Back Home Once Again

Well it really is ages since I have written. I hope when term starts again and I am back living in Dessie all the time that I will start posting regularly again. The college and schools have been closed or should I say open as everyone is doing summer courses but the regular programs are closed so we have been given the freedom to explore Ethiopia and enjoy the rainy season.
Since I posted last my parents have been to visit, both they and I had a fabulous time while they were here. A very kind friend in Addis lent me his home for the first few days so that was an easy or easier way to adjust to Ethiopia than jumping straight in, also fortunately another very close friend Francis works for the UN so we were able to hitch lifts in the UN land rovers for the first part of the holiday too which made things a lot easier. My parents did extensive touring of Ethiopia and saw Addis Ababa, Dessie, Lalibella, Gondar, Bahir Dar and Ambo. If you know Ethiopia you will raise your eyebrows at Ambo but believe me it is worth a visit if only to see the five storey hotel with landscaped gardens, marble floors and a lift towering over the nearby mud houses.
My parents also know the airports of Ethiopia very well and are on first name terms with most of the Ethiopian Airlines staff as in the rainy season it really is a 50:50 chance as to whether you will fly or spend the day in the airport. However my parents met many interesting characters in the airports so that hanging out in airports became a feature of the holiday rather than a hassle.
As the representatives of all those who have raised funds for the schools in Dessie, they got a dinner thrown in their honor where the staff of the college surprised them with gifts of traditional Ethiopian clothes and jewelry, it was a wonderful evening for them and for the college staff. Another highlight of the holiday was getting to meet fellow Skerries man – Gerry Reddy who is working in Somalia but is based in Addis we had a lovely lunch with Gerry and his family in Addis. All in all it was the trip of a life time for them and I hope they will post some photos up with this blog.
As soon as my parents left I had more visitors. I am the most visited volunteer in VSO and the only volunteer who hasn’t gone home, but then where would I find time to go home among all the visitors. Jane, Audrey and Jean were working and traveling in Kenya and very kindly flew over for the weekend to see me in Addis Ababa. We did nothing touristy but ate in the best restaurants, drank in the best bars and danced in the best clubs which Ethiopia has to offer and laughed for three days solid.
As soon as they left I headed for Yirgallem in Southern Ethiopia to complete a two week intensive Amharic Language Course. It was very intensive, classes ran from 8 am – 5:30pm every day except Sunday and there was homework to do every night, however the other volunteers on the course were all great fun and the frustration of learning Amharic was a great bonding experience. It has paid off as I can now understand a lot and talk a lot more confidently in Amharic.
After Yirgallem, I traveled back to Dessie for two days which was just enough time to greet everyone in college and wash and dry my clothes before heading to Kenya. We headed to Kenya on the 18th August - a group of us two Irish, one Kenyan and three British spent ten days exploring and enjoying Kenya. The Kenyan – Steve was chief organizer and did a fantastic job. We spent a night in Nairobi – where we sampled crocodile and camel at Kenya’s famous Carnivore restaurant. The next day we headed to Mombassa. Susan and I went by bus and the others traveled in Steve’s car. The bus was a joy after Ethiopian buses. The seats reclined, you had a seat to yourself, you could choose your own seat, the bus left at a designated time and best of all you could open the window (this is forbidden on Ethiopian buses in case people catch disease from the fresh air!!). We left Nairobi at 1pm and arrived in Mombassa after mid night. However Mombassa was something like you would imagine paradise. We rented cottages beside the beach, the cottages also had a swimming pool. Everywhere had palm trees and the sea was so blue. It was fantastic, the highlight being the marine park where you snorkel in the coral reefs. After our first visit to the supermarket we realized we would need to extend the holiday so we changed our flights home by a day. We must have seemed very odd in the supermarket as we got over excited about the availability of wheetabix!!
Kenya is nothing like Ethiopia. If I had traveled to Kenya from Ireland perhaps the poverty would have been shocking but coming from Ethiopia it was the modernity, the prosperity and the development which shocked me. I suppose I had come to picture all of Africa like Ethiopia. I had a compelling urge to return to Ethiopia and fill coaches with politicians and decision makers and bus them down to Nairobi so they could see with their own eyes what it is possible to achieve. Nairobi is like any other developed city, all it is lacking is big name shops and franchises such as Mac Donalds, Benneton, Burger King, Virgin Mega Store etc and then again is this really a deficiency?? The rural areas are less developed but nothing like Ethiopia, I imagine that to the North and West things may be more similar but in the South and central areas things are very different. Steve’s father is a farmer and he showed us all the different grains he was growing and explained about his plans for introducing new grains, he showed us the live stock and explained to us about the breeding systems he uses and he talked about how the farming has become sustainable and profitable – we were blown away. Farmers in Ethiopia are afraid to even fertilize the land and when the land doesn’t give a good yield they explain it as God’s will. The trip to Kenya has convinced me even more that having volunteers from more developed countries within Africa come to Ethiopia could really aid development here.
So I came back to Addis on Tuesday with my bags overflowing with toiletries and food items which aren’t available here. For the past three days I have been working in VSO office, planning the training which the new volunteers arriving in September will receive. There are 45 volunteers coming out to Ethiopia, it is hard to believe that one year ago it was me who was preparing to come here, preparing for the unknown and now I feel totally at home here, it will be nice to have the chance to welcome the new volunteers and get to know them before they head out to their placements. I will be here for two – three weeks in Addis when they arrive to help with the training and orientation.
Tomorrow I am flying to Gambella which is as far west as you can go in Ethiopia without hitting Sudan. Francis has moved there for work so I am going out to visit him for a few days, in theory it should be warmer there but for the last few days he has said it is raining there too, but it will be interesting to see another part of Ethiopia and of course to see him too.
When I return I will go to Dessie for what seems like the first time in months I have been out of Dessie for so long and I will only be there for a week before I come to Addis for the training.
Anyway I hope you have all had a good summer and I will try and keep you posted more often.

Ciao,

Orla