First roam around…
on New Adventures in Ethiopia (Ethiopia), 13/Feb/2009 03:46, 34 days ago
Of course as I get busier and busier here, I will tend to write less and less but I will try to include my several days activities in to one posting at least. Well…on Thursday we had our usual language lesson.For the past few days we have been taught by Aster who is a really excellent language teacher. She is so vibrant and beautiful both physically and in her energy and I am grateful to her for teaching so well. I really like the language and as I go out and about in the city, I will be using the words and phrases I know to the best of my ability until I get fluent.After our language lesson, we had a planned health briefing at the British embassy with the VSO medical liaison– Dr. Geetha. We drove to the embassy and our bus drove through some huge gates and into beautiful gardens housing the embassy. We were given a one hour briefing by the doctor about all possible medical scenarios and precautions to take and also how to use the contents of our first aid kits that are really wonderfully equipped with everything you could possibly need. The security at the embassy was extremely strict and we did see an aged tortoise on the grounds drinking water which was really cute. He was huge.Today was the first day I had luggage so I made an effort and looked nice which felt good because everyone complimented me on how different I looked. It was nice to be clean and have my clothes. Upon rushing back from the embassy (because of course in true African tradition we were running late) we met with our Program Link Officers who are basically our point of contact. We had one on one sessions and I was told about my accommodation. I will be living in a compound with the landlord which will mean that I will have my own place with a living room, kitchen and bedroom for myself. I am glad to be in close proximity with the landlord because it means I will be safer, I will pay less for my bills and I will be able to better practice my Amharic.I also got my Ethiopian SIM card today so I have a functioning phone which feels better I must say…At dinner, I had a long talk with Geleta about ethnicity in Ethiopia and the diversity of the political situation here. The conversation came about because we were discussing the African Summit that took place in Addis Ababa and Gadaffi was on TV. We got onto the subject of how it was on the agenda to discuss the idea of a united Africa. It was an interesting discussion. It amazes me how intelligent some of the people are here and how little opportunity they have. Ethiopians have a different African flavor. They are very very different in their attitude, the way they hold themselves and how they view the world. They are very humble but not subservient. It’s a healthy combination.Before dinner, Vishwa and I went for a walk around the proverbial block…wow…there are masses of people here and the roads are mainly rubble and potholes with asphalt roads only in some places. As a pedestrian you have to be extremely careful because there are no road markings and the cars and you exist in the same space. People walk in masses here all over the place all over the roads and the cars go really close to people in a jumbled mess pattern.