First Impressions

Greeting from Addis! I arrived here late Thursday night after the wicked Greensboro to Detroit to Amsterdam to Khartoum to Addis Ababa. Having taken a class which spent a substantial portion of the semester studying the genocide perpetrated by the Sudanese government, and given that the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir for crimes against humanity, stopping over in Khartoum was a somewhat surreal experience.

Before I jump in, a quick note on the status of my blog. Ostensibly because of the recent elections, specifically the simmering discontent here in the capital, the government has blocked in-country access to blogspot. Fortunately, my Duke-provided VPN (Virtual Private Network) allows me to bypass domestic Internet restrictions, so I will be posting to this blog address as long as I’m able. In the event that this tactic becomes no longer feasible, it’s possible that I will change host domains, in which case I would notify my readers of the new address. But enough housekeeping – on to the update.

Jetlag woke me bright and early on Friday, and I spent most of the morning at the leper colony, attempting a preliminary assessment and getting a feel for the production process. The Korah leper colony, situated on the southern outskirts of Addis, is a sprawling collection of ramshackle houses and substandard living conditions. Home to over 75,000 Ethiopians, who either have leprosy or are living with a family member afflicted with leprosy, Korah is reputed to be among the poorest communities in the country, if not the continent. Getting to the site requires a harrowing ride down a crater-ridden road (although ‘road’ is an egregious misnomer), but observing the whole operation was definitely worth it, as I found both the people and process quite impressive. Based on my initial assessment, their most pressing need is a website for publicizing their business, so my first task here will be learning enough web programming to get a website up and running.

Friday was actually an Ethiopian holiday to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of the fall of Soviet-style Communism in 1991. You may be scratching your head, thinking to yourself that it hasn’t been 20 years since 1991. I certainly was. But alas, the Ethiopian calendar (and even the Ethiopian clock!) bear little resemblance to their western counterparts, an adjustment that has taken some getting used to. Like the time I arranged to meet one of the managers of the leprosy work group at 9am, rather than the correct 3am, fortunately realizing my error in time. Not surprisingly, my western sensibilities still protest every time I schedule an engagement for the wee hours of the morning, but I’m (slowly) learning.

Again on Saturday morning, jetlag plus the neighboring mosque’s call to prayer roused me from my slumber at 4am, but it was conducive to an early and productive start. Chris Cole and I browsed an NGO fair downtown and explored the city for the better part of the day. By far one of the highlights here (I can already hear the few friends and family who brave the ramblings of my blog snickering at their computer screens) has been the food. Ethiopian cuisine has surpassed all my expectations. Injera, a spongy, flat bread the size of a large pizza, is heaped with meat accompanied by a rich, spicy sauce, into which torn pieces of injera are dipped. This is an Ethiopian staple has constituted the dominant portion of my food intake so far, and I look forward to retaining its monopoly on my diet in the coming two months.

Monday constituted my official first day of work, and I spent the morning meeting with Birke, the Ethiopian woman behind the whole weaving business. She introduced me to Sebsibe, the manager and accountant of a government association tasked with overseeing and coordinating multiple production operations in Korah. After talking with Sebsibe for five minutes, he asked how I liked Ethiopia, and I responded that I loved everything about the country, but especially the food. His response was to invite me to lunch at his house, and no sooner had I met the guy than we hopped on a bus and headed to his house.

When we arrived, his mom had prepared a veritable feast of injera and doro watt, essentially chicken and egg. As in many countries, hosts like to stuff their guest, and Ethiopia is no exception. We talked, laughed, and feasted for a while, before participating in a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. After roasting coffee beans over an open fire, his mom heated water and burned frankincense (for aesthetic purposes, I gathered), and made a pot of outrageously strong coffee, of which I polished off three cups. By now we had been gone for about three hours, so stuffed with injera and riding a caffeine high, Sebsibe and I headed back to work. I spent the rest of the day learning more about Sebsibe’s role in Birke’s business, and then headed home, just missing a torrential downpour.

As always, thanks for reading, and please don’t forget to reciprocate with updates of what’s happening in your own lives!