Amber Henshaw

Dramatic drumming

Download burundi.mp3 I got a press release at 3pm today from UNICEF saying that the Burundi Drummers would be playing outside City Hall at 4pm as part of the Bob Marley 60th anniversary celebrations. We tore over there as fast as we could. We needn't really have rushed - when we arrived they were still on their way.

When they finally arrived and got going they were absolutely spectacular - dressed in red, green and white they played and moved with huge energy and passion. (Andrew's put some pictures on www.meskelsquare.com)

What I think I loved the most about the whole thing was the reaction from  passers-by. The drummers went out of the City Hall complex across a very busy road and then paraded round a roundabout.....traffic ground to a holt as mesmerised bus and car drivers (and police) looked on in a slightly perplexed fashion. And vast crowds of people gathered to watch it all.

It reminded me of why I love Addis...the fact that you never know where your day will lead and it's essential to expect the unexpected.

An hour later I was sitting with some lovely rastas from Manchester discussing the various merits of Bob Marley.

Rastas roll in

The month-long celebrations to mark Bob Marley's 60th birthday have just been launched at the Sheraton.

It all gets going on Tuesday (1st February) with a three-day long symposium ...each day there will be different subject linked to a Bob Marley song..i.e gender and development under the umbrella of No Woman No Cry.

It'll be interesting to see how different it is from the Commission For Africa. If Rita Marley is anything to go by - it should certainly be colourful. She arrived (late!) at the press conference today wearing a fab dress, Dame Edna glasses with her hair piled high.

Apparently she was late because she'd been with the mayor of Addis checking out sites for a Bob Marley statue. She also announced today that there is going to be a Bob Marley park in Entoto (just outside the city).

But the main event of the month-long celebrations is the big concert in Meskel Square next Sunday (feb 6th). It is still shrouded in mystery (if that's the right word..)..so no one really knows - barr the family - who is playing.

The rumour mill is going crazy...names being touted around include Stevie Wonder and Peter Gabriel. I even spied Natalie Imbruglia in town two days ago...could it be that she too is taking part? Mmm - I guess we'll find out next Sunday.

South Africa scam

Andrew and I interviewed this guy with the most incredible story last week.

His name is Abraham Tadesse and he's a 24-year-old mechanic.

He was working in Harar in eastern Ethiopia but came to Addis on leave. While he was here he went to have his hair cut and overheard someone saying that you could earn $2,000 a month in South Africa working on new buildings and stadiums for the World Cup in 2010.

Abraham went to the bank and took out all of his savings..about 13,000 Birr (about £900) and then embarked on the most terrifying journey of his life.

I won't go in to all of the details (it took Abraham two-and-a-half hours to tell us what had happened to him).

During the five months he was away from Ethiopia he watched the other 16 people he was with die (some were eaten by hyenas, others became ill). He had his papers taken away from him - he said he was arrested seven times by police, beaten and forced to give out huge bribes.

In the end he was dumped at the Tanzania/Mozambique border (where he said there was another 750 Ethiopians in similar positions). Abraham managed to escape to a Mosque where he converted to Islam. And he was helped
to get to Kenya and then eventually back to Ethiopia.

He's been back in Ethiopia since December and is just getting himself back together again after what must have been the most horrific ordeal.

He said that even if someone had killed his father he would get down on his knees and beg them not to fall for a scam like this.

Dogs gone?

One of the things that struck me about Addis on first arrival was the number of dogs. In fact it was once dubbed the city of dogs (I think by the Polish journalist Kapuscinski??). You see lots of strays in the street but I noticed it much more at night....when you wake up in the twilight hours all you can hear across the city is dogs' howling and barking.

Lots of our ferenji friends have inherited dogs or taken them in off the street - most of them don't seem to belong to anyone. But we've recently made some new friends who are taking this rescuing business one step further.

Inat and Gili (not sure about that spelling) are both live and work here. Inat is trying to set up the Addis Ababa Community for Animals - so far it's just a pilot project - but the plan is to protect and control the population of homeless dogs. The charity wants to do this by using animal birth control.
It'll be interesting to see how people react to this latest NGO and whether it does manage to control Addis' huge dog population.

Ethiopia ignored

Yesterday was a public holiday in Ethiopia. Just as we were deciding what to do I had a call from on of my brother's friends' asking me to take part in a live debate on the BBC's Five Live. A press release had come out from Medecins Sans Frontier listing the top 10 most under-reported stories round the world..they were saying this under-reporting was highlighted during the coverage of the tsunami. Their point was that the tsunami affected tens of thousands whereas there are millions dieing or at risk in Africa whose plight is being ignored.

I have often wondered why some stories get so much attention and some are just ignored..there are so many examples but East Timor certainly springs to mind. It comes down to news values to an extent..by its nature news has to be unusual, shocking and new but that in itself doesn't explain it entirely.

From my own experience I know that Ethiopia's latest appeal for emergency aid for 2.2 million people didn't really attract much media attention. News editors want to know how this latest appeal differs from last year or the year befores appeal - is it worse, are more people affected? But as a journalist it is surely my job to inform people what is happening wherever I'm working so perhaps it's down to me to find new ways to convince news editors that this is still a story worth telling.

Ferenji fever

There is a peculiar phenomenon in Ethiopia called ferenji fever.

Wherever you are, however remote it is, as soon as your car stops within seconds you are surrounded by huge groups of people. Sometimes up to a hundred within a few moments. There’s usually a lot of pointing, giggling as well as demands for money. This is accompanied by the onlookers shouting ferenji ferenji. None of this is threatening - in fact it’s generally very friendly. You are a ferenji (white foreigner) and therefore somewhat of a freak.

Until this week I had no idea where ferenji had come from. We were down in the south with the UN’s World Food Programme and we stopped at a farmer’s plot of land and were surrounded by crowds. Afterwards our companion told us that the first foreigner in Ethiopia had been French ….when the locals saw him they were amazed and asked him what nationality he was. He answered that he was French but the locals pronounced it as ferench and hence the word ferenji was born. And it really is incredibly popular country-wide.

Rising out of the rubble

Addis seems very much a city in transition. It's changed dramatically since I first came here at the end of 2002 on holiday. There were signs of construction and development then but that's nothing compared to now. The whole city is littered with cranes and building sites…huge, shiny, glass-fronted buildings are springing up all over the place...most of them seem to be empty but they are still there.

The area we live in (around the Atlas Hotel) wasn't too affected by all this until a few weeks ago when a nearby bridge, which connects us to the city, was closed. It's being widened to make room for the scores of beaten-up Lada taxis and the ever-increasing number of huge, flash cars which hurtle around the city streets. Bulldozers moved in along with teams of 'ninjas' - anonymous, dusty women covered up from head to toe so you can't even see their faces. The 'ninjas' seem to do most of the hard graft - they have to smash up huge rocks and cart heavy loads of rubble backwards and forwards.

Two days ago the building work was extended and we got home to find the entire street at the bottom of our road completely destroyed. There are enormous gaping holes where there was asphalt. Most of the stalls and shops along the route have simply been dug up..who knows what's happened to the owners and where they are supposed to go and earn a living now.

I'm ashamed to admit we were outraged when we woke up on Sunday morning without electricity, water and an internet connection. But I suppose that's the price of development.

My first picture

Me and Andrew on New Year's Eve

Test post

Sunny Saturday afternoon in Addis - just testing out my new blog