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.