Who thought Africa’s air would be cleaner? No way. As it turns out I have another infection of my airways, just like I did last year around this time… PFFFFF
This weekend was Meskel or the finding of the true cross which is why on this Monday I can stay at home and write my blog =)
It was quite cool yesterday, there was a huge fire on the main square which was absolutely packed with people. Especially at sunset when candles were handed out and you saw all the little lights around the fire which was lit shortly after. Pretty. The legend is that the smoke of such a bonfire led them to find the true cross. Now the direction in which the fire falls says something about the harvest for the year to come. ( should be good)
The government decreased the value of the birr (by about 20%) which will make many regular people even poorer. There are some reactions in the newspapers but no real riots about it. To me it makes me feel so sad, so many people have a hard life as it is and now it will be even more difficult for them with all the prices going up… I don’t know much about economy but don’t see the benefits for people not involved in export or another foreign currency paid job. Nobody is getting a pay rise. Thank goodness I am ‘international hire’ by now otherwise I’d earn much less then last year.
And I’ll need my pay his year seeing as I start my ( pricey) MA course next week. It’s got me quite excited and a little scared. I hope I didn’t take on too many things this year.
The Dutch embassy school is quite ok but loads of work. I am finding it hard to be told by a method what to say and how to teach and enjoy my freedom at Sanford even more because of it. I’ll see how it evolves. Enjoy Meskel day!
maandag 27 september 2010
maandag 13 september 2010
Happy Ethiopian new year!!!
It’s been a while but luckily I got to see so many people during summer! Thanks to all for making my holiday unforgettable.
I arrived with 10kg bodyweight extra but did, for a change, manage to pack correctly and had (to great relief of Dries again my companion at the airport) no problems checking in. I slept most of the flight seeing as Ethiopian airlines don’t offer you your private tv screen like KLM did on my way to Brussels which is actually quite fabulous. How I longed to go to Belgium in June and now I’m satisfied back in my nest in Addis.
Coming home on Sunday and starting work on that very same Monday wasn’t exactly ideal although otherwise I would have missed the huge great flea market which supplied me with a lot of games to play during the power cuts. Luckily the first workweek was meetings and setting up.
I am still somewhat tired and seem too long to go to bed at the same time my 4 year olds do, meaning around nine. I’ll get to a more normal rhythm at some point I hope.
It was nice to see the people here again, especially my boyfriend off course but I have also met some other cool people. It took Mika and me some time to find our balance back but that’s also coming along now.
As it turns out I have 14 kids in my class, really nice. The first weeks weren’t easy though, many of these kids have never been in an English spoken environment and are thus scared shitless. 1 of them bit me really hard and wouldn’t even let go!!! I was completely at loss for words by the whole thing and now, a full 2 weeks later, still bear the small teeth marks on my underarm. War wounds I suppose. It was scary and exciting to start off my very own nursery class for the first time. I was fortunate, I could actually prepare for it whereas my new nursery colleague’s classroom wasn’t ready until the Saturday night before the students came!
I have good hopes for this to become a fun year.
The other day it was saint Rafael’s day, people want it to rain that day because they say it’s holy water and their prayers were answered not only did it poor it even hailed holy water! I was in a minibus at the time and the driver had no visibility whatsoever no decent ventilation system nor working windshield wipers, without a doubt my scariest 10 minutes in Addis so far! The imam didn’t see Eid on a Thursday which meant 1 day of holiday less for me, darn, however I had fun things planned amongst which making popcorns so it wasn’t too bad.
The new year’s eve (10 September) was quite ok, I went out with some of Mika’s friends and we had a nice time, watched sheik Al Amudi’s firework and went to bed shortly after because I managed to get a severe cold including throat ache, congestion and as a result of that head ache Yahoo= (New year’s day was spent resting on the couch.
Nonetheless I wish you all the very best in this Ethiopian 2003!
I arrived with 10kg bodyweight extra but did, for a change, manage to pack correctly and had (to great relief of Dries again my companion at the airport) no problems checking in. I slept most of the flight seeing as Ethiopian airlines don’t offer you your private tv screen like KLM did on my way to Brussels which is actually quite fabulous. How I longed to go to Belgium in June and now I’m satisfied back in my nest in Addis.
Coming home on Sunday and starting work on that very same Monday wasn’t exactly ideal although otherwise I would have missed the huge great flea market which supplied me with a lot of games to play during the power cuts. Luckily the first workweek was meetings and setting up.
I am still somewhat tired and seem too long to go to bed at the same time my 4 year olds do, meaning around nine. I’ll get to a more normal rhythm at some point I hope.
It was nice to see the people here again, especially my boyfriend off course but I have also met some other cool people. It took Mika and me some time to find our balance back but that’s also coming along now.
As it turns out I have 14 kids in my class, really nice. The first weeks weren’t easy though, many of these kids have never been in an English spoken environment and are thus scared shitless. 1 of them bit me really hard and wouldn’t even let go!!! I was completely at loss for words by the whole thing and now, a full 2 weeks later, still bear the small teeth marks on my underarm. War wounds I suppose. It was scary and exciting to start off my very own nursery class for the first time. I was fortunate, I could actually prepare for it whereas my new nursery colleague’s classroom wasn’t ready until the Saturday night before the students came!
I have good hopes for this to become a fun year.
The other day it was saint Rafael’s day, people want it to rain that day because they say it’s holy water and their prayers were answered not only did it poor it even hailed holy water! I was in a minibus at the time and the driver had no visibility whatsoever no decent ventilation system nor working windshield wipers, without a doubt my scariest 10 minutes in Addis so far! The imam didn’t see Eid on a Thursday which meant 1 day of holiday less for me, darn, however I had fun things planned amongst which making popcorns so it wasn’t too bad.
The new year’s eve (10 September) was quite ok, I went out with some of Mika’s friends and we had a nice time, watched sheik Al Amudi’s firework and went to bed shortly after because I managed to get a severe cold including throat ache, congestion and as a result of that head ache Yahoo= (New year’s day was spent resting on the couch.
Nonetheless I wish you all the very best in this Ethiopian 2003!
maandag 14 juni 2010
Last time to court...
This morning I went to court…I figured I may as well squeeze 1 more update in before I leave. It was strange, really strange. To start with the lawyer told me that my witnesses won’t be heard ( neither was I btw) but then last time I met him he said that may be Nasr should come anyway and that the judge may hear him. This was only last Friday so I called Nasr and he’d made other plans and would then get back to me. He never got back to me, as a matter of fact he hasn’t picked up the phone on me since Friday. Needless to say he wasn’t there this morning. I had arranged to meet the lawyer at 8:30 and the “court” started at 9. Me being really nervous got there at 8, Lester (the American embassy guy) arrived at 8:45 and my lawyer answered my worried message at 8:50 with “I’m on my way!”.
After waiting a while the lawyer speaks to someone and it turns out we only had to be there at 10, which explained why GYA still hadn’t arrived… We went for a coffee returned and had another wait. I was able to identify the witnesses I didn’t know, the timekeeper and a driver. We had to wait for another hour or so and where then called in, I felt miserable as if I was about to faint. The only thing that happened then was that the court established a translator was needed and after that we were sent out to wait another 45min. It must have been nearly 12 when I got in for real. First witness Clement whose pet-name is the snitch wasn’t able to say very much, the second witness I got to ask questions myself which was good and the third one, Asefow, the one higher up the ladder at GYA flat out lied! He said all kinds of nonsense that just wasn’t true such as them calling me relentlessly to get me back etc etc… The verdict will be on the 9th of July. Both me and Lester thought it went rather well but that’s missing out the Amharic bits obviously because they didn’t translate everything at all, actually the translator left after the first 2 witnesses and then the judge did me the favour of translating some of what Asefow had lied about. I’m worried and relieved at the same time, it’s very strange. The lawyer was worried about Asefow’s testimony so I kinda don’t know what will happen. I just keep reminding myself that I wasn’t deported and that I will be staying whatever the verdict and thus already kind of got what I wanted.
I came home exhausted after I called the head of Early years in Sanford school and asked her if she wanted me to come in for the remaining hour and a half and she told me to go home and relax so I did. I am happy to be in Sanford school, I really am.
After waiting a while the lawyer speaks to someone and it turns out we only had to be there at 10, which explained why GYA still hadn’t arrived… We went for a coffee returned and had another wait. I was able to identify the witnesses I didn’t know, the timekeeper and a driver. We had to wait for another hour or so and where then called in, I felt miserable as if I was about to faint. The only thing that happened then was that the court established a translator was needed and after that we were sent out to wait another 45min. It must have been nearly 12 when I got in for real. First witness Clement whose pet-name is the snitch wasn’t able to say very much, the second witness I got to ask questions myself which was good and the third one, Asefow, the one higher up the ladder at GYA flat out lied! He said all kinds of nonsense that just wasn’t true such as them calling me relentlessly to get me back etc etc… The verdict will be on the 9th of July. Both me and Lester thought it went rather well but that’s missing out the Amharic bits obviously because they didn’t translate everything at all, actually the translator left after the first 2 witnesses and then the judge did me the favour of translating some of what Asefow had lied about. I’m worried and relieved at the same time, it’s very strange. The lawyer was worried about Asefow’s testimony so I kinda don’t know what will happen. I just keep reminding myself that I wasn’t deported and that I will be staying whatever the verdict and thus already kind of got what I wanted.
I came home exhausted after I called the head of Early years in Sanford school and asked her if she wanted me to come in for the remaining hour and a half and she told me to go home and relax so I did. I am happy to be in Sanford school, I really am.
zaterdag 12 juni 2010
Some weeks have passed. Lake Langano was really chill. Sitting on the terras paying ridiculous fees for breakfast whilst playing cards. Mostly a game called asshole at which I didn’t really shine;-). Most importantly We also relaxed besides the beach and I got to swim in the muddy water, man I’ve missed swimming! I actually miss having the beach nearby. It’s my first long stay in a landlocked place and I miss the sea, just like my granny from Ostend would I’m sure. I’ll make up for that in Belgium and Bilbao!
Elections were ridiculous but I’ve been told not to write such things online because you just don’t know and I’m in enough trouble as it is. ( tell you all about it when I get there;-)) What mattered a lot to me was that it would be peaceful, although me and my class could have used the extra holiday if it wasn’t. This term is too long and the kids just as me are getting restless.
Most work is done now, we do however have a parent presentation ahead of us where my group will sing a cute pirate song! My kids great me in the mornings with” good morning pirate Corine” even though I’ve told them many times I’m the captain;-)
They’re lovely and I’ll miss them. I had to observe them while drawing and write down what they said and such, after I asked Munirah what she was drawing she whispers ” an alien in an space-ship!” They crack me up! Some are very good at ‘imaginative speaking’ lately and invent the wildest stories for me! Delina, who is so overweight that she doesn’t like getting up, started calling a whale (after a lesson about whales in which was said that a layer of fat keeps the whales warm) the fat fish and completely forgot the word whale!
I’m also definitely going to start at the Dutch school on Monday evenings in September! Yesterday I went to their closing parent presentation and was introduced as the new teacher. It is strange to be surrounded by Dutch people and I find it difficult to filter out my obviously Flemish accent or not to speak English!
Furthermore I’m looking into starting a long distance masters degree seeing as I’ll be here a while longer. It’s quite difficult to find interesting courses and some are ridiculously expensive! (Remember higher education in Belgium is highly subsidised and thus fairly cheap.) At the moment I’m thinking about the South African university or a British one. The last one is really expensive though but at least I can find that sort of information online whereas UNISA gives you nothing but the different degrees they offer, some of which sound really cool!
On Monday I have to go to court again. GYA’s witnesses will be heard, there is no occasion on which they will hear my witnesses next appointment is the verdict according to my lawyer. It’s strange as some of her witnesses are unknown to me. I’ll see how that goes, I try not to let it get to me anymore. A cop at the American embassy is following the whole thing since David ( remember my first flatmate) complained about the school to them. Miss Gibson is still an American citizen and keeping my residence permit like she did can be considered slavery so she may be in real trouble if her embassy takes action against her. However, if this action is taken I will not really be involved which is fine by me. I’m ready to move on! The only thing I’m still doubting about is whether (if I win the case ) I should talk to Saskia’s friends at the newspaper or not. Those are worries for later though as the verdict should only take place after I return from Europe. Your ideas are welcome regarding that issue!
Thus far this update and probably the next one will be live!!!
Remember: Belgium 2/07 to 20/08 with the exception of when I am in Bilbao from 28/07 to 04/08. Hope to see you in less then 3 weeks!
Elections were ridiculous but I’ve been told not to write such things online because you just don’t know and I’m in enough trouble as it is. ( tell you all about it when I get there;-)) What mattered a lot to me was that it would be peaceful, although me and my class could have used the extra holiday if it wasn’t. This term is too long and the kids just as me are getting restless.
Most work is done now, we do however have a parent presentation ahead of us where my group will sing a cute pirate song! My kids great me in the mornings with” good morning pirate Corine” even though I’ve told them many times I’m the captain;-)
They’re lovely and I’ll miss them. I had to observe them while drawing and write down what they said and such, after I asked Munirah what she was drawing she whispers ” an alien in an space-ship!” They crack me up! Some are very good at ‘imaginative speaking’ lately and invent the wildest stories for me! Delina, who is so overweight that she doesn’t like getting up, started calling a whale (after a lesson about whales in which was said that a layer of fat keeps the whales warm) the fat fish and completely forgot the word whale!
I’m also definitely going to start at the Dutch school on Monday evenings in September! Yesterday I went to their closing parent presentation and was introduced as the new teacher. It is strange to be surrounded by Dutch people and I find it difficult to filter out my obviously Flemish accent or not to speak English!
Furthermore I’m looking into starting a long distance masters degree seeing as I’ll be here a while longer. It’s quite difficult to find interesting courses and some are ridiculously expensive! (Remember higher education in Belgium is highly subsidised and thus fairly cheap.) At the moment I’m thinking about the South African university or a British one. The last one is really expensive though but at least I can find that sort of information online whereas UNISA gives you nothing but the different degrees they offer, some of which sound really cool!
On Monday I have to go to court again. GYA’s witnesses will be heard, there is no occasion on which they will hear my witnesses next appointment is the verdict according to my lawyer. It’s strange as some of her witnesses are unknown to me. I’ll see how that goes, I try not to let it get to me anymore. A cop at the American embassy is following the whole thing since David ( remember my first flatmate) complained about the school to them. Miss Gibson is still an American citizen and keeping my residence permit like she did can be considered slavery so she may be in real trouble if her embassy takes action against her. However, if this action is taken I will not really be involved which is fine by me. I’m ready to move on! The only thing I’m still doubting about is whether (if I win the case ) I should talk to Saskia’s friends at the newspaper or not. Those are worries for later though as the verdict should only take place after I return from Europe. Your ideas are welcome regarding that issue!
Thus far this update and probably the next one will be live!!!
Remember: Belgium 2/07 to 20/08 with the exception of when I am in Bilbao from 28/07 to 04/08. Hope to see you in less then 3 weeks!
donderdag 27 mei 2010
no news... nor pics =)
Not too much has happened still. I got a bit moody with
At the Dutch embassy school they were excited about that. I’ve gone and observed and next week will teach my first trial lesson there. It is really nice. 10 kindergarten kids who speak Dutch and something else at home and come to the school once a week for 2 hours. I think I’m gonna love being a part of that. I’ve evaluated my other students and written my report cards. They’ve done well and it’s cool to see that I did a good job.
Furthermore we’ve been doing entrance exams at school for next year’s nursery students, some parents really don’t accept that their kid isn’t ready for our programme and should do the exam again next year. It’s pretty weird and some kids are extremely spoiled and stubborn. Nonetheless I have a couple of extremely cute kids who made it through the test and now have to get through the lottery. We tested 61 kids and some 45 have passed the test and there are 15 places. The lottery is the only way locals get into
We’ve got a long weekend this weekend and after substituting for Saskia I’m going to
donderdag 22 april 2010
Cursed first visitors...
My first visit in Bilbao was robbed violently but got her possessions back, all’s well that ends well, but now the curse strikes again it seems...
Nele and Karen arrived on Monday with all kinds of goodies, surprises from other friends and a big stack of clothes. They had set it up at my home as if it was St Nicolas day and that’s exactly what it felt like!
I had to send a friend to pick them up early morning at the airport ‘cause I needed to work. He showed them around somewhat and brought them to my school when I was about to finish the parent conferences.
It seems so long ago now that I was running towards them _quite emotional_ through the school compound. It felt so good to show them my class and the art show. My kids did an excellent job colouring Murakami’s flowers and I was so proud!
The next day, Tuesday, I still had to work and they went to Mercato with proper safety instructions. Nonetheless they almost got robbed before they even arrived! The minibus they took actually dropped them off once they had discovered they weren’t gonna allow them to get in their purses. I had never heard such a story before. After that experience Mercato was a piece of cake.
On Wednesday I met them after work ( which is near all important museums they visited) to take them to Shoromeda, Ethiopian textile heaven where they went all out buying scarves which I tried to get for them at local price. After followed an evening filled with games at the house of Alix. When we returned in the early hours we actually scored a free ride with some helpful guy!
Thursday was my last day of work ( good ‘cause I was exhausted!) so after the tasty Indian meal the school provided for me I met up with the girls. Sadly enough I couldn’t join them the rest of the afternoon as I had planned seeing as I had to meet up with the lawyer Dr G recommended for my case. Dr G is a legal advisor which means he cannot plead in court so he hooked me up with someone else who I didn’t trust very much initially but after that meeting that improved! We decided to rewrite the case which would make it easier to win but also means I’ll have to pay GYA some money and it will take a little bit longer. I hope that was the right decision. Upon coming home the girls surprised me yet again with some cheese and wine ( plus coke) they had picked up at a supermarket. Yyummie! Then we had wonderful chechibsa which Mika prepared for us and no-one can beat him at making chechibsa. A sort of savery pancakebread dish with berbere, he makes it with loads of veggies!)
Then we went on my very first ‘foodrun’. This woman from school, Jill, has been organising this for the last 10 years. The idea is simple. The volunteers, just us 3, pay a 100 birr and she provides 400 bags of food and bottles of water. Then we all get in a taxi and start driving around to where there are many homeless people. You get out, wake them up and provide them with a warm meal and clean water. It is incredibly moving. 400 bags of food are not nearly enough for all the people living on the streets here. They are so grateful and lead such a hard life. All of us were really moved by the whole thing. There’s a website where one can read more about this and donate to this cause but Nele left with the contact details. I’ll give them to you next time. It was a truly amazing experience. So if you have been looking for a good cause to support, one where you know your money goes to the people and not to the organisation like in big NGO’s this is one way to go. This organisation you can fully trust.
Friday we went up the Entoto mountain and saw Menelik’s palace, I like that place, it’s very humble. We were going to go for a swim but then Nele and Karen learned the hard way that 13 months of sunshine (Ethiopia’s tourism slogan) is a big fat lie. Still the picnic with guacamole in the Ghion park was nice. I was quite frustrated because I didn’t manage to find a bank that was open and allowed me to get out money from my recently opened account for our trip the next day.
Afa our driver with one big dreadlock on the top of his head of about 30centimetres high picked us up early next morning. It even felt earlier because we had a great evening at the gardenparty of Becca ( one of the new colleagues, the blond one from the pictures).
We spent the whole day driving and just took a little lunch break in Afa’s parents town where we were invited to a nice meal and I found a bank that was willing to give me money from my account. Yes Getting money out can be complicated in Africa!
We picked up a nerdy German along the way and arrived in Lallibella in time for the Easter eve celebrations. Afa actually got us a good price in a fancy hotel with amazing view which used to be Haile Selassies palace. It was fully booked but they arranged the staff room to accommodate us. The other tourists at the ceremony behaved appalling and thus ruined what is supposed to be a spiritual event. They took pictures continuously with flash and prevented the Ethiopians from seeing. One lady stood so close to a priest (and refused to move) that she was under his ‘ umbrella’. We were disgusted and sat at a fair distance on the walls of the amazing rock hewn churches which gave us a good overview. When I started falling asleep and dangerously leaning forward towards the depth of the church we decided to call it a night.
The next day we let ourselves be saturated by these wondrously sculptured buildings. Breathtaking. The evening we spent at ‘Sophie’s restaurant’ where Sophie gave a dance performance in which I joined.
Next day we set out with Afa to Gondor. Well we said goodbye to him in between Gondor and Bahir dar and started using local transport, meaning minibus, there. We arrived in the city of castles starving. First we had to find a good bargain hotel and then we had a great lunch After digesting everything seemed to be closed. Nonetheless we bumped into Nigisti, the girl from Gondor who travelled with the guys who were crossing Africa by car and arranged to visit her NGO the next morning which turned out to be another heart-warming experience. In the evening we celebrated Karen’s birthday but I had to order my drink a full 3x before I was served!
Nigisti’s project ( www.yenegetesfa.org) is another one of those causes well worth support. Amongst other things she takes orphan girls or girls whose parents couldn’t support them away from the homes that took them in order to use them as free servants and where they are often abused and on the other side she also provides streetboys with a home. Both of these homes have a father and mother figure and the children go to local schools and are allowed to be children and play. She also does HIV prevention/education for prostitutes, teaches homeless skills such as shoe-cleaning and some crafts in order to be able to provide a bit for themselves. Besides she set up a bread voucher network: instead of giving a beggar money you can give him this which will give him a small bread at a local bakery. We bought and handed out some of those but it seems they aren’t that well known yet which was somewhat complicated. All in all it was a nice morning seeing how one girl with her growing organisation is managing to make a difference. Turns out some of the sponsors of her project are Belgian so this summer she’ll be there fundraising.
Afterwards we visited the castles and took shelter from the hailstorm in the lion’s cages. Then we saw the royal pool, probably very beautiful when it’s not under restoration and found out a badjadj aka tuk tuk can also be used as an all terrain vehicle or a 3X3 when we went to se the corpses of queen Metewab and her son. No kidding you can actually see their bones in the compound of the remains of her castle! We ended the day with a women’s craft project in the Felasha village near Gondar where beautiful baskets, pottery and weaving was sold. They even spun their own thread! A nice dinner, ok I admit I had 2 dinners one of which with delicious spicy sauce and homemade yoghurt, was the end of a busy perfect day.
The next day Wednesday, also the day of my courtcase which I send the lawyer to, we set out to Bahir Dar where we’d be hosted by a ‘peacecorps’-er called Kyle. We wondered around town, visited the market, had some juices and reserved the girls boattrip for the next day before seeing a beautiful sunset near the hippo pool at the source of the Nile although sadly enough the hippos had decided to go somewhere else for a change. We went to my favourite pasta place in Bahir Dar and someone (hmmmm blush blush ) had a little too much too drink which in combination with the sun and not too much sleep caused me to have to clean the bathroom in the middle of the night because I made a mess and that just before being picked up by the minibus that took me back to Addis a day sooner then the girls.
The next morning, around 6:30 when I was safe and sound asleep in my own bed I was awoken by a phonecall from Nele telling me their minibus which was taking them back to me had an accident. They were halfway between Addis en Bahir Dar meaning in the middle of nowhere: a village called Debre Markos.
From that moment on the holiday was over. I started coordinating both insurance companies, calling to civil aviation, the local police to try and get their luggage, the flying doctors, I maxed out my account to pay for a private ambulance to get them to Addis which broke down, etc… Nele begged me to get them out of there, told me Karen was in pain but no matter how hard I tried I didn’t get them to Addis before 11ish the next morning. They had to spent the night in the horrible public Debre Markos hospital. Just imagine: Nele was bare footed at a certain moment and there were injection needles lying around on the floor… in the AIDS continent!!! I’ve never believed but the help of Kyle’s friends Mark and Veronica who live in the neighbourhood and translated, brought snacks, assisted in retrieving the luggage ( the police actually makes the victims of the accident come and identify it) and their mental support was nothing less then a god’s gift.
Seeing them all banged up the next morning in Addis broke my heart. Nele who had a broken collar bone was completely ignored even in the ‘good’ Korean hospital which is supposedly the Hilton of hospitals. Karen was kept lying still all day and had an operation on her severely fractured thighbone the next day by an American volunteering doctor. The operation took ages because the equipment was being used by someone else. These sort of things occur non-stop eg. The elevator is temporarily out of order so Karen had to spend her first night in a shared room with constant moaning of other patients. I have to go to the pharmacy because they don’t have the medicine Karen needs. The mattress is too hard which causes Karen to get bedsores. The correspondent of the insurance company in Nairobi conveniently forgets to arrange Nele’s flying papers so I have to go to the airport and solve that problem.
Chained to her bed by her injuries there is no way for Karen who is only now slowly getting somewhat more mobile to call a nurse so someone is forced to be next to her 24/7,including at night. After going to several pharmacies we had no choice but to give up hope for finding Nele a triangle shaped bandage to support her arm, etc. All extremely frustrating.
Luckily Nele was able to fly home on Monday evening where she received proper care and an operation. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to her in a proper manner because the security at the airport has no heart and blindly follows rules.
Karen’s dad flew in on Tuesday morning which took lot of weight of my shoulders, we look after her and sleep next to her in shifts now. She keeps her spirits high but the date of her return is continuously postponed.
The driver didn’t survive so everything taken into account I guess we should praise ourselves lucky because it seems neither of my visits will suffer long lasting consequences.
Still it really is a horrible ending to such a wonderful visit.
Pictures may be next time.
Nele and Karen arrived on Monday with all kinds of goodies, surprises from other friends and a big stack of clothes. They had set it up at my home as if it was St Nicolas day and that’s exactly what it felt like!
I had to send a friend to pick them up early morning at the airport ‘cause I needed to work. He showed them around somewhat and brought them to my school when I was about to finish the parent conferences.
It seems so long ago now that I was running towards them _quite emotional_ through the school compound. It felt so good to show them my class and the art show. My kids did an excellent job colouring Murakami’s flowers and I was so proud!
The next day, Tuesday, I still had to work and they went to Mercato with proper safety instructions. Nonetheless they almost got robbed before they even arrived! The minibus they took actually dropped them off once they had discovered they weren’t gonna allow them to get in their purses. I had never heard such a story before. After that experience Mercato was a piece of cake.
On Wednesday I met them after work ( which is near all important museums they visited) to take them to Shoromeda, Ethiopian textile heaven where they went all out buying scarves which I tried to get for them at local price. After followed an evening filled with games at the house of Alix. When we returned in the early hours we actually scored a free ride with some helpful guy!
Thursday was my last day of work ( good ‘cause I was exhausted!) so after the tasty Indian meal the school provided for me I met up with the girls. Sadly enough I couldn’t join them the rest of the afternoon as I had planned seeing as I had to meet up with the lawyer Dr G recommended for my case. Dr G is a legal advisor which means he cannot plead in court so he hooked me up with someone else who I didn’t trust very much initially but after that meeting that improved! We decided to rewrite the case which would make it easier to win but also means I’ll have to pay GYA some money and it will take a little bit longer. I hope that was the right decision. Upon coming home the girls surprised me yet again with some cheese and wine ( plus coke) they had picked up at a supermarket. Yyummie! Then we had wonderful chechibsa which Mika prepared for us and no-one can beat him at making chechibsa. A sort of savery pancakebread dish with berbere, he makes it with loads of veggies!)
Then we went on my very first ‘foodrun’. This woman from school, Jill, has been organising this for the last 10 years. The idea is simple. The volunteers, just us 3, pay a 100 birr and she provides 400 bags of food and bottles of water. Then we all get in a taxi and start driving around to where there are many homeless people. You get out, wake them up and provide them with a warm meal and clean water. It is incredibly moving. 400 bags of food are not nearly enough for all the people living on the streets here. They are so grateful and lead such a hard life. All of us were really moved by the whole thing. There’s a website where one can read more about this and donate to this cause but Nele left with the contact details. I’ll give them to you next time. It was a truly amazing experience. So if you have been looking for a good cause to support, one where you know your money goes to the people and not to the organisation like in big NGO’s this is one way to go. This organisation you can fully trust.
Friday we went up the Entoto mountain and saw Menelik’s palace, I like that place, it’s very humble. We were going to go for a swim but then Nele and Karen learned the hard way that 13 months of sunshine (Ethiopia’s tourism slogan) is a big fat lie. Still the picnic with guacamole in the Ghion park was nice. I was quite frustrated because I didn’t manage to find a bank that was open and allowed me to get out money from my recently opened account for our trip the next day.
Afa our driver with one big dreadlock on the top of his head of about 30centimetres high picked us up early next morning. It even felt earlier because we had a great evening at the gardenparty of Becca ( one of the new colleagues, the blond one from the pictures).
We spent the whole day driving and just took a little lunch break in Afa’s parents town where we were invited to a nice meal and I found a bank that was willing to give me money from my account. Yes Getting money out can be complicated in Africa!
We picked up a nerdy German along the way and arrived in Lallibella in time for the Easter eve celebrations. Afa actually got us a good price in a fancy hotel with amazing view which used to be Haile Selassies palace. It was fully booked but they arranged the staff room to accommodate us. The other tourists at the ceremony behaved appalling and thus ruined what is supposed to be a spiritual event. They took pictures continuously with flash and prevented the Ethiopians from seeing. One lady stood so close to a priest (and refused to move) that she was under his ‘ umbrella’. We were disgusted and sat at a fair distance on the walls of the amazing rock hewn churches which gave us a good overview. When I started falling asleep and dangerously leaning forward towards the depth of the church we decided to call it a night.
The next day we let ourselves be saturated by these wondrously sculptured buildings. Breathtaking. The evening we spent at ‘Sophie’s restaurant’ where Sophie gave a dance performance in which I joined.
Next day we set out with Afa to Gondor. Well we said goodbye to him in between Gondor and Bahir dar and started using local transport, meaning minibus, there. We arrived in the city of castles starving. First we had to find a good bargain hotel and then we had a great lunch After digesting everything seemed to be closed. Nonetheless we bumped into Nigisti, the girl from Gondor who travelled with the guys who were crossing Africa by car and arranged to visit her NGO the next morning which turned out to be another heart-warming experience. In the evening we celebrated Karen’s birthday but I had to order my drink a full 3x before I was served!
Nigisti’s project ( www.yenegetesfa.org) is another one of those causes well worth support. Amongst other things she takes orphan girls or girls whose parents couldn’t support them away from the homes that took them in order to use them as free servants and where they are often abused and on the other side she also provides streetboys with a home. Both of these homes have a father and mother figure and the children go to local schools and are allowed to be children and play. She also does HIV prevention/education for prostitutes, teaches homeless skills such as shoe-cleaning and some crafts in order to be able to provide a bit for themselves. Besides she set up a bread voucher network: instead of giving a beggar money you can give him this which will give him a small bread at a local bakery. We bought and handed out some of those but it seems they aren’t that well known yet which was somewhat complicated. All in all it was a nice morning seeing how one girl with her growing organisation is managing to make a difference. Turns out some of the sponsors of her project are Belgian so this summer she’ll be there fundraising.
Afterwards we visited the castles and took shelter from the hailstorm in the lion’s cages. Then we saw the royal pool, probably very beautiful when it’s not under restoration and found out a badjadj aka tuk tuk can also be used as an all terrain vehicle or a 3X3 when we went to se the corpses of queen Metewab and her son. No kidding you can actually see their bones in the compound of the remains of her castle! We ended the day with a women’s craft project in the Felasha village near Gondar where beautiful baskets, pottery and weaving was sold. They even spun their own thread! A nice dinner, ok I admit I had 2 dinners one of which with delicious spicy sauce and homemade yoghurt, was the end of a busy perfect day.
The next day Wednesday, also the day of my courtcase which I send the lawyer to, we set out to Bahir Dar where we’d be hosted by a ‘peacecorps’-er called Kyle. We wondered around town, visited the market, had some juices and reserved the girls boattrip for the next day before seeing a beautiful sunset near the hippo pool at the source of the Nile although sadly enough the hippos had decided to go somewhere else for a change. We went to my favourite pasta place in Bahir Dar and someone (hmmmm blush blush ) had a little too much too drink which in combination with the sun and not too much sleep caused me to have to clean the bathroom in the middle of the night because I made a mess and that just before being picked up by the minibus that took me back to Addis a day sooner then the girls.
The next morning, around 6:30 when I was safe and sound asleep in my own bed I was awoken by a phonecall from Nele telling me their minibus which was taking them back to me had an accident. They were halfway between Addis en Bahir Dar meaning in the middle of nowhere: a village called Debre Markos.
From that moment on the holiday was over. I started coordinating both insurance companies, calling to civil aviation, the local police to try and get their luggage, the flying doctors, I maxed out my account to pay for a private ambulance to get them to Addis which broke down, etc… Nele begged me to get them out of there, told me Karen was in pain but no matter how hard I tried I didn’t get them to Addis before 11ish the next morning. They had to spent the night in the horrible public Debre Markos hospital. Just imagine: Nele was bare footed at a certain moment and there were injection needles lying around on the floor… in the AIDS continent!!! I’ve never believed but the help of Kyle’s friends Mark and Veronica who live in the neighbourhood and translated, brought snacks, assisted in retrieving the luggage ( the police actually makes the victims of the accident come and identify it) and their mental support was nothing less then a god’s gift.
Seeing them all banged up the next morning in Addis broke my heart. Nele who had a broken collar bone was completely ignored even in the ‘good’ Korean hospital which is supposedly the Hilton of hospitals. Karen was kept lying still all day and had an operation on her severely fractured thighbone the next day by an American volunteering doctor. The operation took ages because the equipment was being used by someone else. These sort of things occur non-stop eg. The elevator is temporarily out of order so Karen had to spend her first night in a shared room with constant moaning of other patients. I have to go to the pharmacy because they don’t have the medicine Karen needs. The mattress is too hard which causes Karen to get bedsores. The correspondent of the insurance company in Nairobi conveniently forgets to arrange Nele’s flying papers so I have to go to the airport and solve that problem.
Chained to her bed by her injuries there is no way for Karen who is only now slowly getting somewhat more mobile to call a nurse so someone is forced to be next to her 24/7,including at night. After going to several pharmacies we had no choice but to give up hope for finding Nele a triangle shaped bandage to support her arm, etc. All extremely frustrating.
Luckily Nele was able to fly home on Monday evening where she received proper care and an operation. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to her in a proper manner because the security at the airport has no heart and blindly follows rules.
Karen’s dad flew in on Tuesday morning which took lot of weight of my shoulders, we look after her and sleep next to her in shifts now. She keeps her spirits high but the date of her return is continuously postponed.
The driver didn’t survive so everything taken into account I guess we should praise ourselves lucky because it seems neither of my visits will suffer long lasting consequences.
Still it really is a horrible ending to such a wonderful visit.
Pictures may be next time.
zaterdag 20 maart 2010
My Bole home 2
1. Opposite side of the living room2. Guest room ( aka Nele's room)
3. Bathroom with super flashy pink shower curtains in front of the window and for the shower/bath...
4. Masterbedroom
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