ETHIOPIA – WEEK 5 – ASSOSSA / MEKELE / AXUM / LALIBELLA

More photos from week 5 are now available at http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/ETHIOPIAWEEK5ASSOSSAMEKELEAXUMLALIBELLA

Day 29– 23rd July

Green vegetables! Oh the joy! Today we worked at the ADP. We were actually permitted (after the usual omelet breakfast at the only place in town) to walk to the office, a 30 minute easy walk, but oh so appreciated. The ADP manager Tesfaye invited us to join them for lunch at the ADP; an invitation we gratefully accepted. For lunch, injera, spaghetti AND green vegetables! Spinach and cabbage. It was a very exciting moment to spy these on the lunch table.

After lunch I asked the driver of the ADP motorcycle (Yamaha 250 Enduro) to let me try a ride… Luckily he did not want to see my drivers licence an rand after probing me I took a quick spin out of the ADP courtyard and went into town; I was taking Katherine, Anne-Sophie and Ronaldo each for a ride and we all thoroughly enjoyed slip sliding through the muddy ADP road, through the gates, past the amused stares of the ADP construction workers, whizzing down the streets of Asosa, the wind blowing through our hair and the locals yelling farenji, farenji as we passed. It was great!

In the afternoon we continued our Ulysses team session, explored where we saw leadership, how the diversity we have notice had impacted us and where we individually recognized elements of sustainability. It was a great afternoon and had a nice step forward exploring all these areas with our different eyes and impressions.

At 7pm for about 10 minutes we quickly visited the mango-paradise. Obviously a place owned by a private individual who wants to construct a resort there and has hundreds of mango trees at his area. Privately owned means guarded by a heavily armed (!) guard who only secures not ripe mangos …

We finished the day with a feedback session to the Business and Marketing Development Facilitator on his draft analysis and what we have learned in our time here. Primarily we had identified the need to perform some level of market review, to determine what sort of products are needed locally and whether the products could be made and sold profitability, before investing more money and time in training people to produce products such as bamboo furniture. Currently WVE pays trainees 15 Bir a day to attend training. The payment is meant to motivate them to attend training however, not unexpectedly, it seems that many trainees just show up for the cash and then do not fully utilize their skills upon completion. We recommended that WVE somehow obtain commitment from the trainees that they will utilize their skills after the training programs, perhaps through investing some of the per diem in tools or other capital contribution for the business. At 8.30pm we wrapped up and set off for dinner of yummy spaghetti. Again.


Day 30– 24th July

Our last day in Asosa. The sadness washed over me for a nano second and I recovered. We feasted on our shared team mango for breakfast and headed to the ADP for a final feedback session. Again our overriding message was the necessity of knowledge sharing - locally in the community as well as with the Program and Head Office and external organizations. Our flight was not until 1.45pm but our WV partners quickly sheperded off to the airport explaining that the airport does not have any x-ray screening equipment and thus all of our luggage (and bodies) would be subject to hand searches. Oh the joy…. So, two and a quarter hours early (and that for me – the master of efficiency when it comes to airports and check in times !!!) we arrived at the airport, first in line, to submit ourselves.

We also saw a few UN-cars (UNHCR) arriving at the airport, showing clearly the vicinity of the operations of the UN here- close to Sudan

The plane schedule is Asosa is heavily reliant on the weather. Planes do not land if it is raining or if the runway is wet (as it quickly turns to mud- see picture). We had been praying for several days for clear skys and there were, until we arrived at the airport. A large black cloud hovered ominously to the east and so we amused ourselves by predicting how fast it was moving and which direction. A Danish man told us of his adventures getting to Asosa where he got on a plane three days in a row, flew to Asosa and was turned back before they could land. Luckily the clouds stayed away, our plane landed and we boarded for glorious Addis.

I had dinner arranged with Harald (yet another German working in Ethiopia) from ECBP (engineering capacity building program) a governmental NGO run by GTZ,. Harald has been working here for 18 months on "engineering” or as he said better “economical capacity building" and had some good perspectives to share with us. It was an early night as we had traveled for much of the day and had an early start planned for the next day.

I did not have Spaghetti !!!


Day 31– 25th July

5am. iiiiiiiihhhhhhh
This morning we flew to Mekele, the capital town of the Tigray Region and located in the North of Ethiopia, quite close to the Eritrea border. This will be one of our last field visits and we are back with Belay who has returned from London. We renegotiated a 6.15am airport arrival (over the originally suggested 5:30am) and this proved to be perfect timing, with time even for a quick coffee before boarding the 7.20 flight.

After a smooth flight we arrived in Mekele just after 9am and spent an hour or so waiting for the WV driver to pick us up. We arrived at the Axum hotel and spent another 2 hours waiting for our hotel room to be ready. The alternative flight of 1pm would have made much more sense but the WV communications department who booked this flight didn't anticipate this in their original booking and the 1pm flight was full. Anyway. We concluded "This is Ethiopia" as our phrase for these occasions is.

After lunch at the hotel we paid a visit to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) museum. This is the political party currently in power but the museum celebrates their fight against the Derg in the 70's, 80's and 90's when hundred's of thousands of people were killed and the country was at, perhaps, it's most tormented. The building itself was a little over ten years old and quite impressive looking, on a hill overlooking the city. The building was funded by public donations and, in such a poor community, was quite incongruous in its newness and sophistication. The inside though, and the "exhibits", could perhaps have put together with more planning and pride. Sadly, this is a common problem. The Ethiopian people have struggled so long just to survive that quality is a secondary (at best) value. This attitude permeates everything and on a daily basis is shocking. For four people who have spent the last 16 to 20 years being part of the PwC culture where quality is an overriding value, it is jarring to see the lack of care, of long term planning or commitment and the wasted resources. It seems as if it would be such an easy thing to make this museum shine and to reflect the importance of this part of the country's history, unfortunately however, these people have more pressing issues to address.

At 2pm we went to the Mekel Program office and found it under construction (see picture….) no – just a joke but a good one, that we found the sign in front of this building the real office was the house next to that one.... - So we met with the Mekele Program Office representatives who told us about their 5 ADPs and the challenges faced by the local communities. Their biggest potential product is honey which is apparently a really high quality one and they are beginning to produce a reasonable quantity and obtaining a decent price ($5 per kg). Notwithstanding this, food security is a major issue for them. For 5 months a year (outside harvest time) these farmers survive on 1 meal a day. I have decided to buy a glass of honey and to self taste the quality…

We had on our way back to the hotel passed by a Starbucks coffee-shop which we were desperate to try out – really impressive but I somehow doubt that this really tiny little shop in the north of Ethiopia pays any license fees or royalties to Starbucks

Tonight an early night at the hotel, or so it was planned. We have an internet connection but it has, so far, taken an hour and I have reviewed one message and am still trying to load "blogger" to let you – my readers know what was happening in week 4 ….

Anyway I will go to bed now – good night!


Day 32– 26th July (a special day...)

Some trucks passing by the main road in Mekele to which my room is woke me up around 5am before the first rooster could even think starting his work… and I felt there is something different today – right – it is my birthday and as far as I could remember the first one I celebrate in Ethiopia.... Since I got up early I had the chance to write these few lines before breakfast! I have not yet told the rest of the neither team nor Belay but I shall do that and I hope we can have a bottle of nice red or white wine tonight – mmmmmh…

Our first working meeting today was with the Wurko ADP Manager and learned about their efforts in setting up model farmers. Two men (both named Alem) have become quite successful, one in honey and the other in horticulture. Both men are fine examples of what is possible here with some dedication and creativity. – but after about 25 min I felt sick and left the room and changed into a horizontal level in our trusty Toyota… So the information content in the next lines is second hand information so no responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information :-)

Honey Alem has invested in modern bee hives (basically boxes) and is producing high quality honey that is becoming very popular in the local market. He currently produces about between 15-20 tonnes. Horticulture Alem has leased a piece of the town's former garbage dump (although not a lot of clean up has been done) and has begun to plant various crops. He even dug a well and purchased a water pump from Eritrea to enable a level of irrigation. He consults with farmers to help them determine what to grow and when and even rents out his pump to other farmers.

The group returned to the ADP for lunch and it was clear that my stomach got even worse so I retired to one of the ADP staff's rooms for a nap.

In the afternoon I felt slightly more alive and joined the others for a visit of two of the Tigraj rock churches. These churches have been literally carved out the solid rock and are quite sizable. At the first church the priest demanded an entry fee of 50 Birr per farenji. This was much higher than the 20 Birr our guidebooks mentioned and than our WV partners thought was appropriate. We trundled off to another church only to find that word was out and 50 Birr was the new rate apparently all over the Tigraj region. We did not try to verify with another church but coughed up the 50 Birr per farenji (free to our Ethiopian friends) and explored the inside of the church. I was actually treated by Anne-Sophie which I found a nice move for my birthday (but did not tell her of course) The church was in a terrible state of disrepair and required some creative thinking to imagine it in its glory days. Nevertheless, it was very interesting. There were several beautiful paintings from over a thousand years ago perched atop a couple of chairs and draped in old dirty sheets. I can't imagine these will survive even another 20 years in this non maintenance environment which is very sad.

By dinner I felt even better and suggested the castle restaurant. Together with us the PwC Ulysses team we had 4 Ethiopians: The ADP Manager, the driver, Haile Selassie, a knowledgeable member of the Program office in Mekele and Belay. We sat outside in the castle courtyard and enjoyed a view of the city and the gentle breeze. Knowing the different cultures and wanting to offend nobody with my birthday and my offer to have a glass of wine or similar I started asking questions about celebrations in Ethiopia - what do people celebrate, is it just religious occasions or graduations and do people celebrate personal occasions such as name-days and birthdays? The drinks guy finally arrived and I suggested that perhaps we should order something special to celebrate our time in Mekele. Yet, until tonight we had not consumed alcohol at dinner with our WV partners, respecting their view that alcohol is evil.

What I had not realized by this stage but afterwards being told , more and more amused glances were exchanged around the table by the team and our WV partners. And so before our meals arrived, I got a card with a bunch of balloons to the tune of "Happy Birthday” delivered. I was really surprised and excited of this and enjoyed the winde even more (althought I think this was a www = the worst white wine in Ethiopia so far…) After dinner Katherine went back inside and taught the waiter the tradition of lighting birthday candles on a cake. They were all quite fascinated in the kitchen. The cake was then delivered with another round of Happy Birthday and more smiles. I could not even extinguish the candles as apparently Katherine has bought the magic version, which ignited itself after I blew out the candles - It was a good and joyful night and I will have very fond memories.


Day 33– 27th July

Up again 5.30 am – Ethiopia is not for late risers…
We wanted to reach Axum today and not by plane but by car and apparently it takes 6 hours for 240 km – I concluded, that for the majority of the leg we will not be on something like a German highway…

We stopped in a little town for a quick breakfast. That town is only about 40 kilometers from Eritrea and had a distinct, desolate, border town feel. We enjoyed again the local breakfast with toast (cold, again) and many cups of coffee.

From the breakfast place we took a sharp left into a rocky alley that was, in fact, the "road" to Axum. Goodness…. Very quickly we started our ascent into the mountains on a one lane, mostly bituminized road with hair-pin and hair-raising curves. We encountered many buses carrying the locals between towns and our driver was in constant negotiation with the other drivers, jockeying for positions to pass them; often it seemed the passing involved one vehicle's wheels being perilously close to falling off the edge of the mountain. The views were spectacular; great wall of rocks rising up, carefully terraced hillsides with individual farmer's crops planted between walls of stones, vast valley planes and cliffs and chasms to rival the Grand Canyon.
The bituminized road quickly disappeared and we enjoyed another three hours of bone shaking, head bumping and teeth chattering travel before finally arriving in Axum. Axum is the ancient and oldest former capital city of Ethiopia (they have six cities which were capitals at one point of another). The city is reputed to have been the Queen of Sheba's home, although most of "her" buildings were built about 1000 years after she was alive….

We visited the famous stela which are basically obelisks erected over the tombs of Ethiopian kings. Again a local man approached us and after some negotiation we engaged him as a guide for the afternoon. The obelisks date back to the third century and were carved from single pieces of granite. The tallest was 33 meters. One of the most famous stela was stolen by the Italians several decades ago and taken to Rome and was only just returned to Ethiopia. The government is trying to figure out how to re-erect it and so, for now, it lies next to the other stela in three sad broken pieces. Most of the tombs were long ago ransacked of their treasures and now lie as empty underground caves. According to our Guide 98 % of the ground has not yet been investigated by archeologists… We visited the Queen of Sheba's palace (now a mere pile of rubble where the foundations were) and our guide attempted to paint a picture of what it once looked like. He identified a piece of stone that was supposed to have been her throne where she would greet visitors. I asked Katherine to sit on it for a photo but she obliged only to sit on a large thistle - you can imagine how quickly she got up. Yes, it was very funny….

At dinner the conversation somehow turned to a discussion of culture in Ethiopia versus developed countries. Belay announced his strongly held belief is that the social culture in developed cultures is "sick". His view is that developed society is sick because people do not talk to each other or value human interaction as they do e.g. in Ethiopia. I quite liked the very strong point and took it as a good start for an intense discussion about the differences in our cultures and societies and the pros and cons. Also Anne-Sophie and Ronaldo somewhat used this controversial topic and so we discussed the challenges of modern society and how the competing demands on our time and energy sap the desire to connect with people. Katherine however had difficulties with this point and would not want to compare the culture of Ethiopia's society to the cultures she knows and would not agree that it is a healthy vs. sick question. As the conversation went on Katherine felt more and more emotional about this and took it somehow personal. Belay felt not well with the outcome and apologized. I believe this is part of our diversity challenge and tried to speak to Katherine afterwards and believe/hope I could help a little bit

We went back around 10:30 pm and I tried to sleep immediately as the next day we planned to visit early the market and then leave for Lalibella!


Day 34– 28th July

Lalibela – population 21.000. What an amazing piece of the world's history. And how very sad that it is not truly valued…. Unesco has announced it as a world heritage site and has erected some fairly unsightly structures over the rock hewn around 12th century churches to protect them from water and light damage. The real damage though is on the inside - where the countless treasures from so many years ago are now exposed every day to sunlight, fingerprints and the camera flashes of countless disrespectful tourists (we of course respected all those treasures..). As a country Ethiopia I observe and it seems to me an incredible history to treasure and protect. As so often it is here, the "here and now" what is important and the future is "come what may".

Our guide was an interesting 26year old young man by the name of Anteneh (which he translated into Antonio) and a (non qualified) school teacher until six years ago. He is clearly talented in teaching and loves and respects children and also his famous city. Nevertheless, six years ago the government changed the rules so that teachers must be certified in order to continue teaching. There was no grace period and no training support offered. While quality control is important, the haphazard nature of the mandate completely wasted the talents of many people who had until now been making valuable contributions to the local communities. It put a lot of people out of work and resulted in a shortage of teachers – also this is Ethiopia...

After a quick lunch, we met Antonio and set off for our afternoon visit to the 11 churches of Lalibela. For an entrance fee of 200 Birr per person (approx. 16 €) we could visit all churches. The rock hewn churches were carved out of the volcanoes rock and took all in all about 23 years to complete. They are in quite close to proximity to each other and several are linked through passages ways and tunnels. We went through the ‘Tunnel to Hell’ (which actually was quite creepy) and saw the ‘Pathway to Heaven’. Inside the churches there are various murals on the walls and ceiling and some individual paintings (usually propped up in the floor with a sheet over them. A priest presides over each church and guards against visits to the sacred areas. Most looked completely miserable and, where it was possible to use flash for photographs, donned sunglasses. Antonio said that this was because they believed the flash would blind them. In the last church we met a very happy priest dressed in crimson robes and who smiled gleefully for our photos (no sunglasses…) and even shook my hand! He was truly different from all the other priests.

Shoes are not allowed in any orthodox church and the guides typically suggest that you engage a ‘shoe keeper’; someone who takes care of your shoes while you inside the churches. Ours, Abebe, was a lovely man of approx 30 years of age who clearly took his job seriously. At the end of our journey through the churches we asked our guide Antonio what we should pay Abebe. Antonio would not suggest a number but, in the back and forth discussion in our team, quietly noted that this man was only able to work about once a month. The local Tourism agency has limited the number of time any one individual can work during a month given the large number of people seeking the work in the town and the limited tourists. Abebe's deeply gracious acceptance was so sweet that I wish we had given him more than the 100 Birr (8 €), we finally decided on.

For a farenji, there are multiple opportunities per heartbeat to make someone smile in Ethiopia. The stories and warnings about beggars that we have been inundated with are a heavy weight. A blind child begs for something and in our minds we hear Belay saying that the child is blind because bad people scratched his eyes out so he could beg more effectively and that by giving this poor child money we are just encouraging the wickedness… - almost unbelievable but still something which happened/happens. We asked Antonio about this and fortunately he told us that this was not practiced here in Lallibella – what a relief!

As we finished our church visit, some of the children, whose questions were very standardised (‘how are you’ and ‘where you are from’) identified that Ronaldo was from Brazil and immediately latched on to him, requesting money. As all true football fans know, Ronaldo is a famous Brazilian football player. Not only that he is obviously also quite revered here. Ronaldo following his passion for soccer offered to purchase them a football instead of giving them money. All happily agreed and after the acquisition he was surrounded by boys seeking the signature of the famous Ronaldo – The real Ronaldo could have not more loved this experience and enjoyed it. Our guide suggested that the boys were likely to simply sell the ball for money. I hope he is just wrong with his assumptions!

We decided to have dinner in a local guest house – unfortunately it was there was no electric light and so we sat in a romantic candle light atmosphere enjoying a Castell (Ethiopian beer). Apart from the four of us only a young chap with a baseball cap was present. He was on his own and fully engaged with a laptop. An interesting


Day 35– 29th July

We got up as early as 6am and we attended mass in one of the rock hewn churches. Although it was an early start it was well worth it. The eleven churches of Lalibela are not tourist attractions for the people of Lalibela but rather integral pieces of their lives. The churches are gathered closely together and people filled the streets in between. The courtyards and passageways were full of people shrouded in their white cloth netelas. Some were turned facing the rock walls and deep in their own communications with God. Others crowded into the churches to listen to the singing in the traditional language of Ge'ez (which apparently is almost a lost language and very few people other than priests still use it or understand it). To my untrained ear the sounds varied between rhythmic chanting and wailing.

Still other people went forward to the pulpits to receive various blessings from the priests. Antonio carefully guided us through the maze of corridors and streets and back to the main courtyard when a huge group of people stood listening to someone who appeared to be the main priest.

It was amazing to see so many people expressing their faith in such disorderly mayhem. It is wonderful that the churches are used; I do worry though that, even if the rock exteriors survive and are protected from the environment, the people are quickly destroying what little they left inside the churches.

In the last church one of boys we had met yesterday gave me a small cross and although I gave nothing to him Antonio was furious! He chased the boy and threatened to call the police. He explained that this group of boys were troublemakers and a bad influence on other children. The boys apparently have convinced other tourists to "sponsor" them and are, as individuals, collecting monthly cheques sent by these people. This "sponsorship" is not through any NGO or government organization and it is kind of amazing that people would send and keep sending random money with no real idea of what it is being used for. He believes they are collecting about 2.500 Birr (200 €) a month - a massive sum of money here. If the boys were putting the money to good use I think Antonio would be more comfortable with it, but he sees them spending it in alcohol and cigarettes and "bad" women. In this deeply religious community this is obviously a very worrisome thing. This brought home again to us the challenges of giving to these people in the right way and doing it for the right reasons (i.e. to do it to actually make a difference rather than to do it to feel good).

On the way to the airport we stopped at a charity organization our guide is involved in. The organization ‘Love and Hope’ in Lalibela was initially set up to help orphans in the town who previously were abandoned on the streets. It is a fledgling organization and has no established source of finance. There are so many people in need here; it is very hard to know where to start. Antonio himself donates 25 Birr (2€) a month and there are some sponsors who give 50 Birr (4 €) and the wealthy ones give 100 Birr (8 €) per month. Great to see the care for the orphans. I have also discussed this with Antonio and he gave me all the details of the instituion

Next stop, Gonder.

We arrived in Gonder after spending 4 hours at the Lalibela airport. This is Ethiopia…. Gonder is the third largest city in Ethiopia with 270,000 inhabitants. The ride in from airport passed the military barracks, a university and the brewery! A stark contrast the undeveloped beauty of Lalibela. The Goha hotel is another Ghion (government) hotel (Mekele and Lalibela were too) and so we knew exactly what to expect- from the architecture to the bedspreads to the size of the soap bar. We engaged another guide at the hotel by the name of Nega. Nega was very business like (and appears to be quite successful based given he owns his own car) but not as passionate about his profession as Antonio from Lalibela was. His explanation of the 17th century castles of Gonder and the kings baths of Gonder was efficient but without any emotion or passion.

We came back to the hotel late in the afternoon and I tried to hook my laptop on to access the internet – the lady responsible for the technical device however could not really help and was difficult to communicate with so I tried the old and weary computer and had to bring a lot of patience and time….

When I passed on the computer access to Katherine and she answered her emails suddenly she heard - "Fancy seeing you here". It was Richard, our English chap from the romantic candle restaurant we had met briefly last night at dinner and then again at the airport. We exchanged our reasoning for being here and found out he is a brand value consultant, living in Barcelona and doing some pro-bono work in Ethiopia for a few days. Our flight today had been a leg on the daily round trip flight from Addis to Lalibela to Gonder to Bahir Dar to Addis. We got off at Gonder and most of the passengers continued on and so was Richard. At least that was their plan…. He explained that after taking off three times, flying for 20 minutes and returning back to Gonder three times the pilot gave up and the passengers were let go to spend the night in Gonder at the Goha. Many, many disgruntled faces followed Richard's through the door, including a group of three cousins (two Americans, one Ethiopian) who seem to have followed us from Axum to Lalibela to Gonder. Katherine invited Richard to dinner and we heard all about the trials of 5 hours on the Gonder tarmac and joy of being set free – this is Ethiopia……