Alex Little

On Saturday it will be 6 months since I first arrived in Ethiopia. Although work-wise I haven’t achieved many of the things I’d hoped to by this point, I’m generally pleased with how work and various projects are progressing. There is plenty more to do and get involved with, so I’m likely to get busier over the coming months. Despite all the advice (warnings?) during pre-departure training and from other, longer serving, volunteers about how slow work can be and how it takes time to get things done, you still somehow think that it’ll be different for you!

So, I’m halfway through my placement and starting to think about what I do next. As I’m feeling that I’ve only just got started with the work here, I looking into extending my placement for a further 6 months. I’ve spoken to my program manager and in theory he’s happy for me to extend – after completing the various forms regarding how my placement objectives are being met and what my objectives would be during the extension.

However, the economic problems may put the brakes on any planned extension. VSO is mainly funded (approx 75% I believe) through UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), and so (I assume) receives most of it’s money in sterling. The drop in value of GBP means that VSO may not be able to fund as many placements in the coming months. When I arrived in Sept 1 GBP bought around 18 birr, now it’s only around 14 birr. Apparently, VSO Ethiopia aren’t going to know until July just how many placements will be funded. Consequently, even if I apply now for an extension it won’t be until July when I’ll have the final answer.

To confuse things further, I’m unsure exactly what there will be for me at the Uni during the summer months (July – Sept). Although one of the busiest periods for the University, during summer all lecturers are officially on holiday. Staff then apply to teach on the summer programme and receive extra payment for this work. My work could happily continue through this period, as I’m not tied to specific teaching programmes. But if the staff aren’t around, or rather, are around but aren’t being paid for anything except teaching, they may be reluctant to participate or contribute to the work I’m trying to do. Unless I can get some commitment that staff will be available to support and continue the elearning project, I may be slightly redundant during the summer, unless I can find another project to work on here.

So, currently feeling a bit in limbo about the placement, and my plans to keep my head down here out of the way of the economic problems don’t seem to be working out!

However, I probably shouldn’t complain too much, through a rather circuitous route I’ve been hearing about the situation for one of the VSO volunteers in Eritrea. Based geographically very close, just over the (closed) border to the north, they’re subject to food, water, and fuel shortages, currently having no piped water or kerosene, so only able to water from the well and cook on charcoal.