A week in Addis Ababa at a couple of meetings and preparing notes for the Millenium Villages laboratory staff.
This past weekend ventured south to Debre Zeit, a bustling town around 3 crater lakes, which had a number of hotels on their shores. The area was nothing spectacular but good for resting, cycling and kayaking.
Life for GSK ferenje is spilt between Addis Ababa, a bustling metroplis still with cattle, goats and sheep wandering around outside the Inetrnational Airport, to the rural villages of the Millenium Village Project,. Strikingly food, and insect bites are the key differences, and getting back to Addis Ababa gives some relief from both. Indulging in some western food helps!
Saturday 29 October 2011
Monday 17 October 2011
From the Simien Mountains to Gonder
Like a tale from Lord of the Rings I ventured to the Simien Mountains this past weekend for 2 days of trekking. An early morning flight that was changed both in time and route took me from Addis Ababa to the far north of Ethiopia to the ancient town of Axum and then back south-west to Gonder. From Gonder a 4 hr drive back towards Axum to the town of Debark and then another hour into the Simien Mountains National park to the Simien Lodge. The highest Lodge in Africa at 10,300 feet comprises about 20 Tukuls or thatched roof style huts with modern internal fit outs.
The drive to the Simiens took the main road north which has been under construction by the Chinese government already for 3 years and probably will take another 3-6 years to complete. The scenery was beautiful. A flat tyre in a town attracted locals aroun us ferenjes. Arriving late at 3.30 pm we picked up a guide and scout in Debark and after arrival at the lodge took a 2 hr walk around the hills of the lodge. Baboons were everywhere - like a scene from Planet of the Apes we could see them play and with a number of tourists getting up relatively close. As well local kids offering small baskets and hats made by hand. These kids some with no shoes and rags on their back and filthy dirty were trying to make a birr or two to support their families.
Saturday morning rose to the sound of quiet and a few birds, breakfast in the lodge and by 8.30 am started on what was to be a 4 hr, 16 km walk along the escarpment with guide and armed scout, and parallel to the gravel road that headed into the park for at least 110 km to the next town. Walking along the escarpment I saw birds, baboons, cattle, goats and sheep as well people, mostly kids and occasional a few houses that constituted some human habitation. Trucks packed with as many as 80 people passed along the road in both directions, but going to and or coming from villages inside the park. The beauty was indescribable of the view from the escarpment and can only compare it to the valleys in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney, Australia.
Up and down the hils we went, struggling to much with the climb itself but lack of oxygen at 10-11,000 feet. Stoping every 5-10 min or every 20 meters it seemed I was still not fit. Water and some small food to eat along the way. By 1 pm we had stopped and waited for our driver to come from the Lodge. He took us a further 10 min along the road, passing a camp site and then 15 min walk to high cliffs from which water fell, much like Yosemite in the US.
We then drove back about 35 min to the Lodge, just as fog started to roll in blocking all the views we had seen in the morning.
The back to the Lodge and the following day the drive back to Gonder. In Gonder a guided tour to view the 16th century castles or what remained following their partial destruction by British bombing Italian forces in WWII.
A
The drive to the Simiens took the main road north which has been under construction by the Chinese government already for 3 years and probably will take another 3-6 years to complete. The scenery was beautiful. A flat tyre in a town attracted locals aroun us ferenjes. Arriving late at 3.30 pm we picked up a guide and scout in Debark and after arrival at the lodge took a 2 hr walk around the hills of the lodge. Baboons were everywhere - like a scene from Planet of the Apes we could see them play and with a number of tourists getting up relatively close. As well local kids offering small baskets and hats made by hand. These kids some with no shoes and rags on their back and filthy dirty were trying to make a birr or two to support their families.
Saturday morning rose to the sound of quiet and a few birds, breakfast in the lodge and by 8.30 am started on what was to be a 4 hr, 16 km walk along the escarpment with guide and armed scout, and parallel to the gravel road that headed into the park for at least 110 km to the next town. Walking along the escarpment I saw birds, baboons, cattle, goats and sheep as well people, mostly kids and occasional a few houses that constituted some human habitation. Trucks packed with as many as 80 people passed along the road in both directions, but going to and or coming from villages inside the park. The beauty was indescribable of the view from the escarpment and can only compare it to the valleys in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney, Australia.
Up and down the hils we went, struggling to much with the climb itself but lack of oxygen at 10-11,000 feet. Stoping every 5-10 min or every 20 meters it seemed I was still not fit. Water and some small food to eat along the way. By 1 pm we had stopped and waited for our driver to come from the Lodge. He took us a further 10 min along the road, passing a camp site and then 15 min walk to high cliffs from which water fell, much like Yosemite in the US.
We then drove back about 35 min to the Lodge, just as fog started to roll in blocking all the views we had seen in the morning.
The back to the Lodge and the following day the drive back to Gonder. In Gonder a guided tour to view the 16th century castles or what remained following their partial destruction by British bombing Italian forces in WWII.
A
Wednesday 5 October 2011
Around Hawzen this week
Our MVP site in Hawzen has a coffee shop opposite as well as a pool room (they are very common in Hawzen). Unfortunately they dont have pool cues but have invented another game with the balls, much like lawn bowls. When no-one has anything on the drivers expecially and some of the staff congreagate for a fast exciting game. The rules seem to be mad up on the spot if we get involved. On a more seriius note, our Tigrinya lessons are progressing and can make ourselves understood in the market.
Saturday 1 October 2011
Back to basics - from Harar to Meskel
The last couple of weeks have been interesting with highs and lows at Millenium. Submitted my final report and went off to Harar and Addis Ababa for a tour and Meskel celebrations respectively. My visit to Addis Ababa was in fact driven by a meeting at EHNRI, the key institute which drives health based programmes and oversees the hospital laboratories programmes.
The trip to Addis was as usual uneventful, picked at Bole airport and to Harmony Hotel. Saturday morning got to the airport early for the flight to Harar, or in actual fact to Dire Dawa which is about 100 km west of Harar. Harar is in eastern Ethiopia, about 90% Muslim and a 1000 year history. Harar is not too far (<100 km) from Somaliland.
We were met at the airport by Binama in an old Peugeot station wagon (nearly all taxis in the region were old Peugeot's). The fact that it had no door or window handles, a bare metal floor, no workable gauges and a windscreen that one had to bend over to see through filled us with expectations. Well driving through the mountains and down to Harar was an interesting sight, through many towns and occasional breath taking scenes.
The hotel in Harar was the Heritage Plaza, a 6 year old hotel, which had somewhat shabby rooms that had not really been maintained. The reception were very nice, and after check in had organised a tour with a recommended guide called Hamdi ( unlicensed but still knew what he was doing). The old city of Harar celebrated about 1000 years in 2010, and judging by pictures and photos from 19th century had not chnage dmuch in the last 100 years. nevertheless wandering around the old city to see churches and mosques was intriguing. Everywhere were street markets and stalls. I wandered through the spice market , a rich aroma of smells. I had the opportunity to visit, the Hailie Selassie, house, Arthur Rimbaud (a famous French poet) house when he lived for a short time at the end of the 19th century. Visits to the only remaining blacksmith and to a coffee making house and to the khat market highlighted a great afternoon of enjoying Harari culture.
Apart from the old city, Harar is also famous for Khat, a mild narcotic containing plant, the inhabitants are constantly chewing on, and the feeding of hyensa at sunset.
The feeding of hyenas take splace just outside the old city walls. The hyenas, numbering about 6, are in fact doemsticated and fed well so that they will not likely attack. There are 2 feeding group shows, one being about 89 years old and the other about 10 years old. There are 1-2 feedings per evening depending on the number of tourists. The feeder entices the hyenas with meat by calling their names. Tourists can also feed the hyenas by holding a stick with meat on the end of it. For 100 birr per person it was interesting and all over in less than 15 min. I must say it was interesting and exciting.
The return trip from Harar to Dire Dawa was almost a non-event, when our car ran out of fuel as it was heading out of Hara. Luckily we rolled backwards into a gas station to fill up. In Dire Dawa we passed by the old railway station of the Addis Ababa - Dijbouti line.
After returning from Harar on Sundat aftrenoon, we had dinner and went to
As the rainy season is coming to an end this month, the Ethiopian highlands are starting to fill with a yellow daisy known as the Meskel flower. The Meskel holiday itself is an annual Ethiopian Orthodox religious holiday commemorating the discovery of the True Cross, which occurs on the 17 Meskerem (the first month in the Ethiopian calendar). The Meskel celebration involved burning of a very .large bonfire, which is connected to the belief that it was the smoke from a large fire that led to the discovery of the True Cross. The bonfire celebration took place the evening before the Meskel holiday day (Tuesday, September 27 this year), and we attended the large gathering in Meskel Square in Addis Ababa.
On the feast day this year, people from all over the world, but mostly Ethiopians, gathered in Meskel Square in Addis Ababa for festivities. There was singing, dancing and cheering throughout the afternoon and into the evening that day. Singing and dancing was led by Sunday School students from different schools in Addis Ababa who marched into Meskel Sqaure and then preformed various dances . A huge bonfire was lit at sunset. It was also the coldest and wettest day that I've experienced thus far in Ethiopia. Approximately 200,000 people were there that day to celebrate.
Reflecting on the past few weeks - I came to Ethiopia with a project outline and no expectations. Ups and downs of the culture, language barrier and bureacracy have challenged me, but the thing that I enjoy is getting out in the field meeting the people in the health clinic labs that I am supporting. Providing advice because they think I know something as I am not ethiopian and to be thanked is reward in itself. Still, no expectations works for me. The travels to Addis Ababa, to Harar to villages whose names I dont recall makes me see what differences and similarities we have in Australian society and Ethiopian. the blatant poverty and poor people of thiscountry and what they do to make a birr or $ shows we are no different - just trying to survive.
This week I started to learn Tigrinya.
The trip to Addis was as usual uneventful, picked at Bole airport and to Harmony Hotel. Saturday morning got to the airport early for the flight to Harar, or in actual fact to Dire Dawa which is about 100 km west of Harar. Harar is in eastern Ethiopia, about 90% Muslim and a 1000 year history. Harar is not too far (<100 km) from Somaliland.
We were met at the airport by Binama in an old Peugeot station wagon (nearly all taxis in the region were old Peugeot's). The fact that it had no door or window handles, a bare metal floor, no workable gauges and a windscreen that one had to bend over to see through filled us with expectations. Well driving through the mountains and down to Harar was an interesting sight, through many towns and occasional breath taking scenes.
The hotel in Harar was the Heritage Plaza, a 6 year old hotel, which had somewhat shabby rooms that had not really been maintained. The reception were very nice, and after check in had organised a tour with a recommended guide called Hamdi ( unlicensed but still knew what he was doing). The old city of Harar celebrated about 1000 years in 2010, and judging by pictures and photos from 19th century had not chnage dmuch in the last 100 years. nevertheless wandering around the old city to see churches and mosques was intriguing. Everywhere were street markets and stalls. I wandered through the spice market , a rich aroma of smells. I had the opportunity to visit, the Hailie Selassie, house, Arthur Rimbaud (a famous French poet) house when he lived for a short time at the end of the 19th century. Visits to the only remaining blacksmith and to a coffee making house and to the khat market highlighted a great afternoon of enjoying Harari culture.
Apart from the old city, Harar is also famous for Khat, a mild narcotic containing plant, the inhabitants are constantly chewing on, and the feeding of hyensa at sunset.
The feeding of hyenas take splace just outside the old city walls. The hyenas, numbering about 6, are in fact doemsticated and fed well so that they will not likely attack. There are 2 feeding group shows, one being about 89 years old and the other about 10 years old. There are 1-2 feedings per evening depending on the number of tourists. The feeder entices the hyenas with meat by calling their names. Tourists can also feed the hyenas by holding a stick with meat on the end of it. For 100 birr per person it was interesting and all over in less than 15 min. I must say it was interesting and exciting.
The return trip from Harar to Dire Dawa was almost a non-event, when our car ran out of fuel as it was heading out of Hara. Luckily we rolled backwards into a gas station to fill up. In Dire Dawa we passed by the old railway station of the Addis Ababa - Dijbouti line.
After returning from Harar on Sundat aftrenoon, we had dinner and went to
As the rainy season is coming to an end this month, the Ethiopian highlands are starting to fill with a yellow daisy known as the Meskel flower. The Meskel holiday itself is an annual Ethiopian Orthodox religious holiday commemorating the discovery of the True Cross, which occurs on the 17 Meskerem (the first month in the Ethiopian calendar). The Meskel celebration involved burning of a very .large bonfire, which is connected to the belief that it was the smoke from a large fire that led to the discovery of the True Cross. The bonfire celebration took place the evening before the Meskel holiday day (Tuesday, September 27 this year), and we attended the large gathering in Meskel Square in Addis Ababa.
On the feast day this year, people from all over the world, but mostly Ethiopians, gathered in Meskel Square in Addis Ababa for festivities. There was singing, dancing and cheering throughout the afternoon and into the evening that day. Singing and dancing was led by Sunday School students from different schools in Addis Ababa who marched into Meskel Sqaure and then preformed various dances . A huge bonfire was lit at sunset. It was also the coldest and wettest day that I've experienced thus far in Ethiopia. Approximately 200,000 people were there that day to celebrate.
Reflecting on the past few weeks - I came to Ethiopia with a project outline and no expectations. Ups and downs of the culture, language barrier and bureacracy have challenged me, but the thing that I enjoy is getting out in the field meeting the people in the health clinic labs that I am supporting. Providing advice because they think I know something as I am not ethiopian and to be thanked is reward in itself. Still, no expectations works for me. The travels to Addis Ababa, to Harar to villages whose names I dont recall makes me see what differences and similarities we have in Australian society and Ethiopian. the blatant poverty and poor people of thiscountry and what they do to make a birr or $ shows we are no different - just trying to survive.
This week I started to learn Tigrinya.
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