Beautiful Awasa, Ethiopia

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I had the pleasure of attending a local HIV AIDS forum in the resort town of Awassa, 5 hours drive from Addis Ababa. The forum was for VSO volunteers working in the HIV/AIDS sector. We shared status of our work at our individual employers and discussed ideas for improvement. We learned latest facts of international aid money coming into Ethiopia. We learned that Ethiopia has a good track record of using the money responsibly and is thus awarded larger sums. (Other African nations who cannot account for the results obtained from the funds are penalized). The international aid sums seem staggeringly large to me. My impression so far is that the money does seem to be tracked carefully and responsibly - good to know since our US tax dollars are contributing to these global funds (World Bank, UNAIDS, etc)
Located on Lake Awassa, this pretty town attracts a lot of wildlife. The storks are huge, prehistoric-looking birds that seem too large for the tree branches on which they sit. The black and white colobus monkeys stand out among the foliage. We hired a boat to view the hippos, but they were sleepy and not very entertaining this time.

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