Alex Little

alex December 16th, 2008

It’s not every Sunday evening you spend in a bar eating goat and drinking neat gin with the local chief of police whilst watching “ultimate fighting” on satellite TV.

So basically another normal weekend in Ethiopia. The rest of the weekend was only slightly less eventful. Had an early Christmas meal up at the Gheralta Lodge, near where I went up to the rock churches a few weeks ago. We climbed up to another rock church and this time we actually managed to get in, though this might have been to do with the fact that we went to pick up the priest from home and gave him a lift home.

Corinna and Tina, who’d arranged the weekend, wouldn’t let us get away with just visiting another rock church despite Guh church requiring scrambling and free climbing up a few hundred metres - certainly not one for anyone suffering vertigo. To make the weekend more fun we had a checklist to complete…

1. Find the local village chairman and take a little film with a short intervew
2. Take photo of one team member on a donkey
3. Take photos of all team members drinking tilla
4. Rebuild and Ethiopian symbol with human bodies (build in local people)
5. Dress 2 team members in local clothes and take pictures
6. Find the local water well and bring a sample
7. Bring something personal from the priest of the church
8. Take photo of the team with an many animals as possible
9. Sing a simple song with groups of locals and film it

Despite only setting off at 4pm, and it gets dark at 6pm we managed to complete the entire list as well as visiting the church, although we weren’t back to the lodge until well after dark - Prem and Corinna had driven out to find us, thinking that we’d broken down or got lost. We arrived back in time for dinner at the lodge, four courses followed a sheep bbq, a few bottles of wine and carrot cake.

Monday evening has been relatively quiet - a few drinks with a colleague from work, whose friend wanted me to find him a wife in the UK!

• VSO , ethiopia , gheralta , rock church , tigray
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alex December 16th, 2008

Our Moodle server is now up and running, well, it’s available to users on campus (which is a good start) at http://e-learning.mu.edu.et - won’t be available generally on the internet until the domain has been registered on the Ethiopian Telecoms (ETC) servers in Addis. Hopefully this will be fixed up soon.

For those interested, the network problems we were having before were due to an IP address conflict - two servers (including our Moodle one) had been given the same IP address, creating all sorts of odd problems!

• VSO , ethiopia , mekelle , moodle
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alex December 11th, 2008

“Wat’s Ethiopian food”
That is my rubbish attempt at a joke - here’s the explanation (must be a good joke if it needs an explanation??!)… wat is the Ethiopian stew eaten with injera.

Rather than just repeat what already on Wikipedia about Ethiopian food, here are my experiences so far… people seem to have a marmite-style love/hate relationship with injera - all Ethiopians love injera (well I’ve not yet found anyone who doesn’t like it) and consider that a meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) isn’t complete without it. Our maid said that she gets through nearly 50kgs of teff flour per month making injera for her family, another couple who live near us said they get through 20kgs per month. I’m not quite so enthusiastic about injera, I’m happy to eat it occasionally, but given the choice I’d usually pick something else - but I’m not as adverse to it as some - “injera is like eating carpet underlay but without the taste” - is one quote.

Being in Mekelle we can get lots of ferenji food in the supermarkets here - though the choice can be a little limited - and the prices can be high - e.g. 60birr (about 4 GBP) for box of cornflakes (not even a large box) - essentially anything that’s imported is expensive. Pork is almost totally unavailable due to religious beliefs, we did hear about a village nearby where you could by pork, but unfortunately you need to buy the whole pig. Very, very occasionally we get bacon, but that’s sent up from Addis.

Meat is quite a big thing here - most meals consist of goat or beef with injera and very few vegetables. As my Mum pointed out we seem to be eating goats quicker than Oxfam Unwrapped can sell them as Christmas presents.

Drink-wise the juice houses in Mekelle are great, an avacado & mango smoothie, made completely fresh to order, is about 7 birr (50p).

• VSO , ethiopia , mekelle
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alex November 18th, 2008

Reading the recent discussions (here, here and here) regarding how much the OU ought to be promoting open source software (OSS), reminded me of discussions I’ve had here in Ethiopia about how much we (as IT volunteers) ought to be promoting OSS.

The arguments for and against the use of Windows and other proprietary software in each of these discussions are very similar. On the one hand, there’s the ‘Windows is standard’ argument (in one sense of the word standard) and that’s what everyone else uses, so that’s what I want to use. On the other, there’s the ‘free’ argument, and just because Windows is on so-many percent of PCs, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t use OSS. I realise I’m probably using the terms ‘Windows’ and ‘proprietary software’ interchangeably.

I feel quite stuck in the middle regarding all this (sat on the fence would be an alternative description!). In an ideal world, yes, everyone would use OSS, but I don’t think it’s practical to be so black and white. Here in Ethiopia, people generally want to learn about MS Windows and MS Office (including Publisher & FrontPage) as that’s what ‘everybody’ else uses and, more importantly, is what employers will be looking for. From the discussions I’ve had the only practical pro-OSS argument, that isn’t an academic/theoretical one in their eyes, is the fact they’re far less likely to suffer from viruses. Licensing costs aren’t really a factor taken into consideration where software piracy isn’t exactly unheard of. Even with this very strong argument (only last week the ex-dean from our faculty lost most of his documents to a virus), the people I’ve spoken to, although enthusiastic, don’t yet feel comfortable or confident enough to jump to using non-MS software.

I’ve heard similar sentiments from UK friends who work in MS-only environments, perhaps not believing that OSS would be as stable, secure, robust and reliable (!) as something you pay good money for.

In the computer science dept here, a few staff use Ubuntu and other OSS operating systems, but they’re the exception. I’m attempting to do my ‘promote OSS’ bit by lending people the Ubuntu CD after I’ve reinstalled Windows XP on their laptops (inevitably broken by some Windows virus). There are also signs that things are changing, for example, I know of non-techies who have heard of Ubuntu and are willing to give it a go and the Internet and Web Development course here in the computer science dept this year has shifted in focus from ASP to PHP (although still teaches FrontPage). I’m also hoping that we can change some of our computer lab PCs to be XP/Ubuntu dual boot, so students have the opportunity to get experience in using something other than Windows. At the end of the day I’m not going to force anyone to use any one particular system, I’ll give them the pros and cons of each side and let them make up their own mind, hoping that the no-virus argument will be the one that swings it

• VSO , ethiopia , open source , ubuntu
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alex October 13th, 2008

I’ve not posted up many photos recently, so here are a few I took last week of my office…

We’ve actually now tidied the office up a little bit, and I have another chair - one which has a back to it! I’ve mentioned before that it’s dusty here, well this is the state of the server that’s on the floor in my office:

I had to blow the dust/dirt out from the USB ports to get them to work, I’ve not actually looked inside the machine yet, but judging by these pictures, it’s probably not in a great state. It’s a relatively new machine too, and if we don’t get it cleaned up and moved I guess it’s not going to last too much longer. The server room downstairs is still in the process of being built - so the floor is thick with brick and plaster dust (whilst still in use as a server room), so I’m reluctant to move the machine until that room is completed.

Finally the view from my office window:

This is the scaffolding on one of the new office/residential they’re building at the Uni. Just on our campus there must be 5 or 6 new buildings going up. All the scaffolding in Ethiopia is just bits of wood nailed together - this photo was taken about 3 floors up and often you can see it all swaying around even in a light breeze.

• VSO , ethiopia , mekelle
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alex October 1st, 2008

I’m gradually managing to get settled in Mekelle now, having been here a week. Keeping myself fed and watered seems to be taking up most of the time outside work. Can now navigate my way around the city centre fairly well, many of the streets look very similar (well that’s my excuse anyway!).

Although there are 100’s of small shops and a few slightly larger ’supermarkets’ (actually about the same size as a corner shop in the UK), they tend to stock a remarkably similar range of basic goods. Veg tends to mainly be tomatoes, onions and potatoes, then oranges and bananas for fruit. Other fruit and veg are available, but start to get a bit more expensive. Everything is sold by in half or whole kilos, so we have half a kilo of garlic, which may take a little while to get through! The main market is only a short walk from the house, so going there regularly to get eggs, lentils, rice etc. There are a few bakeries nearby too, but they all seem to keep irregular hours that we’ve not yet figured out, some will be open one day but not the next, and they’re not always open in the mornings.

Marcel and I are still experimenting with what we can cook on a single electric stove (no oven). We’ve actually got 2 electric rings, but the only one power socket in the kitchen, and we’re a bit wary about overloading the electrical circuit by putting both on at once. We now also have some kerosene (which our night guard kindly went and queued up to get for us), so can use our kerosene stove too, but makes the kitchen smell too much if we use it indoors, so we’re using that outside to boil up water before it goes into the water filter.

I’ve now (almost) perfected making toast in a dry frying pan, and even managed to make cheese on toast in the frying pan too - it may not seem like much, but little things and all that. Cheese isn’t always available, so we’ve been advised to ring the pizza restaurant first to check they have some, before heading down there.

Our Amharic isn’t quite what it could be, so we’re still have the odd communication difficulty, for example yesterday we bought some beers - which you may think would be a simple matter. The small shop only sold beer and wine, so after being able to say we wanted 8 bottles of beer (rather than 8 crates) we were quoted 7 birr a bottle (fairly standard price), but they seemed surprised that we wanted to take them away to drink. As we were taking the bottles away we had to pay a deposit of 6 birr (per bottle) - so almost doubling the cost. Then today, on returning our empties, it took a while to say that I wanted the deposit back, rather than another 8 beers. In hindsight, it may have been better to just get more beer!

Realised today that I’ve not posted up many photos, but it’s a little tricky with the internet connection being as slow as it is, so I’m having to compress the pics down quite small. Here are a few that I took on the first day I moved into the house. My road:

The house doesn’t have a name or number and the road doesn’t have a name (like most in Ethiopia) which is why I don’t have an address yet and need to get a post office box - and no address makes it awkward to give directions to!

Patio area:

It’s a grapevine providing a little shade, and has one very small bunch of grapes on it. We’ve also got banana, mango, avocado and papaya trees - though the papaya is the only one wth any fruit, then around the corner we have chilli peppers, tomatoes and even a coffee bush. The coffee beans shold be ripe in a few weeks, so I’ll have a go roasting my own coffee.

The final pic is just one of my room:

Although I’ve now unpacked it still looks quite bare. That’s a mosquito net hanging above the bed. Although we’re not in a malarial zone, with it being just after the rainy season, there are still mozzies around and I was bitten a few times the one night I didn’t use the net - so I’ve now learned my lesson! I’ve also learned to check there aren’t any mosquitos inside the net before going to bed!

• VSO , ethiopia , mekelle
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alex September 26th, 2008

Have been connection-less for the last few days as the PCs we’d been using at the Red Cross Centre have been taken away and have then been finding my feet in Mekelle, so I’m making a few posts all in one go…

(22nd Sept)
Got my hands on a copy of ICT Monthly - which is the main (only?) IT magazine in Ethiopia, and its got some info on the internet penetration in Ethiopia (0.2%), which is extremely low, in Africa only Liberia is lower, even Somalia is higher (at 0.8%). More stats are available at http://www.internetmonthlystats.com (though not had chance to have a look myself).

Not sure exactly what is meant by ‘penetration’, but *think* it’s related to the number of accounts with ISP relative to the total population. Also the reasons as to why Ethiopia should be so much lower than other neighbouring countries (Sudan - 8%) are unclear.

We’ve spent the last couple of days in a IT workshop wich some of the other VSO volunteers who’ve been here for the last year or so. Has been excellent hearing about their experiences, but also some horrendous stories about wasted money, lack of planning, poor connections. Just one example is that fact that they’re building 12 new universities in Ethiopia - all to the same design - but they haven’t made any provision for IT installation, which means the nice new buildings will now need to have holes cut through walls and all the cabling installed for any form of network or computer room to be installed. I’m guessing that this isn’t the last of these sort of stories that I’ll be hearing over the coming months!

• VSO , ethiopia
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alex August 20th, 2008

Realising the other day that I don’t even know what Amharic or Tigrinya sound like when spoken I’ve now found a few learn Amharic videos on YouTube… the one below gives some basic phrases to use whilst shopping or eating out:

Though not sure I’ll ever be able to pronounce ‘… ligezaw ifeligalehugn’ (meaning ‘I would like to buy…’)!

The LOJSociety has posted up several more Amharic instruction videos which I’ll start to try and learn.

Unfortunately I’ve not found any videos for learning Tigrinya, though I did find out that Tigrinya and Amharic do use the same script/alphabet (Ge’ez) - but unsure yet if that actually makes things any easier or not!

If anyone has any pointers to videos of how to learn Tigrinya, then please pass them on.

• VSO , ethiopia , language
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alex August 15th, 2008

It’s now only 4 weeks until I’ll be flying off to Ethiopia - my flight details arrived this week. I also now have only 2 weeks (till end Aug) left working at the OU, I’ve been at the OU for over 7 years and don’t think it’s sunk in yet that I’m actually going , though having the flight details makes everything somewhat more real!

I’ve just come back from my final VSO training course at Harborne Hall, “Training Skills”. Peter, who I met on my first VSO course (”Preparing to Volunteer”), was also on the course and by coincidence, him and his wife are the same Ethiopian town I’m going to (Mekelle/Mek’ele/Mekele/Makelle or various other spellings!) - and I met a couple of the other volunteers who’re going to Ethiopia (there are 24 of us altogether going in Sept).

I found the training skills course to be the least intensive of the 3 VSO courses I’ve been (only one day where the course ran till 8pm), but was fun and I learnt a lot nonetheless - possibly because it was the course I was most prepared for and had a better idea of what to expect. The best aspect for me was getting to practice running training sessions. We had a very short practice session of 10 mins, then a longer one of 25 mins, each time training the other course participants. The others in my group ran courses in… ‘What is communication advocacy’, ‘How does school self-evaluation fit into the school development cycle’, ‘How to measure pulse’, and ‘The ethics of corporate sponsorship’ - so a wide spectrum of topics!

Mine was different again, I did a session on how to create a blog (2 blogs successfully created: here and here). It’s been long time since I’ve had to train a group of people in front of computers so had forgotten about the different speeds at which people work and how difficult it can be keeping them engaged if they’re waiting for me to answer someone else’s query before I get to them (and I only had 4 people to train!).

My remaining worry about my placement at the moment is how I’m going to train people in IT with unreliable power and internet connections, and how I can do IT training without computers - if anyone can point me at some good resources for this then they’d be most gratefully received

• VSO , ethiopia , mekelle
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alex July 9th, 2008

Over the last few weeks I’ve found (or they’ve found me) a number of people who are going to be heading out to Ethiopia on IT VSO placements in September, plus a guy from US Peace Corps who’s already over in Gondar. This set me thinking about how we’d keep in touch/discuss things once we’re all on placement (we’ll be spread all over Ethiopia), and how we’d introduce new contacts to each other.

Using the VSO forums site didn’t really seem appropriate, as it’s only accessible to VSO volunteers, so people from other NGOs wouldn’t be able to join in. So… I’ve set up a new Google Group ‘IT Volunteers in Ethiopia’ that we can all join to keep in touch - anyone else is free to join too!

Not sure if this is the best way to achieve this, but have a discussion area like this seemed to be the most appropriate. Will also have to see if we get internet connections reliable enough to actually check for new messages!

• VSO , ethiopia
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