Archived Blog
End of week 1
So I'm almost here a week now, I'll take a second to jot down some thoughts about how it's been and how I'm settling in!
Every time I come to Ethiopia, it amazes me how much of it seems normal. This place is a complete change from Ireland obviously, but because I'm so used to it, it doesn't seem to surprise me anymore, rather it just amuses me as I remember how things work (or don't) around here. The roads are bonkers, I'm remembering the lack of any sort of order when driving, and how little care pedestrians take when they're crossing the road. One of the other guys here said that he saw people greet each other in the middle of the busy ring road the other day. I guess it just shows how they think about it. The early morning wake up calls of the Ethiopian Orthodox church are another thing I'm remembering from before, although this time I'm not living right next door. So I can be thankful for that.
One of the things about Addis Ababa is that it never stays the same for long. This city is one big construction site, almost year round. At the moment, they are building a large electric train that will serve large parts of the city. It looks impressive so far, if you didn't have to try and make your way around the construction in the process. It remains to be seen if the project will make a difference to the large amount of traffic that there is on the roads here, and many question what will happen when you're on the train during a power cut. Being stuck on a train for a couple of hours is not a nice prospect. Regardless, this is one of the many things under construction here at present that makes it hard to recognise certain familiar places. I got off a taxi yesterday, and realised that I didn't recognise anything. Looking lost/like a tourist is about the worst thing to do in a busy part of this city and will inevitably attract a lot of attention, so I immediately started walking confidently towards where I thought I should be going, and fortunately found the next taxi that I needed.
I've been getting used to the less reliable water, power and internet. When all three are working on compound, you're doing well. The internet has had the biggest outage, 5 days. But overall things have been relatively good. At present, I'm living in the SIM HQ, in the centre of the city. There is a guest house area for people who are visiting Addis Ababa, as well as a number of people who are living here for a longer time. It's quite a nice compound, I have a spacious apartment with kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom. I'm currently looking out for opportunities to move off the compound and into the city, there are a number of leads so far, but I'm really not in too much of a rush, I especially don't want to make any hurried decisions. My biggest need at the moment is a method of transport, as public transport here stops at around 9pm. I'm hoping to be able to purchase a motorbike soon, which will put an end to relying on friends for lifts when I'm out after 9.
A couple of pictures of my apartment and the compound:
Living room
Kitchen
Looking out at the compound and the city.
I've put some more photos on the pictures section of the website.
Language school is going well, they have an interesting program here where students learn initially only by listening, not speaking until the third or fourth week. I assume it attempts to emulate how children learn a language. Anyway, I've started with the beginner classes, but it hasn't been too much of a frustration because of the amount of vocabulary that we're expected to learn. Most days we get about 30-40 new words to memorise, most of which are new to me. Occasionally, there are things which I'm familiar with, but I'm prepared to be patient to ensure that I learn the language thoroughly.
I've been enjoying catching up with various friends over the past week. I've been to Bingham Academy, and caught up with friends there. On Saturday, they celebrated Thanksgiving as a community, and invited me to join in. It's great to already feel a part of the community there, even though I don't start working there until next August.
A couple of pictures of the new building that has been opened recently at Bingham Academy. Mostly this has more rooms for high school students. 
Again, a few more pictures on the pictures section.
This Thursday, I'm getting out of the city to visit friends at a Lake about 4 hours drive south of the city. Really looking forward to getting out of the smog! :-/
Please do get in touch by email/facebook/whatsapp or whatever. It's always great to hear from people back home!
Blessings,
Niall
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