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Published: December 27th 2009
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Christmas 2009
At Colin & Annies, with Kellie, Kay and Sophie ...or happy Ferengi Christmas!
The greetings are only 3 days late but the Internet connection here has been taking so long to upload even one photo to the blog I have started and stopped this entry 3 times already.
Of course I am still getting billed per minute so maybe it's all part of the plan? Or perhaps the Travelblog server had too much Christmas pudding?
I made it to Addis on Tuesday night having blagged a lift with the workers for a Finnish Water project in Assosa. We started the 670km drive at 6am and reached Addis by 6.30pm. Luckily Tapio (the Finnish project manager) can drive so the driving was shared and consequently we made good time.
After a blitz of goodie shopping on Christmas Eve, as well as visiting the Federal Police for fingerprinting (as part of our "Certificate of Good Conduct" or Ethiopian CRB check) and queuing for hours in Ethiopian Airlines to book a flight back to Assosa on Tuesday, plus flights for my mate Bilesy - we had ticked all the boxes and were ready for festivities..
Oh Come All Ye Firestarters Sara had arranged to meet a bunch
What a spread!
Nut-free nut roast with roasties and vege gravy... of other volunteers heading to St. Matthews Anglican church in Arat Kilo. It was a Carols by Candlelight service for an eclectic bunch of (mostly) foreigners, many of whom had brought their kids.
The service went on somewhat, I counted 15 carols, which was quite a stretch.
I doubt if I contributed much in the way of harmony as the last time I had sang in anger was at Arsenal vs Newcastle in February 2008...
However we were very much entertained by the kids sitting alongside us on the back row.
Within two carols they had tried to set the church on fire with their candles. Fortunately the floral displays bearing the brunt of the incendary assault were barely flammable.
Unlike human hair.
Two carols later the unmistakable smell of burning hair filled the church as a curly-haired toddler berated her smaller toddler brother who had Christmas gifted her a new hairstyle courtesy of his candle.
Having given up on razing the church or murdering their siblings the children turned their attention to making small piles of wax across the expensive looking kneelers and thick shag carpet at the rear of the church;
Christmas cakes?
Don't mind if I do keeping themselves busy until forced to sing "away in a manger" in front of the congregation at some later point.
The vicar kept us equally entertained with tales of his son-in-law who sits on the fence with God and is a source of great disappointment and worry to the vicar and his good lady wife.
We really hoped said son-in-law had not decided to spring a surprise Christmas visit to the in-laws this year and was sitting uncomfortably amongst us.
Ding-Dong Christmas morning we shared together - opening the presents that had made it and generally relaxing. We had been sent a couple of magazines from the UK - one a PC Game magazine which I read from cover to cover.
Part of me - in fact quite a lot of me - is looking ahead now to being back in the UK and that includes which computer game is next up for me. Having been starved of broadband and online gaming I am so looking forward to a bit of Battlefield 2 or (the latest) Modern Warfare 2 and Left for Dead 2.
We also waited by the phone in Simon's house -
It's a Merry Christmas from us
With the help of some nice French red from the Godets in the same compound as Sara's - for calls from Sara's mum Dee in Ireland and my father and sister in the UK. It felt very strange talking about Christmas with people you normally expect to be next to at Christmas, not 5,000km away across a telephone line!
Come the afternoon we headed off to Colin and Ann's house with Sophie, Kellie and Kay for Christmas dinner.
What a dinner it was!
Sara had done a nut-free nut roast, we had vege sausages, baked spuds, vegetables and gravy. We also drank some nice wine - including the very nice bottle that our French friends - Christine, Bernard and Liana - had brought us in October.
Even Mr Bean got to try wine for the first time! It didn't get him that excited but one of the proper Ethiopian coffee-ceremony coffees (Sara has been drinking decaf) got him bouncing off the walls and tap-dancing on Sara's tummy!
The very pleasant afternoon was followed by games at Nancy's with Jamie, Mary, Joanne, Trish and Tara.
Lost in the Seventies Boxing Day I nursed an evil hangover as we watched all 15 episodes of Series 5
Our turn to burn things
Must be time for a carol? of Lost.
In bed.
Only to realise at 1am that the 15th episode is not the final one and I don't have the rest! Sara was really not amused.
And today we had a mammoth film session - watched Sherlock Holmes at 11.15, went for a liquid lunch at the German Beer Garden and returned to Edna Mall for Avatar at 3.45.
Altogether Very, very enjoyable break for us both.
Sara goes back to work tomorrow and I have some paperwork to finish before flying back to Assosa on Tuesday for my final two weeks (boo-hoo).
Fortunately our friend Paul is coming over on the 5th and will be in Assosa from the 7th to 12th and we will fly back to Addis together for our final week in Ethiopia (even bigger boo-hoos).
Unfortunately I will be the ONLY Ferengi in Assosa for New Year's Eve! I'll probably cheer myself up by inviting the cats in for a party (Ethiopian New Year is in September).
It will be 12 years since Sara and I got together. We
Secret Santa
Where's my Go-Go Hamster??? met at a New Year's Eve party in 1997 and this will be our first New Year's Eve apart 😞
Anyway, let's not dwell on that - we have many years ahead together with whoever Mr Bean turns out to be 😊
We missed our family and friends very much, but our surrogate family of VSO volunteers and Ethiopian friends have kept our spirits up and made Christmas 2009 a lovely and memorable one.
So enjoy the rest of the festive season and have a great Ferengi New Year, wherever you are!
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Idriss
non-member comment
Hello
Well, I will be in Addis Ababa by september. Hopefully, I wil be working for the Embassy of Morocco for the next four years. My concern is a lot about networking and socializing. As it is a new country to discover, I hope you wil help a little as you can. IDRISS