Hippos, Pterodactyl and Football...
on Tara's Ethiopian Adventure (Ethiopia), 24/Feb/2010 11:43, 34 days ago
Last weekend we went to Awassa to see the last few days of the Inter-University Sports Festival. My line manager was on the organisation committee and invited us to see the final but also mostly so that we could enjoy the beautiful lake-side town of Awassa. He is very thoughtful like that! We arrived on Friday just in time to watch the semi-finals of the football competition alongside the last of the athletics. They were both pretty amazing and I was impressed with the speed that they ran (some in the athletics even doing it without shoes), however, I couldn’t help but be distracted by the gigantic birds flying over head. From a distance these birds resemble storks and you can imagine them quite happily carrying a basket with a baby in... on closer inspection though they are one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen and along with their size look more suited to carryingawayadult sized humans! My VSO friends in Awassa affectionately referred to them as Pterodactyls and there definitely is something prehistoric looking about them!We stayed in Awassa until Monday morning and it felt like a perfect holiday. It made me realise how much I miss living by open water and I felt quite envious of the other volunteers who live here! We spent most of the weekend with the Awassa Volunteers but met up with the Ambo contingency at least once each day. It was a perfect weekend of sun, walks, great food (they have some lovely Italian restaurants in Awassa), great entertainment (the football final and the closing ceremony of the festival being highlights) and great company. On Saturday we took a boat ride out to see the hippos and I enjoyed using the big zoom on my SLR to photograph a baby hippo. So cute!! We spent the rest of the day lazing around various, restaurants, cafes, bars (did I ever tell you it is a hard life being a volunteer?!).On Sunday we got up really early to climb a local hill overlooking the lake with some other volunteers (any later and it just gets too hot) followed by a rather indulgent pancake brunch in one volunteer’s home. This volunteer was a retired Geography teacher and it was great being able to share Geography teaching stories (yes I know... Geek)! We then all joined our Ambo Colleagues for the football final...Wollega University vs Addis Ababa University. I’m not normally a great football fan but this was a fantastic game to watch... Wollega were 2 goals up until the last 10 minutes...then finally Addis won in a penalty shootout! Just before the match the festival had its closing ceremony which resembled that of the Olympics and even came with a 20 minute synchronised display involving about 200 local children. All very colourful and energetic... the atmosphere all afternoon was very festive!On Monday we headed back to Ambo with the University Sports Teams. Maggie and I were placed on a bus with most of the female athletes. What should have been an 7 hour journey back turned into 12 as we stopped for an hour or so at a hot spring resort (a final treat) then had regular stops for coffee and food...and to let the engine on the bus cool! It was a very hot and uncomfortable journey and Maggie and I were thinking we should have just made our own way back on public transport (would at least have been faster) until the last 3km of our journey. This last bit made up for the previous 12 hours! Just outside of Ambo all the vehicles carrying athletes from the even met the Vice President to travel in convey to the university. For 3km we travelled at snail’s pace with the drivers honking their horns and all the passengers singing or chanting at the top of their voices. Maggie and I had no idea what we were singing but it was such a fantastic atmosphere as we sang and clapped our way onto campus and were greeted by cheering crowds! You’d of thought we had won the event... everyone was so ecstatic!