Ethiopia by E-mail
Subject: HI Everyone from Addis
Saturday 7 May
Jim had several of my students escorting him through the museum, trying to
teach him Amharic and explaining the history of Ethiopia to him. They
showed him cultural artifacts and explained them to him. They seemed to
enjoy showing off their heritage. The picture included shows a group of the
Gemini youth in front of Haile Selassie's throne in the National Museum.
While we were at the museum with the group, two younger girls came in and
attached themselves to our group. One named Naomi told us they were
supposed to be at the museum to learn about Menelek II. She followed us all
over the museum and we spent most of our time in the anthropological area
and the art area and did not spend much time in the Menelek II area. When
she was ready to leave, she said goodbye. She asked Jim to take a picture
of a model of the Axum Stelea with his camera and show her how the camera
worked. It is a digital camera and she was excited to see the photo on the
view screen when it was taken.
Sunday 8 May
Saturday night Jim was getting ready for bed and turned the hot water heater
in the bathroom on and came out to get his book so he could read in bed.
When he turned on the living room light it popped and all the electric went out
in our apartment. We checked the breaker box and the one switch was off so
Jim reset it. The power did not go back on. We called the only number Jim
has to have anything fixed and they told us we would just have to wait until
Monday morning at 8:30am. Jim could not talk to any of the neighbors so when we
went to bed it was after 10 PM. This morning we finally got to talk to the
next door neighbor and he took Jim to the guard shack at the gate and they
got a man who had a key to check the main breakers in the room where they
keep the electric meters. They reset the switch and came up and checked and
we had power again. So now we know who to see in the building about the
electricity when it is only our apartment that is out. The lights in the
hallway were on and the neighbors had lights but did not answer their door.
I told Jim to makes sure the fix-it man from the University starts telling
people who to contact in the building if this happens. The University
should not have to come out for switches that just need to be reset. On
Monday Jim called to say they were coming to pick up the hot water here and
by the time they got here the power was out again. This time resetting the
switch did not work so Tuesday morning they came out with a electrican and
he said there was a loose connection in the breaker box and it has worked
every day since. They told Jim they would be back on Friday to deliver the hot
water heater so yesterday Thursday the man called Jim because no one was
home to let them in. He was suppose to be here at 9 AM Friday but so far
has not shown up and Jim took the day off work to be here. Jim is grading
papers from his last class so he is getting something done today. But
sometimes you just wish people would show up when they promise.
I worked Gemini this week and the students were all happy because we gave
them pictures that we took with a couple of disposable cameras Shannon left
here. I am not sure they have their pictures taken too often. I have taken
a lot of pictures at Gemini with the digital camera and this week we gave
Thursday 12 May
One of Jim's students called us about 4:30 to ask where he was. They were
having policial rallies down by the university and he wanted Jim to go home
if he was still at work. He told Jim we should not be out last night
because of all the rallies. Of course about 6 PM it started raining really
hard so maybe the rallies did not last long. I was told yesterday that
Sunday is the election but they will not know for 27 days who wins because it takes
that long to count the votes. We are not in the rainy season yet but for
the last week or so it has rained everyday at some point. Doing laundry has
been really interestig but I get it out and either it rains right after
that or it will stop dripping and I keep a close watch and bring it in to
dry in the spare room. It never rains all day just some part of it.
Friday 13 May
I guess that is about all for this newsletter. I will write again next
week.
Pat
Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 19:32:51 +0300
From: Pat Rollin
We have had a good week. I did laundry and worked on my bedspread I am
making for the spare room. Jim taught this week and Thursday was a holiday
in Ethiopia, Patriot's Day and their was no school and some stores were
closed. I worked at Gemini on Wednesday and then on Saturday we met the
students at the National Museum for a tour of the place. Jim went with me.
Getting to the museum was interesting because they are having an election in
a week and they were having a political rallies at the Meskal Square so they
had streets closed to traffic and other streets people were walking down and
they had all the traffic on one side to the street. Buses were full of
people going to the rally with people sitting on roof(top). They had big
stake rack trucks (like Dump Trucks) loaded with people standing in the back
of them. The horns were all honking and everyone was shouting for their
group or political party. But since we don't understand Amharic we did not
understand much. At the museum they had a staff person give a talk about
the museum and history of Ethiopia. It was in Amharic so we did not
understand a lot. Although once in a while he would say something in
English. There were two others ladies from New Zealand with us. They are
working with Gemini to train the students to be coaches for sport teams.
One was talking to Jim about being a Social Worker and starting College in
Toronto, Canada next year.
The students were really happy to tell Jim and I about the exhibits in the
museum and their country. We took a lot of pictures with a disposable
camera so I can give some prints to the students. We saw Lucy and were told
by the students how she got her name. In Amharic her name is Denkenesh or
Birkenes. It means you are wonderful (or amazing) in Amharic.
We went to church this morning and the roads are still messed up with the
political rallies. We saw a marching band parading down Bole Road. So all
the traffic was on one side of the street. Bole is a divided street with
about 4 lanes going in each direction. We understand the election is next
Sunday. Jim thinks everything will still be messed up. They have a lot of
extra police and soldiers armed with AK-47 out on all the major roads and
streets. There are two opposition parties and the party in power is the EPRDF
(Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front). There is a lot of
tension & suspicion of the ruling party. The ruling party primarily
represents the Northern Tigray people. The Amhara have formed a coalition
with them but are unhappy and the Oromo are unhappy with the Tigray &
Amhara. One party that represents Oromo people was declared illegal by the
government. One of my students in field placement was accused of using a
"political" word while working in the field with a community. A complaint
was made to the regional government. The government sent out investigators
and the organization dismissed him.
Meron a CD with all the pictures I have taken. On Wednesday at Gemini Meron
and the preschool teachers gave out the back packs that my sister-in-law
Sheila and brother Terry had mailed us from the United States. On Thursday
all the students came back with their back packs on. It was really cute.
Sheila had received the back packs from a drug representative she knows.
Meron also gave the teachers pens which Sheila and Terry had sent also. I
took pictures and we will include one in this newsletter. The second
picture is of the children at Gemini showing off the backpacke.
The mainenance people called Jim at work to find out if they could get into
the apartment and replace the hot water heater. They were at the apartment.
I was at Gemini and Jim was working. They had told him they would come
Friday morning.
The maintainence people had promised to come in the morning but never showed
up. Jim had waited at home for them instead of going in to work. They
finally showed up in the afternoon and said they did not know where the
water heater was but they would find it and deliver it Monday morning.