First Days in Semera

Groupfoto with volunteers at VSOE

Sunday I arrived in Semera. Nessro was at the airport to meet us and checking in was easy. I had to pay 1250 birr (about 50 euro) extra for my luggage. Only 20 kg was allowed and I had 50 kg extra. This was because I took 49 kg from the Netherlands and From VSO we got also some equipment for the house we are going to live in. Besides that, I did some shopping and bought some food items and kitchen utensils.

Emon and I are currently in a hotel called Arte Ale. It is a good hotel and it has AC and some generators if there is a powercut, which happen mostly in the evening. It is uncertain when we will be moved to a permanent house. At the back of the hotel is a Mosk and every 3-4 hours the Muezzin calls for prayer starting at around 5 o’ clock in the morning.

The first day, I was suffering from the heat, but now on my third day it gets better. It is around 35 degrees Celsius and that I can handle. In the summer it’s more than 10 degrees hotter, but that will be in a few months, so I do not worry about that.

I even slept well without turning on the AC.  I do not like the AC much, because it makes so much noise and I do not expect to have an AC in the house where I am going to live, so I have to get used to it and better start right away.

On Monday we did not go into the bureau (we still are in the hotel although Nessro said we would go in at 8:30 (2:30 Ethiopian time, but I come to that later). We got another day to acclimatise to the conditions here. Emon and I took a stroll through the surroundings and I expected no plants and shrubs, but I actually saw flowers.

On Sunday I even watched a soccer match in a sort of a café. Although, I do not like soccer very much, the match was entertaining 8 goals. I was the only woman in there and when I came in everybody looked at me.  So probably it is not common for women to go to a bar.  Luckily the guys in the bar were more interested in soccer, so after 30 seconds they turned their heads to the TV again.

As I wrote above, we have not been in the bureau yet. Nessro called at 8:30 that there was a meeting with the management and that it was not possible to come in. A little strange, but now she said she was going to get us from the hotel around 4 (so 10 o’clock in European time). In ten minutes as I am writing this. I really hope we will get in today, because I would like to start.

This morning, I had to change rooms, because my double was reserved for another person. There is some congress tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. I am now in a single room, but closer to the hotel lobby, so probably I have internet in my room J. 

Next time I hope to tell you more about my work for the Regional Educational Bureau.

Patricia, Nessro and Eamon