Getting out of the city

Today is a holiday here in Ethiopia for May Day, and we took a short hike in the En Toto Hills. Addis Ababa is ringed with hills, mostly covered in fast growing eucalyptus trees (an imported species that has crowded out a lot of the native land cover).



The drive up took us through a crowded market of people shopping for Easter (this coming Sunday here), and then past a lot of donkeys and women carrying down loads of fuel wood. The women carried bundles that were both thicker and wider than they were tall, and it was difficult to see them so loaded down without likening them to the beasts of burden they walked alongside - and without wondering why this toil fell exclusively on them and not the men.




There is an ambitious organization working to give these women an alternative way to earn a living, the Former Women Fuel Wood Carriers Association. This group trains the women to make and sell fabrics and baskets, and we stopped at their small store on the way down the hill. The Christian Science Monitor published a story about these women and the project back in 2007. 

It was great to get out of the city and into the woods for some exercise. I was also happy that the boys who rushed over to our car (to offer to "watch it" for us while we hiked) were also interested in letting me kick around their soccer ball with them.