Work has been progressing at a steady pace and I am getting a better feel for the work of the Ethiopian Bar Association and the office. The next post will talk about the organization and the work I am doing here.
Unlike Canada, I was dreading the weekend here. In Canada, there is sense of excitement for the impending weekend – a time to get away from work, to relax, to meet friends and just have a bit of down time. However, ever since I got here, down time tends to make me think of home and as such, I like to keep busy. Work has been good in that regard. At least when I am at the office, I am thinking about my projects and rarely have a chance to miss home. I have also enjoyed my time here so much more since Mary arrived, in that I don’t feel so alone. It has been great to explore Addis with Mary! I am glad I have a roommate and I am looking forward to Eric’s arrival too. It is nice coming home and not being by yourself and having someone kind and fun to hang out with!
On Saturday, Mary and I went in search of wireless internet. We were told that many coffee shops around our house had internet access and that we could take our laptops, buy a tea or coffee and check email and surf the web all day! We were looking forward to connecting to people from home. What we did not anticipate (and we should have given our history here so far) was that the internet would be so slow that it would not even connect. We finally found an internet café, playing non-stop Celine Dion music no less, that was a bit faster and did what we could from there.
On one of our walks to find an Internet café, I received a call from our friend Susan Wong, the fellow Canadian we met last weekend for coffee. Susan invited us to her home that evening for a party to meet a whole host of other Canadians working in Addis with various NGOs, the Canadian Embassy, and with private Ethiopian companies and firms. There were also a wonderful group of German, Australian, and European expats.
Let me just say that Susan’s house is stunning. She shares her place with a German architect working in Addis and it has a fireplace, a garden, beautiful furniture and art and it really feels like home. It was so fun to hang out, eat tons of amazing food and catch up with a group of people that are also calling Addis home at the moment. Thanks Susan for hosting such a fun party and for having us over! I also saw some pictures of Susan’s trip to Mauritius last year! What a beautiful place! My best friend Shankari and her hubby Ounesh are having a wedding reception out there this December. I am so tempted to go it is not even funny, but time off and finances will be the deciding factor. [PS – on the topic of my awesome, architect friend Shankari – she asked me to clarify for everyone that I am actually a Regina boy and not a Saskatoon boy as my blog erroneously indicates. I did grow up in Regina and it was home for most of my life and she is probably right. However, Saskatoon has been home most recently. When the internet cooperates, I will make the change to a Regina/Saskatoon boy or even better a Saskatchewan boy]
