Maria Rafferty, education adviser, Ethiopia
Maria Rafferty from Ireland, began volunteering for VSO in 2007. Here she describes her impressions of Ethiopia.
During my years as an ardent teenager, hoping to do wonders for the world, I often set my sights on Africa. Many years later however, now sadly a widow, my thoughts turned once again towards Africa. When my beloved Jim died and VSO offered me a position in Jimma, southwest Ethiopia, in September 2007 it seemed that there was a message from beyond directing my steps and my spirit here.
First impressions
When one enters a place like Ethiopia for the first time there are so many varied and unforgettable images, smells and sounds that assail the senses but for me the abiding impression will be of the amazing contrasts in this developing country. The initial impression of Ethiopia is of a green and spacious country with wonderful opportunities for trekking in the glorious Simeon Mountains, marvelling at the rock hewn churches. However my daily impression, as we are now in the rainy season, is of flowing water eroding the soil as it goes and turning everywhere into a sea of mud.
The people here are generally tall, welcoming and friendly. They smile a lot with wonderful white teeth and having spent over a year working here I cannot help but wonder what the majority of Ethiopians have to smile about – living as they do in such dire circumstances with continuous toil towards small improvement. If one cannot work or one is sick there is no automatic assistance from the Government, which accounts for the huge number of beggars and unfortunate disabled or dying persons.
There is an unspoken agreement that allows for freedom of religious practice and both Muslim and Christian live peacefully side by side in friendly tolerance but I am told that there are many undercurrents of suspicion and disapproval by both. In the university where I work the policy is to integrate the different tribes in the dormitories but rivalry for dominance in language and local power has led to many fracases, one which actually resulted in the death of a student in Jimma.
Jimma Town
Jimma was once a thriving market town, the gateway to the Oromiya Region but sadly now has every appearance of neglect and under development. The majority of its population live in substandard “houses”. People are generally very poor, struggling to provide basic food and shelter for their families.
Jimma boasts of a university of about 24,000 students. There is currently a huge building programme going on in the campus but one stands open-mouthed at the labour intensive method of building where women dig trenches and carry heavy materials to their male counterparts. Yet there is palpable pride in the ability and efforts and will of the people and a fairly stable government to bring Ethiopia into the 21st century as there is in the enormous international success of their athletes.
A continuing experience
So as I begin my second year, fully aware that it takes time to understand and appreciate a whole different culture and life style, I continue to marvel at the great contrasts I continually experience in a world where time and dates and even year and millennium are different to mine.
Ethiopians are poor in material and development terms, but rich in hope and qualities that have been lost in the affluence of our developed world. Old people in general are respected and cared for and children are the wealth of the nation. Women carry the burden of family life but also the lion’s share of work in general, which goes largely unrecognised. So continues my integration and education as I add my efforts to improving English language acquisition, in that English can and promises to be a unifying force in a country of such disparate and unyielding differences.
These are some of the images and impressions one year into my stay in Ethiopia. I understand better and appreciate more the culture of the place where people struggle against the odds to come into the 21st century that is only one year old here. This is Ethiopia, where Jim is forever with me, a new world that has given me a lot more than I could offer back, a place I have come to love and cherish.
