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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.