The following post is an excerpt from my journal written while on holiday in Ethiopia last December. We were visiting our daughter who was teaching at Bingham Academy, an international school in Addis Ababa. After leaving Ethiopia we travelled to Morocco and Spain. I’ll write about those countries soon.

In the garden of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Ethiopia

Thursday 8^th December 2011: Addis Ababa

We were up again at 6am this morning for a walk. During the night I had the best night’s sleep I’d had since arriving. One of the problems we have faced acclimatising to the altitude. We are gradually getting there. After staff devotions this morning we were invited to the senior assembly. The main focus of this assembly was to watch the K – 2 classes perform the Christmas story. This was both charming and delightful; we were privileged to have been invited.

In the garden of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Ethiopia

At 10 o’clock our driver for the morning arrived. Rose arranged for her regular driver Alemu to take us to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. The son of the CEO is in Rose’s class and she managed to arrange an appointment for a tour of the facilities. We were made to feel most welcome by one of the office administrators.

Our visit to the fistula hospital was most inspiring, bringing tears to our eyes as we realised the extent of the work and how a simple, inexpensive operation can transform the life of a young woman who has a fistula problem. We came away convinced and convicted that we must help raise awareness of this work. We quickly thought of ways of helping the hospital and the patients in practical ways, not just with donation of money; simple things like encouraging people to make quilts or knitted rugs for the patients. If you’d like to help this wonderful hospital click here for details.

In the garden of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Ethiopia

At the end of the tour we spent time talking to our guide Feven. We exchanged email addresses and website URLs. She is in the process of setting up a tourist business. Her clients will have a tour of Ethiopia, including the participants spending up to a week giving hands on volunteer work at the hospital. We are keen to assist in promoting this as well because it would help the hospital, assist local people with jobs and see some profits channelled into the hospital. You can check out her website here.

In the garden of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Ethiopia

The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, Ethiopia

The following post is an excerpt from my journal written while on holiday in Ethiopia last December. We were visiting our daughter who was teaching at Bingham Academy, an international school in Addis Ababa. After leaving Ethiopia we travelled to Morocco and Spain. I’ll write about those countries soon.

Wednesday 7^th December 2011: Addis Ababa

This morning we went for a walk again at 6am, had breakfast and joined everyone for morning devotions in the teachers’ lounge. Later in the morning I did some reading, sent some emails and went back to the lounge for morning tea. We had a long conversation with a couple of staff members (both about 5 years older than me) who have been at Bingham Academy for 3 years. Some 40 years ago they came from Meadows which is a small town about an hour’s drive from our home.

Most of the teachers left for class so we sat down so Corinne could finish her cuppa. One of the teachers who started the Horizon Boys programme, came in to chat with us, mainly about its history over the last 6 years, but also about her own call to teaching, her interesting social and family background in Scotland and how she is committed to Bingham. Her family – she has 7 siblings – all want her back in Scotland, none of them are Christians.

Earlier in the morning I started to head out to photograph some birds. I took several shots near Rose’s apartment and then the camera played up. There was a ‘lens error’ message on the screen. It wouldn’t close the lens at first but after a few tries it did. Then it wouldn’t switch on.

In desperation I searched online for a solution without much luck. This appears to be a common glitch with this model and most who had commented on this online suggested returning the camera to Canon. That wasn’t an option for me while travelling in Africa and Europe over the next 5 weeks. Another concern was that the one year warranty runs out before we return home. My son emailed me some fairly drastic solutions but I took the simplest and softest option; change the batteries. That seemed to work and since then have taken over 50 photos without any further problems. [Postscript: I didn’t use that set of batteries again during the trip and had no further problems, taking nearly 3000 photos during our trip.]

My daughter's apartment on the campus of Bingham Acade

The following is an excerpt from my journal written while visiting our daughter in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last December.

Tuesday 6^th December: Addis Ababa

At 6am we were all up so that we could go for a half hour walk around the school oval. During our walk I was able to get some close up views of a Hooded Vulture on the ground. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me (I did get good shots a few days later). We went back to Rose’s apartment just as the sun was rising. We had breakfast and then attended staff devotions at 7:45am.

Hooded Vulture, Ethiopia

The students started arriving at the end of devotions and the small car park became a conglomeration of cars, taxis and mini buses as well as students, not quite as crazy as outside on the streets but busy for a few minutes all the same. We accompanied Rose to her home classroom for notices, roll call and prayer time. They are a lively group of typical year 7s.

During the morning I did some reading, wrote in this journal, sent a few emails and wrote three poems. Later we joined the staff for morning tea, chatting with several during the break. In the late afternoon I went for a walk along the perimeter fence and managed several bird photos. I also saw and photographed one of the school tortoises, of which they have six. Later we both helped Rose with the Horizon Boys programme again.

Rose and Sylvia’s housekeeper cooked a lovely lasagne for our dinner. At 6pm we were driven by one of the teachers to St Matthew’s Anglican Church for a musical programme of songs, Christmas carols and excerpts from The Messiah. The programme was interesting and varied and very enjoyable. I estimated that the church could comfortably seat about 150, but over 300 crowded in, packed tightly, with standing room only for at least 50 latecomers. The programme went for about one and half hours.

St. Matt’s is Rose’s church of choice in Addis. She normally attends the Sunday evening service with usually 20 – 30 attending. The morning service sees about 50 attending. They provide breakfasts for up to 200 local school children daily. They also have a study library in their complex with up to 200 children using it daily and over 1000 contacts with students in the neighbourhood. Quite an outreach potential.

The trip back to Bingham Academy was far quicker than earlier in the evening as the traffic was moving more smoothly. Despite that, traffic is quite horrendous at all times with cars seemingly going in all directions and none keeping any semblance of staying in lanes. Most traffic is only travelling at 20kph so most incidents are minor. Of more concern is the vast number of pedestrians who largely ignore the traffic and use all parts of the road as a footpath. Like many developing countries, the car horn is an essential driving tool.

Most distressing on our return trip was the vast number of homeless people sleeping on the footpath. Most only had a single blanket and they were all sleeping on the ground. One person I spoke to claimed that the population of great Addis Ababa is about 7 million; one million of them are homeless. The problem is enormous; what can one person do? I know very little of local politics but the enormous waste of money and resources in places like Australia, America and elsewhere, is a moral and social catastrophe. What a difference some of that money would make in places like Ethiopia.

The following is an excerpt from my journal written while visiting Ethiopia in December 2011.

Monday 5^th December 2011: Dubai to Addis Ababa

The four hour flight from Dubai left over 30 minutes late, most of that time spent taxiing or the plane sitting on the tarmac not going anywhere. The airport is enormous with a ten minute bus ride from the terminal to the plane. I kept a good lookout for birds but the huge expanses of concrete are not bird friendly habitats. My Dubai bird list stands at 1 – a solitary Rock Dove. Corinne thought she saw a gull like bird but wasn’t sure.

The flight to Addis Ababa was very interesting with great views of the coast, the islands, the wide expanses of desert sands, several mountain ranges and the beautiful Gulf of Aden. The sunny conditions meant great views from Corinne’s window seat.

The approach to Addis Ababa airport is very interesting with rugged ranges, a patchwork of farming properties and on the final approach excellent views of the city and nearby countryside. The landing is one of the more challenging airports of the world because of its altitude at 2300 metres and the surrounding mountains which rise to about 3200 metres at Entoto. I was not surprised then that a group of passengers applauded as the plane touched down successfully. The only other place I’ve experienced that was at the world’s most dangerous airport, Lukla in the Himalayan nation of Nepal.

Slowing down on the runway and taxiing to the terminal I was immediately aware of being in a totally different culture. A large group of workers near the runway were on their knees cutting the grass with hand scythes. The large collection of rusting plane wrecks near the terminal gave me flashbacks to landing in Kathmandu in 2005.

The entry process through the terminal was quite rapid. I’d been warned by my daughter that sometimes the whole event can be quite complicated and drawn out, but we experienced none of that. Immigration took about 10 minutes of waiting in line and two minutes at the passport and visa check. Neither of us was required to show our health cards but we had no worries on that account. By the time I’d exchanged some US dollars into Ethiopian birr, our bags came around on the carousel. We hadn’t seen them since leaving Adelaide.

Our daughter Rose and Jacqui, the wife of the school’s director, were waving to us as we approached customs. All our bags were x-rayed but we didn’t need to open anything. The car trip back to the school where my daughter was teaching was the normal third world traffic chaos with many close encounters with other vehicles. As chaotic as it seems at first, it all seems to sort itself out with no major dramas. Near the airport we saw hundreds of armed soldiers and police because former President Bush was in town for a conference, hence the security. We kept our cameras switched off at that point. On the half hour journey to the school we saw sheep, goats and donkeys along the way, pedestrians everywhere and no drivers aware of the need to drive in a lane; lanes are marked but no one observes them.

Once at the school we unpacked the van and Rose collected our school lunches from the school kitchen, one of the benefits of living on campus. After lunch she took us on a tour of the school meeting many of the staff who made us to feel so welcome it was wonderful. Later in the afternoon Rose asked us to help her teaching the Horizon Boys some basic conversational English. These boys, mostly teenagers, are local boys wanting to improve their educational opportunities. Most of them are Muslims and they were all very polite, cooperative and friendly and certainly eager to learn.

Later in the afternoon we watched the school football (soccer) team play a team from another school and we talked to several teachers and parents while we watched. I also did some birding because the area around the oval and the school gardens has many birds. Without really trying I’ve added 6 “lifers” (birds I have never seen before) to my list. It was only the Black Kites which I’ve seen before – or so I thought. It turns out the local birds are a sub species called Yellow-billed Kites (click here for photos). Another one for the list.

After dinner Rose and Corinne went to the women’s Bible Study meeting while I had a shower and went to bed. The lack of sleep since leaving home was taking its toll. Corinne nodded off during the study, I believe. We both slept well but woke at 4am as our daughter had predicted. Then at 5am we could hear the call to prayer from the mosque nearby, something we were to get used to over the coming weeks.

Further reading:

• Trevor’s birding – accounts of the birds seen in Ethiopia, with photos
• Trevor’s travels – photos of places we went during our stay

Bingham Academy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Sunday 4^th December: Dubai Airport

I am writing this in Dubai Airport at 6:15am local time after an exhausting but great trip so far.

In the days leading up to our departure we were extremely busy, first packing up and cleaning my mother in law’s unit and shade house. A friend helped me with the dismantling of the shade house and moving the plants out to our place.

Over the last few days we made last minute preparations for our big adventure overseas. This included checking the plant dripper systems, cleaning the yard, mulching the roses and other plants and gathering all we needed for the trip, including last minute purchases like extra camera memory cards, medicines and so forth.  We packed our bags and everything was ready to depart. A major last minute problem mid morning was Corinne misplacing her reading glasses which quite distressed her. She took her computer glasses instead.

Our friends arrived at 2pm to drive us to Adelaide Airport. We had a pleasant trip with lots of chatter, mainly from me as Corinne was quite subdued. We were both very tired and she was perhaps nervous about her journey. I know I was and this is quite normal.

Our flight was at 5:35pm so we had time to check in and then have a drink, a muffin and a slice of carrot cake. Our flight was delayed by 25 minutes but we made good time to Melbourne. It was odd going in the wrong direction, but Emirates do not fly out of Adelaide.

Our friends from Gisborne near Melbourne were waiting for us when we arrived and after getting our boarding passes we had a cuppa with them. It was great seeing them and chatting for an hour. We then went through security and customs before lining up to board. Our flight to Dubai was uneventful, generally smooth but very long. Favourable winds meant just over 13 hours of flight (instead of 14 hours) and we arrived at about 5am local time. Corinne managed a few hours’ sleep but I think I only had a few short naps. We bought a drink at Starbucks and sat there writing in our journals, waiting for our flight to Addis Ababa.

Further reading:

• Trevor’s Birding – about the birds I saw on my trip
• Trevor’s Travels – photos of places we went during our journey.

Adelaide Airport - waiting to leave on our overseas trip

Constant movement
of departure bound travellers
contrasted with
flocks of waiting passengers:
dozing,
reading,
coffee drinking,
internetting
while waiting their connecting flights.

People of many
nations,
languages,
faiths,
cultures
pass each other
as the Muslim call to prayer
echoes through the airport halls,
shoes obediently stand in line
outside the prayer room.

We, too, wait our flight,
trying not to snooze.

© 2011 Trevor Hampel
Dec 5^th 2011

All rights reserved.

Notes: we were on our way to visit our daughter who was teaching in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We had a  hour wait for our connecting flight. To fill the time I wrote in my journal and then wrote this poem.

Late last year there was a family situation which required a great deal of my time and energy, and then my wife and I left Australia for a six and a half week holiday in Ethiopia, Morocco and Spain. I had limited internet access during that time so no posts appeared here. Besides, we were having too much fun exploring new countries and having wonderful experiences. I’ll be writing about these experiences and showing my 1000s of photos on my other sites, Trevor’s Birding and Trevor’s Travels.

While I was away I still kept up my writing. Every day I added new entries in a journal. In all I wrote nearly 140 pages describing what we’d done and seen, and responses to those experiences. Much of that journal will be expanded and posted on my travel site. The beauty of having a book to write in as my journal was the convenience factor. I didn’t take my laptop with me though I could have used my daughter’s computer. Instead, I could write in my journal anywhere: on the plane, in the waiting lounge of airports, on a train (we used trains a lot in Morocco and Spain), in bed or even in the garden.

Taking a notebook with you wherever you go is an important way of keeping your writing moving along and developing. You can jot down anything that comes to mind: a scene, a description of a character based on a real person, accounts of little scenes that may make it into a novel or short story, or even a poem or two as you are having a coffee break.

During my travelling time I wrote in my journal every day. But I also wrote a great deal of poetry. I usually can only produce a dozen or two good poems a year, but in the last 7 weeks I’ve written 55 poems, so inspirational was the journey. Some are haiku but most are much longer impressions of what I was seeing and doing. All the non-haiku poems were free verse. Some will find their way onto this site in coming weeks.

We went to Ethiopia first to visit our daughter who had been teaching in an international school in Addis Ababa. What they are doing there is inspirational and she is planning on returning in a few years’ time. After two weeks there, my wife and I, accompanied by our daughter, toured Morocco and Spain, spending two weeks in each. Many of our experiences will inevitably find their way into short stories, more poems and even a book or two. My wife has already come up with a picture book idea based in Ethiopia.

Good writing.

Most writers are, I’ve found. If you want to be a good writer you are also a reader. That’s a given.

I am also slightly addicted to buying and collecting books. When I married – that was over 40 years ago – combining my library with my wife’s library created a big problem. She is also a bookaholic, and a hoarder of books like me. In our first year of marriage I built two large bookcases. Problem solved – for the time being. Then came along the children and they soon had their books too and their own bookcases. When they left home the problem was slightly improved; part of my library is now in my daughter’s home in Clare and a few are in my son’s home in Sydney. It’s alright; I’ve read most of those books.

About 5 years ago I bought another 4 bookshelves from a well known furniture chain from Scandinavia. I had fun assembling them and stocking them with books. You see, the problem had grown to a critical stage: there were large piles of books everywhere. Problem solved – or so I thought. Over recent months the situation has reached another crisis point: not enough room on the shelves for new and recently acquired books.

My office has been in need of a drastic makeover for several years. The situation would make any bomb site look tidy in comparison. Time for action, so over several hot days recently – it was too unpleasant working in the garden – I attacked ground zero.

My technique is simple: sort and chuck. (Some unkind people might have suggested ‘slash and burn’ would have been more effective.) I progressively sorted through every item on the shelves. Some items didn’t belong – like dozens of computer disks. It’s a BOOK shelf – not a storage cupboard. Some books were obsolete and went straight into our recycling bin. I don’t need a copy of a guide to Microsoft Windows 95 or Word for Windows 6 for Dummies or even a 1998 Melbourne street directory. I have a more current version of the directory and don’t need another, and the computer books are now many years obsolete.

The trouble was that I have trouble throwing away books. I can give them away, I can let people borrow semi-permanently, I can even sell to a second hand book dealer – but throw away! Never!

I’ve changed.

I have to be ruthless and dispose of any book I will no longer read. Some I want to read again – maybe, so I might keep a few. Over the next year the culling will continue until I have enough room on the shelves for the books I want to read again, or I need to use as reference tools.

Now… what about that huge pile of magazines?

Good reading, and good writing.

Asterix & Obelix's Birthday

I have just read my 4000th book.

It was Asterix & Obelix’s Birthday: The Golden Book.

Yes, I know there are derogatory names for people like me. I don’t care. I’ve kept a complete list of books and magazines that I have read since 1st September, 1966 when I was still in high school. For the first few years I only recorded the names and authors of books I had finished reading. In more recent years I have also recorded the issue number of magazines that I have read cover to cover. I read most of the magazines I buy in their entirety. I figure that I’ve paid good money for those magazines, so I’m going to get good value for my expenditure. Quirky, yes. Odd, maybe. That’s just me; no apologies will be forthcoming.

Significantly the 4000th book was the latest in one of my favourite series of books – the Asterix comics. I started buying this series in the early 1970s and my children grew up knowing them thoroughly. Every time a new title was published there was severe competition in our family to read it first. They claim that their general knowledge of the history and times of the Roman Empire was largely formed by reading the Asterix books. It is quite a possibility that they also learned to read using these books. I was a teacher librarian at the time so I made sure the school had a good supply of the titles, my family often reading them first.

One of the saddest days of my teaching career was when my entire collection of Asterix books was damaged due to fire in an adjacent classroom. It brought me to tears. The books were rescued, cleaned of soot and are in reasonable condition despite the fire. But even today I still get slightly sooty hands reading them. It was a delight to recently find a title I didn’t have in my library.

Good reading, good writing.

I had a very busy day with only one special happening. Well, two actually.

I spent most of the morning at the doctors’ surgery. Nothing to get alarmed about – just a routine check-up and all is in order. I needed new scripts for some regular medications I take. I also renewed my driver’s licence last week because the 10 years on the old one were up. To get my licence I had to declare that I had diabetes (which I was diagnosed with since my last renewal). This required a doctor’s consultation and a 4 page questionnaire for her to fill in after she had run me through quite a few tests, most relating to my eyesight. No problems there.

In the afternoon I helped my wife packing up my mother in law’s unit. Last Monday she was admitted to a local aged care home with advancing dementia. It is sad to see her deteriorating on a daily basis, but she is now receiving the professional care we tried to provide but it was beyond our skills. I admire people who dedicate their working lives to helping people in need like this.

A highlight for my birthday was that I bought myself some new binoculars. My old pair has been good, but I bought some lightweight, compact binoculars which are much better. Can’t wait to get out in the field and try them out doing some birding.

In the evening I took my wife to one of the local hotels for a birthday dinner. We had a lovely time, good food and a great view over the River Murray. It was definitely the highlight of the day. Later we each had separate meetings to attend. Mine proved to long and, at times, difficult and challenging, having to deal with a serious issue.

Now back to writing.