As I said, time I flying by faster then I can realise. When I will be back from Banjul, I will have two weeks left of work and two weeks of travelling before heading back to France. I think those six months have been the fastest of my life…or something equivalent. The more you meet people, the more you feel home, the more work you have, the more week end you have travelling, the more you are lost in time. And Addis has been great for all this to me.
Going out of Addis
I went out many week ends. It is very easy to just hop in a bus and go somewhere, to rent a car and drive away. I have been to:
- Langano lake (one of the only lake in Ethiopia where ou can swim without being scared of strange worms infiltrating in your nice clean body –I mean you are not scared if you are not scare of hippos either)
- Awassa (down south, a city near by a lake where you can just …humm… chill, watch birds, walk around, visit the famous fish market and so on)
- Harar (a city to the est, with Arabic influences, that looks very different from the rest of Ethiopian cities. Small streets, houses painted in white or blue, hyenas to feed in the evening, best chat in Ethiopia, great sun and beautiful landscapes)
- Nazret and Soderi (Where there is some hot springs where you can take the hottest shower in the world, where women push you under the water for you to taste the good good natural power)
- Wenchi crater lake (where we went my car with the record of doing 30km in three hours on a pista, but 3hours that are worst as the lake is absolutely beautiful, the people are great and the quiet area is amazing)
- Debre Zeyit (one of my hot spots as it is one hour from addis and that you can go for a day. I have a friend there who has a beautiful house on the edge of one of the seven crater lakes you can find there)
I am sure I am forgetting some… but it is already good!
As opposed to staying in Addis
There also there is so many things to do. NGO market, drinking lots of juices and macchiato, showing places around to the new comers, hanging around in my hamoc, eating beaucoup de amazing breakfast, going out in cool bars or clubs, meeting friends, going to the markets or just walking around and do some shopping… et hop 1,2,3 week ends have passed. Oups!
And in Addis there is the work also. It has became more and more interesting and exciting as I got to get the trust of my colleagues who involved me in any projects I could participate in. They really made my stay fruitfull and I think my fear of the beginning have fastly faid away because I saw that I could be useful and that they even needed me! There are stuff that would need to be continued and I kind of wished they could hire me…hihi, yes because my parents are nice but the UN should be nicer and pay the people working hard for them, because it is not as if they could not afford it!
The work with the African Union (my newsletter and retreat, remember?) have been a bit forgotten because the processes within the AU just take ages and that they suggest budgets that we could never approve, so everything has to be diplomatically discussed and negotiated and this just takes months!
But there were other stuff as the Regional Coordination mechanisms meetings (UN as One initiative), the organisation of this meeting in =Banjul, translations, writing concept notes, and so on and so on…No time to be bored. So it has been very hectic at work lately and I didn’t take so much time to hang around.. (just to upload my pictures, that you are welcome to go and see as they are very beautiful of course ;)
lundi 30 novembre 2009
The Gambia experience!
Let’s start by now because it is the coolest. I am writing from the airport of Lagos, in Nigeria. Why the hell am I there ??? Hummm…ok. There is this very big regional ministerial meeting happening in Banjul, the Gambia next week . The meeting is about gender in Africa an dit is a review process of the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Plateform of Action, which some kind of another framework for countries worldwide to commit for gender equality and women empowerment. Of course UNIFEM is participating. Moreover, UNIFEM and OHCHR are working in partnership to organise a special event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the CEDAW, the convention for the elimination of discrimination against women. I have been working with the programme officer to organise this. So of course she was the one supposed to go- she is the staff ! They were supposed to go ( my boss and her). Turns out that the have been pushing HQ to add my on the list. But HQ ended up saying there were too many persons from UNIFEM going, and for some reason, i am the one who has been chosen to g o… I still can’t really believe it but apparently it is happening as I am apparently on the other side of the continent already. I think this is the coolest thing that could happen and i am really gratefull to my boss to actually have supported my against people who considered an intern not able to travel like this –which makes sense somehow, even if i don’t personally approve, for reason you ll figure out yourselves-. They mainly need me for leg work, not so exiting but who cares ? Yes i will do some copies, organise the venues, and coordinate the event while my boss will concentrate on the substantive matters. The other thing they needed from me is my amazing translating skills, which have proven being very very very useful and soooo cool within the UN. The other reason is that the director of the Gender unit of the Economic Commission for Africa –with who we work a lot- have officially invited me for being her larbin (translating skills are limited to official vocabulary…you will excuse me of course).
Anyways, the result is that I am off to the Gambia, for ten days, to sweet warm west Africa, on the coast, in a nice hotel, sucking the UN money for comfort and good food. I am a bit agasint it of course (“my values bullshit”), but as everyone, it is hard to spit on those kind of opportunities just because I am going in a four star hotel and finally get some payements for my work… shit, how do we do to stay totally humble when people offer you that much? Have to thing about it from the swimming pool of my hotel…
Anyways, the result is that I am off to the Gambia, for ten days, to sweet warm west Africa, on the coast, in a nice hotel, sucking the UN money for comfort and good food. I am a bit agasint it of course (“my values bullshit”), but as everyone, it is hard to spit on those kind of opportunities just because I am going in a four star hotel and finally get some payements for my work… shit, how do we do to stay totally humble when people offer you that much? Have to thing about it from the swimming pool of my hotel…
Me or the abandonnement of my blog
Yes i haven’t been feeding this blog for months. What are my excuses. Humm i guess enjoying so much being here that i forget to take time to tell about it. I have been very busy at work and agitated outside of work as i have been meeting more and more people, found more and more cool activities, went out of town almost every week end. Those are my excuses… cool ?
I don’t know where to start if i have to sum up…should i actually ?
SO many things have been going on, it is hard but good !
I don’t know where to start if i have to sum up…should i actually ?
SO many things have been going on, it is hard but good !
lundi 28 septembre 2009
Melkam Meskal!
(Happy Meskal)
Saturday was the holiday of Meskal. The celebration takes place two weeks after the New Year. This is about the finding of the cross. They found the cross you know. So they are happy and celebrate. There is more explanations and meanings but I have hard time getting them right. Anyways, the place of celebration for this day is Meskal Square. We spent the afternoon there. Meskal square is a huge central square. One side has some kind of arena where you can sit. The circulation has been cut all day (there is usually more than 8 lines of cars, so it is impressive to see it empty!). Then on the other side of the arena is installed some kind of VIP area, where the big priest in chief is sitting on a nice silky chair. He gets the view on the dancing; we get the view on the priest. A bit of a shame! From the arena, you don’t see the dancing but only those big groups of church followers going around in nice red, gold, green, white dresses. They sing but you can’t really hear. They dance but you can’t really see. So we spent lots of our time just observing the people around us and it was great. The crowd was surprisingly well ordered, sitting in perfect rows and respecting every single rule set by the hundreds of policy/army guys hanging around. We have been eating a lot, because of all those people walking through the rows to sell biscuits, candies, tissues, little cross, bracelets or anything else! Very interesting. Then they was also candles distributed for free, which distribution constituted a very interesting show. One guy comes with plenty of candles, share them with the closest guy from the army and both of them split in the crowd and send candles in the air. The only moment of “little social mess” of the day. Everyone runs to catch a candle and just go back to its seat (grass) to be bored again. Not me who says it, but an ehtiopian sitting next to me: “(him) how do you like the programme? (me) It is good, Conjo!. (him) I think myself that it is very boring”. It was a bit, because you don’t see anything! And we were lucky because we were sitting in very good place.
Anyways, the important and beautiful thing that happened came with the night. Once the chanting/dancing of all the churches had come to an end, The night came. Everyone light its free candle. When I say everyone, it means (we have had big discussion on this, but not agreement so I’ll stay vague) between thousands people and hundred thousand people. Imagine these arenas filled with people, everyone holding a candle. People singing and shouting so loud when the main fire (a huge plant hill in the middle of the square) was lighten. Hoo and I forgot the fireworks! Fireworks + three meters fire in the middle of Meskal + thousands of candles lighten + religious celebration + being in Ethiopia = mind blowing! It was very very great.
Then we went to the restaurant, and met on the way home one of my street friend (see every morning and night on my way home, barely speaks English but really likes me and likes to introduce me “his good friend Alichia”, to his own friend). Anyway, I met him dancing around a fire with his friend. That’s what you do on Meskal: make a fire, eat and sing. So we did. While burning the garbage around to maintain the fire strong, the group of young men was happily clapping their hands, singing religious saints related songs and looking very happy. They welcomed us so nicely and told us to join.
When the garbage were empty and the fire put down, we went back home before going out celebrating in a trendy habesha cocktail bar were we got invited by this Ethiopian guy we met at the Hilton swimming pool, who works at Saint George Beer (Most famous Ethiopian beer) and really enjoyed paying our big bill. Anyway, he was the funniest of the bar (speaks perfectly French after spending all his education is the lycee ethio-francais, he is half Indian from Punjab half Ethiopian and is totally in love with the 19th district in Paris), anyway a cool guy. We followed him to Memo’s, this club of Addis that is the most fun club I have been to and that always make us stay there until very late, dancing and being stupid. So that is what we did and it was an excellent evening that gave me sore muscles the next morning…forcing me to read all day lying in the grass of our garden after an amazing picnic breakfast.
Yes, my friends, life is hard!
Saturday was the holiday of Meskal. The celebration takes place two weeks after the New Year. This is about the finding of the cross. They found the cross you know. So they are happy and celebrate. There is more explanations and meanings but I have hard time getting them right. Anyways, the place of celebration for this day is Meskal Square. We spent the afternoon there. Meskal square is a huge central square. One side has some kind of arena where you can sit. The circulation has been cut all day (there is usually more than 8 lines of cars, so it is impressive to see it empty!). Then on the other side of the arena is installed some kind of VIP area, where the big priest in chief is sitting on a nice silky chair. He gets the view on the dancing; we get the view on the priest. A bit of a shame! From the arena, you don’t see the dancing but only those big groups of church followers going around in nice red, gold, green, white dresses. They sing but you can’t really hear. They dance but you can’t really see. So we spent lots of our time just observing the people around us and it was great. The crowd was surprisingly well ordered, sitting in perfect rows and respecting every single rule set by the hundreds of policy/army guys hanging around. We have been eating a lot, because of all those people walking through the rows to sell biscuits, candies, tissues, little cross, bracelets or anything else! Very interesting. Then they was also candles distributed for free, which distribution constituted a very interesting show. One guy comes with plenty of candles, share them with the closest guy from the army and both of them split in the crowd and send candles in the air. The only moment of “little social mess” of the day. Everyone runs to catch a candle and just go back to its seat (grass) to be bored again. Not me who says it, but an ehtiopian sitting next to me: “(him) how do you like the programme? (me) It is good, Conjo!. (him) I think myself that it is very boring”. It was a bit, because you don’t see anything! And we were lucky because we were sitting in very good place.
Anyways, the important and beautiful thing that happened came with the night. Once the chanting/dancing of all the churches had come to an end, The night came. Everyone light its free candle. When I say everyone, it means (we have had big discussion on this, but not agreement so I’ll stay vague) between thousands people and hundred thousand people. Imagine these arenas filled with people, everyone holding a candle. People singing and shouting so loud when the main fire (a huge plant hill in the middle of the square) was lighten. Hoo and I forgot the fireworks! Fireworks + three meters fire in the middle of Meskal + thousands of candles lighten + religious celebration + being in Ethiopia = mind blowing! It was very very great.
Then we went to the restaurant, and met on the way home one of my street friend (see every morning and night on my way home, barely speaks English but really likes me and likes to introduce me “his good friend Alichia”, to his own friend). Anyway, I met him dancing around a fire with his friend. That’s what you do on Meskal: make a fire, eat and sing. So we did. While burning the garbage around to maintain the fire strong, the group of young men was happily clapping their hands, singing religious saints related songs and looking very happy. They welcomed us so nicely and told us to join.
When the garbage were empty and the fire put down, we went back home before going out celebrating in a trendy habesha cocktail bar were we got invited by this Ethiopian guy we met at the Hilton swimming pool, who works at Saint George Beer (Most famous Ethiopian beer) and really enjoyed paying our big bill. Anyway, he was the funniest of the bar (speaks perfectly French after spending all his education is the lycee ethio-francais, he is half Indian from Punjab half Ethiopian and is totally in love with the 19th district in Paris), anyway a cool guy. We followed him to Memo’s, this club of Addis that is the most fun club I have been to and that always make us stay there until very late, dancing and being stupid. So that is what we did and it was an excellent evening that gave me sore muscles the next morning…forcing me to read all day lying in the grass of our garden after an amazing picnic breakfast.
Yes, my friends, life is hard!
jeudi 24 septembre 2009
UN system ... “observations”
So now I am becoming very skeptic towards the UN. Here are some examples of things that pisses me off
- Per Diem: If you have a mission out of the city you are based in, you get a DSA. This is a certain amount of money, according to the place you go to. With this DSA, you are supposed to cover all your daily costs: accommodation, food, taxis… For example, if you go to Nazareth, you will get 115 dollars a day. Knowing that your daily costs will approximately not go over 60 dollars (and you already are spoiled with this!), it means that you put in your pocket more than 50 dollars. OK. Soit. Imagine you go to Paris, than you get 350 dollars. Great, you actually can make 200 dollars a day…just for attending a meeting from which nothing concrete will come out. Chennai: 388$; Mumbai: 393$; Mexico city: 309$; Rabat: 302$; Ouaga: 330$; Kiev: 650$ (this one is for the Hyatt).... et j’en passe! (of course those rates are calculated for stays in hotel like Sheraton or Hyatt. Do you really NEED the Sheraton? Will you die in a bit cheaper place. Are you working for development or?). So I am organizing a two days retreat to train people from the AUC on gender issues. The gender Directorate dared to tell us: “If you want people to attend your retreat, we need to organize it outside of Addis. Then they get the DSA and will come. You know, the senior staff at the AU is not well paid”. You bet. Never seen as many Mercedes in Addis than in the parking of the AU. I know we need incentive and way of motivated the people to work in those organisations... but really? we can't find other ways?
And then you are told that the interns are not paid. Don’t you think they could provide us 30 birrs a day for lunch (2 dollars). That is a bit unfair. They don’t pay anything but throw out the money tons of money for flying all over the world to meeting and blabla events.
- The “expatriate” way of life. Let’s say you are international staff of the UN, you have a very big car (biggest in town), you live in a compound with very high walls, security, garden, and all in the best standards of town. You don’t mix with locals; you don’t speak a world of Amharic even after ten years in Ethiopia. You never walk in the street (either you have a car or a driver that picks you up the morning and drives you home). You have “house helps” that you pay 200birrs a months (20 dollars. The minimum wage is 150 birrs). You go to meetings all the time to discuss about things that you are not clearly familiar with because you are not from the country, you don’t know the customs nor the reasons why. But you claim you can do something about it. You claim your are driven by passion but it more feels like that is the position and advantages that took you here. I generalize, and I am sure they are lots of people that do not live this way, are driven by passion and dedicated to their work for the right reason. But sorry, where are they? Can I meet some?
- Management: If you are hired at the UN, it is mainly for two reasons: either you have good contacts, or you are an expert in your field. I‘ll come back to the contacts later. Let’s say you are expert in gender and human rights. Great. You have experience; you get a good position as a project leader or program officer. And you have a team to manage. But what is management? No idea. So here we are, with a skilled boss who is expert in human rights. But who doesn’t know how to organize a team, nor motivate people, nor lead a meeting, nor communicate, nor nor nor…. So it is great but it is not efficient, not functioning. You decide to take interns but you don’t share anything with them and is too busy to help them. Even to busy to give them notice and context of a meeting. And then the results are messy, not organized and not productive. Maybe the UN should observe a private company and try to understand why manager are pillars of efficiency and productivity.
- Contacts: Not one of the interns I met at the ECA got into the structure without knowing someone. When you are hired, you have to fill in a form. One of the questions of this form is: “Do you have any relative working at the UN?” Before, with my innocent of my 20’s, I was sure that if you were checking “yes”, you would have more troubles to be hired. Actually now, I am pretty sure it is a way of seeing if you actually are related to the big family and if you are allowed to be integrated totally (understand here my irony of course)
I am stopping here because I don’t want to be “too much” and i know i already am... It is hard not to see all those bad sides when you have hard time finding the reasons why you actually think the UN is so great...Quite pessimistic today, i know... but always hoping!
Ps: Apart from that, still visiting some apartments and house and still only visiting crap! Need some more work on this….
- Per Diem: If you have a mission out of the city you are based in, you get a DSA. This is a certain amount of money, according to the place you go to. With this DSA, you are supposed to cover all your daily costs: accommodation, food, taxis… For example, if you go to Nazareth, you will get 115 dollars a day. Knowing that your daily costs will approximately not go over 60 dollars (and you already are spoiled with this!), it means that you put in your pocket more than 50 dollars. OK. Soit. Imagine you go to Paris, than you get 350 dollars. Great, you actually can make 200 dollars a day…just for attending a meeting from which nothing concrete will come out. Chennai: 388$; Mumbai: 393$; Mexico city: 309$; Rabat: 302$; Ouaga: 330$; Kiev: 650$ (this one is for the Hyatt).... et j’en passe! (of course those rates are calculated for stays in hotel like Sheraton or Hyatt. Do you really NEED the Sheraton? Will you die in a bit cheaper place. Are you working for development or?). So I am organizing a two days retreat to train people from the AUC on gender issues. The gender Directorate dared to tell us: “If you want people to attend your retreat, we need to organize it outside of Addis. Then they get the DSA and will come. You know, the senior staff at the AU is not well paid”. You bet. Never seen as many Mercedes in Addis than in the parking of the AU. I know we need incentive and way of motivated the people to work in those organisations... but really? we can't find other ways?
And then you are told that the interns are not paid. Don’t you think they could provide us 30 birrs a day for lunch (2 dollars). That is a bit unfair. They don’t pay anything but throw out the money tons of money for flying all over the world to meeting and blabla events.
- The “expatriate” way of life. Let’s say you are international staff of the UN, you have a very big car (biggest in town), you live in a compound with very high walls, security, garden, and all in the best standards of town. You don’t mix with locals; you don’t speak a world of Amharic even after ten years in Ethiopia. You never walk in the street (either you have a car or a driver that picks you up the morning and drives you home). You have “house helps” that you pay 200birrs a months (20 dollars. The minimum wage is 150 birrs). You go to meetings all the time to discuss about things that you are not clearly familiar with because you are not from the country, you don’t know the customs nor the reasons why. But you claim you can do something about it. You claim your are driven by passion but it more feels like that is the position and advantages that took you here. I generalize, and I am sure they are lots of people that do not live this way, are driven by passion and dedicated to their work for the right reason. But sorry, where are they? Can I meet some?
- Management: If you are hired at the UN, it is mainly for two reasons: either you have good contacts, or you are an expert in your field. I‘ll come back to the contacts later. Let’s say you are expert in gender and human rights. Great. You have experience; you get a good position as a project leader or program officer. And you have a team to manage. But what is management? No idea. So here we are, with a skilled boss who is expert in human rights. But who doesn’t know how to organize a team, nor motivate people, nor lead a meeting, nor communicate, nor nor nor…. So it is great but it is not efficient, not functioning. You decide to take interns but you don’t share anything with them and is too busy to help them. Even to busy to give them notice and context of a meeting. And then the results are messy, not organized and not productive. Maybe the UN should observe a private company and try to understand why manager are pillars of efficiency and productivity.
- Contacts: Not one of the interns I met at the ECA got into the structure without knowing someone. When you are hired, you have to fill in a form. One of the questions of this form is: “Do you have any relative working at the UN?” Before, with my innocent of my 20’s, I was sure that if you were checking “yes”, you would have more troubles to be hired. Actually now, I am pretty sure it is a way of seeing if you actually are related to the big family and if you are allowed to be integrated totally (understand here my irony of course)
I am stopping here because I don’t want to be “too much” and i know i already am... It is hard not to see all those bad sides when you have hard time finding the reasons why you actually think the UN is so great...Quite pessimistic today, i know... but always hoping!
Ps: Apart from that, still visiting some apartments and house and still only visiting crap! Need some more work on this….
Holidays!
Thanks to the Ramadan, we had the Monday off. We decided to get out of Addis with Jonathan and Sarah. We went on Saturday morning to Awassa, 5 or six others south from Addis. We found a nice cute hotel near by the lake, with a huge garden and many many monkeys. On Sunday morning we went to the fish market, where I have seen the most ugly birds I could imagine. They have long dirty rotten beck, the high on legs, mainly look rotten and even have curly hair, disgusting, Pictures will come! The market was nice and I ate fried fresh fish that was actually excellent. We ate several!
Then we have been trying in vain to take a boat and go on the lake to see hippos. Just didn’t work out. We needed to take a bus to go to another lake up north, on the way back to Addis and were short in time. Sarah got very feverish and sick, and has been struggling to walk to the hotel in the 2nd lake, went to bed at 7 and slept all day the Monday. (we discovered after being back in Addis that she had amoeba, nice little parasites that made her intensively sick. She went to the Swedish clinic to find that out, had a very beautiful Swedish doctor and paid the equivalent of a month rent for a shit sample! She was haaapy!)Anyway, Sunday evening we just walk to any hotel on the edge of the lake, thinking we should plant the tent. But Sarah was sick and solidarity made us share this expensive nice house just in front of the beach. It was not such a big sacrifice! Jonathan and I just hanged around, had a midnight bath and enjoyed the scenery of a lake, stars and fresh clean air. I felt in holidays. The next day, we woke up for the sun rise, walk following the edge of the lake until we found a amazing expensive lodge where we could stop for a great buffet breakfast. Hummm makes me hungry just to think about it! We hanged around a long time on the terrace of the restaurant, before going back to our hotel meet our sick friend and we chilled all day on the beach, alterning pancakes cooking (adaptation de l’expression “faire sa crepe sur la plage”) and lake swimming. Yes, it is one of the only lake in Ethiopia that has been declared Bilharzias-free, which means you can swim without being penetrated through the skin by strange tiny aggressive parasites, nice huh? I was still very stressed to touch snakes, reptiles of hippos while swimming and was panicking each time I was noticing some strange spot on my skin. But I seem to be okay, apart from little sun burn with the shape of my fingers around my bathing suits because je n’ai pas bien etale…haha smart!
We went back to Addis on the evening after a great holiday and a perfect chilling-on-the- beach-feeling –like-summer-day. We had to hitchack/hijack a car to go to the nearest city to get a proper bus to Addis. Terrible bus trip as it was late, I think the driver wanted to go fast and really enjoyed the strong breaking method. It was amazingly throwingable. Sarah who was sick, just couldn’t talk anymore and needed to concentrate not to throw up and I, being in the back (last row, 3 seats but we are 4) was just trying to forget the fact that my two big neighbors were sweating on me and that my skirt was wet from the contacts with them…. Cruel.
But we all survived, reached home and slept with very happy memories of the weekend.
Then we have been trying in vain to take a boat and go on the lake to see hippos. Just didn’t work out. We needed to take a bus to go to another lake up north, on the way back to Addis and were short in time. Sarah got very feverish and sick, and has been struggling to walk to the hotel in the 2nd lake, went to bed at 7 and slept all day the Monday. (we discovered after being back in Addis that she had amoeba, nice little parasites that made her intensively sick. She went to the Swedish clinic to find that out, had a very beautiful Swedish doctor and paid the equivalent of a month rent for a shit sample! She was haaapy!)Anyway, Sunday evening we just walk to any hotel on the edge of the lake, thinking we should plant the tent. But Sarah was sick and solidarity made us share this expensive nice house just in front of the beach. It was not such a big sacrifice! Jonathan and I just hanged around, had a midnight bath and enjoyed the scenery of a lake, stars and fresh clean air. I felt in holidays. The next day, we woke up for the sun rise, walk following the edge of the lake until we found a amazing expensive lodge where we could stop for a great buffet breakfast. Hummm makes me hungry just to think about it! We hanged around a long time on the terrace of the restaurant, before going back to our hotel meet our sick friend and we chilled all day on the beach, alterning pancakes cooking (adaptation de l’expression “faire sa crepe sur la plage”) and lake swimming. Yes, it is one of the only lake in Ethiopia that has been declared Bilharzias-free, which means you can swim without being penetrated through the skin by strange tiny aggressive parasites, nice huh? I was still very stressed to touch snakes, reptiles of hippos while swimming and was panicking each time I was noticing some strange spot on my skin. But I seem to be okay, apart from little sun burn with the shape of my fingers around my bathing suits because je n’ai pas bien etale…haha smart!
We went back to Addis on the evening after a great holiday and a perfect chilling-on-the- beach-feeling –like-summer-day. We had to hitchack/hijack a car to go to the nearest city to get a proper bus to Addis. Terrible bus trip as it was late, I think the driver wanted to go fast and really enjoyed the strong breaking method. It was amazingly throwingable. Sarah who was sick, just couldn’t talk anymore and needed to concentrate not to throw up and I, being in the back (last row, 3 seats but we are 4) was just trying to forget the fact that my two big neighbors were sweating on me and that my skirt was wet from the contacts with them…. Cruel.
But we all survived, reached home and slept with very happy memories of the weekend.
lundi 7 septembre 2009
Finally some news!
Hello hello…
After not having written for ages, I am back telling about what is going on around here. It might be long to tell you about all, so I’ll try to sum up a bit.
So i think i left you just before i took couple (or more) of days off from work to be able to go travel a bit with Tim. Our route started in Bahir Dar, a city north of Addis, on the side of the biggest lake of Ethiopia, the Lake Tana. We took one of those crazy local place to go there, an dit took us the day to do something like 400km. The bus was pretty bad, ass-killing but the roads were kind of maintained (built by the Chinese and Japanese on this portion of the road) and the landscapes are very beautiful. So it was fun. Long but fun.
On the way to our destination, the road was beautiful. We crossed the Blue Nile Gorges which a beautiful and impressive, because the road goes down in the gorges before crossing them, then up again in a beautiful area. Ethiopia has lots of stiff mountains and the views are great !
Arrived in Bahir Dar, we slept in a 40 birr the room hotel (very cheap) with a dirty room and disgusting common toilet (was so close to go pee in the shower… didn’t do it !). The second night, we up scaled to a 50birr room with private bathroom an dit was great. We had a cold shower from a plastic bottle in the dark, it is memorable!
In Bahir Dar, we did the usual stuff: the boat trip. The lake has more then 30 islands on which there are many very old monasteries. Those are impressive because very old, but after three or four, we kind of had enough. The boat tour was nice, lots of birds to observe and nice fisherman boat. We met a funny crazy old polish guy with who we hang around a bit after. The next day, we went with him to the Blue Nile Falls, once considered as one oif the most beautiful fallls in Africa. Now, the falls have lost 75% of its water as they built a dam just ahead of the falls to produce electricity for the country (still not enough huh !). WE were lucky because the falls were « open » meaning we had the chance to see big waterfalls compared to normal. We climbed the highest mountain around for couple of hours before reaching the top, with a 380° view on the valley. Bweauwtifuwll ! Worth the effort.
After coming back to town, we almost directly took a minibus to Gonder.
HAaa.. i make it short but it makes me skip some funny details like the door of the bus taking us to the falls which fell down during the first 2 meters, the rain inside of the bus, the crazy Chinese taking pictures of us at the falls, the crazy children jumping on you to sell you any kind of handicraft stuff, the shepherds and so on…
To go to Gonder… i think it should take 2 hours and a half. WE took something like 5hours. Yeah, we had a little « bus » problem. After stopping at the gas station, we just couldn’t start anymore. So we had to wait for a mechanic, then for him to repair then we went.
We stayed in a lovely hotel in Gonder where we met the first night Chris, a Canadian guy off traveling for a year and a half. He was heading eventually to India, so we had a beer all existed sharing about the cool places we should go to. In Gonder, the main attraction is the castles, or the remain of them. It is impressive and surprising for Africa. Those are just old stones castle like we have. Sa that was cool. Then we met a girl who stayed in Gonder couple of months and she took us to visit a bit the surroundings, taking us a bit outside the center, with beautiful views and more rural village.
Then it is said that the first official tej place in Ethiopia was in gonder, so we had to go. No electricity, big wooden tables with a tiny candle, and lots of old wise Ethiopian guys zipping their tej in chemistry bottles (cf pictures) and a great atmosphere.. We had a great evening, the wine and the atmosphere made us talk for hours without us noticing it. After our fourth bottle, we realized we were the only one left and that we got pretty drunk. The wine was excellent, soft, sugary and tasty. But we forgot it was wine. So we took a rickshaw (yesss they have that all over Ethiopia but in Addis, what a shame, i love it!)We got home fast and slept like babies. The next day, i had a fever. So i hesitated between the hang over, the swain flue or malaria (paranoid ? not at all !). Think in the end i just had a cold…like a normal winter cold (yes it is winter here !).
The next day, i left time, Gwenen and Chris go up north to Axsum, while I went down to Addis in a nice middle class bus that took one day instead of two. I have been so happy to have chosen this fancy bus as i was feverish, diarrhaish and sickish in general. I just wanted to be home, take a shower and sleep.
I went to work on Monday but slept all day the Tuesday and had a slow motion week before Tim came back on Sunday.
Tim trip was …fun i think. Him and Chris have been sick alternatively (« are you good Tim ? yes but Chris is piucking all he has got ». And the next day : « are you good Tim ? No I am shitting blood but Chris is great ». Poor guys, they have been miserable. And they were riding buses all days… interesting.
I met them on Saturday morning thinner and dreaming for some rest. We had a nice week end in Addis before Chris flew to Egypt.
The next week has been the last one in town for Tim, who enjoyed some shopping, walking and last meetings.
On Friday, we flew (no time for 2 days of the local bus, so just 2 hours by flight ! luxury) to Lalibella. Lalibella is where the rock churches are. It is a small village in the mountain, without car, with beautiful views and great sunsets. Celebrating our two years together, we made the week end special. We had this crazy fancy hotel in houses called tukuls (traditional round houses), a huge room, impressively clean with lots of windows opening on a balcony and on a gorgeous view on the valley. We even had breakfast in bed, checking out the sun rise… yes i know, luxury again. But it worth it!
We went to the market on Saturday morning then to the churches in the afternoon. We had a little of tej the evening (a little, i have been a bit quieted down on tej !), we met nice people (including a Thai girl living in Lund and speaking Swedish just a bit better then me but who sounds so confident that i got jealous ! Med vi pratade lite svenska och det var jätte trevlig att träffa henne.
Then again, i am skipping lots of details but it is too much and i am sure you are already a bit bored. But we climber a mountain to see a beautiful sunset, we visited the churches that are very impressive, we ate the biggest omelet in the world, lots of cute birds of all colors, the best fruit juice and the worst ginger-dirt-tea, we saw the most traditional way of selling honey in the market ( big bags, full of durt with honey inside and a woman digging her whole arm in it to take a handle of it…yummie. And so on and so on.
We came back to Addis on Sunday and Tim flew in the evening, after a great packing day, followed by his last injera and a stress of not having money left to pay it. Indeed all the ATM were out of function and i had only 50 birrs, which didn’t even pay the taxi. So i had to leave a deposit of my traveler check.
The problem led me finally to visit the Sheraton hotel the next day (the best in Addis, totally wahou), to meet another svensk, to meet another guy from the world Bank and to get a lift to an ATM that works (i had only six birrs left and i think they had pity of me…)
So sunday evening, tim left and flew back to Sweden a studies, which put me in a veryyyy slow and sad pace of life. But my roommate came back from their trip and interns from ECA were going, so my week has been quite busy anywas. And after all, four months is going to be fast right?
Here it is, the sum up of our trip. The pictures should help you visualize what it was. Hope it was not too boring ;)
Bisous à tous
Ps: papa, j’adore mon appareil photo! Il est juste géniale.
After not having written for ages, I am back telling about what is going on around here. It might be long to tell you about all, so I’ll try to sum up a bit.
So i think i left you just before i took couple (or more) of days off from work to be able to go travel a bit with Tim. Our route started in Bahir Dar, a city north of Addis, on the side of the biggest lake of Ethiopia, the Lake Tana. We took one of those crazy local place to go there, an dit took us the day to do something like 400km. The bus was pretty bad, ass-killing but the roads were kind of maintained (built by the Chinese and Japanese on this portion of the road) and the landscapes are very beautiful. So it was fun. Long but fun.
On the way to our destination, the road was beautiful. We crossed the Blue Nile Gorges which a beautiful and impressive, because the road goes down in the gorges before crossing them, then up again in a beautiful area. Ethiopia has lots of stiff mountains and the views are great !
Arrived in Bahir Dar, we slept in a 40 birr the room hotel (very cheap) with a dirty room and disgusting common toilet (was so close to go pee in the shower… didn’t do it !). The second night, we up scaled to a 50birr room with private bathroom an dit was great. We had a cold shower from a plastic bottle in the dark, it is memorable!
In Bahir Dar, we did the usual stuff: the boat trip. The lake has more then 30 islands on which there are many very old monasteries. Those are impressive because very old, but after three or four, we kind of had enough. The boat tour was nice, lots of birds to observe and nice fisherman boat. We met a funny crazy old polish guy with who we hang around a bit after. The next day, we went with him to the Blue Nile Falls, once considered as one oif the most beautiful fallls in Africa. Now, the falls have lost 75% of its water as they built a dam just ahead of the falls to produce electricity for the country (still not enough huh !). WE were lucky because the falls were « open » meaning we had the chance to see big waterfalls compared to normal. We climbed the highest mountain around for couple of hours before reaching the top, with a 380° view on the valley. Bweauwtifuwll ! Worth the effort.
After coming back to town, we almost directly took a minibus to Gonder.
HAaa.. i make it short but it makes me skip some funny details like the door of the bus taking us to the falls which fell down during the first 2 meters, the rain inside of the bus, the crazy Chinese taking pictures of us at the falls, the crazy children jumping on you to sell you any kind of handicraft stuff, the shepherds and so on…
To go to Gonder… i think it should take 2 hours and a half. WE took something like 5hours. Yeah, we had a little « bus » problem. After stopping at the gas station, we just couldn’t start anymore. So we had to wait for a mechanic, then for him to repair then we went.
We stayed in a lovely hotel in Gonder where we met the first night Chris, a Canadian guy off traveling for a year and a half. He was heading eventually to India, so we had a beer all existed sharing about the cool places we should go to. In Gonder, the main attraction is the castles, or the remain of them. It is impressive and surprising for Africa. Those are just old stones castle like we have. Sa that was cool. Then we met a girl who stayed in Gonder couple of months and she took us to visit a bit the surroundings, taking us a bit outside the center, with beautiful views and more rural village.
Then it is said that the first official tej place in Ethiopia was in gonder, so we had to go. No electricity, big wooden tables with a tiny candle, and lots of old wise Ethiopian guys zipping their tej in chemistry bottles (cf pictures) and a great atmosphere.. We had a great evening, the wine and the atmosphere made us talk for hours without us noticing it. After our fourth bottle, we realized we were the only one left and that we got pretty drunk. The wine was excellent, soft, sugary and tasty. But we forgot it was wine. So we took a rickshaw (yesss they have that all over Ethiopia but in Addis, what a shame, i love it!)We got home fast and slept like babies. The next day, i had a fever. So i hesitated between the hang over, the swain flue or malaria (paranoid ? not at all !). Think in the end i just had a cold…like a normal winter cold (yes it is winter here !).
The next day, i left time, Gwenen and Chris go up north to Axsum, while I went down to Addis in a nice middle class bus that took one day instead of two. I have been so happy to have chosen this fancy bus as i was feverish, diarrhaish and sickish in general. I just wanted to be home, take a shower and sleep.
I went to work on Monday but slept all day the Tuesday and had a slow motion week before Tim came back on Sunday.
Tim trip was …fun i think. Him and Chris have been sick alternatively (« are you good Tim ? yes but Chris is piucking all he has got ». And the next day : « are you good Tim ? No I am shitting blood but Chris is great ». Poor guys, they have been miserable. And they were riding buses all days… interesting.
I met them on Saturday morning thinner and dreaming for some rest. We had a nice week end in Addis before Chris flew to Egypt.
The next week has been the last one in town for Tim, who enjoyed some shopping, walking and last meetings.
On Friday, we flew (no time for 2 days of the local bus, so just 2 hours by flight ! luxury) to Lalibella. Lalibella is where the rock churches are. It is a small village in the mountain, without car, with beautiful views and great sunsets. Celebrating our two years together, we made the week end special. We had this crazy fancy hotel in houses called tukuls (traditional round houses), a huge room, impressively clean with lots of windows opening on a balcony and on a gorgeous view on the valley. We even had breakfast in bed, checking out the sun rise… yes i know, luxury again. But it worth it!
We went to the market on Saturday morning then to the churches in the afternoon. We had a little of tej the evening (a little, i have been a bit quieted down on tej !), we met nice people (including a Thai girl living in Lund and speaking Swedish just a bit better then me but who sounds so confident that i got jealous ! Med vi pratade lite svenska och det var jätte trevlig att träffa henne.
Then again, i am skipping lots of details but it is too much and i am sure you are already a bit bored. But we climber a mountain to see a beautiful sunset, we visited the churches that are very impressive, we ate the biggest omelet in the world, lots of cute birds of all colors, the best fruit juice and the worst ginger-dirt-tea, we saw the most traditional way of selling honey in the market ( big bags, full of durt with honey inside and a woman digging her whole arm in it to take a handle of it…yummie. And so on and so on.
We came back to Addis on Sunday and Tim flew in the evening, after a great packing day, followed by his last injera and a stress of not having money left to pay it. Indeed all the ATM were out of function and i had only 50 birrs, which didn’t even pay the taxi. So i had to leave a deposit of my traveler check.
The problem led me finally to visit the Sheraton hotel the next day (the best in Addis, totally wahou), to meet another svensk, to meet another guy from the world Bank and to get a lift to an ATM that works (i had only six birrs left and i think they had pity of me…)
So sunday evening, tim left and flew back to Sweden a studies, which put me in a veryyyy slow and sad pace of life. But my roommate came back from their trip and interns from ECA were going, so my week has been quite busy anywas. And after all, four months is going to be fast right?
Here it is, the sum up of our trip. The pictures should help you visualize what it was. Hope it was not too boring ;)
Bisous à tous
Ps: papa, j’adore mon appareil photo! Il est juste géniale.
jeudi 20 août 2009
New Pix
http://picasaweb.google.com/Alicethiopia/Picassa#
ps: Note the new very little link to the left...
ps: Note the new very little link to the left...
lundi 17 août 2009
Last week's message that i didn't manage to send...
A week end outside Addis
Friday after work (remember I finish at 2), we decided with Tim to go to Merkato, the supposed-to-be largest market in Africa. Hummmm it is totally huge. I think we have seen something like 20%. The rumors say you can find everything, from camels to Kalashnikovs. I hope I can find them one day. It is full of hustlers that jump on farenji (white men) to take them to visit the market. We definitely rejected (or escaped) them and wander all alone in this crazy place. Some areas are not used to receive farenji I think and people were looking at use strangely (like in the car spare-parts area, not much tourists!). We had ten macchiato in different very small cafes where you really wish you would not need to try the toilets. One was smelling roar meat very strongly, terrible. Or should I be honest and say it was stinking dead animals? Anyway, we walked for more than four hours, got lost, found our way, got lost again, bought some earrings and scarf (hoooo how much bargaining you have to do if you don’t want to be the stupid-used farenji and get a decent price!). It is a crazy place and I think I will spend lots of Friday afternoons discovering this huge area of the town, with billions of people doing business, running around, shouting and so on. It is a dirty smelling place but I like it. This looks like Africa more then any other places in Addis.
This week end, we don’t stay in Addis. Need to take some fresh air. On Friday night, we decide to have a quiet night just the two of us, restaurant and dodo. We chose a restaurant not far away from home. We do our lazy people and take a taxi (raining too much and too long day). I want to brag about my ahmaric (which is slowly coming to basic shape) so I give the taxi driver one of the number I know. “Haya birrs to go to Almendi restaurant?” he answers straight away “No problem”. Weird. Usually you discuss, you don’t just accept! Actually Haya is 20, and it was just wayyyy too much to go to the restaurant very close from home. The guy was nice and he said once there, really the price I gave was ridiculously too high “Ok, give 15”. I think he had pity. Now I will learn more numbers in Amharic! Moreover, the restaurant experience was a disaster. The waiter put us in small room (Arabic style) with mattresses on the floor without asking us if we wanted a normal table to eat. Then no one was coming to take our order as if either they had forgotten us or if they wanted to let us “in private”. Weird. We finally manage to order food. We try to find vegetarian things on the menu and end up with two desert: a banana/eggs stuff and and big pancake with honey. We were starving and we’ve been disgusted quite fast with so much sugar! We asked for a salad and a chicha “Possible possible”. The chicha never came and the salad was half a ball without sauce (not even oil, just water) that they charged us 25 birr (should cost 5 birr). So yeah, I don’t think we’ll be back there but it was fun. On the way back home, we stopped in a gloomy restaurant and ate good old injera and finally got full from food!
So Tim and I decide to rent a motorbike. Saturday morning, we go to “Stadium” and bargain for more than two hours to get a good bike, not destroy or with only half of the features working on it. Long time, long discussion, long bargaining. Then an hour more to get two helmets (yes two not one… so hard!). We finally manage to get everything, even a written contract on the condition! Amazing. While taking our breakfast, we observed a fire in the building in front. We had the opportunity to see how long the fireman are to come and how bad it looked. Many people were around, some helping other just looking. It was impressive.
Then on the road. We drove till Debre Zeyit, almost 40 km from Addis, to the east. It is an area with seven crater lakes. We arrived and chose the best view on one of the lake to eat. We met a couple of interns from ECA and had a nice time on a terrace with a beautiful view on the crater. Then we went to see other lakes and we looked for a hotel for very (too) long. We ended up at a women’s place I met on the road. A crazy little woman married to a farenji (not at home this day) who is building a beautiful traditional lodge on the edge of the crater. We stayed in one of the bungalow that was finished (I think she just let us her own room actually). We had a nice evening talking around the fire with her and her younger sister. It was a great evening. She was crazy and it was fun. Next time I go, I sleep there for free she said, nice! Only problem, we ate there, the food was great and the lemon juice also. Made of tap water? Of course. Did I drink it? Of course. Did I throw up all night? Of course. Was the bed on top of a mezzanine that you had to climb with a ladder? Of course. Were the toilet without running water? Of course. Did I think about taking any medicine with me for the week end? Of course not. Soooo sum up: awful night and slow motion Sunday. No waking up early and going around the lake as planned, not riding to the next city and have hot spring bath. We just stayed in bed until 12, I drunk lots of Coke and we walked around a bit and drove back home. What a shame. Never again this water, I have been very stupid. I know it now. The week end was good anyway; we met nice people and enjoyed the views. I am feeling better and the poisoning didn’t last more than a night (I have sore muscles from the action though!).
I took few days off (come on, I am not paid, I can do it!) and we are going out of town for the week. I think Tim will stay one more week and will let me go back alone to Addis on Sunday. I will probably join him where he is the next week end.
Friday after work (remember I finish at 2), we decided with Tim to go to Merkato, the supposed-to-be largest market in Africa. Hummmm it is totally huge. I think we have seen something like 20%. The rumors say you can find everything, from camels to Kalashnikovs. I hope I can find them one day. It is full of hustlers that jump on farenji (white men) to take them to visit the market. We definitely rejected (or escaped) them and wander all alone in this crazy place. Some areas are not used to receive farenji I think and people were looking at use strangely (like in the car spare-parts area, not much tourists!). We had ten macchiato in different very small cafes where you really wish you would not need to try the toilets. One was smelling roar meat very strongly, terrible. Or should I be honest and say it was stinking dead animals? Anyway, we walked for more than four hours, got lost, found our way, got lost again, bought some earrings and scarf (hoooo how much bargaining you have to do if you don’t want to be the stupid-used farenji and get a decent price!). It is a crazy place and I think I will spend lots of Friday afternoons discovering this huge area of the town, with billions of people doing business, running around, shouting and so on. It is a dirty smelling place but I like it. This looks like Africa more then any other places in Addis.
This week end, we don’t stay in Addis. Need to take some fresh air. On Friday night, we decide to have a quiet night just the two of us, restaurant and dodo. We chose a restaurant not far away from home. We do our lazy people and take a taxi (raining too much and too long day). I want to brag about my ahmaric (which is slowly coming to basic shape) so I give the taxi driver one of the number I know. “Haya birrs to go to Almendi restaurant?” he answers straight away “No problem”. Weird. Usually you discuss, you don’t just accept! Actually Haya is 20, and it was just wayyyy too much to go to the restaurant very close from home. The guy was nice and he said once there, really the price I gave was ridiculously too high “Ok, give 15”. I think he had pity. Now I will learn more numbers in Amharic! Moreover, the restaurant experience was a disaster. The waiter put us in small room (Arabic style) with mattresses on the floor without asking us if we wanted a normal table to eat. Then no one was coming to take our order as if either they had forgotten us or if they wanted to let us “in private”. Weird. We finally manage to order food. We try to find vegetarian things on the menu and end up with two desert: a banana/eggs stuff and and big pancake with honey. We were starving and we’ve been disgusted quite fast with so much sugar! We asked for a salad and a chicha “Possible possible”. The chicha never came and the salad was half a ball without sauce (not even oil, just water) that they charged us 25 birr (should cost 5 birr). So yeah, I don’t think we’ll be back there but it was fun. On the way back home, we stopped in a gloomy restaurant and ate good old injera and finally got full from food!
So Tim and I decide to rent a motorbike. Saturday morning, we go to “Stadium” and bargain for more than two hours to get a good bike, not destroy or with only half of the features working on it. Long time, long discussion, long bargaining. Then an hour more to get two helmets (yes two not one… so hard!). We finally manage to get everything, even a written contract on the condition! Amazing. While taking our breakfast, we observed a fire in the building in front. We had the opportunity to see how long the fireman are to come and how bad it looked. Many people were around, some helping other just looking. It was impressive.
Then on the road. We drove till Debre Zeyit, almost 40 km from Addis, to the east. It is an area with seven crater lakes. We arrived and chose the best view on one of the lake to eat. We met a couple of interns from ECA and had a nice time on a terrace with a beautiful view on the crater. Then we went to see other lakes and we looked for a hotel for very (too) long. We ended up at a women’s place I met on the road. A crazy little woman married to a farenji (not at home this day) who is building a beautiful traditional lodge on the edge of the crater. We stayed in one of the bungalow that was finished (I think she just let us her own room actually). We had a nice evening talking around the fire with her and her younger sister. It was a great evening. She was crazy and it was fun. Next time I go, I sleep there for free she said, nice! Only problem, we ate there, the food was great and the lemon juice also. Made of tap water? Of course. Did I drink it? Of course. Did I throw up all night? Of course. Was the bed on top of a mezzanine that you had to climb with a ladder? Of course. Were the toilet without running water? Of course. Did I think about taking any medicine with me for the week end? Of course not. Soooo sum up: awful night and slow motion Sunday. No waking up early and going around the lake as planned, not riding to the next city and have hot spring bath. We just stayed in bed until 12, I drunk lots of Coke and we walked around a bit and drove back home. What a shame. Never again this water, I have been very stupid. I know it now. The week end was good anyway; we met nice people and enjoyed the views. I am feeling better and the poisoning didn’t last more than a night (I have sore muscles from the action though!).
I took few days off (come on, I am not paid, I can do it!) and we are going out of town for the week. I think Tim will stay one more week and will let me go back alone to Addis on Sunday. I will probably join him where he is the next week end.
lundi 10 août 2009
Enfin des Photos!
Hoping that this time it is working!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Alicethiopia/Picassa#
http://picasaweb.google.com/Alicethiopia/Picassa#
vendredi 7 août 2009
Another week is gone!
Et bien et bien. Sorry I didn’t write for a while. Here is alittle sum up.
Last week end, we have been out with my roommates. We were supposed to go dance salsa (or just accompany our girl roommate to do so while drinking Saint-George, the Ethiopian beer). The salsa club was dead and our Ethiopian friend told us we had to experience this Memo club, a very famous club (not to say the most famous club in Addis). So Why not? Few observations. First, Music was quite “so so ”, a mix between Ethiopian (good), American (so so) and other African music. That was fun. Then, girls. Yeah it is an important think to observe over there. All those absolutely beautiful and hot Ethiopian girls who wriggle their hips to the frenzied beats in the middle of the dancefloor. Wahou. But euh nop “wahou”. They are all prostitutes. Even my American friend who looks very much like she is Ethiopian got some nice nice offers …You can’t really be an African girl in a pub dancing alone if you are not a prostitute. So it is totally bewildering. Then I think we forgot ourselves a bit.. because we ended it up at 6 o’clock in the morning eating injera and fifir in the restaurant of the club, totally starving and exhausted by this night of crazy dancing. I didn’t enjoy a club that much for years (yeah, I am getting old).
The next day, as you can imagine has been a chilling day, good breakfast in a small cozy delicious place, then just a normal Saturday hanging around and not doing much. Ho we actually had a mission which was finding a badminton racquet to play in the garden (ours is dead). We dragged ourselves till this shop where it was just too expensive and achieve our mission but renouncing to this insane purchase (450 birrs). Tim was supposed to arrive at midnight this same day. I was hang over and pretty tired when everyone went to bed, leaving me alone in the dark, without electricity, without battery in my cell phone to set an alarm. Just myself, my book and my tiredness. Awful. I was burned out. Electricity is back, I switch on my cell phone, read Tim’s message: two hours delay. Haaaaaaa I watched a movie and went at the airport at 2 o’clock, stood up a little hour more, and finally found him. That was hell of a long day, but I was happy. Tired but happy.
Since then, we are having a little routine: wake up at 7.30, go to work, leave him wander in Addis until lunch when he comes to eat in small workers Ethiopian restaurants (9 birrs a lunch for the both of us, just amazing!), then he wanders again and come and pick me up at 5.30. Some days he manages to walk around, visit and see things. Sometimes he gets stuck at the terrace of a café, soaked wet, cold trapped by the pouring rain. But I think it is part of the Addis experience, so he is leaving it. It is good.
Ho we went to an Indian restaurant (couldn’t resist), very good and famous one where we filled ourselves with souvenirs of two years ago.
This week end we are planning to get out of town, with bikes or car, to we don’t know where yet. But who cares, we’ll just figure it out soon. Can’t wait to breathe some fresh and pure air. Addis is congested and the air is not nice.
Work is good, i continue working on my project, i am slowly quiting the Spider solitaire addiction and learn a lot of things on AFrica. I like it.
Life is going on as normal around here, I feel home and it is good to have “the visitor” around here. He looks funny because he totally sun-burn at the beginning of the week. I think Ethiopian wonder what kind of guy he is, too red to be white, not enough to be black… just strange Swedish!
Last week end, we have been out with my roommates. We were supposed to go dance salsa (or just accompany our girl roommate to do so while drinking Saint-George, the Ethiopian beer). The salsa club was dead and our Ethiopian friend told us we had to experience this Memo club, a very famous club (not to say the most famous club in Addis). So Why not? Few observations. First, Music was quite “so so ”, a mix between Ethiopian (good), American (so so) and other African music. That was fun. Then, girls. Yeah it is an important think to observe over there. All those absolutely beautiful and hot Ethiopian girls who wriggle their hips to the frenzied beats in the middle of the dancefloor. Wahou. But euh nop “wahou”. They are all prostitutes. Even my American friend who looks very much like she is Ethiopian got some nice nice offers …You can’t really be an African girl in a pub dancing alone if you are not a prostitute. So it is totally bewildering. Then I think we forgot ourselves a bit.. because we ended it up at 6 o’clock in the morning eating injera and fifir in the restaurant of the club, totally starving and exhausted by this night of crazy dancing. I didn’t enjoy a club that much for years (yeah, I am getting old).
The next day, as you can imagine has been a chilling day, good breakfast in a small cozy delicious place, then just a normal Saturday hanging around and not doing much. Ho we actually had a mission which was finding a badminton racquet to play in the garden (ours is dead). We dragged ourselves till this shop where it was just too expensive and achieve our mission but renouncing to this insane purchase (450 birrs). Tim was supposed to arrive at midnight this same day. I was hang over and pretty tired when everyone went to bed, leaving me alone in the dark, without electricity, without battery in my cell phone to set an alarm. Just myself, my book and my tiredness. Awful. I was burned out. Electricity is back, I switch on my cell phone, read Tim’s message: two hours delay. Haaaaaaa I watched a movie and went at the airport at 2 o’clock, stood up a little hour more, and finally found him. That was hell of a long day, but I was happy. Tired but happy.
Since then, we are having a little routine: wake up at 7.30, go to work, leave him wander in Addis until lunch when he comes to eat in small workers Ethiopian restaurants (9 birrs a lunch for the both of us, just amazing!), then he wanders again and come and pick me up at 5.30. Some days he manages to walk around, visit and see things. Sometimes he gets stuck at the terrace of a café, soaked wet, cold trapped by the pouring rain. But I think it is part of the Addis experience, so he is leaving it. It is good.
Ho we went to an Indian restaurant (couldn’t resist), very good and famous one where we filled ourselves with souvenirs of two years ago.
This week end we are planning to get out of town, with bikes or car, to we don’t know where yet. But who cares, we’ll just figure it out soon. Can’t wait to breathe some fresh and pure air. Addis is congested and the air is not nice.
Work is good, i continue working on my project, i am slowly quiting the Spider solitaire addiction and learn a lot of things on AFrica. I like it.
Life is going on as normal around here, I feel home and it is good to have “the visitor” around here. He looks funny because he totally sun-burn at the beginning of the week. I think Ethiopian wonder what kind of guy he is, too red to be white, not enough to be black… just strange Swedish!
mercredi 29 juillet 2009
About my work
I haven’t talked too much about it yet. Let’s clarify. I am intern in the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). UNIFEM has sub-regional offices, country offices and project offices. The office where I work in falls under a specific ‘’UN project’’. This is the Liaison Office with the African Union and the UNECA (Economic Commission for Africa). Those latter have the biggest UN compound, just next door to our old and grey building. We are the outsider of the UN. Soite. Anyways, basically the overall goal of the establishment of the UNIFEM Liaison Office is to strengthen UNIFEM institutional capacity to strategically and systematically engage in policy dialogue, partnership development, and to provide technical assistance to the African Union and UNECA. To be simple. Haha. ’’ One of UNIFEM Liaison Office’s missions is to promote and support the African Union leadership towards state accountability for women’s human rights in Africa. Its role is as much to influence policy development as to raise UNIFEM’s visibility at the AU level, working closely with other parts of the UN system, as well as regional women’s rights networks. UNIFEM supports the participation of gender equality advocates and influences the AU department to promote the implementation of its gender equality commitments.’’ SO this is a lot of policy advises and lots of documents to get familiarized with.
The problem they have is that they are only two programming staff. Actually, one is Programme officer (Tikikel, with who i share the office, who is young, Ethiopian and very nice) And the other one, Florence (the boss from Uganda) is the representative to the AU and ECA. Then comes Firdawok, the logistic and administration officer, Gadlu (I finally got his name btw) the nicest driver and me, the intern without computer (yet) nor internet (probably this I will never get, today’s news. So pissed off!). Being a project office, we fall under two different administrations: 1st the UNIFEM headquarters in N-Y, second we are also dependent on the UNDP office for strange reasons. So for example, to get a computer for me, we need to get the authorization from N-Y then to go beg UNDP to get the Purchase O and then go to the supplier. Mouaha, so everything takes unbelievably long and most of their work in occupied by administration. This is already frustrating!
Anyways, my position. Being a Liaison Office, they should have quite a lot of communication with their partners. Right? They actually don’t really. The office exists since a year and a half and hasn’t done so much programmes and projects so far. They helped the AU to create the ender Policy. They organised workshop and did lots of other thing i still have to figure out. But They haven’t have the time or resources to create a real communication strategy to link all the partners on regular and formal basis. So it is basically what I am here to do. I believe there is a lot to do and I hope i can manage to get the information and the contacts I need to put something in place.
The first concrete project is the newsletter. ‘’The newsletter will help the different structures involved to communicate more closely on a regular basis, to keep them updated on the gender activities of the AU and other organs. It will also motivate those actors to work more closely together, as it will help them to understand each other’s roles and to identify the potential area of collaboration. The overall goal is to ensure a regular flow of information on gender equality and women empowerment within the AU, and offer a platform for dialogue between stakeholders.’’ I handed in the first draft of the concept note and got positive feedback. We’ll meet there Gender Directorate of the African Union next week to present the concept note, to work on it together and to finalize it as well.
If there is a real will to start a formal communication process from the different sides of the partnership and if people are responsive, there will be lots of work. We aim at stimulate involvement from the commissioners themselves (of the AU Commission) or at least from the directors of the department. Hopefully some will be interested and not only talking. The gender policy is a first important step, but now remain to see if they are ready to take action…
The problem they have is that they are only two programming staff. Actually, one is Programme officer (Tikikel, with who i share the office, who is young, Ethiopian and very nice) And the other one, Florence (the boss from Uganda) is the representative to the AU and ECA. Then comes Firdawok, the logistic and administration officer, Gadlu (I finally got his name btw) the nicest driver and me, the intern without computer (yet) nor internet (probably this I will never get, today’s news. So pissed off!). Being a project office, we fall under two different administrations: 1st the UNIFEM headquarters in N-Y, second we are also dependent on the UNDP office for strange reasons. So for example, to get a computer for me, we need to get the authorization from N-Y then to go beg UNDP to get the Purchase O and then go to the supplier. Mouaha, so everything takes unbelievably long and most of their work in occupied by administration. This is already frustrating!
Anyways, my position. Being a Liaison Office, they should have quite a lot of communication with their partners. Right? They actually don’t really. The office exists since a year and a half and hasn’t done so much programmes and projects so far. They helped the AU to create the ender Policy. They organised workshop and did lots of other thing i still have to figure out. But They haven’t have the time or resources to create a real communication strategy to link all the partners on regular and formal basis. So it is basically what I am here to do. I believe there is a lot to do and I hope i can manage to get the information and the contacts I need to put something in place.
The first concrete project is the newsletter. ‘’The newsletter will help the different structures involved to communicate more closely on a regular basis, to keep them updated on the gender activities of the AU and other organs. It will also motivate those actors to work more closely together, as it will help them to understand each other’s roles and to identify the potential area of collaboration. The overall goal is to ensure a regular flow of information on gender equality and women empowerment within the AU, and offer a platform for dialogue between stakeholders.’’ I handed in the first draft of the concept note and got positive feedback. We’ll meet there Gender Directorate of the African Union next week to present the concept note, to work on it together and to finalize it as well.
If there is a real will to start a formal communication process from the different sides of the partnership and if people are responsive, there will be lots of work. We aim at stimulate involvement from the commissioners themselves (of the AU Commission) or at least from the directors of the department. Hopefully some will be interested and not only talking. The gender policy is a first important step, but now remain to see if they are ready to take action…
Another blablabla...
Time is just flying by... I end up being quite busy. I work from 8.30 till 5.30 or 6. Last week, every day after work, I have been wandering around, taking a big street and following it until my legs could not continue. Then back home which sometimes can be complicated as i take public transport. Mainly, this is small buses called taxis, white and blue, which stop in ununderstandable places and go to area with unintelligible names, shouted very fast and very strangely ‘’Bassabassa mezkomezko (meaning Mexico!), bolbolbolbolbol (meaning Boley area)’’. It is tricky to manage to get the right one, especially when you don’t really know the name of the area where you live and want to go! I get used to it fast though.
This is another problem of Addis. They don’t really use streets name. The system has been introduced only less than ten years ago (even less the five i think). So Ethiopian people don’t refer to this system to find their way...I haven’t figured out which system they use... They have area names that are usually too long to be remembered (some manage, but not me yet). Moreover, if you want to use the good old system (that we Westerners actually find useful), this is not as easy. The ones who got the contract to make the signs of the street of Addis are....guess who.... the Chinese! Bad luck? A bit, as the Chinese people and the English language make twenty. So almost all the signs have spelling mistakes which doesn’t motivate locals to use them (nor us indeed).
Anyways...it makes busy weeks and I don’t see the time going on. When I am walking around or just hanging around with Ethiopians, i always think about the things I want to write to you. Some funny some not. The things I see in the street or what people tell you. But when I am in front of my computer, it is a bit hard to remember them all and gather them in a readable text! (Sorry, i am not really organized, this blog is becoming a mess!).
For example I visited houses for my boss who wants to move, which allowed me to get inside many compounds of middle high class people. Very interesting. I saw a dead dog in a pile of trash. I found the coolest bookshop in the street, with only books from the 30’s till the 60’s.. great fun! We drink lots of excellent Macchiato and we eat lots of different kind of food from Chinese to Lebanese, from Ethiopian to Italian. There are slums and business buildings, small houses and mud houses. It is rainy but still quite warm. We play badminton, volleyball in the courtyard of the house which is really cool. What else...? the smiles of Ethiopian, how helpful and nice they are. The beggars in the street, all the blind people (water problems), the awful smells when you cross a bridge on top of the garbage river (not as bad as in Kathmandu though!) ...The heavy pollution that squashes down the city .Just billions of small things that are so hard to describe and hard to remember. Observations, thoughts, feelings...
Another example. Giving your telephone number. Yeah, lots of nice Ethiopian who you meet in the street for small talks want to be able to meet you again, or keep contact. As naive as I am, I undoubtedly will leave my phone number. What harm could it do? Um... I start o understand that I should not do that too much! While I was going to look for bamboo furnitures for my room (cheap and best), I have been helped by this adorable Taricu, who barely speaks English but has been really helpful. I gave him my number. Next day: seven missed calls! Ok, he calls once again, I hang up. ”Alice? When you go Bambis?(the supermarket where i met him)”. ” Hum i don’t know ”. ” What time? Tell me”. ” Hum i don’t know, later...” And he calls every day now to ask me when i am at Bambis.... heartbreaking but i can’t go to Bambis all the time and anyways our conversation are sooo limited as his English is really basic (or less). What to do? Haha and thy are also giving my number to their friends,,, haaa!!!
This is another problem of Addis. They don’t really use streets name. The system has been introduced only less than ten years ago (even less the five i think). So Ethiopian people don’t refer to this system to find their way...I haven’t figured out which system they use... They have area names that are usually too long to be remembered (some manage, but not me yet). Moreover, if you want to use the good old system (that we Westerners actually find useful), this is not as easy. The ones who got the contract to make the signs of the street of Addis are....guess who.... the Chinese! Bad luck? A bit, as the Chinese people and the English language make twenty. So almost all the signs have spelling mistakes which doesn’t motivate locals to use them (nor us indeed).
Anyways...it makes busy weeks and I don’t see the time going on. When I am walking around or just hanging around with Ethiopians, i always think about the things I want to write to you. Some funny some not. The things I see in the street or what people tell you. But when I am in front of my computer, it is a bit hard to remember them all and gather them in a readable text! (Sorry, i am not really organized, this blog is becoming a mess!).
For example I visited houses for my boss who wants to move, which allowed me to get inside many compounds of middle high class people. Very interesting. I saw a dead dog in a pile of trash. I found the coolest bookshop in the street, with only books from the 30’s till the 60’s.. great fun! We drink lots of excellent Macchiato and we eat lots of different kind of food from Chinese to Lebanese, from Ethiopian to Italian. There are slums and business buildings, small houses and mud houses. It is rainy but still quite warm. We play badminton, volleyball in the courtyard of the house which is really cool. What else...? the smiles of Ethiopian, how helpful and nice they are. The beggars in the street, all the blind people (water problems), the awful smells when you cross a bridge on top of the garbage river (not as bad as in Kathmandu though!) ...The heavy pollution that squashes down the city .Just billions of small things that are so hard to describe and hard to remember. Observations, thoughts, feelings...
Another example. Giving your telephone number. Yeah, lots of nice Ethiopian who you meet in the street for small talks want to be able to meet you again, or keep contact. As naive as I am, I undoubtedly will leave my phone number. What harm could it do? Um... I start o understand that I should not do that too much! While I was going to look for bamboo furnitures for my room (cheap and best), I have been helped by this adorable Taricu, who barely speaks English but has been really helpful. I gave him my number. Next day: seven missed calls! Ok, he calls once again, I hang up. ”Alice? When you go Bambis?(the supermarket where i met him)”. ” Hum i don’t know ”. ” What time? Tell me”. ” Hum i don’t know, later...” And he calls every day now to ask me when i am at Bambis.... heartbreaking but i can’t go to Bambis all the time and anyways our conversation are sooo limited as his English is really basic (or less). What to do? Haha and thy are also giving my number to their friends,,, haaa!!!
lundi 27 juillet 2009
Week end 2
Saturday morning, week 2
The plan today was to rent an old Mercedes 4 wheels drive to go 300 km out of the city to go see some crazy waterfalls. But no. We were supposed to get the car at 6am. But no car. So we have been wondering for a while what to do…We ended up deciding to stay in Addis, go get a pedicure, go to the swimming pool (with hot springs water) and probably the cinema…but who knows what we are going to end up doing? It is another rainy day here so we’ll see.
Sunday evening
As you noticed, I started to write Saturday but I didn’t really finish. Electricity cut. Actually, we are part of the privileged one here. We have a generator. So even when no electricity in the area, we have some on the evening, but we don’t start it during the day. Anyway, I didn’t have battery to continue. The electricity of the city is divided by “area”. Not every one can use it at the same time, especially during the rainy season. So it is one day on, one day off. One day on, one day off.
We had a really nice week end in Addis finally. We went to have breakfast in a very small place very charming, where the food was excellent. Actually, it is funny because in Addis, qouazi all the shops and restaurant, even the smaller are totally over staffed. For example, the one we went in yesterday is only a very very small room, with two tables and I think there were four or five to work! It is always like this. Interesting.
Then, we decided to go to the pedicure. Then we became totally absorbed by the “menu” of the services. Full massage, aroma massage, facial, stone massage, Moroccan bath… and all this for really amazing prices. So we got done our pedicures (first time in my life! It is so really so nice, I just loved it. I have baby feet!); then we wanted to be “waxed”. But no electricity in this area, nor in the two or three other areas we called. The people of the salon helped us find another place where we could do it! So amazingly nice. Not Parisian style like “no we are the only one in town to do that, come back tomorrow”. Adorable. So we found a place then met James at the swimming pool as we didn’t want to join us in our pedicurish-waxish-girlish activities.)
The swimming pool was immense. It is inside of a fancy hotel, the Ghion Hotel. We had good time. It was amazingly cold, we had to change ourselves in the “cottages”, sort of round “balconies without house” (Tim you see…) with absolutely no where to hide to get changed. There was also a bunch of people hanging around observing the ones swimming. It was funny to have observers. Then, after freezing our asses long enough, and shared one towel for three, we were totally starving and headed to the Chinese restaurant next door. Unfortunately, it was closed.
We finally reached the place just before I fainted from hunger. We order almost everything, ate half and took away the rests in nice doggie bags. Very good food but damm why Chinese cut the chicken with all the bones? Seriously it is weird to chew them!) . Totally food drunk. We walked a bit to reach the cinema which allowed us to see a very funny scene. Actually I think principal actor didn’t have so much fun. Few fareingi (étrangers) were walking on the road in front of us, probably heading to a party to have their Saturday night fever. For some unexplainable reasons, one of the guy went to walk on the sidewalk. He kind of jumped on it… actually not on but in. it was not hard. It was just a very deep-muddy-disgustant-stinky area of thick water/mud. Hum nice! So surprised, he bounced on his feet in the mud before realizing he only had to go back on the road, wet shoes and awful feeling. It was funny for us but poor guy, I think he directly went back home and had his saturday night fever in hos shower with a soap! It least it is what I would have done!
We went to the cinema the, saw the shittiest movie of all(most) all time! “buy borrow steal” don’t go to see it, it was too bad. Not even acceptable for an excessive-Chinese-food digestion.
Today, Jyesha (it is actually spelled this way!) and I went back to the salon (already addicted!) and we had a Moroccan bath. Steam bath + black soap+ amazing body scrubing+ hair washing+mud+massage= 2 hours of happiness. Then just had a slow motion sunday.played badminton, volley ball and football in the courtyard. Had a great time.
That was my week end. Quiet and nice!
Ho and Friday evening after visiting houses with my boss ( good experience to see how people live…and how UN people live!) I met James in this look-like german bar who has its one beer, we had some very cheap giraffe with Ethiopian friends from James’s work. We met up with Jyesha in a salsa bar, nice and funny.
Have to tell you about my work but now it is getting late and I am tired from all the sport!
So good night
The plan today was to rent an old Mercedes 4 wheels drive to go 300 km out of the city to go see some crazy waterfalls. But no. We were supposed to get the car at 6am. But no car. So we have been wondering for a while what to do…We ended up deciding to stay in Addis, go get a pedicure, go to the swimming pool (with hot springs water) and probably the cinema…but who knows what we are going to end up doing? It is another rainy day here so we’ll see.
Sunday evening
As you noticed, I started to write Saturday but I didn’t really finish. Electricity cut. Actually, we are part of the privileged one here. We have a generator. So even when no electricity in the area, we have some on the evening, but we don’t start it during the day. Anyway, I didn’t have battery to continue. The electricity of the city is divided by “area”. Not every one can use it at the same time, especially during the rainy season. So it is one day on, one day off. One day on, one day off.
We had a really nice week end in Addis finally. We went to have breakfast in a very small place very charming, where the food was excellent. Actually, it is funny because in Addis, qouazi all the shops and restaurant, even the smaller are totally over staffed. For example, the one we went in yesterday is only a very very small room, with two tables and I think there were four or five to work! It is always like this. Interesting.
Then, we decided to go to the pedicure. Then we became totally absorbed by the “menu” of the services. Full massage, aroma massage, facial, stone massage, Moroccan bath… and all this for really amazing prices. So we got done our pedicures (first time in my life! It is so really so nice, I just loved it. I have baby feet!); then we wanted to be “waxed”. But no electricity in this area, nor in the two or three other areas we called. The people of the salon helped us find another place where we could do it! So amazingly nice. Not Parisian style like “no we are the only one in town to do that, come back tomorrow”. Adorable. So we found a place then met James at the swimming pool as we didn’t want to join us in our pedicurish-waxish-girlish activities.)
The swimming pool was immense. It is inside of a fancy hotel, the Ghion Hotel. We had good time. It was amazingly cold, we had to change ourselves in the “cottages”, sort of round “balconies without house” (Tim you see…) with absolutely no where to hide to get changed. There was also a bunch of people hanging around observing the ones swimming. It was funny to have observers. Then, after freezing our asses long enough, and shared one towel for three, we were totally starving and headed to the Chinese restaurant next door. Unfortunately, it was closed.
We finally reached the place just before I fainted from hunger. We order almost everything, ate half and took away the rests in nice doggie bags. Very good food but damm why Chinese cut the chicken with all the bones? Seriously it is weird to chew them!) . Totally food drunk. We walked a bit to reach the cinema which allowed us to see a very funny scene. Actually I think principal actor didn’t have so much fun. Few fareingi (étrangers) were walking on the road in front of us, probably heading to a party to have their Saturday night fever. For some unexplainable reasons, one of the guy went to walk on the sidewalk. He kind of jumped on it… actually not on but in. it was not hard. It was just a very deep-muddy-disgustant-stinky area of thick water/mud. Hum nice! So surprised, he bounced on his feet in the mud before realizing he only had to go back on the road, wet shoes and awful feeling. It was funny for us but poor guy, I think he directly went back home and had his saturday night fever in hos shower with a soap! It least it is what I would have done!
We went to the cinema the, saw the shittiest movie of all(most) all time! “buy borrow steal” don’t go to see it, it was too bad. Not even acceptable for an excessive-Chinese-food digestion.
Today, Jyesha (it is actually spelled this way!) and I went back to the salon (already addicted!) and we had a Moroccan bath. Steam bath + black soap+ amazing body scrubing+ hair washing+mud+massage= 2 hours of happiness. Then just had a slow motion sunday.played badminton, volley ball and football in the courtyard. Had a great time.
That was my week end. Quiet and nice!
Ho and Friday evening after visiting houses with my boss ( good experience to see how people live…and how UN people live!) I met James in this look-like german bar who has its one beer, we had some very cheap giraffe with Ethiopian friends from James’s work. We met up with Jyesha in a salsa bar, nice and funny.
Have to tell you about my work but now it is getting late and I am tired from all the sport!
So good night
lundi 20 juillet 2009
Day 7
Here it is, my first week! Once again, i am writing from my room and will post it from the office tmw.
So, a wrap up… I moved in on Wednesday, Thursday was the last day of the workshop. We finished late to close the report. Then I went with my roommates (James & Jaïsha) to a restaurant where we ate sizzlers (like in India), before going to the newt door Jazz bar Alizée. There was a band of Ethiopian, playing a mix between traditionnal-jazzy-reggy-smothie music. It was very nice. It ended up with a guy coming up the stage and dancing like crazy. He was dancing traditional Ethiopian dance, with a very special shoulder’s movement very impressive as it goes faster and faster. It was great.
Friday was a normal reading day at work. Just got a good news : every Friday at the UN in Ethiopia, we finish work at 2pm. Great news. I am already realizing a many week ends outside of the country i need to actually see a little bit of Ethiopia. Dam big country !
Saturday was a quiet day with my roommates. We had breakfast at home then we went to the National Museum and stopped on the way to visit the Hilton and check out the prices of the famous swimming pool. Arrived at the museum with Jaïsha, we decided we were hungry and stopped first at the museum’s restaurant. Then we met some of Jaïsha’s friends who told us we should go to the Ethnological museum on the University campus. We changed plans and did that.
While visiting the museum, the rain started to pour outside and never stopped until the morning. We had a quiet evening with a movie in the cozy living room. We also encountered couple of cockroaches in the fridge. James was just talking about the inhabitant of the fridge corner in the kitchen when they showed up. Demonstration.
On Sunday morning we decided to go horseback riding. Mouhaha that was fun. We went with a friend who has a car. We drove for about an hour outside of Addis, which allowed me to realize how spread the city was. The buildings of the centre are slowly replaced by small mud house looking like countryside villages. More and more goats are on the roads and more and more kids look dirty and not cared of. The countryside was beautiful, even though it was very foggy. We finally arrived after a (too) long car trip. Actually, we had been told there was a new road to reach the place and that it was a big straight clean road. But the road we took was just muddy, bumpy and curvy. Weird.
Then the whole horse riding thing under the rain was of course hilarious. There was two Danish (very posh and well equipped women, with white pants, leather boots and proper gloves). There was also two English medicine students in Ethiopia for holidays. And there was us, with Jaïsha riding quiet good, James and the Ethiopian friend (too hard name, still not used) riding for the first time, and the three of us scared like hell. Finally we did a 2 hours promenade in the area. We had lots of fun, after having found a bit of courage and confidence, after having managed to trot a bit and left the too good running in front. James had a horse that was so lazy he looked like being on a stubborn donkey, bouncing on all sides. I was quiet proud of myself and was impressed of how capable I was. I stopped being stressed and started having fun. We all did very well, even though no special inner talent has been discovered.
We came back to the city. We realized how bad the air of Addis is. So much pollution, dust and smoke. It was really nice to be out in the fresh air. I think it will become a “must” of every weekend: get out of the city at least once, to go breath air. On the way home, we ate in an Italian restaurant. Too much food for me, I got so tired (also maybe a bit the horse riding and the 7’ o’clock wake up) that I did a nap and here I am, writing to you. Now, I ll go in th eliving room to take care of the fire we just made. Hooo yes, we have a cheminee in our home !
Tomorrow work with every one back in the office.
So to sum up: my first week was excellent. The work seems interesting. I meet lots of people, even outside of work, who are interesting. I get already plenty of ideas for a potential thesis. I really like my roommates who are very nice and very easy going. I like my room and the house. I love the food and the smiles of Ethiopian. I know there is so much to see and do in Ethiopia that I will fill my days without any problems. Anyways, good conclusions, every thing is great around here! Hope it is the same back home(s).
So, a wrap up… I moved in on Wednesday, Thursday was the last day of the workshop. We finished late to close the report. Then I went with my roommates (James & Jaïsha) to a restaurant where we ate sizzlers (like in India), before going to the newt door Jazz bar Alizée. There was a band of Ethiopian, playing a mix between traditionnal-jazzy-reggy-smothie music. It was very nice. It ended up with a guy coming up the stage and dancing like crazy. He was dancing traditional Ethiopian dance, with a very special shoulder’s movement very impressive as it goes faster and faster. It was great.
Friday was a normal reading day at work. Just got a good news : every Friday at the UN in Ethiopia, we finish work at 2pm. Great news. I am already realizing a many week ends outside of the country i need to actually see a little bit of Ethiopia. Dam big country !
Saturday was a quiet day with my roommates. We had breakfast at home then we went to the National Museum and stopped on the way to visit the Hilton and check out the prices of the famous swimming pool. Arrived at the museum with Jaïsha, we decided we were hungry and stopped first at the museum’s restaurant. Then we met some of Jaïsha’s friends who told us we should go to the Ethnological museum on the University campus. We changed plans and did that.
While visiting the museum, the rain started to pour outside and never stopped until the morning. We had a quiet evening with a movie in the cozy living room. We also encountered couple of cockroaches in the fridge. James was just talking about the inhabitant of the fridge corner in the kitchen when they showed up. Demonstration.
On Sunday morning we decided to go horseback riding. Mouhaha that was fun. We went with a friend who has a car. We drove for about an hour outside of Addis, which allowed me to realize how spread the city was. The buildings of the centre are slowly replaced by small mud house looking like countryside villages. More and more goats are on the roads and more and more kids look dirty and not cared of. The countryside was beautiful, even though it was very foggy. We finally arrived after a (too) long car trip. Actually, we had been told there was a new road to reach the place and that it was a big straight clean road. But the road we took was just muddy, bumpy and curvy. Weird.
Then the whole horse riding thing under the rain was of course hilarious. There was two Danish (very posh and well equipped women, with white pants, leather boots and proper gloves). There was also two English medicine students in Ethiopia for holidays. And there was us, with Jaïsha riding quiet good, James and the Ethiopian friend (too hard name, still not used) riding for the first time, and the three of us scared like hell. Finally we did a 2 hours promenade in the area. We had lots of fun, after having found a bit of courage and confidence, after having managed to trot a bit and left the too good running in front. James had a horse that was so lazy he looked like being on a stubborn donkey, bouncing on all sides. I was quiet proud of myself and was impressed of how capable I was. I stopped being stressed and started having fun. We all did very well, even though no special inner talent has been discovered.
We came back to the city. We realized how bad the air of Addis is. So much pollution, dust and smoke. It was really nice to be out in the fresh air. I think it will become a “must” of every weekend: get out of the city at least once, to go breath air. On the way home, we ate in an Italian restaurant. Too much food for me, I got so tired (also maybe a bit the horse riding and the 7’ o’clock wake up) that I did a nap and here I am, writing to you. Now, I ll go in th eliving room to take care of the fire we just made. Hooo yes, we have a cheminee in our home !
Tomorrow work with every one back in the office.
So to sum up: my first week was excellent. The work seems interesting. I meet lots of people, even outside of work, who are interesting. I get already plenty of ideas for a potential thesis. I really like my roommates who are very nice and very easy going. I like my room and the house. I love the food and the smiles of Ethiopian. I know there is so much to see and do in Ethiopia that I will fill my days without any problems. Anyways, good conclusions, every thing is great around here! Hope it is the same back home(s).
Day 3 en retard
Yesterday, I went to bed a bit stressed because I didn’t find neither a cheaper (decent) guest house nor an apartment, because I didn’t have a cell phone to call the potential places and because I got stressed of paying that much my (very modest) actual room. Today, I spent the day in this workshop i told you about, hunting down interns to find some good tips. The day has been long so to say, as I didn’t find any concret solutions to my problems. Moreover, I was a bit illegally in the building of the UN and I had to explain every time I was going somewhere why i didn’t have a proper UN card that allows me to be inside. Not good. Coming out of eight hours meeting, i was really fed up and just wanting to run around Addis to find something. I randomly found the driver on the way out (first good surprise of the day). He is my saver. He is a thin guy who speaks so so english, who is coming from a very poor family but who strongly believes that when you want to get out of misery, you just can work so much that you can manage anything and he is the nicest person I met so far. So he fixed my UN card (just have to go get it tmw to get out of illegality), he drove me to a cheaper guest house to visit (much nicer then what i have now), he bought me a sim card for my phone (btw, my ethiopian nm is : 00252-912 436 038) and took me to this famous supermarket where people put ads on free appartment. The first one I called was people looking for a roomate. We went to visit it.
And there, all my day became a happy day. I found a place ! and it is just… hum.. how to say… an AW-SOME place ! Not far at all from work (walking distance), it is a big (no… huge) house that I share with three people. I met 2: one girl from the US here until September and a guy from the UK here for undetermined stay. They seem really nice. The houseeeeee mouahaha I am so excited! Je me ris de ma trouvaille! I think it belongs to the guy that I haven’t met and who is Ethiopian. There is a big kitchen (comme à la campagne), and big leaving roo, an extra toilet and a bathroom, with a bath and hot water. And a …. Wait for it…. Washing machine! Mouahhaha. There are four rooms; mine just has a big bed and a big cupboard. It is amazingly quiet because….. haha.. there is a garden, which looks like a small paradise inside of the dusty city. I smelt the fresh air for the 1st time! Incredible! It looks like an outside squared room, without a roof, with a palm tree in the middle and grass all around. So green and fresh that I almost fell in love with the place! We have a guard, a gardener and a maid. I am not paying that much (though it was going to be soooo out of reach first!) and the rent includes the fees to send the girl of the maid to school. Mouhaha.
So yes, it is great! Tmw, I’ll leave my shitty place at 8 to move over there. 140$. F^¨*£.M%°. Sacrebleu.
What else to say! Bravo Bravo!!!!
Ok I wanted to tell you first about the GM in the REC and SRO, in collaboration with IO and CO, and the perspectives on GE/WE for the MDG. But I am too excited for that. Really sorry, I know you are disappointed.
I have to pack and sleep, and try not to have the shitty dream of giving away babies like bananas like I had yesterday (thank you white couples of the hotel!).
Kram Kram! (ho, only negative point, no Swedish roommate, would have been to perfect!).
Ps: I am just living my first big storm, lightenings are lightning (oui je sais c’est nul) my rooms, thunders are tonitruants (??) and water is pouring like a cow that piss. Haaa les tropiques!
And there, all my day became a happy day. I found a place ! and it is just… hum.. how to say… an AW-SOME place ! Not far at all from work (walking distance), it is a big (no… huge) house that I share with three people. I met 2: one girl from the US here until September and a guy from the UK here for undetermined stay. They seem really nice. The houseeeeee mouahaha I am so excited! Je me ris de ma trouvaille! I think it belongs to the guy that I haven’t met and who is Ethiopian. There is a big kitchen (comme à la campagne), and big leaving roo, an extra toilet and a bathroom, with a bath and hot water. And a …. Wait for it…. Washing machine! Mouahhaha. There are four rooms; mine just has a big bed and a big cupboard. It is amazingly quiet because….. haha.. there is a garden, which looks like a small paradise inside of the dusty city. I smelt the fresh air for the 1st time! Incredible! It looks like an outside squared room, without a roof, with a palm tree in the middle and grass all around. So green and fresh that I almost fell in love with the place! We have a guard, a gardener and a maid. I am not paying that much (though it was going to be soooo out of reach first!) and the rent includes the fees to send the girl of the maid to school. Mouhaha.
So yes, it is great! Tmw, I’ll leave my shitty place at 8 to move over there. 140$. F^¨*£.M%°. Sacrebleu.
What else to say! Bravo Bravo!!!!
Ok I wanted to tell you first about the GM in the REC and SRO, in collaboration with IO and CO, and the perspectives on GE/WE for the MDG. But I am too excited for that. Really sorry, I know you are disappointed.
I have to pack and sleep, and try not to have the shitty dream of giving away babies like bananas like I had yesterday (thank you white couples of the hotel!).
Kram Kram! (ho, only negative point, no Swedish roommate, would have been to perfect!).
Ps: I am just living my first big storm, lightenings are lightning (oui je sais c’est nul) my rooms, thunders are tonitruants (??) and water is pouring like a cow that piss. Haaa les tropiques!
vendredi 17 juillet 2009
Day 5
Wahoo.. already the end of the week. I am a bit stupid because i wanted to update all the messages i wrote on my laptop sitting in my room, but unfortunately, i forgot the best one. The one where I tell about my house! Because yes, now i left the gloomy hotel to move in my new house. I have three nice roomates with who i share a big house ten minutes walking from work... But be patient, I ll post the description soon. I am too lazy to write all over again!
So apart from that, i just finished the workshop yesterday, and i am back in the office without much things to do but read and read again on the work of UNIFEM. It seems to be interesting but it is always nicer to dive into the work directly.
Yesterday, i went to a jazz bar with my roomates (I have three, one american girl, one english guy and an ethiopian guy). It was very nice. We went to a fancy restaurant next door, with perfect service and good food. That was fun. My roomates are really nice. The girl is too beautiful, which makes it a bit annoying, but she is really nice and they are both easy going and talkative. The Ethiopian guy I haven t seen him that much but they are all nice and good company!
I also met couple of interns from the UN. Apparently, they are organizing a "UN intern gathering" which will be perfect to get to know some people. Some poor, unpaid and exploited nice UN intern coming from all over the world.
Ok enough, you ll know soon about my paradise house when i can post the other message. For now, i need to go back to reading!
Kram Kram (hoo i am worried, my Swedish will go away so fast :( )
So apart from that, i just finished the workshop yesterday, and i am back in the office without much things to do but read and read again on the work of UNIFEM. It seems to be interesting but it is always nicer to dive into the work directly.
Yesterday, i went to a jazz bar with my roomates (I have three, one american girl, one english guy and an ethiopian guy). It was very nice. We went to a fancy restaurant next door, with perfect service and good food. That was fun. My roomates are really nice. The girl is too beautiful, which makes it a bit annoying, but she is really nice and they are both easy going and talkative. The Ethiopian guy I haven t seen him that much but they are all nice and good company!
I also met couple of interns from the UN. Apparently, they are organizing a "UN intern gathering" which will be perfect to get to know some people. Some poor, unpaid and exploited nice UN intern coming from all over the world.
Ok enough, you ll know soon about my paradise house when i can post the other message. For now, i need to go back to reading!
Kram Kram (hoo i am worried, my Swedish will go away so fast :( )
Day 2
Monday. First day of work. Meeting at my hotel at 8.-8.30 (early). The car came finally at 9. after I almost fell asleep again. My boss was there, made me a warm welcome and we went to the office. Then started a “usual” kind of first day. Saying hello to everyone, introducing yourself, not getting the name of anyone. Reading all the presentations, strategies and projects documents and making a list of all the new strange names I need to know but I don’t (yet). I went to have lunch with Fidawok and Gadjo dilo in the UN ECA cafeteria, in the huge compound of the ECA (Economic Comission for Africa that has its headquarters here). The UN has an immense conference centre there. Built ten years ago it looks much older but the fancy decoration makes it impressive.
Tomorrow, I will directly dive in the active work. My boss is going for a week in Rwanda for a conference. But they organized from Tuesday to Thursday a workshop with the ECA, gathering several stakeholders involved in the GE/WE issues (it is on my list= Gender Equality and Women empowerment) on: “Assessing and strategizing on gender mainstreaming”. So. I will have to assist to the whole workshop and write a note on what has been said. Soit. C’est cool. It will be a bit scary first. There will be one representatives for each of the regional economic communities (REC, on my list), one representative of the African Union and one for the UNECA. And, it will be in the big UN conference hall (Robin, tu vois de quoi je parle je suis sûre).
Hoo what I forgot to say about my hotel and that I remember now (I am sitting in my room writing, while plenty of baby making noise on my front door). Actually, this is the place for the white couples coming to Ethiopia to adopt. Apparently, they have to stay in Ethiopia for three or four weeks before they can go home with their babies. So here they are, talking of the long process of getting a baby during breakfast, exchanging tips in the corridor on how you can adapt your baby’s food and so on. Nice and a bit disturbing at the same time. Apparently (my boss says) the adoption in Ethiopia is very often badly done. Westerners come and give money to NGOs while local families consider that sending one baby to get a good education might be a good long-term investment. She says that “if you went to be rich by launching a new NGO, get into adoption”. Glauque. Enfin dans un sens, c’est aussi un peu maison du bonheur ici!
Now I will go out under the rain to find an apartment. Wahou. After, I’ll go dip my bandage in a good Ethiopian soup with my new funny friend (un petit rastafarai-haile-salaissie-fan qui me fait penser à Ahmed).
Btw, the weather is okay, beautiful yesterday but today rainy and a bit colder. A big storm came with big Tropic Thunders (Jaaaack) and impressive lightenings.
Ps: merci les parents, bien sûr que c’était malin de prendre mon ordinateur. Les cyber cafés sont lents et pleins, et ma chambre au calme est plus sympa pour prendre le temps de faire un blog et trier des photos. Je l’avoue vous aviez raison.
Les photos viendront un peu plus tard, je n’ai encore la wïïfïïii et je ne serais pas au bureau cette semaine.
Bisous à tous
Tomorrow, I will directly dive in the active work. My boss is going for a week in Rwanda for a conference. But they organized from Tuesday to Thursday a workshop with the ECA, gathering several stakeholders involved in the GE/WE issues (it is on my list= Gender Equality and Women empowerment) on: “Assessing and strategizing on gender mainstreaming”. So. I will have to assist to the whole workshop and write a note on what has been said. Soit. C’est cool. It will be a bit scary first. There will be one representatives for each of the regional economic communities (REC, on my list), one representative of the African Union and one for the UNECA. And, it will be in the big UN conference hall (Robin, tu vois de quoi je parle je suis sûre).
Hoo what I forgot to say about my hotel and that I remember now (I am sitting in my room writing, while plenty of baby making noise on my front door). Actually, this is the place for the white couples coming to Ethiopia to adopt. Apparently, they have to stay in Ethiopia for three or four weeks before they can go home with their babies. So here they are, talking of the long process of getting a baby during breakfast, exchanging tips in the corridor on how you can adapt your baby’s food and so on. Nice and a bit disturbing at the same time. Apparently (my boss says) the adoption in Ethiopia is very often badly done. Westerners come and give money to NGOs while local families consider that sending one baby to get a good education might be a good long-term investment. She says that “if you went to be rich by launching a new NGO, get into adoption”. Glauque. Enfin dans un sens, c’est aussi un peu maison du bonheur ici!
Now I will go out under the rain to find an apartment. Wahou. After, I’ll go dip my bandage in a good Ethiopian soup with my new funny friend (un petit rastafarai-haile-salaissie-fan qui me fait penser à Ahmed).
Btw, the weather is okay, beautiful yesterday but today rainy and a bit colder. A big storm came with big Tropic Thunders (Jaaaack) and impressive lightenings.
Ps: merci les parents, bien sûr que c’était malin de prendre mon ordinateur. Les cyber cafés sont lents et pleins, et ma chambre au calme est plus sympa pour prendre le temps de faire un blog et trier des photos. Je l’avoue vous aviez raison.
Les photos viendront un peu plus tard, je n’ai encore la wïïfïïii et je ne serais pas au bureau cette semaine.
Bisous à tous
Day 1
So, J’ai un problème, I have a problem, jag har ett problem. Plusieurs personnes m’ont demandé de ne pas écrire en français parcequ’elles ne comprennaient rien. Någon frågade mig att prata svenska därför jag måste praktisera. Men jag kan inte för att min svenska är för dåligt. I thought about starting in Amharic, but unfortunately, I don’t have the adapted keyboard for that. Tyvärr! So, naturally I end up writing in English. But I’am sure it will be mixed. So sorry par avance för mixade språk.
Welcome to Africa.
First thing coming out of the plane that stroke me was the smell. The air was neither cold nor hot, but loaded with different smells, between burnt tired and dust, fresh mountain air and heavy atmosphere. Yes it was very different and informed me quiet quickly that i was finally arrived (after a Paris-Istanbul flight, 5 hours waiting at the airport before flying above a beautiful sunset towards my final destination, Addis Ababa).
The driver of the UNIFEM came to pick me up in a nice 4*4 of the UN. First appearing difficulty of Ethiopia : names, in Armharic of course. My boss is called Florence, which is easy. But then comes Firdawok, the assistant administration/logistic, « Galidoli » (noticed that i actually still have no idea of what is name is, this try have been composed on memory of the vague sound i got). An other girl of UNIFEM Ethiopia (we share the office) is called « Nojhshifle » and her boss is « Bhzilhsb » (still no idea). Anyways, it is a bit hard!
Bref, on Sunday Fidawok came to pick me up for breakfast. Very welcoming, he invited me to discuss and introduce a bit himself and give me some tips. Then i just wandered a bit in the area to see where i had arrived last night. I like arriving at night in a place. In the morning, you realize that you are in a crazy place and that you didn’t notice the day before, as it was all dark.
I met funny people, everyone says Hello, children ask you for food, guys are selling and chewing khât (activity that shows the extensibility of cheek’s flesh), dogs, cats and goats are running around. The strange mixed between very wide avenues with only cars (no bikes no motorbikes, what a surprise and deception!), high buildings (quit modern with big malls inside) and slumish small houses (with no pavement but dust). All this covered by a huge cloud of dust surrounded itself by nice mountains (Addis is 2400 metres high). Interesting so to say.
I went out on the evening to look for cheaper guesthouse but they all looked a bit gloomy and not that cheap in the end. My guesthouse is in a nice building not far from the centre. It has a roof with a beautiful view, common kitchens and my room is okay, with its own bathroom and cold water. Exclusively, bien sûr. I have electricity from 22 to the morning and a bit in the afternoon.
Food is good and my new kind of friend calls me “Bon appetit”. We went to a restaurant. I had to figure out how to eat with my right hand, knowing that I just cut my right thumb the day before my flight (je sais, c’est nul), and that eating with the left hand is not really well seen. I managed, in the end, even if it was a bit “dégoutant”.
I read my book until too late (that you Mum) before falling asleep with the sweet noise of street dogs. (By the way the book, Americain Darling of Russel Banks, is excellent. Jennie, lis le! C’est une américaine qui retourne au Libéria après s’être marriée là-bas puis enfuie pdt la guerre).
Welcome to Africa.
First thing coming out of the plane that stroke me was the smell. The air was neither cold nor hot, but loaded with different smells, between burnt tired and dust, fresh mountain air and heavy atmosphere. Yes it was very different and informed me quiet quickly that i was finally arrived (after a Paris-Istanbul flight, 5 hours waiting at the airport before flying above a beautiful sunset towards my final destination, Addis Ababa).
The driver of the UNIFEM came to pick me up in a nice 4*4 of the UN. First appearing difficulty of Ethiopia : names, in Armharic of course. My boss is called Florence, which is easy. But then comes Firdawok, the assistant administration/logistic, « Galidoli » (noticed that i actually still have no idea of what is name is, this try have been composed on memory of the vague sound i got). An other girl of UNIFEM Ethiopia (we share the office) is called « Nojhshifle » and her boss is « Bhzilhsb » (still no idea). Anyways, it is a bit hard!
Bref, on Sunday Fidawok came to pick me up for breakfast. Very welcoming, he invited me to discuss and introduce a bit himself and give me some tips. Then i just wandered a bit in the area to see where i had arrived last night. I like arriving at night in a place. In the morning, you realize that you are in a crazy place and that you didn’t notice the day before, as it was all dark.
I met funny people, everyone says Hello, children ask you for food, guys are selling and chewing khât (activity that shows the extensibility of cheek’s flesh), dogs, cats and goats are running around. The strange mixed between very wide avenues with only cars (no bikes no motorbikes, what a surprise and deception!), high buildings (quit modern with big malls inside) and slumish small houses (with no pavement but dust). All this covered by a huge cloud of dust surrounded itself by nice mountains (Addis is 2400 metres high). Interesting so to say.
I went out on the evening to look for cheaper guesthouse but they all looked a bit gloomy and not that cheap in the end. My guesthouse is in a nice building not far from the centre. It has a roof with a beautiful view, common kitchens and my room is okay, with its own bathroom and cold water. Exclusively, bien sûr. I have electricity from 22 to the morning and a bit in the afternoon.
Food is good and my new kind of friend calls me “Bon appetit”. We went to a restaurant. I had to figure out how to eat with my right hand, knowing that I just cut my right thumb the day before my flight (je sais, c’est nul), and that eating with the left hand is not really well seen. I managed, in the end, even if it was a bit “dégoutant”.
I read my book until too late (that you Mum) before falling asleep with the sweet noise of street dogs. (By the way the book, Americain Darling of Russel Banks, is excellent. Jennie, lis le! C’est une américaine qui retourne au Libéria après s’être marriée là-bas puis enfuie pdt la guerre).
samedi 11 juillet 2009
Départ...
Voilà, nous sommes le 11 juillet 2009 et je suis partie pour ma nouvelle aventure. Assise à l'aéroport d'Istanbul en transit, j'ai quatre heures à tuer en attendant mon prochain vol. Un café très cher permettant un accès illimité à la wifi, j'en profite pour commencer ce petit blog sans grande prétention pour vous permettre de rester en contact et suivre mon long voyage éthiopien.
Je serais de retour en France le 21 décembre. En attendant, restons connectés!
Pour l'instant rien de bien spécial à raconter, je ne suis partie que depuis 6 heures! Alors juste un aéroport normal, plein de russes et de duty free, de kebab à 9$ et de chinois fous. Rien à signaler.
Je tenterais d'alimenter le blog le plus souvent possible, alors n'hésitez pas à en faire de même!
A très vite
Je serais de retour en France le 21 décembre. En attendant, restons connectés!
Pour l'instant rien de bien spécial à raconter, je ne suis partie que depuis 6 heures! Alors juste un aéroport normal, plein de russes et de duty free, de kebab à 9$ et de chinois fous. Rien à signaler.
Je tenterais d'alimenter le blog le plus souvent possible, alors n'hésitez pas à en faire de même!
A très vite
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