Archived Blog
End of November
Another week is over, here in Addis Ababa. It's been a fairly busy week of language school and various administrative things. Language school is going fairly well, though I'm reliably informed that things get exponentially harder as time goes on, so I shall enjoy the relaxed, relatively easy learning for the time being. They have split up the classes based on ability a bit, so I'm with a different group more at my level. All in all, I'm keen to see how things continue to progress!
I managed to get my Ethiopian driving licence last week. This is no mean feat, and was a two day process. Firstly, I had to get my UK Licence certified at the UK Embassy, then stamped again at the foreign affairs office here, before we could go to the driving licence office here. I'm very thankful for the help of an Ethiopian driver here, Haile, who walked me through the whole process. The system seems only to make sense to Ethiopians, and unfortunately there is no one official there to offer advice; anyone unfamiliar with the process is simply a nuisance to others waiting in line. One other British guy waiting there without help stood aimlessly with an application form, blank apart from his name. I advised him to come back with help, rather than wait indefinitely, as by this time I was almost at the end of the process, and my assistant wasn't exactly enthusiastic to begin the process again with someone else. Part of the problem is the Ethiopian system of queueing. People will barge to the front of the queue, and shove their application form to the attendant. Haile told me to do this at one stage, but with a western mind-set, it seemed far too rude, so I stood there patiently. Haile came back a couple minutes later, grabbed the form from me and shoved it in the window. One of the other missionaries explained that in banks for example, they do this and the attendant puts the form in the bottom of her to-do pile, so that it eventually works its way to the top. So I guess the pile is the queue, rather than the unorderly mob of people standing around. Anyway, more cultural education fun. I managed to make it back in time to head around to Bingham Academy again, where a number of the younger staff were having a thanksgiving meal together.
This weekend I went with Aaron White, who I used to live with back when I lived here 5 years ago, and his wife Zide to Langano to visit Brian Hall, another guy I used to live with. Langano is a beautiful lake area about 4 hour drive south of Addis Ababa. Brian and his wife Laura have been in Langano for the past number of years, SIM have quite a large project down there. The drive down has actually become a lot shorter, as there has been a new toll motorway built, 3 lanes each direction. There are fences to keep animals and people off the road too, so it actually feels quite like a motorway back home. It goes about a third of the way, and knocks about an hour off the travel time. 
The new motorway
Toll booth
It is great to get out of the city for a short time. The beautiful setting by the lake, the lack of smog and diesel fumes in the busy city, and the abundance of animals and birds make for a relaxing time. After arriving on Friday afternoon, I enjoyed my third thanksgiving dinner this year. Not bad for an Irishman. Brian runs a project called Sports Friends down in Langano, bringing kids in from the local areas for evangelistic camps, as well as young people from the city and church leaders for training events. As a result, he has many great activities, and we spent Saturday sampling some of them. He has built a giant swing from one of the large trees, with a tall platform which you jump off, freefall a couple meters and then swing out. Good fun! We spent the rest of the day on the lake, relaxing on a boat that the camp uses for various activities.
On Sunday I encountered my first encounter of sickness after arriving back here in Ethiopia, I'm assuming it was food poisoning after Saturday's dinner because Aaron's wife came down with it too. So Sunday was a complete washout unfortunately, I felt awful, and slept most of the day, as Aaron drove us back to Addis. Thankfully, I was feeling much better today, and managed to make it to language school. 
Aaron on the swing
On the lake
Ethiopian "Pyramids" on the road down.
More pictures here.
All for now,
Niall
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