Welcome to Addis Ababa!

Addis street market.

Wow! If one word describes this city, it is dynamic. From what I've seen in my 2 days here, Addis Ababa is a sprawling, chaotic mass of humanity that is in the midst of breakneck growth and development. It's a bit overwhelming! It's one thing to study a place from afar and to look at statistics - population of 87 million (Africa's second largest, to Nigeria), a per capita GNI PPP of $930, a fertility rate (TFR) of 4.8 (double the world average and way over the replacement rate of 2.06), 78% of the polulation living on less than $2 per day, etc.; it's an entirely different thing to find oneself living in the midst of the chaos (and charm) of a developing country's BIG capital. One source says 4.25 million people live in the capital; another estimates 5 million. (Someone told me it was closer to 8 million.)  

Our classroom building. We have two rooms on the 3rd floor.

In any case, where I get to live and work is in an area on a rapidly developing edge of the city. I'm being hosted by Hope University College, a newly built campus in its second year of operation and with a student population of nearly 400. The campus was built to accommodate 2,000 students, so they are letting ILAE use some of the surplus classroom space. We (Ellen, the ILAE Executive Director and former Head of NWS, and I) are living in on-campus faculty apartments, and we even get an office. 

The faculty apartment block.

The green-roofed library.

The view behind campus.

Cows graze just outside the campus gate.

The "sports green" just outside the campus gate.