Getting to work in Adama

We stopped for lunch on our way out of Addis since we weren't sure what types of restaurants would be available once we were on the road.

Apparently, this is "THE" restaurant to go to while in Addis. Celebrities such as Brad & Angelina and the Carters have their pictures on the wall as you enter. For some reason, they didn't seem to want to add ours to that wall!

We arrived in Adama (Nazaret) about 2 hours after leaving Addis. Although, mieage wise, the two cities aren't all that far apart, travel is extremely slow because of all of the construction trucks and transportation trucks on the road. There is also a lot of livestock around, cattle, horses, donkeys and goats...just hanging out along the side of the road.

We are staying at the Maya Hotel, apparently one of the nice hotels in the city. The rooms are pretty small, but are clean and include a mini-fridge.

The mosquitos are really bad, so netting at night and anti-malaria pills are a must. Fortunately, I haven't experienced any of the side effects the anti-malaria pills are known for causing.

Probably the biggest inconvenience is the lack of water pressure. The water in the shower literally comes out in a steady stream of drips, and forget about getting temperature correct....its more like a decision between two evils, scalding hot or freezing cold. Almost impossible to find anything in between.

In the afternoon, we headed over to the hotel where the training would occur. Our boxes had arrived with all the training material, now we just needed to assemble it into a tote bag.

Each participant would receive a workshop binder as well as a CD with all the electronic versions of the training material, a pen, a notepad and a name tag. Later in the week we would be passing out the "trainer" binders they would be using during the 3rd week to perform this training themselves in their own particular region.

With four of us working to complete the setup of the room and assembly of the tote bags, we were done quickly and able to head back to the hotel for a quick dinner before retiring for the evening to study the material fo the next days session.