Will we go tomorrow or won't we?

Our passports were handed to another volunteer going to Ethiopia in Alicante, on the other side of Spain, last night. She handed ours back and told the couriers they had to be got to us today. We've been biting our nails all day to the point that we haven't got many left. VSO, though in touch with the courier company, will still not assure us we will have our passports today in time to fly tomorrow morning, something about they were back in the depot; I don't like the sound of that - it reeks of paperwork and more delay. If you don't hear from us for a few days it's because we got our passports and are on our way. If you do hear, my tone will not be so mild as this.

Sod's, or is it Murphey's, Law?

Just when we thought all our arrangements were well under control and completed in good time, the Fates come to tease us. We had had to send our passports to VSO for them to get our Ethiopian work visas in London. They were ostensibly on their way back to us by courier on Monday with a guaranteed next day delivery. When they didn't show up on Tuesday, being the sort of person I (Richard) am, I started to worry. (Just ask my children about whether I am the sort of person who thinks things will go wrong!) So I emailed the courier company yesterday and they said they would look into it; no response. So, I phoned them this morning. Then VSO contacted us to say that our passports had been sent to the wrong address in Spain, apparently of another volunteer. The courier will try to recover them and get them to us by tomorrow, otherwise we won't be able to take our booked flight on Friday, will lose the night we've paid for a hotel in London that night, will miss our flight to Addis Ababa on Saturday and will be very late for our 9-day in-country training course. Oh, and I've just acquired a stye on my eye. Our next blog may be about how we nearly went on VSO.

Some of those on our last VSO training course in Birmingham, August '09

Spanish blog

If you would like to read the Spanish version of the blog, which in some ways is different (for example, there is a link to a Spanish documentary about Ethiopia), the address is: http://emilierichardvso.blogspot.com/

Reason for hope in Ethiopia

Save the Children UK describes Ethiopia as having achieved the biggest increase in child wellbeing worldwide, with the exception of Malawi, over the past 15 years. This achievement is based on: enrolment of children in school, child mortality rates and child nutrition. Its budget is one of the most pro-poor in Africa and, as a result of increased spending on basic services, development indicators are starting to show a sustained improvement. Of course, this all starts from a very low level ("Not only is Ethiopia poor, but it is equally poor: 81% of the population live below a poverty line of US$2 a day" DfID), but the Ethiopian government continues to demonstrate its commitment to poverty reduction and improved education, which is why there will be more than a 100 VSO volunteers working in the country this year, mostly in education. These were the national priorities which helped us to decide to accept the offer of the placements in Ethiopia.

We are busy getting ready to go and are so relieved that the airlines we are travelling with, British Airways and British Midland, have allowed us each 46 kilos of luggage, particularly as we want to take so many heavy books for our work. We were amused to see that the airlines' term for special fares for charities is a missionary fare; perhaps if there is turbulence during the flight they will ask us to adopt the missionary position!

Amongst all the jabs we've had to have are shots against rabies. Apparently, according to some of the information VSO sent us to prepare us, if you go out jogging in Ethiopia, you are likely to be chased by wild dogs. This obviously explains why they have such good long distance runners!