Back to Ethiopia after Christmas

Sorry I haven’t posted in a long time. I must have loads of news by now.
Well the conference in Sodere was successful and the weather was fabulous.
Following that I headed home to Ireland for Christmas.
The day before we were due to travel a freezing fog attacked London Heathrow which we were due to travel through. All other airlines made other arrangements for their passengers but not Ethiopian Airlines who decided to just hope for the best. We were of course as luck would have it flying with Ethiopian Airlines.
On the morning we were due to fly. CNN and Sky news were showing pictures of people huddling in blankets in tents outside Heathrow, the reality of this didn’t really hit home at the time as wearing a blanket is the fashion in Ethiopia.
So much for high security at Addis Ababa, both Susan and I managed to take bottles of wine in our hand luggage.
So we flew pleasantly to Rome almost forgetting about the whole Heathrow thing until the Pilot announced that we would be spending the night in Rome and flying tomorrow. We decided to see if we could avoid Heathrow and fly direct to Dublin but Ethiopian Airlines said no. Then they served us up a nice tasty dinner of European chicken and just as people were enjoying this they announced that we had 15 mins to get on another plane to Heathrow. So everyone ran through the airport following the Ethiopian Airlines man but of course hours went by and we still weren’t on the other plane. We asked Alitalia as they were the only staff around if they thought we could fly to Dublin tomorrow, they said “sure no problem two flights to Dublin tomorrow just get your ticket endorsed by your airline”. Well Ethiopian Airlines weren’t having any of it. They accused us of causing a security risk and threatened to call the police as we would be travelling without our luggage, however if the airline loses your luggage I don’t think you can call the police on them.
Anyway in the heal of the hunt they eventually gave us back our luggage but made us pay for the new tickets to Dublin and promptly disappeared leaving us with no where to stay and nothing to eat. We felt like Tom Hanks in the film Airport as we just stayed in the Airport all night and most of the next day. Trying to actually lodge a complaint against Ethiopian Airlines has so far proved impossible and even though they claim to have a customer charter they actually don’t.
Anyway finally got home safe and sound and had a wonderful Christmas at home, seeing friends, family and new babies. Eating all the food I had missed in the last fourteen months. In general having a very good time, it was definitely worth the hassle of coming home.
On return to Ethiopia, I felt less depressed then I had expected. I think the blue skies and warm weather of Addis Ababa contributed to that as well as getting to spend a few days with Francis. After a few days of rest and banking business, I headed back to Dessie.

Nothing much had changed here. Everyone was delighted with their presents and seeing as I had missed Ethiopian Christmas, my colleagues made Christmas dinner for me again which was very nice. We have been training in rural areas and training Kindergarten teachers and generally keeping busy. Our manager was here from VSO and we may be appearing in a TV documentary … watch this space! We will also be hosting a large conference in April and organising a symposium in August at which point I had to break the news that I did actually intend on leaving Ethiopia at some point!

Last weekend we decided to cook a chicken. Now it has become clear to me why our maid never cooks chickens. It took from 8:30 am – 2pm for all the preparation and cooking, which involved killing the chicken, plucking it, and cutting it up and washing it many many many times. It is much easier to buy one in the shop ( although they don’t sell them here) I can tell you.

Tomorrow I will head to Addis Ababa for meetings next week, it is nice to get out of Dessie but there is always the knowledge that you have to return and it always seems much more boring each time. Not on week days but at weekends there really is very little to do. Luckily I have a lift to Addis tomorrow so no bus thank God.

Thank you very much to everybody who gave me money for the work here in Ethiopia at Christmas. We are now going to buy library books for 70 schools in rural areas and are giving a grant to each school to help HIV AIDS orphans so thank you very very much for your help and assistance.

Anyway I will try and be better at keeping in touch.

Ciao
Orla