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.
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