First week in Ethiopia

Dear friends and family,

Only one week in Addis and I already feel I've been here for a long time, knowing the actual price-levels of taxi's (important when negotiating) and seen many parts of the city. So how have I been so far?

The trip to Addis went very well, as I could check in my luggage in Amsterdam all the way to Addis I bypassed the strict weight-control in Frankfurt (it seems that everybody travelling to the middle-east has a minimum of 3 major bags pp). Anyway had some time left over and went into Frankfurt to buy a new bag for my handluggage as the old one died due to overweight (glad they did not check that one). On arrival in Cairo it seemed a whole group of S-Africans came back from Mekka. had some nice conversations on the muslim-community in S-Africa and other random interesting topics.

Upon arrival in Addis I approached an Ethiopian who was on my flight (who ended up being a political refugee from Djibouti) to check what the best way was to get a hotel at 03:30 in the morning. He offered that I could join him as he was heading to one anyway. But what he forgot was the famous "foreigners-tax" here in Addis. Which means the price doubles for a foreigner. Anyway, we were tired and decided to take the room for one night and go for a sleep. From the taxi I had already seen some slumbs and heard in advance that slumbs and commercial buildings are completely mixed in Ethiopia. So this was my view from the window the first morning.

On saturday-morning I joined my new friend for a walk down the main road in Addis to pay a visit to the black market where he had to change some Euro's into Ethiopian Birr. Like any other road (I have new experienced) the streets are crowded with small shops and beggars trying to get the farranji (foreigner) interested as most foreigners don't seem to walk but travel by car (I only saw one other white person during a whole hour, but he seemed more interested in young ethiopians boys so didn't bother interacting with him). After coming back to the hotel I went to meet Thea (an old AIESEC-connection and good friend by now) in the Hilton. This place is an oasis of rest and wealth compared to the world outside it walls. Anyway even more expensive then the hotel I left, so me and Thea decided to go hotel-hunting in Addis based on the advices of the Lonely Planet. During this adventure we saw approximately 10-15 hotels from ok to brothel-level (with the Cozy-bar next door). After having seen a couple I decided that budget was not the only criteria, I should also feel a bit at home after a day at work. Luckily found a proper one called "Holiday Hotel" which is a medium priced one (too expensive for long duration) but with extremely nice/helpfull staff and friendly atmosphere. We ended our trip at one of the backpackerhotels which you would not want to live if you have a job for which you need to get up early, but are great for a beer and interesting conversations. Result of the trip was that within 24 hours I had seen many parts of Addis, learned the taxi and mini-bus system. I really felt I had been here for quite a while and was strange to acknowldeg it had not even been 20 hours since I landed.

Sunday was relaxing day as I had to start on the next day
Monday was a good start, in the morning had to arrange a lot of formalities such a security-pass, office-space, e-mail-account and getting to know the people. I am currently situated at the ESPD (Economic & Social Policy Division), but most of my colleagues from the ADF (African Development Forum) work at the OPC (ffice for Policy and Program Coordination). This means I have to travel between the 3rd and 9th floor all the time. Currently we are working on my jobdescription, a normal start-up issue with internships. This is especially difficult as the discussions on youth-involvement in the conference-preparation has just started and there are no concrete tasks to be done yet for me, but this is slowly evolving and I just make sure I take the responsibility whenever something comes up. Furthermore I have a lot of time to read on what has been going on and make myself comfortable with the issues of the conference. In the evenings I was most of the times too tired to go out, this also because my stomage was giving me some problems due to a bad hamburger or water. By now I am feeling much better and being very critical on what to eat and what not.

This weekend I went with Thea and Frank (a Maltese lawyer who manages a NGO called "Opportunity Knocks Ethiopia" which gives young poor youngster who have the commitment the opportunity to continue their study) to Debre Zeit by public bus (about 40 KM south-east of Addis) to visit a nice lake and meet local Ethiopians (as Frank was trying to start there as well). It was really interesting as we really got to know how people lived and how much youth-unemployment affects their daily life. Most of them could not do anything since they left school 2-3 years ago. See the pictures to get an idea.