Fifteen Lemons

The purpose of us all being together at the Addis Ababa University for a few days is for us to do some training and orientation. Come Tuesday, 19 of us will then head to Hawassa and 20 will remain in Addis. During this time we have had the CEO of VSO Ethiopia visit us to discuss objectives of the scheme and security and safety elements. Also, a returned volunteer from the pilot scheme came to do some world development topics with us, and also another UK volunteer who has now been in Ethiopia 5 years and is working for the ministry of Education worked on cross cultural issues with us.

One of the key areas that has also been covered is ‘Working together’, a skill which is hugely important for the projects we will be working on. During our many discussions an Amharic phrase came up which I thought I should share with you all, ‘Hamsa lommy le hamsa sew shekmu, le hamsa sew gettu new’. This translates to ‘Fifteen lemons are a load for one person, but are a décor for fifteen’ which should hopefully give you food for thought.

One of the exercises we did was a human maze, in which the majority of the group created a maze with challenges through it, one person was blind folded but could ask questions in order to find their way, and one person was elected to be the guide but could only answer yes or no to the questions. It worked surprisingly well, below is a snap shot, although without the above information it would not be entirely clear what was going on in the photo!

The team morale is quite high at the moment, and it can easily be seen that the differences in our culture are not affecting our compatibility with each other, quite the opposite in fact. It’s fascinating learning about aspects of Ethiopian life, and in balance a lot of the visible culture is much like ours. For example in Addis western dress is widely adopted, and is not restricted to being strictly modest but we are told that Addis is becoming somewhat ‘cosmopolitan’ by comparison to the majority of Ethiopia.

Something which has stuck in my mind as a point of interest from our training has been the term “leap frogging” with regards to technological development in Ethiopia. As a direct comparison, in the UK years ago we had no telephones. Then came a day where there were telephones available in public places to share (phone boxes), then it became the norm to have a telephone in your own home (land line), and now we have a huge mobile phone infrastructure and all the singing and dancing that goes with it. Well, Ethiopia went from no phones to mobile phones and missed out all the experimental bits in between. Land line telephones became redundant before they were even used due to mobile phones taking off in such a big way. The point being shown here is that as a country Ethiopia may be less developed, but it is catching up pretty quickly and picking and choosing the best development strategies to do so.

Some of the debates we have been having clearly show a difference in each volunteers opinion and topical knowledge, at times I have felt that I perhaps am an imposter in this scheme as I am not as well read on key areas as others. I’ve come to decide that this is okay, I am not ignorant to it all, I am aware and I have an opinion and for me (and some others who want to share my boat) that is more than enough. Most certainly I will return home with a much greater understanding, and a direct interest in world issues, having experienced some of the most important at first hand.

Kx

P.S For those interested, sadly Ethiopia lost their match the other night with a 4-0 score.