እኔ : ሴት : ነኝ :: I. Am. Woman. Je. Suis. Femme. Exhibit Opening (Photos)

Happy International Volunteer Day 2014!

International Volunteer Day (IVD) takes place every year on 5 December as a celebration of volunteers and volunteering in all its forms -- that's me and what I'm doing!

I've become an art teacher.

Art school confidential.

I fancy myself an artist, (among other things...), and anyway, we're all supposed to be artists, architects.

Proposed Auxiliary Student Toilets + Showers

My proposed design for the student showers.

The Scientific Director has again given me a design assignment.

I'm a draftswoman, great!

3D rendering via Sketchup. Design is by Architect Luzzette.

I love my job. I mean being an architect. Really.

I've been lucky, getting this volunteering placement. Being an architect, there's only so little humanitarian work or professional volunteering opportunities (none that you don't self-fund, IMHO) or with known volunteering agencies or iNGOs.

Meeting the Arch Students Org

NIDEF (roughly, sketch in Amharic) is the newly founded architecture students organization in DDU

The other Filipina architect/lecturer (full-time/paid with expat rate) here at Dire Dawa University, Ma'am Luzzette has also initiated programs for the department of architecture.

What was I thinking?

How I got here.

Two weeks into my volunteer placement, I ask myself: what the eff was I thinking?

So, Dire Dawa.

First look. Houses on the road from the airport to our house in Dire Dawa.

I arrived early afternoon, Gavin picked me up, dropped us really quick at the compound we're sharing, I haven't had lunch, I'm exhausted, but we had to go off quick to the uni because Gavin has a meeting with our program manager, Bizuneh, and I, too, need to meet up with Bizuneh and my line manager at the uni for that tripartite meeting (that was supposed to happen yesterday at the VSO office during the ICB, where tripartite meetings are supposed to happen) where the tripartite agreement will be signed.

Goin' Ethiopian

We are Ethiopians! Trish and Consolata show off their new EthioTelecom sim card and WiFi dongle.

Today, was the joint orientation with the partners as with our programme managers from VSO-E. Most of them (called line managers, or our superiors at the placement) came. Both my programme manager and line manager didn't come. Bizuneh, my programme manager, was travelling in Dire Dawa to meet with his ward there, a volunteer at the same university. I am to interface with him and my line manager in Dire Dawa when I get there tomorrow.

Shopping/Walking Day

Scrumptious ferenji (Amharic, for foreigner) lunch with the newbies and the oldies.

Day 2 of the ICB. We met some of the volunteers. The volunteer committee, represented by Judy (Educ Policy, UK) , had a session with us.

It was shopping day for us as well. Judy and Francis (IT Advisor, Canada) took us shopping for supplies at the Shola (?) market, a good walk from the VSO-E country office. Shola (?) Market is not unlike some of our town markets back in the Philippines, with separate sections for the goods (this row for cutlery, that for textile, etc.), only way bigger.

In-Country Briefing

Hello Ethiopia. So this is how a balcony photo call feels like!

Finally met the other volunteers (my intake batchmates, is what we'd say back in the Philippines). I first met four of them, Elias (Hospital Admin, Kenya), Consolata (Midwife, Uganda), Simon (Educ Policy, UK), Trish (Paediatric Nurse, UK), at lunch -- we were all billeted at the same hotel. They arrived a day or so earlier than me, so they already had a chance to get acquainted with each other. Then, there was Irma (MD, The Netherlands) and -- (Nurse, USA), whom we met at the VSO-E (VSO Ethiopia) country office.