Archived Blog
Back to Addis
Another week gone in Ethiopia. Crazy. The start of the week I was still in Langano with Brian and Laura. Monday was Brian's birthday, although he had to go to a meeting with local law enforcement to see about getting a solution to the motorcycle theft issue. Some of the local leaders had threatened that the SIM workers should open the clinic again or they would be sent to jail. Laura joked that it would be a great birthday for Brian to spend it in jail. Not too serious a threat, although they didn't get back for quite some time which gave Laura plenty of time to arrange cooking of some of Brian's favourite things like ice cream etc. She arranged a scavenger hunt with clues for him to bike around the compound finding. Very creative! Anyway, I think Brian had a great day, and didn't have to go to jail. On Tuesday afternoon, Brian and I set off again to head off for a quick camping trip to a local camping spot by the lake. Really beautiful surroundings, and wonderful to wake up on the edge of a beautiful lake.
On Wednesday morning, we went back onto the main road to Addis, and flagged down a passing truck, which wasn't going to Addis, but was going a good proportion of the way there, so I was able to hitch a ride. Which was great; the cab was large, spacious and comfortable, completely different from the crushed-into-a-tin-can-like-sardines experiences of the buses down here. I had to taxi it back from where he dropped me off, but at least the majority of the journey was in comfort.
I got back to the school, and found that the internet had only just come back on from when it had gone off 11 days ago. Apparently, the school staff had had to go to the CEO of the telecoms company before someone got around to fixing anything. This is a common problem in Bingham I'm told. Apparently, there is an exchange box somewhere in the city that rats keep getting into and chewing the cables. One would have thought it would be an easy solution, but anyway. All the staff here were very relieved to have it back. The next day, the water went off; goes to show you can't have water power and electricity for too long here. I wasn't feeling well unfortunately; ironically, I always seem to be sick when the water is off. Anyway, thankfully the sickness only lasted a couple of days.
I've been continuing to find things of use to do around here. Brian and Laura have asked me to make a video for them about how their work is progressing and all about the results that they are seeing. So I've been working on that, as well as continuing with the website work here, and general computer issues of staff. It has been great to get to know all of the new staff here, they seem a really great group of people.
On Friday night, I went for dinner with Dundee and a group of others here. IT was great to catch up with Dundee and hear see how he's getting on. I'm hoping to get some time at Strong Hearts next week, which will be really great to see. Will make sure and post about what's going on there.
A few more random pictures here.
Niall
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