Daily life – how is it different?

I’m sure some of you are interested in how daily life is different here compared to the UK. I will begin by saying that this will not be representative of how Ethiopians live but will describe how life on the Bingham compound is different from the UK.
The Big 3: Electricity, Water & Internet
There have been some mornings where I have found myself asking these 3 questions (to myself) when I wake up:
1. ‘Do we have electricity?’ (switches light on, yes)
We have had a few power cuts in my first month here already, but once again the compound is geared up for this. We have a couple of generators on site which are switched on during school and evenings till 10pm (or 9pm I can’t remember).
2. ‘Do we have water?’ (runs tap/shower – yes) – this one I don’t ask as much since it as only happened once for less than 24 hours during my time here so far.
We do have a big barrel of water out the front of our apartment for such occasions which can be used for washing (although it’s not particularly clean) and flushing the toilet.
3. ‘Do we have internet?’ (checks phone – sometimes)
We have, for the most part, reliable WiFi on the compound (by African standards), although we have had 6 days without WiFi due to damage (outside of the compound) by a rat chewing through a wire discovered on Monday but was not fixed until late Thursday due to the new year and no one being in the office.
Lesson planning without WiFi means you have to get pretty good at drawing diagrams or pictures! 3G was a bit temperamental to during this time with the events happening in the city. Sometimes the internet (sometimes including 3G) will be switched off.

Drinking Water

We are very privileged in the UK to be able to drink water straight from the tap. In most other countries this is not the case. I am fortunate that Bingham have large stores of drinking water around the compound that has been filtered and treated with UV. We have two large cans that we use to collect drinking water to drink and cook with which obviously need refilling on a regular basis. During rainy season this does sometimes mean you will get wet whilst collecting drinking water!

Sometimes the tap water from the sink, bath or shower is slightly brown in colour, so you do wonder how clean you actually get in some showers! I even got excited one day when the water came out of the tap and looked clean…. It’s the little things in life.

Brushing teeth
Since the tap water is not drinking water, it is advised not to use it for brushing your teeth (although some people do). As a result we keep a jug of drinking water next to our sink (left) to use when brushing teeth. You have to be careful though as it’s incredibly easy to rinse your toothbrush off under the tap due to UK habits.

Laundry

We are definitely blessed on the compound for having access to a washing machine and a dryer (only used during rainy season – otherwise things are permanently damp). This would not be typical for Ethiopian families who would have to hand wash their clothes. The main difference here is that it is not in our apartment but in a little shed at the end of our block. This is closer to having a launderette at university halls of residence.
Obviously we would have to resort to hand washing if we were without water or electricity for too long.

Breakfast

Normally in the UK I would have a bowl of cereal for breakfast each morning. However, cereals here are very expensive (imported) and the milk tastes strange so I’ve not wanted to pay lots for cereal that may be ruined by the milk choice. Instead, I’ve adapted my breakfast to porridge – which I suppose is still fairly British, with the exception of powered milk! It is not always possible to find sugar at the moment, even brown sugar.
I combine these in a saucepan and add hot water to it after boiling the kettle on the hob. We have a selection of electric or gas hobs but currently we try and use the electric hob as much as possible as there is currently a gas shortage in the country so we try and save the gas for when we don’t have electricity.

Cooking

Cooking comes with its own set of challenges. One challenge is guessing the temperature of the oven. Also the altitilude plays havoc with cooking times too. Even boiling potatoes takes longer as water boils at a lower temperature here. The other is finding out what ingredients you can buy in this country, followed by what recipes you can still cook from those ingredients. You learn to be creative and adapt them where you can. Some ingredients come in rather odd packaging. For example, plain flour in a small black bin bag (middle image), eggs and milk also come in bags (apart from imported milk). Once you have purchased your fruit and veg you then need to bleach it (image on the left), rinse it before cutting and cooking it. Again this is something that everyone has a different opinion of, what to bleach and what not to bleach, how long for, so you have to find what works for you. The final image shown here is a completed lasagne that has lasted us quite a few days after freezing a few portions – which has been great during lock down. That’s another thing you learn here is to store up food and freeze food for those occasions.

Shopping
In the shops you can’t always guarantee what you will find, some things are regular others could be a one hit wonder so if it’s something you haven’t seen for a while, get a few and freeze if appropriate. The language can be a bit of a struggle when shopping but I am learning to communicate, which helps once you’ve learnt your numbers, and names of different items. 1/2kg (gimash kilo) and 1kg (und kilo) are the most common quantities I use since they don’t always understand wanting to buy 2 avocados for example. Pricing is also tricky and converting to GBP quickly to work out if the price is too high or if I can afford something. Also you become very reliant on reading a number on the screen for your total expenditure.

Heating
Yes it gets chilly here. Temperatures in the evening generally drop to 12°C here at the moment (can go as low as 5°C I’ve heard) due to being at high altitude. For the most part this isn’t particularly cold compared to the UK but the buildings here are not insulated at all so you notice it more. Fortunately, our apartment is one with a small open fire place in it and working in a school means you often have a lot of paper you need to dispose of which helps when lighting fires. Can take some time to get it going since the wood is slightly damp during the rainy season.

Leaving and Arriving at the compound
We have some fantastic guards at the compound gate who you greet every time you arrive and leave. If driving a Bingham vehicle there is some paper work to fill out each time too to monitor mileage used.

I’ve not included driving conditions and general out and about around Addis is different, as I wanted to focus on life on the compound.

All in all we are very blessed with the facilities we have, they may seem basic for some UK standards but that’s all you ‘need’. It’s amazing how quickly you can learn to adjust to things you don’t normally have (unless so if you’ve had a bad day – then you notice it more!)

Come Visit!

Broken & Beautiful

Today a group of us visited a nearby Youth centre where about 200 people were sheltering from being displaced from their homes. (School was closed again today due to unrest)
We had permission from the owners to arrange some activities for the kids there. So we went and sung songs, played games, jigsaws, nail painting and drawing to name a few. We also arranged some sports for the older kids out on the court.

On one floor were the families all sharing open space together, below them single men and women on separate sides of the building, below that were the older people or couples.

Upon arrival we were stared at (that’s normal), some came and greeted us while others watched from afar, all with sadness and grief in their eyes. Women were bent over washing clothes in large tubs outside while the sun shone down, and they hung the clothes up around the court as best they could.

We entered the building and made our way up the stairs to the room we were going to be based in. As we circled our way up people popped their heads round to see what was going on. Beady eyes looked on us eagerly and with curiosity. It was the smell of the rooms hit me, with so many people all trying to live in a confined space and minimal toilets there was a certain stench that filled the air of stagnant, stale and unclean water. You eventually got used to it once you focused on something else.

We gathered the children in, and started off with a couple of songs, they seemed to quite enjoy firenjis speaking Amharic, some better than others (we did have a couple of Ethiopian staff with us too to help with translations). We gathered them in groups and rotated them round, with some degree of success, around the different activities we had set up.

Being a puzzle lover myself, I was situated by the jigsaw puzzles which the kids really took to. I helped put the edges together which gave them more confidence and understanding of how the pieces fitted together in one image. I sat and watched, wishing I’d gone back over my notes on Amharic colours from several weeks ago, the joy and pride that came over them when they completed a puzzle showing it off to their friends. One kid I worked with for some time, I managed to communicate using actions if they needed to rotate a piece round and each time he fitted one correctly we did a little fist bump to celebrate his achievement.

Towards the end as we were about to leave some of the parents or older children shared that for the few hours we were there they could forget about all the trauma of the past few days. We were glad to have provided them some relief from their agony.
Some kids tried to tell us about what happened by acting it out, while others had graphic pictures of the events and shared stories of missing wives or children, not knowing how they had fared in the attacks.

Please be praying for these people, these beautiful but broken people, who did not deserve to experience this tragedy. Pray for healing of hearts and minds, for protection and that they can soon return or make a new home peacefully and be reunited as families.

Read this News Article for more details