27th June 2009

When I first decided to come to Ethiopia, I wanted to come and work with the orphanage, oversee the spending of the money we’d (you’d!) raised, and learn about how we could help even more. There was another motivation though.

I wanted to live somewhere where all those things I relied on to entertain and amuse me in the UK were not available. There were times in London when I would realise I was sitting on the train reading a book and listening to music, and flitting between eating a chocolate bar, typing a text message, and looking out of the window. It was ridiculous - I was incapable of concentrating on one thing at a time, let alone sitting and do nothing. I would panic if I left the house without a book just in case there was a split second where I might have nothing to do and I would want something to fill the space.

Not that this made me unhappy, it’s how I like to live (still, secretly, the idea of concentrating on one thing at a time bores me.). But there was a little voice in my head that wondered what I was hiding from – and what would happen if I took away all the outside stimulation I relied on.

Moving to Addis Ababa was definitely the first step. Life was at a much slower pace, I learnt to sit in a café and just drink a cup of tea; not read a book, write my diary, listen to music and drink a cup of tea. I didn’t text people 300 times a day as my phone didn’t receive texts, and I had very few people who wanted to text me in Ethiopia anyway! However, I still had books, music, TV, internet, and my computer.

Moving to Lalibela was the next step.

I say all this only to explain that I actually wanted to be in a place where internet and TV weren’t on tap, where I didn’t have an unlimited choice of food and books. And apparently, Lalibela has listened to my musings and decided to grant my request – with bells on

Current situation: one morning and evening of power every other day, no internet access, running water at a bare minimum (sometimes there isn’t even any water at the outside water point), phone network 4 hours on, 4 hours off (ish) and running out of books (although thanks to T who sent a box of 6 a couple of weeks ago!! 6!). I eat shiro (kind of like a chick pea sauce) with injera pretty much every day, with some potatoes or pasta (prepared with a variety of different spices) thrown in for interest. Occasionally I find some meat or some rice. I would kill for some proper chicken fajitas and nachos with cheese … mmmmmmm.

And then last week, in the midst of all this, my computer got sick. Despite several attempts at resuscitation, it was pronounced officially dead on Saturday 27th June at 7.34pm. It was very old and had had a good life, but what on earth was I going to do without my trusty laptop to keep me busy?

Luckily, in a rare moment of common sense, I had backed up most stuff on A’s computer about 3 weeks ago, so I don’t need to worry about losing all of my work and writing (although I have lost some). However, A and I now have to share the desktop computer, and considering we have such limited hours of power, that’s easier said than done – and it involves me doing a lot of late night typing!

However, considering my personality, I’m dealing with this all very well. I’m slightly ashamed to say that if this had happened even a month ago, there probably would have been tears and tantrums and stamping of feet (I may have wanted those things taken away, in theory, but I can’t say I was particularly happy about the reality). Of course, it does help that summer school planning can be done with a pen and paper, so I always have something to do, even without power.

But right now, I’m not even moaning when the electricity goes off without warning in the middle of the evening, and I’ve only complained a little bit about the fact we’ve had no internet access for a week and a half (and that’s mostly because I am trying to do things for Hanna’s Orphanage) . I’m not quite at the stage where I can sit and do nothing without fidgeting, but I no longer need to do 27 things at once. I also appreciate things a lot more: when the power came back on in time for me to watch the Vietnam Special of Top Gear on Saturday, I was ecstatic, and when A and I discovered six English books in the library in Lalibela (a library! I know!) I nearly died of happiness. Mondays are currently my favourite day as I normally have a chicken from the weekend market and can make something approximating a chicken curry, and the lady in the post office thinks it’s very funny that I get so excited when I get letters and magazines in the post.

Having said that, I don’t think I want to tempt fate and ask for anything more to disappear from my life. I am currently treating my MP3 player like gold dust, just in case that breaks too …