sarahandbrianaway

[sarahandbrianaway]

Brian with boys at the Blind School

[sarahandbrianaway]

Listening/ reading a talking textbook in the boy's dorm

[sarahandbrianaway]

The last days have been finishing off time and goodbye dos - with some new surprises. Out for a beer with the two young men Brian has been working with, we discovered one is a poet and the other loves English classics, D.H.Lawrence is his favourite but Oscar Wilde comes a close second. This in a country where the bookshops only sell local language textbooks and cheap copies of American management and self help books. He reads literature online. We have promised to make sure the next travellers bring books! The next day we went to the Saturday afternoon poetry club, in the small garden of a private art gallery, where the members sat in silence listening intently to each poet in turn. We could not understand it of course as it was all in Tygrinian but our host Aklilu explained that he and a journalist friend set it up so that there is a free space for literature. Outside the garden, people can not say what they really think about many subjects. In here, they can. However, they still use code, deliberate contrasts, metaphor to cloak the truth they are expressing. We could hear the word Africa repeated in one poem but Aklilu explained everyone knew it was actually a poem about sex- there was a lot of clapping all the way through.

[sarahandbrianaway]

The ox was grazing in the grounds and then - it was ox feast day for the blind children who never get meat as part of their regular diet.

[sarahandbrianaway]

Listening to/ reading a talking textbook in the boys'dorm

[sarahandbrianaway]

Reminders

We have had two encounters which reminded us if we needed it of the reality of life here. Ethiopians are relaxed, friendly, smiling people and even with our contacts, and the beggars in the streets, it often seems a benign place. We had a young man Elias visit us, a contact through the English charity who support him. He is a remarkably bright person, a high achiever at school and speaks fluent slightly American English. Brian took him and his father out to the Blind School for interest and on their return, Elias asked if he could use the shower in our hotel room. When he came out, he remarked that the hot water was a surprise. At 14, he had never had hot water before.. The other encounter was much more serious, a blind boy living on the floor of a tiny room with no facilities and no external support. He studies at night with a talking textbook, gets the highest grades and often has no money to eat. He says he is fighting with his life for an education.

[sarahandbrianaway]

Away

In search of a break from the bustle, noise and dust of Mekelle, we hired a driver and guide to take us into the hills for 24 hours. We didn't stay in the famous tourist lodge, all ethnic chic, as it was too expensive for us, reckoned in local money at least. We did go for a drink, walk around admiring the round houses where you stay, gaze at the view, watch the hares racing over rocks and decide that £9 for a four course meal was not worth it despite the noisy Americans. So a treat and then back to our budget hotel - clean, quiet and cheap. It was a strange contrast to talk over breakfast with a global economics guy about robotics, the future of work and the harsh realities of the future and then walk for 2 hours through the landscape, green and gold now the crops are growing. meeting walkers, all ages, walking the distance to church, town, church school, walking as they must. Consumerism and credit are not yet the drivers here. Our guide invited us for the coffee ceremony in his mother's house, a small mud walled farmhouse where the sleeping space was shared with a calf and chickens pecked around our feet. His mother was a gracious hostess who talked through her son with gentle interest, especially in my hair. Her own was tightly braided across her head with the rest allowed to bush out at the back which is the favourite hair style of village women. Her son started working with tourists when he was 13 and discovered that his knowledge of the area and natural charm could help his family and give him a future. We only saw one rock church - we saw lots last time - and the remarkable thing about it was that the village are replacing it after 4000 years with a very grand new building. It must be costing a huge amount,even calculated in local money not pounds, raised by people who by any standard are very poor.

[sarahandbrianaway]

Soo Organic

In search of extra sweetness, Brian went to the honey shop where you choose between thick white or thick golden and it is weighed out into a jar by the kilo. It is so raw, unfiltered and organic that there are dead bees in it. Brian has it on his porridge, which the hotel kitchen makes especially for him every morning and says it is delicious! He picks out the whole bees but the little bits of wing, no problem..

[sarahandbrianaway]

The coffee ceremony in a village house - popcorn on the side and a calf in the corner

[sarahandbrianaway]

Childhood means chores in rural Tigray

[sarahandbrianaway]

Brian, Masho and Abil testing in the Blind School

[sarahandbrianaway]

A town with no sugar

On our first morning, ar breakfast in the hotel Brian asked for sugar to go in his coffee. A sad shake of the head, ' no sugar'. We kept our faces neutral but, of course, were sceptical. No sugar in a hotel? Later that morning we found an establishment serving sugar but discovered over the next few days that in fact there was a shortage of sugar, not just in Mekelle but in the whole country. The factories processing it have not been able to meet demand- Ethiopians drink several cups of coffee a day and each cup has at least two spoonfuls. Masho had given himself a problem because he had invited us to his house, to meet his lovely pregnant wife and pass the afternoon in the coffee ceremony. Every household has the equipment for this traditional entertainment, the small table with tiny cups ready, the charcoal burner for the long handled coffee pot and the even smaller burner for when incense needs to be lit. Then there must be long blades of grass on the floor. The symbolism of greenery is very important in such a dry country. But the slow procession of three cups needs sugar and is unthinkable without. Luckily Masho had a meeting that mornng at a cafe where sugar was being served. Thinking on his feet, he quietly tipped the contents of the pot into his jacket pocket. As he is a lawyer, he had a defence ready for this his first theft if challenged but was able to get away undetected with the goods, get home, take his jacket off and let his wife fill their waiting pot just in time. It is not only sugar in short supply. The rains came in season this year and there is a thin veil of green over the hills, even a few flowers in the dust. But clean water is not accessible for everyone. One of the loudspeaker announcements filling the air in the streets is a warning not to drink standing water because of the danger of cholera.

[sarahandbrianaway]

Testing, testing SENTigray is a small NGO with big ambitions to improve the educational chances of children with special needs, starting with blindness which is a particular problem here. They have a project to bring talking textbooks to these childrenn across the huge region of Tigray. Grades 5-8 of the national curriculum books, which take a child up to 14, have been read and recorded by local people and distributed on mp3 players. After 14, all education in Ethiopia is in English, so they have been researching text to speech software for Grades 9-12. Brian suggested that the different variations in speed and voice be tested with the students at the Mekelle Blind School,the large local boarding school. It was a useful morning as the children were very excited by the possibility of having this access to the text books and each age group agreed on the speed they found comfortable to listen to. The only thing is they all said they prefer British voices- and all the software packages are American!

[sarahandbrianaway]

Thick mango puree over avocado puree - juice Ethiopian style. And bowls of fruit salad dressed with avocado puree and the mysterious red syrup. Treats in our day and where you will see all the locals passing the time as an alternative to coffee or beer.

[sarahandbrianaway]

A procession gathers - and makes a lot of noise!

[sarahandbrianaway]

Dust and manure, incense and coffee, the scents of Ethiopia greeted us again. And Mekelle is both familiar, our third time here and of course strange again. The streets are full of more cars than before but also donkeys, noisy bajajs,(the imported from India tuktuks),old men who look as if they have stepped out of the bible in their flowing robes and staves, young people in leggings and smart business men in suits. It was nice to be recognised, if surprising, by lots of people and our favoured beggar the toothless crone, even leapt to her feet and covered our arms with kisses to welcome us back after two and a half years. Any celebration here is accompanied by hooting horns, chanting priests and choral songs and dances. Our first Wednesday happened to be the Day of the Cross, a national religious holiday. Mekelle has a new cross, a metal construction on the nearest hill, which is lit up all night even when the electricity in town is flickering. There were lots of dancing and processions the day before and then as dusk began at 5pm on Wednesday, a stream of people passed our hotel on their way up the hill. It seemed most of the town were going, young, old, families too. So we joined in and walked in the crowd uo a steep, stony path to the flat area at the top, where a pop concert had started and bonfires were blazing. During the day we saw long bundles of sticks being sold by the boys who usually sell sweets and know your weight. These were used in the dancing instead of sticks, pushed up and down in time to the music, held aloft or stamped on the ground. But we didn't realise their real use til the crowd started to go back down. This holiday has a link to fire, rather obscured by the mists of time, but now the most exciting part. The bundles were lit and carried, flaming and spitting ash and sparks,all down the edge of the path making a winding line of fire in the dark to be seen across the town. Jumping over fire is also a traditional requirement. The boys in charge of this display were full of energy and bravado - and reckless. Squashed in the descending masses, with flames roaring near and sometimes very near, it did not always feel very safe! But the crowd was good tempered, keen to be helpful to the 'ferengis', the only white ones there and when we got back to our balcony and a beer, the waiters were pleasingly amazed that we had managed it.

[sarahandbrianaway]

These cave paintings are between 15 and 30 thousand years old, done by bushmen hunter gatherers. Their descendants have slowly been driven out of most of Africa and there are only about 2000 now living in the Kalahari desert. Sadly the painting tradition has been lost and the purpose of these is contested. But they are really skilful and very beautiful.