Half term, not in Djibouti, Dira Dawa and Harar.

Well just had half term in which me and my sister tried to go to Djibouti but had visa problems(after spending a whole week and half trying, with the embassy telling us ofcourse we'll get them in time ) so we didnt make it but just being out of Addis was nice, cleaner and warmer air, and relaxing. we went to Dira dawa where i got eaten alive by mosquito's and then to Harar which is the third or fourth holy city of islam, its this tiny little city all inside walls its like stepping back in time and in this tiny space there are 82 mosques, its truly beautiful. Also we fed wild hyenas, the community have a long running tradition of feeding the hyenas from the bush every night to keep the peace and it works so lovely, we were very scared at first but in the end we had them eating of our backs, so brave, wish i could feed Hyenas every night. On the 13 hour bus ride home, in which my sister ran out my iphone battery in the first couple of hours....great fun, the driver swerved to not hit a donkey and ended up with two flat tyres, we got off in the middle of nowhere in a countryside village. It was like a film scene the locals were coming up to me and Billie and running away when they got too close, anyway that was atleast another hour. The bus rides were quite nice though, got too see alot more of Ethiopia, even saw a baboon on the way there, the bus driver slowed down and someone threw a croissant out the window, the baboon started unwrapping it and baby baboons were running up to him, sooo cute.


 I am fine enjoying Ethiopia but at the same time counting the days till i'm back, no place like home i suppose. Survived a racist near attack by a drunk women yesterday. I was walking home and bumped into Bareate, ( my best friend here ) and other friends, Salem, Euelle and Tamrat, stood talking to them when a women starts shouting, obviously i didn't know what was being said but i heard the word faranji which means white person, at first the girls were laughing then they looked worried and start telling me to go inside, the whole street starts shouting, all going mad, i went inside and watched out the window, Gold ( bro in law )came back and started shouting at the women, she walked off, Gold made me come outside and everyone was saying Isosh ( be brave ) then i went into the salon when i came out everyone said she came back looking for me, she was arrested. lol alot of commotion. School break was nice but miss the kids, sometimes i feel like there is too many hours in the day here, the opposite of in England, 50% looking forward to going back 50% cant be bothered. The short rains have started, it rains very heavily for about 2-4 hours a day, thunder, lightning the lot, its quite nice, atleast its not all day.

Few things ive learnt : -

ALL Ethiopian men love Celine Dion

chips on pizza or in pasta is a thing

Embassy's lie

Apologies and the start of my teaching

Sooo the apologies, basically I sneakily flew back to England without telling people. I am so sorry but i genuinely had no time, no money and knew that seeing friends would make coming back here harder. Anyway i have been back here again for two weeks and have started teaching YAY.

Teaching is genuinely fun and I love the school, the worst part about the job is the way everything gets done in bloody Africa time, also we seem to sometimes cater for parents more than children, apart from that the school is lovely and of course so is everyone in it. Also in my short time there i have participated a parent teacher day ( well i managed to pull off being a teacher with most parents i do believe. ) I found out about this parent teacher day the day before, through a text on a day off, pretty nerve-racking. GO ME!

I think I have found a new friend, a women I teach with, drinking buddy one = check. Its not that i actually have no friends, there are lovely people i teach with, we have some lovely neighbours but one is almost like family now, problem is she has a baby ( actually her nephew ) to take care all the time and she also doesn't have great English but we give it a go, and the problem with others are that they live far.

The rodent situation, well Gold killed one and I haven't seen any others for a while, except i saw one last night in the kitchen, and actually didn't completely freak out, am just avoiding the kitchen ( not really my thing ) until i feel brave again. We have however worked out the residents of our kitchen do not just consist of cockroaches, there is also definitely a lizard/gecko living by the sink and an unidentifiable bug, It's big and black and shiny like a beetle but isn't a beetle, its too fast for us too actually see. Through our observations Billie has decided they are friends who help each other out in terms of getting back to their own little homes and keeping each other brave when the humans are about. I tend to stand at the door making noise before i enter so they can get scared and hide, maybe they wont know I'm actually also scared.

I am still trying to find out about uni placements with little improvement but really want to go. I have also decided i want to volunteer at the orphanage next to the school, they are contacting head office to see if i can and i will hopefully find out next week ( must remember Africa time. ) I am starting to enjoy the food more and am less frustrated in the lack of choice. I am ashamed to admit not once have i had my shoes shined here, on my to do list.

Few things ive learnt : -

Who wants to walk on a path when there's a perfectly good road, there's only cars and goats on it.

Why use traffic lights when there are people to direct, whats traffic anyway?

Obviously you take your own shampoo and conditioner to a salon.

Cold showers in the morning don't get any easier.

The kids and the job eliminate homesickness,  i no longer live for the weekend but for the week, although i am looking forward to this weekend. pay day + new drinking buddy and maybe a trip with the bro and sis out of the city.

Visa+mice issues and meeting the brother-in-law

OK so watching a film with Billie, I see something scurry across the floor obviously I start freaking out. Those of you that know me will know I have a horrible phobia of all stupid rodents, as she tries to calm me down we have a ruddy power cut aaarrrggghhhh, couldn't be more scared, she decided to go and ask the security guard to chase it out ( yes we have a security guard, we live in a block of flats, everyone building here has one ) unfortunately with the language barrier he thinks we are scared because of the dark, bless, he arrives at our flat with candles he has gone and bought. Anyway I am living in fear of a mouse ATM and whats worse is I am aware of what a ridiculous fear this is.
 The visa so basically it looks like I am going to have to fly back to London to pick up a new visa and fly back sooo looong, luckily all paid for by the school, but I have not started working yet.
Finally the brother-in-law (gold) is home, he is super nice and easy to talk to/get on with, looking forward to the family meeting him. Pretty proud of the sis, nice choice and am looking forward to the next couple of years living with them. Also less scared of the mouse now because when it comes back gold is going to get rid........clever mouse has not come back yet, sorry to mouse lovers I do feel bad but it needs to be gone.
 I am looking into doing a degree here starting September, its hard to find information so I don't know much yet but I really like this crazy city and its helpful people, also a degree is much cheaper here. This pretty exciting idea is courtesy of the brainy sis who will hopefully be doing a masters here.
Also deciding whether to learn Amharic (the local language) which is taught in french, or to learn French (the language of my birthplace) taught in English...life's tough choices.
Not too burnt yet, a tad red on my face and my arms are actually browning :-)   (a bit)
On a sad note, not only are there so many beggars, people here generally cant afford healthcare so there are many people dragging themselves along or just slumped on the side with deformities so severe they can do nothing :-(

Couple of things I've learned:

A lime is not a lime it is a lemon, limes aren't a thing

Avocado juice is lush especially topped with mango juice

cereal is seriously expensive here and must be eaten with powdered milk which is actually ok

First impressions

After getting out of the airport with only a few issues (slightly traumatising after 20 hours of travel and no sleep + langauage barriers) I found my sister ....phew. We went out to eat traditional Ethiopian food, she asked whether I wanted meat or veg, ofcourse I went for meat so she ordered me 'kitfo' it was like a beef stew with different breads, chilli powder and cream cheese, was very tasty then she told me it was completely raw beef...... We finished with some beers bought for us by a local wanting to welcome us.
On friday I went with Billie to the school she works at, it was only a half day as the weekend is 'Timkat' the biggest Ethiopian celebrations. I met her boss Menna who offered me a job as a classroom assistant, she said I could not be a teacher as i do not have a degree which is required, I hope this is not the same everywhere. The school is semi private which is not why I am here but I took the job anyway I know it will atleast give me good experiance and am going to try and volunteer for a charity in my spare time, this is how I justify working in a semi private school. Menna also asked me to take out my tongue peircing grrr.
We were going to go out friday night but i had diarrhea :-(   Saturday I felt better and we went with some neighbours to watch the Timkat celebrations and went out that night, there are some nice bars here atleast I can feel at home with the good nightlife. To be honest im sure this is the city that never sleeps there is constant noise here. Our flat is small but is one of the richer places to live. We have cockroaches but only in the kitchen, thankfully I am already used to this thanks to my time in South Africa, just have to open cupboards with caution, dont want them falling out on me.

People here are really nice but everyone is ridiculously poor, therefore will do anything to get by so I need to be careful incase nice people I meet are actually after something. There are so many beggers here amd shoe shine boys I already have a soft spot for one shoe shine boy, and he knows it, I haven't let him shine my shoes yet although he keeps telling me they are dirty, I have bought him chocolate and given him 1 or 2 birr which is nothing but the standard amount to give to beggers or as a tip. This is one of those places you walk around constantly thinking why the fuck cant i do more? wait can i do more?

I havent really made any friends yet except form a couple of guys who are a little annoying and consistent but im in no position to pass up friends right now. The problem is the guys usually have ok English but ofcourse want more and the girls are really nice but have little English and I am only starting to pick up some Amharic words so we can pretend to be friends and communicate a little....... I have not been here a week yet so hopefully I will find some good friends or that will be the cause of me becomiing homesick.

I have not yet met my brother in law (Gold) as he is away working as a tour guide, I have spoken to him on the phone a couple of times and he is lovely and funny, everyone here seems to know him and are very fond of him, he is definetly making my sister very happy so all is good there.

Couple of things I've learnt....

why use curtains when you can use silver spray paint???

wooden scaffolding is just as safe as metal???