Yay! Term 2 is over. Only one to go. It seems somewhat surreal that I will be leaving here in about 3 months. Time flies...
On the last two days of school we had the 'Memory Verse Prize', which is a reward for all the kids who memorise and recite all their memory verses for the term. This term it was a day walking through a local National Park. Thursday was grades 5-9 and Friday was grades K-4. Grades 10-12 all had exams this week, so they couldn't come.
Unfortunately, quite a few of the students on the Thursday trip didn't quite make it there. The bus they were travelling in (driven by a local) was involved in a minor accident. Thankfully nobody was seriously injured. Apparently the bus was travelling behind another car, which stopped suddenly at a bridge to let a truck by. The bus had too much momentum to stop, so the driver swerved around the car, only to clip the other vehicle on the front corner. The other car lost control and tipped off the side of the road. Thankfully, it was only occupied by the driver, who was ok. The driver of our bus, however, decided that sticking around was a bad idea and headed for the hills.
After the event, quite a few of the kids just came home, although several continued on to the park. High drama all around!
The next day's trip (which I was on) was much more pleasant and much less stressful. I and another leader were with 6 fourth-grade boys and we hiked out about 10km to a nice little waterfall. A fun day out, all said. And no car accidents.
Well, I've got to get back to avoiding my grading. Until next time...
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Monday, March 14, 2005
Blogging in Addis
After a long period of neglect, I have finally uploaded (and post-dated) my newsletters since last April. Some of them are quite long, so you could be in for a bit of a sit-down-session if you read them all. Also, you can now subscribe to this blog with your favourite RSS or Atom reader. Exciting!
In more recent news, we are in our last week of term here at Bingham. This holiday I am planning on doing nothing much, just for a change of pace. Other than grading and report writing, that is. A teacher's job is never done...
In more recent news, we are in our last week of term here at Bingham. This holiday I am planning on doing nothing much, just for a change of pace. Other than grading and report writing, that is. A teacher's job is never done...
Monday, February 28, 2005
Procrastinating in Addis
Checking my records, my last epistle was sent on November 29. That makes me about two months overdue for another one, which isn't too bad, considering my track record. In any case, in the interests of actually sending it out, this edition will be a (relatively) brief overview of the highlights.
December
For the first several days of December I and five other intrepid explorers took a whirlwind tour of Egypt. For the first day, it would just be me, Brian and Dan (my house mates here in Addis). The next day we would be joined by Jamie, Ryan and Laura (friends from around Ethiopia). After landing in Cairo at about 5AM, we visited step pyramids and rug makers in Saqqara, old statues in Memphis, and the Great Pyramids in Giza.
Once the others joined us, we covered a lot of ground - Luxor, Dahab, Sinai, and back to Cairo - on a variety of modes of transport, including an 8-hour train ride, an 18 hour bus ride, and an 8-hour minivan journey through the freezing desert in the middle of the night (featuring flat tyre in the middle of nowhere). Highlights were the Karnak temples in Luxor, snorkling in Dahab and climbing Mt Sinai by moonlight to see the dawn.
By the end of it all, we were quite exhausted. We arrived back in Addis on Sunday evening. On Monday, we were back to work. Fun!
The end of December brought with it Thanksgiving (for the Americans - although they kindly invited us along for the meal) and Christmas. Last Christmas I was in rainy St Albans (England) with Gary Dewhurst. This year, we had a 'sleepover' at our place on Christmas Eve with a bunch of other missionaries from around Addis. And it rained again! I'm almost looking forward to having a sweltering, 40-degree Christmas Day again. Later in the day, my family gave me a phone call (the first I have received from them in Ethiopia!) which was good.
On Boxing Day, I headed east of Addis with the Adams family (Brad, Krisha and Sebastian, along with Uncle Steve - no sign of Lurch). We drove for about 4 hours, finally arriving in Awash, notable chiefly for its close proximity to the Awash National Park. We spent a couple of days there checking out the sights including (but not limited to): Oryxs, dikdiks, baboons, warthogs, lots and lots of birds, an impressive gorge, a big waterfall, a (very) hot spring, and a dead crocodile. And, to our great surprise, we also saw the Djibouti train! This is the legendary (and, up until 10:30 on Dec 27th, 2004, suspectedly mythical) one-and-only (literally) train which runs between Addis Ababa and Djibouti. In all my time in Ethiopia I had heard about it, but never actually laid eyes on it. Also, there was a rumour that part of the track had been destroyed, and it wasn't even running at the moment. Apparently it was, and I saw it! Unfortunately, my camera batteries were flat, so I have no photographic evidence. But I'm sure Brad and Steve would back me up.
January
The first couple of weeks of January were holidays, during which came Ethiopian Christmas. As I've mentioned before, Ethiopia has its own calendar and system of time, and the Orthodox church celebrates Easter and Christmas at slightly different times to the west. This year, Ethiopian Christmas fell on January 7th. Right next door to our compound is a Kale Haywut church (the church established by SIM about 40 years ago). For the past few years they have hosted a big all-night Christmas gathering, which can get a little loud at times. In any case, this year they wanted to show "The Passion of the Christ" at around 11PM, so they asked if we could provide the projector to show it. Being the resident technical guy, that job fell to me. Brad and Bobby (two other staff members here) came as well, so we headed over at the appointed time, which was about 30 minutes before the preacher was ready to finish. It seemed to be a fairly humorous sermon, although I was unable to appreciate it, since I could only understand about 1 out of 10 words. Finally, we were ready to go. It took about 15 minutes to set up the projector and get it working with the guy's computer (that sort of thing is never as easy as it should be). I had been hoping that it would be an original copy of the film, since I have only seen a low-quality pirate version. Unfortunately, it was exactly the same version that I had seen before. Still a powerful film though.
February
The first weekend of February brought with it the annual Field Day. Actually, Field Days would be a more accurate description, since it goes for the whole day on Friday and Saturday. I was in charge the computers (surprise, surprise), so I spent most of the time under a tent entering results. No complaints here - last year I was outside for both days judging the high jump. There was a little tension leading up to the day though, since Brian Hall, who was in charge of organising the whole day, was about to have his visa expire. Thankfully, he got his work permit the day before Field Day. We have three 'houses' - Carey, Scott, and Taylor - and Scott won the day, overall, with Taylor (my team) coming in second. The personal highlight was the 'Fun Relay' at the end, where teams of students took on parents and teachers. The teacher team (made up of David Hicks, Brad Adams, Brian Hall and myself) was victorious, of course.
In Closing
In other news, Housemate #3 (Dan Lambert) has had to return to Canada due to health problems. He seems to be recovering, albeit somewhat slowly. On the plus side, Brian Hall's family has been to visit and his brother Brandon is sticking around until the end of the school year. So we've managed to keep our Bachelor Index up to quota.
Starting in April, the 10th through 12th grade will be taking their external exams (IGCSE, O-Levels and AS-Levels for the curricularly curious). I have 10th grade for Information Technology, so you can pray that I get the required information across to my students, and for them in all their subjects.
And, as always, you can be praying for staff for next year. At present there will be about 5 or 6 teachers continuing next year, which leaves a lot of holes to fill, including the Director position. The Hicks' will be going on furlough (their first in 7 years!) at the end of the school year, so hopefully a suitable replacement will be found soon.
Thanks again for all your support so far. Keep sending those emails (and letters!) - they are always appreciated, even if I don't get back to you immediately. For now, this is David Peterson, Addis Ababa correspondent, signing off.
December
For the first several days of December I and five other intrepid explorers took a whirlwind tour of Egypt. For the first day, it would just be me, Brian and Dan (my house mates here in Addis). The next day we would be joined by Jamie, Ryan and Laura (friends from around Ethiopia). After landing in Cairo at about 5AM, we visited step pyramids and rug makers in Saqqara, old statues in Memphis, and the Great Pyramids in Giza.
Once the others joined us, we covered a lot of ground - Luxor, Dahab, Sinai, and back to Cairo - on a variety of modes of transport, including an 8-hour train ride, an 18 hour bus ride, and an 8-hour minivan journey through the freezing desert in the middle of the night (featuring flat tyre in the middle of nowhere). Highlights were the Karnak temples in Luxor, snorkling in Dahab and climbing Mt Sinai by moonlight to see the dawn.
By the end of it all, we were quite exhausted. We arrived back in Addis on Sunday evening. On Monday, we were back to work. Fun!
The end of December brought with it Thanksgiving (for the Americans - although they kindly invited us along for the meal) and Christmas. Last Christmas I was in rainy St Albans (England) with Gary Dewhurst. This year, we had a 'sleepover' at our place on Christmas Eve with a bunch of other missionaries from around Addis. And it rained again! I'm almost looking forward to having a sweltering, 40-degree Christmas Day again. Later in the day, my family gave me a phone call (the first I have received from them in Ethiopia!) which was good.
On Boxing Day, I headed east of Addis with the Adams family (Brad, Krisha and Sebastian, along with Uncle Steve - no sign of Lurch). We drove for about 4 hours, finally arriving in Awash, notable chiefly for its close proximity to the Awash National Park. We spent a couple of days there checking out the sights including (but not limited to): Oryxs, dikdiks, baboons, warthogs, lots and lots of birds, an impressive gorge, a big waterfall, a (very) hot spring, and a dead crocodile. And, to our great surprise, we also saw the Djibouti train! This is the legendary (and, up until 10:30 on Dec 27th, 2004, suspectedly mythical) one-and-only (literally) train which runs between Addis Ababa and Djibouti. In all my time in Ethiopia I had heard about it, but never actually laid eyes on it. Also, there was a rumour that part of the track had been destroyed, and it wasn't even running at the moment. Apparently it was, and I saw it! Unfortunately, my camera batteries were flat, so I have no photographic evidence. But I'm sure Brad and Steve would back me up.
January
The first couple of weeks of January were holidays, during which came Ethiopian Christmas. As I've mentioned before, Ethiopia has its own calendar and system of time, and the Orthodox church celebrates Easter and Christmas at slightly different times to the west. This year, Ethiopian Christmas fell on January 7th. Right next door to our compound is a Kale Haywut church (the church established by SIM about 40 years ago). For the past few years they have hosted a big all-night Christmas gathering, which can get a little loud at times. In any case, this year they wanted to show "The Passion of the Christ" at around 11PM, so they asked if we could provide the projector to show it. Being the resident technical guy, that job fell to me. Brad and Bobby (two other staff members here) came as well, so we headed over at the appointed time, which was about 30 minutes before the preacher was ready to finish. It seemed to be a fairly humorous sermon, although I was unable to appreciate it, since I could only understand about 1 out of 10 words. Finally, we were ready to go. It took about 15 minutes to set up the projector and get it working with the guy's computer (that sort of thing is never as easy as it should be). I had been hoping that it would be an original copy of the film, since I have only seen a low-quality pirate version. Unfortunately, it was exactly the same version that I had seen before. Still a powerful film though.
February
The first weekend of February brought with it the annual Field Day. Actually, Field Days would be a more accurate description, since it goes for the whole day on Friday and Saturday. I was in charge the computers (surprise, surprise), so I spent most of the time under a tent entering results. No complaints here - last year I was outside for both days judging the high jump. There was a little tension leading up to the day though, since Brian Hall, who was in charge of organising the whole day, was about to have his visa expire. Thankfully, he got his work permit the day before Field Day. We have three 'houses' - Carey, Scott, and Taylor - and Scott won the day, overall, with Taylor (my team) coming in second. The personal highlight was the 'Fun Relay' at the end, where teams of students took on parents and teachers. The teacher team (made up of David Hicks, Brad Adams, Brian Hall and myself) was victorious, of course.
In Closing
In other news, Housemate #3 (Dan Lambert) has had to return to Canada due to health problems. He seems to be recovering, albeit somewhat slowly. On the plus side, Brian Hall's family has been to visit and his brother Brandon is sticking around until the end of the school year. So we've managed to keep our Bachelor Index up to quota.
Starting in April, the 10th through 12th grade will be taking their external exams (IGCSE, O-Levels and AS-Levels for the curricularly curious). I have 10th grade for Information Technology, so you can pray that I get the required information across to my students, and for them in all their subjects.
And, as always, you can be praying for staff for next year. At present there will be about 5 or 6 teachers continuing next year, which leaves a lot of holes to fill, including the Director position. The Hicks' will be going on furlough (their first in 7 years!) at the end of the school year, so hopefully a suitable replacement will be found soon.
Thanks again for all your support so far. Keep sending those emails (and letters!) - they are always appreciated, even if I don't get back to you immediately. For now, this is David Peterson, Addis Ababa correspondent, signing off.
Monday, November 29, 2004
More Running in Addis
Another year, another Great Ethiopian Run. We had quite a few from Bingham running this year. Last year, my preparation consisted of one lap around Bingham Academy (about 1km). This year I septupled that (7km over a few days), but that was over a month ago. To compound that, I contracted some sort of virus a couple of days before. Thankfully, it didn't get too bad, and lots of water and an early night's sleep seemed to do the trick - I woke up on race day feeling fine. But still under prepared.
Since my last epistle, Brian Hall and I have been joined by two others: Dan Lambert and Bobby Long. Dan is from Canada and works as SIM's 'Sudanese Refugee Ministries Manager'. Bobby arrived about a month ago from Virginia to serve as Maintenance Manager here at Bingham. And Brian (I think I neglected to mention what he was doing here last time) teaches Art and Bible, and is about to start as Athletics Director here at Bingham.
Bobby wanted to run, but arrived to late to register, but Dan, Brian, and I were all set to go. Brian actually trained, so he arranged to run with some other people, but Dan and I agreed to stick together on the condition that neither of us drop to a walk (that was my goal for last year also). This year, I also wanted to get under 1 hour - my time last November was 1:00:10.
So, we work up early, drank a lot of water, slapped on some sunscreen, and drove with the others down towards Meskel Square, where the race would begin. We couldn't drive to the start line, so we hopped off about a kilometre away and walked in. The weather was clear, but the temperature brisk, so a little walk was a good warm up. About half-way there, Brad Adams and I decided we had drunk a little too much water and ducked across the road to a gym to correct the problem. When we got back out, the racers had been pushed back to the footpaths, and the police were stopping us from leaving our little alleyway. A couple of minutes later, three police cars, two motorbikes and five black limousines zoomed past (one of which was apparently containing the Prime Minister). After they had passed, we were finally allowed back on our way.
Dan, Brad and I worked our way to the front, a line that progressed further down the road as time went on. The crowd finally arrived at the start, and then about 500 people took off to begin their race. Unfortunately, it wasn't due to start for another 5 minutes, so the one and only Haile Gabriel Selasi (Ethiopia's most famous distance runner, and one of the race organisers) called everyone back and urged them to move back behind the start line. Amazingly, they did, and I don't think anyone died in the process. Not bad, considering there were 19,500 other people still behind the start line who were trying to move in the opposite direction. Dan and I did manage to get separated from Brad, however, but since he was going to run much faster than us anyway (his brother Luke was a race walker in the Olympics!), that wasn't a big problem.
Five minutes of speeches later (including one from the Prime Minister who had delayed us earlier), the horn blew and we were off. As happened last year, by the time Dan and I had crossed the start line, the street ahead of us was completely filled with red shirts. Dodging people darting in front of you, or suddenly stopping to tie their shoe is all part of the challenge. The other part is the course itself.
The Great Ethiopian Run takes place in down town Addis Ababa (which, at 8,500ft elevation is one of the highest capital cities in the world), and consists has two big loops. The first is about 4km, and the second is 6km. Both loops feature two main hills - the first of which is the smaller, and occurs about 300 metres from the start. The second is about 3/4 of the way around both loops and goes for about 500 metres at a decent elevation. Nothing like what you get in Brisbane, but I've never run 10km in Brisbane.
With so many people together at the beginning, the race started slowly. Which was ok with Dan and I. By the top of the first hill we were doing pretty well. By the top of the second hill, I was still ok, but Dan was slowing, and had developed some nasty blisters. As we went downhill again, and through the start/finish line for the second time (at about the 4km mark) we picked up some speed and were on schedule for getting around in an hour. At the top of the second ascent of the first hill, Dan had to adjust his shoes to ease the pain, so I ran around in circles for a minute (mustn't drop to a walk!). Apparently it didn't help much, but he soldiered on anyway. This time there was an extra kilometre added before we hit the second hill, but we were now past the half-way mark, and only 1 minute behind schedule. Surprisingly, I was still doing pretty well. At this point of the race last year, I was dead on my feet, running purely on stubbornness. This year, I still had plenty in the tank. Dan was struggling, however. We finally arrived at the base of the second (and larger) hill for the second time. Dan slowed a bit, but did pretty well, and we then came to the second change in the course - another smallish hill before adding an extra 2 km to the loop. And we only had 11 minutes left to get under the hour!
I decided to make a last push to try and get under the hour, so I left Dan behind and picked up the pace. After all the hills we'd been going up, there was finally a good downhill stretch, so I keep speeding up, clocking probably the fastest 1km I've ever done. Unfortunately, the first half of the second kilometre went back uphill. With only a couple of minutes left in which to cover about 800m, I resigned myself to failing once again to make the 10km/h average. I finally crossed the line at 1:03:47. Dan came in about 3 minutes later, and we went claimed our medallions. Another race complete!
In other news, we have just completed our first school term. All that is left now is the mountain of grading I have to do and the reports I need to write, before we have another three weeks of school, and then two more weeks off for Christmas. Strange? Yes, but that's how it works here...
In the week off, 5 of my friends here and I are heading off to Egypt for a rushed tour. We leave on Monday the 29th in the evening (at midnight) and return on Sunday the 5th. In between, we'll be squeezing in pyramids, tombs, museums, the Nile, dawn on Mt Sinai, Luxor and Western Fast Food, travelling via camel, bicycle, train, bus, taxi, ferry, horse-drawn cart and aeroplane. Should be exhausting. But fun. I'll try to write another newsletter a little sooner this time with some pictures.
In the meantime, please keep praying for Bingham. As always, we need more teachers for all subjects next year (and if you teach art, PE, maths or science, we could use you now). In the next two weeks, David Hicks will be doing another whirlwind tour of the US and the UK on a recruiting drive, so pray for those he will be speaking with and for his safety in travel.
Well, I've got grading to do. Until next time...
Since my last epistle, Brian Hall and I have been joined by two others: Dan Lambert and Bobby Long. Dan is from Canada and works as SIM's 'Sudanese Refugee Ministries Manager'. Bobby arrived about a month ago from Virginia to serve as Maintenance Manager here at Bingham. And Brian (I think I neglected to mention what he was doing here last time) teaches Art and Bible, and is about to start as Athletics Director here at Bingham.
Bobby wanted to run, but arrived to late to register, but Dan, Brian, and I were all set to go. Brian actually trained, so he arranged to run with some other people, but Dan and I agreed to stick together on the condition that neither of us drop to a walk (that was my goal for last year also). This year, I also wanted to get under 1 hour - my time last November was 1:00:10.
So, we work up early, drank a lot of water, slapped on some sunscreen, and drove with the others down towards Meskel Square, where the race would begin. We couldn't drive to the start line, so we hopped off about a kilometre away and walked in. The weather was clear, but the temperature brisk, so a little walk was a good warm up. About half-way there, Brad Adams and I decided we had drunk a little too much water and ducked across the road to a gym to correct the problem. When we got back out, the racers had been pushed back to the footpaths, and the police were stopping us from leaving our little alleyway. A couple of minutes later, three police cars, two motorbikes and five black limousines zoomed past (one of which was apparently containing the Prime Minister). After they had passed, we were finally allowed back on our way.
Dan, Brad and I worked our way to the front, a line that progressed further down the road as time went on. The crowd finally arrived at the start, and then about 500 people took off to begin their race. Unfortunately, it wasn't due to start for another 5 minutes, so the one and only Haile Gabriel Selasi (Ethiopia's most famous distance runner, and one of the race organisers) called everyone back and urged them to move back behind the start line. Amazingly, they did, and I don't think anyone died in the process. Not bad, considering there were 19,500 other people still behind the start line who were trying to move in the opposite direction. Dan and I did manage to get separated from Brad, however, but since he was going to run much faster than us anyway (his brother Luke was a race walker in the Olympics!), that wasn't a big problem.
Five minutes of speeches later (including one from the Prime Minister who had delayed us earlier), the horn blew and we were off. As happened last year, by the time Dan and I had crossed the start line, the street ahead of us was completely filled with red shirts. Dodging people darting in front of you, or suddenly stopping to tie their shoe is all part of the challenge. The other part is the course itself.
The Great Ethiopian Run takes place in down town Addis Ababa (which, at 8,500ft elevation is one of the highest capital cities in the world), and consists has two big loops. The first is about 4km, and the second is 6km. Both loops feature two main hills - the first of which is the smaller, and occurs about 300 metres from the start. The second is about 3/4 of the way around both loops and goes for about 500 metres at a decent elevation. Nothing like what you get in Brisbane, but I've never run 10km in Brisbane.
With so many people together at the beginning, the race started slowly. Which was ok with Dan and I. By the top of the first hill we were doing pretty well. By the top of the second hill, I was still ok, but Dan was slowing, and had developed some nasty blisters. As we went downhill again, and through the start/finish line for the second time (at about the 4km mark) we picked up some speed and were on schedule for getting around in an hour. At the top of the second ascent of the first hill, Dan had to adjust his shoes to ease the pain, so I ran around in circles for a minute (mustn't drop to a walk!). Apparently it didn't help much, but he soldiered on anyway. This time there was an extra kilometre added before we hit the second hill, but we were now past the half-way mark, and only 1 minute behind schedule. Surprisingly, I was still doing pretty well. At this point of the race last year, I was dead on my feet, running purely on stubbornness. This year, I still had plenty in the tank. Dan was struggling, however. We finally arrived at the base of the second (and larger) hill for the second time. Dan slowed a bit, but did pretty well, and we then came to the second change in the course - another smallish hill before adding an extra 2 km to the loop. And we only had 11 minutes left to get under the hour!
I decided to make a last push to try and get under the hour, so I left Dan behind and picked up the pace. After all the hills we'd been going up, there was finally a good downhill stretch, so I keep speeding up, clocking probably the fastest 1km I've ever done. Unfortunately, the first half of the second kilometre went back uphill. With only a couple of minutes left in which to cover about 800m, I resigned myself to failing once again to make the 10km/h average. I finally crossed the line at 1:03:47. Dan came in about 3 minutes later, and we went claimed our medallions. Another race complete!
In other news, we have just completed our first school term. All that is left now is the mountain of grading I have to do and the reports I need to write, before we have another three weeks of school, and then two more weeks off for Christmas. Strange? Yes, but that's how it works here...
In the week off, 5 of my friends here and I are heading off to Egypt for a rushed tour. We leave on Monday the 29th in the evening (at midnight) and return on Sunday the 5th. In between, we'll be squeezing in pyramids, tombs, museums, the Nile, dawn on Mt Sinai, Luxor and Western Fast Food, travelling via camel, bicycle, train, bus, taxi, ferry, horse-drawn cart and aeroplane. Should be exhausting. But fun. I'll try to write another newsletter a little sooner this time with some pictures.
In the meantime, please keep praying for Bingham. As always, we need more teachers for all subjects next year (and if you teach art, PE, maths or science, we could use you now). In the next two weeks, David Hicks will be doing another whirlwind tour of the US and the UK on a recruiting drive, so pray for those he will be speaking with and for his safety in travel.
Well, I've got grading to do. Until next time...
Thursday, September 09, 2004
A week in Addis
Well, it's almost exactly one week since I got back to Bingham, so it's probably time I sent you all an email letting you know I arrived safely. Here's a quick summary of highlites for each day since I left.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Got all my stuff packed. The suitcase weighed about 27kg, which is 7kg over the official limit, but I had that much last time and they didn't even blink, so I figured I'd be ok. It turned out I was correct about the luggage issue. Unfortunately, since I didn't have a valid entry visa in to Ethiopia, the check-in person didn't want to give me a boarding pass for about a minute. She finally let me on since a) I had a return ticked and b) you can actually buy visas at customs anyway. So, I said my farewells, got on the plane and headed off for Bangkok with Thai Airways.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
After a 9 hour flight with a couple of boring movies, and unconversational neighbour, and bits and pieces of sleep on the way, we touched down in Thailand at around 5AM. My original booking had me scheduled to leave at around 11:45PM that evening, so it was going to be a long day. On the plane, however, I discovered that my neighbour was also going to Frankfurt with Thai airlines, however her flight was departing at about 12:30PM - almost 12 hours earlier. I still wouldn't be able to get to Addis any earlier, but I would arrive in Frankfurt at around 7PM, before departing the next afternoon at around 1PM. I don't know about you, but I find it much easier to sleep in a bed than an aeroplane seat, so I attempted to get my ticket transferred to the earlier flight. Upon finding the transfer desk at around 5AM, I was informed that it only opened at 5:30AM. I have no idea what you would do if your plane was supposed to leave at 5:25AM, but anyway... So I hung around for a while and was eventually told to go to the transfer desk at the other end of the airport to get put on standby. 700m later, I found it, was put on standby and told to come back at about 12PM.
The downside of this was that I wouldn't know whether or not I'd be able to leave earlier until half-way through the day, which would essentially render the possibility of actually getting outside the airport null-in-void. Not being the world's most energetic tourist, this wasn't a big disappointment - it would have just left me with a lot of time to kill in a really boring airport.
In the meantime, I filled in time by attempting to write some lesson plans (not finishing any), perusing the local duty-free stores (not buying anything) and getting passport photos taken for my Ethiopian visa (which I didn't need anyway). Time well spent, in my opinion.
I didn't quite manage to fill in enough time, so I checked in about 20 minutes early, and was summarily told to come back in 20 minutes. Dutifully, I looked at watches for a while in a nearby duty-free store. (My current watch has lost it's backlight, so I was quite tempted to pick up a new one. Everything else works though, so my frugal missionary mind overruled.) Upon checking in at the designated time, I was asked to come back again in another 10 minutes. After resisting temptation for another period (I am well trained!) I was finally given my boarding pass! 30 minutes later, I was in the air again for the 11 hour journey to Germany.
This time I stayed awake for most of the journey. The movies were equally boring (I can't even remember what they were - although I think Shrek 2 was the last one on the trip, which was fun, although I had seen it before). Since I was supposed to be teaching the morning after arriving in Addis, I figured it would be a good idea to get a good night's rest, so I went through about 3 information desks and customs to find the hotel reservation desk at Frankfurt International. At this point I was having a little trouble pushing my baggage trolley in a straight line, but I eventually found the desk, booked a reasonably priced (by European standards, anyway) room for the night and headed to the hotel shuttle bus pick up point. By 10PM, local time, I was showered, toothbrushed and in bed asleep.
Wednesday, September 1, 2004
Being completely out of synch, time-wise, I woke up at around 3AM. After tossing and turning for about half-an-hour, I turned on the TV and flicked to one of two channels that were in English - CNN (the other option was BBC World). They happened to be showing the Republican Convention, and Arnold Schwartznegger was about to begin his speech. So, I watched/listened his speech encouraging people to vote for the Republicans even if you don't agree with all their policies, especially if you were an immigrant (like Arnie himself, of course). Then George W.'s daughters came on and offended pretty much everyone (apparently it was an attempt at humour) while introducing their dad, who then introduced his wife, who then gave a speech which put me back to sleep.
Later, I woke up again at a more reasonable hour, had some breakfast (included in the price, thankfully), and called Bingham Academy to see if they could fax me a copy of the work permit at the hotel. That 2 minute/€12.50 phone call is ranking up there with the 5 minute/$55 doctors consultation I had recently as the most expensive couple of minutes I've had in my life, but I did get the work permit. Mental note: never use hotel phones again...
After a 45-minute security/passport check, I still had a few minutes to kill, so I visited the local McDonald's and consumed what will probably be my last milkshake for the next 10 months. It was ok. Nothing to write home about. Then it was off to the boarding gate, where I found another Addis family I knew - the kids are students at Bingham. Eventually we all boarded, and even through we were originally seated a fair way apart, the plane was empty enough that I could move down near by. This time the airline was Lufthansa, and they actually had individual TV screens for each passenger. Unfortunately, the only movies available were a dodgy romantic comedy with Pierce Brosnan and a red-headed actress who's name escapes me, or 'On the Waterfront' with Marlon Brando. It was a 7 hour flight, so I figured I'd have time to catch them both if so inclined, so I went with 'Waterfront' first time around. It is a classic, even though I'd seen it before, and was a good way to kill the first 1/4 of the trip. After that, the system turned off. I assumed it would come back on fairly soon, or at the latest about 3 hours before we were due to land. It did eventually come back on - 2 hours before our scheduled landing. Ok, I thought, I guess you know what you're doing. We've had 3 hours with nothing to do, but I'm sure there's enough time to show the whole movie before we have to land. Nope. Half-way through the dodgy romantic comedy, it cut out. Not that the movie was that enjoyable, but gee, that's annoying. Note to Lufthansa: you are all idiots.
So, finally we landed in Addis. Two queues later, I finally got to the visa window. Upon examining my passport, the gentleman on the other side informed me that my visa was expired. Thanking him politely, I answered that that was in fact why I was standing in the queue for a new visa. After some consultation, negotiation, conversation, and work permit fax waving, I was informed that he would keep my passport and I would be given a little pink piece of cardboard to take to immigration the next day to reclaim it again. I wasn't very keen on the idea of relinquishing my passport, but having no other options, that's what happened. I got through customs with no problems and was greeted by Brad Adams (a fellow Australian teacher from last year) and Brian Hall (my new house mate - pictured right). By 11PM, I was back in familiar territory - Bingham Academy.
Since I was supposed to be teaching the next day, I figured I should find out what I was scheduled for. At Bingham, we have 8 forty minute periods each day. I have 7 periods on Thursday. In a row. Including 3 subjects I didn't know I would be teaching. At that point, I was too tired to really care, so I hit the sack and tried to get a decent night's sleep.
Thursday, September 2, 2004
After initially waking up at about 3AM again, I managed to make it to all of my classes. Not only that, the lessons actually resembled something with educational value (well, except 8 and 9 PE). Enough for the second day of school, anyway. I also met most of the new staff and students. Fairly productive I think, considering.
Friday, September 3, 2004
I met a couple of other guys around my age who are in Addis for a bit. A Kiwi named Grant (pronounced 'Grant' as in 'Aunt', not 'Grant' as in 'Ant') who is just here for a few weeks, and a Canadian named Dan (as in 'Man', in case you were wondering) who is around for about 9 months. We also watched a couple of episodes of the Simpsons.
Saturday, September 4, 2004
Brian and I hit the town in search of groceries, post offices and bed lamps. We were successful on all three counts, although we nearly missed out on item 3 due to a) not knowing exactly where we were and b) not knowing exactly where the store(s) we were looking for were. We eventually figured both issues out and made our way home. We would have tried to get a couple of other things too, but the traffic was horrendous. Apparently it is due to the Ethiopian New Year which is happening ths Saturday. Everyone comes to town to get new clothes. That's what I've been told.
Sunday, September 5, 2004
We arrived at the International Evangelical Church (aka IEC) about 20 minutes late due to Brad discovering a grieve (apparently a water-bird) on his way to pick up the car. Several photographs later (sorry, they haven't been developed yet) the bird was released back over the wall into the nearby river. The quality of the water in said river doesn't give me high hopes for the longevity of the bird, but you never know. Sunday was also the day that I found out that Binyam, our local Computer Lab assistant would be departing the country on Wednesday. As in, in three days. To marry a girl in America who he has spent a total of one week in the physical presence of. They have been talking continuously since then (email, instant messenger, phone, etc), but it's still a pretty big leap if you ask me, for both parties. Here's hoping it goes well.
Monday, September 6, 2004
Monday is actually my lightest teaching day. In fact, I am only teaching one class - 8th grade PE, last period of the day. As such, I figured it would be a good idea to get Binyam to show me where he usually gets all the equipment we need, and where to get things repaired. So, after morning tea, we headed off into down town Addis. After about 7 different stores and a hamburger at the 'Family Restaurant', I came away with a colour printer cartridge and enough information to get us by for a while. 6 hours later I was wishing I hadn't had the hamburger. 8 hours later I didn't have the hamburger any more.
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
Tuesdays are my second busiest day. Of course. At least it wasn't Thursday. I didn't make it to morning prayers, but I did make it to the rest of my classes. I'm sure the prayers said in my absence helped with the rest of the day. By 8PM I was in bed and didn't wake up until about 7AM the next day.
Wednesday, September 8, 2004
Almost up-to-date! I woke up feeling pretty much back to normal. After Binyam failed to show up at his farewell morning tea (I did get to say goodbye later), I fudged my way through my classes (I didn't get a lot of time to plan in the last couple of days), ran around the compound a couple of times trying to get the generator on during several black outs, and then headed off to the Baldwin's place for dinner. The Baldwins are a British family with kids at the school, and are also Brian's mentors, so they basically have an obligation to have him over for dinner every now and then. As official house mate, I seem to have been extended invitation rights, so who am I to turn down a home-cooked meal? After an entertaining evening, Dave Baldwin offered us a ride home, as long as we didn't mind push-starting his car, since the battery wires had become disconnected. After pushing it downhill for about 100 metres, we came to the conclusion that there were issues we couldn't resolve with gravity and manpower, and then had the problem of storing it for the night. After attempting to push the car back uphill to a friendly expat's place, we were brought to a halt by an unfriendly speed bump. Around the next corner downhill we finally found a compound owned by a local who seemed reliable enough who was also friendly enough to let us park the car there for the night.
Of course, Brian and I still had to get home. But we had arrived by taxi, so we figured we'd go home by taxi. Which we did, eventually. We had to walk a fair way further to find one than we'd hoped, and all the way Dave Baldwin was being hassled by a couple of locals who had provided minimal assistance and were now demanding financial recompense. Not actually having any money on me at all, I left it to Dave, who also speaks Amharic, and they eventually gave up. Not before becoming a little verbally aggravated. But we made it in the end. We suggested strongly that Dave come back to Bingham with us and we'd give him a lift home, but he wouldn't hear of it, so Brian and I eventually headed back to Bingham by ourselves. It took us over an hour for what would usually be a 15 minute trip.
Anyway, it is now Thursday the 9th, but since nothing interesting has happened while writing this epistle, I'll sign off here and head to bed, ready for my busiest day of the week. Until next time...
Monday, August 30, 2004
Got all my stuff packed. The suitcase weighed about 27kg, which is 7kg over the official limit, but I had that much last time and they didn't even blink, so I figured I'd be ok. It turned out I was correct about the luggage issue. Unfortunately, since I didn't have a valid entry visa in to Ethiopia, the check-in person didn't want to give me a boarding pass for about a minute. She finally let me on since a) I had a return ticked and b) you can actually buy visas at customs anyway. So, I said my farewells, got on the plane and headed off for Bangkok with Thai Airways.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
After a 9 hour flight with a couple of boring movies, and unconversational neighbour, and bits and pieces of sleep on the way, we touched down in Thailand at around 5AM. My original booking had me scheduled to leave at around 11:45PM that evening, so it was going to be a long day. On the plane, however, I discovered that my neighbour was also going to Frankfurt with Thai airlines, however her flight was departing at about 12:30PM - almost 12 hours earlier. I still wouldn't be able to get to Addis any earlier, but I would arrive in Frankfurt at around 7PM, before departing the next afternoon at around 1PM. I don't know about you, but I find it much easier to sleep in a bed than an aeroplane seat, so I attempted to get my ticket transferred to the earlier flight. Upon finding the transfer desk at around 5AM, I was informed that it only opened at 5:30AM. I have no idea what you would do if your plane was supposed to leave at 5:25AM, but anyway... So I hung around for a while and was eventually told to go to the transfer desk at the other end of the airport to get put on standby. 700m later, I found it, was put on standby and told to come back at about 12PM.
The downside of this was that I wouldn't know whether or not I'd be able to leave earlier until half-way through the day, which would essentially render the possibility of actually getting outside the airport null-in-void. Not being the world's most energetic tourist, this wasn't a big disappointment - it would have just left me with a lot of time to kill in a really boring airport.
In the meantime, I filled in time by attempting to write some lesson plans (not finishing any), perusing the local duty-free stores (not buying anything) and getting passport photos taken for my Ethiopian visa (which I didn't need anyway). Time well spent, in my opinion.
I didn't quite manage to fill in enough time, so I checked in about 20 minutes early, and was summarily told to come back in 20 minutes. Dutifully, I looked at watches for a while in a nearby duty-free store. (My current watch has lost it's backlight, so I was quite tempted to pick up a new one. Everything else works though, so my frugal missionary mind overruled.) Upon checking in at the designated time, I was asked to come back again in another 10 minutes. After resisting temptation for another period (I am well trained!) I was finally given my boarding pass! 30 minutes later, I was in the air again for the 11 hour journey to Germany.
This time I stayed awake for most of the journey. The movies were equally boring (I can't even remember what they were - although I think Shrek 2 was the last one on the trip, which was fun, although I had seen it before). Since I was supposed to be teaching the morning after arriving in Addis, I figured it would be a good idea to get a good night's rest, so I went through about 3 information desks and customs to find the hotel reservation desk at Frankfurt International. At this point I was having a little trouble pushing my baggage trolley in a straight line, but I eventually found the desk, booked a reasonably priced (by European standards, anyway) room for the night and headed to the hotel shuttle bus pick up point. By 10PM, local time, I was showered, toothbrushed and in bed asleep.
Wednesday, September 1, 2004
Being completely out of synch, time-wise, I woke up at around 3AM. After tossing and turning for about half-an-hour, I turned on the TV and flicked to one of two channels that were in English - CNN (the other option was BBC World). They happened to be showing the Republican Convention, and Arnold Schwartznegger was about to begin his speech. So, I watched/listened his speech encouraging people to vote for the Republicans even if you don't agree with all their policies, especially if you were an immigrant (like Arnie himself, of course). Then George W.'s daughters came on and offended pretty much everyone (apparently it was an attempt at humour) while introducing their dad, who then introduced his wife, who then gave a speech which put me back to sleep.
Later, I woke up again at a more reasonable hour, had some breakfast (included in the price, thankfully), and called Bingham Academy to see if they could fax me a copy of the work permit at the hotel. That 2 minute/€12.50 phone call is ranking up there with the 5 minute/$55 doctors consultation I had recently as the most expensive couple of minutes I've had in my life, but I did get the work permit. Mental note: never use hotel phones again...
After a 45-minute security/passport check, I still had a few minutes to kill, so I visited the local McDonald's and consumed what will probably be my last milkshake for the next 10 months. It was ok. Nothing to write home about. Then it was off to the boarding gate, where I found another Addis family I knew - the kids are students at Bingham. Eventually we all boarded, and even through we were originally seated a fair way apart, the plane was empty enough that I could move down near by. This time the airline was Lufthansa, and they actually had individual TV screens for each passenger. Unfortunately, the only movies available were a dodgy romantic comedy with Pierce Brosnan and a red-headed actress who's name escapes me, or 'On the Waterfront' with Marlon Brando. It was a 7 hour flight, so I figured I'd have time to catch them both if so inclined, so I went with 'Waterfront' first time around. It is a classic, even though I'd seen it before, and was a good way to kill the first 1/4 of the trip. After that, the system turned off. I assumed it would come back on fairly soon, or at the latest about 3 hours before we were due to land. It did eventually come back on - 2 hours before our scheduled landing. Ok, I thought, I guess you know what you're doing. We've had 3 hours with nothing to do, but I'm sure there's enough time to show the whole movie before we have to land. Nope. Half-way through the dodgy romantic comedy, it cut out. Not that the movie was that enjoyable, but gee, that's annoying. Note to Lufthansa: you are all idiots.
So, finally we landed in Addis. Two queues later, I finally got to the visa window. Upon examining my passport, the gentleman on the other side informed me that my visa was expired. Thanking him politely, I answered that that was in fact why I was standing in the queue for a new visa. After some consultation, negotiation, conversation, and work permit fax waving, I was informed that he would keep my passport and I would be given a little pink piece of cardboard to take to immigration the next day to reclaim it again. I wasn't very keen on the idea of relinquishing my passport, but having no other options, that's what happened. I got through customs with no problems and was greeted by Brad Adams (a fellow Australian teacher from last year) and Brian Hall (my new house mate - pictured right). By 11PM, I was back in familiar territory - Bingham Academy.
Since I was supposed to be teaching the next day, I figured I should find out what I was scheduled for. At Bingham, we have 8 forty minute periods each day. I have 7 periods on Thursday. In a row. Including 3 subjects I didn't know I would be teaching. At that point, I was too tired to really care, so I hit the sack and tried to get a decent night's sleep.
Thursday, September 2, 2004
After initially waking up at about 3AM again, I managed to make it to all of my classes. Not only that, the lessons actually resembled something with educational value (well, except 8 and 9 PE). Enough for the second day of school, anyway. I also met most of the new staff and students. Fairly productive I think, considering.
Friday, September 3, 2004
I met a couple of other guys around my age who are in Addis for a bit. A Kiwi named Grant (pronounced 'Grant' as in 'Aunt', not 'Grant' as in 'Ant') who is just here for a few weeks, and a Canadian named Dan (as in 'Man', in case you were wondering) who is around for about 9 months. We also watched a couple of episodes of the Simpsons.
Saturday, September 4, 2004
Brian and I hit the town in search of groceries, post offices and bed lamps. We were successful on all three counts, although we nearly missed out on item 3 due to a) not knowing exactly where we were and b) not knowing exactly where the store(s) we were looking for were. We eventually figured both issues out and made our way home. We would have tried to get a couple of other things too, but the traffic was horrendous. Apparently it is due to the Ethiopian New Year which is happening ths Saturday. Everyone comes to town to get new clothes. That's what I've been told.
Sunday, September 5, 2004
We arrived at the International Evangelical Church (aka IEC) about 20 minutes late due to Brad discovering a grieve (apparently a water-bird) on his way to pick up the car. Several photographs later (sorry, they haven't been developed yet) the bird was released back over the wall into the nearby river. The quality of the water in said river doesn't give me high hopes for the longevity of the bird, but you never know. Sunday was also the day that I found out that Binyam, our local Computer Lab assistant would be departing the country on Wednesday. As in, in three days. To marry a girl in America who he has spent a total of one week in the physical presence of. They have been talking continuously since then (email, instant messenger, phone, etc), but it's still a pretty big leap if you ask me, for both parties. Here's hoping it goes well.
Monday, September 6, 2004
Monday is actually my lightest teaching day. In fact, I am only teaching one class - 8th grade PE, last period of the day. As such, I figured it would be a good idea to get Binyam to show me where he usually gets all the equipment we need, and where to get things repaired. So, after morning tea, we headed off into down town Addis. After about 7 different stores and a hamburger at the 'Family Restaurant', I came away with a colour printer cartridge and enough information to get us by for a while. 6 hours later I was wishing I hadn't had the hamburger. 8 hours later I didn't have the hamburger any more.
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
Tuesdays are my second busiest day. Of course. At least it wasn't Thursday. I didn't make it to morning prayers, but I did make it to the rest of my classes. I'm sure the prayers said in my absence helped with the rest of the day. By 8PM I was in bed and didn't wake up until about 7AM the next day.
Wednesday, September 8, 2004
Almost up-to-date! I woke up feeling pretty much back to normal. After Binyam failed to show up at his farewell morning tea (I did get to say goodbye later), I fudged my way through my classes (I didn't get a lot of time to plan in the last couple of days), ran around the compound a couple of times trying to get the generator on during several black outs, and then headed off to the Baldwin's place for dinner. The Baldwins are a British family with kids at the school, and are also Brian's mentors, so they basically have an obligation to have him over for dinner every now and then. As official house mate, I seem to have been extended invitation rights, so who am I to turn down a home-cooked meal? After an entertaining evening, Dave Baldwin offered us a ride home, as long as we didn't mind push-starting his car, since the battery wires had become disconnected. After pushing it downhill for about 100 metres, we came to the conclusion that there were issues we couldn't resolve with gravity and manpower, and then had the problem of storing it for the night. After attempting to push the car back uphill to a friendly expat's place, we were brought to a halt by an unfriendly speed bump. Around the next corner downhill we finally found a compound owned by a local who seemed reliable enough who was also friendly enough to let us park the car there for the night.
Of course, Brian and I still had to get home. But we had arrived by taxi, so we figured we'd go home by taxi. Which we did, eventually. We had to walk a fair way further to find one than we'd hoped, and all the way Dave Baldwin was being hassled by a couple of locals who had provided minimal assistance and were now demanding financial recompense. Not actually having any money on me at all, I left it to Dave, who also speaks Amharic, and they eventually gave up. Not before becoming a little verbally aggravated. But we made it in the end. We suggested strongly that Dave come back to Bingham with us and we'd give him a lift home, but he wouldn't hear of it, so Brian and I eventually headed back to Bingham by ourselves. It took us over an hour for what would usually be a 15 minute trip.
Anyway, it is now Thursday the 9th, but since nothing interesting has happened while writing this epistle, I'll sign off here and head to bed, ready for my busiest day of the week. Until next time...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
