My second full day in Addis…
on New Adventures in Ethiopia (Ethiopia), 06/Feb/2009 09:25, 34 days ago
Second day. Still no luggage but Im getting by…I woke up very early, got dressed and without knowing what time it was, I just packed my little bag and went outside and put music in my ears and walked around the grounds of the Red Cross building I am staying in. It was about 7am and it was a crisp fresh morning in Addis.I managed to get to send some emails before breakfast which made me feel much better to have made contact. After breakfast, we got straight into the training at 8. We had presentations today on the country strategic plan by our Program Director who is really very nice and encouraging and wants us all to do well. We also had a very knowledgeable Ethiopian speaker talk to us about the geopolitics of the country and then we had a really fun Amharic language lesson which I really enjoyed. Our teacher is very nice. Ethiopians in general are extremely nice people. The girl who works in the programme office (the Ethiopian VSO staff) is so helpful and kind it unbelievable. Sweet people. What will strike you here is that people are very real here. Life is real. There is no extra and no pretense. People are genuinely nice and want to help and it’s really humbling. Even the staffs in the cafeteria of the Red Cross are so accommodating to a point that you feel guilty that they feel they should take care of you and attend to you as much as they do. Im sure things will change when I am living alone as I will have to fend for myself but the Ethiopians Im sure will do their utmost to help me settle in and welcome me.One concern that I have is that the volunteers going to Awassa in our group are older women and I am not sure how I would feel about sharing an accommodation with any of them. If I share I would like to share with someone in my age group and someone who can be a safety companion. I think this would be more of a liability. I would nonetheless prefer to have my own place. Having said this, I have voiced my concerns to the VSO staff and as with everything else, they have been receptive and said they will do their utmost to ensure I am content with the arrangement.Last night, Kohar and her mum came to pick me up and we drove out of this area I’m into Addis Ababa center. The first thing you’ll notice is that there are LOTS of people walking on the street and really close to the cars…its mayhem driving in this city…there is lots of honking and even more near misses.Wow…its like spaghetti and people do not use lines, crossing, no order whatsoever…so after dropping Kohar’s mum at their house, we went to this bar called MKs and met her cousin Vahe. I tell you what it’s the strangest feeling driving in a very African setting in a car and talking to Armenianswho are at home here. Wow…life is truly beautiful. We sat down at the bar and ordered some food and drinks and talked for a couple of hours and then left. It was cool. The meat here tastes like the real deal. Delicious.So…after our training was over, about 6 of us had to go to a clinic to have our blood tested because we didn’t know our blood type. Ill find out what it is. This is in case, God forbid, something happens; they know what kind of blood to give us. We drove in the VSO SUV with three of us in the back and four of us sitting where the cargo goes! It was fun...We drove through the city and saw people selling goats on the side of the street and masses of people peering at a bunch of us whites! Addis is a HUGE city and you can pretty much find anything…there are all kinds of restaurants and shops…it just takes getting used to the setting but you can find anything here. There are some very beautiful orthodox churches…I’m hoping to visit some when I get a chance.I must say that my exhaustion really set in by the time we got back. We had dinner then I basically went straight to bed. I woke up at 4 am, listened to some music, went over my language lesson and now its 5am and Im typing up my memories of the day so that I don’t forget!I met a really interesting Russian girl who married an Indian guy who works for the United Nations and she is volunteering with VSO for a few months. She is from Toronto and she lives here now. I talked to her about working at the UN and she gave me some very useful information. She has 2 kids here and she says life is wonderful. Her kids go to a very good British school here and she has a house help who nannies her children when she and her husband are working. Women here who live here and have good jobs basically don’t have to cook or clean or do the difficult part of raising children. The Ethiopian house helps are like second mothers –reliable and honest. So she just enjoys her kids and is totally carefree about whether they will grow up ok. And trust the person that is with your children? I can’t eventell you how much these house helps get paid. Let me just say you could maybe buy a pizza with that in LA.Anyway, Im about to start my day…training starts at 8 again and today we will be visiting the city again and going to the British Embassy. I don’t feel homesick but I do have my loved ones on my mind constantly. I want everyone to be assured that I am ok and I feel at home here. I love it. Its not unsafe. Even in our trainingwe were told that there is very little violent crime here. The worst I might be subject to is someone pick pocketing or stealing my cell phone and if I use common sense then that won’t happen. I have to take the same precautions I would take in any other big city with a little extra.Love to all…Arin