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Rain!

Rain has come once again to Ethiopia; I never thought I’d see it again so soon. Usually there is very little rain from October through to May, but this past week we have seen a lot of it. As I write this now at our house, I can hear the rain on the roof. This isn’t pleasant for those in the city, but it’s more serious for the farmers in the country. The November harvest is one of the biggest of the year and the rain is likely to ruin the crops. The Teff grain that injera is made from needs to be dry when it is harvested. We are hoping here that the rains stop soon before they cause too much trouble, it seems the farmers can’t catch a break; either they have too little rain or too much.

My motorbike has hit a snag and I’m finding having to go back to transport by taxi quite frustrating. Many of the time there are not enough taxis that are going to a particular destination for the many people who want to go there. Ethiopians seem to leave all manners at home when it comes to getting on a hotly contested taxi, and I have many times witnessed women and children literally thrown aside by men wanting on the taxi. I watched today as taxis full of people pulled up to the taxi stop, where people wanting on them don’t even wait for the poor people to get off before they start shoving on. Guys were opening the front doors of the taxi as it was still pulling up and squeezing in beside others wanting to get off. People standing up to get off the taxi when it stopped were violently shoved back into their seats by the mass rush of ignorant people crowding into the taxi. It’s very irritating to see; I gave up and walked home.

This weekend we had a Halloween party, and had all the other teachers over from Bingham, as well as some other friends. It was fun to see everyone dressing up, I wore a luminous vest my parents had sent me along with one of Brian’s helmets to look like a builder, Brian had a fat trainer outfit, and Aaron’s friend from his work took the gutsy but disturbing option of wearing speedos and a swim hat. Funny stuff.

YMCA. Every time a camera went off with a flash, my outfit stood out quite a lot!

Niall

Posted at 4 November, 2008, 5:56pm

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