Hi - this is Al & Sara's blog!

We are 2 VSO volunteers working in Assosa, Beneshangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia for 2 years from Feb 2008 to 2010.

Don't try to find us on the map, 'cos we don't appear. We are proud to announce a grand total of 0 entries in the Lonely Planet - Ethiopia & Eritrea and um, 0 entries in the Bradt guide. In fact as an "emerging region" within Ethiopia our area is pretty anonymous both internally and (clearly) internationally. With the mud strip airport being relaid with tarmac we had a 2 day 4x4 journey here from Addis. That said, Assosa is a regional capital, has a population of 15k and at least 40 vehicles. It is hot, green, welcoming and (currently) pretty dry.

About us - Al has swapped a daily 3-motorway commute (M32/M4/M5) between Bristol & Cheltenham and a life of managing IT Security & Networking for a 3-mango tree commute to the central regional Capacity Building bureau where he is sharing IT skills with the bureau ICT staff. His Arsenal and Bristol Rugby season tickets have been exchanged for 56k updates via BBC online and some quality match analysis from the host of dedicated Arsenal fans found across the whole of Ethiopia!

- Sara has put her job as a Marketing & Communications manager at JISC (based at Bristol University) on hold for 2 years while she embarks on a slightly further daily commute (5 trees and the occasional cow) to work as a Planning Officer at the Regional Education Bureau. She has traded 10k runs along the Bristol cycle path for as yet undecided routes around the dusty streets of Assosa town.

We hope you find something interesting here - and if not, just marvel at the photography ;)

For more information on Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) see www.vso.org.uk.

We have been raising money for VSO - thanks to everyone for your help - we have over £3,500 so far. If you would like to help us out the money goes directly to VSO, not us and you can do so at this page http://www.justgiving.com/alandsarainethiopia

In fact VSO liked our themed 10k run so much they featured it here :)

Finally we have a domain registered which is our home site and will link to this blog see www.alandsarainethiopia.co.uk.

So ciao,ciao & buhallah!
Al & Sara
(IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER - The views expressed in this blog are Al & Sara's only and not those of either VSO (UK) or VSO (Ethiopia)!!)

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