This
week's been ace. Found out that there's a whole other side of town that
I hadn't explored with loads of other restaurants. I've also found a place which sells pasterised milk from cows that live out the back of the cafe(!!!)
so this morning I drank 3 glasses (much to the astonishment of the cafe
staff. I've also found a place with safe salads, so yesterday I had
salad and chips (huzzar!!), the restaurant staff couldn't get their
heads round that one either....
I thought I'd mention the small amount of hassle I'm getting. It's
nothing too terrible, it freaked me out last week but it's ok now. Ferengi's (pronounced
Fa-ren-gee) is the name for any foreigners over here (and more recently
as there seems to be quite a few Chinese contractors about, I've also
had quite a few kids shouting 'China!' at me...) and as if I wasn't
already massively aware that I'm a foreigner in a strange land, all the
children/young folks seem to have to make me aware of it constantly by perpetually shouting it at me when I'm out and about. The kids are pretty cute about it as they like to run
up to me and shake my hand and shout out all the English phrases they
know, but I've had a few older lads shoulder barging past me at
night....although it might be their way to show affection....(?!). It's not
too bad in Mekelle when I'm walking about on my own, it just get a lot
worse when I'm with one or more ferengis as I found out this week when I
met a load of volunteers.
Being here has really made me realise that happiness in life is mostly all in
the mind. I was unhappy last week as (apart from being freaked out) I
just felt really self conscious and vulnerable with everyone staring at
me all the time, this week I started the week by thinking 'well, this is
what it must like to be Avril Lavigne in Ethiopia!', so for the first half of the week I thought I was
famous as it kinda feels that way with everyone looking, commenting and
screaming kids running up to me constantly. The second half of the
week, especially when I've been eating, I've just thought "well they
must be just staring at me as I'm so adept at eating Injera, they must
think I'm a local!" Ha! I now feel proud when I'm eating local food
alone! I'm sure it's not true but it makes for a more interesting
time I can tell you!! I even said 'no autographs please' to a gang of
kids that came up to me last night. Proper pissed myself about it too (funniest person ever...). Life's about the
small things ;o)
A German couple walked in to the centre last week to do some volunteering and they know a bloke who's lived here for years, so he put me in
touch with a British woman who's here doing VSO. She's been really great
at showing me round and introducing me to other people, she even drew
me a map of the city centre!! On Saturday she invited me to a social at
an American bloke's house and we had cheese (yes real cheese!!!! - you
can't get it here) and wine and played volleyball with a load of (kind
of annoying but well meaning Peace Corps people). They all get together
once a month (as they're living in tiny villages all across the region)
to eat, drink and be merry! So that'll be nice.
I found a food and animal market this weekend! (the latter is
MENTAL!!) I think once I'm in my own place I'm going to buy a chicken
for dinner....you can only buy it live though so I might need to work up to that
one!
One thing I've noticed about Mekelle is that the men seem to get all
the 'fun' jobs in relation to the markets, they get to herd
sheep/goats/cattle/camels/chickens - you name it, they herd it!
They also get to drive about, use horses and traps, go to
bars/restaurants with their friends etc.(I think one of the reasons I
felt so odd eating on my own last week is that there are not that many
women in restaurants, if they are they're with guys...). The women just
get to carry everything else to the market on their backs, plus they
seem to do the more back breaking work re construction and the men get to use
donkeys/horses to pull everything. The women here are super hard.
Ethiopians seem to be VERY touchy-feely. It's a very common sight to
see guys walk about holding hands/hugging/basically draped over each
other, even the old fellas! There's a lot of propaganda in the news
about Homosexuality though (it's punishable with 5 years in prison), which as a westerner I just find strange
with the aforementioned grope-age going on.... http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/06/21/ethiopia-newspaper-warns-of-gay-infestation/,
but at the same time journalists are being put in prison for speaking
out against the ruling party, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary
Democratic Front (EPRDF for 'short')http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18612896. It's a bit messed up....
Work's been really interesting. Last week we received an urgent
proposal for funding and we only had 2 days to complete it. It's funding
to help strengthen organizational capacity as in 2009 the Ethiopian
Government introduced new legislation regarding how charities and NGOs
are run which basically means that they have to become more self-sufficient and rely less on handouts. So basically they need to get a
few consultants in to help redraft their existing policies and to create
new ones where they don't already exist. I had to write a proposal with
Ashenafi (boss guy) and then we had to dash across town to hand it to a flight
attendant who was on the last flight to Addis that week. I'm not gonna
lie, I felt like Bond/Jack Bauer!! Very cool indeed.
On Wednesday I went to
a lecture at Mekelle university, it was the
presentation of the first qualitative research ever to be conducted in
this region re HIV/AIDS prevalence, previously all other stats were just
mathematical equations of anticipated numbers. It was conducted by a
bloke who's quite famous in the area (no idea what his name is though)
as he used to be the Tigray Health
Minister between 2005-2010, he left and decided that he was going to set
up a research organisation which would work towards providing actual
data about his people so that the government wouldn't have to guess
where to send resources (as he said he did when he was boss...). It was
really interesting and inspiring as I was only 1 of 30 people invited,
the others included the first ever MA graduates in health stats in Tigray
and their teacher. It was like a 'call to arms' to the newly qualified
researchers to go out and find the truth. Very cool indeed.
I'm hoping to move out of my hotel this week as if I don't I'll
probably die of sleep deprivation as a new cultural restaurant's opened
up next door and every night they have the loudest band I've ever
heard(!!) playing non-stop Tigrinya music until about 12.30pm. It
doesn't help that every tune sounds pretty much the same (and that
tune's not great....at all!), they just whack a massive double donk on
to everything.
Oh and I killed my first scorpion on Wednesday too. I'm kicking ass all over the place!!
That's it for now. I should get my USB stick tomorrow/Sunday so I'll be able to actually post some pics!
Big love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
