Three Months in Ethiopia

Well I am three months in Ethiopia now and I feel so settled in. At first I liked it but I thought I would be happy to go home at the end, this week I wish the time would go more slowly as I am enjoying every minute. Once you get use to the African pace of life, you appreciate how great life here is.
Everybody here is so friendly it is incredible and everyone always has time to stop, to talk, to take coffee it is really nice. One of the lecturers Hamde, spent a year in England doing a masters and this week I was talking with him about how he found life there, and without a doubt I believe it is easier for me to come here and settle in than it was for him to go there, as here people really go out of their way to make us so welcome.
This week we began the fourth workshop, this one deals with Group work, Action research and Positive behaviour promotion in the classroom. It is a bit more challenging for the teachers. We are trying to establish if they are happy with the workshops and if they are using the methods we are teaching but it is impossible as it is the culture here to appreciate everything and to compliment everything so they will not criticise our work at all which while very nice does not help us to improve.
Yesterday we visited the Preparatory School and met with the English department who wish to work with our department. It was a good meeting; they have a brand new school which is really nice and are really committed to improving English. It is amazing how committed people here are to improving society, I am not sure if it is like this everywhere or just in Dessie.
We made a new discovery this week; we can toast bread by holding it over the electric ring! This has added a whole new dimension to our cooking. Last night we had a night out which somewhat resembled one from home. We went to a restaurant in town with Hamde and had four beers! This is the most I have drunk since I arrived in Dessie ….. I am glad to say I can still hold my drink. We left the restaurant at 10 pm and the town was deserted, late nights in Dessie do not exist.
I have been to the Ethiopian Airlines Office seven times this week to sort out our flights for Tuesday and spoken to them on the phone twice but finally the tickets are arranged. I will have the patience of Job when I return as things just take ages here and there is no way to hurry things up. Anyway now we have the tickets and will jet off on Tuesday to Addis Ababa, on Wednesday we will travel to Sodere for the Annual Volunteer Conference. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone again and just relaxing by the pool for a few days. We will fly back to Dessie on Sunday.
We are planning a Christmas party in our house. We will invite everyone we know in Dessie to try and thank them for all their hospitality so far. It will not be Christmas here till 19th January. So we are planning to decorate the house, we have Christmas music, we are going to go shopping in Addis Ababa for party nibbles and we will get some beer so it should be good fun. It will be strange for the Ethiopians as they don’t have parties like us, they have coffee ceremony and dinner etc but not just standing around having a drink parties but we are encouraging people to do party pieces and Ethiopian’s are good dancers and singers so hopefully it will be good although everyone will probably have left by half eight as it will be a very late night for them!
Our guard is keeping well, still collecting the shoes! He now realises I can speak some Amharic so he now has little conversations with me which is nice as up until this he just said ok ok but he had to tell me about the water bill during the week and to his surprise I understood and was able to answer him!
Speaking of Bills we made a third visit to the Telecommunication Company today. In September they cut us off for not paying the bill we are now afraid they will do the same thing and call in weekly to check can we pay. Today they said “no no you must pay on the 30th October” and we said “but it is December now” and they said “yes yes so come back and pay in three weeks!!!” How this makes any sense I do not know, but I do know we have not paid bills for October or November yet and so I am expecting the phone to be cut off any day now then we will have to pay a reconnection fee. I suspect this is their plan to raise more money.
Anyway thank you for all the messages and have nice week I will think of you all as I relax in the thermal springs of Sodere!
Ciao,
Orla