer and fish kebab!

Back in Gondar, Gill and I watched the London Marathon on the big screen at the Red Fox Hotel, about 40 min walk away. Last year we saw some of the marathon while were in Yirga Alem visiting Fasil’s (our landlord) family for Easter. I still feel a little bit amazed we have lasted for over one year at times. Seeing London in the sunshine while listening to the Brendan Foster on the BBC coverage made us both feel a bit homesick. I have no intention to live or work in London again, but on TV it looked just beautiful. There were many Ethiopians also watching I norder to see how well Haile Gebreselassie did. How disappointing to see him drop out. I know he’s popular in the UK but he’s a real hero here: an Ethiopian who has made it “big” in the World.

2007-04-16T21:46:00.000+03:00

After a quiet and introspective weekend the VSO Cluster Conference approaches. On Wednesday I go to Addis Ababa to take part in a two day conference intended to bring together all the VSO vols involved in school teacher development and their Ethiopian counterparts. When we discussed the conference idea during the last VSO meeting in Feb, I agreed to facilitate & lead two sessions, on designing effective training and on exploring our future plans. After doing some literature searching on the internet (I can’t imagine surviving here without the net!) I’ve learned a lot about effective training and teacher development and started to crystallize the ideas and experiences I’ve acquired as a teacher and as a VSO vol. All I have to do now is produce a presentation and facilitate the rest of the session.

2007-04-11T21:23:00.000+03:00

Liddeta Alternative Basic Education School

Stones for seats

Some of the farmers who support the school

Sometimes I lose sight of the scale of the problems here and also how positive people can be in a situation that looks awful. This morning I went with Meleshew, Jan (previous VSO vol) and two people from the Link Ethiopia charity in the UK, Matt and Ashley, to visit Liddeta ABE school. Link Ethiopia is a charity set up originally at Dr Challoners School to build links between UK and Ethiopian schools, and to channel donations raised in the UK to fund improvements to schools in the Gondar area. An ABE school (Alternative Basic Education) is a simple school set up in a rural area to provide a reduced-curriculum primary education to children who otherwise cannot attend a regular school, often because the children are needed to work on the family farm when they would normally be expected to go to school. ABE schools are largely funded by their local community and have no resources or facilities. Liddeta ABE school has around sixty Grade 1 students and is lucky enough to have a roof over the “classroom”. The local people want to build a second classroom and each family has already contributed 30 birr towards the cost. Hopefully now Link Ethiopia will provide more funds to build better facilities. The kids were busy engaging with a maths lesson when we arrived and were fascinated by the sight of four ferenjis coming to see their school. There was something quite moving about seeing such a stereotypical sight of children being educated in a “developing” country and realizing that this wasn’t a picture in a book but is actually how some children have any chance of an education.

After Liddeta ABE school we paid a brief visit to Andinet 1^st cycle school and set off back to college. On the way back we called in to say hello to the Director of a 1^st cycle school that Jan has established a link with her school in Cornwall. We wanted to get back to the college and managed to persuade Meleshew to tell the director that we would stay for a quick cup of tea and then would have to leave. Meleshew’s knowing smile made sense when the spread of food in the living room reminded me of the importance of Ethiopian hospitality. Our “brief cup of tea” turned into lunch followed by a coffee ceremony. Neither the Director or her husband spoke any English, and yet accepting their hospitality and honouring them by staying and eating the food they continually pushed on us clearly delighted them. We just chilled out and accepted that we were making their day. Both of them looked so happy that we had graced their home that the total lack of conversation with them seemed completely unimportant.

The afternoon was mundane in comparison. Meleshew, Mulugeta and I spent some time trying to put together a budget request from the college for next year, even though we are nowhere near being able to plan what we need to do next year. Ah well, just ask for a lot and see what we get.

2007-04-10T22:48:00.000+03:00

Simien Mountains World Heritage Site

Dinner time at Chenek

Chenek camp (we had walked here along the ridge on the skyline the previous day)

Gelada Baboons

Ayeho, the master chef of basic ingredients

Mahbo, the "scout"

Giant Lobelia

Dawn over our tent at Gich campsite

A mountain village

Bemused onlookers

Simien Mountains National Park will stand out for me as one of the amazing non-working experiences of my time in Ethiopia. Memorable features included the scenery, feeling fitter and stronger than expected, camping in the mountains, good company in the form of Gemma, Steve, Shira (Gemma’s sister) and Jen (Shira’s friend), being eaten by fleas, fantastic food and being in an amazing environment.

The dreaded Amoebae behaved themselves and dutifully died in the face of a drug called Tinidazole, which left my mouth with a bitter metallic taste for days afterwards. The six of us shared a minibus for the two hour journey north to the town of Debark, the gateway town for Simien Mountains. The unsurfaced rubble road contributed to the mood of heading off for an adventure. In Debark we were joined by Tadelle, a guide, and Mahbo, a “scout” who has to accompany all visitors. Completing our party were Ayeho, cook, and Mesfinant, cook’s assistant. This was to be a luxury trip where all the cooking was done for us and this turned out to be an absolute treat. During the walk to the first campsite (Sankaber) we were stunned by the views and the hundreds of Baboons which are native to the Simien Mountains. The campsites were good and had enough space to accommodate the other groups of Ferenji tourists. After more than a year here the pit latrines were just part of the charm, and our first experience of Ayeho’s cooking threatened to become the highlight of the whole trip. He used the same ingredients you can get in Gondar but managed to add something special (minestrone soup, pasta with garlic & tomato sauce, steamed spinach with onion and garlic, followed by banana fritters – all prepared from scratch in a thatched hut at the campsite using an open fire and a kerosene stove).

The second day was breathtaking (sometimes literally with altitudes of over 3500m) and ended with Gich campsite, which was for me the best: open and exposed. The unbelievably violent and sudden hailstorm just as we finished pitching our tent was mesmerizing. The heavy rain that followed led to us to spend the evening in a building which could have been a bothy in Scotland. The place filled with wood smoke, but through stinging eyes we managed to enjoy another stunning meal (coleslaw being one of the highlights!) and play cards. The night ended with us watching and clapping as the Ethiopians spontaneously broke into traditional dancing and singing round the fire.

Despite the views the part of the trek that really moved me was Sunday morning as we walked away from Gich towards the final campsite of Chenek. We walked through a grassy high altitude landscape dominated by Giant Lobelia plants. I managed to walk alone behind Tadelle, Gill and Steve, who were several hundred metres in front and the others, several hundred metres behind, and had one of those spiritual moments of pure happiness and complete connection to the landscape. The beauty of walking alone is being able to stop and really hear the small sounds, such as the breeze in the lobelia leaves and the distant cries of birds, that just get lost in the chattering and rustling that people make when walking together. I enjoyed the company of a group, and we had a good laugh in the evenings, but it was the moments of not talking and silently drinking in the landscape that were really special for me.

We spent the final morning exploring around Chenek campsite, accompanied as ever by Mahbo with his Kalashnikov. I doubt he’s ever fired his gun but despite poor English he was a great guide. This guy spends more than 330 days a year walking with groups in the Park and had the uncanny ability to spot a Walya Ibex or Menelik’s Bushbuck (two endemic species of antelope) without binoculars several hundred metres away. He could “tune in” to the landscape and animals in the way only somebody born and brought up there can do.

While we had been walking to Chenek, Ayeho had not only baked a cake using the open fire (a good cake as well) but had covered it in “icing” improvised from mayonnaise mixed with lime juice and sugar.

Ah yes, there were also the fleas and/or bedbugs that invaded our sleeping bags.

The traditional dancing and singing during the last evening by people who really know how to spontaneously enjoy themselves had to be experienced instead of described. The fact that a nearby local complained that we were “disturbing the sheep” simply added to the slightly surreal atmosphere.

After four days of camping without washing (the smells…) the minibus picked us up at Chenek and somehow managed to survive the sort of rubble-surfaced and steep road to Debark that you would only contemplate taking a landrover onto in the UK. After dropping off Tadelle and Mahbo in Debark we made it back to Gondar by Monday evening for the usual post-camping explosion of dirty kit in our house.

Sharing the trip with four other people, two of which we hadn’t even met before, added a whole layer of interest and complexity, and evening entertainment. I feel spiritually lifted and reminded of how much I love the whole mountain experience.

2007-04-06T05:41:00.000+03:00

Amoeba: a dreaded word for a rookie Africa visitor like me. Following tonsillitis and then ongoing inexplicable back spasm at night, I was hit with diarrhea (again!) on Monday and Tuesday. As we were contemplating going trekking in Simien Mountains over Easter weekend I went to the doctor to have a stool sample tested. “Stool sample”: there’s another phrase that gave me the creeps before I came here. However a stool test is just another part of living here to the point where everyone talks about them. “Have you had a stool test?” a total stranger will ask if you mention being even slightly ill. After a few minutes of peering through a microscope the doctor said the dreaded phrase: “you have an amoeba infection”. Drinking coffee or juice from a wet glass, or eating contaminated food, or from one of dozens of handshakes which form part of everyday life is most likely the culprit. The treatment is four tablets together in the evening for three days. One of the side effects is an unpleasant strongly metallic taste in my mouth, but after two days I feel completely different. My digestive system has settled down, but more importantly I feel more positive and upbeat, and last night for the first time in over a fortnight I had no back trouble during the night. My back feels completely normal after feeling like being threaded with planks of wood. My digestive system has been misbehaving for weeks and weeks, and I now realise I’ve probably had an amoebic infection for a while.

So, Friday morning we set off to the town of Debark with Gemma & Steve, Gemma’s sister and her sister’s friend and return to Gondar on Monday. The plan is to travel in luxury (a private hire vehicle!! no sardine-can wreck of a bus for us!) to Debark, where you are allocated a guide and donkeys to carry your kit and food. We will even have our own cook! Simien Mountains National Park is one of the wonders of Ethiopia, and is the most popular place for international tourists to go to. As we have been living at over 2200m for several months the 3500m+ altitudes shouldn’t bother us too much. I feel unfit and a bit weak but three days in the mountains, good company and exercise should be a treat.

2007-04-02T18:26:00.000+03:00

Something has really shifted for me these last few days. Maybe it’s temporary, but I’ve felt a drive and commitment today that I haven’t felt for a while. Working directly with the teachers on Friday and Saturday and feeling that I really can do something with these people, that they can get better at what they do has lifted me spiritually today. I’ve managed to deal with a long list of small jobs, spent some time talking productively with Mulugeta and Meleshew about how we support 1^st cycle schools, and also spent an hour with Hiwot evaluating the training and how we can improve it. After four months of feeling like I’m fumbling around in the darkness I’ve suddenly caught a glimmer of light and realized I may be in a tunnel that is actually going somewhere useful.

2007-03-31T19:07:00.000+03:00

Hiwot in action on Friday

Making indicators with flower petals

Musa in action on Saturday

After working flat out all day on Thursday to get ready for the next phase of training for science teachers, Friday and Saturday have been very very satisfying and uplifting days. Friday was Day 3 of four scheduled days of training for one science teacher from each 2^nd cycle school and Gondar Town cluster supervisors. During the four weeks since Days 1 and 2 were delivered I’ve visited some schools, observed some lessons and had some time to reflect on how I can design Days 3 and 4. Star of the show again has been Hiwot. She too worked flat out on Thursday to prepare to deliver two of the four sessions and on the day itself she was impressive.

A brief outline of Day 3
Session 1: review of Days 1 & 2 and sharing of experiences in schools over the last four weeks
Session 2 (Hiwot): exploration of subject knowledge of acids & bases, including using flower petals as an indicator to test some common substances.
Session 3: Methods for using textbooks actively and to support learning in English
Session 4 (Hiwot): some more chemistry practicals using local materials

Friday evening was beers and blethering with Gemma & Steve.

Day 4
Session 1 (Musa, a college Physics teacher educator): basic electronics in the physics lab
Session 2: more activities for using textbooks actively and to develop English skills
Session 3: review of all the methods covered over the four days and what happens next.

I’ve really enjoyed these two days and the teachers have been fully engaged. The adrenalin, excitement, stress, being fully occupied in an activity, being fully engaged with the teachers in trying to take them forward from how they work now has been thoroughly fulfilling. This is what we need to be doing. The real test of course is the effect this all has on the actual practice of the teachers in their classrooms. Another series of school visits and observations can now start next week. Suddenly my time here is worthwhile and achieving something. The rollercoaster continues…

2007-03-28T21:07:00.000+03:00

Mariam Debre Primary School

Sometimes it doesn’t take much to transform your mood. After a day of frustration (I do seem to use that word a lot at the moment but it best seems to sum up how I feel) and thwarted attempts to make progress with developing training to be delivered on Friday and Saturday, the final hour of the day was spent working on one of the sessions with Hiwot. She has her own ideas, is willing to share them, will listen to advice and asks good questions. She is by far the most impressive person I have worked with in the college: proactive, keen and really wants to learn. Today I discovered that she has a husband who got a Green Card and is studying in the USA. When Hiwot gets her degree next year she is going to join him, and good luck to her. She is the kind of person this country needs but she isn’t likely to get anywhere in this college. I’m perfectly happy to work with her because whatever skills she gains from working with me she will take with her and pass on.

The more experienced college instructors should sit up and notice. Many of the instructors are, frankly, up their own arses and think they have no need to change. Well guys, most of your teaching is crap, you’re lazy and couldn’t organize a piss up in a brewery. Try getting out into schools and seeing how many of the teachers are trying to improve their practice.

I’ve tried to visit more schools this week and observe the science teachers. Friday morning was spent at Atse Fasil School to observe the science teacher who came to the training at the college. Gill came along as well to observe one of the maths teachers. Unfortunately the science teacher was absent. So I ended up also observing the maths teacher. By the time we made it back to college the whole morning had passed. More than three hours to observe one 45 min lesson.

Monday was more interesting. We went to Mariam Debre School, which although not far from Gondar felt like it could have been hundreds of miles away and required a 4x4 off-road vehicle to get to. Many of the kids spend more than an hour walking to school. The science teacher did some good stuff with a Grade 8 Biology class, but he told me afterwards he was a bit worried about being judged as he is only trained to teach up to Grade 4! Rural schools have so much difficulty recruiting 2^nd cycle teachers (they all want to work in towns) that often 1^st cycle teachers are forced to teach 2^nd cycle. The school had a lovely peaceful feel to it, and we had a great time chatting with some of the teachers in the staffroom: a ring of stones under a tree!

Tuesday saw me in Hibret School watching a lesson which was just a lecture, because the teacher wanted to impress me as a visitor instead of doing “noisy activities” such as group work! Today, Wednesday, was Keye Ameba School, another off-road vehicle ride away. Unfortunately the Supervisor arranged for me to come at 1.30pm but it turned out that the lesson I came to see started at 1.10pm. Nobody told me this of course. I discovered this when the lesson ended after only 15 mins! Also, the Supervisor, who I arranged to jointly observe with, didn’t turn up…

Still, the violent hailstorm as I was driven back to college was impressive. The weather has turned dramatically in the last few days. After months of baking hot and dry days, the “short rains” have arrived. Storm clouds gather around lunchtime leading to thunder and bursts of heavy rain. In Awassa the rain always started around 4pm, but here it seems to be lunchtime. Also, the short rains have arrived about a month early. Perhaps that’s global warming for you. One thing I do like is the drop in temperature when it rains. The daytime temp has actually fallen to as low as 19^oC at times! Unlike the UK, there are no half measures when it comes to weather. It’s either hot and dry, or stormy with heavy rain.

Last night was also the first night in ten days when I have been able to sleep through the whole night, without getting up in the early hours with painful cramp across my back. After a week of waking up at 4am with cramp in my back I had a consultation with Marjo on Saturday, the VSO vol working at the hospital as a physiotherapist. The conclusion was that my fairly stiff and inflexible spine had become even stiffer due to being laid out with tonsillitis the week before, a generally sedentary life here compared to the UK, and pent up frustration and anger at work. After practicing a few back-loosening exercises I felt like I’d been given a new spine. I need a punchbag…

Another highlight of this week so far: Mesfin, ex-colleague and one of my HDP candidates from Debub Ethiopia College in Awassa, was here for a day and managed to contact me. He has left the college and is now the Programme Co-ordinator for a new university in Debre Birhan, near Addis. We spent the evening together and caught up with the gossip from Awassa. His insights into people in Gondar were very revealing, as he himself described people here as being particularly resistant to change. He was also able to be much more honest about the intrigues and politics in the college than he could when we both worked there. Gill and I had a great night. Seeing Mesfin gave us both a real sense of connection to the lives we had in Awassa, and a sense of pride that we managed to have such a positive effect on so many people. Although many of those people have since moved on from the college, I really feel that during those nine months we gave something to other people, who will take what they learned from us elsewhere in Ethiopia and influence others. I feel good about that, really good.

2007-03-23T04:18:00.000+03:00

Fleas, back pain and sleep deprivation are the highlights of this week. I have a stunning collection of flea bites all over my right hip, probably from the chairs in our house. We have to spray the furniture regularly and usually Gill is the flea and bed-bug victim. Suddenly I seem to be tasty. After recovering from a week of tonsillitis, I woke up in the early hours of Monday morning with painful cramp all over my upper back. I couldn’t find a comfortable position and the pain just seemed to spread. I had to resort to a very hot shower which fortunately seemed to unlock my back muscles. Not for long however, and I eventually had to get up. Once I was up and about, my back relaxed. Gill reckoned there was a problem with our mattress, but turning it round and also sleeping on the floor last night made no difference: around 4am I wake up crippled with pain which only hot water will fix. So this evening I’m anxiously anticipating another sleepless night. I can only assume that the stress and frustration of working here is getting to me.

After a night of back-misery Monday started with the college experiencing the most wildly varying electricity supply I’ve seen so far. Unfortunately I only realized just how varying when I turned on the Cluster Unit PC only for smoke to waft out followed by the stench of burning plastic. Replacing the burned out PC power unit should have been simple, given the spares that Jordan (IT vol) has collected together, but my PC would have to be the only one in the college with a power unit with different connectors to all the other units in the college. Of course, the voltage surge protector that the PC was plugged into survived unscathed. The college lost another PC, a photocopier and several power lines as well. Apparently the electricity supplier was delivering 350V in some places!

Despite all that I have managed to achieve something. I visited Atse Bekafa school on Tuesday and observed one of the science lessons. After a shaky start the lesson turned out to be quite good with lots of encouraging signs. This teacher clearly wanted to try and put into practice what we had explored in the last batch of training. Today I visited Azezo Elementary School and observed a Grade 8 Physics lesson. Again, despite some rough edges, there was clear evidence of a teacher thinking and responding to the difficulties of the students. As usual, visiting schools is positive while trying to get anything done in the college is like pulling teeth. I’ve started another round of arranging-a-meeting-which-the-instructor-doesn’t-turn-up-for game. Two more days of training for science teachers are supposed to take place next Friday and Saturday, but trying to get together with college instructors to develop the training collaboratively is a real drag. Maybe we do actually care more than the college does. Still, Hiwot, who worked with me on the previous two days of science training, is consistently keen and helping me to retain some belief that there are people who do want to try and make a difference. Unfortunately our combined efforts today were thwarted by the non-appearance of a college lab assistant.

Steve dropped by this morning and I inflicted a cup of college tea on him. We had an interesting chat about the merits of aiming for individual capacity building compared to institutional capacity building. I increasingly think that VSO are aiming too high, and the institutional capacity building aim is not succeeding, even though many people on an individual level clearly do get something from working with us.

On the plus side, the kids at Azezo school today were great. While I was waiting in the Supervisors office, several small kids poked their heads in the room to get a look at the Ferenji. Their fascinated stares were transformed into excited and embarrassed looks when I looked up and noticed them. They would linger for a moment, break into a beaming smile and then run off giggling. They love it when a Ferenji visitor comes to their school. I suppose its like a semi-mythical creature dropping in from some mystical world they have only heard snippets about. All they want is the thrill of eye contact: the Ferenji noticed me!!

2007-03-16T18:15:00.000+03:00

Fog! For the first time a huge cloud has descended over Gondar. The cloud itself seems to be half dust, but I’ve become so used to seeing across to the centre of town from our house that I’ve spent some time just staring at the change in scenery.

I finally made it back to work this morning (Friday) after a week of feeling totally crappy and wiped out. The fever has stopped and I’m getting some energy back, so the antibiotics appear to be authentic! I didn’t stay long at work, partly because there wasn’t much I could do and also because I’m still pretty tired. What was nice was the obvious concern shown by my colleagues about how I was feeling. Being ill here is a much bigger deal than at home, as the basic medical facilities make a serious illness truly life threatening. So, when you are ill, people here take notice and are pleased to see that you’re OK.

While at the college, I poked my head into the training being delivered to cluster supervisors from all over Amhara Region on how to use the Science Kits in schools. We managed to buy eight new kits last week and more than one hundred supervisors were coming to the end of a week of training on what you can do with the kits. I was impressed and everyone I saw was clearly enjoying putting bits of equipment together to do simple science demonstrations. It doesn’t take much to get people enthusiastic and I must get on with visiting schools and working directly with teachers. I want to tap into and foster that interest in doing something better and more exciting. I think being housebound for five days and therefore not having to deal with Ethiopia has helped my mood and motivation. Being ill has its advantages perhaps.

2007-03-14T21:42:00.000+03:00

There’s nothing quite like being ill for making you stop and contemplate life. I’ve been hammered with tonsillitis for the last few days. After going to Joseph’s leaving drinks on Saturday night (Joseph is one of the German doctors here) I woke up on Sunday morning feeling terrible. It clearly wasn’t a hangover. I’ve had sore throats before but the fever that went with it was horrible. During Sunday night and Monday I spent long periods shivering violently even though I also felt hot. What kept going through my mind was “malaria”. A malaria test at a clinic on Monday morning produced a negative result and the doctor diagnosed tonsillitis. I felt relieved, and after an awful Monday of sweating, painful swallowing and shivering, I’ve started to feel better with the help of antibiotics. Fortunately there’s a new clinic close by, so despite being in one of the five poorest countries in the world I could still get medical help. I wouldn’t want to get seriously ill though as the facilities are basic. The drugs are cheap but as they are made in Ethiopia or India I had the additional worry of counterfeit drugs. I got even more suspicious when some Ethiopian aspirin I took to help with the fever didn’t make any difference. Once in Awassa, when I saw a doctor about chronic diarrhea, I was prescribed amoxicillin, a common antibiotic. In the pharmacy I was given a choice between getting the UK version, made by Glaxo, for 200 birr or an Indian version for 90 birr. Given at that time my monthly allowance was 1050 birr then spending 20% of it on one course of drugs was an awful lot. At least I can afford drugs if I need them. How many local people can? It’s no wonder few people in rural areas even bother going to a clinic when one is available.

Mekdes, our day “guard”, has been concerned about our health. She keeps saying the Amharic word for “ill”, which is a word I’ll have to learn to say, and has given us concerned looks for the last three mornings. For the last few mornings she has also bought bananas for us. Natural medicine.

Gill has been off work for a couple of days with a similar thing. I think our lack of health is a reflection of our lack of satisfaction with our work situation. I just don’t think we are particularly valued at the college. People say they want us to “help” but usually lack any specific ideas about what they want from us, or show any sense of commitment to get what they can from our time here to make some things better. It really is as if so many people have been so mired in apathy and a sense of helplessness that the capacity for self improvement simply doesn’t exist in most people. One of Gill’s colleagues today mentioned that her father was a teacher, and was murdered by the Mengistu regime. Apart from one or two colleagues, working at Gondar College is so much more difficult emotionally than it was in Awassa that I think we have both been running ourselves down trying to get anything done.

To distract ourselves from feeling ill, we’ve spent some of the last few days working our way through series 2 of The West Wing. The dialogue and acting is just brilliant. We also watched a free DVD with an episode of Michael Palin’s “Full Circle” on it. Watching all of this, although very distracting, also made me feel homesick. I’m looking forward to being back in a culture I understand, with objects, references and humour I understand and a language I’m fluent in. I’ve felt very down at times (usually when shivering and sweating!) and very aware of the idea of poverty as being some measure of the lack of opportunities available to people. When there’s a chronic lack of opportunity one of the effects seems to be a lack of aspiration. We are so lucky because of all the choices we have. Most people here have few choices and little aspiration for a better life because they don’t really know what that life could be like.

2007-03-07T20:07:00.000+03:00

Having Friday off certainly helped me to summon up some energy for the first day of science training on Saturday. The original plan was for the first two days, out of a planned sequence of four, to take place on Friday and Saturday, but the public holiday forced a change to Saturday and Monday. After enjoying a rest day it took a bit of effort to get mentally geared up for training, but the day worked out well, despite a slow start. By the start time of 8.30am only two people had arrived, out of 41 who were invited. After a few minutes of worrying that I would have to cancel, some more arrived and we finally started at 8.45 with sixteen. Somewhat less than forty one but here you have to make do. At least the sixteen who did turn up were ready and interested. The first day was designed to be a basic course in teaching skills, and covered learning styles, self evaluation of lessons and some discussion of science and why we teach it in schools. The most interesting part of the day was during one discussion about the nature of science teaching, when one of the teachers argued that teaching science in school is a waste of time because we do not even know the “origin of the earth”. I knew where this was leading, and right enough, he disagreed with a science that teaches humans are the product of evolution. He’s the first person I’ve met here who was willing to talk openly about his Creationist views and I liked his honesty. Although I completely disagree with him, his comments provoked some of the others to contribute which made the whole session more active. I’d like to explore these kinds of views more. At a time when the deceptions of Intelligent Design and Creationism are trying to creep into schools in many places I’m fascinated to uncover what Ethiopians think, in this very religious of societies.

Gill and one of our Ethiopian colleagues jointly delivered one session during the afternoon, and then I finished at 4.15pm. Everybody was keen for an early finish so they could watch the Man Utd vs Liverpool game!

After recovering on Sunday, Day 2 of science training took place on Monday. This time, most of the day was to be delivered by one of the biology instructors in the college. During our pre-training discussions he kept reassuring me that he was ready and had everything planned. I had to bury my worries about his inability to listen and let go a bit. At least the training would not all be delivered by a Ferenji. As for the day itself, I sat and observed all morning while gripping my seat in frustration. Watching it was like watching somebody on teaching practice making elementary mistakes. This is an experienced teacher educator I’m talking about. One of the morning sessions involved the teachers collecting some leaves and river water, and then looking at the cells under microscopes in the college biology lab. The session started badly when the instructor disappeared for a few minutes without leaving any instructions for the teachers on what to do. Eventually the teachers had something to look at and it was quite satisfying helping them and watching their delight at seeing objects many of them had only studied from books. Unfortunately the practical experience of even the biology teachers was woefully lacking, and there were some fantastic examples of people describing what they expected to see. I was talking with one of the biology teachers about the amoeba he was looking at under a microscope. He could draw the structure of the amoeba, but when I looked into the microscope it turned out he was looking at an air bubble trapped in the river water sample!

After lunch, the plan was for the college instructor to deliver a session and then I would deliver the final session. As he started the after-lunch session it became obvious he didn’t really know what he was going to do. When he started to introduce the idea of making model cells out of simple materials, he indicated for me to take over. I couldn’t wait! We had a great time for the rest of the afternoon making models out of plastic bags, bits of stones and leaves, and water. Several of the bags burst all over the floor, but the mess was worth the fun and excitement we all had. For me the day ended on a high, and despite the rough edges during the day, some worthwhile training was run by me and an Ethiopian from the college. The real test now is visiting as many of the teachers in school as possible and monitoring the effect.

2007-03-02T22:02:00.000+03:00

After feeling a bit seriously stretched thin for the last few weeks (I’m sure there’s a quote from The Lord of the Rings somewhere about feeling “like butter that’s been spread over too many slices of bread”) today is a day off, a holiday. It’s Ethiopian Patriots Day, which is an official holiday to celebrate the Ethiopian victory over the Italians at the Battle of Adwa, in the 19^th century. I couldn’t care less about the reason because it’s been really good to slob about all day at home instead of being at college dealing with a 101 Frustrations. Despite all the good work (hah!) I’m trying to do at college I do increasingly feel the need to be doing something that’s mind stretching. Gill has started an Open University course on maths and education, and I’d love to be doing something about science education. All being well, Amazon are going to deliver to me here some books about science to get my teeth into during the evenings when I need to switch off from college.

Another good reason for enjoying today off is that I’m delivering training all day tomorrow to 2^nd cycle science teachers. At last, after over three months, I’ll be doing something which is hopefully useful to teachers. After delivering a second day of training on Monday, I’ll be busy on a program of visits to every 2^nd cycle school in Gondar (all 32 of them) to observe lessons and monitor the effect of the training. I can’t wait to get into schools on a regular basis and work directly with teachers. There’s so much potential for helping teachers to improve their practice. It will be good to be working outside the college and be exposed to a range of different attitudes and needs.

A third good reason for enjoying day off: my colleague, Mulugeta, who was supposed to be helping me yesterday afternoon to get some resources together for the training day, buggered off during the afternoon and never came back. I was furious, especially as he did a similar thing while we were getting ready for Gill to deliver maths training two weeks ago. I need to try and understand him better, because I don’t think it’s as simple as him being lazy. He says all the right things, but I think he is struggling to deal with our different way of working, and our belief that by working with teachers we can change how they do things. Like many people here, he seems to think that we cannot and should not try and involve ourselves in how other people work and try and change anything. Perhaps this is a simple reflection of the widespread philosophy here of stoically accepting adversity and low quality instead of deciding not to accept and then trying to make things better. It’s this attitude that makes working here so difficult. We Ferenji are supposed to deliver radical change and make Ethiopia a better country, but few people seem to understand the change of mindset this requires.

2007-02-27T19:20:00.000+03:00

It’s apathy day again! After the successes of yesterday, with Tibebu and I fleshing out a decent training plan for Monday, my motivation and drive have fizzled out. My digestive system has mysteriously started to behave itself but I still feel drained and tired. I can’t tell if the tiredness is due to a bug, understimulation at work or the combination of both, but I do feel forcibly reminded yet again of how much time and effort we seem to expend trying to make progress with anything. One of Gill’s Open University books is about the importance of self-awareness and reflection for an educator, and there’s a quote about how you cannot really change other people, you can only change yourself and act as an example which inspires others to want to change. I know the truth of that statement but I struggle to be good at applying it.

While having a coffee during a break this morning, I was sitting under a tree gazing up at the flock of sparrows, finches and weaver birds busily eating the flower buds and chirping away. Sitting bird watching under the sun took me back to rushed morning breaks at Rickmansworth School, in the Biology prep room drinking coffee with my colleagues while we tried to find space to sit in amongst the books and equipment. The frantic 15 mins of coffee making, conversation, processing of what had happened in the previous lesson while mentally gearing up for the next lesson, all with the noise of hundreds of kids outside, seems a million miles away and a long time in the past.

Gill and I have managed to come up with a simple diagram that shows the existing relationships between the Cluster Unit, the college and schools, while also allowing us to show clearly how these relationships could develop in the future. We have a plan to meet with the Dean and the Vice Deans to discuss the “vision” of the future role of the college in providing in-service training alongside pre-service training. How the college could develop in the future seems fairly clear to us, but it’s no use if we have a clear vision and the college doesn’t, or if it disagrees with ours.

The day ended with a slight improvement in mood. While in town after work we bumped into Gemma and blethered over juice. Her upbeat and positive mood contrasted nicely with my grumpy apathetic one.

2007-02-26T21:41:00.000+03:00

My digestive system has been malfunctioning for the last two weeks: intermittent diarrhea. Time for another stool test, probably to be followed by a course of antibiotics.

This training for science teachers I’ve been battling to develop for the last few weeks just might actually happen. One of the college science teachers I’ve been trying to work with finally came up with the goods today. After he missed several meetings in a row he arrived for a meeting, on time, this morning with a plan he had produced. If all goes well, I think we have a good training day on our hands.

After a slow week we now have two new VSOs for moral support in the college. Norma has been busy trying to get her house sorted out and Jordan, a 21 year old from Canada, has started his 3 month IT support placement. On Friday night we all went out for beers, with Gemma, Steve, Joseph (German doctor) and Matt and Avi, two gap year Brits teaching English for two months at Azezo High School. I’m very impressed by Avi and Matt. At 19 years old and from rural Hertfordshire they have a confidence and social ease I totally lacked at that age.

On Saturday I had a great afternoon and evening chewing Chat with Joseph, Avi, Matt, Jordan and three Ethiopians, Milliom, Tadesse and Bogard. My second Chat session was better than the first: chewing a bag of green leaves seems to get easier with practice. The conversation flowed from shop talk to movies to politics and finally on to religion and the concept of forgiveness. Very stimulating and thought provoking, but then this is a place to think about meaningful things without the clutter of everyday UK life to distract you.

Sunday was rest and escape day: a whole day at home without leaving our compound. I spent the day reading and browsing the internet for useful info on science education and science & society issues. The evening saw indulgence in three episodes of The West Wing on DVD. After Gill made a remark about probably missing our frying pan when we eventually return home, I think we need a break soon!

2007-02-22T21:01:00.000+03:00

Ever since we arrived in Gondar I haven’t been able to read my own blog (or anyone else’s). I can upload new entries but I cannot look back at what I have written in the past. I’m looking forward to one day reading through my blog to see if there are any patterns, because I think my (and Gill’s) experiences and feelings have become generally more cynical and critical in the last few months. If so, then I’m being honest, although I should spend more time describing the good things and positive experiences of which there are many. I can be fiercely critical and angry about many things here, but they are mostly to do with work. Am I claiming that the way we work at home in the UK is better than here? Yes, even if that sounds patronising. That doesn’t mean our society is superior to Ethiopia: there are many aspects to social culture where Ethiopia is more advanced than us.

Just as I was beginning to give up hope on developing Science training collaboratively with anyone, the Biology teacher I had started working with weeks ago actually turned up for a meeting. The fact he was more than half an hour late is a triviality. I felt pessimistic that we would get anywhere useful, but he had clear thoughts on how the training should take place and was keen to do some initial planning. Maybe I’ll get some joint training going after all.

2007-02-20T20:01:00.000+03:00

It’s getting awfully hot in the afternoons (have I mentioned that before?!). There’s more cloud than usual and, as well as being hotter, the humidity seems higher. This is the “hot” spell until the short rains start in April.

I submitted my final grades for my students to the college this morning. The grades of course are a joke (almost all of the students got a ‘C’) and I do feel sorry for the one student (out of 162) who failed: many more should have joined her if any reasonable standards had been applied. The good part is that I no longer have to prostitute myself to a crap system, and I can try and push some recommendations for change towards whoever in the college might be open to suggestions for improvement.

Both Gill and I are very tired at the moment. We’ve both been speculating if we are ill with something, or maybe we need a break. The last decent break we had was when we went trekking in Bale Mountains back in September. In between there was the three day VSO conference, but we have had no holiday days off for over five months and it’s difficult to see us getting any time off in the next month or two. It’s not that we are constantly working at 100% like I used to at school in the UK, it’s that daily life can be so draining precisely because it’s so difficult getting anything done. I had to visit the Post Office in town this afternoon, and I unashamedly used the opportunity to sit in a café with a juice and book. I do feel a bit wrung dry. Like I have been giving, and dealing with, an awful lot without putting anything back in.

2007-02-19T21:28:00.000+03:00

Another sweaty day. The heat is building up in the afternoons and I seem to be doing more running around the college trying to find people. I’ve had to accept that to get anything done requires persistence and lots of chasing people to get them to do things. It’s not that people don’t want anything to happen, it’s just that nobody seems to be too affected if things don’t happen. I returned the end-of-semester exam marks to my students this morning, which was a lot less traumatic than when I went through the mid-semester exam with them. This time I marked their papers in such a way as to almost eliminate the possibility of cheating when I returned the papers. I also managed to sit and have a bit of a post mortem with my colleagues, Meleshew and Mulugeta, about how we all prepared for the Maths training done on Friday and Saturday. A lot of the tension has gone and I think, although I’m far from convinced, that they are now more onboard with our training model and how we are using the training room.

Norma, the new ELIP VSO vol, is having a hard time with delays to her being able to move into her house. I have a lot of sympathy. Living in hotels for over two weeks certainly pushed my tolerance when I arrived here.

Despite the hassle and stress of the last week at work, I have also enjoyed the buzz. I feel a confidence at work and socially, which contrasts to how I felt often when I started in teaching.

2007-02-18T19:25:00.000+03:00

Our training room ready to be set up

My time teaching physics to three classes in the college is just about over…fortunately. The teaching has been a good experience for me and has certainly given me more of an insight into the quality of training given to trainee teachers. Yesterday I met with the other physics teacher to go through how final grades for this semester are awarded. I expected a norm-referenced system (e.g. the top 10% get ‘A’, the next 10% get ‘B’, etc) but it was worse than I expected. First of all the grade boundaries are set so that the vast majority of the students get ‘C’. Secondly, each teacher makes up their own grade boundaries! i.e. no consistency across subjects or departments. As a result, out of the 160 students I taught, only ONE received an ‘F’ (fail). This despite many of the students being unable to talk in English (they are all going to have to teach in English), and many of them lacking basic skills and abilities in physics. I tried discussing the merits of a criterion-referenced system (students who meet the pre-defined standards for an ‘A’ grade receive an ‘A’ grade, regardless of how many, or how few, there are) but he gave me that standard Ethiopian look of accepted-hopelessness. “This is our system”, “we cannot change it”, etc. So, I have now awarded grades, feeling that I have completely prostituted myself in the process, and have to look at it as acquiring some necessary inside experience as part of trying to improve the training experience for the future. My aim now is to write some advice and recommendations, backed up by evidence, which I can give to the college for discussion. Perhaps college policies will not change, but maybe some individuals might think about how they work.

Today, Sunday, has been fun. We had breakfast with Norma, a new VSO vol who will work in our college in the English Language Improvement Programme (ELIP), at her hotel. She arrived in Gondar on Friday and is waiting to get into her house. She’s fascinating. She has done VSO twice before and, at age 73, was bored sitting around at home in Canada and decided to do VSO again. Just goes to show what you can still do with the right attitude regardless of age!

After breakfast I visited Gemma, with her partner Steve, as she was setting up an optometry clinic. Gemma is a volunteer with Orbis, an eye healthcare charity that does cataract ops, etc in developing countries, and she has been tasked with setting up a degree course in Optometry and with getting this new clinic up and running. Playing with all the new optometry kit was fun and I’ve learned a lot more about eyes!

2007-02-17T22:26:00.000+03:00

At last, training has started! Gill has spent the last two days delivering training to 2nd cycle maths teachers. Doing the training seemed to be the fun part, getting set up for it was unnecessarily stressful. The lack of systems and procedures in the college coupled with the lack of experience of our colleagues at preparing and giving training meant we learned a hell of a lot the hard way. Sometimes it’s only when things get tough do working relationships get tested properly, and the cracks really started to show. After explaining several times how we were going to approach 2^nd cycle training, and writing a document for my colleagues to read and comment on, and my colleagues saying they liked our idea, etc, when reality hit home and we actually did what we said we would do (empty the never-used Pedagogical Resource Centre and turn it into a training room) one of my colleagues was clearly very unhappy. I could sense what was going to happen and when he blew up at me I was actually quite pleased. For once we had an honest conversation and he said what he thought instead of what he thought I wanted to hear. Unfortunately we didn’t get time to come back to it and talk more but maybe we can make progress in communicating more effectively now. Unfortunately this same colleague, after helping to get set up during the afternoon, refused to help anymore saying he was “tired”. I was feeling stressed and fed up at the lack of organization in the college and struggled to stay calm. If I’d had the power I would have fired him on the spot. Fortunately I don’t. So, I think we’ve all learned a lot: my colleagues, about organizing training, and me, about how to understand my colleagues a bit better. I’ve also started to notice that letting some of the frustration and anger leak out has a generally positive effect. Even more than at home, anger isn’t expressed here, so when I do get a bit angry everyone pays attention and tries to cooperate. The downside is I’m not meant to be getting things done by getting stroppy. I’m meant to be getting things done by helping to build the skills of my colleagues so they get them done. But, if I don’t get angry, nobody does anything.

2007-02-14T06:43:00.000+03:00

Addis Ababa

A new Science Kit...

...and an old one.

I think I need some kind of holiday or mental break. I’m finding it difficult to deal with the frustration and anger, both of which well up and threaten to burst out several times a day in the face of the many inefficiencies, obstacles, difficulties and sheer amount of passiveness. There are many wonderful things about Ethiopia and Ethiopian people, but trying to work here is so painfully difficult and slow. I’ve been trying to understand why I’m having particular difficulty at the moment keeping my temper. I think it’s partly a response to the serene passivity of many of my colleagues when I feel like I’m doing all the caring on their behalf, and also a voice in my head that’s telling me my colleagues are expecting me to be producing large quantities of “results” and lots of “development”. I feel like I am responsible for making things better when actually the responsibility lies with them, but I feel helpless to help my colleagues take this responsibility when many of them just don’t seem to want to.

I visited a school today to look at one of their new Science Kits. These are wooden boxes containing 138 different items which, in different combinations, can be used to do dozens of different science demonstrations to school pupils. The key idea is that as much of the Kit as possible can be made from locally available resources. Unfortunately, many of the Kits are in a mess, are not looked after, are missing items or some items are broken and, apparently, cannot be replaced. There seems to be little discipline here when it comes to maintaining and looking after equipment, perhaps from lack of experience of using practical kit, and many science teachers don’t try and use the kits anyway. This is going to be a huge issue as I design training for science teachers: the training should use existing resources as much as possible. A large chunk of the afternoon was spent on the phone speaking to various people in the Ministry of Education in Addis Ababa to try and see if replacement items for the Kits can be supplied. I think I might have made progress.

We’ve found a decent café near the college, where we can at last get a half decent coffee. The café is also a good place for us to compare notes and discuss our overlapping work issues. On the way to the café this morning we walked past a familiar and thoroughly depressing aspect of life here. Lying by the side of the road, partially covered with a filthy blanket, was an old man begging and chanting prayers while waving his hands, which were missing all of the fingers. After a while it’s easy to stop “seeing” the many many destitute, homeless and desperate people begging along the roadsides. If I stop to think about them I feel overwhelmed by the total poverty and complete lack of hope. On the one hand I know what we are trying to give is supposed to help the country help itself in the long term, but that doesn’t seem to mean much when confronted by a starving, near-naked, crippled and homeless person lying in the road.

2007-02-11T17:59:00.000+03:00

It’s amazing how rejuvenating a trip to Addis Ababa can be. Addis is far from being the nicest city in the world but it does make a refreshing change from Gondar. Refreshing, that is, apart from the incredible level of air pollution. The traffic is heavy and most of the buses and line taxis pour out thick black clouds of fumes which hang in the air leaving you feeling dirty and gassed during even a short walk. I flew to Addis on Monday to attend a volunteer committee meeting on Wednesday and meet the new intake of vols on Tuesday. I have to say that I loved it. I arrived in Ethiopia one year ago and meeting the new vols (28 of them) really brought home to me how far we have come mentally and emotionally, and how much we have experienced and learned. Gill joined me on Tuesday to do some work at the Ministry of Education and then we both took part in a workshop, on Thursday and Friday, for volunteers working in the school cluster programme. The two days of discussions and experience sharing were very stimulating and inspiring. It only occurred to me afterwards that the workshop provided something you can’t get at your placement: professional dialogue and debate with people with similar background and experience. What I miss is that staffroom chat with exchange of ideas and experiences, without which being a VSO vol can be a lonely experience. It’s hard to be the only VSO vol doing a particular placement when you don’t have people around you to bounce ideas around with.

After the Tuesday meeting with the new volunteers, I had a meeting with two Ethiopians who administer the education programme funded by USAID (an American government aid programme) at the Ministry of Education. Over the last few weeks Gill and I have done a lot of brainstorming and exploration of ideas around how to take our support of 2^nd cycle schools forward and also help to improve the quality of training delivered in the college itself to trainee teachers. There’s a clear need to beef up the quality of training provided by the college, which has been shockingly apparent to me when I have done some teaching (e.g. final year physics students who are supposed to be learning AC circuit theory but who cannot draw a circuit diagram!!!), but the college don’t seem to see the need. After several weeks of starting to feel like a lone voice in the wilderness, to hear the USAID people independently confirm everything we have discussed felt like a much needed vindication. The two USAID Ethiopians were very enthusiastic and had sensible ideas, I think, on what needs to be done. Hopefully having made useful contacts in the Ministry will help us to persuade the college to think about the training it delivers to teachers.

A trip to Addis is also a good opportunity to buy things you can’t get elsewhere. Top of the list is brown flour. It isn’t organic stoneground wholemeal, but it does have some fibre in it and enables me to make pancakes and soda bread. The 8kgs I bought should just about keep us going until our next scheduled Addis visit in April. Addis is also a good place to spend a lot of birr in a decent restaurant: 120 birr on a bottle of decent cold white wine. 120 birr!! That’s more than we spend on food for one week in Gondar!

Apart from the professional stimulation, the social stimulation is also good. Catching up with other vols, especially the survivors from the Feb 06 intake (all but one still here!), is fun, stimulating and generally nourishing. It’s reassuring when you discover that everyone has similar difficulties and frustrations. In your placement it’s very easy to lose touch with the wider development picture outside of your own small institution. I feel a bit more “plugged in” to the big picture now.

2007-02-03T22:09:00.000+03:00

After the cynicism and pessimism of yesterday a refreshing change this morning. We went for a walk in the hills around Gondar with some other Ferenji volunteers. A group of ten, consisting of German trainee doctors, a physiotherapist, an ophthalmologist, a TEFL teacher and an Ethiopian friend of one of the vols took a line taxi (a clapped out minibus carrying more people than it was designed to) to a spot just outside the town. We spent the morning walking through a very dry landscape, which felt like it could have been in the middle of nowhere. The many people we came across were fascinated, and the lack of hassle was striking. We gained two other Ethiopians who just walked with us out of sheer curiosity, and they both turned out to be students in one of the schools I help to support. It’s fascinating to see how rural people live their lives (and a hard life it is too) and to get a better feel for what most of Ethiopia is like. Given that Ethiopia has the highest proportion of rural to urban dwellers in the world (something like 9:1) it’s good to see what most people here have to deal with.

2007-02-02T22:43:00.000+03:00

One year!!!!!! One year ago today we arrived in Ethiopia. On one level I can’t quite believe that we have made it this far. The VSO volunteer rollercoaster has well and truly been memorable, in some ways worse, and in other ways better than I imagined. We have both been reflecting a lot on what we have been through and how we felt one year ago. I have vivid memories of waiting at Heathrow and feeling like I was about to jump into the deep end of a pool and having nagging doubts if I could swim. Well, swim we have although with an awful lot of splashing at times. We went out for dinner tonight with Lucy, the other vol here in Gondar who was in our intake. We wanted to celebrate making it to one year, although we seemed to spend most of the time sharing our frustrations and cynicism about how much of a difference we are actually making. One disadvantage of completing one year is that the initial naïve optimism we started with has taken a bit of a battering. Feeling cynical is seductive but increasingly hard to avoid. Our primary role here is supposed to be individual and institutional capacity building, but at times it seems to all of us that there isn’t really much capacity to build. There are many amazing and remarkable people, but there’s a deep deep resistance to change, even though everybody says they want to. It’s hard to stay positive and believe that we can make some kind of difference. So, a significant day for the three of us although tarnished by pessimism and frustration.

2007-01-31T18:04:00.000+03:00

Progress! One of the three Science Teacher Educators I have started working with on training for school teachers, has been very keen to be involved in developing the training. So much so, that she has come in to the college twice to discuss training ideas. He local knowledge is invaluable and she has tried to develop training before, without success. Lack of decent support from the college killed off her previous attempts at working with 2^nd cycle teachers, so I’m hoping that together we have a better chance of success.

This week is the last week of me teaching three classes in the college. Doing a bit of teaching has been a very good experience for me personally, although my ideas about working with the Science Dept to develop Modules, etc have fizzled out. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink, and this horse has not wanted to drink. So, I have learned a lot but the hassle involved is now coming to an end.

Speaking of hassle, Gill and I have been trying to sign up for course with the Open University, but registration deadlines are conspiring against us. After a year of decompressing from a high-adrenalin UK work life, I’m keen to chew on something intellectually stimulating in the evenings. If the OU doesn’t work out then the college library will be plundered!

2007-01-27T12:51:00.000+03:00

Let’s start with the successes. This week I have met with my VSO Programme Manager (Daniel) who spent three days in Gondar visiting all the vols. I was very impressed with him. Compared to our last Programme Manager, we could have a dialogue. He really listened instead of following a set formula. We were all taken out by him to a new restaurant in Gondar, an Italian place called “Tuscany”. The décor and food is almost like being in the UK, and we indulged in proper pizza. Gill and I finished working on a proposal for the college Deans, on how to develop training for 2^nd cycle teachers and integrate the work of the Cluster Unit with improvement to the quality of teaching in the college. At last, after weeks of delay I finally managed to get three college instructors in the same room at the same time to start planning training for Science teachers. Communicating within the college and arranging meetings is painfully slow. Even when I think I’ve managed to arrange a meeting, people might not turn up. However, the meeting went well, I presented a possible training model and everyone seemed to like the idea. I was especially impressed with, Hiwot, the Chemistry teacher. She was very keen to be involved in all aspects of developing the training and she has the added advantage of good English.

There has also been the ever present frustration. I can look ahead and see that next semester should be productive and we can potentially achieve a lot, but I’ve been bothered with self-critical thoughts about not achieving enough I the last few weeks. I can see that all the faffing around finding things out and struggling with the lack of college systems is leading to good work in the near future, but I can find it hard looking back at what looks like wasted time and not wishing I had done some things differently.

The English Club in the college, a group of 100 or so students who want to improve their English, has invited us to a coffee ceremony at the college this afternoon. Otherwise, I feel quite tired as if I’m going down with a cold or something. I’m spending this morning reading “The Return of John McNab” by Andrew Greig. It’s a beautiful book and makes me quite homesick. In a recent issue of the Guardian Weekly there was an article about a shortage of teachers in the Highlands of Scotland. Right now, when we finish here, I think I’d like to live in a Highland community. I’d miss the sunshine though.

2007-01-21T14:47:00.000+03:00

Timkat celebrations

After nearly a year in Ethiopia I finally tried “Chat” yesterday. Chat is a stimulant drug found in the leaves of the Chat bush. Chat is widely cultivated and used throughout the Horn of Africa and has been part of the culture here for many hundreds of years. It is particularly associated with the Eastern part of Ethiopia (the Somali Region) and of course Somalia itself. Chat just looks like the leaves from any old privet hedge at home but it does come in different varieties. I joined some of the Ferenji volunteers here (two other VSOs and three German doctors) and two Ethiopian friends of theirs. Chat is a social activity and we gathered in somebody’s house and chewed together. I expected the leaves to be fibrous and chewy, but because they are young leaves they just disintegrated in the mouth, leaving a slightly bitter and “dry” taste. Although Chat is a drug the effect is just similar to drinking fairly strong coffee: you get a feeling of mental alertness. We spent the afternoon together talking about anything and everything. It was wonderful, just like being students again. Lots of scientific debate took place, along with some impromptu physics lessons, and also a slightly heated discussion about the hassle we get in the streets and the reasons for it. What a great way to spend an afternoon! There are people who become addicted to Chat, but you have to consume a lot of it very frequently for that to happen. It is entirely legal and almost everybody chews it, especially bus drivers as we noticed whenever we took the bus between Awassa and Addis Ababa. One of the Ethiopians yesterday told me that chewing Chat while driving a bus is illegal, but if that is the case then every bus driver I’ve seen is breaking the law. Given the state of the roads here I actually find it reassuring if the driver is chewing Chat as at least you know he will be fully awake and alert! Although I only had a small amount (about half a 100g bag) I could feel the effect. Gill and I had been running that morning but the Chat made me feel alert despite the underlying tiredness. The really enjoyable part was sitting around debating, the Chat chewing probably serves as big a function as a shared activity around which people can talk or not talk as it does as a “drug”. Also, eating a bag of leaves does take a bit of getting used to.

2007-01-19T21:43:00.000+03:00

Dancing priests

Getting soaked in holy water

Today (Jan 19^th) is “Timkat”: one of the most important holy days in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and a good opportunity for us to be tourists instead of workers. Timkat (Epiphany) celebrates the baptism of Christ and is one event that brings tourists from all over the world to Gondar. Even if you didn’t know about Timkat you would guess something is up from the sudden increase in ferenjis in Gondar. Timkat is famous and is an amazing spectacle. Every Orthodox church has what is supposed to be a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, called a tabot, which is stored in the “holy of holies” in the centre of the church. Only the church priests are allowed to see the tabot, and the tabot itself is only ever brought out of the church for Timkat. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church claims to have the actual Ark of the Covenant, stored in a church in the ancient city of Axum. Since the priest of that church is the only person allowed to see it the claim has never been verified, although there is lots of historical evidence to back up the claim. The Timkat celebrations start on the afternoon of the 18^th, when the tabot from each church is very slowly carried on the head of a priest, wrapped in colourful cloth as only the priest is allowed to see it, through the streets to Fasilides Bath, a 17^th century palace in Gondar. Each tabot procession is surrounded by hundreds of people chanting hymns, singing, dancing and clapping. By about 6pm the tabots have arrived at the baths where an all night “mass” takes place. Even though I was working at the college on Thursday afternoon there was a real festival atmosphere, with the sound of singing and chanting drifting all over Gondar. Most visitors go to the baths early in the morning to see the climax of the celebration. In the baths is a large pool which the priests, after a very long service, bless. Traditionally, once the water has been blessed people jump into the pool while the water is also splashed onto the crowds to bless them. We went to the pool, which is only 10 min walk from our house, at 5am this morning and stood amongst hundreds of Ethiopians, for whom this was a very important and profound religious celebration. I felt a bit like a gawping tourist, but many people at college had assured us that visitors are welcome. Even then, although I took pictures I didn’t use the flash. Many of the Ferenji tourists were somewhat less discreet although the Ethiopians didn’t seem bothered. The atmosphere was hard to describe. On one level it was just a gathering of people, made somewhat less special as it was held around a much smaller pool than the usual one, the “proper” pool being closed for restoration work, but after a while I became more and more aware of just how ancient this celebration is. Many of the customs, practices and rituals of the Orthodox Church come straight from Judaism, so the Timkat celebration is many hundreds of years old, and has not changed much if at all in that time. Despite some modern trappings such as the tannoy system to better convey the constant chanting and praying of the priests, this service probably would have looked the same one thousand years ago. Many people prostrated themselves, while some people were silently praying while reading the Amharic version of the bible. I felt quite humbled and awed by the depth and scale of belief, and aware of just how important the Orthodox Church is. Ethiopia is a deeply religious society, which goes some way to explaining the incredible stoicism of the Ethiopian people in the face of so much hardship. We stood in amongst the worshippers through dawn until, at around 7.30am, the final blessing took place. A sudden frenzy of water splashing started, with people going into the pool and using plastic bottles to scoop up water which was then thrown over the crowd. Once somebody had been splashed (drenched in some cases!) they would leave and other people would replace them. Children stripped off and jumped into the pool while everybody just looked ecstatically happy at being soaked by the blessed water. At 8.30am the priests, who had been chanting and praying all night, placed the tabots back onto their heads and started the procession back to their churches, again surrounded and followed by hundreds of chanting, singing and dancing worshippers. The processions take hours, all day even, to get to their churches, distances which are normally walked in 30mins or less, such is the amount of singing and dancing taking place. All day today we have heard singing and chanting from all over Gondar as the processions slowly make their way through the streets. I feel very lucky to be living here in Gondar and being able to see Timkat. I’d love to know what the tourists make of it all. I’m even more curious to know what Ethiopians make of all these Ferenji tourists watching their Timkat celebrations while laden with cameras.

2007-01-17T20:36:00.000+03:00

Gondar town centre

Our phone line died for several days (memories of visiting the telephone people in Awassa came flooding back to me…). After Gill visited the phone office today the line came back to life. This morning we also held a meeting with all ten school cluster supervisors in the town, at the local education authority office.

Today has been one of the most stressful I’ve experienced here. First of all, I had arranged with one of my physics classes to return their marked mid-term exam papers and show the correct answers. I had been given strict instructions by the other physics teacher not to let the students take their papers away and to be wary of students trying to change their answers. So, at 7.30am as arranged I displayed flipcharts with the correct answers, with explanations, on the walls of the classroom and gave out the papers. Within a minute I was inundated with students wanting to ask questions about the marking. The questions ranged from addition errors by me in adding up their marks to why I hadn’t given a mark even though the answer was wrong. Yes, it appears that everything is expected to be open to negotiation. There’s no culture of orderly queuing so I was faced with lots of students wanting attention all at once. I was staggered and shocked at how the students dealt with having proper criteria applied to their work and enforced by the teacher. Very few students fail courses here. There are no national standards, in fact there are no standards even within an institution when it comes to grading work, assessing, etc. I then had to deal with the Head of Science passing on concerns from some of the students about how I had marked their lab reports. I had applied “criteria” (nothing that would be recognized as criteria in the UK) supplied by the other physics teacher, with the result that some of the students received a low mark. There then followed the most incredible conversation I’ve had with a teacher about assessment. His view is that I should mark the reports based on how I think they should be marked, not based on a standard approach across the whole department, even though every class did the same experiment and lab report mark counts towards the students final grade. So a student from my class who gets 10 marks out of 15 might have produced work of a very different standard compared to a student with the same marks but from a different class. I tried to explain how I think it should be done (which frankly would be better than he would do it) but we just couldn’t agree. At one point I thought he was going to shout at me while I felt so pissed off and frustrated I nearly walked out. Eventually an amicable agreement was reached which I still think is crap. Given that I agreed to take on three classes so that I could work with the Science Dept and provide support, I feel completely taken advantage of, suckered. I’ve gained a lot from the experience but I can do without the hassle.

However, in amongst the anger and frustration there can be moments of magic. The staff lounge at college is closed, apparently because the person who ran it has found a job elsewhere. So, now there’s nowhere in college to get a drink, not that the tea and coffee served in the lounge qualified as “drink” (it’s amazing that in a country with the best coffee in the world, the country where coffee originates from, a country where the coffee ceremony is a key part of the culture it’s also possible to get coffee that tastes like dishwater). I asked Mulugeta yesterday morning to come with us for a coffee at one of the nearby cafes, which just look like ordinary houses to us. We sat outside in the shade of some trees and Mulugeta talked about the upcoming religious celebration of Timkat (Friday 19^th), and then talked about the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Apart from a Muslim enclave in town people in Gondar are Orthodox Christians. One consequence is that while the priest of the Orthodox Church close to our house chants the morning prayers via loudspeakers, the Mosque in the Muslim area of Gondar is also blasting out the call to prayer. This makes for an interesting mixture of chants and styles, but at 4.30am takes some getting used to. Mulugeta has such an expressive way of talking, with lots of use of his hands and lots of smiling. He is a fairly shy man I think, in meetings he will often sit separately and will not join in much, but on his own he’s a fascinating person to talk with. He has many years of experience of working in education in various places in Ethiopia and has a huge store of wisdom and understanding of his own culture. I could happily sit under a tree with him, drink coffee and listen to him for hours.

2007-01-10T18:56:00.000+03:00

Identifying the key people in your placement institution is vitally important to actually achieving anything. These key people are not necessarily the obvious ones, such as your boss or your immediate colleagues. Sometimes a key person could be an admin worker who guards the photocopier or the Dean’s secretary. At Gondar College the most important key person so far has turned out to be the telephone operator. Her name is Birtukan, which is the Amharic word for “orange”. I tried to stifle a laugh when I was introduced to her (although I failed) but naming your children after food doesn’t seem to be that unusual. In Awassa I met a man called Atkilt, which is the Amharic word for “vegetable”. I don’t think it would be a good strategy in English – I think a child named “turnip” or “banana” might have problems in life. Anyway, Birtukan spends her day sitting in a tiny room, basically a cupboard with a window, with “the” phone. If anyone, apart from the Dean and Vice Deans who have their own phones, wants to make a call, they go to Birtukan, she dials the number and gives you the handset. All of the staff have mobile phones so the “system” for getting hold of anyone is to ask Birtukan to phone them on their mobile. Birtukan is very nice and happy to help, and it is definitely worthwhile maintaining a good relationship with her. The added bonus when seeing “the orange”, as Gill and I describe her, is that I get to marvel at the electrical wiring in the phone room. It’s the one room I really really want to photograph. There’s dozens of wires literally dangling out of a hole in the wall, some of which are attached to a voltage surge protector, some to a phone socket, some to a light fitting in the ceiling where the bulb has been removed and some just seem to have no purpose. What really intrigues me are the ones connected to two car batteries on the floor. When we get blackouts, which happen a few times every day, the phone also stops working. When Birtukan isn’t dialing phone numbers she sits at the desk and does her knitting. It’s a tough life being an orange.

The high point of today has been teaching physics this morning. The low point has been waiting in frustration to find out who in the Science Dept I’m supposed to work with to develop Science training for teachers. Three days have now passed with no result and I’m fighting the urge to just plan it all myself, which I’d be very happy to do, which goes against the whole idea of sustainability. If I plan with a counterpart then together we can develop training which might be more appropriate for the teachers than what I would produce myself, and more importantly helps to set up a training model which the college instructors themselves have ownership of and might be inclined to develop further and use in the future after I’m gone.

2007-01-07T20:53:00.000+03:00

The police barracks outside our house

A very quiet and very very nice Xmas Day at home today (Ethiopian Xmas that is). There seem to have been fewer people around, probably because they had been at church all night and then been gorging on meat afterwards. We haven’t left our compound all day and it’s been great. Retreating behind our fence enables us to have a “break” from Ethiopia which is restorative and much needed. When I get some space like today it can be really nice to just sit outside and watch the many birds of prey circling overhead and listen to the eucalyptus trees around our house rustling in the wind. Beautiful. Something I’ve learned here is to enjoy the simple pleasure of just sitting and being without feeling any guilt-inducing “must be doing something” feelings. For one day, it’s like being on holiday: sunshine, warmth, African dance music in the background from “Ngoma” on our radio and temporarily forgetting about the poverty in the world outside our fence.

I set up a sundial in our compound this morning. When I say sundial, I actually mean a vertical stick in the ground, but I had fun placing small sticks at the tip of the shadow every hour and tracking the movement of the sun. Moments like that speak to the physicist in me and I browsed the internet for websites on sundials. It’s amazing how much info is out there on just about anything. I’ve learned a lot about sundials today and loved every minute.

2007-01-06T19:26:00.000+03:00

It’s Xmas Eve again! Tomorrow (Jan 7^th) is Xmas in the Ethiopian calendar. Many people will be spending all night at church and then will feast on meat tomorrow, as there has been a period of fasting (no animal products) for most of this month. Monday will be just an ordinary day, so we are told, although our experience of Ethiopian Easter was that many people are missing for a few days afterwards, due partly to the effects of binging on meat. Unlike at home, there’s no evidence of Xmas apart from, unbelievably, plastic Xmas trees. Yes, that pagan symbol which is so popular in the “developed” countries of the “north” has infiltrated its way into this very religious of societies. In many of the shops in Gondar plastic trees complete with decorations and flashing lights are on sale. I even saw this morning one of the shopkeepers wearing a Santa Claus outfit. What the hell is happening here! Needless to say, Xmas trees, Santa Claus, etc are not traditional features of Xmas in Ethiopia, especially in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, but “northern culture” is slowly creeping in.

The week ended quite well. I spent some time with Mulugeta in the Cluster Unit testing a prototype kerosene burner. It’s a design I found in a VSO book about science teaching using locally available materials, and is meant to be a local version of a Bunsen burner for use in schools. I’ve developed a training model for developing the skills of 2^nd cycle science teachers in areas such as teaching in English, using Active Learning methods, etc in the context of a curriculum topic. I want to give the teachers some practical ideas for making equipment which are realistic and simple. The burner prototype didn’t work very well. But Mulugeta now has some ideas he will incorporate into the Mk II version.

2007-01-03T20:41:00.000+03:00

Happy New Year, except we're already three days into it! As with Xmas day, New Years Day was just an ordinary day here. The frustrations at work have seemed a wee bit easier to deal with this week, in part because I think I've learned something already about trying to see a situation from somebody elses shoes instead of wanting things to change to a way I think is better. Also, I held what turned out to be a very useful and informative meeting with my Cluster Unit counterparts to examine our roles, and check my understanding of them. It turns out that the person everyone had described as the "boss" and being "in charge" of the unit, isn't in fact. He just acts as a link between the unit and the college departments. The problem was partly their use of the term "boss" and a generally different understanding of roles and the associated terminology here. The working relationships in the college are very informal, which leads to stunning inefficiencies but also nobody feels a need for clearly stated roles. Yet again, my criticisms, although largely valid I think, clouded my ability to see that how my colleagues work, works OK for them. So, now my role has become clearer and less complicated as I can focus on supporting and advising Meleshew and Mulugeta, instead of futilely trying to include Alemayehu.

The next challenge has been designing training for 2nd cycle Science teachers, but in a way that builds the capacity of the college staff in designing future training without VSO support. It's so easy to come up with what I think is a brilliant idea instead of working with a colleague to that the ideas are theirs.

2006-12-31T22:05:00.000+03:00

New Years Eve! Although it's a Sunday I spent the afternoon at college helping with the mid-term exams. I invigilated a one hour physics exam and then spent some time preparing a meeting I need to have with the cluster unit staff tomorrow to clarify our roles. The exam was quite well run and the questions were quite tough. As with Xmas, there's nothing special going on here as it's not New Year for Ethiopians (Ethiopian New Year is our 11th September), so it's a quiet night as usual.

2006-12-29T21:53:00.000+03:00

After seething with frustration for much of the week I feel calmer now, and quite tired from all the unecessary adrenalin. By the end of today it became much clearer to me that there is a lack of mutual understanding of our roles amongst the Cluster Unit staff. I thought we had clarified who was responsible for doing what, especially my role, during a previous meeting. I realised today that I had actually only clarified to me what each person's role was, and had fallen into the trap of confusing agreement with understanding. There is a sense of urgency now about organising training as we approach January, but I have the impression that everyone is waiting for me to take the lead and make it happen, when I'm still floundering around trying to get to grips with the awful communications in the college and identifying the key people. So, my colleagues are (in my mind) gossiping with each other about how I don't seem to be making anything happen, without of course talking to me directly about it, while I'm wondering why they are not making things happen. It's up to me to bring some clarity, and I've spent part of this evening coming up with a way to facilitate exploring everyones understanding of the situation and to make sure we all really do understand our roles.

If I've learned something from this week it's that feeling frustrated is a symptom of a communications problem for me and my lack of understanding, and not necessarily an indication of a failing or lack of understanding by them.

2006-12-27T22:24:00.000+03:00

Temper temper. I nearly lost it this morning. I had a brief meeting with the other physics teacher, who is teaching the same course as me to his own classes. At the start of the course he told me all the students had been “told” to buy calculators, which cost about 25 birr and are available here in Gondar. I’ve discovered that in each of my three classes only one or two students actually have calculators. I wanted to check what happens during exams if students do not have calculators, if they lose marks for not producing a final answer, etc. “Don’t worry”, he said, “it is not our problem”, “it’s not for us to solve”, etc. Getting a straight answer about what happens during the exam proved impossible, and the usual lack of anyone taking responsibility really wound me up. If the students really cannot afford to buy calculators, fair enough. What about the college arranging a deal with a supplier to get them cheaply? What about arranging the course and the exams to remove the need for a calculator? No no no. Nobody is doing these things. “You shouldn’t take on these difficulties, don’t worry this is Ethiopia”, I was repeatedly told this morning, with a smile which suggested he thought it was mildly amusing watching this ignorant ferenji get worked up. Nothing is going to change unless people take responsibility, get a bit angry and decide that some things really are unacceptable and should be dealt with. Sometimes I feel like screaming.

Still, teaching Section II this morning lifted my spirits a bit and raised my energy level. After the lesson I was filled with energy and wanted to get on and change the world. Unfortunately, the world didn’t want to change at my pace and in the way I wanted it to. Increasingly I feel frustration build up and threaten to spill over into an outburst of anger. Sometimes here I feel lacking in drive and at other times I can build up a big head of steam and end up seething with irritation at the shortcomings of others. I can so easily feel angry in response to the passivity of my Ethiopian colleagues, to get angry on their behalf. The symptoms are easy to spot, such as getting more and more irritable while they seem more and more serene, and feeling like lashing out in response to everybody in the street shouting at me to get my attention when a smile is all they want, but sadly I can be stubbornly closed while nursing my anger. Thank God for the privacy of our house – a sanctuary where we can be “off duty”, stop, breath and think about how to respond better to life here. There was a copy of Steven Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” at the college in Awassa. When I was browsing through it, one phrase of his leapt off the page and really resonated with being a VSO volunteer: “seek first to understand, then to be understood”. How often have I forgotten that piece of wisdom! When I jump in with both feet and expect people here to “somehow” permanently change how they think and work, how can I expect anything other than frustration?! I can’t think of a better guiding principle for a VSO to follow. I just have to remember to do it.

2006-12-26T22:28:00.000+03:00

Part of a Grade 7 Biology class

The science equipment for a school teaching Grades 1 to 8

A science practical lab

Breaktime

The end of a Grade 8 Biology lesson

Boxing Day physics. I spent part of yesterday planning “mission impossible” i.e. how to cover a ridiculous amount about electromagnetic induction, generators, motors and transformers in one two hour lesson, with each of my three classes this week. During a brief encounter with the other physics teacher this morning he mentioned in passing that the part of the syllabus covering generators, motors and transformers, that I was attempting to do today, no longer applied, which he had forgotten to tell me weeks ago. So, mission impossible became mission definitely possible and the lesson went smoothly (apart from the unforeseen hiccup of none of the students knowing the circuit symbols for a switch, resistor, etc). I still have the tricky issue of having more students in my class (58) than are officially on the register (51). It’s nice to be popular but please…

After bathing in chalk dust for two hours I headed off to visit two schools to investigate the science teaching and facilities so I can start to plan appropriate training. In the morning I visited Feleg Abiyot school which is only walking distance from the college. Like most schools here a shift system is used where 2^nd cycle (Grades 5 to 8) attend from 8am to 12.15pm and 1^st cycle (Grades 1 to 4) attend from 12.30pm to 5pm. I observed a Grade 7 Biology lesson and a Grade 8 Chemistry lesson, each with 90 students of various ages. There is no practical science equipment and the floor was just bare earth (some of the teachers have to share a board duster). The lesson was just plain dull not helped by this year being the first year Grade 7 has been taught in English. The chemistry lesson was about Magnesium, a substance the students and the teacher have never actually seen.

I spent the afternoon at Atse Bekafa school, during their 2^nd cycle shift. At least this school has a room designated for practical science and some equipment. However, almost no practical work takes place because nobody knows how to organise the equipment, most of the chemicals are out of date and replacements cannot be found, and the room has no water supply. The “lab assistant” actually works full time somewhere else and he doesn’t know how to organise the equipment either! I observed two lessons, accompanied by the school Director (Headteacher), and discussed with some of the science teachers about the kind of training they think they need. Where do you start? Something I think the Cluster Unit can do is set up some training on how to make science resources from local materials, which is cheaper than buying “proper” kit and sustainable. There’s also the usual need for training in methodology (even using coloured chalk would help!).

During one of the lessons this afternoon, one of the students looked very ill and had to leave the room to get some air. The miserable look on his face was in stark contrast to the smiling cheerful faces of most kids here. I felt an instant wave of depression and guilt. If you get seriously ill here you’re screwed. I was reminded of my privileged status yet again.

2006-12-25T22:41:00.000+03:00

Xmas kitchen

Xmas night with our tuna tin and tomato puree tin candle holders

Merry Xmas! If it were not for the BBC World Service I would probably forget its Xmas Day. Actually the World Service only occasionally mentions Xmas, given its global audience, which is good. When I woke up this morning I felt instantly a bit lonely and down. It’s not that I particularly care about Xmas as such (and it is genuinely refreshing to be away from all the revolting Xmas commercialism), it’s just that work-as-usual doesn’t change the background feeling that there is something special about today that resonates from childhood. At least the sunshine and the heat (this must have been the hottest afternoon yet in Gondar) go some way to neutralizing Xmas feelings, as does the ignorance of many of my colleagues that today is Xmas in much of the World. Ethiopian Xmas is on our 7^th Jan and is supposed to be quite a spectacle, but as it’s a Sunday there’s no holiday associated with it. At least we marked Xmas Eve by going for drinks at Olaf’s house (a Dutch VSO IT volunteer) last night. Us four VSOs were outnumbered by a new contingent of German trainee doctors doing internships at Gondar University Medical Faculty. We were also joined by an Ethiopian who works as an official tourist guide. He told us that the tourist trade here has plummeted recently because foreign tourists have been scared off by the involvement of Ethiopia in Somalia. Every day we’ve heard on the World Service about Ethiopian troops fighting the Union of Islamic Courts inside Somalia, and it seems the situation will only get worse. There’s a long history of tension and war between the two countries, and there is a large Somali population in the east of Ethiopia. Given Ethiopia’s long tradition of Christians and Muslims living together without any problems (surely unique in the world?) there is understandable concern here about the effect of Somalia becoming a radical Islamic state.

As for work today, the theme was the common one of “frustration”. I tried to see my line manager, only to discover that he was missing as usual, and the IT support guy about getting the Cluster Unit printer working again, only to discover that he couldn’t fix the problem. Gill and I started to plan some training for maths and science teachers. Many of the science teachers I’ve met have identified practical work as a particular difficulty. Hopefully over the next few weeks I’ll work with Mulugeta to develop basic science kit which can be easily made from local resources. The other physics teacher who is also teaching Electromagnetism & Electronics came to see me to make sure I will finish teaching “chapter 2” by Sunday, when the students will have a mid-term exam, i.e. in one lesson I am supposed to teach a half-terms worth of physics. I want to meet with him regularly to share ideas and develop the module, but he wouldn’t commit himself to fixing a time. The system for meeting here is described as “informal” i.e. staff wander around trying to find each other if they want to meet. The sheer inefficiency of many of the working practices just leaves me wanting to scream with frustration at times.

By the end of the day I could identify some small successes, but it’s so hard and time consuming getting even simple things done. For our Xmas dinner we went to a local hotel for pizza, only to be told there was “no pizza left”. Fish Cutlet was the only alternative, which turned out to be wafer thin fish covered in copious amounts of breadcrumbs. At home I made custard to go with a cake we bought in Addis and we opened a bottle of Ferenji red wine. The evening was finished with one of Ian’s DVDs supplied during our UK visit, an animation called “Valiant”. Ian – we love you but you have the weirdest taste in movies.

2006-12-24T15:27:00.000+03:00

The countryside around the conference hotel

Xmas Eve at home

It’s Xmas Eve and there’s absolutely no evidence of Xmas whatsoever. It’s hot and sunny, and only the occasional mention of Xmas on the BBC World Service reminds me of the time of year. We’re back home in Gondar after being away for over a week. I flew to Addis Ababa last Thursday to attend a volunteer committee meeting at the VSO office on Friday. Gill flew to Addis on Saturday and then all the VSO Ethiopia vols (about 90) travelled to a conference on Monday. The conference was at a hotel in the middle of nowhere about three hours drive from Addis. We had a great three days getting to know each other and sharing experiences, as well as enjoying the swimming pool fed by a natural hot spring. During each day there were discussion sessions held on various issues, such as HIV & AIDS, dealing with hassle in the street, security and life after VSO. We had a talk about Development issues in Ethiopia by an Ethiopian economics and development expert. Out of many interesting facts he told us about, the one the sticks in my mind is that only 14% of the arable land here is actually used for cultivation, and yet Ethiopia receives several million tons of food aid each year. The “Life after VSO” session was particularly thought provoking. Although we have about a year of service remaining (although placement duration is not rigid – you can extend or finish earlier) I do think about it. At the conference were a few people who are going home in Feb and they talked about the range of emotions they were feeling. Some people have very clear ideas about what they will do next while others have no idea. Many vols, myself included, do not want to return to how they used to live and work, but don’t really know what they want to do. One vol who flew home to the UK yesterday, has been in Ethiopia for four years. I think he’s about 27 years old and I wonder how hard he will find resettling. There are many ways of staying involved with VSO, ranging from delivering pre-departure training to visiting schools and colleges to talk about VSO, while some people re-volunteer (the record is TEN consecutive two-year placements!). As we approach the half-way point I think “what happens next” will become a bigger topic of thought.

Other highlights of the conference included sitting around a bonfire under an incredibly starry night sky, not having to think about what to cook (each meal was a decent buffet) and just being away from work and hanging out with people with similar backgrounds who are having the same kind of experiences in Ethiopia. The low point was being pickpocketed in Addis. I fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book. A very well dressed man bumped into me and then profusely apologised, shaking my hand in a very Ethiopian way. As we shook hands another man reached into my pocket but made it look as if he had simply brushed past me. Fortunately, he grabbed a couple of travellers cheques and manged to miss the 200 birr in cash I had in the same pocket. The frustrating thing is that I'm normally very very careful about security here, but I fell into the trap of getting complacent. Live and learn.

After the conference we had a couple of days in Addis. Being in Addis is a good opportunity to go to a restaurant and have interesting food, and also a valuable chance to stock up on goodies at Bambis Supermarket. Key purchases included brown flour, herbs & spices and decent chocolate. As a Xmas treat we also spent some money on a couple of bottles of Ferenji wine, a jar of pesto sauce, tinned pears and some Italian cake. I can’t wait!

As for Xmas itself, tomorrow (Monday) is just a normal working day and there’s lots for us to get on with. During the conference I got some good ideas and suggestions from other vols, especially about how to help develop the skills of my Ethiopian colleagues. Hopefully in the evening we’ll have drinks with the vols who are still in Gondar.

2006-12-13T22:19:00.000+03:00

Today started well, with a physics lesson that felt a good deal more lively and interesting than the lacklustre one I did yesterday. We are both feeling very tired and drained. Two non-VSO volunteers who are working in Gondar, Gemma and Steve, came round to our place last night for dinner. They both pointed out that after working flat out in Awassa to get things finished we then left our "home", relocated to a new town and started new jobs within a few days. I think we need to be a bit less hard on ourselves and accept that life here is just harder and more tiring than we would expect it to be at home. We had a good evening, helped by the bottle of Ethiopian red wine. If you haven't heard of Ethiopian wine it's for a good reason, but in the right company and in the right mood it can be surprisingly drinkable.

After a satisfying lesson (students here love being taught by a ferenji - my class of 51 students actually consisted of 56 such is the desrire to attend a lesson by a ferenji, even if it's not a class you are supposed to be in!) the rest of the day did not go so well. I had arranged to meet with the Vice Dean to discuss the cluster unit action plan I have been working on, only to discover that he had gone into Gondar on other business. His secretary didn't know when he would return, does not keep any sort of appointments book for him and generally couldn't tell me anything useful. Just one of the many frustrations.

I teach another class tomorrow morning, and then head off to the airport to fly to Addis Ababa to attend a volunteers committee meeting on Friday. Gill flies to Addis on Saturday and then the following week will be spent with all the VSOs in Ethiopia at a conference. The break will be good and is much needed! We will be back at work in Gondar on Dec 25th - Xmas day but not here! Dec 25th is just a normal day here.

2006-12-11T20:12:00.000+03:00

After a relaxed weekend came a rollercoaster Monday. We ran yesterday and suffered a bit as a result. The lingering tiredness today probably contributed to feeling sluggish, lethargic and completely unmotivated. When I'm in that state the many minor nuisances of working life here start to take on overwhelming proportions. By lunchtime I just really really wanted to escape from this country and be in the UK. The sheer difficulty in getting some things done and the constant background of poverty can be too much sometimes.

After lunch Gill and I had to go to the Ethiopian Airlines office in town to collect our plane tickets. I'm off to Addis Ababa on Thursday to attend a volunteers committee meeting and Gill flies to Addis on Saturday. In the Ethiopian Airlines office three things hit me straight away: the two ferenjis sorting out the next leg of their tour, the posters advertising travel to lots of interesting places and the flat screen PC monitors. I felt like I was in an outpost of a world I've not been part of for a long time. The sprice juice I had afterwards (separate layers of papaya, avocado, guava, mango and pineapple juices served in a tall glass) reminded me of some of the pleasurable aspects to life here. In the short time I had left in college I managed to find the physics lab assistant and see the physics kit they've got. It didn't take long as all of the kit would fit into one of the cupboards in our house. At least I managed to find enough to do a demo in my lesson tomorrow, and my mood started to lift. Sometimes the small achievements are important.

2006-12-09T14:48:00.000+03:00

We’ve restarted the morning run. Every second morning (well, that’s the plan!) we get up at 5am and run for 50 mins. In Awassa we used to run to Tabor Hill, speed walk up and run down, catching the start of of sunrise over the Rift Valley rim on the way. Here the terrain is much more hilly but all the main roads are surfaced. It’s also a lot cooler in the morning, to the point where I have cold hands within minutes of going outside. It’s beautiful at that time of the morning. The stars are stunning and the surrounding mountains in the moonlight make it the best time of the day to be out. I can feel the effect of the altitude though. We probably vary between 2200 m and 2300 m during our run and I can feel my lungs having to work harder.

Yesterday, Friday, I ran a workshop for science teachers from all the 2^nd cycle schools (Grades 5 – 8) in Gondar Town. Each school has nominated a “key teacher” who will attend training in the college and then train their colleagues back in their school. After Gill and I ran two workshops on Wednesday for key English teachers, Gill ran one on Thursday for key Maths teachers. I had 27 key Science teachers, with the primary aim of exploring the training and development needs of their departments. One of the activities I planned was a “bus stop” tool, where five sheets of flipchart paper were placed around the room, on the walls, with a different question on each, such as “What are the challenges for teaching science in your school?” and “What is good about how science is taught in your school?”. Everyone was organized into five groups, each group got some time to discuss one of the questions and then wrote their responses onto the flipchart. After a set time, all the groups moved round one “stop” to consider a new question and add their responses to the ones made by the previous group, etc. Eventually every group had considered every question. This worked very well, apart from the question about what was good in their department. Almost every group had difficulty giving answers that matched the question. When I talked with some of the teachers I realized the main problem was that none of them thought there was anything good about the science teaching in their schools! After a varied couple of hours I now have some information to go on which I can turn into a needs analysis and then meaningfully plan training.

In the evening we went to “Blue House”, a bar café in town. A half-decent pizza is done there and a very nice fish “cutlet” i.e. fish in breadcrumbs. On the walk home, which takes 25 mins, out of town the night sky was stunning. The lack of light pollution means the stars here are more vivid and numerous than at home, with the Milky Way often being very prominent. The phases of the moon are also more noticeable here as the resulting variation in its brightness makes a big difference given the lack of any street lighting. On the horizon were bright flashes of lightening, but so far away there was no sound of thunder. A wall of cloud was forming on the horizon which was briefly lit up by the lightening. An absolutely beautiful night.

As we entered our compound we could see that the porch area, which is covered in cream coloured tiles, was covered in ants. I then realized that the whole of the “garden” (which is actually barren compacted builders rubble) was swarming with tens of thousands of ants. I’ve never seen anything like it. The big soldier ants climbed up our socks and started biting! Inside the house were probably a hundred or so ants which we spent the next hour killing (squashing ants is less productive than it sounds as they are tough buggers).

2006-12-07T21:27:00.000+03:00

I’m convinced there isn’t a true need for many VSO volunteer placements here. The real need is with developing leadership and management. I find time and time again that a lot of problems are caused by mangers not implementing proper line management and making sure that people are doing what they are supposed to be doing. There’s also a chronic lack of forward thinking. For example, the college seems to be a bit of a graveyard for photocopiers. A new copier is bought and eventually of course breaks down. Only then does the idea of support and maintenance feature on anyones radar. Maintenance of course might be hard to come by, so eventually the college buys a new copier. It’s extraordinary that the college has way more photocopiers than any secondary school in the UK has!

While I’m griping, PC maintenance continually winds me up. The PC support person is never around, as he seems to hang out in cafes in town until he is summoned. What about making sure he is doing useful stuff around the college instead of waiting to be called to a problem? Again, lack of proper line management.

On a brighter note, I taught my first lesson in the college today. I’ve asked to teach some physics, partly for me and partly to give me a better insight into life as a teacher here. I’m teaching three classes of maths students, who also have to study physics and chemistry, who are on the three year Diploma course, which will qualify them to become 2^nd cycle primary teachers (Grades 5 – 8). Each class has 50 students and I get them for one double lesson (100 mins) per week. The plan is for me to teach the Electomagnetism & Electronics course, which has content at UK A-level and 1^st year physics degree level. I have nine weeks to cover a ridiculous amount of content before the end of the semester. I loved the stimulation of working with the students and I’m looking forward to getting to grips with covering a lot of stuff without having any books for the students to use.

Another plus: in the college library I found a Geophysics textbook I used at home during my MSc course. Choosing to spend some of my evening reading an academic textbook for pleasure is not a common experience for me at home, but here I’ve loved it! Reading it has re-kindled as well the real interest I had for earth science. The Head of Science at the college has asked for help with teaching part of the Applied Physics degree course at Gondar University. Maybe I’ll get to teach some geophysics?

2006-12-03T15:38:00.000+03:00

The Cluster Unit building at Gondar CTE

The model classroom in the cluster unit

In the UK if I spent a weekend at home I’d feel like a caged animal. Here I’ve learned to really enjoy and appreciate spending most of a weekend at home. Our house is really nice, I get to sit outside in the sun (because it’s a lot cooler than it was in Awassa) and listen to the near-constant breeze through the eucalyptus trees that overhang our compound. As a Ferenji living and working here, the privacy of your compound is vital to maintaining sanity. Outside of the compound you have to be in “famous person mode” due to the constant attention, stares, children following trying to get your attention (the “cling-ons” as we’ve taken to calling them), people asking for money and general conspicuousness. Once inside the compound, you’re back in your own space.

The walk from our house into the centre of town takes about 25 mins and it’s uphill all the way. This morning I made the trek to stock up with kerosene. We cook and purify water using kerosene stoves. Unfortunately the garages don’t all have kerosene at the same time. Still, hiking into town was a good excuse to stop for a coffee and juice in Hash Bar, a very nice café. I managed to find a garage with kerosene and then lugged my 10 litre jerrycan back home: a round trip taking an hour and half.

A peculiarity of being a VSO vol here is that we have guards. When I first heard the term during In-Country Training I visualised a man in uniform brandishing an AK-47. Actually a guard is a person who hangs around in your compound to deter anyone from climbing over the wall. Day Guards are usually women who also clean and do laundry, night guards simply sleep in the compound to provide an overnight presence. In Awassa we didn’t have guards because our landlord and his family lived in the same compound as us. VSO policy is that you must have guards if you don’t share the compound with people who are around all the time. Given that just outside our house is the police barracks for the town with uniformed sentries hanging around with AK-47s, we’re as safe as you can get. However, we now have the sister of one of the college drivers as a day guard, and a friend of the driver as our night guard. Our day guard, Mekdes, is a qualified 1^st cycle primary teacher but she cannot get a job. Yet another ludicrous situation here is that there are now too many 1^st cycle teachers for the number of schools, even though less than half of kids go to school. She’s young, shy and frighteningly industrious. She actually looks around the house for things to clean e.g. yesterday I discovered she had scrubbed the INSIDE of the kettle. Our night guard, Tilahun, seems quite happy to sit in the compound and stare into space for the whole evening. It’s easy to forget that people don’t read to kill time like we might do at home: books are not available and many people cannot read anyway. I’m finding it strange getting used to somebody hanging around outside the house all night and somebody else cleaning everything she can find during the daytime. There’s a very different attitude to personal space here compared to the UK and it’s going to take me a while to adjust.

2006-12-01T21:46:00.000+03:00

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with how much needs sorting out here. Gill and I visited two more schools in the last three days, just outside of Gondar. There comes a point where there isn’t much point in visiting schools unless you are actually working with them as there’s so much to feel depressed about.

We’ve been at the college for nearly two weeks now, and it’s been a microcosm of the whole VSO experience. Some of the time has been spent floundering around thinking “what am I supposed to be doing here?” and then there have been moments of clarity. The documentation from VSO is often a bit vague about the exact nature of the placement, or simply incorrect, and you have to accept that you will initially spend a lot of time figuring out how you can be useful, and how the expectations of your colleagues, employer and VSO match your own. Technically I have taken over from Janice, the previous VSO vol here in the Cluster Unit who finished and returned home to the UK in June, but I’ve realized that my role will be a bit different from hers. Janice, along with Meleshew and Mulugeta, achieved an amazing amount in only one academic year. However, the main thrust of the unit now is to expand the number of schools it is supporting and develop what has already been started. A lot of what Janice did was “setting up” type work, whereas a lot of the work I need to do, I think, is “advising and supporting” type work. The Cluster Unit staff and I met yesterday and agreed that really I’m needed to provide advice while the Unit staff continue their work. This suits me fine as I think this is how I can be most useful.

“Sustainability” is a much-used word by VSO, and is a cornerstone of the VSO approach. In practice what this means is that all VSO vols are supposed to have at least one Ethiopian counterpart who you work alongside with and train/develop/support so that they take over once the VSO vol leaves. In theory no further VSO support is needed as the trained counterpart(s) continues and develops the work so that it is fully owned, run and developed by Ethiopians. I fully support and agree with this idea. My experience of development so far is that it often has the effect of encouraging dependency so that local people become passive recipients. I’ve seen lots of evidence of this dependency culture, from complete strangers of all ages (many of whom are obviously in employment and have money) asking me for money in the streets, to the attitude of many professional colleagues who openly expect me to tell them what to do so they can unquestioningly do it. Another symptom is the idea of a Per Diem, a payment for attending training, workshops or meetings. At home if you are expected to travel anywhere for a meeting you would be paid reasonable expenses on production of a receipt. Here you are given a fixed amount of cash regardless of actual expenses e.g. if I have to go to Addis on VSO business, VSO give me 50 birr in cash for each full day in Addis to spend on my food. If I only spend 20 birr on food then I’ve pocketed 30 birr. Giving Per Diems is a lot less hassle to the giver than collecting receipts and paying expenses, but it has the nasty effect of encouraging people to push for Per Diem payments for attending almost any event and to push for bigger payments. Sometimes it gets utterly ridiculous and is simply a form of corruption. The People In Need NGO in Awassa had constant problems when they ran courses for school teachers. For each day of training they agreed to pay perhaps 45 birr (the course itself was free) but the teachers would complain and demand more. In Awassa I, even as a ferenji, would struggle to spend 45 birr on food in one day! Sadly many people here will not attend free training and development opportunities unless they are paid a Per Diem i.e. effectively a bribe. At Debub College, to get a school director from a school only 20 minutes WALK away to attend a meeting would cost the college more than 50 birr! At home as a teacher I’d often have to fight to receive training opportunities, here few people are interested unless they are paid to do it, even when the training is free and is in school time.

2006-11-27T22:16:00.000+03:00

Awassa

On the road to Addis

Gondar

To misquote Arthur C. Clarke, if working in the UK is like swimming in the sea then working in Ethiopia is like thrashing through treacle. Starting a new job in the UK will seem easy in future. At least you usually have a job description and your boss might have some clear and detailed (if not always correct!) ideas about what you should be doing. Here the bosses have general ideas about what should be done and take the view that you are a ferenji, i.e. an “expert” from a mystical world where everything is perfect, and will just know what to do and will get on and do it. Meanwhile most of my Ethiopian colleagues seem quite happy for the ferenji to tell them what should be done and to accept this without question. I haven’t met many Ethiopians who have the confidence to question, digest and debate while believing that some of their own ideas and experiences are valid and better. There seems to be a big muddle amongst my colleagues about what our roles are. On the one hand we are all equal but they will tend to defer to any thoughts I might have. This is tricky to deal with. My central role is to help build my colleagues confidence and self-belief so they run the show, not me. However, some of my knowledge and ideas are better than theirs, but I don’t want to fall into the role of “wise” foreigner telling “ignorant” locals what to do.

Meleshew, one of my colleagues, took Gill and I to visit the Gondar Town Woreda office. A Woreda is a bit like a Local Education Authority at home. We thought the plan was to meet the Woreda officials and the supervisors of the ten school clusters in Gondar Town Woreda in a getting-to-know-you social visit. What actually happened was that they all wanted Gill and I to discuss the action plan for this year! Fortunately a productive meeting ensued, with each supervisor selecting a “key teacher” for maths and science from each 2^nd cycle school to attend a meeting next week at the college, where we can work with them on a detailed needs analysis. After the Woreda office we visited two primary schools and met the Directors (Headteachers). Visiting a school here is like being slapped in the face by Ethiopia’s problems: drab, dirty, run-down, chronically under-resourced with class sizes of over 70. The cheerfulness of the kids seems unjustified given their surroundings.

Another school visit in the afternoon didn’t happen so Gill and I spent some time brainstorming and sometimes arguing about what the hell we are supposed to do. In the end, I think we have arrived at some ideas on how to approach the key people to explore what our roles should be. This placement will raise some interesting challenges for us personally. In Awassa we had identical roles, shared an office, etc which had its good points but is also not good when you also live together (during our June UK visit, the wife of a good friend of mine exploded with “how BORING!” when I explained that we worked together!). One of the attractions of these Gondar placements was that our roles would be separate with a small overlap. I am supposed to co-ordinate/lead/support/advise (depending on which piece of paper or person I consult) the School Cluster Unit, while Gill is supposed to develop Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for college teacher educators and extend the GEM project (Gondar English-teaching Methodology), which was started by two VSOs last year, into Maths. In reality our roles overlap a lot. This is where ground rules become important. To stop us sliding towards mutual boredom, relationship self-destruction and becoming social outcasts there will be no “shop talk” at home. At least we have separate offices!

As if working here isn’t frustrating enough there’s the thorny issue of computers. Not surprisingly, there aren’t too many up to date PCs here. Luckily I have an up to date PC which was installed, brand new, in June. It’s a Pentium 4 running Windows XP Professional. Very nice. The problem is the antivirus software (Norton) is TWO YEARS out of date. The PC is a standalone so there’s no chance of updates over the internet. It’s also infected by viruses which so far have prevented me from printing and do other annoying things e.g. opening the Command Prompt window causes the machine to shutdown. Not so long ago I had a certain admiration for the ingenuity of virus writers. Now I hate people who write viruses. The damage they cause to people in countries with limited resources is despicable. I’m getting a free up-to-date antivirus from the Dutch VSO IT vol here this week. An original version of Norton antivirus costs over 1000 birr, but you can buy a “cracked” version (an illegal copy) for 100 birr. As for virus writers – absolute scumbags.

2006-11-26T21:31:00.000+03:00

Debub Ethiopia College in Awassa

The frerenji Higher Diploma Leaders in traditional Amhara Region dress: a gift from Debub Ethiopia College before we left to work in Gondar, Amhara Region.

Some of our very happy HDP candidates during HDP graduation

Awassa

On the road to Addis Ababa

Gondar: our new home

A busy, satisfying and thought-provoking week. My colleagues have been very patient, welcoming and helpful as I’ve fumbled about trying to get up to speed with what has happened so far and what I can contribute. My job title is “Cluster In-Service Trainer” or “Co-ordinator” depending on which paperwork I look at. Throughout Amhara and Tigray Regions primary schools have been organized into clusters which share ideas and resources under the supervision of a “supervisor” whose job it is to help the teachers in the cluster school implement better ways of teaching. The government teacher training colleges have a cluster unit which organizes of the college to provide training to the teachers in cluster schools and sets up a model classroom in the college as a showcase of teaching ideas and how to use resources. The Gondar CTE cluster unit has two full-time co-ordinators: Meleshew, a strong, driven woman who is almost in charge of the unit by sheer force of character and work ethic; and Mulugeta, a quiet man with lots of experience of designing and making teaching resources from local materials. One of the teacher educators in the college, Alemayehu, has responsibility for co-ordinating the work of the unit. Then there is me. I thought my role might be to lead and manage the unit, but after only a couple of days it has become clear to me that the unit is more than 90% of the way to being self-supporting. They certainly do not need me to “lead”. I see my role as providing support and advice from the background, and most importantly, helping to boost the confidence and status of Meleshew and Mulugeta so they run the unit entirely themselves. I’ve spent this week getting to grips with the action plan and sorting out the cluster unit’s new PC which is already infested with viruses. The PC has antivirus software but it’s two years out of date.

I’m continuing to enjoy the Gondar climate and to get to know the city. Gill and I today walked up to a hotel on a hillside that overlooks the city and were finally able to appreciate its size. We’ve met Gemma and Steve, two non-VSO volunteers here, and had drinks on Friday night with the other VSOs here: there are two Dutch physiotherapists and a Dutch IT consultant at the hospital and Lucy, who was in our intake, who is at Gondar University as an advisor.

We’ve come a long way in a week!

2006-11-22T22:27:00.000+03:00

So here we are in Gondar, at last! This time last Wednesday we were frantically packing our stuff with the added burden of having to take the pots, dishes, water filter, etc with us. The college hired a minibus and driver to take us to Addis Ababa where we stayed on Thursday and Friday nights. Addis meant the familiar pleasure of staying at the Yonas Hotel: a second home for all VSO vols. There’s something really nice and touching about walking into a hotel lobby/bar area and all of the staff immediately greeting you by name with smiling faces. The highlights of our visit to Addis included a haircut, visiting the dentist (easily the BEST dentist I’ve ever seen), fish kebab at the Yonas, bumping into Trevor from our intake (he’s been in Assosa near the border with Sudan since February and is now based in Addis) and going to an Indian restaurant on the Bole Road (a road full of Ferenji restaurants and hotels).

Saturday brought another first for us in Ethiopia: flying to Gondar on Ethiopian Airlines. Ethiopian is regarded as the best airline in Africa and I was very impressed. Their aircraft are modern and the service is good. Our flight was via Bahir Dar (55 mins) and then a 15 min hop to Gondar, on 55 seater twin-prop plane. Gondar airport, although small, is the nicest looking airport I think I’ve been to. Gondar is on the tourist trail for foreign visitors and you can tell from the Ferenji-friendly design of the airport.

Seraye, the Dean of Gondar CTE (College of Teacher Education), picked us up and took us to the Red Fox Hotel where we stayed for two nights before moving into our house on Monday. Gondar is very old (an ancient capital of Ethiopia for a few hundred years) and hilly, and most importantly the climate is perfect. It’s sunny all the time, with the odd cloud, warm, slightly breezy and cool. At night it is actually cool enough to justify wearing a fleece when outside. The climate, “feel” of the air, colour of the sky and just general atmosphere is very much of the mountains, which we are: Awassa was on the floor of the Rift Valley at 1800m and Gondar is in the Highlands at 2300ish m. Perfect!

We started work at the college on Tuesday afternoon. My initial impression is positive and there seems to be a lot to do. More tomorrow hopefully.

2006-11-15T22:35:00.000+03:00

Our last night in Awassa. The last week has been a bit like working at home, with plenty of stress and adrenalin. After working flat out for over week we have finally finished our work at Debub Ethiopia College. There were moments when we didn't think we could do it, but by trimming a few corners and doing lots of pushing of our colleagues we have achieved the near-impossible. The Moderators from the Ministry of Education spent today at the college checking everything we have done and now it's all over. We've said our goodbyes and are now in the process of packing our stuff before leaving tomorrow morning.

I feel very proud and satisfied with what we have achieved. In just over seven months I've lead 56 two-hour training sessions, conducted 96 one-hour lesson observations, about 70 half-hour professional interviews and many many hours of informal discussions, assessment, meetings, planning an preparation. In that time the 26 teacher educators in my HDP group have developed from talking at their students in a pure lecture style to using student-centred active methods. Some have progressed more than others, but all are now better teachers. There have been many many ups and downs along the way, including mistakes made by me, but I feel a profound sense of achievement. We really have been part of making a real difference to some peoples lives and our own tiny difference to the education system of Ethiopia. Along the way I have learned a lot and really do feel like I've changed a a person.

The staff at the college have been fantastic with us. saying goodbye has been moving. The college held an HDP graduation ceremony on Saturday morning and then took all the candidates and us to Lake Langano for the day on Sunday. What a fabulaous day! We spent most of the day swimming in the lake and then brewed up coffee in the Ethiopian way by the lakeside. After the heat and dust of Awassa splashing about and swimming in a Rift Valley lake all day was magical.

So, after learning to love Awassa with its beautiful lake and relaxed, friendly people we are now uprooting and have to start all over again in a new town. I actually feel quite excited although also a wee bit anxious about starting work on Monday!

2006-11-09T21:33:00.000+03:00

The pressure builds. I ran my last HDP session yesterday which had the same feelings around it for me as when you teach your last lesson with a class before leaving the school. Today has seen four lesson observations (two very impressive, one quite good and one disappointingly poor) and fighting to stay on top of sorting out my candidates portfolios of evidence. My temper and tolerance have been pushed at times as a succession of people have submitted portfolios which are missing certain pages, despite my repeated reminders and explanations of how to put it all together. I'm caught in the classic situation of stressing over portfolios which the candidates are responsible for and should be stressing about themselves. They all seem fairly relaxed about it all in a very Ethiopian way while I'm stressing and fussing on their behalf. Yohannes, my art teacher colleague, tried to submit his portfolio even though it was a jumbled mess. I had to grab Mesfin and get him to translate while we sorted it out for him. So, another day of marking and sorting out portfolios beckons tomorrow, and then its HDP graduation on Saturday.

I had a beer last night with some of the other VSOs (our usual Wednesday night get together). As much as I like some of them I feel like I'm detaching from them and Awassa already. Moving on feels "right" even though we're leaving a lot of good stuff behind.

As for "stuff", VSO have told us that we will need to take the cooking equipment, water filter, etc with us to Gondar. We arrived in this country prepared for two years with a rucksack each and one kit bag. At this rate we'll need a truck to move to Gondar.

2006-11-08T21:44:00.000+03:00

Blogger is being soooo slow and difficult at the moment.

Another run this morning: up and over Tabor Hill by the light of a full moon.

At last, we have confirmation about our immediate future: we are going to Gondar! We received an email from the VSO country director on Monday night that we will start work at Gondar College of Teacher Education (CTE) on Monday 20^th November i.e. in less than two weeks time. So the plan looks like this: we will continue to work flat out until the end of this week (we are working in the evenings as well at the moment; it’s just like being back home!) to finish the HDP; HDP graduation over the weekend; sort out our stuff at work and pack up our stuff at home on Monday and Tuesday; spend Wednesday with the Ministry of Education HDP team who will be here to moderate our work; leave Awassa and travel to Addis on Thursday; fly to Gondar on Saturday; unpack and settle in on Sunday; and then start work on the Monday. I feel tired already. Actually, I also feel excited. There are many good aspects to life here in Awassa, yet moving on feels right. We will get to live and work in a different part of the country, have new colleagues and get to know a new town which is very different from Awassa. Awassa is known for its setting and relaxed pace of life. Gondar is known for its history (it was the capital of Ethiopia for several centuries) and is very much on the tourist circuit.

After all the stress and anxiety of the last week or so finally finding out was a bit of an anticlimax. We were always happy with the idea of moving to Gondar not least because it’s 400 to 500 m higher than Awassa and therefore cooler. The rainy season has properly ended and the weather has settled into a new pattern: almost-cold overnight, cool in the morning, absolutely baking hot all afternoon and then cool in the evening. The lack of rain means the dust in the air is permanent, and I can taste and feel it in my mouth. The next rain is due in March!

Before we leave though there’s a lot to do. We have a mountain of paperwork and assessment to complete, lesson observations to do and a graduation ceremony to sort out, all by Saturday. Tomorrow is my last HDP session which I am looking forward to but will also feel sad about. The lesson observations I’ve done this week have ranged from encouraging to truly inspirational. Despite the hassles, difficulties, cultural barriers, low morale and my inexperience all of my HDP candidates have changed and developed their teaching.

2006-11-04T21:28:00.000+03:00

Much has been going on for the last week or so. Blogger has been slow or inaccessible and there has been continuing uncertainty about our future, which has coloured a lot of my recent experiences here. I had emailed our programme manager and her boss several times to raise the issue of being sent home if VSO cannot find placements. The emails we received in response didn’t address this issue which left us with increasing anxiety, frustration and anger. Eventually I phoned the VSO Country Director in Addis and spilled out our frustration to her. She phoned back a few hours later with some reassurances that if Gondar College does withdraw our placements there will be others VSO can offer. It’s not a cast iron guarantee but simply having our concerns acknowledged, even thoug there was nothing of substance, helped a lot. So, now we are still waiting for news with two weeks left to go before we finish our current placements.

Our working lives have become a blizzard, dust storm would be more appropriate, of paperwork and marking. I have two HDP sessions left to deliver but a pile of assessment to do. The new semester at the college has eventually started more than two weeks after it officially started. I also have about twenty lesson observations to fit in, hopefully by next Friday when our candidates will graduate from the course. In my final individual meetings with them, all of my candidates have gushed appreciation for what we have done for them, and some of them really have developed their practice and, more importantly, their attitudes. At the same time, a lot of the good teacher educators are planning to leave to join government universities, where they will get better working conditions and the chance of funding for a Masters degree. Some aspects of how the college is run remain as crap and inefficient as ever, but at least we have added something to the individuals we have worked with.

We heard on the radio last week reminders about the clocks changing in the UK. We get Virgin Radio on our World Space satellite receiver radio, which means we get to hear the traffic reports for the M1! The announcements made me realize that it must be well and truly autumn in the UK and we now have more daylight hours here than at home. Our sunrise and sunset times are the same as always at approx 0630 and 1830, it’s always sunny but it has been cooler in the mornings and there’s often a fresh breeze in the afternoon. In short, the weather is beautiful at the moment.

We finally made it to the cinema last night. Yes, there’s a cinema in Awassa. When I say “cinema” I’m not talking of some multiplex with popcorn and comfortable padded seats. I’m talking about the main “hall” which is used for graduations and public meetings. It has several hundred hard, squeaky and broken seats. EVERY seat has something wrong with it and throughout the film there were odd squeaks and scraping sounds as people moved in their seats. As a cinema it was not bad: a large screen, fairly decent speakers and a digital projector connected to a DVD player. Every Friday night an English-language movie is shown for a cost of 2 birr (13p!), with English subtitles to help the Ethiopian audience. The movie was some Hollywood crappy straight-to-video effort called “Elizabethtown” starring the guy who played Legolas in the Lord of the Rings movies (what is his name? I waited to see it in the final credits but somebody shutdown the projector!). No matter, watching an American movie with lots of scenes of smalltown America was a mesmerizing experience, as we sat in a wrecked improvised cinema in Ethiopia. I’d love to know what the Ethiopians who watched it made of it all.

Our running has picked up again with 50 min runs starting at 5am every second day, probably as much to do with responding to stress as to needing exercise.

The prospect of being sent home soon (however unlikely that might be) has certainly concentrated my thinking about the idea. We are in some kind of transition state where we don’t want to be here forever, and we do miss lots of things about home, but we are in no rush to move home. What would we do when we finally return home for good? I don’t want to go back to my former life but I’m not sure what I do want to return to.

2006-10-20T21:46:00.000+03:00

We’ve had no access to Blogger for a few days. A slow connection is the likely cause, but the government has been known to block access to blogs. The next phase of the trials of the opposition leaders is due soon and there’s also been extra tension with Eritrea. We heard on the radio on Monday that Eritrean troops and tanks had entered the demilitarized buffer zone along the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia. This is not good news. The two countries fought a big, nasty and costly war in 2000, and the UN has been providing peacekeepers ever since to monitor the border. There are no transport links between the two countries and relations are tense at best. One news programme reported the Eritreans as claiming they were only engaged in the annual sesame harvest. I never knew sesame seeds were so dangerous to gather that tanks were needed.

In our house I wear flip-flops. The resident mosquito has a particular taste for feet, so in the evening I have to wear socks. On Sunday night I wanted a break from hot and sweaty feet, so I didn’t bother with socks. The four bites on my left foot and the five on my right foot convinced me that hot feet are better than being eaten alive. For the next two days I was tortured by itchy and reddened feet. Live and learn.

We had a few beers with a colleague on Monday night. He mentioned the news of the indictment of the president of Israel on charges of rape, which had been in the news (a lot of Ethiopians get their news from Voice of America radio which has an Amharic news service). We had heard about the charges from the BBC World service and our reaction was surprise. Our colleague’s reaction was to be very impressed. He thought it was great that there are countries where even the head of state can be held to account and subject to the law. I often forget, in my cynicism about politics at home, that at least we come from a country where those in power can be held accountable, perhaps not as much as we would like but certainly a lot more than is possible here.

When I wasn’t trying to resist scratching my feet, and sometimes giving in (scratching mosquito bites feels soooo good and then really horrible a few seconds later), I was marking work or meeting with some of my HDP candidates to discuss their Continuous Professional Development (CPD) needs after the HDP ends next month. It’s a bit dull and boring at the moment, and I catch myself daydreaming of being back in school trying to teach physics. Our two HDP candidates who are going to be the Leaders of the next HDP groups are slowly gearing up to start their groups in a week or so. Part of me finds it a bit strange that we will have no involvement with the next groups and also a wee bit anxious that they go well. After all, how successfully the HDP runs after we leave depends partially on how well we have implemented the programme and trained the new Leaders.

Our running has been a bit sporadic. We’re trying to get back into the habit of running every second morning. Once we’re out in the street at 5.30am it is a great experience, although our lives are quite sedentary compared to at home in the UK and I can feel the difference in my fitness.

We've been back from the UK for just over three months now and we are both noticed the return of desires for food and activities we can't have. Maybe three months is a significant period of time, after which novelty starts to wear off and you feel needs for familiar things. The lack of stimulation and demand at work isn't helping. I'm missing cycling at home on my road bike, the sea and having the opportunity to see friends. It can't be coincidence that all the things I want to eat, watch and do are things I can't have. The local schools have started the new semester so there are lots of kids of all ages in the streets when we cycle to and from college twice a day. The amount of hassle and attention has increased as a result which can be very wearing. I've noticed that my tolerance of the attention has taken a dip in the last couple of weeks. I've also noticed that socialising with my colleagues has felt a bit tedious and draining. Because of the language and cultural differences conversation can be a bit limited and repetitive. There are times when I just want to hang out with friends and colleagues from home so I can share the same sense of humour, be sarcastic, talk at a normal speed and be cynical even.

On the plus side, I do love the sunshine. It can get very hot in the afternoons but the sun and skies are always beautiful.

2006-10-15T21:42:00.000+03:00

Yesterday (Saturday) was more eventful than usual. The college held a workshop with the headteachers of local schools, to inform them about the arrangements for this years practicum. The practicum is what in the UK is called teaching practice, and is when the student teachers at the college spend a couple of weeks in a school gaining experience. Gill and I were asked to deliver a 15 min session about the HDP and the school placement each HDP candidate has to do. We spent an enjoyably frantic hour before the workshop started on Saturday morning getting ready. We had only been told about it all on Friday afternoon (that’s forward planning Ethiopian style) but, the short notice resulted in a welcome and enjoyable shot of adrenalin. I actually quite enjoyed the stress. So, fifty headteachers arrived, the workshop was “only” one hour late in starting and was crap. I mean, three of the four senior staff leading the workshop are HDP candidates who are now familiar with all sorts of active and participatory presentation techniques, and all of them talked at the participants without even a whiff of a visual aid, never mind anything “active”. We stood up, got everybody active with a Brain Gym exercise and delivered a short and snappy presentation with the use of three simple flipcharts and a brief paired discussion. It finally finished at 1230, still more than one hour late. Everyone appeared to enjoy our 15 min moment of glory, nobody appeared to enjoy anything else. It was though, a useful experience for us. We need to have some serious discussion with our colleagues about why they made no attempt to even use visual aids, never mind use any methods to encourage participation and effective sharing of ideas.

We had lunch today with Sudhir and Paul, two of the new VSO vols here in Awassa. Paul told us that the current literacy rate for Ethiopia is 37%. I was reminded of a VSO vol in another region of Ethiopia telling me about a recent planning workshop held for regional government, where he discovered that 40% of the senior civil servants are illiterate. Small wonder that progress here can be slow.

2006-10-14T21:34:00.000+03:00

It’s been a tense few days. We emailed the head of the Education Programme in the VSO office in Addis with our concerns about how our proposed transfer to Gondar is being handled. His response was swift and much more understanding than recent communications with our programme manager have been. He has contacted the college of teacher education (CTE) in Gondar and they responded by saying that if we couldn’t arrive by 8^th Nov they would cancel the placement and try again next academic year. This response is absolutely amazing! The CTE are saying they would rather have no support at all, for a programme that definitely needs VSO vol support, for a whole year than accept support starting two weeks later than planned. We think we might need up to 17^th Nov to finish at Debub Ethiopia College, so our Gondar placements are in jeopardy. This would mean that VSO would have to find new placements which is not easy. The doomsday scenario is that VSO cannot find any suitable placements at short notice and we have to go home. When I contemplate this last option I feel anxious and know that I would feel bitterly disappointed. We came here prepared to do two years, and more importantly we want to stay here. We are quite clear that we do not want to go home, it’s too soon. The VSO country director is now involved and maybe everything will work out as planned. If any good has come out of the last few days it has been the clear realization of how I feel about being here. There are low moments, frustrations, boredom and things I miss about home, but I feel committed and motivated about being here and being part of what VSO is all about.

2006-10-11T21:56:00.000+03:00

A calming Bale Mountains picture.

A lot of the time here I feel like I'm becoming more Ethiopian (more laid back, unadrenalised, no-stress, always time for people, etc) and then something happens that re-awakens the old responses. The latest response by our programme manager to the delay to our transfer to Gondar has really tested our patience. Her response defies logic and shows an incomprehensible unwillingness to think outside a now-outdated plan. I spent a chunk of this morning trying to compose an email to her explaining the exact details of our current work status, and expressing concern at how she seems to be working against us instead of in partnership with us. All this hassle had a knock-on effect on my mood. The familar responses to stress surfaced surprisingly quickly, and for the first time in ages I started getting impatient with people coming to see me with HDP issues. Normally I'd enjoy trying to engage with a colleague in Amharic but today I couldn't be bothered and just wanted to "get on". It's so easy to slip back into long established ways of being! As the day progressed I felt grumpy, irritable and impatient. Trivial incidents such as a colleague not understanding a simple request first time produced adrenalin-fuelled short-tempered responses. On the way home the dozens of kids shouting for my attention made me feel angry and provoked, instead of amused. I feel calmer now and aware that it's useless pretending that these feelings don't exist and "shouldn't happen". Being here "on show" is tough, not least because showing anger, impatience or irritation is extremely un-Ethiopian, as if expressing these emotions is made taboo from birth. One of the other volunteers today described Ethiopians as very passive-aggressive. They might never get angry and everything is "no problem" at all times, but their punctuality is shocking as is their unspoken refusal to complete any task by the agreed deadline. My colleagues all acknowledge the importance of punctuality but they are still late, and rarely apologise for it! There are times when I want to moan at people to leave me alone and get on with some work, instead of endlessly interrupting each other and never complaining. Surely even Ethiopians feel angry and irritated sometimes but they never ever show it!

2006-10-10T22:51:00.000+03:00

Bale Mountains mist

Tukuls

A mountain hut shower

Fields of teff (the staple food crop of Ethiopia)

The flies were annoying today. There seems to be a permanent population of flies in our office at college. Just outside our window is the staff toilet (a pit latrine with concrete walls and a tin roof) which doesn’t help. Trying to kill the bastards using an empty poster tube is a great way to get some exercise.

At last students have started to arrive and register at the college. Apparently there are now over one thousand registered students for the 10+1 course (a one year course leading to a “Certificate” to teach in 1^st cycle primary schools, for people who have completed Grade 10 at High School and failed to get a good enough grade to stay at school to do Grade 11 & 12). This is important because we cannot complete the HDP until our candidates have had at least one more lesson observation from us, which cannot of course happen until classes begin. The college still feels empty although all the staff are supposed to be here preparing and planning for the new academic year. At home the adrenalin would be starting to flow as teachers prepare for the new school year, but here, in true Ethiopian style, the only buzz about the place is coming from the bloody flies in our office.

Hopefully soon we will get some news from VSO about when we finish here and move to Gonder. According to the last version of our work plan, agreed with VSO and the college, we should finish here at the end of October. Unfortunately the college didn’t release our HDP tutors from their teaching timetable over the summer to help us do lesson observations, and the unplanned for three week break over New Year and Meskel has meant that we will not finish until sometime during November. The college is happy to pay for us to stay another month and we are happy to stay, but VSO in the form of our programme manager is being awkward. Yes of course our new partners in Gonder want us there as soon as possible, but our programme manager has refused to talk with them to find out their views on a slightly later arrival date. It’s getting a bit frustrating not knowing when we are leaving, given that in theory it could be in three weeks time. Our programme manager has this rather inflexible attitude that we should “stick to the plan” even though “the plan” is now irrelevant as circumstances outside of our control have changed.

Our priority is to leave the HDP course here so it will run effectively after we leave, however I am also keen to get to Gonder and start my cluster co-coordinator role. I like most aspects of our lives in Awassa such as our home, our landlord, the town itself, most of the other VSOs and our employer so I would normally expect to feel sad and anxious about leaving for an unknown situation elsewhere, but I actually feel excited about moving. Change is stimulating and I’m very interested in my new role working directly with schools, especially because I will have colleagues rather than candidates I am assessing. I’m also excited about living and working in a different part of the country.

2006-10-09T21:36:00.000+03:00

Gill and both HDP groups in action during a joint session

(l to r) Meselle, Firehiwot, Milkyas and Yehualwork in discussion

Group work

Ferenji and Ethiopians

A Bale Mountains landscape

A very curious boy watching ferenjis go walking in Bale

Back to awassa with a bump. After a very successful and interesting joint session between both of our HDP groups on Thursday, life back at college has returned to being deathly quiet. Most of the classes should have started again today, but only a handful of students have arrived to register.

Still, it was a good weekend. Breakfast with Mesfin and Tesfaye on Sunday (another dulette fest!) and lunch with the new volunteers.

2006-10-08T22:03:00.000+03:00

Leaving Dodola

Wahoro hut

The forest

vegetation in the "erica" zone

Horse and handler!

Approaching Adele hut

The evening view from Angafu hut

Hussein (our guide) cooking dinner

I’m back after an eventful and stimulating two weeks. We went trekking for six days in Bale Mountains, which includes some of the last remaining native Ethiopian forest. Travelling there was part of the overall experience, as is travelling overland anywhere in Ethiopia. The bus journey to the town of Dodola took three hours over unsurfaced, rough, stony and often muddy tracks. The landscape was stunning as we climbed out of the Rift Valley and then climbed again towards the mountains. Dodola is a small, quiet and dusty town and there was a noticeable lack of hassle from people in the street. In Bale Mountains there is the National Park, which is accessed from Dinsho, another four hours journey further east, and an area covered by the IFMP (Integrated Forest Management Plan). The IFMP was set up by a German NGO called GTZ approx seven years ago, and is a brilliant example of community-based eco-tourism. The local people were busy destroying the forest to provide grazing land when GTZ came up with the idea of working with the mountain communities to generate income from tourism to provide an incentive to preserve the forest. A chain of six mountain huts was set up, which are run and looked after by somebody from the nearest village. The huts have a wood-burning stove, basic cooking equipment and eight beds, with sleeping bags provided (like a luxury bothy). Local porridge (thick, made from wheat and maize, and with a large melted lump of spice butter on it: not convinced about the taste but certainly good walking food) and bread can be ordered from the village in the morning. You walk or horse-ride between the huts accompanied by a guide and a horse-handler. At each hut, you change horses and handler so each community benefits from your tourism rather than just the starting location. Our guide, Hussein, was a native Oromifa speaker (Bale is in the Oromo Region) and spoke good English. He also had that easy-going endlessly patient Ethiopian way about him. The weather was hot and sunny during the day and then the temperature would plummet from late afternoon onwards, so that in the course of a day we would be walking in a shirt and then have to wear a fleece and a down jacket in the evening (the huts are all at between 3000m and 3500m altitude). At this time of year from about 1pm heavy rain is almost guaranteed. As for the landscape, well I’ll try to post photos on this blog, but no photo could really capture the stunning variety of plants and bird life, as well as a couple of sightings of the rare Ethiopian Wolf.

We had most of the huts to ourselves, apart from Mololichou and Adele. About 30 mins after arriving at Mololichou during heavy rain, a line of horses arrived carrying equipment for a group of eight trekkers on their way to the hut. One of the trekkers arrived soon afterwards on horseback with a guide. She was soaked to the skin and slightly hypothermic having not brought waterproofs. The rest of her group walked in soon afterwards, all soaked and all without waterproofs. Most of them were diplomats from the Israeli embassy with two non-Israeli UN staff. The huts have bed space for eight people and we were now ten. We were in the correct hut on the correct night and the Israelis’ also claimed to be correct. We never found out if the Israelis or the IFMP guide was wrong, but there was an awkward and unpleasant moment when two of the Israelis insisted they would not camp outside even though we had arrived first. Eventually they settled for sleeping on the floor, but their approach, coupled with their general pushy and arrogant manner towards their guide, simply added to a negative impression of a group of people with no outdoor experience in the mountains.

The following night in Adele hut, we had the opposite experience with three Germans. One of them had worked with GTZ seven years ago to help set up the IFMP and he was now back on holiday to see how the programme had developed. I think he was justifiably pleased: this is one of the few clear cut examples I’ve seen of development obviously working and benefiting a community in a sustainable way.

I can’t do justice to the amazing experience we had during probably the best walking trip I’ve done anywhere. The website (www.baletrek.com) is worth looking at and the whole trip has made me reflect on the importance of community-based eco-tourism and the role I as a tourist can have in affecting local communities.

The journey back to Awassa on Saturday was typically Ethiopian. We got on the bus in Dodola and waited for an hour for it to fill up (buses don’t go anywhere until they’re full). Eventually it crept out of the bus station, stopped, let a few more people board, reversed back into the station and emptied us all out! So, we all scrambled onto another bus and finally left. Three bum-numbing hours later we arrived in Shashamene to change onto a minibus to Awassa. Three different people practically fought over us to use their bus, with much grabbing and jostling going on. Our overcrowded minibus (at least twenty people in a VW-sized van!) delivered us exhausted in Awassa well after dark.

On Sunday I then had to board another bus to journey to Addis Ababa for a two day workshop. My next placement in Gondar involves me working as a Cluster Co-ordinator. In Tigray and Amhara regions schools are grouped into clusters which are co-ordinated by a unit based in a CTE (College of Teacher Education). The cluster co-ordinator sets up a model classroom and organises training in student-centred active learning methods for teachers from each school cluster. The trained teachers are supposed to set up model classrooms and deliver their own training to the rest of the teachers in their school. After the workshop I felt excited and keen to get started. Still waiting to hear from VSO about when we move to Gondar.

On top of all this some new VSO vols have arrived in Awassa from the September intake. At 48 vols this has been the biggest intake anywhere at anytime. We have been joined here by Jason (American), Cerine (American), Paul (Ugandan) and Sudhir (Indian). They’re an interesting bunch, a breath of fresh air.

So much to write about! Maybe I’ll add more in the next few days.

2006-09-24T22:10:00.000+03:00

I suffered through the graduation of the summer programme students this morning. The students were very happy, but sitting through 1200 students graduating in a ceremony of more than three hours severely tested my endurance.

We are now packed and ready to head of trekking in Bale Mountains tomorrow. We have to travel by bus to the town of Dodola where we hire a guide and a horse to carry our kit, and also for carrying us if the altitude of more than 3000 m clobbers us. We return to Awassa on Saturday.

2006-09-22T23:47:00.000+03:00

A dull week of admin and marking comes to an end. On Sunday we are hopefully heading off to go trekking in Bale Mountains for a week.

One of our lifelines is The Guardian Weekly newspaper which is posted to us from the UK. It’s a collection of articles from the UK issues of The Guardian and The Observer newspapers along with selected articles from other major newspapers e.g. Le Monde, The Washington Post, etc. In a recent issue I noticed a small article about many people in Ethiopia being killed in the floods in Dire Dawa and in the Omo Valley (which has also been reported on the BBC World Service), and that the Ethiopian government had requested disaster funds from other countries to help. The flooding in Dire Dawa (near the major city of Harar) was bad and killed many people, but I’ve met many people here, Ethiopians and well-travelled ferenjis, who claim that few people if any died in the Omo Valley. The people of the Omo Valley are nomads who understand the river well and simply move when it floods. Nobody here who is familiar with the region believes anyone died in the flooding. However, the government seems to be very quick to request money to help the “victims”, which is interesting…

I’ve talked with a few Ethiopians now who, if they feel safe enough, are willing to be very honest about their views on the government. There is general dissatisfaction and contempt for how the government is becoming less and less democratic. The government seems to be applying a divide-and-rule policy of emphasising ethnic groups (helped by a federal structure along ethnic lines) and the differences between them. A few people have claimed that the government has no real interest in improving literacy or becoming more democratic, as educated people are more likely to question and raise objections. Key positions in local government, colleges and big institutions are often filled by party loyalists who are not necessarily experienced or qualified. One person has said that the only way Ethiopia will change for the better is if there is an uprising to force out the government while another described the government as more unpopular than even during the time of Mengistu and the Derg Regime, and this from people who I would not describe as stereotypical revolutionaries. It’s hard to know how widespread these views are, although the reluctance of most people to voice any critical opinions about the government I think reveals a lot. I’m certainly a lot less naïve about these issues than I used to be. Talk to people here about Bob Geldof, Live Aid, etc and they tend to be politely amused or openly scornful. Periodic famine in certain parts of Ethiopia is a fact of life due to a combination of unpredictable weather, over-population, inefficient farming practices and governments willing to exploit famine to achieve political ends. I wonder what the effect would have been if the many people who gave money during the time of Live Aid, instead volunteered their time and skills directly to the government or to NGOs like VSO. I’ve met Ethiopians here who were involved in the disaster relief efforts during the famine in the early 1980s, who while recognising that people were starving to death, also knew that it was totally avoidable and felt that their people were being turned into beggars by well-meaning foreign intervention.

2006-09-21T22:17:00.000+03:00

HDP in action

Mesfin and Mesfin!

Tabor Hill

Coffee at college this morning was spent with Bisrat. Bisrat is an ex-student who, as the top performing diploma student, was given a job in the Programme Office for a year (which is the office that organises teaching practice placements in schools for the college trainee teachers). We initially thought this was a bit strange, a bit like giving the top graduate from a degree course a job for a year in the college admin office as a clerk. His diploma was in English (i.e. he is now qualified to be a teacher in a 2^nd cycle primary school teaching Grades 5 to 8), and unlike a lot of English teachers his English is actually very good. He is articulate, confident and has a manner about him that makes me think he is somebody who could go places and make a difference. Over coffee he talked with me about a dilemma he is facing. He wants to continue his studies and do a degree. His heart is telling him to do his degree in English so he can be a High School teacher, but his friends and family are telling him to do a Business degree so he can earn more money and have a higher status in a business or finance job. His mother is absolutely adamant that he should study Business as she thinks being a teacher is shameful. Yet again, the low status of teachers raises it very ugly head. Bisrat actually wants to be a teacher, which makes him a bit unusual, and is not simply driven by wanting money. It’s hard to advise him. My immediate reaction is he should follow his heart and do what he is interested in (study to be a High School English teacher), but I also understand that choosing a subject he is not interested in (Business) because it will lead to status and better pay is not to be disregarded lightly, given life in Ethiopia. Ethiopia needs people like Bisrat who are interested in teaching and want to help their country: fewer than 45% of children even go to primary school, most teachers are teaching subjects they are not interested in, most teachers don’t even want to be teachers, teaching is poorly paid and is viewed as a very low-status job. He has to make his decision by the end of the week.

Gill left early on Tuesday morning to travel to Addis. She is the Awassa rep on the VSO volunteers committee which is meeting this week, and she will also be meeting the new intake of volunteers who arrived in Ethiopia on Sunday. So for most of this week I’m working here in the college on my own. Given my relatively light workload at the moment I’ve had some time to ponder on what it’s like to do VSO with my partner instead on my own. Is it easier to do this as a couple compared to on your own? In many ways it probably is. We have support from each other, somebody to do things with and somebody to share the effort in doing the many things which would be trivial and mundane in normal life at home, but here require effort and energy due to the language and culture barriers. I wonder though if in other ways we would have a richer experience is we were here as two unconnected individuals? I think staff at the college might find it a bit easier to approach us on a social basis if we were not here together. Also we work together, sharing the same office and doing the same work which is less than ideal, and can be boring. It’s not as if we can talk in the evening about how our day has been! I think if I was here on my own I might make a bit more of an effort socially with colleagues, although having said that, making friends with Ethiopians is difficult. As I’ve written before, Ethiopians are very friendly and hospitable, but there’s a cultural (and language) barrier that makes true friendship perhaps impossible. The English of most of our colleagues (and certainly my Amharic) simply isn’t good enough to share genuine humour and sarcasm, an important ingredient to me in establishing a meaningful friendship.

It’s not every day you have your portrait painted! Some time ago, Yohannes (one of my HDP candidates and art teacher) offered to paint my portrait and today was the day. After work I went to his house and within 50 minutes my portrait had been painted. The finished picture is amazing, but what really fascinated me was the process. He found it funny mixing paints to achieve the right colours for a ferenji face as he has only every painted Ethiopian faces! There’s something very intimate about being studied intently by somebody else. I was aware of him really looking at each part of my face and being totally absorbed by his task. As he finished off he started smiling a lot and muttering about how happy he felt as he had “captured” my character and his experience of me. This was very important to him, he wasn’t interested in just painting a picture of me, he wanted it to communicate something. One of the most difficult aspects of our role as HDP Leaders is helping the teacher educators to develop and express their ability to reflect on their teaching. Yohannes, despite his difficulties with English, has no problem with being aware of his feelings and thoughts and expressing them. While he was painting he really came alive and was completely in his element. To call it a “hobby” wouldn’t begin to do justice to the passion he has for making art. As for the portrait, there's something shockingly honest about it in a way that a posed photograph doesn't communicate. I don't know how flattering it is and I don't care. It means something to me and to Yohannes.

2006-09-19T22:08:00.000+03:00

Some unfinished houses near the college

The usual afternoon storm about to engulf the college.

There are some aspects of Ethiopian culture I never stop admiring. One of them is the boundless and unconditional hospitality of Ethiopians. You can interrupt a meeting, a social gathering of friends or a lone person busy with a task and never be made to feel you are intruding. If I go to the staff lounge at college on my own I will either be invited to join somebody or I can sit at a table with other people and be instantly included in their conversation. I have never felt that people here tolerate my presence just to be polite. There is a deep and long established culture of hospitality towards visitors. All visitors are “guests” and are treated as if they were personally invited by each Ethiopian. Of course, as a ferenji I am treated with respect almost by default, but dropping in on people unannounced and being entertained is a normal part of life here, in a way that would be unacceptable to most people at home.

I wandered to the lounge this morning on my own, and joined Nigatu and Abayneh, who are both HDP candidates. We talked about the new degree courses, the recently announced news that the college will start evening classes, the weather (Ethiopians must think we are obsessed with the weather, which of course we are) and their knowledge of Gondar. After blethering for a while I tried to pay for our coffees. The custom here is that guests do not pay and are automatically considered to have been invited by the people you join and drink with. I always find this a wee bit embarrassing, as if they must be thinking “this bloody ferenji is free-loading on us again”, but Ethiopians are very proud of this custom and always insist on paying.

2006-09-18T22:12:00.000+03:00

My colleague and HDP candidate, Mesfin, likes to talk a lot about any aspect of Ethiopian culture. Amongst many subjects, we have talked about religion here in Ethiopia. There are three main religious groups here: Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, Protestant Christians and Muslims. Reliable figures are hard to find but most estimates put Christians at around 55% and Muslims at around 45% of the population. One of the most impressive features of Ethiopian society is that the three groups live pretty much intermingled with no real religious tensions. The Ethiopian Orthodox church has a very long history, was founded in the north of the country in 4 A.D. and contains many customs and features of Judaism, which is thought to be due to the north being Judaic before it was converted. Church services are held in a language called Ge’ez, which was the forerunner of Amharic. Today Ge’ez is the liturgical language of the Orthodox Church, which means that most worshippers at an Orthodox service cannot understand a word being said by the priest (just like Catholic services used to be in Latin). Non-Orthodox Christian churches here are all referred to as Protestant, and as far as I can see they are all very like the modern evangelical “happy-clappy” churches at home. The most striking thing about the Protestant churches is the loudspeaker systems they use to broadcast their preachers’ sermons. At home noise abatement orders would be flying thick and fast, but here the Ethiopian easy-going tolerant attitude seems to prevail. Protestantism is very much on the increase, which is partly due to disenchantment amongst young people with the very traditional approach of the Orthodox Church, and probably also due to any reservations they might have about defecting being battered into submission by the sheer number of decibels generated by a typical Protestant Church loudspeaker system.

There seem to be quite a lot of Ferenji missionaries here. When I last flew back from the UK, out of a total passenger load of approx fifteen there were a group of six Ferenji (Brits and Americans) missionaries. Their conversations were a dead giveaway along with their bibles, which they spent most of the flight either reading or discussing. My in-flight reading material (The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy) was embarrassingly light by comparison. I respect the religious views of others (well, up to a point) but I do feel quite cynical about white missionaries coming to Ethiopia to convert people who often have much bigger issues to worry about. To me there’s something almost sinister and arrogant about spending your time and energy trying to change the religious beliefs of others, instead of primarily seeking to change certain views because they are demonstrably harmful (e.g. Female Genital Mutilation and the low status of women). I know there are many people who come here whose motivation is religious and who also try and contribute in practical ways to helping people improve their lives, but I feel quite contemptuous of missionaries whose primary (or only) goal is to convert. Ethiopia has many difficulties to deal with and Ferenji missionaries seem to me to be the last thing this amazing country needs.