Chocks away. The final (propeller-powered) plane completed my journey to Gondar. Having spent a few hours in Istanbul without any Turkish money, and a sleepy night in Addis Ababa airport, I was glad to be at my final destination.
Currently, I’m in the hotel room which is my home for tonight, along with 20-year-old university student Sam, until we move in to our permanent accommodation tomorrow. It’s basic. The bed is comfortable, but I think they expect you to provide your own toilet seat and shower curtain. It’s clean enough though, and it’s perfect for tonight.
Our room for the first night
At lunch we met up with Sheree, an Australian girl who reliably informs us that Foster’s can’t be bought in Australia, and Megan, a 17-year-old from Aberdeen who’s already been here for three weeks. For Sheree this is her first trip outside of Australia, and Megan is in exactly the same situation as me, having left school this summer too.
Sheree and Megan
Later in the afternoon we were taken all around Gondar by Belayneh and Mulugeta, the guys in charge of Link Ethiopia out here. Dodging the insane tuk tuk drivers (3 wheeled taxis), we saw the full range of the town: from the urbanised areas around the Castle, we wandered through the market stalls (affectionately described by Belayneh as Gondar’s ‘Central Business District’), until we hit the slums.
They’re not pretty. Domed houses (if house is the word) constructed of plastic and string, they aren’t fit for anyone to live in. Think the Crack Fox’s den in the Mighty Boosh, remove all the comedy and add human suffering, and you’re someway to understanding the life these people live. It’s a moving sight, and one that is hard to describe in words.
And yet every small child we saw in the slums smiled at us, peeping out a cheeky ‘hello’ before laughing to their friends. Despite the desolation they live through every day, they still simply enjoy the chance to shake a foreigner’s hand. The powerful impact of the presence of ‘farenji’ (white people) is both moving and terrifying at the same time. This latter reflection is one I feel sure will reoccur in the coming days or weeks.
Back in the main part of town, and a couple of local beers better off, we headed for our first real taste of traditional Ethiopian food. The sour, pancakey, bread-like ‘injera’, which acts both as a plate and the staple of the meal, wrapped around some chunks of roasted lamb, was surprisingly satisfying. If that wasn’t good enough, dinner and drinks for five came to under £5. But I guess that’s hardly surprising in this town of the cruellest extremes.
Friday 2nd July
A culture clash. The Ethiopians know how to do a night out, but a surreal one at that. We met up with Courtney, a uni student from the States, for dinner in front of the Brazil game, before meeting a couple of Megan’s Ethiopian friends. They took us to a traditional Ethiopian dance house: in Ethiopian dancing everything is done with the shoulders. It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before, but within minutes we were shaking our shoulders like nobody’s business (much to the amusement of the locals).
After that, we changed tack, heading to a Western-style club. It’s no Revs, in fact it barely qualifies as a club at all, but walking in to B.o.B’s ‘Nothing on You’ made me think twice about which continent I was actually on. Having briefly populated the club, we went to the local Rastafari bar. Bob Marley clearly lives on in Gondar. Fascinatingly, Rastafarianism originated from Ethiopia, and is based on worship of former Ethiopian Emperor Haileselassie (the red, green and yellow colours that symbolise Rastafarianism come from Ethiopian flag). All in all, it was a completely unexpected but immensely enjoyable evening.
Earlier in the day, me and Sam moved into the apartment where we’ll be staying for the rest of the month. It’s quite new, and clean, so it should be pretty good for us. I also got the first chance to meet my students. Lessons don’t start until Monday, but they seemed keen and as excited as I am. Like all the young people in Gondar (I say young, some of the students are older than me!), they all want to talk to you and find out as much as they can about you. Bring on Monday.
Mulugeta in front of Angereb School
At lunchtime, the rains came. When it rains here, it really rains. We dived inside for some tasty fish goulash until the roads no longer resembled rivers. Once they had finally dried up, we had a final briefing on how to teach, ahead of our first lessons. It seemed as though we fitted a year’s PGCE training into an hour, but we’ll give it our best shot on Monday. If all else fails, I’ll bring out some of the shoulder-dancing moves we learnt – they’re sure to love that.
Saturday 3rd July
I dreamt of a hot shower last night. The now daily jumps in and out of the stream (trickle) of cold water certainly serves to wake me up. But that’s about the only luxury I find myself missing. The food is great so far, who would’ve thought that scrambled egg and spicy bean stew would be such a natural breakfast combination? Try it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
This morning we did the obligatory touristy things. This meant we had a tour around the 17th Century Fasil Castle in the middle of town, with a keen guide. His parting speech was a rant about how the Ethiopian education system is in need of radical reform. The relevance of that to the Great Kings of Ethiopia, or the castle’s bombing by the Italians, remains to be seen. But it was interesting nonetheless.
Fasil Castle
At lunchtime me and Sam met up with one of the guys that took us out last night. Since today was a town-wide day of celebration for the graduation of the local university students, he invited us to his friend’s house for lunch. The friend, and English graduate as of today, was welcoming and supplied us with plenty of local food and fenugreek juice (no, me neither). They were so welcoming, in fact, that he encourage me to drive his Toyota Land Cruiser back to our apartment, on the other side of town. I was less keen, bearing in mind the 4x4 was left-hand drive, and I had to navigate through crazy taxis, tuk tuks, minibuses, people, donkeys, goats, stray dogs, sheep and other assorted animals. But we got there, not having hit anything, even if it was the most terrifying driving experience of my life.
Tonight we were invited over to Mulugeta’s for dinner (Mulugeta is the younger of the two Link Ethiopia guys here) and to watch the Germany v Argentina game. Quickly though, the night became a memorable one. Whereas last night had been all about traditional dancing, tonight it was our turn. Between us we managed to show the Ethiopians, and a couple of young children, varyingly good interpretations of Waltz, Salsa, Merengue and Cha Cha. After that we played games with the kids, and laughter was the soundtrack to the evening. If it sounds ridiculous, it was, but it was certainly great fun.
More rope needed...
I’m trying to pick up a bit of Amharic here, but it’s not proving easy. An impromptu lesson with one of Megan’s students tonight taught me that their word for ‘bird’ is ‘woof’ and the word for ‘dinner’ is ‘rat’. Make of that what you will, but for now – ‘Chou!’.
Sunday 4th July
It was inevitable really. It was only a matter of time before I would succumb to the local food. Myself and Sam both spent last night in and out of the bathroom, and this morning wasn’t much better.
We ventured out for some light lunch, but I couldn’t stomach anything and dramatically fainted in the middle of the café – not the best moment of the trip so far.
The good news, though, is that after an afternoon in bed, we both managed almost a full meal this evening and look to be over the worst of it. Let’s hope that by 9am tomorrow, when my lessons begin, that everything will be back to normal.
Monday 5th July
Today has been a day of doing without. Since we woke up, we’ve had no running water, and it looks like that could last. All morning, there was no phone service, so we couldn’t find each other, nor was there any internet, thwarting my second attempt to upload a blog. And during dinner, the power went out, but eating by torchlight produced some surprisingly amusing results.
Despite that though, it’s been a really good day. My first lesson was this morning, with 24 kids turning up to the dusty classroom with a chalkboard and broken windows. At first they were shy, but a game of 20 questions got them all smiling and the class going. By the end, most of them were getting involved, and it seemed to be a successful couple of hours.
My class in our first classroom
I was then whisked away to someone’s house for lunch, not really knowing what was going on, but finding there Sefanit, and Ethiopian-Canadian living in California, who is the latest volunteer to join us. From tomorrow we’ll be teaching together, and from the hour I spent with her, I think that’s going to be fun.
A brisk tour of the markets and dinner with the other volunteers rounded off the day, and all that’s left to do is relax with my ipod and start planning tomorrow’s lessons. I could get used to this...
Tuesday 6th July
The best plans are made an hour before the event. My second day of teaching, and Sefanit’s first, began with breakfast, as we worked out what to do in the lesson. Neither of us, though, expected yesterday’s numbers to increase to 35, so everything we had planned was immediately thrown out of the window. The classroom jam packed, we tried with varying degrees of success, to teach some English through song, drama, games and old-fashioned comprehension. I think we’re starting to get the hang of it, but it’s still remarkable how some of the students can be so keen to learn that they turn up religiously in their summer holidays, and yet be so shy in a classroom environment.
A lunchtime thunderstorm stopped us venturing out too much in the afternoon, but we met with the man who is organising our trip to the Simien Mountains this weekend. We’ll be trekking for three days amongst the famous wildlife, an experience that should be unforgettable.
Today was also Megan’s 18th birthday, so we took her to a traditional coffee ceremony for tej (honey wine), coffee from beans roasted before our eyes, and popcorn (they’re obsessed with it, for some reason). A birthday dinner followed at a local hotel, to round off an 18th birthday vastly different to most.
The coffee ceremony (below) and Sam, Megan, Me and Sheree (above)
Wednesday 7th July
It feels like we’ve broken the shyness barrier. The solution? Sweets. After rewarding a couple of groups for trying their English conversation in front of the class with some Devonshire toffees, everyone was keen to have a go. By the end, there were no sweets left, but the performances kept on coming. And because our class keeps growing, tomorrow we’re going to have to split the group into two classes, which can only be a good thing.
Students acting out a dialogue
This afternoon me and Sheree went to an organisation called the Kindu Trust; a charity which matches needy children here with sponsors in the UK and USA. Since we’re only teaching in the mornings at the moment, we’re looking to do some other volunteer work. So from tomorrow, I’ll be working there a couple of afternoons a week, helping with visits to sponsored kids, writing letters to sponsors and arranging the charity’s finances.
After that, I was invited to an English class at a local language school, to see how they do things. I picked up some tips for teaching, and was used as an example of a native speaker to demonstrate that we do actually say ‘How do you do?’ and ‘Pray let me introduce myself’. Despite the old-fashioned language, it was intriguing, and I learnt a fair bit about how to teach a large group of students.
We rounded off the day with a drink on the hilltop, looking out across the valley behind Gondar as the sun set, and vultures circled menacingly above us. For a moment, I thought I was in the Lion King.
Sheree, Megan, Sefanit and Me
