By Andy Lewis
I suddenly realised that I had written little about some of the things that shock you a little in Mekele at first, but you become very used to in a short space of time. In fact, I may even miss when I go home!
The first of these is the UN. There are no blue helmeted peace keeping troops marching through the streets accompanied by white tanks, but there is still a notable presence here. Their white 4x4s with UN in big black letters plastered down the side fly around non-stop whilst there are UNICEF signs and posters everywhere, in particular reminding people of the rights of the child and the promotion of girls’ education. There is a UN World Food Programme office near the Axum Hotel and there are also offices for the UNMEE (United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea). I guess it is because my only exposure to the UN has been so far off before now. The only time you seen the UN in the UK is when you put on the news and the association is always with difficult situations.
Guns are the second thing which I have become increasingly accustomed to. Soldiers from the Ethiopian army wander around town with a rifle casually slung over their shoulder, and many of the police also carry weapons. The difference to say France, where the Gendarmes carry weapons, is that there feels a great flippancy about it. This is also not the exclusive use of guns, and when we went to Yordano’s the other night the car park guard had a rifle (and the sisters flew out of the car park this evening before we had handed over our 1Birr!). The Axum Hotel usually has armed guard as it is used by UN delegates too, and the guards at the bank too. In a way I’m glad it is something that took some getting used to, but equally it worries me just how quick you do acclimatise and see it as the norm.
On the mention of the army, it is worth noting that there is still a reasonable presence in Mekele. On the street where we walk to school, there is always at least two army trucks (and I have seen five one day). They seem to take up a position in the tower block opposite the bank (a large branch of the Bank of Ethiopia), but can also be found wandering the streets too. I asked the boys about it and they said they are just used to it now and it used to be far heavier in the time after the Ethiopian-Eritrean war that did only finish 7 years ago. Alitena where we are taking a trip up to has only even more recently been given back to its residents and still to this day many are missing loved ones who are kept locked up over the border. There is a large museum and monument dedicated to the many Ethiopians who lost their lives in the conflict in Mekele and it is on our list of places to visit. I just can’t help thinking to myself that perhaps the war was the last thing that these people needed to deal with. Life here is hardly prolonged by situations as it is. The situation is still far from resolved and it is anyone’s guess as to when the Eritrean and Ethiopian governments will decide finally on an agreed border. In the meantime, military presence, ID checks and general suspicion are here to stay.
Other things never cease to surprise me here, my favourite mobile phone network ETH-MTN for instance are not issuing any more SIM cards until after the Ethiopian Millennium. This is the only mobile provided in the country so, alongside the network always being busy, if you lose your phone or want to become a new customer you must wait until after September 11th. The Ethiopian Calendar (EC) is completely different to our traditional Gregorian Calendar. There are 12 months of 30 days and 13th month of five or six days like the Coptic dating system.
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From the 25th July until the 31st August 2007, Andy Lewis and Tommy Dobbin will be working with the Daughters of Charity in Mekelle, Ethiopia, as part of a project involving both CAFOD and SCIAF.
For some reason my blog is unavailable to view in Ethiopia. I’ve heard suggestion that blogs are actually banned in Ethiopia which maybe an explanation. There are a good few people who would love to read it including the some of the sisters, many of the people we have met and people in the CAFOD Addis office. My internet is so slow here I don’t really have the ability to copy and paste it all and put it up elsewhere -nor post it in more than once place! It can be enough hassle as it is, and the only reason it pops up in Facebook is because I set that up before I left! If anyone fancies helping me out there’d be a lot of gratitude from myself in my current position and a few beers on my return!