"Students Shouting Like Monkeys"

At the University:Finished touring the main library and visited the Computer Systems Dept. and the Binding Dept. Making contacts with out of print dealers for our library acqusitions. Visited the Office of Sustainable Development and chatted with the director. She gave us some brochures for our library collection and promised a price list for their other publications. Met with the Head of the Foreign Languages section who also showed me around the Manuscripts reading room. I hope to work with him at the Reference Desk there in the near future.
A few days ago some students were walking by our building which also houses the office of the President and other university administrators. There are university police posted at each entrance, including for our building. These students were very excited and talking at the top of their voices. I saw the police telling them to buzz off as they were disturbing the place. Then I heard one of the institute staff describing the event as "students shouting like monkeys" and agreed they had to be shooed off! The students quickly hurried out of the way.

Other: Attended a wildlife talk by Prof. Shoshani from the Biology Dept. He spoke of the disappearing elephants of Ethiopia and Eritrea as there are poachers hunting these animals. A newly created Kafta Shiraro Park will help with wildlife conservation and perhaps educating the public about elephants.

Indians and Red Indians

Today is the fifth day of the third month of the year 2000, according to the Ethiopian Calendar. Warm days 70F and cold nights upper 30s F.--------
At the University: The first week I was here two people asked me if I was a Red Indian. I explained that term was no longer in use and Native American was the proper term of today. And then I explain I am Asian-American, etc. One of these people wanted me to find photographs of Native Americans and I referred him to some websites. Many people I casually meet-on the minibus or in shops- ask me if I am Indian and I say yes as that is the easiest answer!

My colleague tells me that the Univ has been hiring professors from India for about 7-8 years to fill in where they do not have local experts. I take it that many Ethiopians are dismayed to see these people getting USD$1500 a month when the local people get less. I see Indians around my apt. building and on campus but they are very serious looking and go about their business. When I take the mini-bus to work, I see a few professors each week as well. One architecture professor and I exchanged phone numbers but she teaches on a different campus from the one where I am. Another one also talked to me-he is from the Informatics Dept. and came to visit my office last week.

I had an excellent appt. at the Embassy last week to discuss higher education resource needs in Ethiopia. There will be follow-up later & I look forward to working with them.

The local book vendor had not responded to our library's questions for about 6 months. I volunteered to contact them. They said they were not aware of a book list that was given to them in May. Anyway, things seem to be settled as the book vendor and his director came to visit me to smoothen things out.

Other: The US embassy held a concert with Addis Ababa's Millenium Committee in the Municipality Theater. I was invited and so were some of my colleagues from the Institute. It was crowded and filled with mostly Ethiopians. First we had some nice hors d'ouvres and soft drinks and I found some people from the Wildlife group. The group Chicago Trio played a series of light jazz and American folk tunes. Later, a group from the Yared Music School played serious Ethiopian songs on their string instruments. The Americans finished up with a few pieces accompanied by a sopranist.

Some friends and I decided to hear the popular Ethiopian singer, Teddy Afro (stage name), last Saturday even at the state owned Ghion Hotel and there were no chairs for the audience. We had to wait 2 1/2 hours to hear him sing and so we bought expensive drinks and food from the hotel. Teddy first started with new tunes which I did not know but later sang a new year song and then his favorites. It was excellent (he writes his own songs), but the cold was intense. My feet froze as it was in the upper 30s by the time we left at 1:30AM! I was surprised by the coldness as I had a long winter coat. Some of the women in the audience were wearing sleeveless tops, skirts, or dresses. But, I do not think they came jus to hear the music. We spent over 6 hours at this open air venue.

Cards and Monkeys

At the University: Address here: Marie Paiva, Volunteer Librarian, IES Library, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA.
Visiting the main library to see one of the Cataloging Dept for a tour. They use the LC sytem and an open source program, Koha, to get titles into their online catalog. They also maintain a card catalog but in some years hope to discontinue that. We are looking for some out of print and other materials here at the IES Library. Heard back from the local rep. and hope that it works out soon. I had a nice meeting with the head of the Library and got some good feedback. Our database review on Friday mornings continue, but last week the Internet was not that great. Made some more appointments for the main library for this coming week. All in all, lots to discover and learn about the Univ. system and work keeps moving along.

Other: A friend from the UK invited a couple of us to attend an art exhibition at a gallery some distance away. All in all, very nice and I got to see some interesting art work from a local artist and meet some new people. On Saturday, the wildlifers climbed Mt. Menangesha at about 2,900 meters. I chose the easier path which was steep! An Ethiopian woman who knew something about plants hiked with me. There were lots of wildflowers including delphinium and many ferns. It was cool and windy on this hike. We all met up on the top of the mountain and had our lunches and rested. Then, we went down and this time saw several black and white colubus monkeys with their sweeping tails leaping from tree to tree. We also saw a few vervet monkeys hanging out at the cemetery looking mischievous. A few bird sightings as well. On the way home, we stopped at a flower farm and walked around a bit to admire the carnation, geranium, agapanthus, day lillies, and more.

Ahead at full speed

At the University: Last Friday was an interesting day. When I approached my building to unlock the door at 7:50am, I saw a note posted in Amharic pasted on the edge of the doors and forming a seal. I spoke to the Univ police and they said they would send someone else to look at it. That took about an hour. Evidently, they found the door opened during the night and wanted to make sure the interior of the offices was okay. My office was fine and hopefully all other offices were as well.

Then I finally got to start the Database Review with 3 librarians. I had asked if I could do this the first two weeks and nothing was said. The University receives probably 50 databases through donation or arrangment with NGOs. I observed that most of the staff here were unaware of these resources which might be extremely helpful in their work. So the 4 of us met in my office for about 1.5 hours to check on the databases and we searched under the keywords of Ethiopia and Horn of Africa and tried boolean operators, truncation, and nesting. Each resource has to be opened with the User ID and password in order to deter non-educational use as was recommended by the vendors. It was fun and I learned some things and hope they did as well.

Also, the US Embassy called twice. There are new staff there and they want to see what resources the library here has and perhaps what they need. This week I shall be trying to organize a list of online and print sources and perhaps prioritize them. I also briefly spoke with the director of the main Library about getting suggestions for this list. The result is that I have a meeting with the embassy folks in 8 days and can't wait. I would like to invite them here to visit our library, the main library (where I worked 7 years ago) and perhaps the National Library where I worked 10 years ago. One of the problems with online resources is that there seems to be a lack of training for users, from what I have observed. Thus, library patrons continue to use the card catalogs and print indexes.

Other: Visited St. Mary's Church in Arat Kilo as they have a special millenium exhibit. These pieces on display reflect the history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. I joined in with some Ethiopian friends and of course the tour was in Amharic. A deacon found me listening from a distance and took me on a personal tour in English. There were paintings of saints and religious events, photographs, historical items, church books and musical instruments and much more. It was very colorful and packed with items. It was very nicely done and quite educational. The other group had a lengthy tour and we left with the tour still going on after more than 2.5 hours! Attended the Flower Show to see plants and flowers raised by loal gardeners as well as flower arrangements. I should have entered something!

Debre Birhan

Work: Things are moving along with finding out of print book dealers, finding local dealers, and more. There are several good Horn of Africa disertations available and trying to look into those as well. We are having another mtg. to discuss progress of the grant acqisitions this week. Thanks to all my colleagues in Tucson and SLC that have helped me!

Other: Continuing to enjoy hot water showers! Last weekend, a nice wildlife trip to Debre Birhan, about 3 hours north of here in the Shoa province. The views were all interesting, lots of herders with their cattle, lovely tukuls-local homes with the round thatched roofs, and farmland growing teff-local grain for making the injera bread and much more. About 20 of us signed up for this trip and after locating a hotel, we continued on for about 1.5 hours to Ankober, the ancient capital of Ethiopia. This whole area is cold and windy due to the higher altitudes. We stopped at a scenic viewpoint to take photos of the valley below. There were lots of terraced fields on the mountain slopes and we walked around cattle, donkeys here and there, horses, goats and sheep. Some hiked for another 3 hours in Ankober to see the remains of the palace and some hiked for awhile and then browsed the little suqs for peanuts, fabrics and local shopping bags. We had dinner at our Hotel Eva (owned by famous Ethiopian runner Gettiye)-some of us had lamb tibs (grilled lamb strips) and wine which was very nice. The area and rooms at night were very chilly-probably in the low 40-50s. Early the next morning, we left for Debre Sina. We were on a good road built by the Italians in the 1940s and dotted with bridges and a few tunnels as well. Along the way, we stopped at another outstanding viewpoint and saw gelada baboons and came across wool hats and oregano for sale! We purchased as much as we could and I also purchased a walking stick. A bit later, some of us walked down the road leading to town for about an hour. There, we stopped for more shopping-basketry, oranges, a new fruit that is like a crinkled looking melon (will try that later), small bananas, guava, fava beans, roasted barley called kollo- a local favorite, more oregano, local fabrics and more. We then continued on and found a picnic spot for lunch and stretched our legs. Once again, we arrived in Debre Birhan and visited the Trinity Church. This Ethiopian Orthodox Church is a bit unusual as it has two statues in the compound that were dressed in real clothes (perhaps due to the chilliness?). We took photos and then headed back to Addis Ababa and arrived around 6pm. Another wonderful wildlife trip.

Have hot water -as of Saturday!

Work: The library here consists of the Ethiopian Languages Section, The Foreign Languages section and the Technical Section. Recently, two catalogers were hired to try and take care of an immese backlog of materials found in these reading rooms and in the back rooms piled almost to the ceilings. They started to create an online catalog some years ago and the unedited version is available on two computers in the Foreign Languages Section. But, the computers are usually not turned on and am not sure if the staff know about using it. So, the users rely on the card catalog. Photo copying and sometimes scanning is available. Important lectures or talks or other events are at times held in the Foreign Languages section in the afternoons or evenings. Tables are pushed around and make seating for about 100. This is the venue for the IES lecture series which are generally very good and free to the public. It appears that book theft is a problem here, just like in libraries all over the world. We are trying to think of ways to stop this theft as some of these are rare or out of print materials. This library is only open to Univ people and to those who have membership cards to the IES society. On the second floor of our building is an ethnographic museum. So we are used to seeing many people, especially foreigners, come take a peek at the library which is housed on the first and second floor.

There are plans for a brand new IES Library building adjacent to this building. Not sure when the actual construction will begin but it is definitely needed.

Other: The University Housing Adm. folks came to the apt. 8 times to fix the hot water heater in the bathroom but were not successful and that took over a month. I took the suggestion of a neighbor and hired my own plumber/electrician. In about an hour, things were fixed! I cannot believe I have taken bucket showers for over a month.

My apt. is located on a very busy street on what some locals refer to as the rich part of town. New high rise buildings are found everywhere and more being built. There are numerous shops, supermarkets, restaurants, offices and more around me. It is consantly busy with buses, mini-buses (which I usually take), taxis, cars, and many pedestrians. The sidewalks, unfortunately, are mostly new "cobblestones" which make it hard to walk on. Many are of different heights, so it is not walking on an even surface. Occasionally a stone or group of them are missing. Sundays are my favorite in Addis for getting around. There is less traffic and air pollution on that day. There are new billboards advertising everything. The problem is that they are huge and low to the ground at an angle. So, if you are not watching where you are walking on the sidewalk, you could easily run into one of these large billboards.

The main road where I live takes you to the airport. Every week or more, I encounter an odd scene. When the local or foreign dignitaries have to go to the airport, motorized traffic is shooed away.They are to take the side streets or other streets. The new federal police in their blue camaflouged outfits and rifles have their backs to the street and watch us. They are set about every 20 feet or so and sometimes instruct us as to where we should be walking or whatever. Then, after about 15 minutes of quiet, about 8-12 vehicles zoom at least 100 m.p.h. down the street to their destination. After about 10 minutes, traffic and the noise resumes. Sometimes, the regular police also assist them.

In the Emperor's Kitchen

Work-Internet has not been working or slow, hence the slower posting here. I moved to my "permanent" office about two weeks ago. They call it the basement but is on the ground floor in the back. This building was the former residence (palace) of Emperor Haile Selassie and my present space is what used to be the Emperor's kitchen. I am sure it is just one of many kitchen rooms. This office has a very large window, about six feet by four feet, and opens to trees, flowers, and birds. I have a computer and large wooden desk, a large antique looking office cupboard, a couple of other tables and two chairs. There is also a little service window with wood doors which I think the cooks used to hand over coffee or food on trays, perhaps to the kitchen staff. Across from me is a small resource room which is mostly computers for post-graduate students. There is a lavatory around on the other side (squatting), but since it lacks water, will continue using the one on the third floor. A history professor's office is next door.

Last week we had a great meeting about the grant and purchasing library materials for the project. I volunteered to look into out of print dealers who may have Horn of Africa materials. The library has purchased some materials, are in the midst of purchasing some more and hope to purchase other titles soon. It appears that like in other libraries everywhere, theft continues to plague this collection. I volunteered to serve on the library security committee as well.

I received a couple of reference inquries and hope to track down some journal articles. There is no reference desk in our library, surprisingly. I am hoping to use the library with these reference questions and see how it operates as well.

Other: Eid came and went. Great numbers of Muslims were on the streets on that Friday morning as it was declared a holiday. They went to pray outdoors the Stadium in their finest and newest clothes. Sometimes, they would be chanting as they walked to and back and some roads were also closed due the the large numbers of people participating in this religious event.

A group of us joined the wildlife society on a trip outside of Addis. First night was in Lake Langano at the Bekele Mola hotel-the water was choppy and very brown looking. It was pleasant to sit outside and have drinks and chat with the others. A few went into the water and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, another small group of loud music users was next to some of our rooms and of course we did not sleep well. A nice breakfast buffet and we were off to Sankale. En route, our bus had a small problem and stopeed in Shasemene to get it fixed. Some of us found a coffee place and enjoyed that and other drinks. In Sankale, we visted the Swayne's hartebeest sanctuary. Evidently, there are only 275 of them and the government is trying to protect these herds. We drove in a Landrover around the tall grass to see these graceful and shy animals and then walked around as well. We saw them grazing but when they noticed our vehicles, got in a line and seemed to dance away. The terrain was full of thorny acacia trees or young shrubs full of thorns and some small wildflowers inbetween. It was hot. We arrived in Wondu Gennett at dark and found our rooms. Some enjoyed the hot springs and waterfalls and some enjoyed the hot springs showers in our rooms before dinner. The next morning, we again had a nice buffet and sat outside. Vervet monkeys eyed our food hoping for scraps. There were also giant vultues circling around. Many took a few leisure hours to enjoy the water, to take photos of the numerous flowers, or to argue with the hotel bill. Just like most hotels in Ethiopia, there are two rates-one for local people and one for foreigners. (sometimes, there are more rate advertised). Since we were a group of 33, we were supposed to get a small discount as well. We proceeded to the Wondu Gennett School of forestry and had a pleasant walk along the trees and shrubs in a rain which lasted for about 30 minutes. Then we lunched there and headed back to Addis and arrived home about 7:30pm. We saw a huge amount of bird life and numerous interesting farming scenes along the way.