Well it is Mid-November already now

Well it is mid- November already now, time is flying by. Schools in Ireland must be on mid term break now and we here haven't even begun the term yet! Last year I thought it was because of all the political trouble that the college took so long to get going but now I see it isjust the way things are.
We had three other volunteers come to visit the week before last. Julian is an IT volunteer in Debre Birhan (about 6 hours south of Dessie) and Liza who works in the Ministry of Education in Addis on Non formal education and Nigel who works in the programme office in VSO and is doing advocacy research into Valuing Teachers. VSO has a global research project into valuing teachers which it hopes will raise the status and improve the conditions of teachers across the developing world.
It was really interesting to see our project through their eyes. They have only been in the country five weeks and I think it was quite inspiring for them to come and see a project which is in its sixth year and see that over a long period of time - VSO does work and make adifference. So they had a good time and we enjoyed their company for a few days.
On the Thursday night of their visit another volunteer Emma who is working in Asossa as a Democratization Advisor was passing through Dessie with her mother and friend on a tour of northern Ethiopia so weall went out for dinner, which was really nice.
On Saturday Steve and I headed back with the visitors to Addis. Steve and I are on the organising committee for the Annual Volunteer Conference which will take place in December. The meetings were Monday and Tuesday but we were able to fit in a weekend in Addis so that was an added bonus. On Saturday night two of the volunteers hosted a Halloween party in their house and everyone brought food and drink and there was an amazing array for food from all over the world and quite a lot of drink too! The party was really good fun and a good chance to meet loads of volunteers. One volunteer I was speaking with was sympathising with me for living in such an isolated place as Dessie and then I found out she had just spent six months volunteering on Kiribati an island in the south pacific which kind of made me appreciate Dessie! On Sunday I met with other volunteers for a very long lunch and then on Monday it was work time.
The meetings went really well and we have the conference almost organised. It will be in Sodere which is a thermal spring resort in theSouth of Ethiopia. In December Dessie is freezing so I will be living to reach Sodere where it will be roasting and I will hopefully be able toget a nice tan before I head back to Skerries for Christmas. We are having a quiz at the conference so if anyone has quiz questions(Dad has already sent me a lot but more are welcome) they can email themto me at mccarthyorla@eircom.net they will be much appreciated.
On Wedneday we made the horrible 8 hour trip back to Dessie in a minibus. The worst part of the journey is that you begin at 4 am and it is freezing and bumpy for the first four hours and then roasting for the next three hours. This time we met some other Aid workers who were coming to Dessie to work with the leprosy sufferers. One of them was a Christian missionary and had made double the amount of sandwiches he needed just in case he met anyone else hungry on the journey so Steve and I happily took a few off his hands.
Last Saturday we went to Steve's house for a Kenyan lunch he cooked for us. There are five or six Ethiopian women coming to lunch too who nearly died of shock to see a man cooking. On Tuesday Lukuli from the World Food Programme called in with a newmember of staff a Gambian lady who had just come from working in Darfur and was rather distressed at being in Dessie which doesn't say much for Dessie, but I suppose in Darfur there is probably a huge community of international aid workers and in Dessie well there are now five of us -including her. It was really really cold in Dessie this week.
One day it was cold and misty with a light rain and it felt just like Ireland. Only in Ireland there is central heating and here there isn't. If you can imagine working in a building made of concrete blocks with a corrugated ironroof and the weather being maybe 13 degress or so and there are noheaters - it becomes very difficult to type. Thankfully it has become warmer this weekend. Dessie is in a small valley at the top of some very high mountains so if there is no cloud cover it is really cold then if there is cloud cover it is somewhat bearable. So while I am suffering in the cold at this end of the continent, I am presuming my Aunt Gay is now basking in the heat at the other end of the continent.
On Tuesday we will begin training teachers in rural areas. I am lookingforward to it despite the fact that we will have to get up at 5 am toreach these areas and probably bounce along mud tracks to actually find the schools. It will be a total contrast from having worked in the town schools, where things are not so bad. The areas where we will be working suffer from chronic food shortages so I imagine the problems facing the teachers will be many. In some ways I feel like I will be adding to their problems coming along and telling them that they have to do continuous professional development and change their teaching methods to include active learning, group work, problem solving etc and there theywill be with their 100 odd students all sitting on pieces of wood or on the floor in a mud hut, but I suppose unless the children are educated to think creatively and to problem solve the community will not develop and it has been achieved in other places and can be achieved here, but I envisage an uphill struggle persuading them to change, but we will see.Sometimes I also wonder in the future will the trace the emergence of ADHD and other modern day problems back to the time when they reformed their teaching methods and introduced active learning into the classroom!
Next weekend I will be heading to Addis Ababa for some meetings so looking forward to having a normal weekend. Weekends in Dessie are incredibly tedious and boring. Last night the electricity went so I litsome candles but there wasn't enough light to read by and there was no electricity so I couldn't use my lap top and I couldn't plug in the heater, so I just sat on the chair under my sleeping bag thinking what away to spend a Saturday night! Luckily the electricity came back eventually.
They are building a five storey shopping centre in Dessie in the main square with a cinema - this is very exciting however I may have left Dessie by the time it opens, but still for the people that will still be here it must be exciting. I was just telling Addis and she has never been in a cinema so is very excited now even if it may be a year till it actually opens.
Anyway I think that is all the news for now,
Take care,
Orla