a weekend in Ethiopia

 

It's been a while since my last posts but internet access has been limited to say the least. I spent a few  days with my 2 friends from IDE in the Dongar region. The trip included visiting 3 more cooperatives, interviewing lots new beekeepers

 

chatting to more supermarket staff about honey

 

and trying ever-more stylish bee suits.

 

The time has now come for me to enjoy my first weekend in Ethiopia so let me try and convey a bit of what people like doing when they're not at work: namely eat and drink.

When it comes to food, things are pretty different in Ethiopia. Below is our 'breakfast treat' at 7am this morning. If we are used to the 'cooked' variety in the UK, here the breakfast are served 'raw'. Yes, that's it - meat straight off the cow.  How I missed my bacon and eggs / muesli and yogurt - and the weekend supplements whilst I'm at it.  

 
Meals are always served on injera - which looks like a soft pancake (but unfortunately doesn't taste anything like a pancake). You eat it with whatever meats, sauces or vegetables are on offer - a bit like a massive soft pizza with 'all you can eat' toppoings. Who said we needed knives and forks?
 

You can never be told off for 'not finishing your plate' as it's one dish for all, however in this occasion it was clear who hadn't eaten up...

As for drinks, I've tried the delicious honey-wine (tej) as well as local beer but what was my surprise to get served a green smoothie when I asked for a mixed juice. Unfortuantely, it didn't taste anything like our kiwis, apples & limes but rather an avocado soup. So the next day, I went back to good old OJ - you can't beat the classics.

 
 

the evil knits

Adam the Vampire's been up to all sorts of mischief in the office. Jumping from pumpkin to pumpkin, sticking bits of fruit on them (nice nose), and foolishly teetering on the brink of danger.

Though we worry he may have got a little carried away with an unsuspecting visitor to Fruit Towers, who merely wanted to wash their hands.

Edgar Allen Skull & The Pieces Of Eight have been living it large and making all sorts of noise in Room Fruit. Even Larry the Spider's been getting involved.

Jenny the witch has been hanging around with Salvador the rat, which can only mean hubble, bubble, toil and trouble.

 

And the phantom hugger has been putting off any would be trick or treaters, sending them crying up the drive, without their sweets (until next year).

 

But at the end of a good day's haunting, bewitching, biting, spellcasting, and drumming, they all like to get together to watch the Cat signal glow, and wait for the Panther of Hammersmith to arrive (we call her Charlie) and then things can really get spooky.

 

Happy Halloween.

 

Big Knit student ambassador competition

And the winner is...

Birmingham Knitsock - as organised by Rosie Campbell and Laura Whitley. We had many teams enter the competition, but these guys really took a hold of the yarn and ran with it.

 

Here's the team at their first group meeting of the year, having a nice knit in the park.

 

And these are just some of the hats of their labour.

 

A big congratulations to them, and to everyone who took part. Thanks for your contributions, every hat counts.

 

honey market board

Emilie's having a bit of internet trouble so here's her latest update from Ethiopia:

It's been an epic 2 days since I last wrote.

Yesterday I met the local team yesterday and had a good old taste test to break the ice

We then spent the rest of the day visiting supermarkets, chatting to honey buyers and sellers to find about a bit more about honey consumption and people's favourite brands.

We finished up at the Beekeeper's Union (note the 'honey styled' architecture')

Today, we visited a co-operative of beekeepers in Dangla (which is about 2 hours South) where I met and interviewed some of the co-op executive committee. 

They were really passionate and very enthusiastic in the way they spoke about their hives, honey prices and IDE's training workshops. But when it came to taking pictures, this was my best attempt to get them to smile.

October is an exciting time for the co-op as it's the beginning of the harvest season when the members can all start processing and selling the beekeepers' honey again. 

They've been out of stock since July which means the co-operative shopkeepers sole role for the last months has been turning customers down. I think I'd have gone crazy in that time but here she is with the first honey of the season

My favourite bit of the day was meeting the co-op's 'star' beekeeper, Walker. I got to put on a bee suit and see his hives. One bee managed to get in and attempted to kiss me on the cheek, but apart from a few shrieks (much to the entertainment of the co-operative), neither the bee or me were harmed.

We finished the day in the honey section of the wholesale market - a succession of slightly tired tents selling honey and butter.

The outside appearance should have given me a hint as to what I would find inside but it was really honey in it's very crudest form i.e. big plastic drums filled with honey and dead bees floating inside.

Now I can really see where IDE's co-operatives are making a difference and adding value to the keepers' honey, enabling them to sell it at a higher price.

After all, I think people would be prepared to pay more to avoid having to fish out dead bees before spreading honey on their toast.

 
 

hat of the week: halloween special

Last week's hat of the week winner was the openable egg and spoon by Rachel Watts. Congratulations Rachel, smoothies on their way to you now...

Since then, somethings spooky's been going on in Fruit Towers. The sound of wailing in the Big Fridge. Mugs and plates flying through the kitchen of their own accord. Bubbling cauldrons dangerously left lying around the kitchen. What does it all mean? It must be a Halloween special of hat of the week.

This fellow floated over from the central line, down the Goldhawk Road and through Fruit Towers, despite being weighed down by his heavy ball and chain. We give you: The Phantom Hugger.

 

And to make things even spookier, Jenny the Witch threw a magic potion at our normally cast-iron rules of two-hat hat of the week competitiveness, so that her friend, Adam the Vampire could join her for this week's challenge. Well, he looked like an Adam to us.

You can cast your spell here.

 

fancy working here as a people's champion?

 
We have a vacancy here at fruit towers, and it's a very important vacancy.

Each week, lots of our drinkers get in touch with us. Nice folk that we are, we like to get back to them, and we have a team of people's champions here dedicated to doing just that. We need a new person to join this team.

We're looking for someone who is passionate about innocent. We're looking for someone who can write brilliant emails. We're looking for someone with a lovely phone manner and bucket loads of creativity. We're looking for the lid to the milk, it was just there a minute ago (how does it always do that?), but that's beside the point.

If you think you've got what it takes to be the champion of all of our consumers, then find out more and apply here. The closing date for applications is 8th November, and we're looking for the best of the best. Good luck.

first day at work in Ethiopia

I spent this morning meeting the 13 members of the SOS-Sahel team in Addis (one of IDE's partners, it's all a bit incestuous in the charity world) finding out more about the history of my honey project. I couldn't resist sharing the mangoes & passion fruits smoothie I had brought along. They now want us to launch innocent in Ethiopia but that's another story.

SOS Sahel have 10 projects around the country, which help smallholder farmers bring all kinds products to market. Here they are proudly showing off incense and aloe vera soap. Not sure why Tabede looks pregnant when he is of a rare fine build - must be the sun reverberating. It's pretty bright here.

Tabede and I then flew up north to Bahir Dar where I will be spending the next week or so visiting the bee cooperatives. It's a shame blogs can't (yet) communicate sounds and smells because this place is completely magical and exactly what I remembered of my time in Cameroon 10 years ago (with more internet cafes and mobile phones but the same fires in courtyards, herds of goats crossing the streets and cheerful children playing everywhere)   

To try and give you an idea, here is the view from my hotel room:

And here are all my belongings neatly tucked into my wardrobe: colourful clothes, a collection of honey pots, the book about innocent and Emma H's rucksack. What more does one need? 

laundry love

Our friends over at method have very kindly given us 30 bottles of their new laundry detergent to give away to make your smalls sing and help spread the clean, green word.

 

To win yourself a bottle (and some brownie points from your washing machine), just tell us your favourite way to get your clothes dirty below.

We'll then pick the winners out of an oversized laundry basket on Monday 1st November.

No rude/illegal entries please. It's a family show after all.

competititve Ethiopian honey market

I landed this morning in Addis Abeba, the capital of Ethiopia, with only a 2 hour delay. Not a bad start. Luckily this box made the airport queue slightly more entertaining.

We then spent the afternoon touring round the supermarkets to find out more about local honey products.

What was my surprise to find not 3, not even 4 but 5 different brands, none of which advertise the moisture content like ours does. Where does our Amar honey fit in this fierce competitive environment? We will find out over the next two weeks. And yes, the seats in the hotel lobby really are as comfortable as they look: I might suggist them to Ethiopian Airlines.

 

hats of international heritage

We've had hats from all across the country, from Torbay to Lossiemouth (via Tal-y-Cafn). But not only have hats come from this fair Isle, but they've also been sent in from various United States, including Ohio, Massachusetts, and New York, Koln in Germany, Melbourne Australia, and whilst a particualr set of hats weren't sent from Calgary In Canada, they were knitted by a Brit on holiday over there. Which kind of counts.

We thought this little map was a nice way to see where some of our hats have travelled from (courtesy of Travelpod).

 

But where will they travel too? Make sure to send us pictures of you and your hats abroad.