While I (Ruta) was at the Red Cross Training Center for my first 8 days in Ethiopia, 2 weddings took place on the weekends. The first wedding was small, fairly Western with a bride in white, groom in a tux, and bridesmaids. As the bride and groom arrived to the center, they were stopped by singing and reveling friends. There was a main guy who led the singing - he would sing something and the friends would respond in song. Similar to Lithuanian customs in which the friends lay down sashes for the bride and groom to step over as they [View Full Entry]

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Kovas writing…The food here is different, along with everything else. For one thing, one drop of tap water could give us explosive diarriah. Because of this we have to boil and filter our water. There is no stove here, so we must use hot plates. Also, because we are at a high altitude, it takes a really long time to cook. We are constantly boiling water on the little hot plate. The question isn’t “Are you hungry?” I’m always hungry. A better question is “Will you be hungry in an hour?” Ethiopians eat a lot of meat, but our family is [View Full Entry]

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When living and functioning in a country, you learn the intricacies that visitors are spared. I find paying the bills quite strange - no bill arrives in the mail. You need to know the date when the bill is due and physically visit the office to pay it. For example, we had a telephone line installed in our house. We left a telephone number so that they could call to remind us that the bill needs to be paid (in some cases by the end of the day) or the telephone gets shut off. If that happens, then you need to [View Full Entry]

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We were expecting to be assigned a one-bedroom house when we arrived and then we would look for something that would be adequate for 7 oversized Lithuanians. We had understood that because we have children, we would be sharing the cost of housing with our volunteer agency, and that we would have a say in where we lived. It was very important for us to live near work and school. Upon arrival a small house was provided for us with no negotiation. On the positive side, the house is new and clean and in a seemingly safe neighborhood with very pleasant [View Full Entry]

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When our kids answer the question, “How do you like Africa?” they answer, “Good - we walk a lot.” Living without a car is definitely an adjustment. Any small item that we purchase, we need to carry home. As mentioned, our house is quite far from public transportation. Addis Ababa has an efficient network of public minibuses that take you to various city centers. The minibuses have 11 seats in them and are often full. However, for our family of seven, we need to find not only a bus that is going where we want to go, but also one that [View Full Entry]

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Kovas writing… The animals here are different from those in Chicago. I have yet to see a herd of 20 goats crossing a highway in Chicago. Here in the city of Addis Ababa, there are many dogs, cats, goats, donkeys, sheep, chickens, and the occasional raging bull running away from owner. Although we miss our dog, Zuza, at home, we can’t pet the dogs or cats because they might have rabies. There are so many dogs here, that it’s rare not to see at least 3 or 4 dogs on any trip you might take. Vasara isn’t as bummed out here [View Full Entry]

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It is a good thing that we decided to finalize our selection of schools only upon arriving in Addis. The school that we had selected from our internet research and email questions, turned out to not give a good first impression. The staff was not very welcoming, and our kids did not want to go there. Other schools were either closed or very expensive. Well, we knew that our African adventure would have challenges and test our resourcefulness. We selected the British International School upon recommendation of a local expatriate. It is close to Ruta’s work and has enough non-Ethiopian st [View Full Entry]

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What an interesting Sunday mass I attended! From the training center where I (Ruta) am located, a Filipino friend, Lettie, and I took public transportation minibuses to mass. We kept repeating 'Catholic Church" and local Ethiopians directed us on our 45 min journey there. The Holy Savior church is medium size, with lots and lots of poor beggars lining the gates. Inside there are huge stone pillars on each side, a 20 foot stone statue of Jesus behind an altar lined with gold colored tile. The priests and all their attendants were clothed in bright gold vestments with white muslim-looking caps. [View Full Entry]

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In the Red Cross Training Center at our introductory training, we have been eating very well. At every lunch and dinner, the sour pancake, injera, is served. You are supposed to only eat with your right hand and mop up the stews and curry sauces with the injera. The stews and curries are flavorful without being too spicy. We are also getting batter dipped vegetables, tomato salads, beans, white bread, rice, and noodles. Ethiopia was occupied by the Italians ealier and noodles seem to have stayed behind as a popular food. To drink, we're offered bottled water, Coke, Pepsi, 7up, and [View Full Entry]

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The VSO training had us take public transportation into the city to do some simple errands today. The objective was to try out our basic Amharic language and to start navigating the city on our own. Living in Addis,or perhaps anywhere in Africa, is not straightforward. The training is teaching us the many safety precaustions that we need to take (e.g. Don't walk alone, be careful of pickpockets, avoid buses, negotiate fares with taxi drivers, boil and filter your water, haggle ferociously with market vendors, don't eat anything you can't boil or peel, etc) It sounds easier than it is and [View Full Entry]

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