A sports day accompanied by bats and monkeys, seasoned with Mary’s freshly picked British Consulate Rose

Rosemary, Rosemary, where for art thou Rosemary? That is the not the question! Once an elegant herb instilled in our minds as a quintessential roasting accompaniment, now a weed in our mouths tying knots around our tongues.
Tongue tied?
No.
A tad melodramatic?
Perhaps.

To put things into perspective for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, we are blessed to have all our meals lovingly prepared by a pleasant and hospitable cook, Feloku. She will cook us whatever we want and has even provided a timetable to fill in so we can advise her as to what meals we would like on certain days. The first few had sprigs of Rosemary delicately laid on top and several strands lightly mixed in with the sauces. The aroma and flavours were delightful and was a subtle reminder of back home in England. Feloku must have sensed our pleasure and carried on adding more and more Rosemary to each of our meals so that in turn, every dish was loaded with the stuff and ended up tasting the same with only variations in texture! We would now long for the day where our taste buds could actually appreciate some traditional Ethiopian cuisine and not be reminded of our lovely Rosemary. This day eventually came and Rosemary now rests in peace in our stomachs.

Monday brought about a second invitation to a coffee ceremony by a local neighbour, Ayo. Ayo is a social worker working at and living in the Cheshire. She was once affected by Polio, and offers the children counsel as well as general esteem support. She is a short lady, wearing a big smile and walks with a limp using a crutch as an aid. This ceremony was similar in essence to our first experience except the fact it took place outside under the crystal clear star-lit night sky and that the actual coffee making and serving process was carried out in the background by a maid whilst we all sat round a small warm fire. We were joined by Daniel, a manager at the Cheshire who has always been very welcoming to us and teaches us a lot about Ethiopian culture and re-iterates the fact that the origins of man are from these lands. We also became acquainted with a guy who originates from Ethiopia but immigrated to the US, DC. He is a graphic designer who was visiting family here and spoke of his hardships starting from the bottom of the food chain and working his way up to where he is now; waiting for a lucky break. He describes that the life there isn’t as rosy as it’s made out to be, and to our surprise, his desire to return to Ethiopia once he can.

The sports day finally came with a little push and shove here and there. I’ve organised things like this before back home, but here it was a totally different kettle of fish! Language barriers, new concepts and organisation were all obstacles I had to overcome in order to make this the huge success it eventually became. I had employed the services of one of the local teachers, Hailu to act as interpreter, instructor and authoritarian. After painstakingly arranging all sixty or so boys and girls into ten teams with their own chosen team names, I began explaining the games each in turn, beginning with the egg and spoon race. To be satisfied that I had tried my hardest to explain the game, we would show them a live example between us guys. Nothing got the kids laughing harder than watching me jump up and down in a potato sack 50 meters across the grass and back! After a sunshine-filled morning of activity and fun we eventually announced the scores and the final team standings. So what of prizes? The previous day a lady called Marie had arranged for us to collect clothes from the British Embassy, donated from the UK. There was an array of high-street wear ranging from Pierre Cardin suits to Ralph Lauren Polo t-shirts to Diesel dresses to Clarks shoes and even Arsenal football shirts still bearing the £45 UK price tag! We sorted the clothes out into male/female, children/adults and types. The winning team of the sports day (named ‘Aklilu’ due to three members of their team bearing this name) earned first choice of two items to take from our end of rainy season collection. The first two items to go were the Arsenal shirts! For your info, the English Premier League is followed religiously here and the nation’s two favourite teams are Arsenal and Manchester United. After everyone from the winning team had taken two items, the team in second place got their turn and so on until all participants in the sports day were fully kitted-out in designer gear, ready to walk down any cat-walk.

The day was completed when I beat my once table-tennis rival Dawit a much to be desired 4-0, finding a new nemesis in Gezahegn (pronounced Gezahin), one of Dawit’s friends who shares duties with him in transporting members of Facing Africa around town to the various hospitals and centres. However, no day could be complete or even begin without mentioning our new found friends at the Cheshire, the ever-inquisitive, adaptable and widespread Vervet Monkey. They surround our home, based on tree-tops, roofs and anything up high, waiting for the chance to ambush an avocado skin or left out stale bread piece and are a source of great amusement for myself and Hiba.

The monkeys have just recently been out done when one night after returning home after a long day at work we were met by two challenges. The first being the regular but short-lived occurrence of a power cut; no big deal. So we continued preparing and eating our candle-lit dinner for two until whilst chatting to Hiba I saw something whiz past her head. At first I thought nothing of it and continued our conversation. I then wondered what it might have been and whether I should mention it to her. This time I thought that it was probably a moth or some kind of small insect flying past and didn’t want to worry her. But my mind wouldn’t accept this and I told her that something flew past her head. I quickly shined my torch to the ceiling across the room to find a bat ducking and diving through the darkened air! After a brief unsuccessful spell of trying to force the bat out the window, I resigned myself to calling the local guards to come in and give me a hand in trapping the bat in an envelope and releasing it back into the wild. The next day we discovered a gap in the wall/ceiling and had it plastered up, allowing our minds to be at ease.

The surgeons arrived on Saturday and operations have already begun, but this will follow in my next post.

Until then.

Marwan