Back in Addis

Let's see…  Wednesday.  Wednesday the plan was to distribute nets, then head back to Addis.   The net distribution always got so wild at the end- actually the whole time- those of use who were off playing soccer or volleyball were having a better time usually than the ones handing out the nets.   The way you do things is to get two "lines" going, and with a list of names for each line.  Then two people, sort of simultaneously, are yelling and repeating people's names, and 4 or 5 others figure they should turn around and yell the same name so everyone hears, so the result is noone can really hear anything.   Not to mention continually yelling "move back" because the crowd just keeps pushing in on you.  It was really wild.   Then, dealing with extra nets, whoa, it was always a mob at the end- the way we would do things, we would just finish the list, pack up and leave, without being talked into giving extras out.   But… not the only way to do it.  Everytime we left, it was like driving out of a mob, with yelling and pushing going on, plus demands for nets and begging hand signals the whole way out.   Wild.

 

I got a little ("little") frustrated that we stopped in a town so somebody (coordinator of some type) could buy himself some fertilizer- that took about half an hour, after we are already late and supposed to already have been in Addis.   I'm glad I got to have some good conversations with him on the way home because otherwise he would have thought I was irritated forever.  I was the only white person in that car, so he said, oh, I wouldn't have stopped that long if there were firenges in the car, but you aren't a firenge anymore, you are an Ethiopian.   Hmmm, I was too irritated to take that as a compliment!

 

So we had a great big dinner with 30 people at Family Restaurant last night, it was so fun.  I could tell the team was really excited to be eating firenge food besides spaghetti and bread, we were all ordering burritos, good steaks, and of all things I was in the mood for a cucumber yogurt salad.   Just sounded so good and fresh.

 

This morning I met up with the team for the last time- breakfast at La Parisienne- I am going to miss them!!  Amazing how well you get to know people in just a few days!  Brian came along to breakfast, that was fun.

 

Denise Ward is back!!  So fun seeing her last night, and tonight we went out to coffee, we do have a lot in common, and I'm glad we'll both be in the country.   After that we went over to Indalsh's house- that is the Oromo family she lived with here in Addis while she was in language school.  She decided we should just drop in because that was they wouldn't go out of their way to prepare for us, and I'll admit I was a little nervous about dropping in and just catching her at a weird time.   I kept asking Denise questions like, "Have you ever dropped in before?"  so she could tell I was nervous about the unannounced visit, and she said I had been out of the country too long!!   Probably true.  It ended up being PERFECT.  They were just sitting down to coffee, all the kids were there, just nice to chat.   (all in Oromo, of course, whoa, little rusty).  Denise made the point that doing a visit like that with two people really helps the flow of conversation- I could see that- the spotlight isn't always on you.   So we had coffee and talked, and I was saying how cool it would be to have more Ethiopian friends in Addis that you could come back and connect with when you were in town.

 

That's that.  Tomorrow I am going to see part of the Addis Kedan Aids project, that should be good.   I could use about another month here….