Hussen and the horseman sorting out our luggage!

We met this guy one day in the mountains and he kept us company for a while - we weren't really in any position to argue with him!

This is Hussen and I avoiding the mud in the Bale mountains!

Saturday night – nearly 11pm! Just got back from Jason’s housewarming. I tell you we have a wild life here. We have no news about placements – VSO are still holding on to the line that we could be going home in 3 weeks! Last weekend we had a visitor down from Addis and we just about exhausted our supply of “interesting” things to do in Awassa. We even went to watch Manchester play Liverpool. Should have gone to watch football this afternoon instead of getting gloomy about the future!

This bit I wrote last Monday but haven’t been able to get on blogger all week! Well, we have had a very lazy weekend. Today is a national holiday for Eid. We walked over Tabor Hill and down to the lake for breakfast this morning – the people next to us had a colubus monkey help them out with their food! It was ok till it put its hand in the butter dish and ate a handful – gross!

Not much to report really – we are in limbo as far as jobs go. We are due to finish here in four weeks and are having some aggravation with VSO trying to sort out what happens next. We did think we had sorted two placements up in the north but our work here has been delayed so we said we needed extra time to finish it. The initial response from VSO seemed to be that we should just leave the work unfinished and go north – something I couldn’t contemplate doing and couldn’t believe they were seriously advising us to do it. After some negotiation they asked the new placements if we could start a week late only to be told that the college would rather have no-one this year and would return the money. So then VSO said if there was nothing else in Ethiopia they would send us home!! I’m trying to focus on finishing things here properly so that the programme we have been delivering will continue after we have gone – hopefully something else will get sorted for us. We have only four weeks left in Awassa we think! Difficult to say, as term was meant to start two weeks ago but the students haven’t turned up yet!

The vegetation was amazing too – we learnt different tree and shrub names and walked a lot of the time on a carpet of thyme. At one hut we drank fresh mint tea – mint just grows wild in many areas. Hussein knew so much about all the different plants and their uses – part of one tree is used to treat intestinal worms!

Anyway, I will add some more photos and finish by saying get there if you can! A fabulous few days.

A bit of a roller coaster day today – started it feeling a bit dissatisfied with what I was doing here and the prospect of the next placement and finished on a high following a fabulous session with my Higher Diploma group. The last module in the course is on action research and two of the groups were presenting their projects. They were really inspirational, really fired up and enthusiastic about what they had done and how it could be used to change things in the future at the college. Wow!

I had been feeling frustrated that I wasn’t able to impact on the management of the college but I have managed to fix a meeting with the new Dean tomorrow so we will see what happens. We did a joint session last week – both HDP groups, management and us – on institutional evaluation and action planning. It was also quite dynamic – loads of ideas raised about the direction of the college and how systems and policies can be strengthened further. I really want to be able to build on it but I guess the idea is that the existing staff do that!

We walked from Monday afternoon to Saturday lunchtime through some of the most amazing, varied scenery. We got a real glimpse into the life of the local people as we walked – helped by Hussen’s explanations. We saw Colobus monkeys and the rare Ethiopian wolf, as well as the molerat – a Bale mountain endemic. (Endemic means it is only found in that region). The bird life was amazing too – some of my favourites were red winged starlings, augur buzzard and olive thrush. On the final day, heading in to Dodola we saw two new species – red-naped widowbird and yellow bishop darting about amongst the crops.

Eco-tourism – what does it mean to you?

We have just returned from the most fantastic week, trekking in the Bale Mountains. If the first words that come to mind when someone mentions Ethiopia are famine and drought then think again. The Bale Mountains is described as the best kept secret of Ethiopia – a fabulous land of mountains, with a huge variety of lush vegetation and many wild animals and colourful birds.

There are two main areas for trekking in Bale – one centred around Dodola and another, further east, at Dinsho. Treks from Dodola (altitude 2,400 metres) are organised by the Dodola guides association through an Integrated Forest Management Plan set up in the late 1990’s by a German aid organisation, GTZ. This has to be eco-tourism at its best. At the IFMP office in Dodola you plan your trip and meet your guide (English speaking of course), then you are off. There are currently five huts and one tented camp (with about four others under construction), each managed by local people. You can choose to walk or ride – and you can hire a horse to carry your bags! You hire horses and assistants at each location, sharing the benefit amongst the community.

Anyhow, before we could set off we had to attend another college graduation ceremony! This was the “summer” extension class graduation so the students I had “taught” English were amongst the graduates. It all seems like a distant memory now though I can say that it went on too long and it was very hot in those gowns. I think about 1,200 graduated and we had to sit whilst they all trooped up onto the stage. The best bit, as before, was the circus. Again, no sign of Health and Safety regulations as a small child was tossed about in the air like a football.

Sunday morning we were off from Awassa within ten minutes of arriving at the bus station but only as far as Shashamene, 25km away. We were fortunate to find an almost full bus to Dodola and were on our way again relatively quickly. That was the extent of the speed, however, for we left the asphalt road to jolt for three hours on what is described as possibly Africa’s highest all-weather road! After a while it was hard to breathe as there was so much dust in the air. The bus climbed up onto the plateau the scenery shifting from eucalyptus forest to fields of teff, wheat and barley. Gone were the bicycles of Awassa, replaced by horse if you were lucky but the most common form of transport was by foot.

A note on the comfort of the bus ride – we thought we were doing well when we left Shashamene with only two or three more passengers than seats on the bus but soon discovered that once you get out of town the traffic police don’t operate so we stopped just beyond town and gained another dozen or so passengers. This was nothing compared to the scrum when we stopped at Kofele, the biggest town en route. The spirit on the bus was amazing though – really good humoured, with the whole bus cheering a galloping horseman who rode alongside for some time before disappearing into the distance.

We made it to Dodola in time to have lunch before meeting our guide, horse and assistant and heading off to the hills. The guides are all locals and extremely knowledgeable about flora and fauna, as well as local culture. I have to admit I usually prefer to walk independently but in Bale a guide is essential. Our guide, Hussen, was brilliant – we learnt loads from him and he’s a great cook too (the first Ethiopian male I’ve known who cooks!).

That first afternoon we walked for about 3 hours to reach a tented camp with amazing views.

Wahoro, where we spent Tuesday night.