[J] This week has been the first semester final exams for the freshman students. I can't believe it is exam time again. We are still fending off questions/complaints from the last ones. The biology exam was on Thursday so I have 300 scripts to mark by the end of the week. Neal is in the physics exam as I write so he'll have the joy of marking to look forward to in a few hours. For this exam, the biology instructors decided to add more short answer questions to get the students to think about things. They seem to study just by memorising facts and the handouts they are given. This is quite an amazing feat of memory but I wonder how much they actually understand. The genetics problems in this exam meant the students had to apply their knowledge and think a little bit rather than simply regurgitate information. This has been quite telling, and most of the students found it very difficult. Apparently there was even shouting in some of the rooms. However I think this was because of the little "trick" we played. Apparently some of the students had been copying their neighbour and halfway through the exam realised there was more than one exam script and this is when the disruptions occurred! There has been a lot of accusations of cheating happening during the exams. Especially in multiple choice exams where students can just copy the letters from the person sat in front of them. To try and avoid some of this we produced two copies of the exam with the questions in a different order.
We had pretty much the same amount of hassle trying to get the exam duplicated. We were ready to duplicate on the Friday before the exam but on Thursday night there was an announcement that the no-electricity day will be increased to two days a week - Tuesdays and Fridays. So when we came to work on Friday there was mabrat yellem. The generator is currently in Addis being repaired so there was a bit of a problem as there would be no leccy on Tuesday and Wednesday was a public holiday (Downfall of the Dergue). There was much debate whether to come in over the weekend but we discovered the duplicating room was already going to be used by the three departments whose exams were on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. So we decided to wait until Monday. On Monday we got to work to find there was mabrat yellem. Our problem seemed to be getting bigger. There was talk of having to go to Wondo Genet (about 30km away) to use the copying facilities at that campus but eventually a small generator was found and taken to the duplicating room where we set about our tedious task. As it turned out the electricity board had swapped the no-leccy day from Tuesday to Monday due to the church opening (see below) so we could have done it on Tuesday but I was glad to have it out the way with a couple of days to spare!
[J] Tuesday was the official inauguration of the orthodox christian church in Awassa, St Gabriel's. Apparently it's taken twenty years to finish it so perhaps that's why it was such a big event. Buses came from all over the place. I've never seen so many people in Awassa. It was crazy, but there was a festival atmosphere in the air. We decided to go for a quick look at lunchtime. The crowds had died down a bit (everything stops for lunch here!) so we walked up to the church. It really is a spectacular building. We got quite a lot of hassle/begging but mostly it was good natured - not as bad as I expected. We did get two small girls who followed us everywhere we went for about 20 minutes but eventually they went away. Although the crowds had got a bit smaller we didn't go inside because it was very crowded. We did peer in one of the side doors and there are lots of murals inside which look impressive so hopefully we'll go back for a closer look another time.
Due to this event, there has been all sorts of preparations frantically going on around the town. St Gabriel's church is at one end of the main street in Awassa and the lake is at the other end of the main street about 1½ miles away. Down the centre of the street is a kind of verge with railings along them. Every so often there is a break in the verge so traffic can cross to the other side of the road. Last year there were trees in the centre of these verges but they all got chopped down before we arrived. We've heard two reasons why - to install electricity lines for street lamps or the other reason was because the church wanted there to be a clear view of the church from anywhere along the main street from the lake. After this weeks preparations I could believe this was true. First of all the railings were all painted gold and now match the railings around the church compound itself. Then the kerbstones around the verges have been painted with black and white stripes. Finally a couple of weeks ago the road was dug up for a day and then covered up again. We were wondering why and then suddenly the traffic lights started working. This is the most useless piece of traffic control I've ever seen. The first day they worked even the pedestrians stopped when they were red. The main road in Awassa is not exactly busy. Even at "rush hour" there isn't really any need for traffic lights. Now there are four way traffic lights, one of the roads at the junction is hardly ever used but it still gets the same amount of time on green as the other roads. I think the traffic lights cause much more trouble than when they weren't there. Drivers have no concept of what lane to be in if they want to turn. So inevitably the cars that want to turn right are in the left lane (usually taxis) and just cut everyone up to get to where they want to go. Also as soon as the light turns to amber (before it goes green) everyone starts beeping their horn at the guy in front. Thankfully they don't seem to be on all the time. I guess that's one benefit of two days of no electricity! Being on bikes we usually ignore the lights if they are red - otherwise you're stuff waiting for 5 minutes suffocating on the black fumes being belched out from various ancient vehicles. Once this week there was a policeman at the lights who I suspect was on a bit of a power trip. The lights were on red but he waved a minibus just in front of us through because there was no other traffic around. But then he made us two ferenj on our bikes stop - then about 10 seconds after we stopped the light changed to green - What a prat!
Last week we had a new arrival in our compound. A little puppy! As far as we can understand, the little boy who lives here - Abu - found her in the street. Almaz reckons it was abandoned because it's a female and therefore not wanted. So for the time being it's here to stay. For us it's ideal as we have a very cute little puppy to play with but we don't have to look after it! Not that we'd know how to anyway. I am a bit concerned that puppy dogs can't digest injera which seems to be it's only food and some bread. When we go out for dinner, Neal will try and bring back some bones for her but we think she might be a bit small for that at the moment. She doesn't have all her teeth yet.
Animals aren't really kept as pets here. Dogs are kept as guard dogs and I've only seen cats in restaurants and hotels where they are presumably kept to clear up any scraps and prevent other unwelcome scavengers. I've never seen anyone take a dog for a walk. They are just kept within the compounds. It makes for a very noisy night. Dogs bark all night long. We seem to have got used to it now as we don't notice it as much. I figured with dogs in all the houses surrounding ours, one more barking won't really make a difference. It's interesting to watch the kids with the dog. They call to it and try and play with it but when it comes anywhere near them they are absolutely terrified. Especially the girl Butulay who starts screaming if it comes near her. At the same time she tries to get it's attention by hitting it with various pieces of foliage. I suppose she doesn't understand the dog is just trying to play back with her. I shouted at her yesterday because she was trying to answer the gate to let Abu in but the dog was on the path between her and the gate. She was shouting at the dog to go away because she was too scared to walk past it but of course the dog just thought she was playing. I went outside to she what she was screaming at and saw her kick the dog. i ran up to her and shouted it was bad "matfo". I don't know who is more confused the dog or the kids. Luckily Almaz seems to have taken the same view as us and has started playing with the puppy - it's called Boochi - and is telling the kids off when they hit it. It's not really the kids fault. Ethiopians are not exactly a nation of animal lovers. Animals are employed to do a job and are beaten if they don't do it. It's not unusual to see kids throwing stones at horses/dogs/cows that are just minding their own business in the street.
Hopefully, the kids will get used to the pup and she will get used to the kids. In the meantime we'll need to find out if there's such a thing as vets in Awassa and rabies shots/flea collars........
We just want to thank everyone who has sent parcels to us in the last week or so. It's impossible to express in words how much it means to us to get a letter/postcard or small packet. It's easy to feel very isolated out here, especially as we only get to check our emails a couple of times a week. Although email is great for keeping in touch - and quick too. There's something really satisfying about going to our PO Box and receiving some mail. Occasionally there is a little slip of paper indicating there is a parcel to be picked up from the parcel counter. Inevitably we have forgotten to bring ID or it's lunchtime and therefore closed. So we have to agonise for ages, speculating who it is from and what goodies might be inside!
Anyway it never fails to bring huge grins to our faces when we have a letter. Often we'll savour it by going to a cafe and reading it over a coffee and a cake. Our fellow diners must think we're completely mad as we giggle out loud at your news and gossip from home. I can't say enough how warm it makes us feel inside to know that you still think about us. So thank you.
We originally planned to spend this weekend in Addis in a hotel with a hot shower as a treat for our birthdays. We also planned to splash out on lunch at the Sheraton Hotel. However in view of recent warnings from the British government we decided to postpone that trip for a while. We're not convinced the terrorist threat is very serious in Ethiopia but if anything were to happen it would almost certainly be targeted towards somewhere like the Sheraton - where no local could afford to stay. At $200+ per nigh