The number of female students is really low (about 10% in my 3rd year class - Neal has no females in his 3rd year and 1 in his second year group! - oops she's dropped out now so back to zero girls in the physics dept). In this culture females are treated really badly. Right from birth they are second class citizens, given less food than boys in the family and made to do all the chores etc. There is no such thing as male chivalry as I keep finding out. When a load of girls turned up late to a first year lab class I asked why they were late and they told me they couldn't get on the bus coz all the boys pushed them out the way. I would have laughed if the look on their faces hadn't told me this was unfortunately true. The same happens in the library, the girls can't get the books from the reserve shelf as the boys push in from of them and if they do get one they probably won't be able to find a seat to read it.
It's probably the biggest thing that upsets me about this country, you see girls who can't be more than 6 years old carrying great bundles of firewood with no shoes and you can just about guarantee that her brothers won't be doing any kind of physical work. One of my colleagues asked me one weekend why I wasn't helping Neal with his invigilation duties. I explained I had my own duties and was already busy so I couldn't help him. Besides I said he doesn't help me with mine - we do our own invigilations. To which my colleague said "Yes but you are here to serve Neal". His black eye is healing quite well now (only joking!).
I've been missing the Stevie and my daily fix of popmo or tune up. I reckoned after 6 years or so of attending these keep-fit classes in Glasgow I should be able to do something myself here. I had the idea of coordinating this with the womens' affairs office in the Uni. I asked Getie the lady who runs the womens' affairs office if she thought any of the girls would be interested in some kind of aerobics class. There's not much in the way of entertainment for the students living at the main campus. There's a few thousands students and there's one TV, four ping pong tables and a volleyball court. I hardly ever see girls using the table tennis and apparently they have football (English premiership!) on TV most of the time. Two of my students approached me the next week to say they were interested so I put some music together and made up a few moves. It's going pretty well and I have anywhere between 4 - 20 students showing up. Sometimes a few of the VSOs come too and I really enjoy it and it prevents me from becoming too wefram!
We were invited to attend one of Neal's colleague's wedding in Awassa. Misrak and his wife Hanna are very strict Orthodox Christians which is why they were allowed to get married in St Gabriel's church which is the biggest landmark in Awassa. We were keen to attend the wedding ceremony in the church but unfortunately couldn't get a straight answer to when it started. We were told anything from 5am to midday and everytime in-between. So we decided just to attend the afternoon dinner instead.
After the ceremony it is traditional (?) for the bride and groom to
be driven around the town in a big convoy beeping horns, waving flowers
and ribbons outside the car windows, all being led by a truck with guys
in the back holding video cameras and filimng the whole procession.
These processions are a common occurrence in Awassa at the weekends. In
fact as we were cycling down to the reception we came across a wedding
procession. We assumed it must be Misrack's party so were peering in
the car windows and waving at the cameras. When we got to the car with
the bride and groom, we realised it was in fact another wedding. So
they'll have some interesting footage of random, crazy ferenj waving
at them. Oh well it seems people are always more than happy to have a token
ferenj in their wedding/graduation/birthday photos so I'm sure they won't
mind!
The afternoon reception was in a lovely setting by the Lake in Awassa. I think we did the right thing. We were treated to the highlights of the ceremony; singing, dancing and preaching were condensed into the afternoon aswell as a huge spread of food and locally brewed drinks, a celebratory non-alcohlic drink called kineto made from roasted barley and yeast and an alcoholoic drink called tej made from honey which was very tasty. When we arrived at the reception all the guests were waiting for the arrival of the bride and groom. It was outdoors (most functions are here) and we sat on stone benches which were arranged in a big semi circle around a covered stage where the bride and groom would sit.They arrived and were led in by a small girl and boy in elaborate black and gold robes throwing petals. The couple wore long white robes and big hats shaped like ones that bishops wear and looked very regal.
There was some dancing and singing to local instruments and then the bride and groom went to sit on the stage. It was quite difficult to see them where they were, as it was quite far from where we were sitting and there was always at least one guy with a video camera right in front of them. Then there was quite a lot of preaching before we were allowed to get our dinner! The preaching of course was in Amharic so we didn't understand any of it but apparently it was pretty scathing about science and in particular how it was bad to be a science teacher (Um, like the groom and half the guests present) because it distracted people from devoting themselves to the church. Now I'm pretty open minded when it comes to religion if that's what people want, then fine but when the biggest church in one of the poorest countries in the world actively tells people not to work then it makes me a bit angry. I mean how is anything going to develop if there are no teachers because in the schools because they spend all their time at the church. Of course it's okay for the priests, they live quite a comfortable life on their income of donations from some of the poorest people in the world. Oops, I digress!!
Some of the customs at the wedding were familiar, like cutting the cake - except even this was very elaborate. The cake was perched on the top of a high pedestal and the bride and groom held the knife together above their heads and slowly climbed the steps leading to the top layer of the cake. It was then cut and the bride and groom lit sparklers and sprayed fake snow or shaving foam or something similar over everybody! The photos were also a familiar custom. After the meal we were led to a different part of the garden where a little water feature was switched on especially for the photos and then hunners of pictures were taken of various combinations of guests. Then everybody went home! This is the normal thing to do in Ethiopia. I'm still surprised as it seems quite rude to our culture but if you are invited to any kind of event or lunch with an Ethiopian, as soon as the food is eaten, people leave! So unfortunately there was no disco to boogie away or shake shoulders to. It was a great afternoon though and I was really glad we got to see a traditional wedding here. I was told by a colleague that lots of people are know getting married in a much more "western" style so I think we were lucky to share this experience with Misrak and Hanna.
Early one morning we made our way round to Keith and Lori's for a bike expedition around Lake Awassa. We set off at 6 am so we could be back before it got too hot. We left Awassa and headed to the South side of the Lake - Awassa is situated on the East side of the lake. The directions were straight forward - Keep the lake on your right until you get back to Awassa. Keith and Lori had made the trip before though so we knew we were in safe hands. We passed through a village called Loki before heading down to the shore of the lake. As we got down to the shore we stopped to take a few piccies, and Keith played with his hacky sacs - you remember that game from the 80s apparently he takes them everywhere - he even had a play at the top of Mount Sanai when they were in Egypt!
After this point we seemed to pick up a "friend". This often happens, a curious chap (also on a bike) will just match whatever speed you are cycling at and follow you for ages. We didn't mind too much but it got a bit annoying after a while and we were worried he would stick with us all the way for the whole 50 km trip! Then you run the risk of being asked for a money for being a guide! A plan was hatched to shake him off our tail. Keith cycled along side him and chatted away as the rest of us took a sneaky right turn off the main road to stay by the lake edge. After a few minutes decoying, Keith said "ciao" and turned back to catch us up! It could have been that the guy would have gone that way anyway but you can never be sure!!
It was great to be out of Awassa, it was early enough that not many people were around, the sun was up but not too hot and the view was spectacular. As we looked back toward Awassa we could see Tabor Hill getting smaller and smaller. After a couple of hours we were round the Northern side and Tabor was almost directly opposite. Here I had a bit of a problem in the sense of needing a pee. Now it's alright for them boys, just whip it out and relieve themselves at the side of the road. Unfortunately for us girlies it's not so simple. Especially as everywhere we stopped even for a quick sip of water tens of people would just appear from nowhere to stare at us. Hmm nay chance of being discrete then. Keith knew there was a fairly big village coming up so we decided to stop there for a coffee and to use the facilities. We entered the town which was a cluster of shops and houses around a large market square with an enormous tree in the centre. We stopped at the first place that had a painting of bread and coffee indicating a cafe. We stopped outside and parked our bikes just inside the boards that surrounded the outside of the cafe. The kids started coming out from who knows where. As we'd arrived, the place was deserted save for a few of the village elders sitting in the shade of the tree. But literally two minutes later we were being mobbed. We quickly rushed inside the wee cafe and the owner shooed the people away so they stood crowded around the entrance. We asked for coffee "yellem" was the reply - none, we enquired after soft drink - "yellem" Hmmm, we asked what was there and "shy" was the reply. Aah there was tea "shy beecha?" "Only tea?" we asked "shy beecha" came the reply. We ordered tea and the girl pulled out a thermos flask from under the counter and filled some glasses, giggling all the while because the ferenj had spoken in amharic! I enquired after the shint bet - literally urine house - and was led through the back of the shop through some rooms of bewildered looking women and into a field. At the back of the field behind a haystack was a little wooden hut concealing a hole in the ground. I have to say this was much more pleasant than several other holes I've had the bad fortune to experience. It was clean and didn't even smell - well not much. Feeling much happier and relieved I went back past the bewildered looking women who seemed to be wondering what on earth this strange creature was and what was she doing wandering through their abodes. We drank up the tea and made to leave town.
This was when the real show started. The kids had been farily quiet until this point mainly just staring, whispering and pointing. As we got on our bikes and headed out of the town the chase began. All the kids old enough to move on two legs started whooping and screaming and chasing after us. Luckily Keith had warned us about this as it had happened to them the last time they came here. But still nothing could really prpepare you for the intensity and the stamina of these kids. We exited the town and cycled for a good 5 minutes as fast as we could and still the hoards were following behind. We saw some pelicans at the edge of the lake and cycled over to get a closer look. We took some great photos and Neal and Lori got pretty close before they flew away. But alas this foolish interval allowed all the kids to catch us up. And now it was not just the kids from the last town but from the next village too - we were being surrounded. At first we had to laugh at the spectacle of 5 ferenj on bikes causing such a frenzy in these small villages just 20 odd km from Awassa but obviously the inhabitants don't get out much. Now we were at a serious disadvantage, the surface was sandy so it was difficult to cycle and there was no chance of getting away, especially with half a dozen brats grabbing on to your bike. We gave up and walked until we got back to firmer ground and then an unspoken decision to cycle for your life until we were well clear was unanimously accepted.
So we eventually escaped unscathed and cycled past small villages with traditonally built huts with just a strip of land with trees on between them and the lake. There were many cattle taken through the trees to drink from the lake. We were greeted with friendly shouts of "ferenj" or "salam" mostly from village elders sat under the trees. Lori spoke to a man who told her he had 200 cows, so he must have owned most of the cows by the lake. As we got out of the villages and carried on round the lake edge, we saw some cool punk birds. Lori informed us they were cranes and they had caused great excitement to Fred when they had spotted them last year as they are not usually see in Ethiopia. We found from our bird book they are grey-crowned cranes. they are very elegant looking and have a crest of a golden mohican on their heads. A bit further on we stopped for a rest under an enormous tree. We were subject of a wee bit of attention here too but mostly just staring, these kids seemed to scared to speak to us. They didn't chase us either - which was nice!
We carried on round, keeping the lake to our right and new we were heading back to civilisation when we spotted a pepsi shack behind a long fence. We realised this was the army base situated outside of Awassa so it was nice to know we were almost back. As we passed the guard's hut Lori had a spot of bike trouble but luckily nothing too serious so we were able to carry on. After the army base we entered the town of Tikur Wuha which runs into Awassa. Glad to be back in one piece we stopped on the outskirts of Awassa at a pleasant hotel called South Spring for a well deserved lunch break. The scenery around the lake was beautiful and it was great to get out into the country side for a while, even with all the hassle!
We made some plans based around the university 'timetable', which of course susequently went out of the window. This did have the upside that we could go and meet Mum/Margot and Dad/Mike at the airport and spend a day in Addis with them. They took off on the Northern route for the first week of their stay, taking in Gondar, the Simian Mountains and Lalibela. They reported back having had an interesting time with all arrangements going smoothly.
During the next phase of their stay we took a car down to Awassa. We took this opportunity to transport a mini-fridge down to our house. We have discovered that a fridge is a considerably better asset than running water! From Awassa we did a few excursions:
From Addis we took a bus to Nazaret. This certainly provided a bit of interest, with the will it / won't it make it question. It was a particularly interesting bus, which had to stop to let what we decided must have been a slipping clutch cool down before we could limp onwards again. Eventually we rolled into town (probably a bit bigger than Awassa) and took the short walk to the Safari Lodge Hotel. We liked this place a lot. It was just really nice. Swimming pool, trees, service that was there but not obtrusive, a cocktail menu which bore a close resemblence to what was brought back to your table after you ordered - that sort of thing. Once father and I had fixed the sink so that the plug worked, everything was perfect. Just to remind us how nice it was we went for a walk around Nazaret. Someone tried to pick-pocket me, twice, the second time Jenny punched a guy, they didn't try again.
The journey back to Addis was a little more troublesome than the other way. We took a line taxi which claimed to be going to Addis and then only went as far as Modjo (think Scotch Corner without the service station - or motorway for that matter). We were dropped at the bus station where people tried to contract hire line taxis to us - but we weren't having any of that and we just settled in for the wait on a regular bus. It wasn't too bad - we were off in about 45 minutes.
After a bit of this and that in Addis the big silver bird came to get the parents and we were by ourselves once more.
Jenny got herself a lift back to Awassa while I put myself on a bus back to Nazareth. I was meeting my students at the technical college there, so that we could make use of their laboratory facilities as ours remain somewhat lacking. I was fairly gobsmacked at the facilites available at Nazareth - it was all set up by the German technical cooperation group GTZ about ten years ago and was quite simply brimming over with a whole range of equipment. Our students had a good week and the exposure must have done them well.
I rounded off my bout of travels with a couple of days walking around Addis with one of our lab techs, collecting 'proformas'. This is the first stage in the purchasing procedure and will be followed up with a purchasing committee going to Addis to purchase what we got quotes for. Hopefully.
At first glance you might be impressed at the sponsorship deals that go on around Awassa. The student cafeteria is sponsored by Coca cola and bizzarely by Pepsi too, the Garis (horse drawn carts) are sponsored by Nike or even mobile phone companies. However as you may have started to suspect these are not genuine deals. It seems that people just like the logos and paint them on everything hence the mixed Coke/Pepsi sponsorship! Even the ping pong tables at the Uni have 7Up and Pepsi enblazoning the surface. The painting is usually pretty good aswell and a good copy of the original. Of course there are no copyright laws in Ethiopia so no-one cares if the logo is real or not.
Yesterday we saw what must be one of the funniest logo copying. We were cycling behind a gari which had red mudguards over the wheels with O2 painted in white. This was a little strange as there are no mobiles in Awassa (yet!) but then of course we realised it was football realted and sure enough just above the O2 was written arsenal - who are gaining extra supporters by the day here as they are doing well in whatever competition they are doing well in - I think some people have swapped allegiances from Man U! Anyway the best thig about his gari was just under the numberplate was another numberplate sized piece of board which had been painted red and had O2 at the right hand side and they must have written this part first coz they've started to write arsenal from the left hand end but it didn't fit so it says "Arse O2" which I thought was quite amusing as I'm sure they have no idea what it means!
Earlier this year, Boochi (the dog) came on heat for the first time. We tried to keep her in the compound but she was desperate to go out. We also weren't able to get the message across to Almaz and the kids that it might be a good idea to keep her inside for a while. We tried tying her up but our first attempts were foiled by Boochi chewing through the rope! We bought some chain and got a collar from Neal's Mum and Dad and tied her up when we went out but she hated it and often got untied or wriggled out of her collar too.
Boochi was hot stuff in our neighbourhood, all the male dogs would literally wait outside our gate for her to come out! So of course the ineveitable happened, and she became pregnant. This was worrying as the normal procedure for dealing with puppies is to give them away (well the boys anyway) or leave them at the side of the street to die. This probably sounds very harsh if you're reading this from the UK, but here, I'm sorry to say "life is cheap". Not just animals but humans too. When you see the state that some people are living in it's hardly surprising that animal welfare is the least of their worries. I wasn't really happy about leaving them on the side of the street as vulture food and was considering if it would be more humane to drownthem at birth (well get someone else to). I spoke to the other Neil in Awassa - He bought a "male" dog from a friend in Addis as a guard dog which gave birth to 13 puppies a short time later! He told me he just continued to feed the mother and let the puppies fend for themselves. Most of them didn't survive the first few weeks. Survival of the fittest and all that.
Anyway after a few months of wondering whether or not she might be pregnant it became pretty obvious that she was. We were wondering when they might be born and then she dissappeared for a couple of days. We thought we heard a lot of activity in the middle of the night and eventually asked Almaz if she'd seen her. She had because Boochi had her puppies in the safe refuge of Almaz's "shint bet" ( that's "urine house", remember) or more politely known as the bathroom. We realised that this is the only shelter that Boochi might have as she's not allowed in our house or in the living parts of Almaz's house at the back of the compound. When we saw her she only had two babies, we're not sure if this is the total number or if any died in the couple of days before. Of course they're very cute and we think one is a boy and it sounds like Almaz wants to keep them anyway (don't ask me how?). Boochi is very protective over them and growls if any one comes near. She's not too bad with us or with Almaz but when the kids need to go to the loo it's quite amusing as the dog growls and Butulay shrieks "weiny weiny" a general exclamation of surprise or fear!
This Saturday we went to the Yamare Hotel to meet a colleague and some of the other volunteers for a drink. Everything was just going on as normal, we were fighting to get the attention of the waiter to bring us beer or food or change the wrong drink for the right one and just having a good time. Opposite us there was a large party of guys who were rather rowdy. this may not sound too strange for a Saturday night but generally speaking people are more restrained and quiet in Ethiopia. Every so often one of them would get up and make some kind of speech in Amharic, wave a banner around and everyone would erupt into cheering and clapping. On closer inspection the crowd seemed to be an Arsenal football club appreciation society. The banners turned out to be towels with the Arsenal emblem on them and then we twigged that tonight they had won the premiership. Now I know that English football is popular here but this was riduculous. They were having a full on Ethiopian party, complete with a bonfire and songs - What kind of songs they were singing in Amharic about Arsenal football club I can't even begin to imagine. This event did remind me that there are some things in the UK that I don't miss and football and rowdy football fans (unless they're thistle supporters!) are definately in that category!
Kath in Dilla had a stroke of genius when she went back to Ireland and brought back a 'Murder Mystery' party pack for Michela's birthday. This was based around a murder in ancient Rome and all participants had to dress in an appropriate style. Diane and Ray hosted the event and cooked a splendid banquet of roast dinner and we even had grapes, especially tracked down in Addis. Better not spill the beans on who the murderer was in case you go to the same party!
I'm becoming quite garden-proud. I've never really done any gardening before except failing to grow herbs on the windowsill of our flat in Glasgow. Here of course I am greatly aided by the sunny weather although it can be a struggle getting enough water to the poor thirsty seedlings. The rainy season is approaching again so it's the best time for planting and growing. Last year we had some success with courgettes and had very large brocolli plants which unfortunately never produced any actual brocolli. I think this is because they got too much sun and not enough water. This year we've eaten two aubergines so far and some pepper plants and brussel sprouts are growing. I think the peppers are suffering from a lack of water as they're not producing flowers or fruit. The brussels sprouts are growing really well but I'm worried they will be devoured by the mouse birds. I used to think these birds were quite cool as they have funky punk hair styles but now I'm thinking like their name they are pests - they have devoured the brocolli leaves which I hadn't got around to digging up but now they seem to have taken a liking to the Brussels sprout plants. Boochi must have been an effective bird scarer as it wasn't really a problem before but since she's been busy with her pups she has been neglecting her bird-chasing duties and those mouse birds have definately taken advantage.