A Surprise List

It may be surprising to many that Ethiopia is the only African country that was never colonized.  Outside of a brief Italian occupation, Ethiopia escaped European colonization.

There are many other things we have found surprising here.  I’ve made a list.  It’s called the “I’m surprised that………” list.

1.     None of us have been run over by a bus.  Crossing the street continues to be a “take your life in your hands” type exercise.

2.     There appears to be no limit to the amount of coffee a person can consume; this applies in particular to Mike

3.     Injera is very tasty (we had been told otherwise).

4.     I get unreasonably frustrated with the fact that I have no control over the water temperature of our shower.

5.     The Merkato Market didn’t seem much like a market.

6.     The kids have adjusted so well to their new school. :)

7.     Beer costs about fifty cents. 4 bananas, 3 avocados and 4 guavas cost about $1.00

8.     I am considering taking up bird watching.  There is a plethora of lovely birds around here.

9.     I can still only say about five phrases in Amharic-- a poor language student at best.

10.  It seems to be true that you can make do with much less. We’ll see if we are still saying that in a year.

A very small lady, Unwelcome guests and Interesting times

Ethiopia is thought to be the birthplace of mankind.  3.2 million years ago Lucy was upright and walking in present day Ethiopia.  Then, in 1974 the fossilized Lucy was discovered in a dried-up lake in Ethiopia.  She is the oldest and most complete hominid to be found. 

With this in mind, we visited the National Museum in Addis to pay a visit to Lucy.  We learned few things:  Lucy is very small.  Lucy has emigrated to America for safe keeping and only a replica Lucy can be viewed in Addis.

scary cows

We had some interesting front door visitors the other day.  We arrived home to find two horned cows at our doorstep.   Close up, they actually look quite scary—too scary for me to walk in front of.  Luckily, a chivalrous  six year old boy was able to guide Aysha and me around the cows.

Today, Mike and I toured the fistula hospital—a hospital dedicated to repairing fistulas that women develop as a complication of childbirth (almost unheard of in Canada).

Some unhappy statistics: a pregnant women in rural Ethiopia has about a 1 in 25 chance of dying either in childbirth or from a complication of childbirth.   For women who survive, there is a high risk of developing a fistula as a complication of obstructed labour.   This is mostly due to lack of accessible maternal care.  Happy statistics: the fistula clinic provides surgery and rehabilitation free of charge and is making inroads in training health care providers who provide maternal care. For more info you can take a look at their website: http://www.hamlinfistula.org/our-hospital.html

Some interesting times here in Ethiopia.  In the last two weeks both the patriarch of the orthodox church, Dr Abuna Paulos and the Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi passed away.  So far, things have been peaceful and stable during this transition time.  We’ll see what the next few weeks bring.

Closing words from Aysha and Sunil:  We really like our school, even though we get way more homework.  Also the teachers do really good afterschool activities.

Reflections on many ants, one tortoise, and four words

My new morning routine is to get up and start culling the ants that have set up house on our dining table while we sleep.  I think it may be time to undertake some serious chemical warfare.

Our new friend

Things however pick up after that.  In an attempt to get our money’s worth from the kids’ school fees, Mike and I have started using the schools rubberized track in the morning.  We have made friends with the resident tortoise on the track (he usually occupies the inside lane).  It makes us feel good that we can lap someone.

Running does seem to be a national pastime here.  Everyday in Meskal Square local runners gather to train. Their skill level is several (hundred) notches above ours. It is unlikely that we will ever muster the courage to join them.  As you know, the Ethiopian women dominated the middle and long distance running events at the Olympics.

This week we learned that the people who are not trying to pick your pocket are actually very kind and helpful.  Lots of random small acts of kindness this week.  This made us happy.

The straightforward Amharic alphabet

It is surprising to me that after being here for two weeks, I can only say four things in Amharic (hello, goodbye, thank you, and how much are these bananas?).  There is a limited usefulness for my limited vocabulary.  Goal for next week is to learn at least four more phrases. 

Aysha has joined the Cross Country team at school.  The training schedule looks slightly scary (lots of fartlek and interval training).  Sunil has joined a theatre group called theatre sports, which looks very cool.

View from the front window of our cab

Still not thrilled that the kids have a long commute to school in a beat up taxi, with unexplainable road rules and no seat belts.  We hope to move closer to the school soon.

Closing words from Aysha and Sunil: I’m excited to move into a new house, but I’ll miss the little kids outside of our house.   I hope our new house has a toilet seat and fewer ants.   I like cross country but my legs are sore.

P.S.—As you can see from all this blogging, we have too much spare time.  Mike and I need to get to work :)

Dyspnea, mud, food and orphans

Muddy run

Addis Ababa is 5^th highest capital in the world at about 2500m or 8000 feet .  This fact became quite apparent when we went on our first run with the Hash Harriers.  We started with a most minimal incline; we were short of breath after about 30 paces and none of us could get up the hill.  In the end the run turned out to be a slippery affair through mud and rivers. Some of the local kids (who at the age of 7, seem to be responsible for herding the families goats) joined the run wearing their mismatched flip flops.  They were faster and much more adept at river crossing than we were.  We’re hoping we didn’t contract bhilarzia.

This week the pick pocketers were more creative.  This is how it went:  a young man leans over and pretends to clean his shoe.  Then he “accidently” spits on Mike’s hand.  Comes over to apologize and help Mike clean his hand and also helps himself into Mike’s pocket.  Seems strange to us that in all of our travels we have never encountered this before.  We’re interested to see what happens next week.

Coffee at Kaldi's (Ethiopia's Starbucks)

Bamboo scaffolding

Addis is definitely a growing city.  There is construction going on everywhere.  All the scaffolding for these huge buildings is made from bamboo—very safe for the workers.  Amazing to see all these huge buildings going up and then in the same space kids herding cattle.   Also lots of lovely coffee shops with beautiful pastries in the mix.

Lots of new and good food this week.  Who knew that an avocado mango shake was so good.  Tebs and injera are another hit.  There is also a mixture of coffee and tea called spriss; Mike says it’s good.

Mike and I are easing into work.  We are meeting with some prospective residents next week.  Last week we attended psych rounds.  The case presentation was about an orphan, who was about to be discharged “home”.  Unfortunately home is the street.  There are almost 4 million orphans in Ethiopia; most have been orphaned because of HIV/AIDS and poverty.  For some sober reading check out this Unicef site: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/ethiopia_30783.html

Words from Aysha and Sunil “we are tired of having ants in the house;

we saw a naked guy peeing on the street; it was nice to run with kids and goats yesterday and we’re enjoying our nightly routine of watching an episode of I Love Lucy on our tiny DVD player.”

Cabs that are taking the kids to school

Another interesting week.  Our only real struggle is the distance our place is from the school.  We’re hoping that CUSO will “let” us move to a closer place.

The Ups and Downs of our first week in Addis

So, here’s our first crack at writing a blog.   First a disclaimer, the views expressed in this blog are ours (Anj, Mike, Aysha and Sunil’s), they do not necessarily reflect the views of CUSO international.

We've been in Addis for one week now--a large sprawling city that we think is going to take some time to get to know.   

 

It’s the last month of the rainy season. It seems to rain periodically during the day, causing very muddy streets and making laundry very difficult to dry.  We were expecting much worse, so this is good.

Kids' room

After a few days in a hotel we moved into our house.  Two bedroom place (the kids are currently sharing a room and a single bed---you can imagine how that’s going J).   One really appreciates the wealth disparity around here.  We have a cement house with some green space.  Across the path from us are families living in mud walled houses.  Close to the kids' school are insanely big mansions.    Around us there are strings of vendors selling everything from shoes, batteries, vegies and then a random upscale Starbucks like coffee shop.  I guess it’s the same everywhere, though it seems even more apparent here.

Our house

Over the last few days we have been trying to organize phones, internet, banking; all these things are an interesting merry-go-round of forms, photos and forms.

We were almost pick pocketed the other day; it all went down like a page from the Lonely Planet.  All of us walking on a fairly deserted street, a bunch of teenage boys approach us, one guy shoves some stuff at us that he wants to sell, in the meantime the others unzip my purse and dive into Mike’s pocket.  Luckily Sunil fought them off with his umbrella (true story) and we are none the poorer.

Our kitchen

Now a few words from Sunil “I know everyone loves me here, all the kids around here are always hanging onto me and calling after me.  Our school is really big compared to Wawa”

First day of school

Words from Aysha “There are lots of cute kids everywhere, especially across the path from us.  Also, there are lots of animals in the street.  At school, there are people from all over the world.  Most kids have lived in tons of different countries”

Mike and I are meeting with Dr. Dawit and the CUSO gang to sort out the details of our work.  Will be good for us to get to work.  We still have some sorting to do with getting the kids to and from school, but all in all things are good.

2 days and counting

First taste of Ethiopian food in Ottawa

2 days and counting!  Mike and I are trying to multitask--pack, do laundry and make sure we're close to the TV for  the 100m final.   Sum and Marcie had a  terrific send off for us yesterday in Collingwoood.  Was great to catch up with family and friends.

We'll let you know when we've landed in Addis Ababa.   Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Send off in Collingwood