ELIC Party

Yesterday was one of the best days for me here in Ethiopia. We held a coffee ceremony in our college at the ELIC (English Language Improvement Centre). We invited all the students who belong to the three clubs we have there – Gender Club, Reading Club and Debate Club - and anyone else who wanted to join. The aim of the event was to have something fun at the ELIC and to publicise the clubs to get more members.

ELIC student members helped us to organise the event with publicity, getting equipment for the coffee ceremony, deciding the programme and presenting. We had coffee, bread, popcorn and ‘kolo’ (which is roasted grains). The event included a Reading Club member reading an Ethiopian Amharic story he had translated into English, music and dancing - one of the staff members bought his harmonica - and students telling riddles and jokes in English.

Dancing

Student reading his translated story

We tried to let students take ownership as much as possible because it is vital to the sustainability of the work that we have done here. We want students to feel that the ELIC is theirs because I will leave at the end of the academic year, but the first and second year students will be here next year. Therefore, we want them to carry on what has been set up because academic staff are normally very busy. The more the students can do the better chance the centre has of continuing to be a useful space.

At our ELIC coffee ceremony, it was great to see the students enjoying themselves and feeling like they were a part of something they were proud of. It was also great for me and other staff to see how far the ELIC has come. At the start of the year, no one was using the room or the resources in it, most people didn’t even know where the room was. But we are aware that this is just the beginning and there is still a lot more that can be done.

(The only regret I have is that we didn’t do something like this earlier, but with the way things work here sometimes doing things slowly is better.)

Some of the ELIC gang

Habesha Easter

Yesterday was Ethiopian Easter. Easter is the biggest celebration in the Orthodox Christian calendar. It follows two months of fasting, which means no animal products – meat or dairy. Easter is celebrated with family and friends and with a lot of meat – chicken, sheep and oxen.

Although all my friends know I’m not a Christian and that I don’t eat meat here (because it’s not halal) they invited me to their celebrations anyway.

Easter celebrations start here with a meal at about 3am on Easter Sunday. All households wake at this time and eat their first meal of meat together. They then go back to sleep and wake up at a more reasonable hour.

For most people though, preparations start a few days earlier with buying sheep, chickens and so on. Families normally get together and buy an ox. The night before is when they start their cooking. First it’s the chicken for ‘doro watt’ which is prepared. All animals here can only be slaughtered by a male – normally the head of the house. When I went to my neighbour’s house on Saturday night I saw the dean kill the chicken. The women then take over and pluck the feathers and so on. I asked the dean if he would also slaughter the sheep that was in his garden, but he said that although he should traditionally as the head of the house, he couldn’t – someone else was going to come and do it for him. He said it’s a difficult task that requires a lot of skill.

On Easter when I went over for lunch we watched (or rather I watched and the others helped) the sheep get slaughtered and prepared for cooking – i.e. the skinning and the dividing of the different parts and so on. The man has to do all of this to the sheep, the women do the cooking. All the women I know prefer cooking sheep rather than chicken as it is easier for them. It was strangely interesting for me to see as I’ve never seen it before. I didn’t know how I would react to seeing it but I was okay. (I don’t know if that makes me a bit heartless or what…)

Anyway at the dean’s house I ate an especially prepared vegetarian meal for me, while everyone else ate their meat with great relish. We talked, played with the children and watched special Easter celebration entertainment on the Ethiopian TV channel. After that I went to a friend’s house who was so sweet she made me have another lunch even though I told her I’d eaten. In the evening I went to my other neighbour’s house.

It was a lovely day spent with my friends who are all so incredibly generous and welcoming.

Update

It’s the small rains here in Debre Birhan at the moment. They normally come in February, but this year they are late. The small rains last for a few weeks whereas the big rains, in July and August, last a couple of months. The farmers have been waiting and praying for them, and it’s easy to see where I am that the earth needs it – when I came in September everything was green and alive, now it is brown and dry. I am told that soon it will all be green again. The rain is magnificent here with crazy thunderstorms and lightening. I am still surprised and very grateful that the roof in my house hasn’t leaked. It’s been very strange for me to wake up with a cloudy sky here; it feels a lot like home when it’s drizzly, although mostly it rains in the evening and at night. Needless to say, the rain means that the electricity goes out frequently.

I don’t know if it’s to do with the weather, but there is now an even more limited selection of fruit and vegetables – or if it is available, it’s not good. For example, the bananas and tomatoes available have not been very nice recently. Plus there is a situation with sugar here at the moment (not just in where I am but other places too I’m told.) I can’t quite work out if it’s a shortage or what. Anyway, it has now become impossible to buy sugar from shops. You have to buy it from the Kebele Office, which is like a council office. There people queue for it and then it runs out and they tell you to come later. Very frustrating. Ethiopians love their sugar – in tea and coffee – so they need it. I need mine for my morning cup of tea (though I don’t use anywhere near how much Ethiopians use). I stupidly waited until I’d completely run out last week to buy sugar. I went to three Kebele Offices and for various reasons waited ages, but they didn’t have any. I did manage to find some in a hidden shop where I was secretly sold about two handfuls of sugar for six birr (normally a kilo is fourteen birr). I felt very lawless buying sugar on the black market! But I was lucky because a friend of mine went to Addis so he bought some more back for me.

Work has been going well. The classes with the teacher trainers are going well, though I am unsure if they will complete the course this academic year because we started so late. However, they will be able to complete the course next academic year if they need to. It is also nice to see that staff and students are using our English Language Improvement Centre.

This is one of our student Film Nights with me telling students about the film they are about to watch.

As part of the Gender Club, we are planning a Health Training workshop for females next week Wednesday for 400 females. The tutorial program in which second and third year students tutor first years will also start on Monday next week. The students were very keen to join this programme, so it will be interesting to see how it works out.

I am still taking Amharic lessons. I have been learning the ‘fidel’ or the alphabet of Amharic as well and earlier this week I read my first words in Amharic! I was so pleased. Also when I went to the Kebele Office, I was able to read the sign. Learning a new language has been a great experience for me. I enjoy it so much and will definitely miss it when I return home, but it’s sad to think that I will forget most of what I am learning because I won’t use it in England.