The Internet connection has not been working at all well. In fact, there has
been almost none in the last three weeks. This is partly due to the fact that
the viruses hit Ethiopia hard. I'm not sure if there was anything that they
could have done to really protect themselves. Unfortunately this has had
a major effect on everyone here. This is why I haven't been able to send
and receive many emails.
This difficulty really bit hard yesterday. There are at least two admin
things that I need to do - tax, and patent stuff. I also need to keep
in contact with Sarah and M+A. However, and more worrying in the short
period of actually being able to see what email is there, I picked up on
important email from Sarah, but did not notice the important one from
my mum. I read it today, four days later. My dad was (and may still
be for all I know at the moment) in hospital with what sounded quite
a serious problem. I had to read the email several times to understand what
my mum had said and try to stop shaking a little bit. It's pretty
easy to become powerless out here for other things in the world. I'm just
hoping it's not as serious as I fear. On the positive side, there is now
a phone where I live so contact should be a bit easier.
Okay, I shall try to describe some of the more positive things that have
happened in the last few weeks, as much for my benefit as anyone else's.
Also, if my old man is in hospital, it will give him something to read
for a few hours if my mum prints it out. I have a little bit of a smile on
my face now. I realise that there is something that I can do (not
completely powerless), and perversely my computer has randomly chosen
William Shatner's version of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to play. Probably only
Nick Sidhu could really understand that!
The new VSOs have arrived, and I now live with four of them in a very large,
villa style house. We have a telephone (+251 4 40 70 15 - tres expensive) with
a connection point in most rooms, and a fridge. We don't have curtains yet
but they are being worked on, as is an oven which I think is much more important
than a fridge, having been without both for the last seven months. It was a bit
embarassing telling the previous landlady that I was moving out. I had asked finance
when I had to move out. They weren't sure, and then told me the following day that
I had three days. This was no good because I was going to be in Addis for an HIV/AIDs
workshop. They then said that they had agreed a few extra days. However, when I returned
and had a very nice dinner with my landlady and apologised that I wasn't staying and
that MIT wanted me to move in with the new VSOs, they looked a bit surprised. Finance
hadn't talked to them once. I'm losing patience with finance. We are taught at
Harbone hall how it is often considered impolite in foreign cultures to say no. However,
this wasn't saying no, this was coming up with a blatant lie.
The trip to Addis was a good break for me. VSO had arranged an HIV/AIDs workshop.
I must admit that I agreed to the workshop before even knowing what it was on -
I needed the trip away. I met with Wilko at Mekelle airport. Although we were
scheduled for flights an hour apart we got on the same plane because of some
pretty heavy delays. I had a little problem getting into the airport. I haven't
mentioned it before becuase I was going to surprise Sarah with it. I have been
growing a beard for quite a few weeks. Not a little beard, but a big bushy
bellamy buster beard. Of course, my photo id has me clean shaven, and with a
suntan, the habesha can mistake a ferenj for somebody from the middle east. They
spent quite some time looking at the photo, but then eventually let me in.
Once we arrived in Addis, Wilko and I had some fun. I'm not very confident haggling
over prices when I am on my own, but with another VSO I was much happier. We
decided to see how low we could get the taxi fare. We knew that if we pushed it too
far we would at least know the limit, and could just walk half a mile to where the
line taxis could be found. The cheapest that we had heard about was fifteen birr, we
set out to break that record. Many drivers were interested and were offering
prices such as forty. In fact I laughed in the face of one when they said forty.
They would laugh back at us when we said very low amounts, but we would just
walk away and hear the price dropping. Once we had got past the main group of
taxis we realised that maybe we had been pushing too hard, and argued another
one down to the record of fifteen. As we were getting in, two habesha women
also got in, so I said that we would not share unless the taxi was reduced
in price and the driver agreed ten. I checked in Amharic (not good but getting
better now) and it was definitely ten. So, all four of us went of to Addis, and
street haya-hulet (twenty-two). When we got out, we paid the remaining eight
birr (we had given two for the parking fee). He wasn't happy he said that we
had agreed fifteen, and wouldn't give us the luggage from the boot of the
car. We spent some time arguing and I asked him if there was a police man around.
He had enough bravado to say 'go on then'. Well, I did find one, and fortunately
a very nice one that spoke English. The taxi driver made the mistake of saying
that fifteen had been agreed without any sharing. From this point on, the
police man was on our side, and quite an audience was gathering. I don't
know about Wilko but I found it very exciting and could feel the adrenilin.
There was a pretty heated discussion between the policeman and the taxi driver
punctuated by the regular swings of the policeman's baton at the
encroaching audience. Eventually, the policeman said that the taxi driver had
made a mistake and was now asking for two birr more. I explained that we had very
little money and that we were not rich, and a deal was a deal. However, because
the policeman had been so nice to us, I agreed to pay the money. Fortunately I
had exactly two birr in one half of my wallet. This gave me the opportunity to
dramatically thrust the two birr into his hands, opening the wallet to show him
and the crowd that there was no money left. Wilko and I then walked off with
an offended air until we had got around the corner and burst into giggles.
One of the great things about the conference was meeting VSOs from my induction
and other regions. It was interesting to hear the differences. Two of the
volunteers were having a very hard time and are likely to leave. They haven't
enjoyed their placement, or Ethiopia. The constant verbal hassle can be very
draining, and nobody would think anything less for them leaving. Here in
Mekelle, the hassle is less severe. I have noticed it a lot more in the
new house. I guess that Ferenj this far out of town are a bit of an oddity. It
is a shame because it really does not reflect the majority of Ethiopian
people.
One of the most striking differences I noticed is how 'good' I have it in
Tigray. The people here are, compared to the other regions of Ethiopia,
very industrious. I am also seeing first hand why much of the aid is
wasted. For instance, in another region of Ethiopia, there is a field
full of high quality tractors. The field is full not because they
keep breaking down beyond repair, but because the village knows that it will
get a new one donated each and every year. This experience is definitely
hardening me to people who ask for help. I see so many 'chancers' everyday
that I think you have to be careful who you help. They will always think
that you have had an advantage or have more money or something, and they
want it for themselves without the work. I am also seeing the value of VSO
over donations a lot more. With us here, we can help the people who want to
work to help themselves. We know who those people are. It's easy for me -
they're my students. Tigray itself is more industrious and is sometimes
despised by people from other regions because they see it as getting all the
money. I was happy to hear from a VSO that has worked in the government and
actually seen where the money is going. Tigray was far from the top. Maybe this
is something I knew already, rather than something new, but things are being
reinforced, that's for sure.
The workshop itself was rather disappointing. The person running it was not
the best workshop leader. This might have been because he was thinking with too much
of habesha head, and not a ferenj head for his audience. When he started
to display some figures that didn't make much sense, these were questioned
by the VSOs. This would certainly be normal in Europe or America - you
wouldn't present figures without saying where they came from. In fact some
of the conclusions were downright dubious. When he stated that they were from
his thesis (means dissertation) in Europe, the gloves came off. I didn't
say anything actually, which is unlike me. The other VSOs were busy
pulling apart his data, but certainly did not take it to the finale. On the
positive side, sharing experiences with the other VSOs was very good, and we
could have an indepth discussion about how best to handle things like
the stigma associated with HIV/AIDs infections. Again, there were definite
differences in the regions. It also became clear that gender and female
genital mutilation (female circumcision) were important topics that could
also be drawn into any AIDs initiative. I got the impression that it would
be very difficult to separate these.
From the workshop, I learnt the prevalence rate for Mekelle. It was
considerably higher than I expected. Nearly a fifth of all people
in Mekelle have contracted HIV/AIDs. If that carries into the students, then
that means that I know twenty-one people with HIV/AIDs, and that the
teaching I am doing will regrettably be wasted for some.
On the second, and final day of the workshop, we were taken out to the
Red Cross Centre where my group of VSOs had been taken when we arrived. Here
we met the new VSOs arriving for September. It was a very large intake, totalling
about forty-five new VSOs. They at least had all their luggage but had to take
a detour through Nairobi. This was particularly ironic because VSO UK is
currently warning all VSOs to avoid travel through Kenya for security
reasons.
I was able to meet the new Mekelle volunteers and describe Mekelle and what they
should expect. Charis, who had also been in Addis for the workshop
was doing the same thing, and we tried to be honest without scaring them.
Compared to other places, Mekelle is lovely.
When we left the RCC, we managed to get five of us into a line taxi and to head
back towards our hotel. This is a taxi journey that I will not forget, although
I am trying! It was a long journey and required a detour for Charis to pick up
her radio that she had left in her old house. It was in a later part of the
drive, that our Peugeot was overtaken by a Lada. This forced our taxi driver
to speed up, saying that the car was French and much better. Once alongside the
other taxi he gestured at the other driver and then to us. We assume it was
a 'look at all the ferenj in my car' gesture. The other driver was not at all
happy with this, accelarated a bit more and then cut in front of us,
across our bonnet. Our driver slowed to avoid a collision. It was then that the
other driver started to weave, speed up, slow down and generally try to
cause problems. We also noticed some bolts sticking out from his wheels and our
over active imaginations though of James Bond style devices designed to shred
and tear another vehicle's tyres. We did manage to lose this maniac but still
had the maniac driving our car to contend with. It was a real relief to get out
of that car.
Shortly after arriving back, I had a visit from a VIP. Although, it was not
until some students asked for an autograph that I realised that how
important the Foreign Minister was. Dr Mulu had warned me in the morning
that we would have important people but it had not really sunk in. What I had
found slightly funny and ironic is that he had people waiting for him when
he had got home the night before after going out for a few drinks with
myself and Charis. The people had warned him, and he was suited and
booted on this day. I think that the foreign minister was rather pleased with
MIT. When he looked at the computer lab, I was able to ask a student to show
him a web page that they had created, and it was all quite impressive. He
asked me whether the students could use the labs outside of office
hours and seemed very impressed with the lab attendant scheme. It had almost
been the prime-minister himself but the previous night they had decided to
visit two institutes separately rather than together because of time
constraints. If I had really been thinking, then I should have given him
a note with a suggestion from the workshop. We thought that it would be
good if all of the senior government took AIDs tests to try to break
the stigma associated with having a test.
This is going to be far too much typing for one night, so I shall make this a
two parter. Dad if you are still in hospital and reading this, then
get well soon. I will try to write another one tomorrow.