Filed under: family
The school is just finishing. The stress of checking and chasing the kids to do the daily homework is finally finished for several weeks. It is time to go on leave, this time to Lisbon, where we have not been as a family for quite sometime. Most of our family and many of our good friends leave there.
It is dark again in the house, due to the regular power cuts we are having every two days. I had prepared part of the suitcases the day before (anticipating the power cut already), but the last items had to be found and sorted out with the help of a candle or a camping lantern. It is not easy to choose clothes with these sorts of light sources… One of us went out for dinner at night once with one shoe of each…
The suitcases were sorted out but the underwear of one of the girls was forgotten behind. Nothing that could not be quickly bought again…
I would resume the holidays into 3 main parts: medical appointments, shopping for a huge list of items (despite the nearly 150 kg of luggage brought a few items were still forgotten or not found on time) and finally being with family and friends plus keeping updated with work emails at the end of the day, necessary at this last few months of my work project.
The medical appointments ranged from vaccine preventive measures to regular check ups and dental repairing. For half of the appointments, it took much longer than expected. The day we had to handed in the samples from three consecutive days to be tested, we could not be attended due to a failure in the computer system in the whole hospital. We still waited for a while but it was off for the whole day. We wondered around the city avoiding opening the bag were the smelly samples were… Luckily the computer system was working later in the morning of the following day.
The day we managed to sort out our registration to be vaccinated, after being questioned why I had delayed the vaccinations of my kids for so long, we were told they could not give us the tetanus injections, they were out of stock… We tried several places but they were either finished in most places, pharmacies and hospitals or just reserved for people leaving there. I guess the global economic crisis is affecting many sectors (I had to go to several pharmacies to get 2-3 pieces of the same item that were often out of stocks)…Finally, a few days before departure we managed to have them done. It was quite a relief, as vaccinations are difficult (and I am not sure how they are shipped and stored here) to get in Ethiopia.
The shopping included various items from the usual clothes and shoes to special food items, car parts, violin cords, and off course books and toys. Medicines were also an important part of the items. The eternal dilemma of anyone leaving abroad for long periods of time: which spare parts to buy for my car (which and how many filters will be needed to change in the next year or two? Which parts are likely to break soon?), which medicines we will need for the next year or two? Which books would we like to read in the next several months? Despite globalization, there are still many items we can only find in a few countries.
It was really nice to see so many friends, young, old and not so old members of the family (ranging from 1 to 90 years old!). We spent very good moments with my little sisters, my father, and many close cousins and unties. Kids grow so quickly and it is great to see them (not as often as we would wish) whenever possible and learn about their new interests in life and achievements. The girls were amazed to be seating several times at very long tables and learn that absolutely everyone at the table belonged to their families. They are not used to that. We have often long dinner or lunch tables in Addis, but most of the times full with friends. Pity we could not see and being with still so many other family and friends due to the short time and so many urgent commitments (mostly the medical ones that kept us busy most of the days). Hopefully next time we will have more free time!
One of the highlights was the visit to the Zoo, that greatly improved in the last few years, becoming closer to high standards seen in other international Zoos. The dolphin and sea lion show is a must and as good as the ones we have seen in Florida last year.
We greatly enjoyed the yacht tour on a sunny Sunday along the cost to Cascais and even the freezing cold swim at the sea as well as the great picnic lunch at the boat. We got a bit nervous when two young Cape Verdian guys swam from the shore to our boat (anchored about 200-300m from the beach) and started climbing in without being invited. But luckily a cool reaction and calm conversation avoided major problems.
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- The sea
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- Cristo Rei
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- The port
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- The 25th April bridge
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- Monument to the Portuguese discoveries
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- Paco de Arcos
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- The beach
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- Other boats
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- Fort S. Joao da Barra
We were also happily impressed with the great surprise of gathering old friends while over-night in Holland on the way back to Addis.
It has been great to be with so many old friends we did not see for a while and feel like we have seen each others yesterday. These friendships are very precious.
Like everything that is good it feels very short… We are now back at home, with even worse power cut schedules: every other day no electricity from 6am to 10pm and the days in between no electricity either the whole morning or the whole afternoon… Our noisy little generator is just enough for a few items, often just swiched on when is really dark to plug the computers batteries and a few lamps (the inspiration for the title of this blog is still absolutely updated…). I just hope that the electricity constrains will reduce with the starting of the rainy season last week. It is often said that the short electricity supplies we are suffering are due to the low water levels in the water powered stations at the end of the dry season.
Filed under: life
A post that was forgotten to upload due to the holidays rush…
… My legs are hurting and I am exhausted from yesterday. This is the result of the garage sale I went as a vendor. This usually happens once a year at the end of the school year for people to sell items they do not need anymore and others to buy useful items they need. There are usually lots of used clothes, toys and books at very cheap prices. Many times there are very good deals with items almost new (especially toys and books). I have been going through the cupboards of clothes for the last few weekends separating everything (or at least a lot of it) we did not want or did not fit anymore. I separated good items that were still good to sell and others too old (only to give away). We had about 6 suitcases full of varied items. I had planned to sell items at very cheap prices (between 1 and 5 usd each) and give away to charity anything not sold thereafter. I had agreed with the girls they would help to sell the items that had belonged mostly to them, we would split the profit equally and they could use their money to buy new toys or clothes. This was also an incentive to really go through some of our cupboards (that were quite full) and make a good choice of items we did not really needed or use anymore (sometimes choices somehow difficult to make). We were all very excited to get rid of a pile of old/unused stuff and may be still making a reasonable profit!
We packed the car early in the morning and prepared a picnic basket as the sale was from mid morning to mid afternoon. We arrived there, with half of the other sellers already in place. We quickly laid out our items on the table we had booked, organizing piles of identical prices to facilitate the sale. I realized soon I had too many items to display in just one table. But the problem to have two tables was the need to have more people to control them. So I put the pile of clothes on top of the table and the toys, books and shoes on the floor and on top of chairs in front of our table.
The first two hours were quite busy but still under control. We sold books almost new, games and stuffed teddy bears. There were also new shoes nobody had used. The first priority was given to the school staff, students and families. Many of the security guards and students, parents and teachers made very good deals with our items. There was a lot of bargain and things were selling fast, especially shoes.
The rest of the crowd was queuing at the gate waiting for the time to get in. A few minutes before the scheduled time, the organizers come to tell us they were going to open the gates to the general public and we should be careful as they were many. The additional crowd came and our table was even more surrounded by people picking clothes, choosing colors and sizes and bargaining even more. At some point we lost control of the items. People where stealing and the pile were reducing fast in a big mess. The security guards that were around realized we had difficulties and came to help us. Suddenly we realized we were almost squashed against the wall behind us. The crowd had slowly pushed our table and we had no more space to move behind the table. We grabbed the pile of cloths and stop selling until we managed to re-organize the mess. My friend selling on the table next to mine offered me some help, but the best help I needed was to take the kids home as they were a bit distress with such a mess. We regain control and sold most of the few items remaining. At that point as there were only a few things left, people tried to buy anything else on sight, the plastic stools I was sitting on, the boxes I had brought with my snacks, the empty suitcases we used to bring the items…
Before I come to Ethiopia someone told me we could sell anything here. Thinking about this, it is true that there are not so many thinks available, but on the other end there are lots of shops with cloths and shoes (although usually only one item of each, and very difficult to find a range of sizes of the same item or color). Things have been improving through the years we have been here. I think the main difference is on the prices (but also on the unique items they find – like many of the toys no one would find here). New items are usually expensive. Foreign people usually tend to sell second hand items at very reasonable prices and people really go there to get good items for almost nothing.
We regularly have many items we do not need. Although we give away many of them to the maids and orphanages, there are times we have too much to give away and particularly sometimes items too good or too valuable to just give them away. In many other countries many of these items have no value at all. So this was a good opportunity to get back some of the money spent. We made the equivalent to 500 usd on the sale last Sunday. In fact, this roughly means that those items must have cost us at least 5000 usd to acquire or even more… This made me realize how much money we often spend and many times is wasted. Many of the clothes were only used a couple of times. This also makes me feel less eager to buy new clothes…
This usually happens once a year. So I am preparing more bags for next time. There are always things that are left and forgotten behind. I will try to be better prepared. It was quite a big mess but I think it was also fun and a great experience. I have done this before several times, but many times the amount we make is diluted as we end up spending buying items from the neighboring tables. This time there was no time to look at the other tables, so no time to spend! This was the first time I had such a large amount of (especially children’s) clothes and shoes. I think that is why was so particularly messy!
I am happy we got rid of most of the suitcases of unused stuff. We went back home with only one half full suitcase. We made some money that we can try to spend wisely and still have a few items left to give away. It was a good experience in many ways. I also know we were definitely partially robbed; I keep remembering items I had there, do not remember to sell them but they were gone at the end of the day. I wish I could have given them to poor people, but after all, I think the ones that took them must have been somehow also needed people. I just wish I could have given then to better people…
Just coming back from Mombasa, from a working meeting in a lovely and very comfortable hotel. Like one of the participants described, perhaps too nice for a meeting since there was so much to miss being in a air-conditioning room the whole day just feeling the sea breeze between coffee breaks!
Sad to see so many hotels and tourist places empty. It is low season (rainy season), and the global economic crisis (as well as the last year problems in the country) does not help.
From the work point of view , great to meet so many colleagues and get so much done in such a short time. It does help to meet people face to face and clarify pendent issues that otherwise can take weeks to be answered or resolved…Hope the momentum will last to get some more necessary feedback soon.
From the personal point of view, great to meet two old friends while waiting for the flight connections at the Nairobi airport and update the gossip…
From the tourist point of view there was just enough time to do short a sea safari over the coral reefs and a brief overview of old Mombasa and Fort Jesus (build by the Portuguese in the 16th century) before going to the airport.
The sea safari was amazing with what they called another type of sea cucumbers (one I have never seen before, that releases dark purple ink when is disturbed) but a quit Google search indicated more to be a sea hare (http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=seahatac). The anemone with small and very cute back and white fish protected within its ‘arms’. The colorful starfishes and brittle stars and the crabs with fur. The apparently poisonous sea urchins with small rounded small bodies and quite long and sharp dark spines. The most difficult part was to walk with our naked feet within the dark and dense seaweeds without seeing where we were stepping our feet in and having the guides removing some of these poisonous specimens a few cm from our route (and telling us how painful was the prickle from one of those needles and how expensive was the medical treatment to alleviate it)…I had a feeling that perhaps they were exaggerating a bit so that we would feel like paying them a good tip at the end for their safe ‘guidance ’, but who knows…
Fort Jesus was impressive (www.museums.or.ke), build over meters of solid hard coral reefs and nicely facing one of the sea sides of Mombasa Island. The small museum inside the Fort has beautiful Chinese porcelain pieces collected from the bottom of the shore from old shipwrecks from those times. Old cycads and baobab trees with more than 700 years old that were amazingly preserved since those old times until now (some people luckily already worried about preserving plant genetic resources that long ago).
Interesting to see the new recent trends with the airport road of Mombasa being renamed Barack Obama Rd, the Obama strawberry flavored bubble gum promotional campaign in town and the Obama Kikoy (traditional piece of cloth usually used by women wrapped around the waist with the Obama face printed with the map of Africa) walking around the busy streets…
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- Sea view from Fort Jesus
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- One of the Fort Jesus ‘windows’
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- Ancient Cycad in Fort Jesus
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- Portuguese wall painting in Fort Jesus
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- Wood carved door in Fort Jesus
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- Houses of Mombasa
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- Tough plants growing from walls
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- The hotel in the North coast
Filed under: Uncategorized
This is one of my favorite places, one of the best beaches I know. Just a few hundred km from where I used to leave, but yet so magical and difficult to reach. It can take sometimes several hours to reach, through white loosed sand dunes or muddy ponds that cover the dusty road from one side to another, that can make you 4×4 look like an amphibian and leaving it as dirty and proud as any Paris-Dakar vehicle…
14 years ago
The last time I was there was long, long ago, before any of my daughters were born, just after the peace agreements were signed (that ended more than one decade of civil war in Mozambique) and we could again travel safely by road. I remember like if it was today, that first time we went back to Ponta do Ouro after the war. The empty road and the expectative of an incident whenever we passed any military people. The few houses that existed along the road with the walls marked with bullets holes. And finally the beautiful beach completely empty; the dunes with green vegetation, the white sand and the absolutely blue sea with the waves rolling gently in a splash of white foam wetting our feet… The picnic we had standing at the back of our Nissan 4 x 4, eating really tasting schnitzels nicely prepared by my mother in law…
The urge to return
It just happened after a business visit to Rome, 6 months ago, when I visited some old time friends for dinner and they showed me recent pictures of Ponta do Ouro, where they are finishing a beach house. I just felt I had to re-visit that beautiful place, after so long ago. I have been dreaming about going back there and wondering how it looks and how might have changed. Many people complain that it has been invaded by our neigh boroughs from South Africa, with their boats, caravans and camping gear.
The preparations
This time I have decided I had to make an effort to go there when going back home for Christmas. I asked my mother to check for availability of rooms/houses to stay. I new the end of the year was the pick season of the year, but with a bit of luck if we would go just the week before Christmas there could be a chance for accommodation to be available. There was! Next step was to find a 4 x 4 for the trip, often one of the main obstacles. My brother had just bought one in second hand and made it available for us. So we were all set! We planned to arrive in Maputo at night and leave for the beach the next morning. My daughters complained a lot, saying they were tired from the air traveling (the flight was 2-3 hours delayed that did not help much) and did not feel like leaving again the morning after. I told them it would be worth. They were not very convinced and were a bit grumpy…We arrived near midnight and had to be ready again around 6am…
The ferry
The next morning the trip started with 1 hour queue to catch the ferry to cross the bay. There we sorted out our mobile cards for the telephones, credits to charge them, exchanging Rands into the local currency (MT), bought music CD’s to listen during the trip and started to be excited with the adventure. The (old and rusty) ferry takes a maximum of 12 cars at the time for a 15 minute trip. There were all sorts of cars: families going to the beach like us, trucks taking furniture or building materials for house owners or just cars taking fresh goods to the market for sale (and many women carrying baskets on foot to the local market across the bay). We were in our shorts and hats, ready for the bright African summer sun!
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- Cars at the ferry
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- Other cars going there
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- 117km rd for a 4×4
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- Crossing the river
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- Luxurious vegetation
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- Livestock
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- Outskirts of the village
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- Dunes
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- Beach
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- White foam waves
The road looked the same, red sand to start and luxurious vegetation on each side of the road. A typical tropical African scenario. There were lots of bumps and rough rides and the girls started to enjoy it. The view was so nice, so wild and jungle like, that was difficult to resist. It was the middle of the week and we crossed with very few cars and people. Very few new houses were built along these years. It looks pretty much the same. We stopped along the way to admire the birds and the wildness. We passed the elephant river, we passed the elephants reserve, we passed the white dunes of sand with the eucalyptus and we were almost there in the never ending plane scattered with wild palm trees and small bushes (that made a Portuguese friend of a friend declare many years ago that it was ideal to build apartment buildings!… we will never forget that awkward idea for such beautiful landscape in the middle of nowhere). But many years passed since our last trip there and many new alternative routes were open through the bushes (especially during the rainy season to find harder grounds), most of them leading to the same place, except a few…Like the one we took. Despite the GPS we were playing with and see what it would show in the map, we got lost… One must get used to benefit from these fancy technological gadgets… The GPS kept showing a strange pink line on the right end side. We could not understand what it was since there wasn’t any main road there. After a few minutes we understood. There were Portuguese names on the left end side and English spelling on the right end side…It was the border line between Mozambique and South Africa!… We were heading to the border instead of the beach (which is about 10km from the border…). Well, we passed in front of the border and got back in track. After a few steep rides over the very soft sand we arrived to the beach village.
The village
Here we could see that it had really grown since the last time we here there. Lots of new houses and markets on the outskirts of the village. The village itself had mostly old houses that were recovered and not so many new houses, except for the well taken care and comfortable tourist complexes run mostly by South Africans that now complement the one government Hotel that existed in the past. But actually, from the inside of the village one could pretend to be in any of the similar beach villages of the South (like Bilene or Xai- Xai), the same sandy roads of red sand, the same style of colonial houses and building styles, the same type of relaxed and friendly people and children playing, the same mango and cashew nut trees …
The beach
It was just the time to drop our luggage in the rented rooms from a family guest house and fit into our swimsuits and beach towels and off we went to the beach… What a spectacular view. Still the same blue water, white sand and dunes and green natural vegetation! We just switched between the cooling water and laying down under the warm sun until almost dark, day after day in those precious and special 3 days. Collecting sea shells with holes to make necklaces in future nostalgic days far away from the sea. Taking pictures to remember and show the friends. And dreaming about the day we could perhaps be able to buy a house there…
A glimpse at 3 cities (Nurnberg and vicinities; Istambul and Minsk)
Just coming back from 10 days abroad, on a short vacation to visit old friends. Often we travel to relax and visit new places. Diversity is expected but it is just human to compare and look for familiar environments… A few highlights:
Surprises
- Lack of speed limit on the highways of Germany.
- Did not see any policeman in Germany… Is everything monitored by video cameras?
- Very difficult to find a menu in English in the restaurants in Nurnberg.
- Dogs in Nurnberg eating at restaurants with owners and behaving very well…
- Villages in Germany almost empty of young people and very few old people in sight.
- Very few supermarkets accepted international credit cards in Nurnberg.
- Visa for Minsk quite expensive…
- The thick beautiful white snow in the Minsk fields around the city.
- The high quality of house finishing in Minsk compared to Ethiopia.
- 95% of the ladies seen in Minsk dressing elegantly and wearing high boots.
- Duty free at Minsk airport does not accept credit cards.
- Banks in Minsk open until late afternoon.
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- Tulips in Istambul
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- Windows in Germany
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- We could almost feel the ghosts in the corridors of the Rabenstein castle
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- Roofs in Istambul
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- Church in Bamberg (Germany)
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- Flowers and pumpkins at the Kamarovsi market
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- Dry fruits at the Kamarovski market
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- Snow in Minsk
Good impressions
- The typical Kamarovski fresh products market in Minsk.
- The cleaning ness of Minsk city.
- The amazing benefits (and sometimes also challenges) of using a GPS around unknown places in Germany.
- The beautiful countryside and old castles in Germany.
- Friendly attitude of Turkish people and willingness to help without asking rewarding (like it happens in Egypt).
- Turkish restaurants accepted to bring food to consume at the table (Mc Donald’s meals for the girls…) without any problem.
- The amazing thousands of multicolored tulips blooming on the side of the airport road along the shore in Istambul.
- The great (and difficult to choose) colorful glass ceiling lamps with mosaics in Istambul.
Similarities
- Cold but sunny in Southern Germany, Istambul and Minsk.
- I did not see any poor people in any of these places (something very unusual from one coming from Ethiopia).
- Very difficult to communicate (or even survive for a longer period) due to the barrier of language.
- Very few people fluent in English.
- Great food in all places.
- The joy to spend a great time with old friends.
Dislikes
- Unfriendly attitude of some German people.
- Unavailability of good accommodation in Turkey (perhaps due to Obama visit?).
New words learned
- Da, Spasiba, karacho (Belarus). I quite liked the Russian language.
- Something definitely interesting to learn if there is an opportunity…
It is mid December 2008. I just twisted my foot. I was coming from work on a Friday afternoon and was rushing upstairs to drop my bags, change clothes and go to the painting exhibition we helped organize. When driving home I was thinking I should perhaps slow down, and now this! Just what I needed, which such a busy weekend ahead with a table booked at a bazaar to sell cushion covers and little seedling toys! We ended up being involved in so many things. It is almost the end of the year; it is often a good time for reflection.
What has kept us so busy all these months?
Why I often feel I have no time available?
Is it because I have two little daughters? Many people have more than that…
Is it because I work full time? Most people do too…
Is it because we have a busy social life? Many others do too…
What else is there?
Looking back and trying to be critical I somehow feel we have an informal home based NGO (non governmental organization). We have not really noticed but we have sort of diversified immensely our small home projects and I now feel perhaps it is time to concentrate on just a few? But it is difficult to decide which one (s) to drop, if any!… The more I think the more I see so many routes we took and the various areas of action. I did not realize they are so many and so diverse…
Promotion of musical shows
– Senegalese band from Senegal – Bringing them every year to Ethiopia and starting to take them to home country too. Taking care of all bookings, accommodation, advertisement, show organization and ticket selling
- Blind musical band in Ethiopia – incentive friends to hire them for private parties
Promotion of art exhibitions
- Painting exhibition – helping a young painter to organize and expose his paintings made in leather and wood materials, painted with colors made of natural plant extracts.
art exibition
Tourism and accommodation
- Partners of a Safari touring company in home country
- Partners of a tourism boat transportation company in home country
- Hosting friends in vacant house in home country
- Hosting friends at home in Addis, when they pass by
Catering
- Promoting and tutoring home catering businesses with own staff – Teaching Portuguese/Mozambican/Goan dishes to home staff, helping to develop menus and price calculation and general catering services. Supplies to private cocktails, dinners, birthday parties and bazaars.
catering list
Promotion of local crafts/products
- Taking local crafts to friends in home country (fabrics, carpets, small wood/metal pieces, silver and beads bijouterie)
- Promoting beautiful semi precious stones nicely cut by a friend
- Financing initial investment (for local women handicap association) for the making of local hand made cotton fabric (Gabi) and helping to export them
Developing new products
- Designing locally made cushion covers made with high quality local materials (leather and cotton fabrics) and selling them at local bazaars and to friends all over the world.
Bright cushions
- Adapting little seed and soil heads (educational toys) with local materials (little green heads) and selling them at local bazaars
Green heads
- Making little match boxes or pieces of wood, painted or covered with fabrics and selling them at local bazaars
Social support
- Helping young shoe shiner to have regular weekly business at our house and friends
- Tutoring young lady with support from a friend abroad
- Raising money for charity promoting and selling some of the above products in local bazaars.
- Donating toys and clothes to local orphanages and schools
- Gathering each year a group of 10-15 friend’s crazy enough to walk 21 km through the beautiful mountains around Addis to raise money for children than cannot walk, victims of polio disease.
Polio victims
Monastery support
- Helping charity work at a nearby Monastery providing technical support to their dairy business, choosing and supplying seeds of forages and helping the acquisition of calves.
How did we manage to get so involved? And why? Is it because we might have boring jobs? Not at all! We both have extremely demanding and challenging jobs. This is just the way things happen, without any logic. It is just one more thing and one more good idea that is worth trying and then it just grows and grows. Nothing of the above was definitely planned, it just happened…This is how the last months passed during our extra time…
Filed under: Uncategorized
The road traffic is unusually reduced … a few cars are stopped on the side of highways. There is a shortage of gasoline in town.
Most private taxis use gasoline fuel. The petrol stations are blocked with the desperate drivers queuing for hours hoping for a few liters of this precious liquid. There is still diesel, but many queues are not so organize so the diesel vehicles cannot reach the diesel pumps either, creating some chaos.
Ato Tesfaye, a father of four, makes his leaving driving a little Fiat (blue and white) taxi. He spent 5 hours on the queue today, to buy 8 liters of gasoline (using all the money he had available with him). At night, takes a customer home and earns enough to go and queue again, to buy 4 more liters…
Filed under: Uncategorized
Last weekend was the Meskel celebration in Ethiopia.
Meskel in the Ethiopian Orthodox and Eritrean Orthodox Churches, is an annual religious holiday commemorating the discovery of the True Cross by Queen Eleni (Saint Helena) in the fourth century. It means cross in Ge’ez.
The Meskel celebration includes the burning of a large bonfire, or Demera, based on the belief that Queen Eleni had a revelation in a dream. She was told to make a bonfire and that the smoke would show her where the true cross was buried. So she ordered the people of Jerusalem to bring wood and make a huge pile. After adding frankincense to it the bonfire was lit and the smoke rose high up to the sky and returned to the ground, exactly to the spot where the Cross had been buried.
This Demera-procession takes place in the early evening the day before Meskel or on the day itself, according to local traditions. The firewood is decorated with daisies (Meskel flowers) prior to the celebration, and many other places are decorated with the Meskel flowers (normally blooming this time of the year, everywhere in the country side or wild bushes in the outskirts of the city). It is therefore an opportunity for business but a closer look at the real gains was a bit of a shock to me…
Donkeys carrying Meskel flowers early in the morning, into town (Addis Ababa)
Bunch of Meskel flowers sold at 2 birr each (equivalent to 0.20 usd)
Filed under: Uncategorized
This phrase struck me, written on a wall of a local school, in the middle of a busy road, on the outskirts of Addis Ababa…
It completely relates to the work I am doing know, trying to make a better use of the existent information about genebank management. It is sometimes frithgnening the see or just imagine the amount of information that is out there, and still so much ignorance and lack of use of what is potentialy available. This is unfortunatley so true in so many fields.
Filed under: life
It was difficult to keep up with the blog during these last busy period of holidays, medicals, work, traveling, and so on…
Back to the city
It is nice to be back to our old routine, despite the heavy rain showers in Addis, the cold heather, the crazy traffic driving…
- Seeing Addis street vendors struggling between the heavy rains and running away from the police (since most of them are illegal). They have a good system: goods are on display on top of a rug sac, tied to a plastic sheet of the same size (to protect from the rain), with knots in each corner, to facilitate the rapid puling and transport over the shoulders when police is around… Yesterday afternoon there was a particularly busy display and running exercise, on my way home from work…
Street vendors
- Also of great daily interest for me is to observe the thousands of shoe shiners around every block, once shoes really get dirty after every rain or stepping in the muddy sand side walks through the city. Next to them are now hundreds of fresh corn sellers, row or roasted, that spread a nice smell.
Road side shoe shiners
- Roads also change color this time of the year, covered with sand washed away with the rain, piled along the roadsides every morning by the sweepers of Addis, to be collected and placed back in the fields or just dumped somewhere?
Back to work
This half of the year break is always good to take new resolutions, trying to finish work or private assignments before the end of the year and make the best of the bad weather (at least at this corner of the world, since many of you might be back in the office wishing to enjoy the sun outside!) to keep up with any indoor issues left over from previous busy months.
I am just gaining courage to tackle those emails that were never responded by me, or (more importantly) those that nobody replied back to me, so perhaps after the holidays they will feel in a better mood to reply to the ISO or best practices of genebank management!?
Internet connections around here are still pretty bad, so I have to write this blog first in a word document and then copy and paste it. So double work…but still not giving up the hope for better days.
Trying to convince colleagues and friends to enroll for the second round of Knowledge Sharing workshop that will start early September and promise to be really good. Two of the organizers of this new course were in fact ‘advanced’ (participants that worked in the communications and knowledge sharing business and new a lot of the techniques already) participants of the previous workshops I participated (and learned how to use all these new cool tools, by the way)
Back home
Trying to manage and convince the house owners and the contractors to fix old wall infiltrations and cracks that just get worse every rainy season… Electricity failures due to damped fuses… Piles of papers, mail and bills waiting to be opened, read and paid. Trying to accompany the kids in the first days of school with so many new schedules, routines, missing old friends that left and eager to make new friends…Keeping up to new routines to care for the sick members of the family (one recovering from a planned knee operation and other recovering from a diabetic infected toe that had unplanned urgent surgery). Sometimes juggling to have some free time to watch a glimpse of the Olympic Games or just a movie!…
