Easter Sunday

Today we decided to give Bole (also known as spit city) another shot.  We went to a little place we found on TripAdvisor called Cupcake Delights for breakfast.  We both got the most delicious french toast with bananas, icing sugar and maple syrup.  Next we visited the Friendship Mall, but most things are closed on Sundays.  We decided it might be fun to go to the movies this afternoon, so we are currently having a coffee at kaldi's (Ethiopia's Starbucks) waiting for the 2:00 showtime.  It is very hot out today... Im guessing around 26 degrees, but Im not minding it at all.  Jenn, leanne and I are all pretty excited to go to the new guesthouse this Friday... Especially after our roomates across the hall have been sick, and the toilet decided it didn't want to flush for 2 days (TMI). 

 Jenn and I are thinking about taking a trip to our Ethiopian friend, Ameroux's, home town of Bahir Dar.  It is located near the Blue Nile falls and has boating excursions, hippos, crocodiles and tons of stuff to see.

Anyway, we are going to keep exploring Bole.  Not a bad way to spent a Sunday.  Happy Easter xoxo!

Lalibela

We flew 2 hours to Lalibela for the weekend.  It is absolutely beautiful and such a nice break from the insanely busy Addis.  Even just being able to breath in clean air has been a treat.  The hotel we are staying at is very nice and was actually the same place Bill Clinton has stayed at in the past!  We spent all day today with a tour guide learning and visiting the incredible underground stone churches.  There is so much history here, it's hard to take in in just a couple days.  Tomorrow we are flying  back to Addis, but we will continue to try and plan fun little trips around Ethiopia for the weekends.  It's hard to believe we have been away for 3 weeks already!  I can't wait to see everyone when I get home, but I feel like we are just starting to have a soft spot in our hearts for Ethiopia.

Hello everybody!

Just thought I'd check in while the Internet is working... Things with us are going great and we finally feel settled in.  The culture shock must be over! We are starting to teach and really getting to know the teachers we are working with.  After 9 days here, we finally know the names of the areas and know all the prices for the public transits.   We have found a few restaurants that we really love and the food prices are incredibly cheap.  Yesterday we soaked up the sun and treated ourselves to a day at the Sheraton pool!  This weekend we are going to fly to Lalibela to see some historical churches which should be a nice change of pace.  Anyway I Just wanted to let everyone know we are doing great and miss everyone at home!

WGP

There are days when we don't even feel like leaving the guesthouse, because it is so exhausting going through the city.  We are just walking dollar signs and nobody even knows a thing about us.  You literally cannot walk more than 5 steps without someone coming up to you with their hands in your face asking for money.  While we wait for the bus 4 or 5 people start hitting our arm or shoulder, or rubbing the fingers together.  You sit on the bus and someone comes up tapping on the glass beside your face, pointing to your purse. Everything we buy or any taxi we get into is just another chance for us to get the WGP ( the White Girl Price as Jenn and I have started referring to it as).  I know that compared to most, we are extremely lucky and have a lot, but it's annoying to see the guy next to me on the bus pay 1 Birr and the bus driver tell us it's 10.  It's the principle...Sometimes I feel like saying " You know what, I am a student and I owe the bank thousands and thousands of dollars and I spent the last year fundraising for a teaching practicum that could have been in a number of countries around the world and we decided to see Ethiopia for ourselves." I usually just end up saying " hello I'm Laura, how are you? nice to meet you" when they immediately ask for money. Anyway about 5 minutes into our trip into town Leanne's brand new phone got stolen.... Frustrating.  Jenn's shoes got stolen right from the guesthouse yesterday which is also annoying.  It's just a different world I guess....3rd world.

I'm going to try and take more pictures around the city to give everyone an idea of what it's like, I just don't want all my stuff getting stolen ( sad but true).  I'm excited to do some weekend trips, because I'd love to get a chance to see the other parts of Ethiopia that aren't in the city (The Blue Nile, Lallibella etc). 

Yay Internet!

On Tuesday, we visited our school for only a couple of hours since the students were writing exams.  Because we had the afternoon off we decided it might be fun to go to the Bole area which is the "hip" area with all the malls.  It's a bit out of town, so we took 3 public buses/vans to get there (which squish about 20 people in them and cost about 10 cents canadian).  About 5 minutes after we arrived, a guy walking in front of us stopped to tie his shoe.  As we walked around him him, he hacked and spit on me.  It was so disgusting... He immediately apologized profusely and ran up to me with a Kleenex to help clean my arm ( Jenn was already on it, as she is the wet nap queen).  As he was trying to "help" someone yelled out "close your purse, close your purse!"  Then I remembered reading about this scam.  I was lucky that he didn't end up stealing anything from me thanks to Jenn and the helpful local.  If anyone else tries to spit on me again, I will surely spit on them back and maybe give them a taste of the Canadian cuisine -knuckle sandwich. (Kidding mom)

I decided I would need 5 good things to happen before I could get over the spit incident and you know what...they happened within about an hour.  1) We met a guy on the bus home who was from Addis, but lived in England for 7 years and he paid all our bus fare. 2) An old man came up to us and said " welcome welcome to Addis we are so happy to see you here" 3) The woman at the electronic store gave us our surge protector for 100 Birr off the ticketed price. 4) The local telling me to close my purse. And finally 5) A woman who was mopping our guesthouse said she loved our hair and wondered if we could bring her a washing machine from Canada haha. 

Yesterday we spent the morning at our school observing the spoken English classes.  All three of us have been put into the kindergarten wing (we are in heaven).  The kids are SO cute and spent the better part of the morning staring at us and trying to hold our hands. We are mostly settled in to this city and maybe even enjoying MOST of the experiences that come along with it.

Today we are observing a few different classes and then it's the weekend!  On Saturday we are going to visit the other guest house to see what it's like/ how far it is and then volunteering at an orphanage for the afternoon.  Hope everyone is doing well... I'm going to try and post this before the Internet stops!

The Sheridan Pool - Hot shower-Yeah!

PS I never have Internet long enough to edit my posts, so don't judge my spelling or grammar :)

Day 3

Let me quickly just say that the electricity and Internet in Addis could use some work.  We are doing great and meeting new people.  Today we went to observe 3 schools with Albachew and the Dean of Education.  One of the schools focused on Inclusive education and was called CMCC (center for mentally challenged children). It blew me away.  It's far better than anything we have in PEI and is completely self sustaining.  They have different levels depending on the age of the student and the severity of their needs.  They are play based and set up like a Montessori school.  The group aged 16 to 22 focuses on life skills like baking, shining shoes and learns the value of money.  Everything they teach is so practical.  In their facility they employ some graduates ( some help in the kitchen to provide lunch for the staff and students, they milk the cows which is used for the infants as well as use the manure for the giant vegetable garden.) The school also spends a lot of time educating the parents many don't understand what an intellectual disability really is. Anyway it was incredible and I'm so glad we got to see it.  I guess it's time to crack out the headlamp the lights are flickering!  Goodnight.

Day 2

Addis Ababa day 2

Okay...things are better today.  We got up and went for a walk to the University campus where we met a guy named Amr and his 2 friends who were so nice and helpful.  They took us around the campus and to the local "hangout" where the university students were playing basketball, dancing, and the theatre students were filming a movie.  Everyone insisted that we not just observe, but participate in dancing haha...which we politely declined until we were cheered on so much we had to...white girls dancing...I'm sure they had a good laugh at our expense haha.  After visiting around campus our new friends took us to a tiny restaurant for lunch.  They got the traditional injera which looks like a huge spongey pancake with blobs of baby food on it.  You then rip off a piece of it and dip it in the sauces and everybody uses their hands.  We tried a little bit of it and all decided it was an acquired taste and stuck with vegetable pasta.  Amr took us all around town and gave us a lot of advice and answered our questions.  One thing we noticed when we were walking around was that so many guys hold hands with each other, so we just assumed that there were a lot of gay couples in Addis.  When i asked Amr about it, he got such a kick out of it.  I guess people are just very touchy feely here and it's common for people to holds hands.  

So as for the guest house situation, we have decided to stick it out at this place for 3 weeks and then switch to the Ethiopia Guest Home for the final 3 weeks.  We think this will break up our time and will make financial sense. ( www.ethiopiaguesthome.com ) 

Things are looking up...we just have to get used to the daily power outages and "Ethiopian" Internet.

Love everyone!

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Welcome to Addis Ababa

We arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this morning at 7:45.  It is a different world.  I thought it would be similar to Nairobi, but it is quite different.  We were picked up at the airport by Albachew who works at the University in Addis. 

Driving from the airport my first impression of the city was "take me back to the airport."  There are so many people everywhere, so many very very poor and desperate people begging and an unbelievable amount of people with visible disabilities.  When we arrived at the guesthouse* we were shown to our rooms and got "settled" in before our walk with Albachew.  About 10 minutes into our walk, we saw a guy peeing just right on the sidewalk, had men shouting at us, were approached by beggers, and saw babies who had no clothes on just roaming the garbage covered streets.  Im trying to be open minded and I do realize we have only been here for a short while, but it is just so poor and so different from anywhere I've ever been.  

*There were only 2 rooms between the 3 of us, so Jenn and I share a room about the size of a large elevator. There are 2 shared showers between the whole guest house that are not very attractive looking....just call me greasy hair Gretchin for the next 6 weeks. 

On the bright side...the weather is beautiful and Albachew is such a kind man who has been very helpful.  He took us to get groceries, to the bank, to get sim cards and back to the guest house.  He said if we ever need anything to just give him a call.  We also know there is still SO much to see in Ethiopia and it's only day one here (oh my gosh it's only day one...).  We will have to take advantage of our weekends off and do trips all around Ethiopia even if it means spending a little bit more than we budgeted.  I think we are going to need a little break from the city now and then.  

We were assured by Albachew that it is safe to walk in the daytime, but we just have to ignore all the people begging and pushy sellers.  My whole life I have been called Mogli from the jungle book, but I've never felt so pale.  Everyone stares at us, we even had people taking pictures of us with their phones...it kind of makes us feel like celebrities haha.  I'll be interested to see how the walking is without Albachew...hopefully not worse.  Anyway it's not all bad, Jenn and I are having some good laughs and I'm sure we'll get used to the city before long!  We start school on Monday and I can't wait to meet the kids.  Love everyone at home ...wish us luck. 

Hakuna Matata

Jambo

We had the full day in Nairobi today at our very nice hotel.  We got up early and had the breakfast buffet (no need to worry about us starving,we might be the only people to ever go to Africa and gain weight).  The woman sitting behind us at breakfast overheard us talking and knew we were Canadian by our accents haha.  She is originally from Vancouver, but has lived in Nairobi for a few months so she gave us a few pointers about where to go and how much to pay for things.  After breakfast we went to the David Sheldrick Animal Orphanage where we got to see them feeding the baby orphaned elephants.  It's only open for 1 hour to the public in the morning and all the admission fees go back to helping them, which is really neat. After visiting the elephants we went to a little cafe and had grilled chicken sandwiches with some coke lights.   We took full advantage of the pool and the sun for the rest of the afternoon and now we are just relaxing in our room.  The plan is to get to sleep early as our flight for Ethiopia is at 5:40am and we have to be up at 3.  Thanks everyone for reading and talk to you soon! Pictures to follow...

Leaving the Masai Mara

Today we got up around 7:30 to pack up our things and get ready to head to Nairobi.  We had the breakfast buffet before getting picked up by our safari guide, Mbottay.  I know I'll miss the Mara...I'm certain there isn't another place on earth like it.  As we left the beautiful Mara Serena lodge we had to drive back through the Mara to leave and it was like the animals were saying goodbye to us.  We saw herds of elephants, giraffes, hippos, zebras, gazelles, buffalo, antelope as well as a big male lion on the path in front of us...luck was definitely on our side.  Another cool thing about the Mara is the small tribe they call "The Mara People"   Who actually live inside the game reserve with the animals carrying only spears for protection.  

I am currently sitting in the safari van now with the window open feeling the warm breeze as we are driving through the rural areas of Kenya.  I've taken lots of pictures, but it's one of those places you really just have to go to yourself.  The drive into Nairobi takes about 8 ish hours so we have awhile to go yet.  Mbottay always laughs at how quiet we are, but honestly I think we're all just so fascinated with everything all we want to do is stare out the windows haha.  It's taking all of my strength to hold Jenn back from jumping out of the van and snatching a little Kenyan child.  The children just play and hang out by the roads while waving frantically at passing cars, they are pretty adorable.  

Tonight we are foregoing the cockroach hotel in Nairobi (Eden Garden) and have upgraded slightly to the Heron Portico Hotel for 2 nights before flying to Ethiopia.  Tomorrow we are getting up early to go to The David Sheldrick Wildlife Sanctuary to feed some animals, which I'm very excited for! We will arrive to our spot around 5:30, get some supper and relax.  That's all for now. Xo