A bad week in Ethiopia

After months of only hearing about the latest on the election, I was initially glad to read some different news about Ethiopia. Unfortunately, it's all bad. About 20 people being eaten by lions, flooding killing 6 and polio on the rise. Why is it that the only good news you hear is about Ethiopians kicking butt in distance running?

Anyway, here's hoping they get the lions, water and disease under control soon.

Unity government = one party system?

I'll be honest, I don't get all this talk about a "unity government". Perhaps it's just a matter of perspective, but doesn't a democracy need to have an opposition? Wouldn't having one big party defeat the whole purpose? And how would it change anything? The CUD and UEDF would still have exactly the same percentage of people in government.

I'm no politician, but I think the CUD and UEDF need to just accept the result - flawed or not - and move on to the job of keeping the government accountable. They probably wouldn't be trying so hard if the next elections weren't five years away...

Now that's what I call a bonfire

Now that's what I call a bonfire
Originally uploaded by bitmeizer.

I've just discovered Flickr and am planning on pushing my whole photo collection (most of which was taken in Ethiopia) up to it over the next little while. That's not going to happen with a 20Mb/month limit, so I'm going to have to upgrade to 'Pro', which isn't a big deal since it's currently so cheap. However, I'm having some trouble with PayPal, which does all their payment stuff, so it may take a while. In the meantime, there are some shots of Meskel 2003 up for your enjoyment.

No Longer In Addis

A couple of days ago, I sent out an email that looked like this:

Just a quick note as I am walking out the door. The day I arrived in Addis almost two years ago, my roof started leaking. This morning, my roof was leaking again. Different apartment, different room, but coincidence? I think not. Perhaps the Compound's way of saying goodbye. After two years at Bingham, I am about to start my journey home. A fair bit has happened since my last newsletter, but it will have to wait for another time. In the meantime, for your further enlightenment, here is my itinerary for the next few weeks:

Today: Addis to Toronto (via Frankfurt)
July 4: Toronto to Washington DC
July 11: Philadelphia to Dallas
July 18: Dallas to Brisbane (arriving on July 20th around 11AM)

But for now, it's time for me to say goodbye.

David Peterson, Addis Ababa Correspondent
Signing out.

So, that's why I am currently in Toronto. Actually, I'm in Cambridge, a town/city of about 118,000 south-west of Toronto. I'm visiting Dan Lambert, who was my housemate for the first part of the school year. As for the rest of the stuff that has happened since, here is a quick
summary:

Elections
Ethiopia held it's third ever democratic elections on May 15. The first one didn't really count since there was only one party running (the others boycotted). The election itself was run on May 15, and the official announcement date was June 8th. However, this was delayed to July 8th (due to ongoing investigations into fraud). Just today, I read that it may be delayed again. In the meantime, the government had put a ban on public demonstrations for a month after the poll date, which has now been extended to the announcement date.

Starting on Monday June 8th, and escalating until Wednesday June 8th there were civil disturbances (a.k.a. rioting). What exactly started it is still somewhat unclear, but they resulted in over 40 people being killed (officially - unofficially the estimate is much higher).
For safety, Bingham decided to close the school for the Thursday and Friday, although there have not been any further outbreaks since the 8th. Hopefully this will remain the case after the official results are posted too.

Andrew in Addis
My brother Andrew decided to visit me for a few weeks. He arrived on May 24th and we headed off to the Simeans to climb the highest mountain in Ethiopia (and the 4th highest in Africa) two days later. We made it to the top (braving hail and snow to get there) and back,
although my knees are still complaining about the experience. We were going to visit some other parts of Ethiopia the next weekend, but then the election riots broke out, so we were stuck in Addis. He did help out with some of my lessons though, for which I was greatful. You can ask him to see some of his photos - there are some nice ones.

Those were the main items of interest. Please keep praying for Bingham. There is still a need for a couple of extra teachers, particularly in the maths/science area. As I've said before, God is faithful and provides enough people to do the job, but it would be nice for them to actually have a couple of extras for once :)

As for me, I'm currently planning on trying to get a job when I get back, and then return to Uni to complete my education degree next February. After that, it is in God's hands.

I'll probably post a few more entries about my trip home. After that, this blog will probably lie dormant for some time. For now though, I still have some grading to finish off and email back to Ethiopia. I'd better get cracking.

Flooding kills over 60 in eastern Ethiopia

Contrary to what was a common misconception when I was first coming to Ethiopia, we do actually get a fair bit of rain. And in the last week or so, we've been getting more than is usual for this time of year. Today, for example, we even got hail. It was bucketing down, and I was in our gym, which has a very large tin roof. My ears were still ringing for several minutes after it dissipated somewhat. Still, my problems are small potatoes compared to what has been going on elsewhere.

The Wabe Shebelle river, the largest in Ethiopia, burst it's banks on Saturday, killing at least 60, probably more. This region is several hundred kilometres southeast of Addis. If it's anything like much of southern Ethiopia, it was probably in flood-plain areas, which are usually flooded during the rainy season anyway. It just caught people by surprise this time.

In other news, Brad Pitt has paid us a second visit (the first being with his ex-wife Jennifer Anniston before their much publicised split) to get a first-hand view of the AIDS situation. Hopefully he can help more than me.