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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.