Welcome to my new weblog! I'm off on my travels again, and will shortly be departing for a 6-week project in Ethiopia. I've had itchy-feet ever since returning from my year in Mongolia (to see my blog on Mongolia please visit http://rob-in-mongolia.blogspot.com/), so I can't wait to go off to another country and see what life is like there. This will be my first trip to an African nation, so no doubt I'm in for many new experiences and surprises.
What will I be doing? I'll be working on behalf of the Catholic development agency CAFOD, helping out in a summer school in Mek'ele, a city in Northern Ethiopia. My job will be to teach English and run some citizenship/vocational sessions for the local 11-18 year olds. I hope to do some football coaching on the side too, although I hear the students gather at 5:30am for the start of their training... The summer school was set up to give the local children extra skills that should help them get employed once they finish their education - I'm really looking forward to being able to contribute to this process, hopefully I can be part of helping some of the students take a step towards getting a good job.
I have no real idea of what to expect when I arrive in Ethiopia, so no doubt this will be a real learning opportunity for myself. Mentioning "Ethiopia" conjures up images of the famine that occured in 1984-85, but things have moved on since then. I'll do my best to paint a picture of what present-day Ethiopia is like in the future editions of this blog. For now though, I'm forced to rely on resources from the internet. Wikipedia is as usual a good starting point, have a look at the following pages if you're interested:
- General information about Ethiopia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia
- An introduction to Mek'ele, the city I'll be living and working in - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekele
Ok, that's it for now! My flight is due to depart on the evening of the 3rd of July, so expect an update soon after. I'm very keen to share my adventure with you all, and will do my best to get some good photos and stories to put on this weblog. I should be able to update this blog at least once a week (internet access permitting...), so please check up regularly. For now though, thanks for taking an interest in my travels and best wishes to you all. Lots of love,
Robert
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