The last 2 months have mainly been spent getting an education in bureaucracy and mind reading. I am happy to say that I am now an expert (in bureaucracy)….and I have multiple purple stamps to prove it!
Basically, in Ethiopia you need a purple stamp to prove that every official document/letter/copy of anything is genuine; it’s to stop corruption apparently. You get a purple stamp when you’re an officially registered organisation; they cost 90birr and I’ve been seriously considering buying one (mainly to stamp the foreheads of useless government officials!!).
Mark came over to visit me on 22nd August and I went to meet him in Addis so that I could get my visa/work permit/resident’s ID card sorted. I assumed that would take a week or so at the most….oh how wrong I was!
The Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, died on 20th August and the government offices were closed for quite a few days over a number of weeks. So without sounding heartless, that was a tad annoying. The British Embassy charged me £50(!!) for the pleasure of authenticating my MA degree certificate (which had already cost me quite a lot of money to get in the first place I might add); and my manager had no clue whatsoever that he legally had to request permission for a foreign volunteer from the government, which he didn’t have. Great fun. So in a nutshell, it was a ball ache and at one point we had to explain to a guy in the Charities and Societies office how to do his job (well Ashenafi did, I just stood there trying not to look pissed off…which if you’ve ever met me you know that this is not really a quality I possess). He was saying that he was worried about signing my document and allowing me to stay in case he got in trouble. All I can say is GET SOME BALLS AND/OR A NEW JOB!
Meles Zenawi dying was a massive shock to everyone. The country still seems to be mourning him, although the wailing and really annoying repetitive mourning music has stopped (my least favourite of which consisted of a sort of cross between a panpipe and a flute playing the same bars of tune over and over and over and over…..for weeks). Murals/stickers/posters/TV adverts of him seemed to have popped up everywhere and now schools and hydroelectric dams now seem to be named after him too. So it kind of still feels like he’s around.
We were stuck in Addis for 3 weeks (3/4 of Mark’s whole holiday) but we managed to escape to Lalibela (loads of old churches which are beautiful but give you fleas). We managed to get to Bahir Dar just before Ethiopian New Year on 11th September, we got there and back within 29 hours(!!), missing New Year by 30mins. This was all possible thanks to our driver Goitom and his VERY fast Chat-fulled driving, he turned the whole trip into that scene from Fear and Loathing - "This is bat country!'; rambling incoherently and stopping to shout at farmers in their fields just to warn them that we were passing... It started off quite funny but after the 4th hour of driving with his hand constantly on the horn, it started to get a bit shit to say the least.
When Mark was here he helped me to make a short film for Mums for Mums and I got to try my hand at sound recording and interviewing which was fun. I’ve also been spending the last few weeks sorting out the website for them but it’s taking longer than I’d like as the internet’s quite slow.
We had no water for 3 weeks which was annoying but not as bad as some places nearby (namely Wukro), which according to my friend Rashad (peace corps volunteer living there) have only had water for 3 hours in the past 2 months (which was during the rainy season too I might add). Sort it out Water and Power! On the upside, the power cuts have become less frequent now the rains have stopped. Every (non-existent) cloud has a silver (imaginary) lining.
I've been on a few more road trips with work to Adwa and Adigrat, not far from the Eritrean border. It's really beautiful up there. Stunning mountains and scenery that's akin to Arizona or some other cowboy country. I really love Adwa, it's a lovely town (and the home of both Meles Zenawi and Mums for Mums founder, Tebereh).
K x
