Lake Langano

21/03/2013

On Saturday 16^th March we made our way to Lake Langano as part of our Mid-Phase Review (MPR) and to participate in the VSO Ethiopia conference – the first to take place in 3 years. We were fortunate that our MPR could be pushed back a couple of weeks so that it overlapped with the conference. It allowed us a 5 day break to enjoy some time together and we were reunited with the other ICS volunteers who are based in Addis Ababa.

Lake Langano

Lake Langano is a picturesque area, the large lake is inviting for those that want to swim and the water is considered to be ‘safe’ - although it is murky brown in colour it is refreshing. I only swam once, finding myself busied with other things and missing the opportunity to go again, the thing I noticed most was that the lake itself does not get very deep until you are considerably far from the shore, this is a benefit for the few who were not confident with swimming although it could hinder your attempts at trying.

Sunday was the start of our MPR, we spend the day together as a full ICS team, around 40 of us in total, discussing various things about our placements and our experiences so far. Across the Hawassa and Addis team there is a huge variety in sectors covered by our placement work so it was good to hear what the other volunteers have been doing in the last two months.

The full VSO ICS team in Ethiopia, complete with VSO Ethiopia conference t-shirts

Monday marked the start of the VSO Ethiopia conference. All the VSO volunteers in Ethiopia gathered, some have been here for years; others are just starting their permanent placements. Again, the areas covered are vast, from Family GP to education and much more, I noticed that many of the long term volunteers were ‘skilled’ in certain sectors and were either here in their ‘retirement’ time or here to gather some experience to launch their careers. We were referred to as the youth Volunteers (although I soon found out that I am roughly the same age as many of the long term volunteers and was often asked ‘why are you here as a youth volunteer and not a regular one?’ – I am not sure I have an answer for that at the moment!). We did not participate for the full day on Monday as we were finishing our MPR off, however we re-grouped with the conference for a session that they called ‘Open Space’.

The purpose of the Open Space session was for people to share some skills they have with other people. On the first day, some of the options were; reflexology, photography, face painting, bird watching, and storytelling – can you guess which one I got involved with? Face painting! I was the first guinea pig, being painted as a tiger and we soon branched out to taking it in turns to paint each other and try new things. Here are some of the art works created:

Tuesday was a day of being integrated with the conference, we were all mixed up into small groups and asked to discuss various case stories and scenarios which reflect moral issues within volunteering – it was interesting to see how our short time here compares with the experience of the other volunteers. The afternoon brought another Open Space session and this time I offered my origami skills (though I had not brought my paper to the lake with me which made me kick myself). I only had a few people join me, but it was enough to be able to share the method of folding a Japanese Warrior Hat, Water Bomb (Cube) and the perfect Paper Aeroplane. My claim to fame here is that the CEO of VSO Ethiopia came to learn from me and was particularly excited about the paper aeroplane!

Each evening we had buffet food and some spare time to socialise, although some of our efforts to enjoy the scenery were scuppered by the frequent storms we got each night. In particular on Tuesday night, we sat watching the storm form around us, with lightening illuminating the lake and thunder rolling in before the heavens opened and we huddled for shelter. On the last night we had a barbecue of sorts, and a bonfire but the weather rained on our parade and we retreated inside to party the night away before we headed back to our respective placement areas on Wednesday.

Kx