VLM Ethiopia Bahir Dar trip

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In early 2008, the Vincentian Lay Missionaries, in partnership with Castleknock College, began the selection process to send four 5^th year students, with two teachers, to Ethiopia. This was the first time the trip was organised, and like many students, I was keen on applying. But I was only 17 at the time, and when I arrived home to my parents the day they announced the trip, I was told in no uncertain terms that I wouldn’t be going. Ian Garrigan was selected as the second reserve volunteer, but only the first reserve was selected. We were both disappointed at missing out, but five years later we got a second chance. By 2013 the VLM had settled in Ambo, had a structured programme for volunteers, and was expanding to include past men of the college to travel with double the original number of students. We jumped at the chance, fundraised from autumn 2013 up to the following May, with the trip set for June 2014. Everything was ready to go, but an incident in Ambo changed our plans. No longer travelling with the students and teachers, Ian and I were to go on our own to Bahir Dar. With this turn of events, and similarly to the initial trip we had missed out on, Ian and I were to help break ground in establishing a possible new base for VLM volunteers.

Bahir Dar is a popular tourist city in northern Ethiopia, with many of its visitors coming from within the country. The VLM hadn’t sent volunteers there in a number of years, and as such, didn’t have much of an established structure in place for us to work on. However, despite the short notice, Abba Iyasu, the priest in charge of the Christian secondary school where we were staying, had plenty for us to do. After a day of settling in, we began our work helping the teachers at a local school. The school had been set up to teach children who belong to a particular community from the local area that did not have the same education opportunities as others. The older years had just finished up a period of exams, so we were teaching the youngest two classes. We had brought over cases full of materials such as instruments, art supplies, and cards with letters and numbers, which proved to be the core of our teaching. While we had received some teaching training from the VLM before heading out, neither of us had taught students at any level before. We were a little nervous in those first few days, but the younger kids were attentive and very well behaved. Our routine was to spend the mornings teaching the children English numbers and letters, as well as a selection of other topics such as food, transportation, and the parts of the body using posters and cards. It was difficult at first to know how the mornings should be structured, and at times, we thought we might have been repeating lessons too much. But after a few days, we found a schedule that worked, which involved us switching classes every other day so we had a chance to teach both levels. As well as the younger children, Ian and I gave English comprehension classes to older students in the second level school. This was more challenging, as we had to prepare assignments and correct homework, but even with the older students, the class was, for the most part, very attentive and capable. Towards the end of our time teaching, we also had the opportunity to teach a session of more complex English to the teachers of the school, as well as a bit of chemistry to the older students.

Abba Iyasu and the secondary school in Bahir Dar were very accommodating during our stay, and he was interested in showing us everything the area had to offer. He had planned out trips every weekend when we weren’t teaching to attractions in the city, as well as some that were a bit more out of the way. We travelled to Gondar, a mountain city about 4 hours north of Bahir Dar and visited a monastery of Cistercian monks. We were taken on road trips to the Blue Nile Falls, the Emperor’s palace, and a day tour of Lake Tana to visit monasteries on the islands. We also had the chance to visit a number of projects that were in progress. The local school where we were teaching was relocating to a much larger building that was under construction when we visited, and we were brought to a Jesuit school that was being established not far outside of the city. Even with all of the activities that Abba Iyasu had planned for us, there were still occasional opportunities to have some downtime. We usually had time in the early afternoons and evenings to ourselves. Ian and I would regularly head to the local hotel that had cold drinks and decent Wi-Fi to check up on emails. Although the school had a computer room with internet access, the city would regularly have rolling blackouts that would result in most businesses closing down for the day, with there being no power anywhere for many hours at a time. During the hottest hours of the day, reading indoors was a welcome option. There would also almost always be people playing football on the pitches in the school and we would regularly join in. With thinner air than we were used to, a much more intense heat, and little training, we were outclassed by the local players most of the time. Football was an important part of the local community, with a number of local leagues playing their games on the school’s pitch. The 2014 World Cup kicked off while we were away with matches on almost every day, and the tournament became a regular part of our evenings.

One of the most distinctive features of spending time in Bahir Dar was the food. Injera, a vinegary pancake, was a staple of every meal and was used to scoop up spiced meats and sauces. We quite liked it, but it was a bit sharp for our tastes when had for breakfast. Everyday there was a coffee ceremony held for us in the school in which beans would be roasted and ground up by hand. The coffee was a highlight of the trip and we would look forward to the ceremony during our morning teaching sessions. There were many homes in the surrounding area that were poorly built which lead to there being a constant smell of cooking in the city, with many people roasting corn over open fires on the side of the road. It was an unexpected feature of living there, yet it was one of the things we said we missed the most after leaving.

After we left Bahir Dar, Ian and I spent two days living with a volunteer in Addis Ababa, where we shown some of the sights of the city. We visited Alamanchen, a school for children who had developmental issues or recovering from illness and injury, where we spent the day with the children and met with the Archbishop of Ethiopia. Addis was an intense city to explore, but after the first day, Enda, the volunteer who was showing us around, figured we’d be fine on our own. Armed with advice on how to negotiate with the taxi drivers, Ian and I had the chance to visit some of the city’s attractions. We saw Lucy, the world’s most famous human ancestor, at the National Museum of History, picked up a bunch of local coffee to bring home, and visited a couple of the more famous museums before meeting up with other volunteers.

Though the trip we took was very different to the one that was originally planned, it turned out to be just as rewarding as expected, if not more so. We were able to donate much needed supplies and school materials, teach students of varying ages, and were given an in-depth tour of the local area, as well as the country’s capital. While it would have been great to work with the students and teachers of Castleknock in a more structured set up in Ambo, we felt that the work we did in Bahir Dar was still very important. The opportunity was lost to help with the original program, but another was gained in breaking ground for possible new bases for volunteering. Since our trip in 2014, the VLM has continued working with Castleknock in bringing student volunteers out to Ethiopia, and though Ian and I haven’t yet had the opportunity to return, it is a journey we wouldn’t hesitate to take again in the near future.

Michael Towers