So I've arrived back in Vancouver now and will probably be kept fairly busy with job hunting, writing about music, catching up with friends and all those things. I've enjoyed writing this and it's helped keep me on my toes to try and think of fresh new things to write every few days. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you're interested in reading about things that have nothing to do with Ethiopia (or at least not too much), which I write, you can find them at Streethawk, Tooth & Dagger and Discorder. They are mostly of the musical variety.
Goodbye and thanks for reading!
Jordie
Friday, June 8, 2007
Thursday, May 31, 2007
London & re-entry to society (or Supermarket Shock)
I'm in London now on my friend Jessica's computer. I was a little too busy during my last days of Ethiopia to post from there however I said my goodbyes and left without incident. I even got through customs on both sides of the airplane ride quickly! Hooray!
I spent sometime being touristy in London, but since this is a blog about Ethiopia, (it's in the URL and everything) I'll write something about that. So getting back to civilization on the first day was a little surreal, especially the trip to the grocery store near Jess's apartment. Living in Gondor has been a big change in the consumerist/shopping vein. I lived in a place where you didn't have much in the way of choice in foods and while you could find a nice choice of dry goods, pretty much anything that could rot was in short supply. Meats were limited, as were veggies, fruit, and dairy... frozen foods were unheard of. With this in mind shopping became a little bit of a different experience. I'll go with vegetable shopping for an example. In Gondor you could regularly find potatoes, tomatoes, chile peppers and onions. On good days you could also find avocados, spinach, carrots and pumpkins. I might be forgetting something, but you get the drift. If you see one of the rarer vegetables you buy it immediately (except the pumpkins, they were just too big). If you don't you might not see them again for weeks if at all.
Now take this new mentality and go into your average grocery store. It doesn't work! You sort of flop between wanting to buy everything and just staring blankly at the selection and trying to work out all the combinations of choice into something that makes sense. My shopping brain has essentially been destroyed and I'll have to rebuild it from scratch to make sense of the variety of foods (and probably everything else) available again. You think about culture shock, but you don't really think about reverse culture shock. Admittedly it was only a few months so I'll probably get back into the swing of things pretty soon, but if I ask you to hold my hand through a shopping experience you know why.
I spent sometime being touristy in London, but since this is a blog about Ethiopia, (it's in the URL and everything) I'll write something about that. So getting back to civilization on the first day was a little surreal, especially the trip to the grocery store near Jess's apartment. Living in Gondor has been a big change in the consumerist/shopping vein. I lived in a place where you didn't have much in the way of choice in foods and while you could find a nice choice of dry goods, pretty much anything that could rot was in short supply. Meats were limited, as were veggies, fruit, and dairy... frozen foods were unheard of. With this in mind shopping became a little bit of a different experience. I'll go with vegetable shopping for an example. In Gondor you could regularly find potatoes, tomatoes, chile peppers and onions. On good days you could also find avocados, spinach, carrots and pumpkins. I might be forgetting something, but you get the drift. If you see one of the rarer vegetables you buy it immediately (except the pumpkins, they were just too big). If you don't you might not see them again for weeks if at all.
Now take this new mentality and go into your average grocery store. It doesn't work! You sort of flop between wanting to buy everything and just staring blankly at the selection and trying to work out all the combinations of choice into something that makes sense. My shopping brain has essentially been destroyed and I'll have to rebuild it from scratch to make sense of the variety of foods (and probably everything else) available again. You think about culture shock, but you don't really think about reverse culture shock. Admittedly it was only a few months so I'll probably get back into the swing of things pretty soon, but if I ask you to hold my hand through a shopping experience you know why.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Almost done
I'm so busy, but I thought I'd just say that I'm almost done my job! Woo! I'll be in on Saturday to finish up, and possibly post something more substantial than this.
Jordie
Jordie
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Departure (coming up)
Leaving Gondar seems fraught with paperwork. In addition to the recommendations and reports I have to submit for work I also have to finish up my goodbyes to people here.
Yesterday (or maybe the day before) I said goodbye to an unusual young man named Waretow who is a student at the college. He is perhaps the most devoted scholar I've ever met. He reads the dictionary every day attempting to improve his vocabulary. He used to be a shoeshine boy when he was younger and claims this is how he first learned English, talking to tourists for tips. His friendship with me seemed a little forced as I'm fairly certain he me with me mostly to practice his English. Nevertheless I certainly had some interesting conversations with him as I drank beer (because I was usually going out after) and he drank tea (because it was the cheapest thing he could order). I've never really had people come up to me and ask me to explain isms (minimalism, atheism, etc) to them, which he did quite regularly and he sorely tested my knowledge of some of them.
I don't think I'll miss him much, but knowing him was an odd experience. We've exchanged mailing addresses, as he doesn't have any access to a computer or phone. I gave him my copy of the Brothers Karamazov which I never actually finished, but I'm certain he'll get some use out of it. He'd actually heard of Dostoevsky when I handed it to him and he seemed excited so that's a vote in favour of him actually finishing it.
Yesterday (or maybe the day before) I said goodbye to an unusual young man named Waretow who is a student at the college. He is perhaps the most devoted scholar I've ever met. He reads the dictionary every day attempting to improve his vocabulary. He used to be a shoeshine boy when he was younger and claims this is how he first learned English, talking to tourists for tips. His friendship with me seemed a little forced as I'm fairly certain he me with me mostly to practice his English. Nevertheless I certainly had some interesting conversations with him as I drank beer (because I was usually going out after) and he drank tea (because it was the cheapest thing he could order). I've never really had people come up to me and ask me to explain isms (minimalism, atheism, etc) to them, which he did quite regularly and he sorely tested my knowledge of some of them.
I don't think I'll miss him much, but knowing him was an odd experience. We've exchanged mailing addresses, as he doesn't have any access to a computer or phone. I gave him my copy of the Brothers Karamazov which I never actually finished, but I'm certain he'll get some use out of it. He'd actually heard of Dostoevsky when I handed it to him and he seemed excited so that's a vote in favour of him actually finishing it.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The Simiens part 3
The rest of the trip was felt feeling ill. Not that I didn't get some hiking in, but it wasn't really as much fun now that I was suffering from chronic fatigue. The next day I took the short route along the road with our cook and the mules. Our cook Sisay, who seemed to have experience with sick people in the mountains secretly hired a mule for me. He didn't say it was for me until he caught up with me panting my way halfway up a steep slope. He'd ridden the mule from the bottom of the slope after letting me go ahead and politely suggested that maybe I'd like to ride part of the way. Gratefully I accepted and rode a placid mule the rest of the way up the hill through barley fields and animals grazing. That mule was the best animal ride I've ever experienced. Unfortunately, it was just to the road and then it had to go home. I walked from there with frequent breaks, but made it more or less intact to our final camp. Chennak (sp?).
Chennak is situated in a sheltered valley full of gelada baboons, with a picturesque stream running through it and small palm tree-ish plants growing throughout it. We didn't hike much once we got here, but we didn't really need to as right next to the sheltered valley is a huge dropoff that has some breathtaking views. Between these and the least worried baboons we were pretty entertained for the remaining time we stayed in the Simiens. This turned out to be a lot longer than we'd intended because our driver was 6 hours late. There had been a gas shortage in Gondor and we were all quite annoyed with him for not thinking to fill up the day before. It's hard to get good help. Getting in at midnight I was too exhausted to shower and just fell straight into a stupor that would last a couple days until I eventually got better.
The Ethiopian government seems to have backed off on their attempts to block access to Blogger so I'm able to do my own posting again. Thanks so much to Michelle for her help while I was unable to post. If you're interested in donating to VSO, but have been too lazy to do so up until now, please click up on the left to make a donation. VSO is run on a combo of government and donor support, so every little bit helps.
Chennak is situated in a sheltered valley full of gelada baboons, with a picturesque stream running through it and small palm tree-ish plants growing throughout it. We didn't hike much once we got here, but we didn't really need to as right next to the sheltered valley is a huge dropoff that has some breathtaking views. Between these and the least worried baboons we were pretty entertained for the remaining time we stayed in the Simiens. This turned out to be a lot longer than we'd intended because our driver was 6 hours late. There had been a gas shortage in Gondor and we were all quite annoyed with him for not thinking to fill up the day before. It's hard to get good help. Getting in at midnight I was too exhausted to shower and just fell straight into a stupor that would last a couple days until I eventually got better.
The Ethiopian government seems to have backed off on their attempts to block access to Blogger so I'm able to do my own posting again. Thanks so much to Michelle for her help while I was unable to post. If you're interested in donating to VSO, but have been too lazy to do so up until now, please click up on the left to make a donation. VSO is run on a combo of government and donor support, so every little bit helps.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
The Simiens pt 2
So the second day on the Simiens we got up early to go see some of the more amazing viewpoints. I woke up to the raspy cry of the thick-billed raven, which are the biggest crow relative I've ever seen. We didn't have a lot of hiking to do today which meant we would have a lot of time to kick around and admire the views. Heading towards Mount Gogol (sp?) we saw a Lammergayer which is the biggest bird available to find in Ethiopia and it really is quite huge. It was trying to break open a bone it had found for its marrow by dropping it onto the rocks near the path we were walking on. We watched for awhile and then moved on to the narrow ledges that led to the viewpoint which stands at a 3990m which is higher than I'd ever been before.
At this point I started to feel the altitude in the form of dizziness and a slight headache. It wasn't enough to stop me, but it was destined to get worse. The viewpoint is hard to put into words so I'll put pictures up later, but let me tell you that 4000m is really high. We headed back to camp and on the way it started to drizzle, then pour and finally hail as we ran into the shelter of camp. It didn't last long, but we were all freezing by the time we got there. This is about the time that the altitude sickness decided to kick in. Altitude sickness is what hits you when your body decides it isn't used to the amount of oxygen it's getting. It's not fun and involves, dizziness, nausea, fatiguem, a splitting headache and a loss of appetite on top of your lungs constantly complaining. I vomited and then went to sleep for 14 hours skipping out on dinner. It was the best sleep I got while in the Simiens, but it wasn't exactly something I wanted. I still had 2 days left in the mountains.
Don't forget to donate!
At this point I started to feel the altitude in the form of dizziness and a slight headache. It wasn't enough to stop me, but it was destined to get worse. The viewpoint is hard to put into words so I'll put pictures up later, but let me tell you that 4000m is really high. We headed back to camp and on the way it started to drizzle, then pour and finally hail as we ran into the shelter of camp. It didn't last long, but we were all freezing by the time we got there. This is about the time that the altitude sickness decided to kick in. Altitude sickness is what hits you when your body decides it isn't used to the amount of oxygen it's getting. It's not fun and involves, dizziness, nausea, fatiguem, a splitting headache and a loss of appetite on top of your lungs constantly complaining. I vomited and then went to sleep for 14 hours skipping out on dinner. It was the best sleep I got while in the Simiens, but it wasn't exactly something I wanted. I still had 2 days left in the mountains.
Don't forget to donate!
Friday, May 11, 2007
The Simiens Part 1
So censorship issues aside what I'd meant to tell you about last post was my trip to Simien mountains. The Simien Mountain National Park is four hours north of Gondor and houses some of Ethiopia's rarer/more interesting species of life.
We drove in starting early early in the morning. Our driver needed to get gas and had trouble doing so (foreshadowing) and then we picked up our cook and a Belgian couple who had asked to tag along the day before. Upon reaching Debarc we picked up our scout, Tesfan who would be with us the whole trip and headed into the park. Tesfan is an older friendly gentleman who wears his toque like a sailor with the edges folded up. He walks with a limp and carries a Lee-Enfield rifle straight out of World War 2, as opposed to the more common automatics. Even with his limp he out distances us with little effort and we are constantly calling him to rest. He has been walking these mountains most of his life and lives in fact in the town next to our first campsite, which both share the name of Gich. We hike for awhile before stopping for lunch at a viewpoint. We are now quite high above our starting point and on our way we saw an 800m high water fall dropping off onto an unseeable valley floor. Can't stay here all day though so off we go. On our way to the camp we see some amazing wildlife at a distance we have never seen before. We spend an hour walking through a valley full of gelada babboons who are for the most part unafraid of us. I try and count how many we can see from one particularly good viewpoint where we can see a huge troop just across a river from us and give up at around 80. There are probably over a hundred though. Some get within metres of us and I have some good pictures to post when I get copies of them. We reach the camp with time to spare passing through Gich and we're all starving. Our cook has set up the food for us though and we all get to chow down pretty quickly.
Children from the nearby village stand around and stare at us shyly (sometimes creepily in the case of the one child who insisted on following people around and whispering "Hello" to them"). They hold chickens and beer which they'll sell to us if we're interested, we're not really though so they stand there with there chickens and beer and stare at us until night falls.
That night is the coldest most uncomfortable night of my life. Thinking that it wasn't so cold when I went to bed I crawl into my sleeping bag wearing a T-shirt and underwear. I wake up at night and am hot and sweaty as usually happens to me in sleeping bags. So I take my shirt off without leaving the bag. Still hot and sweaty I decide to get a drink of water. My water bottle is at my feet so I get out of the sleeping bag to get it. I have a couple sips of water and realize that it is REALLY REALLY cold out. I get back into my sleeping bag and spend the next hour shivering until my body heat is restored. The rest of the night is spent sleeping very lightly.
Next up Part 2! Don't forget if you want to donate to VSO you can click up in the top left link to VSO Canada's page to donate in my name. Tomorrow's my dad's birthday too, so happy birthday Dad!
We drove in starting early early in the morning. Our driver needed to get gas and had trouble doing so (foreshadowing) and then we picked up our cook and a Belgian couple who had asked to tag along the day before. Upon reaching Debarc we picked up our scout, Tesfan who would be with us the whole trip and headed into the park. Tesfan is an older friendly gentleman who wears his toque like a sailor with the edges folded up. He walks with a limp and carries a Lee-Enfield rifle straight out of World War 2, as opposed to the more common automatics. Even with his limp he out distances us with little effort and we are constantly calling him to rest. He has been walking these mountains most of his life and lives in fact in the town next to our first campsite, which both share the name of Gich. We hike for awhile before stopping for lunch at a viewpoint. We are now quite high above our starting point and on our way we saw an 800m high water fall dropping off onto an unseeable valley floor. Can't stay here all day though so off we go. On our way to the camp we see some amazing wildlife at a distance we have never seen before. We spend an hour walking through a valley full of gelada babboons who are for the most part unafraid of us. I try and count how many we can see from one particularly good viewpoint where we can see a huge troop just across a river from us and give up at around 80. There are probably over a hundred though. Some get within metres of us and I have some good pictures to post when I get copies of them. We reach the camp with time to spare passing through Gich and we're all starving. Our cook has set up the food for us though and we all get to chow down pretty quickly.
Children from the nearby village stand around and stare at us shyly (sometimes creepily in the case of the one child who insisted on following people around and whispering "Hello" to them"). They hold chickens and beer which they'll sell to us if we're interested, we're not really though so they stand there with there chickens and beer and stare at us until night falls.
That night is the coldest most uncomfortable night of my life. Thinking that it wasn't so cold when I went to bed I crawl into my sleeping bag wearing a T-shirt and underwear. I wake up at night and am hot and sweaty as usually happens to me in sleeping bags. So I take my shirt off without leaving the bag. Still hot and sweaty I decide to get a drink of water. My water bottle is at my feet so I get out of the sleeping bag to get it. I have a couple sips of water and realize that it is REALLY REALLY cold out. I get back into my sleeping bag and spend the next hour shivering until my body heat is restored. The rest of the night is spent sleeping very lightly.
Next up Part 2! Don't forget if you want to donate to VSO you can click up in the top left link to VSO Canada's page to donate in my name. Tomorrow's my dad's birthday too, so happy birthday Dad!
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Don't worry I'm not dead
So on Thursday I attempted to post a heads up to let everyone know that I'd be going on a four day mountain trek in the Simien Mountains far away from computers and my contact with the outside world. However when I attempted to post this my connection continually timed out. This was unusual, but hadn't happened before. I was certain my parents would worry about my lack of internet activity, which is how they make sure I'm alive. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to wait out the problem (which is how most internet problems are fixed here), so I went home to pack.
I just got back to find the same problem and an inability to login to my blogger account through proxy services like The Cloak or Proxify. I couldn't get through to the nearby Kenyan anonymous proxy service either. The Ethiopian government had finally cracked down on blogging and shut everyone in Ethiopia effectively out of the service. Facing defeat I was about to give up the blogging when the excellent Michelle Mayne offered to post for me in exchange for the illicit thrills annoying a government would offer. There is a brief and vague story in which the Ethiopian government lies profusely about their censorship here. If you are interested in knowing more I will attempt post more on it as I learn it. Until next time give thanks to Michelle and wait for an exciting account of the Simien Mountains.
Oh also I keep meaning to start a fund drive for VSO before I go. I really do believe that VSO is one of the better and more effective volunteer organizations operating in Ethiopia and a lot of the work they do is because of donors. So if you have some money floating around (tax receipts available upon request) please click that link up on the left hand side of the page that is for VSO Canada and at the bottom of the page there's an online form you can fill out to donate.
I just got back to find the same problem and an inability to login to my blogger account through proxy services like The Cloak or Proxify. I couldn't get through to the nearby Kenyan anonymous proxy service either. The Ethiopian government had finally cracked down on blogging and shut everyone in Ethiopia effectively out of the service. Facing defeat I was about to give up the blogging when the excellent Michelle Mayne offered to post for me in exchange for the illicit thrills annoying a government would offer. There is a brief and vague story in which the Ethiopian government lies profusely about their censorship here. If you are interested in knowing more I will attempt post more on it as I learn it. Until next time give thanks to Michelle and wait for an exciting account of the Simien Mountains.
Oh also I keep meaning to start a fund drive for VSO before I go. I really do believe that VSO is one of the better and more effective volunteer organizations operating in Ethiopia and a lot of the work they do is because of donors. So if you have some money floating around (tax receipts available upon request) please click that link up on the left hand side of the page that is for VSO Canada and at the bottom of the page there's an online form you can fill out to donate.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Dashen Brewery
Dashen Brewery is the local government brewery. Some people drink it to show their patriotism and some people refuse to drink it to protest the government. I tend not to drink it because it doesn't taste very good. In it's favour though it is the cheapest beer you can find in Gondor. I meant to go on a tour of the their brewery which is located not too far out of town before I left, but instead I stumbled across a better way to visit it. On Friday myself and some friends were out at one of the local pubs when we found out that the brewery was having a big party on Saturday. All day long, free food and drink, live bands, a comedian, the works. Of course we have to try and go. Our first solution to try and crash it proved unnecessary when sitting next to us a friendly drunken man introduced himself as the Dashen Representative in Charge of Inviting Foreigners. He might have made this up, but whether that was the case or not he did have a bunch of invites to give us.
So the next day off we go to the Dashen party. It was fairly humongous with about 3000 people in attendance. The music was good from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about the music beforehand. I'd write a review, but I have no idea who played except for someone named Ababa. We were the only foreigners there except for the nice old Jewish man who runs the tahini factory down the road (he gave me some tahini). This fact gave the impression that the self-proclaimed Dashen Representative in Charge of Inviting Foreigners was not very good at his job, but also made us incredibly popular. I opened someone's beer with my key-chain/bottle-opener and was then swarmed with requests to do this to the point that when a proper waiter showed up people tried to refuse his service to get mine. That was actually a little much to be fetishized like that. Double-standard alert! What wasn't too much though was
when a security guard came up to me and said, "Do you like food?" Not something easy to say "No" to. I've always kept food up there with things like air, sleep and shelter when I'm deciding on whether I approve of them. So I voiced my approval and he took me by the hand to the back of the food tent, where I was given a plate and unlimited access to the food.
The funniest part was the other people who had also been offered this privilege which were a number of staff, myself and a guy in a really nice suit. The guy in the really nice suit kept stuffing chunks of raw meat into his pockets because he said it was expensive to buy. As expensive as your really nice suit, buddy? I doubt it.
So the next day off we go to the Dashen party. It was fairly humongous with about 3000 people in attendance. The music was good from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about the music beforehand. I'd write a review, but I have no idea who played except for someone named Ababa. We were the only foreigners there except for the nice old Jewish man who runs the tahini factory down the road (he gave me some tahini). This fact gave the impression that the self-proclaimed Dashen Representative in Charge of Inviting Foreigners was not very good at his job, but also made us incredibly popular. I opened someone's beer with my key-chain/bottle-opener and was then swarmed with requests to do this to the point that when a proper waiter showed up people tried to refuse his service to get mine. That was actually a little much to be fetishized like that. Double-standard alert! What wasn't too much though was
when a security guard came up to me and said, "Do you like food?" Not something easy to say "No" to. I've always kept food up there with things like air, sleep and shelter when I'm deciding on whether I approve of them. So I voiced my approval and he took me by the hand to the back of the food tent, where I was given a plate and unlimited access to the food.
The funniest part was the other people who had also been offered this privilege which were a number of staff, myself and a guy in a really nice suit. The guy in the really nice suit kept stuffing chunks of raw meat into his pockets because he said it was expensive to buy. As expensive as your really nice suit, buddy? I doubt it.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Riots
Yesterday I got an email warning volunteers to stay clear of the Arat Kilo and Siddist Kilo regions of Addis Ababa (the capital I just got back from) with a vague warning of disturbances. Got this in my inbox today:
> There are continuing disturbances at the Siddist Kilo and Arat Kilo
> campuses of Addis Ababa University.
>
> The cause for the disturbances is the death on Wednesday of a student from
> food poisoning, and the subsequent post mortem including removal of
> internal organs (conducted without family permission). Federal police have
> entered Siddist Kilo campus and the situation is currently under control.
> Students at the Arat Kilo are engaged in stone-throwing with the police
> and the Dean has been injured.
>
> The Black Lion Hospital has also been the scene of protests.
I am glad that I got this email because a friend of mine is going to Addis and was planning on visiting the Siddist Kilo campus museum while he was there. If I hadn't warned him about this he might have unknowingly walked into the middle of a riot.
It really drives home the lack of a source of news in Gondor and really anywhere outside of Addis Ababa is pretty starved of news. There's no newspaper infrastructure outside of the capital really and what news there is, is mostly state-controlled so certain things are silently omitted. There's the official Ethiopian Herald, which is gov controlled and hasn't been updated online in a couple days, since before this development happened. The independent Sub Saharan Informer is pretty good and in fact carries this story currently, but is only allowed to operate because it is Kenyan based (I believe). I check the BBC pretty regularly, but that only covers big stories and usually a few days after they've happened. Things happen here all the time that would be front page news in Vancouver, but aren't mentioned because of a lack of infrastructure. Incidents such as a lynching that happened in a fellow volunteers town, that he didn't know about until he was asked about it in Addis. It's really appalling to see what happens and goes unheard of in a place without an established press.
> There are continuing disturbances at the Siddist Kilo and Arat Kilo
> campuses of Addis Ababa University.
>
> The cause for the disturbances is the death on Wednesday of a student from
> food poisoning, and the subsequent post mortem including removal of
> internal organs (conducted without family permission). Federal police have
> entered Siddist Kilo campus and the situation is currently under control.
> Students at the Arat Kilo are engaged in stone-throwing with the police
> and the Dean has been injured.
>
> The Black Lion Hospital has also been the scene of protests.
I am glad that I got this email because a friend of mine is going to Addis and was planning on visiting the Siddist Kilo campus museum while he was there. If I hadn't warned him about this he might have unknowingly walked into the middle of a riot.
It really drives home the lack of a source of news in Gondor and really anywhere outside of Addis Ababa is pretty starved of news. There's no newspaper infrastructure outside of the capital really and what news there is, is mostly state-controlled so certain things are silently omitted. There's the official Ethiopian Herald, which is gov controlled and hasn't been updated online in a couple days, since before this development happened. The independent Sub Saharan Informer is pretty good and in fact carries this story currently, but is only allowed to operate because it is Kenyan based (I believe). I check the BBC pretty regularly, but that only covers big stories and usually a few days after they've happened. Things happen here all the time that would be front page news in Vancouver, but aren't mentioned because of a lack of infrastructure. Incidents such as a lynching that happened in a fellow volunteers town, that he didn't know about until he was asked about it in Addis. It's really appalling to see what happens and goes unheard of in a place without an established press.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Roosters
Roosters are one of the most annoying things ever created by Mother Nature. The only satisfaction I get out of having a rooster nearby is that I know that at some point my landlord will grab it by the feet and lop off it's loud head. This is how I console myself when I am woken between 5 and 6:30AM every day.
A trip to Addis
I didn't post recently not because of laziness, but because I went to Addis Ababa for an IT conference. A conference like this is excellent news for a person in my situation as a volunteer not in the capital. It offers an opportunity to have regular hot showers, eat food that you can't get in your small town (Gondar's not that small, but the food is limited), pick up some goods you might not be able to find elsewhere and feel some normality in having some degree of anonymity. I say the last one because most people don't shout at you as you go by in the Capital, they're almost used to foreigners there. Except cab drivers... they always shout at you.
"Hey you want taxi?!"
"Taxi! Over here, let's go!"
"Where you go!?"
Things like that. The point is as a volunteer who is in a country who's probably finished touristing around you really look forward to the luxuries (actually just things that you used to have, but don't anymore) if they become available. I had a burrito and a curry when I was in Addis, that was pretty awesome. I also flew in and out of Addis and learned that Ethiopian Airlines is the most hijacked airline in the world. There was apparently a documentary about it. However, despite (or because of) all the hijackings they one of the best reputations for successfully resolving hijackings without deaths, one of the pilots has done it a dozen times. Woo that certainly makes me feel safe. Though I was not intending to test their security I did by losing my photo ID somewhere in Addis. I was allowed on without showing any evidence of who I was beyond holding a ticket with my name on it. Although I noticed someone in front of me got on with a rainbow laminated photo ID that looked like it had been made at Staples and then laminated... actually that's what my photo ID looks like (minus the rainbows).
"Hey you want taxi?!"
"Taxi! Over here, let's go!"
"Where you go!?"
Things like that. The point is as a volunteer who is in a country who's probably finished touristing around you really look forward to the luxuries (actually just things that you used to have, but don't anymore) if they become available. I had a burrito and a curry when I was in Addis, that was pretty awesome. I also flew in and out of Addis and learned that Ethiopian Airlines is the most hijacked airline in the world. There was apparently a documentary about it. However, despite (or because of) all the hijackings they one of the best reputations for successfully resolving hijackings without deaths, one of the pilots has done it a dozen times. Woo that certainly makes me feel safe. Though I was not intending to test their security I did by losing my photo ID somewhere in Addis. I was allowed on without showing any evidence of who I was beyond holding a ticket with my name on it. Although I noticed someone in front of me got on with a rainbow laminated photo ID that looked like it had been made at Staples and then laminated... actually that's what my photo ID looks like (minus the rainbows).
Monday, April 16, 2007
Going out
So last night I went out with some coworkers, which was exciting because I hadn't been out with coworkers who are habesha (Ethiopian) before. We grabbed some food and then hopped around bars downing far too much alcohol for a Sunday night. The high point of the evening was at a dance club we ended up at called 1st Bar where, Megbaru apparently decided I needed an Ethiopian girlfriend.
What made this event particularly amusing was his insistence on finding me one right now. His technique for doing this consisted of dragging a hapless girl who was dancing somewhere else over near us. Then he would ask her if she spoke English. He would then turn to me and say "I asked her if she speaks English". She would then dance off back to her friends. I assume she said "No". Then he'd do it again. And again. And again. At this point my disbelief at his attempts had been replaced by loud laughter and maybe he did find a girl who spoke English, but she was put off by my constant laughter at the ridiculousness of the whole situation.
Anyways afterwords I went home by cab and as usually happens when I got home late I had to walk through a pack of stray dogs, which is incredibly unnerving. The dogs that don't have homes in the neighbourhood seem to hang out on the road near my house and at night when the streets are empty they collect and lurk around. There's about 8 of them and they're big. They make me very glad that I have an infinite supply of imaginary rocks to drive them away with. They are quite ingrained with a fear of rocks as Ethiopian's tend to throw rocks at lots of things to drive them away, dogs, goats, chickens, kites, children and so if you pick up some imaginary ones you can scare off the dogs that tend to menacingly glare at and stalk you when you get home at night.
What made this event particularly amusing was his insistence on finding me one right now. His technique for doing this consisted of dragging a hapless girl who was dancing somewhere else over near us. Then he would ask her if she spoke English. He would then turn to me and say "I asked her if she speaks English". She would then dance off back to her friends. I assume she said "No". Then he'd do it again. And again. And again. At this point my disbelief at his attempts had been replaced by loud laughter and maybe he did find a girl who spoke English, but she was put off by my constant laughter at the ridiculousness of the whole situation.
Anyways afterwords I went home by cab and as usually happens when I got home late I had to walk through a pack of stray dogs, which is incredibly unnerving. The dogs that don't have homes in the neighbourhood seem to hang out on the road near my house and at night when the streets are empty they collect and lurk around. There's about 8 of them and they're big. They make me very glad that I have an infinite supply of imaginary rocks to drive them away with. They are quite ingrained with a fear of rocks as Ethiopian's tend to throw rocks at lots of things to drive them away, dogs, goats, chickens, kites, children and so if you pick up some imaginary ones you can scare off the dogs that tend to menacingly glare at and stalk you when you get home at night.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Religion and a brief mention of corn flakes
Before I left I was chatting about travelogues with Peter and he pointed out that all his travelogues are obsessed with food, and are really boring to read after you get back. This is why I'm not going to tell you how happy I was to eat corn flakes for breakfast this morning. I was really happy though.
Instead I'm going to talk about Protestants. Protestants are the persecuted religious minority in Gondor. As religions go, the oldest is the old African stuff that no longer exists much although there's apparently some practitioners in the ruraller areas I've never met them. So effectively the religion that forms the old boys club in Gondor is the Christian Orthodox and that's what most people follow. There is a Muslim contingent, but they've been here so long that they don't really get persecuted anymore. They probably did back in the day though. So the Protestants are the newest form of religion in Gondor and they seem to be treated about as well as Medieval Jews*. As recently as 13 years ago there have been incidents of Protestants being murdered and beaten up. They have a harder time getting a job and when they recently built a church to worship in it was burned down while all the Protestants were out celebrating the building of their new church. If I were coming to Ethiopia and was a Protestant I might neglect to mention this fact. Oddly this religious intolerance seems to have singled out Protestants as most other religions are just the religions of foreigners and the locals only have a vague understanding of them at best.
To end on a lighter note I'll relate a story my friend Avi, (who is Jewish if you hadn't guessed from the name) told me. He was asked his religion and said Jewish to which he was happily clapped on the shoulders and told he was just like them (they were Orthodox). A little surprised by this he pointed out that there were a few differences in their religion to which they replied "Like what?".
"Well, there's the Jesus thing"
"But you believe in him right?"
"Well, I believe he existed."
"But we both believe he was the son of God so we're the same"
"Actually Jews don't believe he's the son of God"
"But you know he was the son of God right?"
"No, we don't believe that."
"Are you sure?"
"Yep, pretty sure"
"I think that you know he was the son of God."
"No, we don't believe that."
It went on in this vain for a while. The point being that he (the Ethiopian) seemed to think that Jews really did know that Jesus was the son of God, but just claimed he wasn't to be difficult. Those wacky Jews always denying the truth of Christ even though deep down they know he was the son of God.
All this talk of religion and I haven't even discussed powerpoint presentations (which are apparently very important to religion) or my Buddhist defensive measures. Hopefully I'll do that soon.
Jordie
*I actually don't know much about the life of a Medieval Jew, so what I actually mean to say is they seem to be treated about as well as I vaguely understand Medieval Jews were treated.
Instead I'm going to talk about Protestants. Protestants are the persecuted religious minority in Gondor. As religions go, the oldest is the old African stuff that no longer exists much although there's apparently some practitioners in the ruraller areas I've never met them. So effectively the religion that forms the old boys club in Gondor is the Christian Orthodox and that's what most people follow. There is a Muslim contingent, but they've been here so long that they don't really get persecuted anymore. They probably did back in the day though. So the Protestants are the newest form of religion in Gondor and they seem to be treated about as well as Medieval Jews*. As recently as 13 years ago there have been incidents of Protestants being murdered and beaten up. They have a harder time getting a job and when they recently built a church to worship in it was burned down while all the Protestants were out celebrating the building of their new church. If I were coming to Ethiopia and was a Protestant I might neglect to mention this fact. Oddly this religious intolerance seems to have singled out Protestants as most other religions are just the religions of foreigners and the locals only have a vague understanding of them at best.
To end on a lighter note I'll relate a story my friend Avi, (who is Jewish if you hadn't guessed from the name) told me. He was asked his religion and said Jewish to which he was happily clapped on the shoulders and told he was just like them (they were Orthodox). A little surprised by this he pointed out that there were a few differences in their religion to which they replied "Like what?".
"Well, there's the Jesus thing"
"But you believe in him right?"
"Well, I believe he existed."
"But we both believe he was the son of God so we're the same"
"Actually Jews don't believe he's the son of God"
"But you know he was the son of God right?"
"No, we don't believe that."
"Are you sure?"
"Yep, pretty sure"
"I think that you know he was the son of God."
"No, we don't believe that."
It went on in this vain for a while. The point being that he (the Ethiopian) seemed to think that Jews really did know that Jesus was the son of God, but just claimed he wasn't to be difficult. Those wacky Jews always denying the truth of Christ even though deep down they know he was the son of God.
All this talk of religion and I haven't even discussed powerpoint presentations (which are apparently very important to religion) or my Buddhist defensive measures. Hopefully I'll do that soon.
Jordie
*I actually don't know much about the life of a Medieval Jew, so what I actually mean to say is they seem to be treated about as well as I vaguely understand Medieval Jews were treated.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Happy Fasika! (Cow Killing)
So my next meal would end up really driving home that I am in another culture that occasionally I'll think I understand, but will inevitably be proven wrong. Although, it was a very different experience I would not say it was as amusing as the first one.
I joined my landlords family for dinner and it was a much more relaxed affair compared to the last one. They were not as dressed up nor did they offer the fancy drink (ouzo) instead just cracking me a beer when I got there. The food was essentially the same as the last meal although there was a vegetable inhabited variant of tibs that was quite good. There were a number of extended family visiting and among them a couple who had recently been married. The family has apparently not seen them since the wedding and they had brought a copy of their wedding video with them. So they decide to put it on while we're eating. I am at first quite curious in a cultural sense to see the differences between our wedding ceremonies.
The first minute of the video was a quick pan over the kitchen which showed lots of women hurriedly making food for the wedding's feast. The next minute was a pan over a bunch of cows which were going to be eaten at the feast. The next twenty (20) minutes were the aforementioned cows being slaughtered in graphic detail at which point I promptly lost my appetite although the family seemed happily entranced by the proceedings which contained such lovely images as cows throats being slit, their entrails being removed, and then it happening again to another cow. After this had passed I politely left.
You're not in Kansas anymore, Jordie.
I joined my landlords family for dinner and it was a much more relaxed affair compared to the last one. They were not as dressed up nor did they offer the fancy drink (ouzo) instead just cracking me a beer when I got there. The food was essentially the same as the last meal although there was a vegetable inhabited variant of tibs that was quite good. There were a number of extended family visiting and among them a couple who had recently been married. The family has apparently not seen them since the wedding and they had brought a copy of their wedding video with them. So they decide to put it on while we're eating. I am at first quite curious in a cultural sense to see the differences between our wedding ceremonies.
The first minute of the video was a quick pan over the kitchen which showed lots of women hurriedly making food for the wedding's feast. The next minute was a pan over a bunch of cows which were going to be eaten at the feast. The next twenty (20) minutes were the aforementioned cows being slaughtered in graphic detail at which point I promptly lost my appetite although the family seemed happily entranced by the proceedings which contained such lovely images as cows throats being slit, their entrails being removed, and then it happening again to another cow. After this had passed I politely left.
You're not in Kansas anymore, Jordie.
Happy Fasika! (Drop It Like It's Hot)
For those of you whose knowledge of Amharic does not extend to holidays:
Fasika = Easter
Fasika will probably be the biggest celebration I see while I'm in Ethiopia. I will not be arround to see the celebration of the Ethiopian millenium which I imagine will also be a big deal. You can also tell how long a ferenji has been in town by how many invitations to eat at other peoples houses you get. I recieved three. People who had been here 3 months or upwards seem to recieve about 20 each. Fasika is also the celebration of the end of Orthodox Ethiopians fasting period which is the 40 days of Lent plus 15 extra days at the start for some reason I can't remember. At 9PM of Saturday before Easter Sunday they are allowed to eat meat again and they do this with great gusto. Starting with lots of chicken then going to sleep and waking up to eat lots of sheep and some more chicken. Beef is eaten, but it's not a celebratory meat (sort of like how you'd be much more likely to eat turkey than beef at Thanksgiving or Christmas).
I just got back from my first meal of the day which was incredibly filling and consisted of doro wot (chicken fried in burbere sauce), tibs (boiled mutton), ouzo, coffee and tallah (a disgusting local drink that I can describe as a homebrewed beerish thing that has a lot in common in flavour to cold weak coffee). Also a banana. Not particularly the healthiest meal I've ever eaten. There's way more food than you can eat and all they do is put more and more in front of you, constantly urge you to have more and then look faintly distressed if you say "No" on the very valid grounds that you are full, so that next time you feel guilty and say "Yes" but only a little and then they serve you/pour you way more than you wanted. The food is good though, but I am luckily only going to two meals (I dodged an invitation) otherwise I might explode/get embarassingly drunk. Which is what I expect to hear happened to some of the other ferenjis tomorrow.
What was perhaps the funniest part of the whole event was Ethiopian's love, but general misunderstanding of top 40 party rap. The meal starts we all go through the ritual handshake greetings that characterize Ethiopia, say we're all fine, get introduced to people we don't know, etc, sit down and start to eat. While we're starting to eat our hosts son turns on the DVD player and starts playing some music. Myself, Norma (a 73 year old coworker from Penticton) and an extremely Orthodox religious family will spend the next hour or so listening to such fine artists as Snoop Doggy Dog, The Game, Lil Jon, 50 Cent, Ludacris, G-Unit, and Eminem sing about how good they are at spending money, doing drugs, and having sex with promiscuous women. I'm fairly certain they also have no idea what the songs are about because I can't imagine the strongly held religious beliefs would allow them in the house if they did. The only attempt I made at explaining rap was quickly sidelined by their disbelief that poor people exist in North America, though so we didn't stay on the topic for too long.
To be honest I'd say that despite the fact that they don't understand the lyrics I'm pretty sure they can grasp the meaning of the songs as the videos that accompany the songs are exactly the ones you'd see on MTV or Much Music in all their bikini-girl glory. It was a surreal meal, now I'm going to go have my second one though and if it's notable I'll write about it tomorrow.
Jordie out
Fasika = Easter
Fasika will probably be the biggest celebration I see while I'm in Ethiopia. I will not be arround to see the celebration of the Ethiopian millenium which I imagine will also be a big deal. You can also tell how long a ferenji has been in town by how many invitations to eat at other peoples houses you get. I recieved three. People who had been here 3 months or upwards seem to recieve about 20 each. Fasika is also the celebration of the end of Orthodox Ethiopians fasting period which is the 40 days of Lent plus 15 extra days at the start for some reason I can't remember. At 9PM of Saturday before Easter Sunday they are allowed to eat meat again and they do this with great gusto. Starting with lots of chicken then going to sleep and waking up to eat lots of sheep and some more chicken. Beef is eaten, but it's not a celebratory meat (sort of like how you'd be much more likely to eat turkey than beef at Thanksgiving or Christmas).
I just got back from my first meal of the day which was incredibly filling and consisted of doro wot (chicken fried in burbere sauce), tibs (boiled mutton), ouzo, coffee and tallah (a disgusting local drink that I can describe as a homebrewed beerish thing that has a lot in common in flavour to cold weak coffee). Also a banana. Not particularly the healthiest meal I've ever eaten. There's way more food than you can eat and all they do is put more and more in front of you, constantly urge you to have more and then look faintly distressed if you say "No" on the very valid grounds that you are full, so that next time you feel guilty and say "Yes" but only a little and then they serve you/pour you way more than you wanted. The food is good though, but I am luckily only going to two meals (I dodged an invitation) otherwise I might explode/get embarassingly drunk. Which is what I expect to hear happened to some of the other ferenjis tomorrow.
What was perhaps the funniest part of the whole event was Ethiopian's love, but general misunderstanding of top 40 party rap. The meal starts we all go through the ritual handshake greetings that characterize Ethiopia, say we're all fine, get introduced to people we don't know, etc, sit down and start to eat. While we're starting to eat our hosts son turns on the DVD player and starts playing some music. Myself, Norma (a 73 year old coworker from Penticton) and an extremely Orthodox religious family will spend the next hour or so listening to such fine artists as Snoop Doggy Dog, The Game, Lil Jon, 50 Cent, Ludacris, G-Unit, and Eminem sing about how good they are at spending money, doing drugs, and having sex with promiscuous women. I'm fairly certain they also have no idea what the songs are about because I can't imagine the strongly held religious beliefs would allow them in the house if they did. The only attempt I made at explaining rap was quickly sidelined by their disbelief that poor people exist in North America, though so we didn't stay on the topic for too long.
To be honest I'd say that despite the fact that they don't understand the lyrics I'm pretty sure they can grasp the meaning of the songs as the videos that accompany the songs are exactly the ones you'd see on MTV or Much Music in all their bikini-girl glory. It was a surreal meal, now I'm going to go have my second one though and if it's notable I'll write about it tomorrow.
Jordie out
Friday, April 6, 2007
A Souvenir
I picked up my first souvenir the other day. Something that I'm definitely going to take back to Canada with me. In fact it'll be with me for the rest of my life. An African cold virus.
Hooray!
Symptoms: Dry hacking cough! Head feels like a balloon! Dizziness! Extreme Fatigue! Loss of Appetite! Really Sore Throat!
Luckily for me the Extreme Fatigue I mentioned above made me sleepy. I got up after a full nights sleep not feeling very well, got to work, realized it was stupid for me to be there, got home slept for 8 hours. After being awake for another 6 I was again tired and went back to sleep for the night, now all I've got is the cough. Almost all better. However, the best thing about diseases though is they stick with us for life. Maybe I'll give you the gift of the African Super Cold when I see you next!
Hooray!
Symptoms: Dry hacking cough! Head feels like a balloon! Dizziness! Extreme Fatigue! Loss of Appetite! Really Sore Throat!
Luckily for me the Extreme Fatigue I mentioned above made me sleepy. I got up after a full nights sleep not feeling very well, got to work, realized it was stupid for me to be there, got home slept for 8 hours. After being awake for another 6 I was again tired and went back to sleep for the night, now all I've got is the cough. Almost all better. However, the best thing about diseases though is they stick with us for life. Maybe I'll give you the gift of the African Super Cold when I see you next!
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Celebrity
I strongly recommend Ethiopia to anyone who has self esteem issues as its done wonders for mine. This may hold true in other nations. By being foreign and living in Ethiopia I've joined a select group of people who form a celebrity clique whose actions are closely followed by the people of Gondor. I did not expect everyone in town to recognize me before my arrival, but since coming here most people seem to have figured out who I am. Including a lot of people I've never met formally. Foreigners activities are closely followed.
For example myself and a few other younger volunteers were assisting Kate (who has baboons!) move furniture because she had switched offices. Once everyone got over the fact that we didn't want to pay them to help they just watched us with amused expressions on their faces. After we'd taken a few loads we ran into someone we knew on our way back. He then asked if it was true that we'd been carrying furniture. Apparently a few blocks away this had been the topic of conversation. He had details down to who was carrying which piece of furniture. (I was carrying a chair, so was Matt, Avi and James were carrying a desk).
Simply by being foreign you reach a level of minor celebrity in town. Your doings are reported in great detail among the locals to the point that they'll sometimes report what you've been doing to you more accurately than you can recall it.
Children regularly shout at the sight of you and rush up for the opportunity to shake your hand. Anyhow yeah... I gotta get going to ummm... hang out with Kevin Bacon.
For example myself and a few other younger volunteers were assisting Kate (who has baboons!) move furniture because she had switched offices. Once everyone got over the fact that we didn't want to pay them to help they just watched us with amused expressions on their faces. After we'd taken a few loads we ran into someone we knew on our way back. He then asked if it was true that we'd been carrying furniture. Apparently a few blocks away this had been the topic of conversation. He had details down to who was carrying which piece of furniture. (I was carrying a chair, so was Matt, Avi and James were carrying a desk).
Simply by being foreign you reach a level of minor celebrity in town. Your doings are reported in great detail among the locals to the point that they'll sometimes report what you've been doing to you more accurately than you can recall it.
Children regularly shout at the sight of you and rush up for the opportunity to shake your hand. Anyhow yeah... I gotta get going to ummm... hang out with Kevin Bacon.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Rained out
So yesterday I was supposed to have hijacked the English club to listen to some "English" music and get them to discuss it, but I was rained out. I got there and everything was going fine there was even a power outlet that I could use which I wasn't sure would be there. I gave a little introduction to myself and what I wanted them to do. I wanted to ease them into things with something a few Ethiopians I had met had heard of, which was Tracy Chapman. I didn't even bring this over, but found it here a few days ago when someone was playing it in the lab and asked if I knew about it. So I ripped a copy of it to play for the English club. I figured some good discussion could come out of this and get them warmed up.
I introduce myself tell them I want to hear them discuss the song after listening to it. What they think about it, comparing it to Ethiopian music, etc etc (I didn't actually say etc I'm just abbreviating). I pick out "Fast Car", press play and literally about 10 seconds into the song it starts to rain.
I don't just mean it rained a little. I mean the sky opened up and it poured down sheets of water. It went from no rain to torrential downpour in about 5 seconds flat.
We were indoors though right? Yep. So what's the problem? Corrugated metal rooves are the most common form of roofing in Ethiopia and they are not quiet in rainfall like what I just mentioned. The raindrops become a constant racket of percussion interrupting everything. You cannot even speak at normal volume and be heard. This was also loud enough that they could not hear the music. I thought this was hilarious, they looked embarassed. I let the song finish up in hopes that the rain might let up. It did not so we post-poned to next week when I'll have louder speakers provided for the purpose of drowning out any rain.
I introduce myself tell them I want to hear them discuss the song after listening to it. What they think about it, comparing it to Ethiopian music, etc etc (I didn't actually say etc I'm just abbreviating). I pick out "Fast Car", press play and literally about 10 seconds into the song it starts to rain.
I don't just mean it rained a little. I mean the sky opened up and it poured down sheets of water. It went from no rain to torrential downpour in about 5 seconds flat.
We were indoors though right? Yep. So what's the problem? Corrugated metal rooves are the most common form of roofing in Ethiopia and they are not quiet in rainfall like what I just mentioned. The raindrops become a constant racket of percussion interrupting everything. You cannot even speak at normal volume and be heard. This was also loud enough that they could not hear the music. I thought this was hilarious, they looked embarassed. I let the song finish up in hopes that the rain might let up. It did not so we post-poned to next week when I'll have louder speakers provided for the purpose of drowning out any rain.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Not so Decent... yet
I must say Decent Pub is going to have to make a big climb uphill to get back to the rank of decent that we thought it had. We arrived there on a Saturday evening only to discover that the owners had thought that this was a good time to be closed. So we went somewhere else. I have vowed to return though.
Shops are unusual in that unlike in North America people don't have a house and a shop. They have a shop and they live in it. With their families and any employees they might have. So if you end up poking around a restaurant, bar or shop and you manage to find the backroom you'll find a room with a few beds where everyone lives. These places open in the morning when people get up for the day and close in the evening when the last customers leave at an arbitrary time. We're accidentally stayed late at a bar and ended up watching a movie with the family after they'd closed. It was Kiss of the Dragon, which is a good movie to watch when you're not paying any attention to it. There's a hotel that we like to go to for food (they have pizza, which is hard to find over here) that has a little hole under the stairs. I popped my head in once and found a mattress where someone must spend the night, every night. Anyhow I'm in a cafe killing time before we head up to market so I'll write more another day.
I will write more about Crambole or possibly Carambola (sp?). It is an excellent billiards game.
Shops are unusual in that unlike in North America people don't have a house and a shop. They have a shop and they live in it. With their families and any employees they might have. So if you end up poking around a restaurant, bar or shop and you manage to find the backroom you'll find a room with a few beds where everyone lives. These places open in the morning when people get up for the day and close in the evening when the last customers leave at an arbitrary time. We're accidentally stayed late at a bar and ended up watching a movie with the family after they'd closed. It was Kiss of the Dragon, which is a good movie to watch when you're not paying any attention to it. There's a hotel that we like to go to for food (they have pizza, which is hard to find over here) that has a little hole under the stairs. I popped my head in once and found a mattress where someone must spend the night, every night. Anyhow I'm in a cafe killing time before we head up to market so I'll write more another day.
I will write more about Crambole or possibly Carambola (sp?). It is an excellent billiards game.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Work
It's been busy here on account. So this is the first chance I've gotten to write in awhile. I'm sure you were eagerly waiting for it. So since work has made me so busy I figure now is a good time to write about it.
I am officially titled the Computer Coordinator for the Gondor College of Teacher's Education. I have a few projects on the go which for the most part involve setting up the internet on campus and fixing every computer on campus. Yes, all of them. This is probably a task that I shall not finish before I leave nor is it a problem that I could finish even if I stayed here forever because the damned things keep breaking. There are three jobs I seem to have been sort of assigned sort of fallen into.
The first job I have is dealing with viruses. The people here all know that viruses make bad things happen to their computers, but this knowledge does not seem to extend to how to remove them or prevent them from showing up. A large portion of my job is carefully explaining to people the need to keep their antivirus software up-to-date, and then installing some. Viruses are rampant and I haven't found a single computer that hasn't been infected with at least an innocuous keystroke logger. I'm getting to know all sorts of viruses by name which is something I hadn't really paid much attention to. I can tell you detailed descriptions of the Brazilian Banker, Redlof, Brontokk, Timese and a number of other viruses with equally fanciful names. I could tell you, but I won't because I don't want to bore you dreadfully and if you are particularly interested you can always send me an email or wait until you next see me. I assure you though that unless you are computationally inclined the names are the most interesting part.
The second job I have is fixing computers. Most people don't really know anything about this. A computer breaks, and it's sort of put in a pile labelled broken and then they try and get a replacement. They are just starting to realize that a broken computer can be fixed. This job would be quite easy for me except that there is a monumental process to purchase any new parts. I can fix things quite quickly, but the swathes of red tape that must be cut through in order to do this take up most of my time in this regard. There are a few people who want me to train them, and I really want to train them because I won't be here forever. The problem is that I say I want to train them and they say that they want to be trained, but then when I ask them to pick a time and place they say they'll get back to me and haven't yet. I'm sure they will eventually, but I may have to crack a whip to make them pick soon.
The third job I have is the Keeper of the Internet. All of the Internet. I am supposed to fix the internet that's broken, make it faster, supervise peoples, usage setup as many computers as I can on it and pretty much do everything in my power to move the campus towards being fully online. Everyone loves the internet here and everyone wants it yesterday. This is probably the most challenging job and the most ambitious, it's something that could be worked on for years at this campus and probably will be. For the most part I'm setting up a plan to put some buildings on a "broadband" connection. (It's not really that fast only relatively).
So now you know all about my job, I'll go into more detail about it at a later date. If I don't get distracted by writing about other things, like Crambolo and Decent Pub (which I'm going to tonight!)
Jordie out
I am officially titled the Computer Coordinator for the Gondor College of Teacher's Education. I have a few projects on the go which for the most part involve setting up the internet on campus and fixing every computer on campus. Yes, all of them. This is probably a task that I shall not finish before I leave nor is it a problem that I could finish even if I stayed here forever because the damned things keep breaking. There are three jobs I seem to have been sort of assigned sort of fallen into.
The first job I have is dealing with viruses. The people here all know that viruses make bad things happen to their computers, but this knowledge does not seem to extend to how to remove them or prevent them from showing up. A large portion of my job is carefully explaining to people the need to keep their antivirus software up-to-date, and then installing some. Viruses are rampant and I haven't found a single computer that hasn't been infected with at least an innocuous keystroke logger. I'm getting to know all sorts of viruses by name which is something I hadn't really paid much attention to. I can tell you detailed descriptions of the Brazilian Banker, Redlof, Brontokk, Timese and a number of other viruses with equally fanciful names. I could tell you, but I won't because I don't want to bore you dreadfully and if you are particularly interested you can always send me an email or wait until you next see me. I assure you though that unless you are computationally inclined the names are the most interesting part.
The second job I have is fixing computers. Most people don't really know anything about this. A computer breaks, and it's sort of put in a pile labelled broken and then they try and get a replacement. They are just starting to realize that a broken computer can be fixed. This job would be quite easy for me except that there is a monumental process to purchase any new parts. I can fix things quite quickly, but the swathes of red tape that must be cut through in order to do this take up most of my time in this regard. There are a few people who want me to train them, and I really want to train them because I won't be here forever. The problem is that I say I want to train them and they say that they want to be trained, but then when I ask them to pick a time and place they say they'll get back to me and haven't yet. I'm sure they will eventually, but I may have to crack a whip to make them pick soon.
The third job I have is the Keeper of the Internet. All of the Internet. I am supposed to fix the internet that's broken, make it faster, supervise peoples, usage setup as many computers as I can on it and pretty much do everything in my power to move the campus towards being fully online. Everyone loves the internet here and everyone wants it yesterday. This is probably the most challenging job and the most ambitious, it's something that could be worked on for years at this campus and probably will be. For the most part I'm setting up a plan to put some buildings on a "broadband" connection. (It's not really that fast only relatively).
So now you know all about my job, I'll go into more detail about it at a later date. If I don't get distracted by writing about other things, like Crambolo and Decent Pub (which I'm going to tonight!)
Jordie out
Monday, March 19, 2007
Music
While I've certainly had trouble keeping up on the latest in music while over here I have begun more creative writing projects with regards to music. I will certainly link to a piece I'll be doing for Streethawk on the lack of certain genres in Ethiopia, which will involve the inputs of a local "English club" who I've commandeered into helping me. A benefit of being foreign in Ethiopia is that people are even more inclined to want to talk to you about anything than a tiny indie band desperate for publicity. More on that later though.
For now I would like to talk about a traditional Ethiopian folk band that I saw. They didn't have a band name as such a thing seems unusual only for bands of wide popularity. In fact they were more of a house band, but what is particularly interesting is the style of music, which may have had a specific Ethiopian word for the genre, but I can only remember that it was called Habesha music, which refers to the local culture in the region I'm in.
The music consisted of a very talented 10 year old drummer banging out African rhythms that went completely overlooked by the locals who were more interested in following the antics of the vocalists. There was usually two vocalists a man and a woman, but sometimes just one of them would sing. What makes this music interesting is in how it is sung. The singer picks a person in the audience and improvisationally makes fun of them for a verse or two and then moves on to a new person, sometimes they pull the person they're making fun of up to dance. At this point occasionally you push a bill into their forehead to show your appreciation, I thought this method of payment weird, but went with it. Now to be honest I didn't find the translations of what had been said particularly funny most of the time, but it's entirely possible that there was a lot of punnish wordplay that was lost in the translation. The locals thought it was pretty funny most of the time though. There was usually a man playing a unique instrument that was like a violin with one thick string, I'm not sure of the name of it. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it because even though the instrument was unusual the people who were playing it weren't particularly good at it. I stayed for a couple hours and it was nonstop while I was there, but I had tired of it by then. Before leaving I tipped the little boy who was holding it all together for them.
Still it was the best Ethiopian music I'd heard since arriving as it was something other than Ethiopian pop which I have quickly tired of.
For now I would like to talk about a traditional Ethiopian folk band that I saw. They didn't have a band name as such a thing seems unusual only for bands of wide popularity. In fact they were more of a house band, but what is particularly interesting is the style of music, which may have had a specific Ethiopian word for the genre, but I can only remember that it was called Habesha music, which refers to the local culture in the region I'm in.
The music consisted of a very talented 10 year old drummer banging out African rhythms that went completely overlooked by the locals who were more interested in following the antics of the vocalists. There was usually two vocalists a man and a woman, but sometimes just one of them would sing. What makes this music interesting is in how it is sung. The singer picks a person in the audience and improvisationally makes fun of them for a verse or two and then moves on to a new person, sometimes they pull the person they're making fun of up to dance. At this point occasionally you push a bill into their forehead to show your appreciation, I thought this method of payment weird, but went with it. Now to be honest I didn't find the translations of what had been said particularly funny most of the time, but it's entirely possible that there was a lot of punnish wordplay that was lost in the translation. The locals thought it was pretty funny most of the time though. There was usually a man playing a unique instrument that was like a violin with one thick string, I'm not sure of the name of it. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it because even though the instrument was unusual the people who were playing it weren't particularly good at it. I stayed for a couple hours and it was nonstop while I was there, but I had tired of it by then. Before leaving I tipped the little boy who was holding it all together for them.
Still it was the best Ethiopian music I'd heard since arriving as it was something other than Ethiopian pop which I have quickly tired of.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
One month anniversary, Pi Day
I'd almost forgotten that Pi Day means more to me over here in Ethiopia than it normally does. Aside from celebrating one of the more significant numbers in existence and a good excuse to eat pie (if I could find any) it marks my one month anniversary in Ethiopia. I just checked my email and though I doubt she knew it was Pi Day she has offered to bake me a pie upon my return, it's like she read my mind or knew about the holiday. Yes, that's right it was Valentine's Day, the most romantic day of the year that I flew in to Addis Ababa International Airport, lost my luggage and my driver and then had to coerce a friendly cabby into helping me out (then he extorted me, which was about what I thought would happen)
Anyways there's been some requests in email form about A) my house and B) my job, which I originally put off writing about because I didn't want to fall into the rut of writing about my daily routine, but it's true I should at least write about these things once. I will start with my house.
My house has two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom and a large extra room which is for storage and is used as such by the landlord's family. I have no use for storage as I don't even have enough stuff to fill the one bookshelf I have for storage. The house has electricity, tiled floors, some big red sofas and a lot of furniture that looks like it came from a school, because it did. I'm borrowing two tables and 6 chairs from the school I work at while I'm here. In fact, that's where the bookshelf and bed came from as well, but they don't look like they came from a school. There is no hot water, but if I shower in the evenings the water is luke warm at least to start the shower so if I wash in under a couple minutes it won't get freezing cold. Showers in the morning are scary and I don't take these anymore. The downside of showering at night is that I tend to have wet hair when I go to bed and I wake up with interesting hairstyles, some people were laughing at my hair this morning because I couldn't be bothered to get it under control and it sort of poofs out anime style. This is the secret to anime hair, showering before bed.
I live by myself in the biggest house with the least stuff on a gated compound with two families of indeterminable size who both own more things than I do. I recognize that one is the landlord's family and one is his servants family, but I can't figure out whose children are whose or in fact whose living on the property and who is only visiting. I would probably be just as happy staying where one of these families are living, but I'm not paying my own rent so I don't mind having more space and they seem to think that it's the appropriate arrangement. I could perhaps learn more about the families I lived with if I could communicate with them, but this is impossible. Those of you who have met Kit (my landlord in Kerrisdale) will know that he has a thick accent that makes him difficult to talk to, my current landlord has a thicker accent and less of a grasp on the English language. His English is the best amongst all of the people I share the compound with and my Amharic is well almost nonexistent. As a result I have resolved to not really knowing who lives here.
Jordie out
Anyways there's been some requests in email form about A) my house and B) my job, which I originally put off writing about because I didn't want to fall into the rut of writing about my daily routine, but it's true I should at least write about these things once. I will start with my house.
My house has two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom and a large extra room which is for storage and is used as such by the landlord's family. I have no use for storage as I don't even have enough stuff to fill the one bookshelf I have for storage. The house has electricity, tiled floors, some big red sofas and a lot of furniture that looks like it came from a school, because it did. I'm borrowing two tables and 6 chairs from the school I work at while I'm here. In fact, that's where the bookshelf and bed came from as well, but they don't look like they came from a school. There is no hot water, but if I shower in the evenings the water is luke warm at least to start the shower so if I wash in under a couple minutes it won't get freezing cold. Showers in the morning are scary and I don't take these anymore. The downside of showering at night is that I tend to have wet hair when I go to bed and I wake up with interesting hairstyles, some people were laughing at my hair this morning because I couldn't be bothered to get it under control and it sort of poofs out anime style. This is the secret to anime hair, showering before bed.
I live by myself in the biggest house with the least stuff on a gated compound with two families of indeterminable size who both own more things than I do. I recognize that one is the landlord's family and one is his servants family, but I can't figure out whose children are whose or in fact whose living on the property and who is only visiting. I would probably be just as happy staying where one of these families are living, but I'm not paying my own rent so I don't mind having more space and they seem to think that it's the appropriate arrangement. I could perhaps learn more about the families I lived with if I could communicate with them, but this is impossible. Those of you who have met Kit (my landlord in Kerrisdale) will know that he has a thick accent that makes him difficult to talk to, my current landlord has a thicker accent and less of a grasp on the English language. His English is the best amongst all of the people I share the compound with and my Amharic is well almost nonexistent. As a result I have resolved to not really knowing who lives here.
Jordie out
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Names
Names are a different sort of concept here. They're not just names they usually mean something, so most people end up with names like Wise or Beautiful City or something really literal along those lines. I haven't been asking the meaning of everyone's name, but a number of people have offered the meaning of their names. Admittedly this literal naming system exists to some degree in English with the flower related names being relatively common and I do have a friend named Moss. I think it's more common in not-English languages to name things in a more literal manner.
For example let's all go to our favourite Engrish example which are probably Japanese products which tend to have names like Happy Delicious Cookie. This exists in Ethiopia mostly with regard to businesses who like to describe what they are with their name. There is Tiru Pub (which literally translates to Good Pub), Best Supermarket (it's apparently ironically only second best), Gorgeous Cafe (which is apparently terrible), Fantastic Restaurant and my personal favourite, Decent Pub. Myself and some British English teachers plan on going to see Decent Pub this weekend in the hopes of having the following conversation:
Us: I went to Decent Pub last weekend.
Someone: How was it?
Us: Decent.
There's something appealing in its modesty and simple honesty in that it's only decent. As long as it lives up to the claim of this vaguely positive word I will be more than satisfied with the advertisement as most other places that name themselves in this manner tend to be lying.
For example let's all go to our favourite Engrish example which are probably Japanese products which tend to have names like Happy Delicious Cookie. This exists in Ethiopia mostly with regard to businesses who like to describe what they are with their name. There is Tiru Pub (which literally translates to Good Pub), Best Supermarket (it's apparently ironically only second best), Gorgeous Cafe (which is apparently terrible), Fantastic Restaurant and my personal favourite, Decent Pub. Myself and some British English teachers plan on going to see Decent Pub this weekend in the hopes of having the following conversation:
Us: I went to Decent Pub last weekend.
Someone: How was it?
Us: Decent.
There's something appealing in its modesty and simple honesty in that it's only decent. As long as it lives up to the claim of this vaguely positive word I will be more than satisfied with the advertisement as most other places that name themselves in this manner tend to be lying.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Food
So there's a lot of cafes all over the country and all of them claim to have a variety of pastries and cakes. This is completely 100% untrue. There is no such thing as pastry or cake in Ethiopia. They have things that look like donuts, but have no glaze or sugar. Their cakes are bland and dry containing just enough sugar to remind you what a cake is supposed to taste like. This is in fact common of most sweets you can get at an Ethiopian cafe, they look like they should, but they are missing several key ingredients that make them taste like they should. They also claim to have croissants, but they're really croissant shaped lumps of heavy dough that have a lot more in common with bread than their French namesake.
There is redemption for Ethiopian cafes though in the form of juice, which I should clarify is not what you would call juice. You would call Ethiopian juice a blended drink similiar to a smoothie, but only containing fruit. They are delicious and easily the best thing about Ethiopian dining. You can get them in the flavours of pineapple, advocado, papaya, mango, and guava, but the best way to get them is spris, which is apparently the Ethiopian word for "all different types of fruit layered deliciously together". I try and have one as often as possible, in fact I think I'll go have one now.
There is redemption for Ethiopian cafes though in the form of juice, which I should clarify is not what you would call juice. You would call Ethiopian juice a blended drink similiar to a smoothie, but only containing fruit. They are delicious and easily the best thing about Ethiopian dining. You can get them in the flavours of pineapple, advocado, papaya, mango, and guava, but the best way to get them is spris, which is apparently the Ethiopian word for "all different types of fruit layered deliciously together". I try and have one as often as possible, in fact I think I'll go have one now.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Animals: Big and Small
Animals are everywhere here. Not just when you go to the countryside do you see them. There's a pair of cows that live in my neighbourhood and seem to graze regularly from the dumpster. (I try not to think about this when I'm eating any meat here) When some of my furniture was moved into my house it was done so by a horse and cart. In the streets of the city it is normal to see people herding groups of goats, donkeys, sheep or cows around, and there's also an unhealthy population of chickens, cats and dogs. I say unhealthy because most of the animals here are not well fed living mostly on a diet of food they scrounge up for themselves with wealthier animal owners feeding their creatures occasionally (mostly the horses though).
I also say unhealthy because the majority of these animals have fleas and this translates to fleas being all over the place. Ride in a vehicle and you'll find a little ring of bites around your waist. I think this is because people don't hesitate to use most vehicles to transport animals. They get in your clothes and ride around with you. Most volunteers regularly dose all the fabric they own with flea killer on a weekly basis and put their bedding out in the sun for awhile for the same reason. I have adapted this policy myself. I take my clothes off as far from my bed as reasonably possible to prevent transporting them into my bedding and so far this has worked. All these preventative measures though don't really help as much as you'd like because no matter what you do unless you regularly spray yourself with fleakiller (not a particularly healthy idea) you're going to get flea bites. Lots and lots of flea bites, most volunteers seem used to it, but I'm not yet, and I feel like my flea bites have flea bites. I guess it's something I'll accustom myself to, but it's not something I want to accustom myself to.
I also say unhealthy because the majority of these animals have fleas and this translates to fleas being all over the place. Ride in a vehicle and you'll find a little ring of bites around your waist. I think this is because people don't hesitate to use most vehicles to transport animals. They get in your clothes and ride around with you. Most volunteers regularly dose all the fabric they own with flea killer on a weekly basis and put their bedding out in the sun for awhile for the same reason. I have adapted this policy myself. I take my clothes off as far from my bed as reasonably possible to prevent transporting them into my bedding and so far this has worked. All these preventative measures though don't really help as much as you'd like because no matter what you do unless you regularly spray yourself with fleakiller (not a particularly healthy idea) you're going to get flea bites. Lots and lots of flea bites, most volunteers seem used to it, but I'm not yet, and I feel like my flea bites have flea bites. I guess it's something I'll accustom myself to, but it's not something I want to accustom myself to.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
The Blue Nile Falls & Public Transit
So the next day me and Nileka (one of the Dutch volunteers) wanted to go see the Falls as they are supposed to be fairly impressive. To get there we took public transit, which was an adventure unto itself. On the way there we got on in the back of and proceeded to wait for it to leave. When we thought the bus was full because all the seats were taken we expected the bus to leave. We were definitely wrong after all the seats were full more people were crammed into seats we thought were full and then the aisle got filled up with people willing to stand during the trip.
So the bus was about as full as it could possibly be and we went on our way. The Blue Nile Falls (or Adis Abai sp?) are located 30 clicks out of Bahir Dar down a dirt road. Which you would think would be a short trip, but it's an hour and a half on an incredibly bumpy road with a bus incapable of going faster than about 20km/hr. On the way you could see rural Ethiopia, and it's Rural with a capital R. Huts made from sticks and thatch, and acres of farmland and small herds of goats, cows and sheep on the side of the road, donkeys carrying people's goods to market. We were sort of fascinated by this whole countryside, but the only thing that excited the other bus riders were us foreigners and when we saw a couple dogs killing a goat at the side of the road, which was admittedly startling.
When we got to the falls we encountered a rather helpful guy who seemed to have a part-time job saving seats for ferenji's so they were guaranteed a good seat on the way back (we took him up on his offer after that ride stuck in the back as it was fairly cheap). Then we were hassled by a lot of guides who I've decided are essentially annoying and mostly useless. It's quite easy to find your way to the falls as it's the only way people are walking. You can also tell how close you are to the falls because the guides offer you their services for less money the closer you get. It's like playing a game of hot and cold that starts around 70 birr and ends desperately when someone offers you 20 birr to show you where the final bridge is. (It was around the next corner). I guess it's a way of generating income from tourism but it tends to be people who are well off (as they could afford to go to school long enough to speak fluent English) who are making the money.
The falls themselves were amazing although not as big as they apparently used to be. Giant waterfalls 50m high spanning huge cliffs and generating a thick mist at their base. Very impressive although reportedly they were bigger before they were harnessed for electricity and apparently they'll be smaller still in a decade or so as an expansion on the hydroelectric dam will cut them even smaller.
The trip back was comparably quite pleasant on the front of the bus. The driver bought us banana's because... well I guess he was just a nice guy, and a child practiced his English with his Mom's help.
So the bus was about as full as it could possibly be and we went on our way. The Blue Nile Falls (or Adis Abai sp?) are located 30 clicks out of Bahir Dar down a dirt road. Which you would think would be a short trip, but it's an hour and a half on an incredibly bumpy road with a bus incapable of going faster than about 20km/hr. On the way you could see rural Ethiopia, and it's Rural with a capital R. Huts made from sticks and thatch, and acres of farmland and small herds of goats, cows and sheep on the side of the road, donkeys carrying people's goods to market. We were sort of fascinated by this whole countryside, but the only thing that excited the other bus riders were us foreigners and when we saw a couple dogs killing a goat at the side of the road, which was admittedly startling.
When we got to the falls we encountered a rather helpful guy who seemed to have a part-time job saving seats for ferenji's so they were guaranteed a good seat on the way back (we took him up on his offer after that ride stuck in the back as it was fairly cheap). Then we were hassled by a lot of guides who I've decided are essentially annoying and mostly useless. It's quite easy to find your way to the falls as it's the only way people are walking. You can also tell how close you are to the falls because the guides offer you their services for less money the closer you get. It's like playing a game of hot and cold that starts around 70 birr and ends desperately when someone offers you 20 birr to show you where the final bridge is. (It was around the next corner). I guess it's a way of generating income from tourism but it tends to be people who are well off (as they could afford to go to school long enough to speak fluent English) who are making the money.
The falls themselves were amazing although not as big as they apparently used to be. Giant waterfalls 50m high spanning huge cliffs and generating a thick mist at their base. Very impressive although reportedly they were bigger before they were harnessed for electricity and apparently they'll be smaller still in a decade or so as an expansion on the hydroelectric dam will cut them even smaller.
The trip back was comparably quite pleasant on the front of the bus. The driver bought us banana's because... well I guess he was just a nice guy, and a child practiced his English with his Mom's help.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
I'm alive despite a monkey attack
So I recently spent our long weekend (we had one to celebrate the victory of the Battle of Adwa) in the nearby town of Bahir Dar after being invited by some Dutch volunteers who seem lonely to meet other ex-pats. It was a lot of fun and the town is a little bit more touristy than Gondor. It was neat to see a different city.
In Bahir Dar we proceeded to see some of the monasteries on Lake Tana which are incredibly old. We got there by boat because they are located on a number of small islands in the middle of the big brownish lake. The lake is populated with flocks of pelicans which drove home how different the lake was.
The monasteries themselves sat on top of the islands and were small round buildings, with no shoes allowed. The best monastery (the one with the government funded museum) I saw was in fact no girls allowed so the girls in the group had to stick around in the garden outside and eat papayas from the passing papaya salesman who had picked them on the island that morning. I saw some really ancient artifacts crowns from old kings who had donated them to the monastery in their time, ancient crosses in a variety of Ethiopian styles, and 13th century bibles written on goat skin. What was a little shocking was that they weren't kept under glass and were pulled out by the priests who tended them to flip through them. They even asked if I wanted to touch these really old pieces which if they were in Canada (or anywhere in the Western world) would be under glass alarmed and likely under guard. I guess they don't think of things the same way here.
When we got back we went out for juice and I saw a monkey. It was overtop of the bathroom when I left the table on my way there. By the time I got there it had moved down in front of the doors. We stared at each other as I didn't want to provoke it and it didn't want to move so we were at a sort of Mexican standoff until it decided to take matters into it's own hands and rush me. I lifted my foot up to fend it off and it backed off before getting close and took off (I guess it saw my karate skills). So I survived a monkey attack although not a serious one. One of the Dutch volunteers got a picture of the monkey in question so I'll upload it when I get the chance. The next day we went to the Blue Nile Falls which I'll write about later.
Jordie out
In Bahir Dar we proceeded to see some of the monasteries on Lake Tana which are incredibly old. We got there by boat because they are located on a number of small islands in the middle of the big brownish lake. The lake is populated with flocks of pelicans which drove home how different the lake was.
The monasteries themselves sat on top of the islands and were small round buildings, with no shoes allowed. The best monastery (the one with the government funded museum) I saw was in fact no girls allowed so the girls in the group had to stick around in the garden outside and eat papayas from the passing papaya salesman who had picked them on the island that morning. I saw some really ancient artifacts crowns from old kings who had donated them to the monastery in their time, ancient crosses in a variety of Ethiopian styles, and 13th century bibles written on goat skin. What was a little shocking was that they weren't kept under glass and were pulled out by the priests who tended them to flip through them. They even asked if I wanted to touch these really old pieces which if they were in Canada (or anywhere in the Western world) would be under glass alarmed and likely under guard. I guess they don't think of things the same way here.
When we got back we went out for juice and I saw a monkey. It was overtop of the bathroom when I left the table on my way there. By the time I got there it had moved down in front of the doors. We stared at each other as I didn't want to provoke it and it didn't want to move so we were at a sort of Mexican standoff until it decided to take matters into it's own hands and rush me. I lifted my foot up to fend it off and it backed off before getting close and took off (I guess it saw my karate skills). So I survived a monkey attack although not a serious one. One of the Dutch volunteers got a picture of the monkey in question so I'll upload it when I get the chance. The next day we went to the Blue Nile Falls which I'll write about later.
Jordie out
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
New House & Hotels
So I feel like I should do this now before I move out of the hotel on Wednesday. Hooray! I have a house to live in. It doesn't have hot water and it only has a sink in the bathroom, but it's not a hotel, which is a relief. I've also been told I get to keep the sofa which is a really nice one. But more on my new house later.
The hotel trade in Ethiopia is huge. Way bigger than I thought it would be for a nation where a lot of people never leave the town that they are born in. There's a lot of hotels everywhere you go and there's a reason for this that I initially found puzzling. Apparently despite having phones (sort of reliable) and the internet (a little less reliable) Ethiopians insist on conducting as much business as possible face-to-face. No one can really give a more satisfactory answer for this than cultural differences. As a result the majority of people who have to do much business outside of their town are traveling quite regularly to meet their business partners. For example when I arrived in Gondor the dean and both vice-deans of the college were away on business trips that were about two weeks long to a variety of places. They got back a little after me. Talking to other volunteers this sort of behaviour is quite common with most of their bosses disappearing without warning to go to another city with some regularity. As a result of this there's a thriving hotel industry in Ethiopia and if you're so inclined to the thriftier hotels it's actually quite cheap, probably because there's so many people who use it. (think $2-$3 a day for a small room and shared bathroom, but watch out for fleas).
That's all for now will post again later this week about my job (which has started), my house (after I move in), my possible trip to Bar Hadir sp? (we have a long weekend coming up) and the Battle of Adwa (the reason we have a long weekend). But no guarantees I'll post on all these things.
The hotel trade in Ethiopia is huge. Way bigger than I thought it would be for a nation where a lot of people never leave the town that they are born in. There's a lot of hotels everywhere you go and there's a reason for this that I initially found puzzling. Apparently despite having phones (sort of reliable) and the internet (a little less reliable) Ethiopians insist on conducting as much business as possible face-to-face. No one can really give a more satisfactory answer for this than cultural differences. As a result the majority of people who have to do much business outside of their town are traveling quite regularly to meet their business partners. For example when I arrived in Gondor the dean and both vice-deans of the college were away on business trips that were about two weeks long to a variety of places. They got back a little after me. Talking to other volunteers this sort of behaviour is quite common with most of their bosses disappearing without warning to go to another city with some regularity. As a result of this there's a thriving hotel industry in Ethiopia and if you're so inclined to the thriftier hotels it's actually quite cheap, probably because there's so many people who use it. (think $2-$3 a day for a small room and shared bathroom, but watch out for fleas).
That's all for now will post again later this week about my job (which has started), my house (after I move in), my possible trip to Bar Hadir sp? (we have a long weekend coming up) and the Battle of Adwa (the reason we have a long weekend). But no guarantees I'll post on all these things.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Thoughts on arriving in Gondor
Before I start I would like to clarify that yes I can read your comments. As to Jessica's statement that Lucy is in London I have not the slightest clue which of the two museums hold the "real" Lucy, but I definitely saw a skeleton claiming to be the "real" one. Also my analysis of Ethiopia's thriving hotel trade will be replaced by thoughts on Gondor until a later date when I can't think of something better to write about.
So I made it to Gondor and I am once again living in a hotel... woooo... [/sarcasm]. Gondor is a very different city from Addis. For one it's not much of a city being more of a thriving mountain town. Secondly, the people here seem really really excited to meet foreigner's. A trip into town will gain you a flock of incredibly cute street children who will follow you around the entire time, shouting things in English at you, eagerly introducing themselves, attempting to sell you tissues, and asking you a lot of questions about yourself, pretty much any question they can remember from whatever English classes they've taken. My favourites are Solomon and Betty, which are rather unlikely to be their Ethiopian names.
Aside from the children the locals seem to gain a bit of prestige by hanging out with a foreigner although some of them seem more interested in attempting to get you to buy them a beer. Any walk out of the hotel will almost certainly guarantee someone shouting either "Hello" or "You! You! You!" in order to get your attention smile and then move on delighted at some attention. My favourite instance of this being when I was walking and the following conversation happened:
Him: Hello! Hello!
Me: Hello!
Him: How are you?
Me: Good.
Him: I love you!
*blows me a kiss*
I blew him one back as seemed polite in the situation.
Jordie out
So I made it to Gondor and I am once again living in a hotel... woooo... [/sarcasm]. Gondor is a very different city from Addis. For one it's not much of a city being more of a thriving mountain town. Secondly, the people here seem really really excited to meet foreigner's. A trip into town will gain you a flock of incredibly cute street children who will follow you around the entire time, shouting things in English at you, eagerly introducing themselves, attempting to sell you tissues, and asking you a lot of questions about yourself, pretty much any question they can remember from whatever English classes they've taken. My favourites are Solomon and Betty, which are rather unlikely to be their Ethiopian names.
Aside from the children the locals seem to gain a bit of prestige by hanging out with a foreigner although some of them seem more interested in attempting to get you to buy them a beer. Any walk out of the hotel will almost certainly guarantee someone shouting either "Hello" or "You! You! You!" in order to get your attention smile and then move on delighted at some attention. My favourite instance of this being when I was walking and the following conversation happened:
Him: Hello! Hello!
Me: Hello!
Him: How are you?
Me: Good.
Him: I love you!
*blows me a kiss*
I blew him one back as seemed polite in the situation.
Jordie out
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Museums and Line Taxis
Today I went to the National Museum because I got lost on the way to the University's Ethiopian Institute Museum and figured one museum is as good as the next when you don't really know anything about what's inside either one. In the museum I saw Lucy who is the missing link between homo erectus and homo sapiens apparently. She was quite short. I also saw a fairly amazing surrealist painting by an artist named Skunder. It is Untitled so I can't really direct you to an image on the internet easily, but I'll search around for it when I get back in Canada.
To get to the museum I had to take several line taxis on my own, which I am proud to say I managed adequately. For those of you who are unsure what a line taxi is as I was they are a sort of cross between a bus and a taxi that exists when public transit can't handle everyone who needs to use it. They're usually vans although I've seen trucks modified to work as such that the drivers take along specific routes as you would take a bus except they are all privately run and there's hundreds of them leaving all the time along most major routes. Here they are blue, but when I encountered them in Mexico they were green. Also they are much much cheaper than a taxi cab. Essentially they are a privately run group of microbusinesses that take the place of public transit. They are also quite confusing if you don't know the city as the call-guy who shouts out their destination shouts quite rapidly and it all sounds like a lot of jibberish if you don't pay close attention. I caught the right ones although I've heard of people getting horribly lost on account of a misheard shout or two.
Currently I'm in the capital... still... but I'm leaving for Gondor tomorrow. Since spelling of Amheric words is phonetic it is apparently "OK" to spell it that way which is fairly awesome, as I thought you had to spell it with and A or an E (although I wasn't sure which). I will be living in a hotel there while furniture is found for my house. I think my next post will be on the thriving hotel industry here and why it is so thriving. Stay tuned!
Jordie out
To get to the museum I had to take several line taxis on my own, which I am proud to say I managed adequately. For those of you who are unsure what a line taxi is as I was they are a sort of cross between a bus and a taxi that exists when public transit can't handle everyone who needs to use it. They're usually vans although I've seen trucks modified to work as such that the drivers take along specific routes as you would take a bus except they are all privately run and there's hundreds of them leaving all the time along most major routes. Here they are blue, but when I encountered them in Mexico they were green. Also they are much much cheaper than a taxi cab. Essentially they are a privately run group of microbusinesses that take the place of public transit. They are also quite confusing if you don't know the city as the call-guy who shouts out their destination shouts quite rapidly and it all sounds like a lot of jibberish if you don't pay close attention. I caught the right ones although I've heard of people getting horribly lost on account of a misheard shout or two.
Currently I'm in the capital... still... but I'm leaving for Gondor tomorrow. Since spelling of Amheric words is phonetic it is apparently "OK" to spell it that way which is fairly awesome, as I thought you had to spell it with and A or an E (although I wasn't sure which). I will be living in a hotel there while furniture is found for my house. I think my next post will be on the thriving hotel industry here and why it is so thriving. Stay tuned!
Jordie out
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Tegebino
In the spirit of both adventure and attempting to integrate I decided to order something at random from the menu of a restaurant that has phonetic spellings of Ethiopian dishes for us ferenji. So I ordered something called tegebino. Before I got it I determined through my waitress that it could be served hot or cold. I arbitrarily chose cold.
Upon recieving and eating tegebino I have determined the following: tegebino is a brownish orange mush.
Upon recieving and eating tegebino I have determined the following: tegebino is a brownish orange mush.
Ferenji's and Prince
So the Amheric word for foreigner is ferenji,* and we are called such both by the locals and amongst ourselves. Ferenji culture here is unusual and forms a strange double standard with what people are here to do. Most ferenji's in Ethiopia are there to do some form of aide work in an attempt to raise poverty levels, gender awareness, HIV/AIDS work, etc. At the same time though we're quite rich here because of exchange rates and even our pay levels our pay levels are up there by the local standards. Recently myself and some others went to a fairly amazing restaurant. Probably the fanciest restaurant I've ever been to. It was an Italian place that was also a contemporary art gallery. I just split a pizza with someone and got some water and this worked out to 30 birr with tip, which with the conversion rate is about $4 CD. My meal was on the cheap side though and some people got bottles of wine and the meal altogether was about 500 birr between eight of us, which is about $70 CD. There's people who live on a birr or two a day and we're throwing it around like water. It's a strange way of volunteering, where on the one hand ferenji are doing our best to improve the standard of living here, but simultaneously we are able to live as if we are amongst the very wealthy, because well... we are made wealthy just by being here. There's differing opinions on ferenji culture over here, with some people avoiding it entirely and attempting to go local, some people taking full advantage of it in order to feel wealthy and most people falling somewhere in between. At VSO most people seem fairly aware and a little guilty of our new found wealth, but it's a very unusual thing to try and come to terms with.
On to lighter things though because I really want to share this with people. Ethiopia has it's own calendar system, which is lunar and also some years behind our own. Guess what year it is? 1999! I can still party like it's 1999!** I won't be around for the New Year's celebration, but still this is exciting.
*It's so close to Ferengi that I was really excited and still think that it's pretty hilarious how close it is. I have shared this joke with no one who is here as I don't think any of the other volunteers are nerdy enough to get it.
**Thank you Michelle for pointing this out to me.
On to lighter things though because I really want to share this with people. Ethiopia has it's own calendar system, which is lunar and also some years behind our own. Guess what year it is? 1999! I can still party like it's 1999!** I won't be around for the New Year's celebration, but still this is exciting.
*It's so close to Ferengi that I was really excited and still think that it's pretty hilarious how close it is. I have shared this joke with no one who is here as I don't think any of the other volunteers are nerdy enough to get it.
**Thank you Michelle for pointing this out to me.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Getting settled in
I'm starting to settle in. I think between the malaria medication, lack of sleep, jet lag and new climate my body was rebelling a bit. Now though I have a tan, lots of sleep and a few showers (I'm a little spoiled right now). In fact I think that between all the above things the last traces of my acne are clearing up, probably mostly due to the malaria medications side effect of drying out your skin. Thanks doxycyclene!
Last night all the IT volunteers went to a restaurant, a bar and then a night club, but I was so tired (curse you jet lag!) I went back to the hotel with the other Canadian when everyone else went to the night club. We have unfortunately given ourselves a reputation for not enjoying things that are fun with the other IT volunteers, that seems unlikely to be let up anytime soon as the people I've met are the sort to rag on about something like that.
It's so hard to describe what Ethiopia is like so I won't really try to hard to capture everything. However, today a child tried to sell me a live pigeon he had caught by the feet. I don't know how he caught it or what use he thought I'd have for a pigeon, but it really drove home how poor everyone is here. I don't think he thought I had a particular use for the pigeon, but I would be surprised if he couldn't find someone who wanted it. Catching a pigeon was probably a pretty good day for him.
Last night all the IT volunteers went to a restaurant, a bar and then a night club, but I was so tired (curse you jet lag!) I went back to the hotel with the other Canadian when everyone else went to the night club. We have unfortunately given ourselves a reputation for not enjoying things that are fun with the other IT volunteers, that seems unlikely to be let up anytime soon as the people I've met are the sort to rag on about something like that.
It's so hard to describe what Ethiopia is like so I won't really try to hard to capture everything. However, today a child tried to sell me a live pigeon he had caught by the feet. I don't know how he caught it or what use he thought I'd have for a pigeon, but it really drove home how poor everyone is here. I don't think he thought I had a particular use for the pigeon, but I would be surprised if he couldn't find someone who wanted it. Catching a pigeon was probably a pretty good day for him.
Friday, February 16, 2007
To hot to handle
Not the temperature. The temperature is actually quite mild. I'm told I'm crazy for not being cold yet. That's just by the people who've been here too long though. There's a British guy who wears big wool suits everywhere he goes. I'd die in that heat. I'll acclimatize soon though.
I already have a good story though. So last time I posted on this blog I attempted to read my entry afterwords, but it wouldn't load. I just figured that the connection was too slow as the connections here are damn slow. Apparently, this entire domain is blocked by the Ethiopian government. I'm censored! This is exciting for me. I can post, but not read my own blog. So it's only for non-Ethiopians. I can however read your comments because they're emailed to me. So goodwork Alasdair on the first post.
I've been told of another volunteer who started a basement recording studio here in Addis so I'm going to try and look him up to talk about the music scene here. Anywho still lots to do today and I'm still in the capital. I expect to have some downtime for serious storytelling when I get to Gondor (this is apparently a correct spelling because it's just a phonetic translation.)
Jordie out
I already have a good story though. So last time I posted on this blog I attempted to read my entry afterwords, but it wouldn't load. I just figured that the connection was too slow as the connections here are damn slow. Apparently, this entire domain is blocked by the Ethiopian government. I'm censored! This is exciting for me. I can post, but not read my own blog. So it's only for non-Ethiopians. I can however read your comments because they're emailed to me. So goodwork Alasdair on the first post.
I've been told of another volunteer who started a basement recording studio here in Addis so I'm going to try and look him up to talk about the music scene here. Anywho still lots to do today and I'm still in the capital. I expect to have some downtime for serious storytelling when I get to Gondor (this is apparently a correct spelling because it's just a phonetic translation.)
Jordie out
Thursday, February 15, 2007
The flight
That was probably the worst flight ever. I am as usual when I say something so absolutely, exaggerating. However, it was far from anything that could be considered the best flight ever. My flight to London was delayed by a couple hours and as a result I missed my connection to Addis Ababa. So I got rerouted through Paris (also a delayed flight) and then to Addis Ababa. My toothpaste, hand sanitizer and maple syrup that I had brought as a gift for my host employer were all confiscated in case they were bombs at this point. Apparently Ethiopia still worries about the really small amounts of liquid form of terrorism. When I eventually arrived my luggage had decided to kick around in London for a bit. It should have arrived at the airport by now, but I have not been able to get out there and get it yet. Afterwords I missed my driver who had arrived to pick me up because I was busy trying to find my luggage. I felt really bad for the poor guy who had also arrived at the airport two hours previously to attempt to pick me up from the flight I'd missed.
So far Ethiopia itself is amazing, but also really tiring. Everyone is very nice and helpful, but the resources are lacking. I am told that there can be a lot of hassle procuring necessary things. So hopefully I won't need to get much. I'm going to be leaving the capital on Monday to go to the college I will be working at. More later.
Jordie out
So far Ethiopia itself is amazing, but also really tiring. Everyone is very nice and helpful, but the resources are lacking. I am told that there can be a lot of hassle procuring necessary things. So hopefully I won't need to get much. I'm going to be leaving the capital on Monday to go to the college I will be working at. More later.
Jordie out
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Still in Vancouver
So I've created this blog to document my experiences volunteering overseas in Ethiopia. I'm going to be training people in IT over there and it'll be an exciting adventure for me. This blog will eventually host all sorts of exciting news about my experiences over in deepest, darkest Africa, but for now it'll host exciting news about me getting ready to go.
So most of the paperworky things are complete at this point and now it's mostly packing that is on my mind. That and panicking because I'm starting to realize that I'm actually going to be leaving for Africa soon.
So most of the paperworky things are complete at this point and now it's mostly packing that is on my mind. That and panicking because I'm starting to realize that I'm actually going to be leaving for Africa soon.
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