Blogs from Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa Region, Ethiopia, Africa
Addis after two months
Published: April 21st 2012Africa » Ethiopia » Addis Ababa Region » Addis Ababa
April 21st 2012
Selamnachu y’all, I have a new name to add to the list of alternatives the boys at the drop-in center call me; Alyska! I think this one might be the most creative yet. The boy who solely refers to me by this name, finally corrected my pronunciation of his name this week, just a little one letter difference. I found it wholly entertaining as it would be futile for me to even attempt to correct the boys after they’ve become so creative with the various manifestations of my name since I arrived. I feel like in the time I have been working with Onesimus there is now a regularly attending group of about 10 boys and most of them have really started to adapt and behave. To these boys who I see almost everyday, I am ... read more
Transportation, illiteracy and a few more pictures
Published: March 31st 2012Africa » Ethiopia » Addis Ababa Region » Addis Ababa
March 31st 2012
Selamnachu! Its now week three, almost four of living in Addis Ababa and every day I learn something new. I started my first Amharic tutoring session this week so I will hopefully be able to communicate a little more with the kids at Onesimus and Ethiopians in general very soon. Amharic has its own alphabet which I know very little about, but it looks immensely complicated. I’ve found it is the most important to be literate when you have to get a minibus during rush hour, transportation here is kind of an art, it is quite simple in a way (and absolutely not in other ways). There are contract taxi’s which are regular taxis and the real adventure, are mini-buses or some people call them taxis which I find constantly confusing. Also available are ambasa buses, ... read more
Weekend Off in Addis Ababa
Published: April 7th 2012Africa » Ethiopia » Addis Ababa Region » Addis Ababa
March 22nd 2012
We were up before 6 o'clock to get the bus out of Lalibela, but unfortunately this wasn't early enough. We were hoping to get to Addis Ababa in one day and this wasn't a good start. We had to get a Land Cruiser to take us to Gashena, which meant we ended up catching the public bus. We got on this bus, which was to take us to Dessie. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the bus and it struggled to get out of 2nd gear. At Woldia, we had to change to a minibus to take us the rest of the way to Dessie. This minibus was a lot quicker, but it started to lash down rain and made driving conditions pretty difficult. This didn't deter our driver from overtaking vehicles as we drove on ... read more
March 21st 2012
The new dash 8 q400 enters the addis valley. This is a small aircraft to spend three and a half sleeping hours on, but I feel good. I have two seats to myself, and i-mike, the American doctor is down the cabin. The turboprop’s is inbound from Zanzibar. The names Zanzibar and Addis Ababa trip easily off the tongue; but to those of us who live here, the reality is not quite so romantic. We fly between ridges with brown patchwork fields below us. They give way to insdustrial warehouses, new concrete housing, a single forestry block and the addis bus depot. The orange and yellow buses make a stark sight. Everything is so dry, a dual carriageway that bisect two large old cemetaries flies by; we are lower now, and seem faster over the earth. ... read more
Greetings from Addis Ababa!
Published: March 18th 2012Africa » Ethiopia » Addis Ababa Region » Addis Ababa
March 18th 2012
Selam! Greetings from Addis Ababa! Its been six years since my year in Italy and now I'm back again with another blog! For those of you who followed my blog before, a lot has happened since then, so here’s a brief update: After finishing high school, I started college at UNC-Asheville. I studied abroad for a semester in Brazil, and another semester in France. I still managed to graduate in 4 years with a BA in International Economics. I am here now in Addis with Cherokee Gives Back, a great opportunity that I learned about from a good family friend. I am really looking forward to the next few months here. I arrived in Addis Ababa almost two weeks ago and every day since my arrival has been an adventure. I’m here to volunteer, but even ... read more
March 11th 2012
Our time in Addis got off to a rough start with a delay in our flight from Lalibella which caused our luggage to be put on the next flight! I spent about 45 minutes in that stressed-out state that frequent travellers know well: Watching fellow passengers gradually pick up their luggage and leave until you are the last one, then watching the empty carousel go round and round before finally coming to terms with the fact that your luggage is not going to appear through the plastic flaps. We were flying home toCanadathe next day and I have no idea if our luggage would have made it without us to transfer it. Thankfully we didn’t have to deal with all of that because it showed up on the next flight just as we were starting to ... read more
January 8th 2012
They held her down, chained her up and pored holy water over her naked body. Screaming and shouting she violently reacted showing the devil in her eyes. In fear of the priest and talking backwards, a demonic voice emerges. You begin to feel a powerful presence sending shock-waves to your core. Standing amidst the Christian underworld you witness an ancient tradition few outsiders have seen before. The Christian Orthodox Exorcism. "An Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be done by causing the entity to swear an oath, performing an elaborate ritual, or simply by commanding it to depart in the name of a higher power" (Wikipedia, January 2012) You ... read more
Rolled a Little in Addis Ababa
Published: January 3rd 2012Africa » Ethiopia » Addis Ababa Region » Addis Ababa
January 1st 2012
We arrived late in the evening on New Years eve after a long sert of flights from Boston - Frankfurt - Addis Ababa. Flying Lufthansa was a treat and on the way from Boston, because this is our honeymoon, the woman who checked us in offered us the exit rows and the flight attendant poured sparkling wine for us on the house. It was nice to be treated like this. On the flip side, Lufthansa's vegan fare is, well, hopefullu a work in progress. Most of it was vegan, but lacked flavor (although the polenta dish was really nice) The dessert was jello - which is really just fruity hooves. So, we gave that a miss. Jenn was just grateful they had any kind of offering. We arrived and found we were quick to get off ... read more
Happy Holidays from the Permanent Substitute!
Published: December 22nd 2011Africa » Ethiopia » Addis Ababa Region » Addis AbabaDecember 22nd 2011
Happy holidays to everyone reading, I know its been a while since I updated, seems to be a reoccuring theme doesn't it? Everything here is going great, the second quarter is coming to a close and Ethiopian Christmas is quickly approaching(January 8th). With some of my classes I get the feeling like I am just a permanent substitute to the students. Not that I blame them, can you imagine a 3rd grade spanish class where the teacher only speaks in spanish?? In a way it is very good for the students as they have had to develop a good ear for listening to English, but still it can be frustrating at times. Their behavior is very poor some days, and since all I can do is yell at them in English(or use the few Amharic phrases ... read more
Ethiopia December 2011
Published: December 16th 2011Africa » Ethiopia » Addis Ababa Region » Addis Ababa
December 16th 2011
This may well be my one and only post on Travel Blog for this trip - it just doesn't seem to be working properly. So I've jumped ship to Google Blogger and I hope you can find me on there! The link is http://malcreed.blogspot.com/ and I'm sure you can view, subscribe and all the usual stuff. If you try it now there is one entry. So fingers crossed for occasional wi-fi, and see you on Blogspot.... read more
