November 2011
4 posts
3 tags
3 tags
Fireworks at Southwark Park
May 2011
1 post
Derelict Mosque, Al-Diriyah, Riyadh
Al-Diriyah, Riyadh A visit to Al-Diriyah on the northwestern outskirts of Riyadh produced some unexpected sights. The original home of the Saudi royal family and capital of the first Saudi dynasty from 1744 to 1818, Al-Diriyah is now an area of wattle and daub ruins being renevated and restored. However, the taxi driver let me and a friend out across the road from a crumbling mosque on the edge of...
February 2011
3 posts
Midriffs and thighs
A curious flick through ‘OK’ in a bookstore revealed some interesting handiwork. White plastic tape is the blocker’s preferred tool of concealment here, rather than the black permanent marker you usually see. Does the ‘blocker’ have to do extra amounts of soul-cleansing after hours of peering at prohibited midriffs and luring thighs? Mind you, if I was forced to...
Art for the home
On sale in Jarir bookstore, which sells pretty much everything. These gems were two of a whole wall of works crafted by the same fella. I think this one, possibly titled ‘Breaking Through’, might have gotten him a C at GCSE.
I don’t know.
January 2011
9 posts
Lunch with Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown, in front of two to three hundred university academics and teachers, starts explaining the premises of The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den. I look around the room for sniggers or surprise. Nothing, just me then. While I creep round the back of the room to get a better position with my camera, I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Is he really describing the rules of Dragon’s Den? Yes, he is....
King Saud University, Riyadh
King Saud University Preparatory Year Building. The main university campus is behind this area - its huge, a small town in itself. The Preparatory Year Programme is a one-year course which aims to prepare students for their degree courses on the main campus. During the year they study English, Maths, ICT and Critical Thinking Skills. Many believe it reflects the new direction the country is...
Booze Torture
Nonalcoholic beer in the supermarket. Budweiser, Holsten, Efes… WHY BOTHER?! It’s like smelling a bag of coffee but not being allowed to drink it. Or like having the Internet but not being allowed to look at the good bits. Oh, hang on, ….
Killing time at King Saud University
Many people who come to Saudi Arabia to work return to their countries a belt size or two larger and it’s not hard to see why – no pedestrian areas, a car-based society, the full spectrum of fast food restaurants and few public sports facilities (they exist on expat compounds, where you have to be signed in, and at pricey hotels). There is another factor though, and that is boredom. It’s commonly...
Blacking Out
Sometimes it’s done artfully to the edges and looks like the person is wearing a wetsuit, other times it’s scrawled or scribbled carelessly leaving the orginal visible beneath the marker pen (defeating the object). Even though I was warned during an induction on arrival, it was still shocking to see the blacked out figures in a shop when I was looking for a multiplug adaptor the...
Dinner in Riyadh
Phil, Ed, Mike, and me in ‘Usmania’, a cheap-as-chips Pakistani restaurant. Best food we’ve had yet. An important find among the rows and rows of US fast food chains.
Saudi Riyals
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
After a year and a half volunteering in Ethiopia and a further six months signing on at home in the Fens in East Anglia, my bank account needed some love and attention. When I received a call in October offering a tax free teaching job in Saudi Arabia, I only had to think for a few minutes. It definitely wasn’t on my list of places I wanted to visit and I’d told myself I’d ground myself in the UK...
7 tags
Cold mornings in The Fens
May 2010
2 posts
Duplo Lego for the Day Care Centre in Nekemte -...
My brother’s office donated money to buy Duplo Lego sets for a Day Care Centre in Nekemte, next to the Mekene Yesus Church. The centre cares for mentally disabled children during mornings and afternoons and has toys and games donated by the Exeter Ethiopia Link. The Duplo Lego is a great addition and will help them to develop kinesthetic motor skills and their imagination. I took three tubs...
21km 'Every One' Race in Awassa - Sunday 2nd May...
Finding a room wasn’t easy in Awassa on the weekend of Haile Gebreselassie’s ‘Every One’ race. The small, hidden hotel I’d been counting on was already full, (obviously not so hidden), as was most other places. After lugging ourselves up and down the straight, palm tree boulevards of central town in the humid mid-day sun we spied the amusingly titled ‘Rohobot Hotel’. I know it’s a bible reference...
April 2010
3 posts
The Runs
I have registered for a half-marathon in the booming lake-side town of Awasa, about six hours drive south from Addis Ababa. On May 2nd I, along with my housemate Frits, my girlfriend Martha, and various other VSO volunteers, will run/walk/stumble round three laps totalling 21km, starting and ending at Haile Gebre Selassie’s swanky new hotel.
Having gate-crashed the Great Ethiopian Run last...
World Bank Funding for English Language...
The World Bank identified three areas of higher education in Ethiopia to be improved in General Education Improvement Programme (GEQUIP): English Language Improvement Centres (ELICs), the Higher Diploma Programme and Continual Professional Development. Huge amounts of money were allocated to these areas to provide new materials and equipment and after nearly two years since the colleges and...
March 2010
12 posts
Teddy Afro
Definitely the most popular artist in Ethiopia at the moment, Teddy Afro is automatically loved by 99.9% of the population. Or that’s what it feels like anyway. Ask an Ethiopian why and they’ll tell you his lyrics are meaningful and attractive, i.e. he’s got a way with words. It’s often these qualities that the people here look for, as reflected perhaps in the presence of azmaris...
Ethiopian Music Videos
If you want to witness the regional variety of Ethiopian music and culture, there is no better way than to turn on ETV, the state-controlled national TV station. Footage from past performances and music videos are generously scattered throughout the day, almost in an effort to remind its inhabitants of the country’s cultural wealth. The traditional dancing and clothes are phenomenal, even...
The Ethiopian Wesley Willis
With all the keyboards knocking about in Ethiopia, it’s inevitable that there are going to be varying levels of mastery. There are plenty of capable musicians but, for me, their music is predictable and soulless. However, on my 30th birthday last year I stumbled upon something completely unexpected and a lot more charming and amusing. A fellow volunteer who lived in Nekemte gave me some CDs made...
Elemo Erwin - Track 1
Keyboards, keyboards, keyboards
Keyboards rule right now in Ethiopia. Pre-programmed breakdowns and synthesized horns dominate both popular modern music and much religious music. With one mid-range keyboard synth, a person can programme the component parts of an Ethiopian song – leaving space for some noodling during a live performance of course – providing listeners with an ‘updated’ Ethiopian sound for a new generation. While...
English Language Improvement for Government...
Together with Frits Los (my housemate), Emilie Tieken and her husband Richard Hayes, I am giving Saturday morning classes to improve English skills and teaching methods for English teachers from government schools in and around Nekemte. Government school teachers receive hardly any further professional training throughout their careers, and through classroom observations in primary schools –...
Ethiopian music: out with the old
My ears have been enjoying the ‘golden era’ of Ethiopian jazz, soul and funk from the Ethiopiques CD series (Buda Musique records) for a good 3 or 4 years now and, when asked which country I’d like to volunteer in, in some ways it was one of the reasons I chose Ethiopia. I was genuinely excited about what I might find. Rightly or wrongly, I imagined walking through Addis Ababa hearing these old,...
February 2010
1 post
January 2010
2 posts
Christmas Hockey
Ethiopians celebrate Christmas on the 6th January (29th December in their calendar), and the name they give the festival surprisingly – given that they’re extremely religious and most people are Christian – refers to a hockey-like game which is played at this time of year. Many people have heard of the western name and understand it as Christ’s birthday, but less attention seems to be paid to it...
December 2009
9 posts
1 tag
LALIBELA
Deception, Greed and EFL at Summer School in Lalibela
Going into the summer, I felt happy to stay in Nekemte and plan for the arrival of the new students in Sept/October (whenever they feel like turning up) at Nekemte Teacher Training College. My colleagues were surprised and glad when I told them I’d be at the college for the rest of the summer. Nekemte is one of the wettest – and therefore...
November 2009
7 posts
