So have you thought about what you are going to say? I can’t decide between thank you and thank you so much. It’s a significant moment and I want to do it right. If I say just plain thank you it’s kind of casual - like he is handing me a slice of pizza. But thank you so much sounds weird - like I am acknowledging applause after singing a love ballad.
• Paris Gellar, Gilmore Girls
In a few days, I will say farewell to Addis, to Ethiopia, to the EBA, the UNDP and the life to which I have grown accustomed and at certain points of inexplicable lucidity, have grown to love. I cannot say that I have fallen head over heals in love with Addis, because to do so would be hyperbole of the highest order. At times, Addis has frustrated me to the point of tears. However, as certain as I am that Lindsay Lohan will never win an Oscar, I will miss Addis. I will miss our amazing landlord and his family. I will miss my weekly Amharic lessons with Ato Brahan. I will miss volunteering at the UN, my Saturday mornings with my students at Menagesha, and my lovely co-workers and supervisor (Ato Derbew) at the Ethiopian Bar Association. I will miss the fierce pride of the Ethiopian people, their strength and their perseverance in the face of what others would consider insurmountable adversity.
As I sit in my room and write what is likely the final post in this opus of a blog (sorry for being so verbose), the rain falls from the sky in a frantic burst that I have not seen since first stepping off the plane and touching Ethiopian soil back in August. The rain has been non-existent for the past 3 months and for it to return now as I say farewell to Addis, to Ethiopia, to my life here – well, it is like coming full circle.
At that precise moment in August when I took my first gasp of the rain-infused Ethiopian air, I was filled with uncertainty about my decision to come here, to start fresh, to leap from the lap of certainty, comfort and acceptance into the expanse of the unknown, the unclear and the unimaginable. Six months later, as I listen to the rain on the roof, I cannot say that I am any more clear or certain of anything. However, I am changed.
Never again will I look at a plate of food with anything but gratitude. Never again will I take for granted the love of a family and the security and comfort of home. Never again will I forsake friends who through it all have stood by me. Because in these past 6 months, with its intermittent water and its inconveniences, its amazing highs and shattering realities, Ethiopia has given me what life anywhere else in the world would not have thrown my way. Ethiopia has given me perspective.
As Paris Gellar (one of my favourite TV characters of all time) so aptly notes in the quote above, finding the perfect way to say thank you is not an easy task. I am prone to gushing and by no means do I want to come off as a “singer acknowledging applause after singing a love ballad,” but to sign off and take flight without saying thank you to those people who have made my time in Ethiopia amazing would be tantamount to scraping the icing off an Oreo cookie and only eating the biscuit part. OK, sue me, bad analogy – but you get the point.
Over the past few weeks, as this experience has been coming to an end, I have been ruminating as to how I can possibly say thank you to all of people who have made this experience possible, who have made this experience enjoyable and who have made my time in Ethiopia truly unbelievable. To the CBA and CIDA in Canada, Al Cook, Jennifer Khor, Stephanie, Robyn and Asad – thank you for sending me on this journey with your experiences, support and advice to guide my way. Thank you to my friend Helen in New York who put me in touch with her wonderful friend Sehen and her family who have helped me so much! To my supervisors and colleagues at the Ethiopian Bar Association and Cheshire Services Ethiopia Rehabilitation Centre in Menagesha, thank you for teaching me the importance of giving generously with limited resources and of pushing forward in the face of enormous resistance with the inner strength that can only come from the commitment to a laudable purpose. Thank you to my supervisors and colleagues at the UNDP who have shown me the importance of international cooperation, respect and collaboration in the protection and promotion of international human rights. Thank you to my friends from Canada, Ethiopia and all around the world, who are calling Addis home at the moment. You have made me feel so welcome and made the past few months so much fun! Thank you to our landlord and his family for embracing me so openly and welcoming me into their family, making me feel loved and supported.
Thank you finally and ultimately to the city of Addis Ababa (new flower) and to Ethiopia for this absolutely incredible, amazing, tumultuous, frustrating, exhilarating and at times completely devastating 6-month love affair. This experience is beyond definition, beyond categorization and ultimately devoid of any semblance of clarity. It has been a mess of emotions, a mix of memories, a series of triumphs, an equal number of setbacks, and a book of images that I will not soon forget. Indeed, it is a book of images that I will treasure and remember always.
I am forever changed. I am forever humbled. I am forever grateful.
Amesaginalo.
