Every week seems to get busier and busier. I think that I
have been the angriest in my whole life.
Most of my week has been trying to set up the computers. I
have been having the usual problems of things not working
correctly, but then I should have come to expect that with
M$ products. This has not been the biggest frustration
though.
The ordering equipment saga has continued. And we barely
have any more than at the end of last week. I have now
started to give them hassle. I fear that this may be where
my anger is going. It is certainly one of the causes. But I
did know that this was likely to be a problem before going.
What has most annoyed me this week was the meetings that I
have had with other members of staff. While they are
certainly not unimportant they have taken away time for
setting up computers. And then, everyone has to ask - when
are we getting the Internet. It doesn't matter how many
times you tell them that there must be a phone line first.
Logic is not a strong point of the habesha! My whole
Thursday was a waste. I had to leave early to meet with
people from VSO who were visiting. Of course, this means
that I get into the early car with the people who haven't
bought what should have been bought. I assume that they then
think that I can't be that busy if I am going home. That is
really frustrating.
On the positive side, my stomach is better once again, and
my trousers soon will need a belt to keep them up. It's nice
to have loose fitting clothes again.
Something else that is good for this week is the amount of
rain we have had. There has been lots. Tuesday in particular
was a heavy day. It had been promising rain for most of the
afternoon. As usual, this was shown by large grey crowds
occupying nearly all of the sky and the distant rumble of
thunder. The clouds do seem to really try to hold onto the
rain though, only dropping it reluctantly. However, once the
clouds started, they found that they enjoyed it so much that
they put all of their effort into attacking my roof. It
started with just a little bit of rain hitting the
corrugated tin. Out of my window the ground was
perfectly dry. The difference between dry and wet was
accurately
cut. Soon, however, the view out of the window was nearly
completely water. The owners of the house have a large
barrel under each of the gutter pipes to catch water for
cleaning and feeding animals. With the rain, plastic bowls
were put out to collect every drop. Shortly, they decided
that there was so much rain that they should discard what
was already in the barrels, and take the cleaner water that
was now gushing noisly out of the pipes. Immediately outside
of my window was one of these barrels. I watched as one of
their daughters used all of her strength to push the barrel
over, adding its water to the already flooded floor. The
rain was coming so fast that I was curious to see how long
it took to fill the barrel so I started a stopwatch just
after she had righted the barrel and placed it under the
pipe again. It was full in under five minutes.
I had been told previously that Ethiopians do not like
getting wet. This certainly did not seem to be the case for
the landlady's daughters. They seemed to be postively
enjoying the rain. The dogs were also playing a game,
clearly happy to be getting wet.
As well as rain, there was patchy fallings of hail. I had my
door shut to stop the rain splashing onto my floors which
become very slippery when wet. However, some of the hail was
able to bounce under the door and into the room. I decided
to look at it and check what it looked like - many things
here have looked slightly differently. It was not a ball as
I would expect in the UK. Instead, it was cone shaped.
Towards the base of the cone it was white, and towards the
tip it was perfectly clear. I tried to take a close-up photo
before it melted but it was too late - it melts pretty quick
here. I was not lucky enough to have any more bounce
underneath the door. I will try to find some more to see
whether this was just a freak occurrence.
As I write this, it is Saturday night, and raining quite
heavily once more. Currently, we are in the 'small rains'. A
period of about two months where it rains a little. I don't
know if the rain we have had is enough for Ethiopia. What I
do know is that it is good for electricity because a lot of
power for Ethiopia is hydro-electric.
On the Thursday, Wendewossen, the person in charge of Tigray
placements, visited the volunteers in Mekelle. He brought
with him a letter from Sarah that must have been sitting at
VSO for ages. This is the first bit of mail that has
actually arrived here, and it was very welcome. Something
else that was welcome was the pizza that we all ate in the
restaurant. It was expensive (for Ethiopia), but VSO paid
for it and it was delicious.
Other things of note for this week - I have booked a flight
to the UK in June. I did it over the phone but I was unable
to pay over the phone. Instead I must go into their office
the day before the flight. Something that I am a little bit
sceptical of. However, that was the only way I could do it;
I must remember to arrange for my credit cards and passport
to be taken out of the safe at VSO. It was booked for 1st
June to 11th of June. This may cause problems becuase it is
in the middle of term. However, I have agreed it with my
boss previously but he wasn't here this week to tell. After
working so hard, I will need a break, I just need to arrange
it as a reading week or two for the students.
My Saturday has been spent at MIT, and if the car arrives
tomorrow, that will be the way of my Sunday. And I have
written the course for this term. Hmmm. I think I will be
busy for some time to come.