Aysha and Sunil do a Blog Post

Today is the start of the Meskel holidays at school.   We get a lot of holidays, because we get to celebrate the Orthodox Ethiopian holidays, Muslim holidays, Christian holidays and random holidays.

This is the legend we learned at school.  Empress Helen was looking for the cross that Jesus was nailed to.   She looked and looked and couldn’t find it.  Then she lit a fire and the smoke pointed to a hill in Isreal.  She traveled to the hill and her people started digging for a really long time.   Then luckily they found the cross on March 10^th (we're not sure why Meskel is celebrated in September).   The cross was split into four pieces.  Now Ethiopia, Egypt and two other countries have a piece of the cross.

lighting the bonfire

Today at school we had a huge bonfire with a cross on top.  It was bigger than any bonfire you would ever see at a Canadian school.  Most people wore traditional Ethiopian clothes.   We only had ½ a day of school and have the rest of the week off, so that is really good.

As always, popcorn for all

traditional clothing

 













 

Getting Taller

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Red Cross Training Centre

We’ve just completed our formal in country training with VSO.  10 days of being cloistered away at the very nice Red Cross Training Centre.   We are about 35 volunteers in all with most from UK/Ireland and the rest a spattering from Canada, Sweden, Uganda, Holland and Kenya. 

Things started off with an in-country medical. The medical was very good for me, in that I gained 8 cm of height.  My height was measured by the nurse, and she informed me that “150 cm is too less for height”.  I wholeheartedly agreed and my height was then scribbled out and she gave me an extra 8cm.  I’m really quite pleased with my new height of 158cm.

The presentation on culture could be briefly summed up as follows: ferenji (foreign) men can mostly do what they like while ferenji women have a list of things they can’t or shouldn’t do.  When you first hear this you want to stamp your feet and holler; but we are then reminded that things weren’t so different in Europe/North America 40 years ago.

In gender issues we learned that the Ethiopian constitution is quite progressive in that gender equality is written into the constitution.  Child marriage and FGM (female genital mutilation) are also illegal.  In practice, these laws are difficult to enforce and prosecuting offenders is rare, but as in all countries change comes, but slowly.  Girls are also still noticeably absent beyond primary school.  Some more unhappy Ethiopia Unicef stats:

Youth (15-24 years) literacy rate (%), 2005-2010*, female 33%, male 56%

Child marriage 2000-2010* (girls), married by 15:  24%

Female genital mutilation/cutting 1997-2010*, prevalence: 74%

And for the most shocking: Justification of wife beating 2002-2010*, male 52%, female 81%

                                                  

On a happier note, we had about 15 hours of Amharic language lessons.   After all these hours I can now say about 10 things (a slight improvement).   I can’t tell if Amharic is a difficult language to learn or if I am just a difficult language student (likely the latter).

getting coffee

All in all an enjoyable 10 days.  Was nice to meet our fellow and previous volunteers, who seem like a talented bunch of individuals.  We’re also extremely happy that our colleague Brian is now in Addis, and hope to get down to some “real work”.

 
A few words from Aysha and 
Sunil.  The in-country training
was good (but sometimes boring).  The food was excellent.
The dancing at the cultural restaurant was kind oflike amazing.  We heard some funny
stories from other volunteers.

I'd Like to Line Up Please

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                                            I need to get used to not having to queue up for things.

Line Taxis

Mike and I have started using line taxis as a mode of transport.  Line taxis are blue mini buses that can hold any number of people.  It’s quite a cozy ride.  There is not really a fixed route and the system works like this: a young boy hangs out of a window, yelling out a destination at an extremely rapid rate.  The mini bus comes to a rolling stop and if you want to board the bus, it’s a mad scramble to get into the small bus and get a seat.  The idea of lining up and entering the bus in an orderly fashion is a no go.  Budding and gentle shoving to get to the front is the order of the day. 

I have to restrain myself from behaving like a 5 year old and yelling “it’s not fair, I was here first, I should be able to get on the bus and not have to wait in the pouring rain for another bus”.  I think I find the whole thing irksome, because since the age of 5, it’s been drilled into our heads that budding in line is a very serious violation of some unwritten moral code.  Perhaps we should allow kids in kindergarten to bud in line, in order to prepare them for these kinds of things in their adult life.

My book and unused deposit slip

I recently opened up a bank account.  This was another exercise of forms and photos. I now have a bank account at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.   My bank book comes complete with a photo of myself (I guess in the event that I can’t identify my book or myself). 

The only problem is that I have not yet been able to make a deposit.  I’ve tried twice.   I show up when I am told to, fill in the deposit form and wait for a teller to appear.   Within a millisecond of the teller appearance, there is a mad rush of bank books flying into a pile in front of the teller.  And then you wait some more, hoping that your book gets to the top of the pile.   And then you get told that the teller is going away, please take your book and come    back “later”.  I need to sort out how to get my book to the top of the pile.

 I would really just like to line up and wait my turn.

Kids and Wondesa

A few words from Aysha and Sunil:  We have started taking taxis by ourselves.  Our favourite taxi drivers are Wondesa and Biruk.  We went to a fancy reception for the VSO volunteers at the British Embassy.  Who would have thought that the fanciest thing I have been to would be in Ethiopia.    The line taxis are not as bad as we thought.  

Happy New Year

                                                Melkam Addis Amet = Happy New Year

                                           

The Ethiopian New Year was celebrated on September, 11^th  (our calendar).  It is now officially 2005 in Ethiopia.

The New Year is celebrated at the end of the 3 months of heavy rains, symbolizing the beginning of a new year.   We’re a bit suspicious that this isn’t really the end of the long rains, as it is pouring rain as I type.

singing girls

From what we could glean, there are several New Year’s customs.   On New Year’s Eve, leaves and wood are bundled up into torches, and burned in front of people’s homes.  On New Year’s Day everyone (with the exception of us) dresses up.  Girls go door to door singing songs in exchange for money.   Boys sell pictures they have drawn.   We now have a lovely collection of New Year drawings in our sitting room.

chickens for sale

A large family meal is had. On the days before the New Year, the streets were filled with chickens and goats for sale.  On New Year’s Day they were conspicuously absent from the streets.   Our landlord (who lives on the same property as us) slaughtered a sheep for his family meal.  Luckily for our weak western stomachs, it was all done very discretely behind a tarp.

Our very kind and hospitable landlady invited us to share their family meal; the sheep was excellent (and very fresh), as was the doro wat.  We ate enough to sustain us for the next few days.

end of dinner

Closing words from Aysha and Sunil:  Fresh guava juice is very good.  Ethiopian New Year was great/interesting/cool.  Too bad our parents didn’t buy a live chicken.  Our landlady made delicious injera and lots of other food, but we couldn’t eat the raw meat.  We really liked the popcorn they served at the coffee ceremony.  I’m glad we got the day off in the middle of the week for New Year’s.

 

It will be a while before our next post.  We are shortly going to be cloistered away at the Red Cross Training Centre for 10 long days in order to do our official CUSO/VSO in country training.

 

Kaldi

It seems to me that no blog about Ethiopia would be complete without a post dedicated to coffee. 

Ethiopia is not only the birthplace of mankind but is also thought to be the birthplace of man’s first cup of coffee.

The legend is some variation of the following:  A long time ago, in the 9th century there lived an Ethiopian goat herder by the name of Kaldi.   He was a very observant fellow, and noted that when his goats chewed on the red berries of a certain plant, they became more energized.  Kaldi tried chewing on the berries himself and found the same energizing effect. 

He then took the berries to a certain holy man.  The holy man was not impressed, got cranky, and threw Kaldi’s berries into a fire.  As the berries burned, the beans inside fell out and started to roast.  Even the grumpy holy man liked the aroma of the roasting beans.  He ordered his servants to quickly rake the beans from the embers.  The beans were then ground up, dissolved in water, and voila—a cup of coffee!

popcorn served at most coffee ceremonies

It appears that this was the start of a tradition of serious coffee consumption in Ethiopia.  From traditional coffee ceremonies, to cappuccinos in places you would least expect, to the upscale Kaldi’s coffee chain, coffee is everywhere.  

 In order to try and fit in, we have been doing our fair share of coffee drinking.  I’m sure you can imagine how difficult this has been for Mike, but he is making a stellar effort.  The kids are joining in, with the odd cappuccino.   I particularly enjoy the coffee ceremonies because nobody gives you a funny look when you heap three spoons of sugar into a small cup of coffee.

What Time Is It ??

Ethiopia uses an interesting time and date system.   In some ways their system makes good sense.  It can however be confusing to a new comer.

In Ethiopia the day starts at 06:00 am (our time).   So, 06:00 am is really midnight and the day gets going from there.   

An example:  Someone might say, we should meet at 05:00 am (Ethiopian time).  You need to do a quick time conversion to realize this means you are to meet at 11:00 am (our time).  You can imagine the potential for missed appointments and arriving way too early for meetings. 

03:00 am start

Our most recent conundrum: we saw an advertisement for a road race and thought we might like to register.   Start time was listed at 03:00 am, which seemed a tad early to get to the start line.  However, once you do the time conversion, 09:00 is quite a civilized start time.

Ethiopia also has its own ancient calendar. It is a calendar of 13 months and is based on the Ge’ez calendar (you can look it up).  Basically, the Ethiopian calendar has twelve months of 30 days plus a 13^th month of 5 or 6 days. Our calendar is based on the Gregorian calendar (twelve months and a leap day every four years.)

 The good news is that it is only 2004 here because of an alternate calculation of the Annunciation of Jesus, or for the more secular minded, year 0.  This means Sunil is 3 years old, and can remind us that he is really too young to attend school.

Of course, I am exaggerating a bit, usually all goes well with time and date but there has been the odd funny episode.

Helpful info-European Time

Birds and a Thief

The Ethiopian Rift Valley was formed about 40 million years ago when the African tectonic plate started to split apart.   It is about 60km wide and runs from Mozambique, through Ethiopia, and north into Eritrea.  I find the following fact very bizarre to imagine: over the next few million years the Rift Valley will slowly be flooded with sea water and East Africa will unceremoniously split off from the rest of Africa. (I guess no need to worry in the short term).

During the formation of the Rift Valley, various lakes were born on the valley floor.  These lakes and their surroundings are now home to several hundred bird species and various mammals.

Our first excursion outside of Addis was to visit a few of the lakes.  Upon driving out of Addis, you really appreciate how agricultural Ethiopia is.  Endless people (mostly kids) herding cows, goats, donkeys…..  Fields of corn, tef, false bananas…

The rift valley birds were amazing and it turned out to be my kind of bird watching; no patience required, the birds just show up.   I am still not a convert to the Mike/Tini/Ravi style of bird watching :)

Ethiopia is not really known for it’s mammalian wildlife, but we were able to see hippos (from a fisherman’s boat), ostriches, warthogs and gazelles.  

Cooking up potatoes

The Rift Valley is also home to some interesting natural thermal springs.  The water gets up to 98 degrees centigrade.  Local villagers use the springs to cook up potatoes and corn (tried the corn, not the potatoes).

During our stay, the inevitable happened.  We were robbed from our hotel room—all of my cash.   Happily our passports and plastic weren’t among the things taken.  Even more happily the hotel management didn’t charge us for our two night stay (which worked out to be an even trade).

 

Closing words from Aysha and Sunil.  “We like the popcorn at the coffee ceremonies.  Our weekend trip was excellent.   I saw an ostrich for the first time and saw gazelles fighting.  It was nice to get out of Addis”