Finally hiking to the church on the hill...

      

Our group.

...and beyond! After looking up at that church and hill for more than two months, I finally made the trek. It's a steep climb, but not too far. I had been warned a lot, however, not to go alone due to the risks of getting lost, running into the hyenas that live up there, and getting mugged. Fortunately, Joel (the NWS alum here to help out) was up for going and a friendly taxi driver offered to guide us. It wasn't a terrifically clear day (will have to go again!), but it was warm and dry enough - even at 6:30 a.m. when we headed out - and the contrasting views of the sprawling city on one side and rural villages on the other were impressive enough to be worth both the climb and the early start on a weekend.

Heading up from Lebu.

The city below.

Rural villages on the other side.

Home (Hope University College) and the condos from the hill.

Spring prep program wraps up

ILAE News

After a nearly two-week break, campus internet access has been restored (yea!). Just in time too because full-time summer class days begin on Monday, July 1st. Our teacher crew (pictured to the right as we decompress after a long day's work today) has been bolstered by the arrival yesterday of a NWS alum who will help out for two weeks. We are eager to welcome back the ILAE prep program students. They successfully completed the spring phase of the program and are now enjoying a well-earned break, during which they took and corrected a set of national exams. (These take place at least at the end of both grades 8 and 10.)

Some highlights from the spring (besides the scintillating reading selections and grammar lessons!) included regular learning sessions in the computer lab, a soccer scrimmage with a local youth team, and some interesting guest speakers (including the  woman pictured here who spoke on Ethiopia's environmental challenges).

For the summer session, we are looking forward to expanding the range and depth of our classes. We will, for example, use some theater games to promote confidence and spontaneous speaking. We introduced this approach at the end of the spring session - with some boisterous and hilarious results. One skit group drew "at a medical clinic" as their prompt, and a dubious doctor was soon checking a forehead with his pantomimed stethoscope and prescribing an unconventional treatment. We will also investigate environmental issues (global and Ethiopian) in more depth using curriculum from Seattle-based Facing the Future. Also, after reading a variety of African short stories, the students will be tackling their first novels.

A quiet milestone

Reggae at the Alliance earlier in the month.

Last Friday marked the halfway point in my "deployment" here. It was my first "free" weekend since Easter and the mid-point of a few days off between session. I continued to take full advantage of the offerings at the European cultural centers and actually went to the Alliance éthio-francaise three times that week. Monday for the closing night of the European Film Festival ("A Royal Affair"), Thursday for the screening of a Sengalese film (Ousmane Sembène's "La Noire de..." - followed by a free buffet dinner!), and Friday for a concert of English-language rock covers (Dire Straits, Beatles, Counting Crows).

Even though the rainy season is beginning here, it's still warm for part of each day (usually the morning). Missing my frequent summer dips in Seattle's Lake Washington and Greenlake, I twice tried to get a swim in during my days off. The first attempt, a trip to the pool at the fancy Sheraton Hotel, was foiled by hard afternoon rain. The second was part of the impetus for a road trip to an area of lakes about 50 kilometers southeast of Addis (Debra Zeit, see the map in the May 7th post).

Relaxing on a lake-front hotel's deck.

Here, despite getting quite close to the water on a warm day, I was undone by a combination of factors (all compounded by having forgotten my suit at home!): crowds, access restrictions, cost, and the comfort levels of my chaperones with what they saw as a wild and risky impulse on my part. In any event, it was restorative to get out of the city - and to breathe some fresh air! The benefits of the excursion almost withstood the traffic and pollution that greeted us as we returned to Addis.

Table-side "fishing" in Debre Zeit

A few photos from June

Though still not a regular coffee drinker, I have embraced the serving of coffee as one of the ways that Ethiopians offer friendship and hospitality. When invited to people's homes (which is happening to me far more often here than I have experienced anywhere else - and far more often that I imagine visitors to Seattle experience), the sharing of coffee involved a "coffee ceremony" (as pictured here). The beans are roasted and brewed over charcoal, and then the coffee is served in three tastings - and with a popcorn accompaniment. Here, a friend prepares coffee for our group after running the Coca Cola 7k.

I get interviewed after the run - likely not aired due to the big soccer win.

The guys try to get a clear picture of the soccer game.

Some sightseeing... 

At the Institute for Ethiopian Studies for a special AU exhibit.

The church at Emperor Menelik's home in the hills north of the city.

The painted gate of Menelik's church.

The facade of a stone church carved into a ledge.

stay tuned...

Technical difficulties continue to impede active posting. For now, check out this interesting story on how an increase in construction projects is driving change in Ethiopia. It ran on CNN's "Marketplace Africa" over the past weekend. 

More running, soccer mania, and Internet connection woes

Our "team" prepares to run.

It's now day four of no Internet connection on campus, which - along with the multiple daily power outages has made it quite hard to keep up with work tasks, news, email, and blog posts. The tech department says that the problem is off-site with the provider's infrastructure (this blog's new official word) and that it may be next week (or longer) before we have service restored. It's also been hard on the contents of the fridge! 

Mass start.

Haile Gebreselassie.

Anyway, a couple of updates: Sunday was a big sports day - building on the success of the "Run for Hope." The morning started early (6:00) as I taxied to the other side of town for a 7 km road race that I was invited to run with a few friends. It was a challenging course - a bit longer than I've been running and with a lot more elevation change than our flat course near the college. The air was also heavy (it had rained overnight), but I had fun and enjoyed how supportive the group of runners I found myself with was. Running is very popular here, and it was exciting to have celebrated Ethiopian runner Haile Gebreselassie on hand to pump up the crowd and then sound the starting horn.

Me with the goalie after the game.

That afternoon, a double-header at the European Film Festival lost out to watching Ethiopia play South Africa in a World Cup qualifying game. Tickets to watch the match live here in Addis were in short supply, so a group of us watched on tv. Ethiopia won - thus winning their group (with one game left to play) and earning a berth in the final round of play for one of Africa's spots in Brazil.* One of the guys watching with us works at the hotel where the team was staying, so we ended up heading down there to join the festivities and greet the team. The whole city was celebrating; flags were waving, horns were honking, and everyone was waving and screaming. This enthusiasm is a sign that Ethiopia's football (soccer) team is enjoying a resurgence. They made it to the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 31 years, and they are looking to get to their first ever World Cup.

* After Sunday's exciting victory, it came out that an ineligible player (due to yellow card accumulation) had been fielded in an earlier game against Botswana. FIFA fined the Ethiopian Federation and took away the three points from that win. Still leading the group, Ethiopia must now win that final game, September 6th against the Central African Republic, to advance in qualification. Needless to say, there has been a lot of disappointment and frustration among fans here. 

It's funny to find myself a regular runner here when I'm a rare, even reluctant runner at home. I also have hardly kicked a soccer ball in my two months here, which is odd since I'm such an avid soccer player at home. Then again, my daily life and habits are different in lots of ways: I also consider it normal to see donkeys and sheep every day now, I drink bottled water, I almost never wear a seat belt (because they're broken), I shoulder bump as part of greeting people, and I eat at least one meal a day with my hands.

Running for Hope!

Today was the "Run for Hope" 5K. About 60 students, staff, and friends of Hope University College took to the damp streets this morning to run, jog, or walk a 5 kilometer route through the neighborhood.

The goals were to build community through fun and fitness, to raise money for the campus waste collection and disposal program, and to increase the college's visibility in the immediate area.


By all accounts, it was a successful event! My jogging partner and I organized the run with student help and support from the administration (especially with reassuring the sub-city authorities that this was in no way a "political" event).

The participants were energetic and playful (indulging in quite a water fight at the finish line), and there was even some enthusiastic flying of the national flag. Very fun.

Infrastructure part 2, housing

When I first arrived and started trying to learn more about the housing projects just down the street, I found this article reporting on the late-February opening of over 20,000 new condominium units, including some in our neighborhood. The article reports that, "With an average population growth rate of 2.7 percent, Addis Ababa needs 600,000 additional housing units in the coming decade alone, according to the Addis Ababa City Housing Development Office." Since then, I have heard that the city has pledged to build 1.3 million housing units in the next 7 years - a VERY ambitious number!

As part of this campaign to provide housing, the city has launched a series of financing programs (described here). The goal is to make housing affordable and accessible to the city's large population of what I would call a lower middle class, people who have steady work but don't make enough to save up for a house purchase. Without this kind of public support, locals have told me that purchasing land and building a house is affordable only to the quite well-off.

As a result, there is a lot of interest in the current program, and for the past week people have been lined up all over the city to sign up for this opportunity.  Although there are many banks in Addis, only one, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, is authorized to administer this program at its branches. The bank reports that nearly 400,000 people have signed up so far.


For many Addis residents, those with some money saved or access to some financial support, these programs will provide a chance to secure a housing upgrade. For the wealthier, there are many more options, and the building boom shows no signs of abating. Just behind the college (on the other side form the condo buildings), a new street of comfortable villas has just been completed - and more are going up throughout the neighborhood.

Here is a description of the building boom in Addis from the Economist: "Addis has one of the higher densities of slum dwellers in the world. But their geographical pattern is unusual... Addis is 'more of a scrambled egg'." (Read the article for an explanation.)

Next up: roads and transportation

Update on Infrastructure, pt 1

In garbage and recycling news, the collection barrels were deemed inadequate, and thus were emptied to avoid, I was told, encouraging people to make use of a temporary and insufficient system. Students and staff, a university official explained, are meant to take care of their own waste (which mostly means tossing it on the ground or over the campus fence). It's unclear when - or even if - a new system will be put in place. For the time being, those of us living on campus are on our own if we don't want to just toss our garbage onto the pile (likely to be burned). A decidedly negative development as we prepare for Saturday's fun run event that's raising money for waste disposal!

On a lighter note (pun weak but intended), it turns out that some of last week's frequent power outages were part of planned upgrades to a nearby major transmission line. That said, the campus started the day without electricity.

Madiba vigil

© 2012 Zapiro (All Rights Reserved)
Printed/Used with permission from www.zapiro.com

As I join so many around the world in following Nelson Mandela's frail health, I enjoyed listening to "The Mandela Tapes," an episode of CBC radio's Ideas program. It reviews Mandela's life with audio drawn from over 50 hours of interviews with the icon. Also, as usual, South African political cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, aka Zapiro, has a gift for capturing the mood of his country. To see more of his incisive cartoons, here is a link to his website.