Bidding Adeau to Abyssinia

As we drove back to Addis Thursday night, it really struck us how polluted the city is. We had noticed it when we were there early on in our trip, but I guess had forgotten while we were in Adama and Awassa (even though both of those cities had quite a bit of pollution themselves).

With a population of somewhere around 5 million people, and probably 1/2 that number of taxis & minibuses scuttling around the city, the exhaust was overwhelming. It really makes me thankful for the US's tough  pollution standards, and California's especially.

We spent the last day and a half cruising around the city doing what we could to help the economy. :) There are lots of beautiful silver pieces available, and while I only bought a few things to bring back as gifts it was fun looking at all the intricate pieces in the stores.

no helmet laws here...this guy decides to use one, but I'm not sure how effective it would be!

After finding the scarves, wooden carvings and linens I wanted to bring home to remember my trip by, it was fun to just tour the shops with my camera. Most of the shop keepers were more than happy to let me take pictures, although some indicated a donation would be required if a photo was taken. I just moved on in those stores.

Throughout the trip our driver Amir had mentioned how much he'd like to have a Landcruiser to take people around in. With the amount of off-roading that we did in his little Toyota van, Adrian felt it was only right that we all chip in to buy Amir his dream car.

One contrast that I just couldn't get over was the corrugated tin roofs of the 'shacks' many people lived in....dotted with satellite dishes. Throughout our trip we noticed images like this, including an abundance of cell phone towers throughout our drives. Even in the most remote locations of the National parks that we visited, all of us still typically had 4-5 bars worth of signal. It seems the US could take note of the cell phone infrastructure in Ethiopia a bit and improve our coverage!

After our shopping adventures, we headed back to the Hilton to pack our bags...hoping all of our purchases fit in the luggage we brought.

We were on our way to the airport by 8pm, fortunately arriving 3 hours before our scheduled departure. When we arrived at the airport we were informed that Lufthansa's computer system had crashed and we would be checking in using Ethiopian airlines. This process, along with passing through customs, took an extremely long time and by the time we got to our gate to board we had about 5 minutes before our scheduled take-off. Luckily, we weren't the only ones in that situation so the plane waited and we took off about an hour behind schedule. With 5 hours to kill at Frankfurt, we weren't too concerned that we'd miss our connecting flight to LAX.

After a long 24 hours of travel time, we arrived back in the States. Our journey was over, and it was back to reality. This trip would be something I would remember for a lifetime. Amazing people met along the way, coworkers who were now like family to me. A new appreciate for all of the things we take for granted here in the US...someday I hope to go back, possibly on another volunteer trip...but if not, just to see the beautiful country again. Dehna hugni

SRS Training - Part deux

Our final 4 days in Adama were uneventful. Except for the bought of food poisoning I had Sunday evening. Thank goodness it held off until we reached the hotel! Thankfully it was relatively minor and only lasted through the wee hours of Monday morning.

We finished up our last 4 days in Adama by holding another Specimen Referral Training for a new set of participants. Monday morning was a bit nerve wracking as the training was scheduled to begin at 8:30 and by 9:15, none of the participants had shown up. Apparently, the invitation told the participants to go to a different location for the training, so we just needed to wait a little bit until they traveled over to where we were. Within 30 minutes, there were about 35 participants, and several more showed up the next day to bring our total attendance to 42.

Mestawet and Habtamu (2 participants from the 1st week of training) were responsible for the training this time. Joan and I were just there to assist. It made it a little difficult though since they were mainly teaching in Amharic. They did a fabulous job though, and it was a really good feeling to see how much they had learned from us...and how eager they were to pass that knowledge on to the new batch of participants.

On Thursday afternoon, after wrapping up class we hopped in the car and headed to Addis. We would spend Thursday night and Friday in Addis Ababa, and then would be saying goodbye to this beautiful country on Saturday. It was hard to believe our journey was coming to an end already.

Last day in Awassa & a trip to the fish market

On our last day in Awassa, we awoke to a beautiful sunrise. The full moon shining brightly over the lake struggled to stay in the sky.

Joan and I were heading back to Adama today. Tomorrow was the beginning of a new class, and even though we weren't the main trainers, we needed to be available to assist if asked.

Before we headed out though, we wanted to go to the fish market. I'd heard it was a good place to see a lot of Marabou Stork, and we weren't disappointed! These guys were everywhere!! Some of them were a good 3-4 feet tall. The local kids followed us around, tossing fish skeletons to the storks in order to give us a good 'photo op'. In reality, the kids had scavenged the fish bones and were only feeding the storks so they could then 'charge' us for that photo op. I kept telling them 'no thanks', but they all seemed to have selective hearing.

Along with the storks, the pelicans were plentiful. These are also enormous birds...quite a bit bigger than the brown pelicans found along the Pacific Ocean.

There were birds everywhere...hawks and storks soaring overhead. Storks following us around, and ibis and vultures perched in the trees above.

It was an interesting sight, and well worth the 10 Birr given to the kids when we got back to the car. We headed back to the Haile Resort to have lunch, grab our bags and get on the road. It would be a 3 hour drive back to Adama and we wanted to get there before it got dark.

Lake Awassa...a little bit of relaxation

We travelled as a group to Awassa on Wednesday. Originally, only Joy and Adrian were going to go and Joan and I were to stay in Adama to perform lab assessments and complete the last week of training, but the labs there were so basic (more on that later!) we were able to complete the assesments in half a day.

Deman decided instead of breaking up, we would all spend a few days together in Awassa, completing the lab assessments there as a team.

The hotel we stayed at (The Haile Resort) was gorgeous. It made me feel a little guilty staying at such a nice place when we were suppose to be on a volunteer trip, but Deman reminded me the cost was minimal ($60 USD a night) and security at the hotel was top notch, including security guards and metal detectors at the entrance. This was very important since the security risk (especially for Americans) in Ethiopia was relatively high.

Since we arrived at night, we weren't able to properly see the grounds, but woke the next morning to a beautiful view.

Awassa is a birders paradise. And so many of them were right outside our windows, lots of noisy Silvery Cheeked Hornbills, African Fish Eagles & even Marabou Storks.

We travelled around the region on Thursday, touring the different labs. It took much longer than we expected, mainly because the labs were so far from each other and the roads as you got further away from Awassa were full of giant potholes.

Despite the terrible road conditions, the region was beautiful. Much more lush and green than we'd seen in the past, and culture was everywhere.

Late in the afternoon we finally stopped for lunch. Amir had a friend who recommended a 'lodge' which was off the beaten path a bit. Aragash Lodge was hidden off a relatively steep, rutty road, but boy was it worth it! This was a place you would come stay at if you really wanted to escape the technology of the world. No TV's, no radio, and no internet available (except at the reception hut and the restaurant).

Coffee!

All along the side of the road there were locals selling their wares. One twon had really colorful baskets, displayed on branches like ornaments. I would have loved to have brought a few home, but most of them were bigger than my suitcase would accomodate.

As I mentioned earlier, there were birds everywhere! I have to admit I am usually not a big fan of birds, and that birding never interested me in the past, but to see so many varieties in one location was pretty amazing and gave me lots of opportunities for some good pictures.



A Little Egret



African Fish Eagle

Spur Winged Plover

Fisherman, surrounded by swallows

Beautiful mosaic in the middle of a round-a-bout

One evening, the owner of the resort stopped by. Haile Gebrselassie is a world famous marathoner, running his fastest marathon in during the Berlin Marathon in 2008 with a time of 2:03:59. Thats 4 hours faster than I ran the Rock & Roll marathon the same year!! :)

He was extremely nice and gracious enough to take a photo with the group.

Hammerkop

Baby Egyptian Goose

The Haile Resort offered a boat ride to go see some Hippos. Finally, something we'd been hoping to see for most of our trip! Unfortunately, since Hippos are one of the most dangerous animals on earth, we had to stay quite a distance away and even with my 270mm zoom lens, the Hippos were still in the distance.

All along the shoreline, locals could be seen on their daily fishing excursions. They got around on a 'boat' made of a bunch of reeds tied together, using a long pole to push their way thru the grasses to the good fishing spots. Often, it looked as if they were walking on water.

Our trip to Awassa ended with a gorgeous sunset, the evening before the full lunar eclipse was scheduled to occur. Due to the time change, it was still daylight at the peak of the eclipse so we were unable to view it at all, but the colorful sky more than made up for it.