23rd Novermber 2008

After a holiday home to the UK that was supposed to last 2 weeks but actually lasted 5, I am finally back in Addis! I'm really glad to be back and my time at home has made me realise that I'm not finished in Ethiopia yet, I still have a lot I want to do and experience, both personally and in connection to the charity. However, my joy at being back is mixed with the realisation that I've stepped right back out of my comfort zone …

Everything is easy back in the UK! Nobody points and stares (well, not often), everyone understands what I'm saying, I don't make embarrassing mistakes because I'm not familiar with the social etiquette, and power cuts are rare, not a daily occurrence. Also, I don't feel guilty in UK for having money, and I don't have to second guess my response to every situation involving poverty. Here, I have to think 'is me helping them actually making things better for them, or simply making ME feel better?'.

So, I am very, very glad to be back (see how fast I ran to Lime Tree restaurant Saturday night to have dinner!) but there is definitely going to be a 're-entry' phase! I have around two weeks in Addis before I start my move to Lalibela, and that's going to require an adjustment period all over again!

But enough with the moaning; I'm back and I'm hitting the ground running. Literally! Today was the 8^th Great Ethiopian Run and I was privileged enough to be taking part. U+I were running it to raise money for Hanna's Orphanage, while B ran with us to give us some moral support!

The Great Ethiopian Run is 10k long, and it grew with help from the team that started The Great North Run in the UK. It's an NGO now which uses the event to promote running in Ethiopia and health and social issues such as education for girls and safe sex. When there are so many young people taking part in one event, it's a great way to get messages like that across. Nearly everyone runs – people who have never run before in their life take part, and there were a considerable amount of people running in jeans! But after all, this is land of long distance runners, so they barely need to train to be better than us! To remind us of how talented Ethiopia is at running, Hailie Gabre Selassie spoke before the race. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear what he was saying as one, he was speaking in Amharic, and two, the microphones didn't appear to be working! It was enough to just see him.

At 9 on the dot we were off! There weren't as many costumes as you would see in the London marathon (although there was one person dressed as a condom - I'd love to know who the person was!) but the red and yellow tee shirts created a really colourful crowd. There was live music at various places around the course, and with all the people (32,000 people registered to take part!) it was a like a lively, sweaty, moving party! Thanks especially to the group of men who sang all the way round (including a rendition of 'Criss Cross' at one point!) – it kept my spirits up! It was wonderful to look round to see people from all walks of life taking part, and crowds lining the street to clap and shout encouragement.

Quite a few Westerners could be picked out in the crowds; some were in proper running shorts and obviously meant business, and some just seemed to be there for the experience. M (a friend of a friend from England who is now living in Addis) was running, and the Germans from the Awash trip were there somewhere too, although we didn't see them. I even hear rumours that the British Ambassador ran!

Now, bearing in mind I have not run anywhere since running 5k back in May sometime, and for the last month I have been spending my time eating and sitting on the sofa, I was expecting it to be hard. And it was hard – the sun was intense, the altitude makes it a lot more difficult to breathe, you couldn't always set your own pace as there were so many people, and the course wasn't exactly flat. It was such great fun, though, it didn't matter! I ran most of the first 6k, but after that it was walking. U went great guns and could have finished in a much better time, but the three of us wanted to finish together. I came in at 2 hours and still standing up, so not bad, if I do say so myself!

It was a great way to spend a Sunday morning in Addis! We each got a medal, we raised money for Hanna's Orphanage (thank you to people who sponsored us – and there is still time to sponsor us: email jenny@hannasorphanage.org.uk for details!) and managed to be interviewed by a journalist, so hopefully we got some exposure for the charity too! And I still pretty much have the use of my legs (although in a very slow, I'm-82-years-old kind of way!). I'm proud I finished it!

The man dressed as a condom finished ahead of us, though, so I guess I shouldn't be congratulating myself too much …

The Story So Far!

I have declared Blog Bankruptcy – I am so far behind, there is no chance that I’m going to post all the ones I’ve started! So, I’m just going to do an update which covers the main points!

Awash National Park
The weekend after the Debre Zeit trip (which was the last blog entry), I went to Awash National Park with U and four Germans she knows – M, G, P and D. After an eventful couple of hours, which included waking one of the guys up and a speedy stop to pick someone up from the airport, we drove the 5 hours to Awash.

It was probably the first time I’d been on a proper trip out of Addis and it was great. We spent the first half a day seeing animals in the park – crocodiles, monkeys, kudus and warthogs to name a few. Definitely the first time I’d seen these animals in the wild! We stayed at a beautiful hotel by a (now defunct) train station, and after a hairy ‘gari’ (horse and cart) drive around the village, we had dinner and were asleep by about 9pm!

At 4.45am the next morning we all rolled out of our respective beds, had breakfast of bread and omlette, and drove to the hot springs in the North of the park. Whenever you go into the park, you need an armed guide – in theory to protect you from the animals, but actually to protect you from any roaming tribes people. The Afar tribe live in and around the park, and don’t take particularly kindly to visitors - indeed, they used to have a custom of chopping off a testicle of any male intruder!

The hot springs were really hot, not just warm! There were a few girls swimming when we arrived, and G and P had a dip, but you had to be careful – the water was so hot that actually your muscles felt like they didn’t work properly, and it would be quite difficult to get out! The boys did get out safely, and I didn’t swim, I just decided to take an unplanned dip in the mud around the springs. What is it with me and muddy water? Anyone who knew me in primary school will know that I seem to be able to fall into water no matter where I am, and this was no different.

So I did a quick change in the middle of the open plains of Awash (and may have shocked a few tribesmen in the process!) and wore U’s jeans for the rest of the day, while she wore her pyjama trousers (thanks U!).

On the way back we got a flat tyre … and discovered our spare tyre had been stolen. Nice! Thankfully it didn’t happen while we were driving along the deserted roads of Awash, but instead while we were relaxing at Sodore Hot Springs Resort. A man was dispatched to Nazereth, the nearest town, to get a tyre while we relaxed in the restaurant.

Eventually we got home, much later than planned, and I spent a very satisfying 10 minutes in a hot shower!


Baby!
Shortly after this (the next morning, in fact!) E’s baby was born! A little boy, who is incredibly cute and looking more and more like his dad every day! When a baby is born in Ethiopia you go and visit and eat ‘gunfo’ (apologies for the bad spelling!) which is a mixture of grain and butter. I think it’s revolting, but it’s traditional, and it means I can say to E’s little boy ‘I ate gunfo for you when you were born!’


Trip to the South
At 3am on the 2nd October, I stood at Bole Airport, Addis Ababa, holding myself up on the airport barriers, sweating profusely and waiting for N to arrive. I wasn’t just overcome with excitement at N arriving, I’d been being sick all day thanks to some bad meat I’d eaten (Giardasis, if anyone’s interested!).

But N arrived, we slept, I drank lots of water and all was fine the next morning. We then went for a trip to the South of Ethiopia along with U. I would love to be able to write everything down here – and if only I were as good as N and U at keeping a travel diary (I’m not) I would have all the info. Instead I have some wonderful pictures, and lots of fantastic memories – just no will to reproduce the whole thing here!

Suffice to say, we saw:

- the Mursi tribe
- the Karo tribe
- Crocodiles
- Hippos
- Monkeys
- The Hamer tribe

And we

- walked through a river
- fed monkeys
- taught the Hamer tribe ‘If You’re Happy and You Know it …’
- danced in the only nightclub in Turmi
- locked the keys in the car … twice!

Not always an enjoyable experience, but always amazing!


Lalibela and Going Home
N went home on the 17th October and I had a ticket booked for the 20th, which I wasn’t sure I was going to use. But then I was offered a job working for a UK charity in Lalibela, a place I visited in 2006 and fell in love with. I will be living there, working with the teachers and the school to bring in an ‘alternative ciriculum’ – so doing community engagement stuff, teaching dance, drama, music, after school clubs, that kind of thing.

And so I decided to come home before hand. Just for a few weeks, to gather resources, see my family and friends, and just prepare for the move to Lalibela.

Not exactly what happened, but that’s for a later story ….!