[J] We had our first experience of Dorro Wat last weekend so now we have experienced the real Ethiopia! Well Neal had Dorro Wat which he said was very nice and Almaz gave me some of the sauce so I had Dorro Wat without Dorro! It was spicy and delicious. On Saturday night after the Feven we stopped off at St Gabriel's church which is a big Orthodox Christian church which dominates the skyline of Awassa. We got there just after midnight when the service started. We didn't go inside (apparently you can't anyway because it's not completed) or join in the service - we didn't want to create a disturbance and also who knows what time it went on till. We just stood near the gates for half an hour or so soaking up the atmosphere. There were lots of very excited children telling us they were staying up all night at the church. People were selling candles and there was lots of chanting coming from the hundreds of people attending the service. The whole thing was very chilled out and the church was lit up and looked stunning. Unfortunately I think I may have ruined the moment by insisting we went home coz I was busting for the loo. Well I had had a few beers!
Keith and Lori were invited to a colleague's house to attend the slaughter of a goat for Easter. Keith is now thinking about eating vegetarian for a while! They said it was an interesting experience but very bloody and Keith remarked he never knew goats had such big testicles! Actually this is true I'd never noticed either but I took a closer look at some of the goats roaming the streets and he's right. Take a look next time you see a male goat!
I was thinking about the whole slaughtering ritual and trying to make up my mind how I felt about it. My initial reaction was revulsion and an urge to leave our house on the Saturday night before the chickens got it. But in reality I think that, on the whole, meat production in this country is probably better than at home. I know I'm biased anyway but I think the animals probably have a better life here. They are certainly free-range. They can go anywhere they like. We often arrive home to find a donkey/horse/cow/goat or chickens pottering around our gate. Meat is considered a luxury food in Ethiopia although it is freely available (apart from during lent) and regularly eaten. People who earn a reasonable salary (for example our colleagues at uni) probably eat it every day but for those who earn less (for example our guard's family) it's only bought for special occasions. However as I mentioned it's normal just to buy the live animal, and part of the preparation is killing it. This may sound gross to some people but at least Ethiopians know exactly where there food comes from. I wonder how many kids in Britain know that the contents of their hamburger was once part of a cow. I suppose the only cause for concern would be whether or not the animal is slaughtered humanely. I suspect that it is the best interest for all concerned to get it over with as quickly and cleanly as possible and that such techniques are passed on from one generation to the next.
[J] Next time you buy some sesame seeds from the supermarket or any type of seed for that matter, or in fact lentils, or beans, or pasta, or rice just stop and think about what has happened to it before it gets into the nice clean and sterile environment in which you find it. I have just spent the last hour or so sorting out sesame seeds form all the other crap that they come with. Everything like that is sold by weight from big barrels. These barrels have no lids so the contents get very dusty and a bit mixed up and quite a few stones find there way in too. So before cooking any such food item first you have to sort it out. Removing the stones is especially important as they are apparently the biggest reason for having to visit the dentist amongst VSO volunteers. Then they have to be thoroughly washed and dried in the sun. Then if you have beans you need to soak them overnight before cooking them. Phew. I think this is one of the reasons why all working people have serategnas to do this sort of stuff for them. Cooking takes a lot longer when nothing is pre-prepared.
Okay I'll stop ranting now.
[J] I wasn't going to write about this episode but I decided that it was important to give a balanced view of our life here and not only write about the good things that happen. So a combination of events led to Friday probably being our worst day so far. A few days ago our toilet started misbehaving and not flushing away. We suspected a blockage but it didn't seem too bad and our serategna said she'd try and get someone to fix it. The plumber was too busy that day to come and have a look. So we kept tipping lots of water down it and hoping for the best. Of course on that night we had no water (Murphy's Law) AND lets just say I wasn't 100% healthy. Not a good combination. Almaz went out again to get someone to fix it but Thursday was a holiday (Mayday) and so is Monday (Patriots' Victory Day) so most workers take a long weekend and it appeared nobody would even be contactable until Tuesday. I went to the clinic and discovered I had amoeba - nice - actually it hasn't been that bad I've not been completely right for a couple of weeks but well enough to continue working etc so I had put off getting a test till Friday when I decided I really needed to be cured if we weren't going to have a toilet for 3 days! Luckily there is a pit latrine out the back of the house so at least we had somewhere to go. It's at times like this when you realise that pit latrines that don't rely on water and don't get blocked on a holiday weekend are actually a pretty good idea.
That evening Neal and me and my amoeba went round to Fred and Liddy's to check our email and see if they had any experience of plumbers or phone someone who did. Neal's sister Liz is due to have a baby - Today in fact - so we wanted to make sure the family had all the necessary contact details to let us know. Anyway when we got there it turned out their phone wasn't working although it had been just half an hour before we arrived. Liddy had a good laugh at us in our sorry state. No toilet, no water and no electricity even because it was a Friday. An authentic VSO experience we told ourselves. "Character Building" Neal told me - which made me want to smack him! Keith and Lori were in Addis so we went to Ilske's who lives on the other side of Awassa to us. We got there and checked our email. Then we phoned our boss who's said to contact him if we have any problems. Only trouble was he was away for the weekend. His wife however was very helpful and thought she knew someone who could help and promised to come round the next morning.
We cycled home feeling tired (I'd had four lectures), hungry (it was after 8pm) and a bit down in the dumps. We were preparing to spend the evening feeling very sorry for ourselves. Although Neal didn't get tested we eat all the same food and we suspect he has amoeba too. Luckily at this point things started to get better. When we got home Almaz showed us to our fixed toilet. We must have completely misunderstood her as someone had come round and fixed it - hurray. I had some drugs and whilst we were making tea the power came back on. When we sat down to a tasty tea of corn soup suddenly things didn't seem so bad anymore!
We've been pretty busy which is why we haven't written for a while. You'll be glad to hear that we're both feeling tip-top again now although we still haven't been able to muster up the energy to get to our gym classes at 6:15am for a couple of weeks now. Oh dear I'm afraid we're letting our fitness slip.
[N] Today I experienced my second Ethiopian haircut. I use the word 'experienced' advisedly, as it truly is an unparalleled experience. If you are male and thinking of coming to visit (and like your haircuts short), then make sure you have enough of a crop to justify a visit to the 'Cozi Barbery'. I guess many of Ethiopia's enticingly named barberies would provide a similar service, but I think I'll be a Cozi man during my stay here. Keith can't keep away from the place, and quite frankly, who can blame him.
It even starts well. Here is a service where you can walk in and
make an appointment! So with a hour to kill that gives opportunity to
get a macchiato and a cake at the Tadesse, while catching up on some
reading. Then, on-time, you are ushered into the chair, a collar of
'soft' (sounds better than 'loo roll') is delicately placed to form a
hair-tight seal between you and your freshly laundered gown. After
giving the instructions 'short at the back and sides, medium on top' the
barber sets to work. Blades for the electric clippers are taken from the
sterilizing unit, attached, adjusted and oiled. A selection of clipper
attachments and a comb are removed from a sterilizing fluid and dried.
There now follows about fifteen minutes of careful trimming, switching
between the various attachments to achieve the desired effect. Then it's
the bare blade to tidy up the edges. All this is accompanied with
frequent and delicate dusting downs with a soft brush to ensure there is
no flecks of hair tickling you anywhere. The trimming is finished off
with a wave of a pair of scissors across the head. Now things get really
interesting - after a rub down with a hot towel, some sort of oil is
massaged into the hair, then there is the piéce de resistance.
The ear cleansing. A cotton bud is dipped in something (alcohol based
presumably) and then the barber has a good rummage in your aural tract.
I have to grip the chair quite firmly during this part. And that's it.
Half an hours work, six Birr, can't say fairer than that.
[J] Last weekend we had a bit of a problem and had to sack our guard (zabagna). However we still wanted to employ his wife, Almaz. This presented us with a difficult decision but looking back we also got an interesting insight into Ethiopian culture. To try and solve the problem, Almaz, her mother and another lady who could translate asked for a meeting with Neal and I. The meeting was very civilised and a coffee ceremony was performed throughout. It seemed very natural that the future of our zabagna was being decided by women. There was no shouting just a lot of chatting, we stated our reasons why and we said we wouldn't change our mind. Our decision to sack him was accepted with typical Ethiopian dignity and no further questions were asked. I had been really worrying about it all day, expecting some sort of confrontation, so it was such a relief and almost a pleasant experience. The outcome of all this is that our guard has left but Almaz is still living here with the kids. This is a very unusual situation here. So far things are working out okay and Almaz can use the excuse of our strange ferenj culture to explain her situation if necessary.
This left us with no night guard - luckily (well only for us) there is no shortage of people desperate for work. We have hired a boy called Pedros. He is quite young - still at school - but worked for a previous VSO volunteer in Awassa who left in February so we feel like we can trust him. He also has a very big stick - a compulsory piece of guarding equipment.
[J] Officially last Saturday was the last day of teaching for the first year course. Unofficially the majority of lecturers for all the sciences hadn't finished the syllabus. There are various reasons for this - Neal and I started a week late, there were lectures scheduled over the mid-semester exams but unsurprisingly no students turned up to them and there has also been an extraordinary amount of holidays in the last few weeks (Easter, Mayday, Patriot's victory day and a muslim holiday too).This meant there were several "make-up" classes arranged but unfortunately there is no kind of room-booking system in place. You just have to find out from the students when they are free, turn up to the new campus to teach them and just hope that there will be a room free when you get there. Luckily neither of us had any major problems.
I have now finished my syllabus and my students said they didn't want any more revision classes. I think this proves that I'm such a good teacher they understand everything - or perhaps they just want rid of me! Neal is still trekking up to the new campus every few days to wage battle with his students but more about that later (See exam result mayhem).
Before the final exams, the students have two weeks of biology and chemistry labs. That this has happened at all is a great logistical feat. 1050 students have to be taught as many laboratory hours as practical in two weeks. They have been sorted into groups of 75 and have 41/2 hours a week in each lab. This means there is teaching happening from 7:30am to 8pm six days a week. Also the labs are being carried out at the old campus as there are no facilities in the new campus yet. So the students are bussed in for their labs and back for lunch/dinner if necessary. I think it must be nice for the students get away from the old campus for a while. There is nothing to do up there, except study - and even that's difficult as there's only a temporary library with about 20-30 copies (or less) of each textbook. Not many students here can afford to buy their own textbooks and there are no computer facilities yet either. There are no sports facilities and nowhere for them to "hang out". We've spied a few of them in the cafes near the uni at lunchtime instead of getting the bus back to the campus cafeteria.
There are enough biology instructors that we only have to teach one lab each day. Well when I say teach I don't really do very much. The technical assistants have run these labs before and give the prelab talk so I just wander around, help the students if necessary and answer questions. It's good to get an idea of the ability of the technical staff (very good from what I can see) and to get to know the students a bit better. However I have got a lot of other things I could be getting on with and its plain to see the technicians can handle it quite well themselves. This part of our job is very much "gap-filling" the first year course will be taught in schools next year so there isn't any capacity to improve them for next year.
[N] Oh for multiple choice exams. Not for physics, no. We have full-on problems to solve with swathes of paper available, across which students can spill the contents of their minds. The physics exam had five questions on it, each prepared by one of the five instructors that take classes for the freshman course. It was decided that the best approach was for each instructor to mark the question that they had set. This would improve the chances of consistancy across the scripts. So the main hassle was having to pass 1050 scripts amongst the five instructors, but in a fairly unstructured way this worked reasonably well. About two weeks after the exam I had my question marked and most of the other instructors were either also finished or at least well on the way. Except for one, who had marked his question for his group of 150 and then appeared to run out of steam. This dragged on a bit until about a month after the exam, by which time the students were quite rightly baying for blood, when he arrived at the office with a bag of unmarked scripts and stated that he wasn't going to be marking them. I thought this was very funny and left it a couple of days for him to stop foolin' around get on with it. And then picked up my classes scripts and marked his question myself. I'd have to think twice before taking my foot off his head if he were to happen to find himself in Awassa Lake with one of my lower limbs between him and oxygen. At least that was mid-semesters over with, so I would be able to move on with my life... or so I thought. Now, I was aware from Jenny's experience that the students could be a little up-front about the criminal way in which their scripts had been marked, so I decided to try to pin down some sort of policy on how "corrections" should be handled across the different instructors classes. The strategy went like this - give them their papers and allow ten minutes for them to check for howling mistakes, then take back any papers that there were queries with, sort those out and that would be the end of it. Well in a way it worked, except that about half the students had "corrections" to be made, so I had to go through each paper with the individual students for them to argue their corner. This took a few days and is a logistical nightmare because the students are at a separate campus, so I was carting exam scripts back and forth on my bike for a week or so. Of course there were some mistakes, 1050 scripts can leave you a little derranged, which just feeds the fire really. You do get the occasional laugh of course when a student comes up to you with their paper with a "correction for you teacher" which is written in a different colour pen from the one that the rest of the script is written in (the ten minute rule with my class seemed to avoid this sort of carry on). I give these students the option of discussing it with the head of department or leaving me in peace, no-one took up the former option, suprisingly.
[J] I took a different approach for my classes. Our results were posted much earlier than physics so I have had students pestering me for a long time. This has been one "cultural" difference that has been difficult to accept. I had several students approach me and say something along the lines of "Teacher - you must have made a mistake on my paper. I was expecting 39 (out of 40) but I only got 29." The first time I heard this it took me a while to stop laughing in amazement at the arrogance of these students. I can't imagine ever speaking to a lecturer like that - well at least not when I was an undergraduate! However after I had about 20 students saying the same thing I started to get a bit pi**ed off. I mean it was a multiple choice exam - not exactly a taxing job to mark. Anyway I decided there was no way I was carting 300 exam papers up to the new campus so I told persistent students if they wanted to see their papers they'd have to come to the old campus. I had some students with very high marks (35+) asking me to bring their papers so I hoped by making them come to me only those who would genuinely benefit from seeing their papers would be bothered to come. I think this tactic worked. I probably only had about 30 - 40 students come and see me over the last few weeks. I was starting to get paranoid that maybe I had made a complete mess of marking the papers but I'm pleased to say that only one student - and they check their papers extremely thoroughly - had an extra mark awarded, he also had a half mark taken away too! Hopefully this sends the message to the students that I am actually competent enough to mark their exams and there will be less hassle next time. For a while I was wondering if they were questioning me because I'm female and young but after talking to several colleagues I know this is not the case. Some of the students are just very confident/arrogant. My colleague said they often forget that the lecturers are qualified and they think they are always right. One example of this happened during the exam. I was coordinating so had to answer any questions about the exam. One student called me over when I entered the room and told me "There's a mistake in this question." I assured him that there wasn't but he insisted "There are two incorrect statements here and it says to pick one." Again I assured him that there was no mistake and there was only one incorrect statement. This argument repeated itself several times and the student just wouldn't believe me. Eventually I told him if he couldn't choose between them he could write both answers but he wouldn't get any marks if he put two options!
[N] Kicked into action by the double whammy of receiving an astronomy book in the post and a break in the rains, I ventured out into the garden two evenings ago. With 'Stars and Planets' (thank you James!) in one hand and our 7x50 binoculars (thank you astro-folks) in the other, I stood looking south. Perhaps I'll start a separate observations page, but here's a summary of my first session: Around 19:00 GMT. Observed CRUX (southern cross) and CENTAURUS constellations. Alpha and Beta Centauri are very prominent. NGC 5139 (Omega Centauri - globular cluster) was seen as a hazy circle. Apparently it extends to an area roughly the same as the full moon, but I didn't see it so big. NGC 4755 (Jewel Box - open cluster) was very nice, with definite separate colourful stars. The sky isn't dark enough to see the Milky Way from Awassa, we'll just have to wait for a clear night and a power-cut or head to the mountains!
[J] This week I got a new office. More importantly than that I got a key to the office too. Whhooppeeee! I'm so happy, in this office there is room to swing several cats AND it doesn't smell of fish (my temporary office was next to the lab where they examine fish from the lake every week!). At the moment I have it to myself but when the new head of biology is appointed I will have to share it with him. This isn't bad though because he will be the head of dept, there will likely be a computer and phone installed. Neal is still waiting for the folks from the Social Science dept to move into their new building so he can have the room they vacate with one of his colleagues. He actually has the key already but can't use the office yet!
[J] Last night we decided we would go to the cinema for some Sunday evening entertainment. The Pelican Brief was showing which neither of us had seen so we paid our 2 Birr (for the expensive seats) and went in. Last time we went I don't remember there being a shop but there is one so we even bought some sweeties for that authentic movie experience. What we saw of the film was good, we were really enjoying it. Unfortunately just as the case was starting to get solved, the film stopped and the dvd boot-up screen appeared. The projectionist then made several attempts to go back to that point - encouraged by much shouting, clapping and whistling from the audience - but every time it reached that point in the film it stopped. The crowd were getting more and more angry and then the dumb projectionist played the rest of the film at about 20x speed so we glimpsed the end but he couldn't get it to play properly.
After about twenty minutes of this the screen was switched on again and the film started. The credits rolled up and then we realised he had just put a completely different film on. He had put a Jackie Chan movie on instead. There was no announcement or anything just another film. After watching about 5minutes of cheesy nonsense we realised there was no chance of seeing the end of the film so we left.
[N] I was having a bit of a heart to heart with one of my second year students the day after the cinema, about how he felt about the university and their course. Then kinda out of the blue he said that he was really sorry about the movie last night... It turned out that he'd been at the cinema too, he was really embarassed that Ethiopia couldn't manage to entertain us in our free time. I tried to assure him that this sort of thing happens back home too and that we had previously enjoyed a film in Awassa with no such problems. The rest of our chat was interesting, he told me that he was a high scoring student and this was a problem for him because he wanted to be a teacher. In Ethiopia you don't chose what path you follow through your education, it is determined from your grades, various quotas and the like. I didn't bring up the suggestion of fluffing a few exams, but I'd guess it had crossed his mind anyway.
After a long wait of 20 days past due date, Neal's sister Liz gave birth to a baby girl today. So congratulations Liz and Jim. You wouldn't believe how excited we've been, well actually I'm sure Liz was getting a bit impatient herself. In fact everyone we know in Awassa has been asking us every day if there was a baby yet. So finally Harriet Rebecca Gardner decided to make her entrance into the world at 11.38 am weighing in at 8lb 10.5 oz and both mother and baby are well. Due to a slight misunderstanding of a phone message we thought she was called Henrietta for a day but we have now been corrected and we like the name Harriet a lot. The downside is that we are completely gutted that we missed the whole thing and we can't be there with the rest of the family. It's weird to think that by the time we get back, Harriet will be her own little person and not a baby anymore. At least we've seen photos already and we hope to get lots more and updates of her every activity!
[N] Managed to achieve our first trip to the swimming pool today. We had been thwarted on three previous occasions; (1) no water in pool, (2) started raining as we left our house, (3) caught up in preparing exams. We nearly got caught out by (1) above again, but took the trip to the Wabe Shebelle II hotel (from Wabe Shebelle I - where there was no water). It was great, outdoor pool, reasonable size, colobus and vervet monkeys fooling around all over the place.
[J] It was such a perfect morning. Quiet, no hassle from anyone and very relaxing. After our swim Neal and I stayed on at the hotel for a lass lassa (soft drink) by the lake. As we sat, refreshed by our swim, with an ice-cold drink looking out over the lake I felt very content. We watched several birds rushing around on the lake, one pretty one was pottering around by the edge of the water, we later identified it as a jacana. Further round the lake many locals washing clothes, and kids laughing and splashing around in the lake.
[N] Mabrat yellam kan (no electricity day) has been extended in Awassa, so now on two days each week, from 6am until 10pm there is no power. Idle thoughts about getting some car batteries to run the laptop off are getting pushed up my priority list. Although we have had a reasonable amount of rain in Awassa, seemingly the region as a whole has not. Since almost all the capacity is hydro, that leaves us rather scuppered. Gonna have to come up with something! There seems to be a consistent supply of either sun or wind, so I'd say that's where the clever money is.
[J] Recently the uni campuses have been having a tidy up. The grass has been cut and the hedges trimmed. This doesn't sound very exciting but the first time I saw the grass being cut I was mesmerised. Of course there are no lawnmowers - labourers are much cheaper. Several men were sat in a large circle of grass, each with a small knife with a curved blade. These men neaten up the lawns by grabbing a handful of grass and using the knife to cut it. The cuttings are then loaded onto the wooden wheelbarrows that are used all over the place to transport stuff. The reason I was so gobsmacked was the expanse of grass they were expected to trim. It must have taken them days to finish. The same methods are used to trim the hedges around the uni. Except these workers are lucky enough to get shears which were skillfully used to create spherical bushes.
[J] One of the more frustrating aspects of work is meetings. There are two aspects to this - first is the amount that the staff are expected to attend and secondly is trying to arrange one myself. I actually don't have to attend that many meetings, I can usually excuse myself as they take place in Amharic! My biggest problem is trying to arrange them. People don't have anything like a diary or agenda of any kind which they note down any appointments they may have. This means you cannot expect anyone to remember a meeting if it is arranged anymore than two days in advance. I have been trying to arrange fortnightly meeting to discuss potential research projects. I arrange them at the same time in the same place every fortnight on a Thursday evening in the hope people will remember. There are only five of us involved at the moment but we still, on average, only manage a meeting once a month. This is because on Thursday afternoons, inevitably at least one of the group will have just found out about another meeting they have to attend. It's so infuriating that no one thinks to say they already have another appointment. I just wait around every two weeks to see if enough people turn up to bother having a meeting. Sigh ......
[J] When eating out it's important to remember exactly what you've ordered. This is because when you come to pay the heesab (literally meaning maths) you have to recount to the waiter what you've had. You then have to go through the same ritual. First we usually list what we've had then, having already worked it out, quote our bill. Invariably the waiter will shake his head and say a different number (not always bigger either). We then have to go through the procedure of going through every item, confirming the price of it and adding up together. It ALWAYS comes out as the number we originally said and after all this the waiter just acts as if he had been right all along. It's not really a problem unless you're in a rush or can't quite remember how many beers you've had.
Once we had a waiter who tried to charge us 2 Birr (about 15p) for each plate of tibs (fried meat) which we knew cost 7 or 8 Birr because we eat there regularly. We know the manager (which is why we didn't want to pay so little money) so we called him over to sort it out. It turned out the waiter doesn't speak English OR Amharic (There are about 70 languages spoken in this region of Ethiopia) but is apparently a relative of the owner!