The lobby of the Sheraton - well a little bit of it. There's some sort of irony in the fact that as you drive down the hill to the Sheraton you pass many homeless boys asleep in the sun on the hill
The rest of the week seems to have sped by very quickly – was a bit unwell in the stomach on Tuesday and so just worked at home and slept for 4 hours in the afternoon and felt quite OK again the next day – I suspect that something didn’t quite agree with me. I drink bottled water but everything is washed in luke warm or cold water and I do eat raw foods too. (This was one of only 2 problems in all of my time in Addis, the other time I suspect it was because I didn't take my malaria tablet with food - I was extremely healthy my whole time there)
On Thursday morning we had an appointment at the Italian Embassy with the Program Director of the Italian Development Corporation trying to get some money to support the library. We were there 2 hours with a lovely lady called Maria Rosario who couldn’t give us any money but who did give us some other contact details of an Italian NGO who may be able to assist. However Maria herself was absolutely lovely (badly wants to visit Australia) and she gave us both huge hugs after 2 hours (not quite what I expected), gave me a beautiful book filled with photos of Ethiopian children and is coming to visit the library on Friday afternoon. (As it turned out she got the time mixed up and didn't come, but has another appointment now that I've left Addis). She thinks that maybe there might be other possibilities for partnership with them. (We did go and visit Gabriella there and no, no money or partnership - they are working only in the Mercato - if Koni wants to replicate the model in the Mercato I think they would be extremely interested). So it was OK. UNICEF is on Monday. (UNICEF couldn't give any money either, however they did visit the library and were very impressed and have some thoughts about other ways to help)
Have made a steady stream of visits to the Sheraton to get money out of the ATM (and always to use the loo there – VERY noice as K & K might say). I can only access money on my Visa card (thank goodness I got one before I came) and it will only allow me to take 4000 birr a day – that’s about $550). Although it's cheap enough I see so many needs here and I keep spending. I decided that my gift for each house when I leave would be a working computer so that is 9000 birr. And I got a DVD for Ermi’s boys as they had a video player but no videos anywhere of course. I bought new T-shirts for the boys and shawls for the girls and shirts for Ermi’s boys and usually when I go visit the house I take fresh bread, or maybe cake, or snack food. The software and DVDs that I sent from Oz have come and the boys in Ermi’s house have been very impressed with the one about Australia. I have just given out the soccer ones – huge elation again – soccer is just SO big here. Any bare patch of ground is used to play a game. I saw one that they were sharing with the cattle and donkeys; it didn’t seem to hold up play much.
A number of the boys are runners and will have a fairly big race in a few weeks – as far as I can ascertain it’s 10 kilometres. My beautiful Senti is one of the runners – at 14 – he tells me he’s not as fast as the others as they are older (mostly 17). Masfen didn’t even know how far it was, only how long it took. They are all so thin and muscled – they look like long distance runners – and have the skinniest legs! And the whitest teeth! The girls don’t seem to do much sport but I think that a few of the girls are also running, but no-one seems to know much or to be able to tell me much. And they must only train at school.
At the big open area in the middle of Addis there’s a grassed terraced area where people sit to watch celebrations and in the mornings both soccer players (of all ages) and runners train. They seem to run along one terrace and then double back along the next etc. They tell me some of the runners are some of Ethiopia’s national runners. Anyway, when we went past later there were goats and donkeys grazing – it must surely be one of the only countries in the world where national athletes train on donkey grazing land. I want more photos of that too.
Koni tells me that even though Addis is at 8000 ft above sea level the top athletes still go to the mountains to train before big events. Haile Gabri Selassie is a HUGE hero here, there's buildings and roads named after him and everyone knows who he is.
Over the week I have seen:
- A woman lying on the roadside either asleep or unconscious with a small child sitting beside her being ignored by everyone
- Old men saying their prayers beside the road
- Horses so skinny you’d think they could hardly walk pulling carts with 3 or 4 people in them
- More rubbish in the streets even than Addis
- Some exquisite children in Awasa (one little boy gave me several hugs)
- Lots of beggars in the country towns, maybe even more than in Addis
- Kids who would run along beside the bus for ages waving and shouting hello
- Some lovely landscape with mountains and rivers, lots of flat-topped acacias
- A man asleep on top of a large load of potatoes as it sped towards Addis
- A load of prisoners in the back of an open ute with 3 heavily armed guards sitting with them driving through the middle of Addis
- A beautiful baby girl only 2 days old (born in hospital but sent home later that day)
- And lots, lots more, every time we go out I see something that I can barely believe.
I will really hate saying goodbye to the kids – Senti and Ledet especially. I wish I could take them home with me.
Anyway, lots of love for now
Lyndall
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