Flying by!

I am over halfway through my time in Ethiopia, and things are happening at a fast pace these days.

Over the past couple of weeks my Amharic teacher, Rakeb, has been working hard to get me up to speed on the language. Unfortunately I have not been the best of students and am still stuck at simple greetings and random words I can spit out in unstructured sentences. I did finally purchase a English-Amharic dictionary, but if you’ve ever seen the Amharic alphabet, then you will realize that it doesn’t mean much. An example of where I am at… I recently got very excited when I saw that a shop was selling Snickers bars. I went up to the lady and asked “Sintino?” which means (How much does it cost?). Since I only know numbers 1-10 though, I had no idea what she said back to me. Then there is the awkward moment of pulling out a 100 Birr note ($6) and waiting to see what happens.

Rakeb showing me Meskel Square

Thanks to Rakeb and another Ethiopian friend of mine, Antennah, I am finally getting a good feel for Addis Ababa. They have kindly taken the time to show me popular sections of town, the best cafes, museums, and historical sites. It has been so nice to not have to manage the taxi bus system on my own during these adventures. It is hard to explain, but basically unless you are ready and willing to shove or even use an elbow on an elderly woman, then you are not going to get on a taxi bus during rush hour. Seriously.

Another view of Meskel Square, a cool place where large gatherings occur during Ethiopian Holidays

We will purchase plane tickets next week, but it looks like I will be flying back to Gambella on Sunday, August 5^th. I will be there for about 3 weeks implementing a new project for CCL and then I will fly back to Addis Ababa and hopefully fly right to the Somali region of Ethiopia, take a bus to the border of Somaliland, then take a bus to the capital of Somaliland. If anyone is familiar with Somaliland, you will understand my excitement of getting a Visa to go there since it is not a recognized country! Hopefully it all works out! Then about the time I get back from that adventure I will be packing to head back to Denver. Scary to think that time is going by so quickly!!!

Not the best picture, but this is an area near my guesthouse called Kazanchis. I am always amazed by the contrasts in this country. The right side of the road is full of new towers, fancy hotels, clubs, nice restaurants, etc... while the left hand side of the road is tiny shops, rusty tin houses, shady bars, etc. So close together, yet worlds apart!