It’s been a while hasn’t it? Let me see…Oh my since the long weekend!
Well, not too many things happened. We have been teaching fulltime no breaks except for the weekend which here just like everywhere is always too short. My body is still adapting after the diarrhoea I have a big cold now but I guess things will get better once I get used to this.
Everyone is school seems to be getting fed up with the ridiculous amount of rules and I am grateful that I didn’t have the best job ever in Spain so I’m sometimes more willing to put up with it all. My direct boss ( called a unit leader, she’s responsible for KG), miss Mazareth, seems really pleased with me and tries to accommodate things for me. One of the other unit leader follows the example of their boss: the dreadful Miss Mulu who’s at the school every other day and is a real pain. The unit leaders suffer most but so does everyone else in the compound. She’s rude, horny with power, implements stupid rules to the dot so really a plain nuisance. Luckily she has nothing to complain about when it comes down to me so I am left alone by her. One of my foreign-teacher-colleagues is not so fortunate and is considering quitting so as not to have to deal with her. Mrs Mulu is the big boss’ right hand and personal friend so there isn’t much we can do about her. Anyway I’m doing ok, it isn’t paradise but I didn’t expect it to be so either.
This week I had my first Amharic lesson. I wanted it to be in a ‘school’ and have fellow students. It was pretty hard actually, especially since the other had already had 1 lesson and it goes really fast. It seems an interesting language. I don’t expect to be able to speak it fluently by the end of the year but it would be nice to be able to order, haggle prices, and do some other stuff by then. Also I love the different alphabet they use. You should google it it’s very pretty. Some of you will have a fit knowing that I’m actually studying at the ‘Alliance Française’. Hahaha. It’s cool though because there are so many languages spoken in class, the teacher constantly speaks Amharic English and French and then other people speak Spanish as to communicate with the Italians… It’s really nice, there was a French Spanish teacher sitting next to me and a French Basque girl but when I told her ‘gomez’ was like ‘oso ondo’ she didn’t understand so her Euskera is worse then mine…
When I told the teacher ( in Amharic with gestures) that I was teaching at Gibson he asked me if it was ok ‘cause he heard the boss is a mad women… . So go figure.
Last weekend I was feeling kinda blue. Missing everyone, feeling a bit lonely… On top of that I was supposed to meet some tourist we had met in Konso to go to the museum and he stood me up etc.
Monday however a friend’s brother in law, Andreas, arrived whom I had met once a long time ago. He’s here cycling with some buddies and had emailed me so we could meet up. Turned out I wasn’t the only one he’d emailed and I found myself sitting with a small Flemish congregation at the table. It’s so nice to meet up with your kin and I left with various phone numbers and a piece of Camembert, a real treat you can’t find here. Adreas and co set off to the north the next day and will be back in Addis on the first of November.
I met up with one of the other Flemish guys yesterday, Holger, he’s not boyfriend material but really fun. We went with a friend of his to a traditional restaurant. Now these usually have live music and dancers some of whom will pull you on stage but last night everyone actually got on the dance floor voluntarily: I’m talking other foreigners, middle aged Ethiopian couples, etc. I’m not kidding the whole restaurant danced with the singers!!! I had my first portion of honey-wine which helped to make me feel less embarrassed. It was so much fun! Holger really reminds me of my friend and rock Roel in Spain, he’s actually also into playing board games and stuff. It’s good to have found someone like that here.
Today I was supposed to be going to THE event of Addis: Teddy Afro’s first concert since he was realised from prison. Teddy is the national hero, managed by amongst others Bob Marley family, he sings poppy reggae and is said to be a good guy. Only last elections he wrote a somewhat critical song and that’s why the authorities were out to get him. It is said he ran over a bum who was sleeping in the middle of the street and ran but the court case was fishy and he was released earlier then he was supposed to and is giving this concert to the benefit of homeless children. Anyway I’ve been trying to get tickets all week but they only went on sale today. So 2 hours ago I was standing in line cause I was told you can’t buy tickets for anyone but yourself when it started pouring down. I was feeling how the water was penetrating my raincoat my shoes and everything else in less then 2 minutes (‘cause that’s how hard it was pouring...) when I ask the girl in front of me ,all dressed up with teddy earrings and Ethiopian colours and stuff, why they didn’t sell tickets earlier. She explains the organisation is afraid of fraud ( hologram tickets or bar codes or something are too exotic I suppose) and that there won’t be any tickets at all today. Meaning you pay, you get a stamp and go into the stadium ( aren’t allowed to leave) and wait until the concert starts. It was 12 o’clock at that moment, I was absolutely soaked and noticed the stadium is not covered. In addition I know the concert isn’t supposed to start untill 18… Conclusion I’m back at home under my blanket in my pyjamas… I’ll admit the atmosphere in the queue was great, everybody was really excited, teasing the poor cops who try to keep things orderly, singing dancing and all of this despite the rain, but me, I am happy where I am now.
