REVIEW WEEK –– NEW YORK – September 2007

More photos from review week are now available at http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/REVIEWWEEKNEWYORKSeptember2007





Day 1 – 2nd September

I started my journey to the Review Week in New York from Munich on Saturday 1st September and I was coincidentally on the same flight with Lisa and Hans-Jürgen two of the coaches from the program and so it was a warm and nice hello, a few hugs and lots of talking about the experience we have had as a team and also about my personal story – time was really flying…

I arrived in New York, in this unbelievable lively city and had a splendid day together with my uncle Abraham who picked me up from the airport. I have not seen him for five years and so we had to talk a lot. Sunday morning I then went with Abraham to my cousin’s house and I had the pleasure of meeting also Alan, his wife Kimberly and the two young sons. It is interesting with the Ethiopian experience to be more alert and aware of differences. One difference between Americans and Germans I learned from the young parents is, that in the US children are allowed to do/play with almost everything whereas inside the house in Germany there is much more of a culture of command and control over little children – clearly that has its impact for the coming years – not sure what impact it has had on me….

Kimberly gave me than a lift to Tarrytown, where we had our conference venue. She was very knowledgeable about this little by very atmospheric historic town in the heart of the Hudson River Valley and explained a lot about the rich Americans like the Rockefellers, who still have some mansions in this area.

THe Ulysses teams had scheduled their first informal get together around 5pm and it was great for me seeing all again so many weeks and deep experiences later. I hugged and kissed especially Katherine, Anne-Sophie and Ronaldo, the three Ethiopian team mates, (okay Ronaldo rather not the latter….). It felt very special to meet them again.

Then I mingled with the others and I heard very tough stories from Debbie, a Sydney Partner who was in India on a water and sanitation project, bumped into Darren, one of the three San Francisco partners and heared about his adventure in Mexico working on an environmental project. I talked to Kevin (also from San Francisco), who was in China working on an HIV/Aids project, and then obviously to Frank, my German colleague, who was in Uganda working on a mental health project. The energy bouncing around between all of us was amazing: we all wanted to share stories and compare experiences. This energy was multiplied exponentially at dinner when we met with all our remaining participants and coaches and instructors. I have never experienced a feeling of homecoming at a conference - it was a very special intense feeling. We greeted each other with heartfelt hugs and kisses. There was much joy in the room as well as a sense of anticipation about what would come out of our last week together.

At dinner we just went on with our sharing we talked far into our first night!


Day 2 – 3rd September

We started Monday with our yoga ritual (as usual) at 7am, followed by breakfast and our circle check-in process where we as it was the first morning after coming back all were asked to share our current feelings and emotions. It was a lot of excitement around

The program for today and the theme was very much one of anticipation and questions about how we would be able to maintain our current optimism and take our learning with us into the future. At the first session we put together our story boards and each team took 15 minute turns telling their story of the journey. We presented our story in our Ethiopian dresses and so did team Uganda and India - it was a very colourful morning.

Although we were in different countries working on different projects it was clear that we have common threads running through our experiences. From the connections we made with the people in the communities that we were trying to help, to the fact that we were all with our team mates 24/7 for two plus solid months, to the communication challenges we faced internally and externally and, for many of us, the icky sanitary conditions and difficult food issues. There were however, some significant differences in the way the various teams approached their project partner work versus their Ulysses development work. Whilst I don’t think Team Ethiopia has spent more time on our World Vision work than we should have I believe we could have been spent some more efforts on our Ulysses work. This week may be our chance to really focus more on some of the self reflection areas that we managed to over the last few months.

In the afternoon we explored with Anna – for the last time officially in a 5 people environment - in our teams about what, if we had our time over again in the field, we would do differently in terms of our team and project partner interaction, and shared it with the rest of the group. Interestingly, we Team Ethiopia were the only ones who thought that we should have spent more time working on the Ulysses piece of our project and less on the project partner piece. Several other groups felt they wouldn't have done anything differently but, when pressed, agreed that with hindsight more upfront discussion and coaching versus feedback would be good. Anna talked bout the concept of coaching by using a mirror that is, not coaching by problem solving but rather coaching by working with someone to help them reflect upon themselves and see the truth and a way forward. I fully understand now this mirror concept based on my own experience.


Day 3 – 4th September

During the check-in feelings in general seemed to have shifted from anticipation to more concern about how bring our new perspectives back to the office. Our instructors shared some interesting stories with us about their experiences in becoming better leaders and people and asked us to focus on "what is now, not what is not yet". We spent time talking about different techniques and tools to share our journeys with others including how to focus on storytelling and dialog instead of factual descriptions. Even more importantly, we talked about rituals and practices we could engage in to maintain our current mindsets and new skills. We walked though a process where we were asked questions and wrote in our journals about what we feel has changed within us, how it has changed, why, and what of these changes we wish to maintain most. In the afternoon Otto, who after the Foundation Week came also to New York taught us about a technique called 'Silence in Nature' as way to mediate, reflect and gain clarity. We were directed outside to sit e.g. under a tree and spend 45 minutes individually, in silence, without paper, visualizing our future and our current states and then looking at ourselves moving from one state to the other. I have to say this was quite new for me…

The wrap up meeting is being held in Tarrytown concurrently with the US PwC Leadership Team quarterly meeting. This afternoon we presented our stories to the US Management Committee and various Leadership members. It was interesting to watch their reactions to these strange Ulysses people who are just beginning to surface after a deep dive in the project. Words like love and compassion and joy don't usually feature in discussions with Leadership! Team Ethiopia presented to Dennis Nally, John Carter and Ken Cook and to Rick Stamm, Kelly Barnes, and Jim Henry. After the presentations we hosted a leadership dialog with Dennis Nally, the US Chairman, as well as the Canadian Chairman. We asked questions about how they thought we could best utilize the Ulysses experience in the firm, what their view was of the new direction of our international network and how we as firm are addressing the third element of the triple bottom line (planet). At dinner we continued the discussion around the firm's strategy around leadership, diversity and sustainability. We talked about how we could spread the benefits of the program more widely through the firm and engage our clients to a greater extent in the process.


Day 4 – 5th September

Today the focus was on diversity. Check-in was located down at the tennis courts and we soon found out why. After standing in a circle, and doing our breath in/ put your worries on a little white cloud practices, we were asked to engage in walking meditation. Yes, just when I thought they had tried everything on us! Walking meditation involves walking very slowly and with each barefoot step truly feeling the ground. Like a childhood game of statues we then were asked to freeze position every few minutes and form a human sculpture to reflect whatever emotion was running through our mind at that point in time. This all felt decidedly odd but, but actually was at the same time quite interesting and certainly different to what we usually do in check-in

Our next instructor, Tong Lui-Schraa-, (a Chinese born lawyer, she married a Dutchman, now lives in Holland, got another degree in economics there, did an MBA and now teaches worldwide about diversity) worked with us in helping us think about some of our experiences from a diversity experience. As part of our group experience a part of us was asked to share a story about diversity with and amongst our project partner - Katherine spoke up and referred to one day in Mekele, where Belay brought his view of the developed world society as being socially "sick" and Katherine’s strong emotional reaction to that. Responding to this story Tong told a story of the enlightened Buddha and a man who, after having violent verbal abuse hurled at him, decided to maintain his inner peace by simply deflecting it rather than try to accept it or reconcile the differences. Her message was that absorbing the views of other people is a choice; we can deflect certain views and opinions thrust upon us and remain at peace with ourselves or we can absorb them and be conflicted. It is a choice – I found it a very good aspect of dealing with this kind of situations

This afternoon I met with my coach Anna for our final session of the formal Ulysses program. Our conversations have really evolved over time and notwithstanding my initial skepticism, I think she has really helped me looking into the mirror and she has given me some tools to deal with what I saw then….

The evening we spent having dinner with the full Extended Leadership group from the US and I had a very interesting dialogue with a Senior US HR Partner about my Ulysses experience and what he believed is important for the US. During the evening Mona, an Ulysses alumnus and member of the Extended Leadership team gave a presentation about her Ulysses journey and a real testimony … I think that was quite courageous and I also believe some of her colleagues were quite surprised of some of hear clear comments she made around the leadership vision and personal commitment for change but we from the current Ulysses team quite enjoyed her speech.


Day 5 – 6th September

Thursday's focus was sustainability. We listened to Thomas Scheiwiller who is the Head of Global Sustainability (www.pwc.com/sustainability) and based in Switzerland (I truly wonder if I will ever know all the great things we do at PwC). This global group of about 400 people work with our clients on issues such as carbon emissions, child labour, fair trade etc. and look at how to pursue opportunities around sustainability rather than just trying to manage the problems. He estimated that probably only around 1 or 2 % of blue chip companies proactively think about the strategic opportunities available to them under the sustainability banner (versus just responding to the issues or dealing with disclosure requirements). What a fascinating area to be involved in! We spent the afternoon brainstorming around what we could do in connection with sustainability around our core areas of people, firm and clients. In my group we talked a lot about the firm side and how we could our organization involve in community issues, i.e. CSR based thoughts. Some of our ideas were pretty revolutionary and exciting - it would be an amazing world if we realize some of the ideas we came up with. And I believe it is necessary because he presented facts which should wake all of us up - this is one of them- "if everybody wanted to live the way we do in the OECD countries we would need two extra planets to provide the necessary resources already today." - I believe we have a huge responsibility !

Tonight we the third official evening in a row and had cocktails and dinner with the US Strategy Committee with the goal on answering some of their questions around the Ulysses program and exploring how our experiences and learning could be translated into the rest of the partnership and firm. I was seated next to Barbara Kraft, the US executive communications person, i.e the person who works very closely with the US Senior Partner. Also on the table was Ralf Schneider, the Head of Global Talent Management and Ulysses designer and the US Advisory Senior Partner. I think the dinner was again very successful a success in terms of helping US leadership understands more about the program and the huge benefits for the individual partners involved on the program, as well as the massive potential for the rest of the practice in becoming a truly distinctive firm.


Day 6 – 7th September

Friday was devoted to further developing our ideas around how to become better leaders, utilize our learning from the field and create support networks between ourselves. We went through many exercises to create concrete action plans for what we each want to accomplish.

Tonight we took a boat ride on the Hudson. With Friday night, end of summer and holiday traffic to deal with, it took two painstaking hours to get from Tarrytown to Battery Park. This was a very small price to pay though for the magnificence of the sun setting against the Manhattan skyline, watching the individual room lights blink on in the skyscrapers yawning against the river bank, the sensation of the warm September breeze blowing against the skin and, the deep sense of friendship, support, trust, and thankfulness that radiates from my Ulysses family. Somehow it is a sense of melancholy and sadness combined with a deep feeling of being close pulls gently at us but, for tonight, we resist and luxuriate in each other's support and company and enjoy our last evening together in this atmosphere and with wine and even a little dancing.

After our return to Tarrytown I even managed to challenge Ralf in Pool-Billiard - it was a nice draw - very fair - I fell into my bed around 1am to be ready for the final day!


Day 7 – 8th September

…. our final day together. We shared our personal leadership visions. Many common threads wound their way through our stories. Each thread, with a slightly different colored hue, created a very rich and beautiful tapestry. Mine was about the three pillars leadership, diversity and sustainability and about taking time to liste, respecting diversity and empowering people - The night before I had asked Hans-Jürgen the dialog architect to help me with my final picture and he created a masterpiece. A Mississippi steamer by the name of “Ulysses”, driving through the water in analogy slowly but steadily - the dynamic of the journey. The big wheel at the end is our responsible leader model we have talked so much about over the past weeks. It is very difficult to describe the emotions reverberating around the room filled with our pictures and drawings and, even now, I struggle to write about them without feeling like I am being overly dramatic. We each expressed elements of confidence and uncertainty, clarity and ambiguousness, fear and doubt, blind faith and sheer will, and joy and sadness.

If I was to write in really short words (not like this blog...), what the main message is I have learned from and during my journey and from other Ulysses participants it is:

BE INTERESTED NOT INTERESTING

This is, what I will take with me and will apply for my life!

Saying good bye was more than difficult. Nobody, maybe least of all me, wanted this experience to be over, even though we are all ready to go home to our territories and be with our loved ones, ready to put into practice what we have learned, experiment and continue to grow, change and begin to become what we have envisioned. As the others feeling seemed to be very similar the way we said goodbye was to say "until we meet again". Because we will. I believe that probably none of us has completed their journey and all of us need company walking down the road and guidance on which signs to follow and which turns to take.

And so the journey continues… while my blog will end here

... with mixed, joyous and sad feelings as I admit.
Posting these last three months has been at times difficult and did keep me quite busy, but sharing enhanced my reflective processes. I thank everyone who was with me for the company on a significant piece of my life journey and I hope we walk together again, somewhere, sometime…

God be with you on your journey wherever it takes you. May it be peaceful and may you find what you are looking for.

... and don't forget:
IF YOU JUDGE PEOPLE
YOU HAVE NO TIME TO LOVE THEM

Günter

ETHIOPIA – WEEK 8 – ADDIS

More photos from week 8 are now available at
http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/ETHIOPIAWEEK8ADDIS

Day 50 - 13th August

Today we were all excited as it was the first day of our workshop. We for the first time in 9 weeks dressed up in business clothes and I realised how challenging it was do have an ironed short still looking well after that long time of travelling....

Due to the devotion time of the World Vision staff we could only schedule the begin for 9:15 am and had to plan to finish the day by 5 pm – this is not what we are used to do in PwC when we know that a certain amount of time is crucial and we were not sure about the commitment of the participants… so when we learned about this we thought ‘this is Ethiopia’!

We should learn a lesson in terms of passion, commitment and discipline of the World Vision staff – After a introduction we started with a panel discussion which was led by Katherine and was made up of internal WVE management and external consultants. Our goal was to draw out the themes of our recommendations and get everybody on the same page with the same objective. The objective that we developed for the Business and Marketing Development department (BAMD) was:"The primary objective of the BAMD is to support WVE in its ultimate goal of achieving sustainable livelihood by introducing and embedding business and marketing concepts, tools and knowledge at the household and community level, encouraging entrepreneurship and facilitating market linkage."

During the panel we utilized two external consultants who helped the group understand how important it is for WVE to link in with other bodies facing the same issues to really leverage from work already being done elsewhere.

We then explained our findings around the internal WVE organization and environment, the external environment for the households that WVE is trying to assist and the demand and supply side issues.

After confirming that our findings were correct and getting more detailed input, we presented our recommendations on how to address the issues we had identified. We recommended that the BAMD focus on organizing the department, enhance the product selection, processing and marketing, increase knowledge and experience sharing, encourage knowledge enhancement and improve access to investment and working capital. The group discussion following this was challenging, not because anyone disagreed with the general concepts but because each person wanted to know exactly how to achieve this, and now(!) instead of tomorrow when the Action Plan session was scheduled!

After the day's session concluded we headed back to the hotel and spent a few hour brainstorming on the issues raised during the day and how best to address them tomorrow. Dinner tonight was at the German restaurant ‘African Queen’ (where we first went 10 days ago and met Asta, the African widow). Unfortunately, Asta was home sick and so we didn't see her but it was still a nice night.

Day 51 - 14th August

Tuesday was the second and final day for our workshop and much more satisfying for the participants, and therefore us, as we spent most of the day working on the "Action Plan". The Action Plan was focused on how to achieve the areas identified in our recommendations session and broken up between actions for the head office, the program offices and the area development program offices. The group discussion around this was very active and quite rewarding for everyone.At the conclusion of the program we each told a personal story designed to say thank you and good-bye. I told how I felt in our 2nd week in Ethiopia when I was sitting in a Toyota Landcruiser, waiting to start off to the coffee farmers coop in Kochore and the other six passengers in the car, which were exclusively World vision staff bowed their heads and prayed for a safe journey. When I asked Girma, the ADP Manager, he explained to me that this was ‘one (a prayer) for the road’ and a new meaning of the saying he had learned about 10 years ago – before he only used it for alcohol….

Interestingly enough Katherine shared the story which also had as the protagonist Girma in Kochore, who had made the comment to her that "these are all our children" when they were talking about the challenges to leave your own family to help others and how he had changed her view of what we were doing.

Tenenye, the National Director then concluded the program thanking us for our enthusiasm, commitment and involvement. She told us how surprised they all were at how enthusiastic we were, how hard we worked and how much we tried to learn about Ethiopia, World Vision and our desire to integrate. (She clearly has not met PwC people before!!!) She invited us to come back in the future to see the see what the seeds have sown ultimately produce here. They also conducted a group prayer thanking us for our contributions, blessing us, and wishing us each more love in our lives. It was incredibly touching. We finished up with a group photograph which we thought will make a nice gift to the WV team.

After the workshop Katherine and I took a side trip to the Cargo terminal to drop off items to ship home. I needed to ship things as I have a 50 kg baggage limit on my return flight and actually already collected 130kg !!! in total , which included a 12 piece ethiopian art china set and other gifts and fond memories for my home ….

I had done some research and determined that Lufthansa cargo was the cheapest option and so we showed up with our 3 bags/boxes and began to negotiate our way through the red tape. My bag weighed in at a healthy 80kg and Katherines 30kg. My two big boxes were only briefly x-rayed but the customs man insisted on pawing his way through Katherines bag and found a lovely statue she had bought as a gift for someone. It was of a man and woman embracing and his spent a lot of time analyzing the nature of their embrace and sharing it amongst all of his friends for their opinions. Two hours later we had successfully filled out all the forms and our belongings began their journey to Munich and San Francisco respectively - knock on wood.

Back at the hotel we spent several hours compiling the comments and feedback of the workshop and revising documents to give to Belay and his department. Dinner tonight was at Serenade, a restaurant we visited in our first week. The ambiance was still lovely and the food much better, although the atmosphere was quite melancholy as we draw closer to the end of our journey


Day 52 - 15th August

What a day. It is after midnight and we have just wrapped up work for the day. We spent a solid 14 hours today developing our presentation for the New York meeting which we also use to tell the story of our journey to our local offices, country management, friends, and family. First step was to determine what our message would be and brainstorm around the story. We developed a rough story board and then decided to divide and conquer and split up to tackle individual pieces. I took the element of our physical journey through Ethiopia as well as the technical part of pulling it together - It was interesting to reflect on the last nine weeks and really think about what we had learned and what we wanted to do with those learning when we return to our homes.

We went to bed way after midnight and I slept well until the priest sang….


Day 53 - 16th August

We got an 8 o’clock start today to work on our presentation and spent most of the day trying to tie together our story, with the photos and the music we have selected. We were capitalizing on each others strengths and so Anne Sophie and Ronaldo were working on the photographs, Katherine on the wording and me on the technical piece.

Later in the afternoon Belay came to the hotel and we wrapped up our World Vision work with him. We summarized the results and feedback from the workshop, gave him some suggested changes and issues to address in the Strategic Working paper and an amended Action Plan. I think he was quite pleased with this but was also sad that this was the end of our assistance to his department. While I think the department has a lot of work to do, and some huge challenges to face, they will potentially make a huge impact in people's lives.

Next we headed out to dinner with Belay, Samson and their boss Yigezu. They selected, of all things, a Chinese restaurant for dinner! Perhaps it was fitting though; we started the project in China and ended it in China too! It was a funny evening with lots of reminiscing and informal speech giving about how happy we are all that we were here and how grateful they were to have us here and what were the funniest moments and how did our experiences match our expectations etc. etc.

Tesfaye dropped us back at the hotel and as this was the last evening together in Ethiopia as a team we headed to the place we love to hate, the Zebra bar (Ronaldo gave it that name .- officially it was called the Duke bar) - to celebrate the conclusion of the Ethiopian piece of our project and our last night together for a few weeks. Ronaldo had booked his flight for Friday morning and so this was our last team hurrah. It was a sad evening for I believe all of us. We shared our experiences our funny stories and our fear to be ready to move but to be uncertain what would be waiting after this experience. Some of us shared their fear, of having not accomplished everything - I also don’t know, if I have accomplished everything I wanted to. In fact it is a process am still feeling very much part of and I am also feeling very sad that we are separating. I can not remember having spent such an intense length of time with a group and now feel very connected to them. We all said goodbye to Ronaldo and went to bed again long after midnight....

Day 54 - 17th August - TIME TO SAY GOODBYE

Today was not only departure day but also a much needed day of rest. We started out at 8:30 after breakfast with our driver – ‘Fish’ and headed to the Mercato. This was my second trip. A market like any other, but for the massive sprawling size, really muddy alleys and streets and Ethiopian wares. Next another art gallery, a stop for money, another art gallery where Katherine bought a painting and then lunch at the Lime Tree.The afternoon was spent at the spa- a repeat of last week with massages, facials and manicure/pedicures for all. It was very pleasant and we almost looked pre- Ethiopian by the time we left. Well, Anne Sophie and Katherine did. I still need some a few more hours in the spa I think. Back at the hotel, I and Anne Sophie packed while Katherine finished up some more on the presentation. We had at 7 pm a quick bite to eat upstairs and then there was time to say good bye……

Even the hotel staff was very sad to see us leaving and wished us well and wanted almost not believe that we headed off after such a long time with them. We piled in the car to take us to the airport. Katherine and Belay came with us and I very much appreciated this – Katherine, who was to spend another night in the hotel before leaving to a 2 weeks reflection safari. Katherine got quite upset in the car and shed quite a large amount of tears. At the airport Anne Sophie and I headed to the check in counter and Belay, Tesfaye and Kahterine went to join the line of people waiting to get through security as non-passengers. The line of tightly packed people, 5 deep, was at least a quarter mile long and barely inching forward. Tesfaye, God bless him, took advantage of Katherine’s tears and pleaded with the security guard to let the sobbing farenji through - and it worked! The airport was absolutely brimming with people and it was a small miracle they got through and we saw them again before we had to leave. One last watet be bunna yellum sucre (coffee with milk, no sugar), a few more hugs and tears on almost every face and it was GOODBYE to ADDIS, to ETHIOPIA, and most of all to our FRIENDS from World Vision.

Not only Katherine also Anne Sophie and were very sad and I did not ever expect to feel this sadness at the end of our time together. I feel very privileged and honored to have shared so many things with these three people and the partners from World Vision and for their openness, honesty, trust, compassion and willingness to dive deep into this adventure. It has truly been an experience to remember for a lifetime and to continue to reflect upon and learn from for a long time.

Anne sophie and I wrote a short email from the airport to Katherine to send a note of comfort and then were already called to the gate as one of the last passengers to enter the aircraft. The plane was half empty but we understood that in Karthoum the majority of passengers would join and that was indeed the fact – I hardly recognized the landing in Sudan and the start as I was soooo tired and slept very well until the next morning just before landing in Frankfurt - I had a short coffee together with Anne-Sophie before I embarked on the aircraft to Munich which started on schedule at 7:50 am. I arrived in my home town at 8:50 am and enjoyed first for the first time in many days the sun and then the arms of my better half at the airport….

12 days of reflection are about to start now!!!

thanks for staying on my blog - I will come back from New York, where we will have our review week

ETHIOPIA – WEEK 7 – ADDIS

More photos from week 7 are now available at http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/ETHIOPIAWEEK7ADDIS

Day 43 - 6th August

Today we spent the morning developing the agenda and preliminary findings and recommendations for our final deliverable - "the Workshop". Given the lack of office space at WV we decided to rent the conference room at the hotel and this proved to be a great idea as we were able to spend a solid five hours in the morning brainstorming with flipcharts and working uninterrupted. At World Vision we would have seen many people during this time, would have got tea served (which itself is sometimes a ceremony…) and would have spent 2 hours at lunch!

Belay and Sampson joined us in the afternoon and helped us refine the agenda and review the findings and recommendations. Belay and Sampson also let us know that the workshop had been moved up by another day due to participants' travel schedules. Last Thursday we were planning on holding the workshop on the Thursday after next. On Friday it got moved to Tuesday. Today, Monday, it got moved to next Monday. Errrggghhhh. We now have only 4 business days to prepare a day and a half workshop for 50 participants. All Anna's advice about making sure we spend more time on the Ulysses piece of our project (given that our main focus has been on the World Vision piece over the last 6 weeks) could easily go out the window right now.

After last night's discussion it was a very awkward team relationship day. We managed to put our differences aside for the day and focus on the project but it all felt somewhat unpleasant and by this afternoon there was a feeling that we could have happily said goodbye to each other... Thankfully we talked at dinner tonight and seem to have reconciled. Part of the reason things are so strained is because we are trying hard to coach each other on the issues raised in our coaching sessions and these issues are quite sensitive. I realized not for the first timethat this is one of the stretching experiences during our journey.


Day 44 - 7th August

Due to the tight schedule we had breakfast at 7:45 and planned another day working in the hotel conference room on our findings and recommendations. We had a much better day team-wise and created a lot of valuable recommendations.

Last night we bumped into Peter (the friend of a friend of Katherine’s parents, who we met in week 1) and over our dinner discussion he suggested we talk to Kristen, from Perth/Australia who is a lawyer working with Hope for Children, an Australian based NGO working in Ethiopia about her experiences working in Ethiopia. So, after dinner at the hotel (again) tonight, Katherine and I met with Kristen at the Black Rose Café. This café was the hippest joint we have been in all our journey and it was nice to be "out" somewhere. Kristen has spent just over two years working here and shared her very open and honest perspective of Ethiopian business culture with us. With our workshop utmost in our minds we asked lots of questions and she gave us lots of tips and tricks on running a successful workshop in Ethiopia (Make sure any findings are coached in only positive (never negative) terms, Make sure the most senior people don't participate in the whole workshop to ensure that the rest of the participants engage. Have a man introduce the discussions to ensure they are taken seriously. Make sure the women wear skirts. Be prepared to deliver an energiser (or we will be asked to give it - being a silly game or some other refreshing activity), Use Amharic phrases where possible. Don't be cynical or sarcastic at all). It should be an interesting workshop…..


Day 45 - 8th August

Another day of working in the hotel. The conference room was booked today and so we shuttled back and forth between the Restaurant and the Zebra lounge attempting to find quiet places where we could work together with access to power for our computers. Ahhh, the challenges of working in Ethiopia.

Tonight we went to Loti, a French restaurant. We were again the only people in the restaurant but our waiter assured us that this was only because it was 'Salsa' night and everyone next door dancing. Hmmm. A French restaurant was probably not the best choice for us to make for Anne-Sophie tonight who is very homesick and missing her children terribly. Our talk turned to the end of our journey, our flights home and what we would do when we get home….

The end of our project is approaching terribly quickly. I miss Sonja, my family and friends, my colleagues, Poland and Germany and my home but, I am still truly treasuring the experience and hoping I learn something new each day.


Day 46 - 9th August

Wow, I think the rainy season truly has arrived. I have never seen it rain so heavily for so long. Our conference room is on the top floor of the hotel and so we achieved the full audible impact of the torrential downpour. In between, thunderstorms our "singer" seemed to be especially passionate in his vocals. The "singer" is actually a group of priests that sing at the Orthodox Church about a block away from the hotel. They start between 4.30am and 5am in the mornings and go for about 4 and 5 hours, break for a while and then start up again at what feels like random times during the day. As is common here, the service and the singing are broadcast via loudspeaker into the church grounds and local area. We therefore have the great pleasure of being woken up most mornings at around 4.40am by the wailing and moaning of our local priests. Even ear plugs and two pillows over the head do not block the din. The length, frequency and intensity of the wailing seem to depend on which holy day it is. Today must have been particularly special because they didn't stop all day. This noise will perhaps not be what I miss most about Ethiopia. We didn't finish work until 9pm and so had dinner in the hotel at the Indian restaurant. The food was reasonable but it took two hours (and there were only two other people in the restaurant).


Day 47- 10th August

Today Friday we met in the World Vision offices to work with the team there on the presentation.
Dinner tonight was Korean restaurant Rainbow. While the night's special, sushi, was tempting at a Korean restaurant in land-locked Ethiopia, we decided to pass. Kristen had invited us to a party being held by an expatriate. There is a reasonably large expatriate community here and she explained that similar parties are held almost every week. We were told that the proceedings wouldn't begin until 10.30pm and when we arrived at about 11pm there were about 40 people. The house had been completely cleared of furniture, a dance floor set up in one room with music blasting from two huge speakers and a kitchen containing more liquor in one place than I have ever seen.

Within half an hour the house was overflowing and the garden was full. I soon discovered that the "lawn" was actually mud with a light green scattering across the top. Such discoveries happen when you end up your with shoes firmly dived in the mud.

The night was an interesting peek in the life of an NGO expatriate in Ethiopia and maybe Africa. The crowd was mostly under 40, about 50% black and 50% farenji and quite intense. At about 1.30am I continued on the hot Addis nightclub "Memo", while the other three decided that it was time to take their bodies home and to bed.

At Memos, which was recommended by Kristen I found her at 2:30am with her boyfriend and another couple and we spent some hours there. A lot of the young Ethiopian girls there are waiting for somebody to dance with and maybe more afterwards…. – I resisted and went outside for a taxi at about 4:30am. An easy task with approximately 50 blue-white Ladas all 20-35 years old waiting for customers. I took the second one who accepted my offer for the ride and off we went. We were not the only one on the street and most impressive for me were two groups of people I saw on my 5 minutes tour to the hotel. The first population were roughly 6 groups of in total 30-50 runners who were running at this time of the day through the streets of Addis at a very high pace – My guess was, that these were at least semi professionals if not the Olympic team… - the second population was the Church-Group. Many (uncounted) white people on the road and on their way to the Orhodox early early early mass…. – I’d rather stay in bed at this time….


Day 48 - 11th August

Saturday in Addis. After a slow start this morning, we headed out to ‘Hope Enterprises’. This is a small Ethiopian charity that sells meal tickets. The tickets cost 4 Birr (€ 0,35) for 8 and each ticket grants the holder one meal at Hope for Children's facility. As we continue to struggle with how to deal with the beggars in the streets that continually approach us, and the consistent advice that giving them money only exacerbates the problem, this seems to be a good solution. The very first ticket we gave to a boy begging to us through the taxi window resulted in a big smile. It is amazing that the charity can provide 8 meals for 35 cents, and I really don't know what is served, but for many of these people the smallest amount of food can make a huge difference to their day.

Catching a taxi here is a process of negotiation. Before even opening the door, one of us peers through the passenger window and first asks the driver if he knows where wherever it is we are going is and then how much. After bargaining our way to a mutually agreed price we all pile in. In the majority of cases the trip is about €3 for a 15 minute ride. Most of drivers want to know if they can wait for us and bring us back. It seems crazy to me that a driver would be willing to wait two or more hours for us to have dinner so that he could drive us back to the hotel for another €3. Either business is really, really slow or we are being completely ripped off. Nevertheless, the service works out well for us. Our driver this morning picked us up at the hotel, drove us 20 minutes to the Hope Charity, waited 45 minutes while we visited the charity and two art galleries, drove us 15 minutes to the Hilton to exchange some money, waited another 45 minutes and then drove us another 20 minutes to lunch. His fee: 80 Birr (€ 7,50). We made him very happy when we told him we had dinner plans tonight and would like him to drive us there if he was free.

After a quick lunch we headed to the spa for the afternoon. Oh my goodness what bliss! Katherine had spotted the place last Monday when we met Kristen at the Black Rose and suggested to the group this could be an excellent team event. We made reservations and spent the afternoon being totally indulged with facials, manicure/pedicures and massages. The "Boston Day Spa" was surprisingly sophisticated and quite busy.

Tonight we were invited to dinner at Alex and Brigitte's - the German couple we met last weekend and had dinner with at the African Queens restaurant. They live just outside of Addis in a large three bedroom house. They moved in 2 months ago but only received their shipping container last week and are in the middle of unpacking. Alex had only finished installing their "kitchen" this week - prior to their container arrived they were living sans fridge stove and running water in the kitchen. Their son Marcus (15) lives with them, together with Günter, their 6 week old German Shepherd Rottweiler mix puppy. As you can see from the photos we spent the evening passing Günter around from lap to lap. Little Günter, not myself – the big Günter….

It was wonderful to enjoy a home cooked non- injera meal; our first in over two months. Alex took great delight in sharing his extensive music collection with us including tapes, CD, LPs and singles. After a few beers, the sing along commenced with the great hits of the past such as "We are the champions", "Roxanne', etc. Brigitte was really sweet and showed us her collection of porcelain dolls. Some of these dolls were incredibly detailed and life-like and apparently worth thousands of Euros. After eight months of uncertainty and struggle in getting their possessions and setting up their bakery they are finally on track in their lives and it was really nice to see people so excited about their future.


Day 49 - 12th August

Today we had a morning to ourselves. This was the longest time we have had to ourselves in over eight weeks. It was also the latest I have slept in that time – 8:30am! I repacked my suitcase in an effort to determine if it all fitted back in together with my souvenirs and gifts. I was happy as I saw it did fit and that there was even room for more shoppong…

Samson had very kindly invited us to Sunday lunch at his house. His brother Israel picked us up at our hotel and drove us to Samson's new house. He had just moved into his first owned home when we arrived in Ethiopia and has been telling us stories every day about his hard work on his pride and joy. The house is about 30 minutes outside of Addis, including a full 5 minute drive down a rocky unfinished road. The house is brand new with three rooms, an external kitchen a back garden and nice views of the mountains. Samson has four daughters between the ages of 5 and 15. The four girls sleep in one small room in one bunk bed, together with their housekeeper. The girls seem close and no wonder given how closely they sleep! Samson and his wife have a separate bedroom, with a quite advanced Western bathroom. The other room is a combination dining/living room.

Samson's brother, Israel, is a radiologist and he explained to us how the education system works in Ethiopia and how doctors are identified. Broadly, the children with the highest grades are sent to medical school; there is very little discussion about whether the child wants to be a doctor or would indeed be a good doctor. The key seems to be attendance at a private school vs. a public government school. Israel is able to send his children, two boys and a girl, to a private school and believes that the difference in education is astronomical. The cost for one child is about € 320 per year. Being able to finance that would make an incredible difference to one of these children's lives.

Samson and his family were very generous to us; it was wonderful to see the level of engagement between Samson and his wife and his children, and with his brothers and sister in law. There is an incredible sense of pride and joy in their accomplishments and peace and contentment in their relationships. We really enjoyed our time with them.

At night we went again to the Serenade – a Restaurant we visited also in the first week and enjoyed again the atmosphere in this lovely place.

ETHIOPIA – WEEK 6 – LALIBELLA / GONDAR / ADDIS ABABA

More photos from week 6 are now available at http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/ETHIOPIAWEEK6LALIBELLAGONDARADDISAB

Day 36– 30th July

Our morning plan involved a trip to the base of the Simien mountains to see the Gelada-Baboons. When it quickly became clear that the entire 90 minute journey to the mountain was to be on a very, very rough road my still unhappy stomach rebelled. Curled up and lying down on the bus seat praying for the end to be near seemed to be the best way to pass time. We set off on our one trek along a narrow pathway clinging to the edge of the mountain. The views were spectacular - some of most beautiful mountain scenery I have seen. Wide open vistas of rugged mountain tops, dramatic cliffs and small pieces of flat land dotted in between. Several young men and boys soon joined us for reasons that would soon became apparent.

Within a short time our guide pointed out a group of a dozen or so baboons on a mountain top far below us. Hoping to get closer to them than a couple of miles we kept moving. Then - Gunshots - holy cow! Actually, no, just a regular cow. But, all of a sudden we saw men standing on the cliffs either side of us, waving long objects in the air. Our guide insisted it was OK and we moved on. Soon we arrived at the source of the shots - young boys waving 3 meter long whips in the air and cracking them with great skill to make very loud shot-like sounds. The local framers make these sounds to keep the baboons away from their crops and cows. It was amazing to watch and hear and sadly I think it was very effective because all we ever saw were the few baboons very far away on the mountain side. At this point Ronaldo thought the path was too dangerous to continue and turned back with one of the guides. Soon we were heading up and over the mountain and our "extra guides" jobs' began. I could now see how they understand their job description using whatever physical means possible to ensure that the farenji women did not fall of the mountain including full body grips and when possible and required both hands on farenji women's butts... (not on mine….) The aroma of a body unwashed for several months with arm's firmly grasped around me would have otherwise to take too long time to fade from my memory… If I am to answer the question what impressed me the most I would not go for the view (and that was absolutely stunning….) but for the smell – unwritten, unbelievable, unforgotten - those are the three "Un' words for this experience....

Katherine felt (again) already in the morning not too well, but managed the mountain route admirably. However, thereafter she had to pay the price and disappeared immediately in bed upon our return, from which she emerged only 17 hours later.
Ronaldo was also feeling tired and so remained finally only Anne Sophie and myself for an afternoon City trip. So we headed on shanks pony into the city, which is approx. 3 km away at the foot our hotel mountain. The first ‘stop’ was approximate after 500 m where we met a group of 8-12-year old lads, who had identified us easily as farenji and thus potential buyers of services of any kind. They saw me walking with the dirty pair of (mountain)shoes in my hand. Razor-sharp they concluded, that this pair was available for shoe-shine and offered their services. I agreed and we had waited in front of the shoe cleaner boys house. I can tell you it was not boring for us; The crowd of young children grew and I was spotted by a perhaps 7-year old boy, who said he wanted to be my negotiator (maybe expecting a commission) and wanted to negotiate the price for shoe shine for me (the shoe cleaner being approx. 15 years. On the shoe shine boys demand of 10 Birr (0.8 €) I answered indignantly that even in the city (we were somewhat outside accommodated) shoe shine for 3 Birr would be available and I would be ready to pay 5 Birr. 5 seconds and 6 m run later, my negotiator came with the message: "NO problem - 5 Birr is o.k.' at the end I paid 10 Birr and the boy beamed with joy : -)

Afterwards we went with two of the little boys further along the road along direction downtown Gondar. During our walk we were chased by many other little boys and girls but we told them , that they were only allowed to stay with us, if they were friends of our two small friends – that was never the case and this held us away from further attempts of approximation… We were led well and felt like a good team … apropos team we also spoke on our way a lot about football teams (not so much of interest for Anne-Sophie but the more for those guys). At the end we were gently asked if we could sponsor a ball. As we have seen their shoes during our walk we agreed to be sponsors but less so for a ball and rather for new shoes. That was very good for several reasons:: 1. the shoes were definitely for them, whils the ball might have changed ownership involuntarily into other older boy hands; 2. The shoes were something that they could use obviously urgently; 3. The 2 pair of shoes was around 30 % cheaper than a quality ball...

We went then afterwards to a cafe, in which we met with a group of young female students. One of these students was our contact person and the sister of Abraham, the World vision employee from Asossa. The other three girls were here best friends Speaking with them and getting to know their views was completely differently from what Anne-Sophie and myself expected and they had some very interesting opinions in particular over the fact that the youth of Ethiopia (to which they still belonged beyond any doubt as 18/19-old girls) is influenced too much by foreign cultures in particular western cultures. It was a good and deep discussion and Anne Sophie and me enjoyed that thoroughly. Around 6pm we walked back and tried to find our hotel ….. On the way Anne Sophie spotted a parking car with the "gtz" sign and a German flag. I went closer and saw the driver sitting in the car who immediately asked whether I was from Germany.... The driver noted, that within the next 5 minutes heavy rain would start and offered at the same time to give us a lift back to the hotel – We gladly accepted and asked him only for a ride to the shoe-shine boys and new shoe owners and their brothers and sisters, which we have promised to have a cup of tea together – they were really happy that we kept our promise and came for tea and we had a happy tea our with them. After tea they insisted to walk us home to the hotel through the pouring rain (about 1 ½ km) uphill to the hotel. But we were not on our own. All family members accompanied us except the aunt... and all became very wet….


Day 37– 31st July

Katherine was up and as our plan was to leave Gonder after some sightseeing we checked out of the hotel, loaded our stuff on the bus and headed into town. As I have decided yesterday we first stopped at the Shoe-shiners and his sisters house and the girls stepped into our bus and with them more smelly body odour - and so our first task today was to go shoe shopping. All three girls (aged between 14 and 17) were very excited and tried really nice shoes on – unfortunately pumps and the like… I as the sponsor convinced them (observer might have called that forced them…) to buy sensible shoes such as sneakers. All three finally found there pair and gave me a huge smile as we headed of to our next site - We visited the Debre Berhan Selassie Church, one of the most celebrated in Ethiopia. The absolute highlight was the ceiling painted with 104 Ethiopian cherubs all with slightly different, quizzical expressions. The church dates back to the late 17th century but already is in a sad state of disrepair. So much could be done here to save some incredible historical art works.

Having heard multiple horror stories about the flights out of Gonder (both plane and seat availability, we confirmed our flight yesterday and today and headed early to the airport to ensure we at least were allocated seats.

Three hours later. Unnnnnnbelievable. The official story is that there were mechanical problems with today's plane too. Yeah, right. Ignoring the golden rule of don't shoot the messenger, we questioned the nice man at length and determined that in fact they never intended that we would actually board a plane today. The "mechanical issue" is that they are still flying people out from various locations that were on the cancelled flight two days ago. They filled the plane on earlier stops and thus there were was no room for us even if the plane had landed here. The "messenger" informed us that we are booked on the 12:50pm flight tomorrow and that is more than 100% guaranteed! I asked him whether that flight was full already. He flashed a smile and responded "oh yes of course but we will push them off for you". So, so far, we know that they have lied to passengers for two days now, let them think they will be on a flight, let them spend 4+ hours at the airport and then said "sorry - you stay another day". Definitely some of the least professional conduct I have experienced.

Tonight we spent a couple of hours trying to get some more work done and, specifically, plan our schedule for the next few weeks. There is a lot to be done in a relatively short time.


Day 38 – 1st August

Gondor, lovely Gondor. The midday flight was delayed (not a good sign) and only two seats were available. So much for our more than 100% guarantee…. Several other guests were also jockeying for these seats, including a Dutch couple who had also been scheduled to fly out yesterday and an American missionary couple who were scheduled to fly out today.

Finally, I managed to use my gentle German powers of persuasion and mentioning that one of us was still sick to get at least two of us for “sure” on the delayed flight. I suggested however, that all of us should go to the airport and that there we should further negotiate and so we got in line for the bus to the airport. The Dutch couple explained that they were anxious to return to Addis as their child was sick in hospital with meningitis. Oh dear. Katherine quietly suggested to us that this was a very contagious disease and that we should be very careful. We asked whether they had been in contact with the disease and their response was -"Well probably, but haven't you been immunized?" Uhhh, no idea…. – if, it has been a loooong time ago! They thought they were past the incubation period but nevertheless…… The American missionary group and our team suggested that they could take a separate car to the airport while we went in the bus. It turned out that our bus driver was Negar - our guide from two days ago who was now recovered from his illness. The American couple later told us that they had engaged Negar as their guide yesterday morning! Clearly he was not really sick, just sick of only earning one guiding fee at a time! When I went outside to ask Negar how he was feeling- Negar of course insisted he had been sick and that the American couple didn't know what they were talking about. Hmmmmm.

Things did not look good upon arrival at the airport. There was no time specified for our flight and apparently only six seats free on the plane, with eight passengers waiting. After a couple of hours of sitting around and a few interventions with the Airport Manager we were motioned over and given the good news that we and the Dutch couple, were to get on the plane. The American couple were more than understanding about the situation. In fact they took pity on Katherines physical misery and stood over her, their hands on her head and prayed for her health. It was very, very touching. In the end the Dutch couple got on the plane too; I hope their child recovers quickly and that they themselves were never infected.

Today also our Coach Anna has arrived who will stay for 3 days and we met her for dinner. It was a rather short dinner as we were really very tired and happy to go to bed.


Day 39 - 2nd August

We got up relatively early and apparently after another terrible night with her stomach it was time for Katherine to give in and go to the doctor… - she is a little stubborn. Actually the process in the hospital she went to was amazingly fast. She paid 40 Birr consultation fee (Euro 3,30) and after 2 hours the verdict was delivered. As suspected, a blood bacterial infection. Antibiotics should fix it. Meanwhile Anne-Sophie, Ronaldo and myself had started with Anna in our, three days/condensed into two, coaching session. We spent the afternoon with Samson and Belay working with coaching questions with Anna designed to help us think about our various points of view on sustainability, leadership and diversity. It was really interesting to hear the thoughts of our WV partners. It might be that this experience has been as eye opening for them as for us on the diversity issues, although from perhaps a different angle. We have become very used to working in groups of diverse people and have an appreciation of just how valuable different perspectives can be in enhancing the group's collective output. This is however a newer concept for them and they have been impressed in how such a diverse group can work in harmony with trust and openness. It was a great discussion.

For dinner night we went to a traditional Ethiopian restaurant Habeesha which featured traditional music and dancing. As we entered the doorman greeted us in an "authentic" American accent and the intensity of Ethiopian-ness of the décor, the western dress of the local crowd, and the waitress's explanation to us of Injera and Wat, could only promise a very cheesy evening. Fortunately, first impressions were not accurate. The traditional music was ok and at a soothing volume, something we had not yet experienced in Ethiopia (all music, television programmes, praying, chanting, wailing has been at ear splitting levels thus far). The food was good and the evening fun. The classic line of the evening was between Ronaldo and myself. Ronaldo pointed to one of the various unidentifiable pieces of meat and sauce piled onto the collective injera plate and asked "What is that?" I responded "Wat". "No, no…" protested Ronaldo.. "No, really” I said, “Wat", with a deadpan face. OK. Maybe you had to be there….. And, it would also help to know that Wat is a dish - often chicken in spicy sauce.


Day 40 - 3rd August

Friday was our group coaching day where Anna worked with us as a group on how we are progressing collectively. We started with an exercise where we each wrote down on a piece of paper what we appreciated about each of our team mates and then what we thought their developmental areas were. After about 20 minutes of contemplation, pen chewing, and fingernail tapping, we took turns being the "subject of discussion". So, for example, we started by Anne-Sophie telling Ronaldo what she valued about him and then Katherine and I did the same. Ronaldo then responded with his thoughts on our comments. Next Anne-Sophie told Ronaldo what she thought his developmental areas were and Katherine and I followed.

This was a really tough thing to do. We have now spent seven weeks basically living and working together and have another two to go. We like each other but all have our pluses and minuses and want to be constructive in our comments. It was an interesting morning. Apparently I need to be more thoughtful with some of my comments and interactions with people (teacher-style…) More work to be done there!

We took Anna to Restaurant Castellli and enjoyed decent pasta and terrible wine…


Day 41 - 4th August

Today was Saturday but due to the shortened workdays (late arrival ….) our individual coaching day and so we met at 8am for breakfast and then got to work. Each person spent one hour meeting alone with Anna while the other three people worked on various projects like figuring out a schedule next week that would enable us to get everything done for WV and catch up on the Ulysses development projects that we are sadly behind on.

My session focused on me and working in our team and has given me a lot to think about – more in less public places…

This afternoon we visited a friend of World Vision's - Salem. Salem and her husband are buyers of high end local products and are looking at creating an export market. The merchandise they had was overall the best quality I have seen in Ethiopia and I bought some beautiful items.

We bid Anna a fond farewell at the airport. On the one hand I was glad that we will be seeing her in less than a month in New York and on the other, sad that we are getting so close to the end of our journey.

As seems to be a daily event, I met more Germans this morning. These ones were part of a documentary crew from Germany that is making a film called "Live your Dream". The subject was the life of a couple who have chosen to immigrate to Ethiopia to open a bakery. The couple invited us to dinner at the "African Queens" restaurant. Brigitte and Alex are from a small village in Baden-Württemberg in Germany, have had relatively difficult lives and saw limited opportunities to improve their lot in life. As a result, Alex, who is a Master Baker, perused his profession's website for partnership opportunities in other countries to open a bakery. After considering opportunities in Canada, Turkey and Ethiopia, and deciding the Canadian emigration process was too difficult, they settled upon Turkey. After several months of negotiation and planning with their Turkish partners, literally the day before they shipped their possessions and boarding the plane, the partners withdrew the financing. Suddenly they were back to square one and Ethiopia looked verrrrrryyy attractive.

Eight months ago Alex and Brigitte repacked all their belongings in a shipping container and set off for Ethiopia. Just today, after eight months of bureaucracy, red tape and frustration they have received access to their container and so finally will be able to realize their dream of setting up a bakery. In Ethiopia.

15 years ago Alex and Brigitte met the African wife of Alex's uncle at his funeral in Germany. Two weeks ago Alex and Brigitte dined at the African Queens restaurant and as they were leaving they reviewed the guest book. To their surprise they found Alex’s uncles name there and who should now the owner and chef be? Asta - the African (actually Ethiopian) widow!!!

Asta was born and raised in Ethiopia and was one of the many refugees who fled to Germany during the Derg regime in Ethiopia in the 70s and 80s. Asta had dreams of becoming a doctor and a scientist but ultimately pursued gastronomy and became a chef. She met and married a German man and had two children with him before he died. A widow, in a foreign county with two young children and no family to rely on, Asta struggled for many years and ultimately decided to move back to Ethiopia with her children several years ago. Although 15 years out of Germany Asta spoke still a very nice German and delighted me with a German Sauerbraten (meat) with Spätzle (traditional local pasta)….. The meat was a boned beef leg, marinated in red wine, vinegar and raisins, and spätzle, a wheat based pasta. We rounded out the evening with Ouzo and meandered our way home to the hotel through the back streets of Addis, passing lots of interesting ladies of the night and their 'friends'.

Day 42 - 5th August

Today Katherine and I visited the Ethnological and National Museums. (We were both sick the day about a month ago when Anne Sophie and Ronaldo went there and so were in catch up tourist mode). The Ethnological museum is in the former palace of the Emperor Haile Selassie which is in the grounds of the Addis Ababa University.

We were both able to tie together many facts, stories, pictures and objects in the museum that we have seen in places all over the country. It was exciting to realize how comprehensive a view of Ethiopia our travels really have given us. The museum was organized into stages of life, birth, childhood, adulthood and death.

The childhood section contained storyboards of tales told to children to teach them morals and ethics including: sweet ones about lions and hyenas and clever monkeys and not coveting others possessions, weird ones about snakes and not telling lies and, very naughty ones about women's anatomy and the importance of sharing information!

Our museum guide, a middle aged Ethiopian man wearing a blue British racing cap, took great joy in explaining the evolution of music in Ethiopia via the bible. An instrument which looked a lot like a harp was explained to have one side representing the Old Testament, the other the New Testament, the bridging piece at the top depicting the union of the old and the new, and the 10 strings representing the Ten Commandments. The animal skin on the drums was said to have been used because it represented the scarring on Jesus' body. And so on and so on. This was all a bit a stretch for us and we spent several amusing minutes being completely irreverent and drawing parallels between the rest of the items in the room and the elements of the bible. "Look - it is a three pronged pitch fork - that must be to represent the holy trinity."

We finished up in the Emperor's bathroom - bizarrely part of the museum's exhibits and cordoned off - in all of its 1950's blue ceramic décor glory.

We then said hello to “Lucy” at the National Museum. Lucy is a fossilized hominid that is arguably the oldest human ancestor found. She is 3.5 million years old. 'tis good to be young. The National Museum is another example of a public facility that could do with some tender, loving, care. The paleontology exhibit was in the basement and to the side of the stairs leading down there was what looked like an archaeological dig - except that it was concrete and linoleum pieces being exhumed. Strange. …

We spent several hours tonight working on our "team story" presentation including selecting the photos we want to use (from our collective choice of 3000+!!!!!!!), some research on Ethiopian facts and development of the presentation format. After our intensive individual and team coaching sessions in the last couple of days, feelings were running a little high and we had an interesting and very painful discussion around roles, communication and feedback….

ETHIOPIA – WEEK 5 – ASSOSSA / MEKELE / AXUM / LALIBELLA

More photos from week 5 are now available at http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/ETHIOPIAWEEK5ASSOSSAMEKELEAXUMLALIBELLA

Day 29– 23rd July

Green vegetables! Oh the joy! Today we worked at the ADP. We were actually permitted (after the usual omelet breakfast at the only place in town) to walk to the office, a 30 minute easy walk, but oh so appreciated. The ADP manager Tesfaye invited us to join them for lunch at the ADP; an invitation we gratefully accepted. For lunch, injera, spaghetti AND green vegetables! Spinach and cabbage. It was a very exciting moment to spy these on the lunch table.

After lunch I asked the driver of the ADP motorcycle (Yamaha 250 Enduro) to let me try a ride… Luckily he did not want to see my drivers licence an rand after probing me I took a quick spin out of the ADP courtyard and went into town; I was taking Katherine, Anne-Sophie and Ronaldo each for a ride and we all thoroughly enjoyed slip sliding through the muddy ADP road, through the gates, past the amused stares of the ADP construction workers, whizzing down the streets of Asosa, the wind blowing through our hair and the locals yelling farenji, farenji as we passed. It was great!

In the afternoon we continued our Ulysses team session, explored where we saw leadership, how the diversity we have notice had impacted us and where we individually recognized elements of sustainability. It was a great afternoon and had a nice step forward exploring all these areas with our different eyes and impressions.

At 7pm for about 10 minutes we quickly visited the mango-paradise. Obviously a place owned by a private individual who wants to construct a resort there and has hundreds of mango trees at his area. Privately owned means guarded by a heavily armed (!) guard who only secures not ripe mangos …

We finished the day with a feedback session to the Business and Marketing Development Facilitator on his draft analysis and what we have learned in our time here. Primarily we had identified the need to perform some level of market review, to determine what sort of products are needed locally and whether the products could be made and sold profitability, before investing more money and time in training people to produce products such as bamboo furniture. Currently WVE pays trainees 15 Bir a day to attend training. The payment is meant to motivate them to attend training however, not unexpectedly, it seems that many trainees just show up for the cash and then do not fully utilize their skills upon completion. We recommended that WVE somehow obtain commitment from the trainees that they will utilize their skills after the training programs, perhaps through investing some of the per diem in tools or other capital contribution for the business. At 8.30pm we wrapped up and set off for dinner of yummy spaghetti. Again.


Day 30– 24th July

Our last day in Asosa. The sadness washed over me for a nano second and I recovered. We feasted on our shared team mango for breakfast and headed to the ADP for a final feedback session. Again our overriding message was the necessity of knowledge sharing - locally in the community as well as with the Program and Head Office and external organizations. Our flight was not until 1.45pm but our WV partners quickly sheperded off to the airport explaining that the airport does not have any x-ray screening equipment and thus all of our luggage (and bodies) would be subject to hand searches. Oh the joy…. So, two and a quarter hours early (and that for me – the master of efficiency when it comes to airports and check in times !!!) we arrived at the airport, first in line, to submit ourselves.

We also saw a few UN-cars (UNHCR) arriving at the airport, showing clearly the vicinity of the operations of the UN here- close to Sudan

The plane schedule is Asosa is heavily reliant on the weather. Planes do not land if it is raining or if the runway is wet (as it quickly turns to mud- see picture). We had been praying for several days for clear skys and there were, until we arrived at the airport. A large black cloud hovered ominously to the east and so we amused ourselves by predicting how fast it was moving and which direction. A Danish man told us of his adventures getting to Asosa where he got on a plane three days in a row, flew to Asosa and was turned back before they could land. Luckily the clouds stayed away, our plane landed and we boarded for glorious Addis.

I had dinner arranged with Harald (yet another German working in Ethiopia) from ECBP (engineering capacity building program) a governmental NGO run by GTZ,. Harald has been working here for 18 months on "engineering” or as he said better “economical capacity building" and had some good perspectives to share with us. It was an early night as we had traveled for much of the day and had an early start planned for the next day.

I did not have Spaghetti !!!


Day 31– 25th July

5am. iiiiiiiihhhhhhh
This morning we flew to Mekele, the capital town of the Tigray Region and located in the North of Ethiopia, quite close to the Eritrea border. This will be one of our last field visits and we are back with Belay who has returned from London. We renegotiated a 6.15am airport arrival (over the originally suggested 5:30am) and this proved to be perfect timing, with time even for a quick coffee before boarding the 7.20 flight.

After a smooth flight we arrived in Mekele just after 9am and spent an hour or so waiting for the WV driver to pick us up. We arrived at the Axum hotel and spent another 2 hours waiting for our hotel room to be ready. The alternative flight of 1pm would have made much more sense but the WV communications department who booked this flight didn't anticipate this in their original booking and the 1pm flight was full. Anyway. We concluded "This is Ethiopia" as our phrase for these occasions is.

After lunch at the hotel we paid a visit to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) museum. This is the political party currently in power but the museum celebrates their fight against the Derg in the 70's, 80's and 90's when hundred's of thousands of people were killed and the country was at, perhaps, it's most tormented. The building itself was a little over ten years old and quite impressive looking, on a hill overlooking the city. The building was funded by public donations and, in such a poor community, was quite incongruous in its newness and sophistication. The inside though, and the "exhibits", could perhaps have put together with more planning and pride. Sadly, this is a common problem. The Ethiopian people have struggled so long just to survive that quality is a secondary (at best) value. This attitude permeates everything and on a daily basis is shocking. For four people who have spent the last 16 to 20 years being part of the PwC culture where quality is an overriding value, it is jarring to see the lack of care, of long term planning or commitment and the wasted resources. It seems as if it would be such an easy thing to make this museum shine and to reflect the importance of this part of the country's history, unfortunately however, these people have more pressing issues to address.

At 2pm we went to the Mekel Program office and found it under construction (see picture….) no – just a joke but a good one, that we found the sign in front of this building the real office was the house next to that one.... - So we met with the Mekele Program Office representatives who told us about their 5 ADPs and the challenges faced by the local communities. Their biggest potential product is honey which is apparently a really high quality one and they are beginning to produce a reasonable quantity and obtaining a decent price ($5 per kg). Notwithstanding this, food security is a major issue for them. For 5 months a year (outside harvest time) these farmers survive on 1 meal a day. I have decided to buy a glass of honey and to self taste the quality…

We had on our way back to the hotel passed by a Starbucks coffee-shop which we were desperate to try out – really impressive but I somehow doubt that this really tiny little shop in the north of Ethiopia pays any license fees or royalties to Starbucks

Tonight an early night at the hotel, or so it was planned. We have an internet connection but it has, so far, taken an hour and I have reviewed one message and am still trying to load "blogger" to let you – my readers know what was happening in week 4 ….

Anyway I will go to bed now – good night!


Day 32– 26th July (a special day...)

Some trucks passing by the main road in Mekele to which my room is woke me up around 5am before the first rooster could even think starting his work… and I felt there is something different today – right – it is my birthday and as far as I could remember the first one I celebrate in Ethiopia.... Since I got up early I had the chance to write these few lines before breakfast! I have not yet told the rest of the neither team nor Belay but I shall do that and I hope we can have a bottle of nice red or white wine tonight – mmmmmh…

Our first working meeting today was with the Wurko ADP Manager and learned about their efforts in setting up model farmers. Two men (both named Alem) have become quite successful, one in honey and the other in horticulture. Both men are fine examples of what is possible here with some dedication and creativity. – but after about 25 min I felt sick and left the room and changed into a horizontal level in our trusty Toyota… So the information content in the next lines is second hand information so no responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information :-)

Honey Alem has invested in modern bee hives (basically boxes) and is producing high quality honey that is becoming very popular in the local market. He currently produces about between 15-20 tonnes. Horticulture Alem has leased a piece of the town's former garbage dump (although not a lot of clean up has been done) and has begun to plant various crops. He even dug a well and purchased a water pump from Eritrea to enable a level of irrigation. He consults with farmers to help them determine what to grow and when and even rents out his pump to other farmers.

The group returned to the ADP for lunch and it was clear that my stomach got even worse so I retired to one of the ADP staff's rooms for a nap.

In the afternoon I felt slightly more alive and joined the others for a visit of two of the Tigraj rock churches. These churches have been literally carved out the solid rock and are quite sizable. At the first church the priest demanded an entry fee of 50 Birr per farenji. This was much higher than the 20 Birr our guidebooks mentioned and than our WV partners thought was appropriate. We trundled off to another church only to find that word was out and 50 Birr was the new rate apparently all over the Tigraj region. We did not try to verify with another church but coughed up the 50 Birr per farenji (free to our Ethiopian friends) and explored the inside of the church. I was actually treated by Anne-Sophie which I found a nice move for my birthday (but did not tell her of course) The church was in a terrible state of disrepair and required some creative thinking to imagine it in its glory days. Nevertheless, it was very interesting. There were several beautiful paintings from over a thousand years ago perched atop a couple of chairs and draped in old dirty sheets. I can't imagine these will survive even another 20 years in this non maintenance environment which is very sad.

By dinner I felt even better and suggested the castle restaurant. Together with us the PwC Ulysses team we had 4 Ethiopians: The ADP Manager, the driver, Haile Selassie, a knowledgeable member of the Program office in Mekele and Belay. We sat outside in the castle courtyard and enjoyed a view of the city and the gentle breeze. Knowing the different cultures and wanting to offend nobody with my birthday and my offer to have a glass of wine or similar I started asking questions about celebrations in Ethiopia - what do people celebrate, is it just religious occasions or graduations and do people celebrate personal occasions such as name-days and birthdays? The drinks guy finally arrived and I suggested that perhaps we should order something special to celebrate our time in Mekele. Yet, until tonight we had not consumed alcohol at dinner with our WV partners, respecting their view that alcohol is evil.

What I had not realized by this stage but afterwards being told , more and more amused glances were exchanged around the table by the team and our WV partners. And so before our meals arrived, I got a card with a bunch of balloons to the tune of "Happy Birthday” delivered. I was really surprised and excited of this and enjoyed the winde even more (althought I think this was a www = the worst white wine in Ethiopia so far…) After dinner Katherine went back inside and taught the waiter the tradition of lighting birthday candles on a cake. They were all quite fascinated in the kitchen. The cake was then delivered with another round of Happy Birthday and more smiles. I could not even extinguish the candles as apparently Katherine has bought the magic version, which ignited itself after I blew out the candles - It was a good and joyful night and I will have very fond memories.


Day 33– 27th July

Up again 5.30 am – Ethiopia is not for late risers…
We wanted to reach Axum today and not by plane but by car and apparently it takes 6 hours for 240 km – I concluded, that for the majority of the leg we will not be on something like a German highway…

We stopped in a little town for a quick breakfast. That town is only about 40 kilometers from Eritrea and had a distinct, desolate, border town feel. We enjoyed again the local breakfast with toast (cold, again) and many cups of coffee.

From the breakfast place we took a sharp left into a rocky alley that was, in fact, the "road" to Axum. Goodness…. Very quickly we started our ascent into the mountains on a one lane, mostly bituminized road with hair-pin and hair-raising curves. We encountered many buses carrying the locals between towns and our driver was in constant negotiation with the other drivers, jockeying for positions to pass them; often it seemed the passing involved one vehicle's wheels being perilously close to falling off the edge of the mountain. The views were spectacular; great wall of rocks rising up, carefully terraced hillsides with individual farmer's crops planted between walls of stones, vast valley planes and cliffs and chasms to rival the Grand Canyon.
The bituminized road quickly disappeared and we enjoyed another three hours of bone shaking, head bumping and teeth chattering travel before finally arriving in Axum. Axum is the ancient and oldest former capital city of Ethiopia (they have six cities which were capitals at one point of another). The city is reputed to have been the Queen of Sheba's home, although most of "her" buildings were built about 1000 years after she was alive….

We visited the famous stela which are basically obelisks erected over the tombs of Ethiopian kings. Again a local man approached us and after some negotiation we engaged him as a guide for the afternoon. The obelisks date back to the third century and were carved from single pieces of granite. The tallest was 33 meters. One of the most famous stela was stolen by the Italians several decades ago and taken to Rome and was only just returned to Ethiopia. The government is trying to figure out how to re-erect it and so, for now, it lies next to the other stela in three sad broken pieces. Most of the tombs were long ago ransacked of their treasures and now lie as empty underground caves. According to our Guide 98 % of the ground has not yet been investigated by archeologists… We visited the Queen of Sheba's palace (now a mere pile of rubble where the foundations were) and our guide attempted to paint a picture of what it once looked like. He identified a piece of stone that was supposed to have been her throne where she would greet visitors. I asked Katherine to sit on it for a photo but she obliged only to sit on a large thistle - you can imagine how quickly she got up. Yes, it was very funny….

At dinner the conversation somehow turned to a discussion of culture in Ethiopia versus developed countries. Belay announced his strongly held belief is that the social culture in developed cultures is "sick". His view is that developed society is sick because people do not talk to each other or value human interaction as they do e.g. in Ethiopia. I quite liked the very strong point and took it as a good start for an intense discussion about the differences in our cultures and societies and the pros and cons. Also Anne-Sophie and Ronaldo somewhat used this controversial topic and so we discussed the challenges of modern society and how the competing demands on our time and energy sap the desire to connect with people. Katherine however had difficulties with this point and would not want to compare the culture of Ethiopia's society to the cultures she knows and would not agree that it is a healthy vs. sick question. As the conversation went on Katherine felt more and more emotional about this and took it somehow personal. Belay felt not well with the outcome and apologized. I believe this is part of our diversity challenge and tried to speak to Katherine afterwards and believe/hope I could help a little bit

We went back around 10:30 pm and I tried to sleep immediately as the next day we planned to visit early the market and then leave for Lalibella!


Day 34– 28th July

Lalibela – population 21.000. What an amazing piece of the world's history. And how very sad that it is not truly valued…. Unesco has announced it as a world heritage site and has erected some fairly unsightly structures over the rock hewn around 12th century churches to protect them from water and light damage. The real damage though is on the inside - where the countless treasures from so many years ago are now exposed every day to sunlight, fingerprints and the camera flashes of countless disrespectful tourists (we of course respected all those treasures..). As a country Ethiopia I observe and it seems to me an incredible history to treasure and protect. As so often it is here, the "here and now" what is important and the future is "come what may".

Our guide was an interesting 26year old young man by the name of Anteneh (which he translated into Antonio) and a (non qualified) school teacher until six years ago. He is clearly talented in teaching and loves and respects children and also his famous city. Nevertheless, six years ago the government changed the rules so that teachers must be certified in order to continue teaching. There was no grace period and no training support offered. While quality control is important, the haphazard nature of the mandate completely wasted the talents of many people who had until now been making valuable contributions to the local communities. It put a lot of people out of work and resulted in a shortage of teachers – also this is Ethiopia...

After a quick lunch, we met Antonio and set off for our afternoon visit to the 11 churches of Lalibela. For an entrance fee of 200 Birr per person (approx. 16 €) we could visit all churches. The rock hewn churches were carved out of the volcanoes rock and took all in all about 23 years to complete. They are in quite close to proximity to each other and several are linked through passages ways and tunnels. We went through the ‘Tunnel to Hell’ (which actually was quite creepy) and saw the ‘Pathway to Heaven’. Inside the churches there are various murals on the walls and ceiling and some individual paintings (usually propped up in the floor with a sheet over them. A priest presides over each church and guards against visits to the sacred areas. Most looked completely miserable and, where it was possible to use flash for photographs, donned sunglasses. Antonio said that this was because they believed the flash would blind them. In the last church we met a very happy priest dressed in crimson robes and who smiled gleefully for our photos (no sunglasses…) and even shook my hand! He was truly different from all the other priests.

Shoes are not allowed in any orthodox church and the guides typically suggest that you engage a ‘shoe keeper’; someone who takes care of your shoes while you inside the churches. Ours, Abebe, was a lovely man of approx 30 years of age who clearly took his job seriously. At the end of our journey through the churches we asked our guide Antonio what we should pay Abebe. Antonio would not suggest a number but, in the back and forth discussion in our team, quietly noted that this man was only able to work about once a month. The local Tourism agency has limited the number of time any one individual can work during a month given the large number of people seeking the work in the town and the limited tourists. Abebe's deeply gracious acceptance was so sweet that I wish we had given him more than the 100 Birr (8 €), we finally decided on.

For a farenji, there are multiple opportunities per heartbeat to make someone smile in Ethiopia. The stories and warnings about beggars that we have been inundated with are a heavy weight. A blind child begs for something and in our minds we hear Belay saying that the child is blind because bad people scratched his eyes out so he could beg more effectively and that by giving this poor child money we are just encouraging the wickedness… - almost unbelievable but still something which happened/happens. We asked Antonio about this and fortunately he told us that this was not practiced here in Lallibella – what a relief!

As we finished our church visit, some of the children, whose questions were very standardised (‘how are you’ and ‘where you are from’) identified that Ronaldo was from Brazil and immediately latched on to him, requesting money. As all true football fans know, Ronaldo is a famous Brazilian football player. Not only that he is obviously also quite revered here. Ronaldo following his passion for soccer offered to purchase them a football instead of giving them money. All happily agreed and after the acquisition he was surrounded by boys seeking the signature of the famous Ronaldo – The real Ronaldo could have not more loved this experience and enjoyed it. Our guide suggested that the boys were likely to simply sell the ball for money. I hope he is just wrong with his assumptions!

We decided to have dinner in a local guest house – unfortunately it was there was no electric light and so we sat in a romantic candle light atmosphere enjoying a Castell (Ethiopian beer). Apart from the four of us only a young chap with a baseball cap was present. He was on his own and fully engaged with a laptop. An interesting


Day 35– 29th July

We got up as early as 6am and we attended mass in one of the rock hewn churches. Although it was an early start it was well worth it. The eleven churches of Lalibela are not tourist attractions for the people of Lalibela but rather integral pieces of their lives. The churches are gathered closely together and people filled the streets in between. The courtyards and passageways were full of people shrouded in their white cloth netelas. Some were turned facing the rock walls and deep in their own communications with God. Others crowded into the churches to listen to the singing in the traditional language of Ge'ez (which apparently is almost a lost language and very few people other than priests still use it or understand it). To my untrained ear the sounds varied between rhythmic chanting and wailing.

Still other people went forward to the pulpits to receive various blessings from the priests. Antonio carefully guided us through the maze of corridors and streets and back to the main courtyard when a huge group of people stood listening to someone who appeared to be the main priest.

It was amazing to see so many people expressing their faith in such disorderly mayhem. It is wonderful that the churches are used; I do worry though that, even if the rock exteriors survive and are protected from the environment, the people are quickly destroying what little they left inside the churches.

In the last church one of boys we had met yesterday gave me a small cross and although I gave nothing to him Antonio was furious! He chased the boy and threatened to call the police. He explained that this group of boys were troublemakers and a bad influence on other children. The boys apparently have convinced other tourists to "sponsor" them and are, as individuals, collecting monthly cheques sent by these people. This "sponsorship" is not through any NGO or government organization and it is kind of amazing that people would send and keep sending random money with no real idea of what it is being used for. He believes they are collecting about 2.500 Birr (200 €) a month - a massive sum of money here. If the boys were putting the money to good use I think Antonio would be more comfortable with it, but he sees them spending it in alcohol and cigarettes and "bad" women. In this deeply religious community this is obviously a very worrisome thing. This brought home again to us the challenges of giving to these people in the right way and doing it for the right reasons (i.e. to do it to actually make a difference rather than to do it to feel good).

On the way to the airport we stopped at a charity organization our guide is involved in. The organization ‘Love and Hope’ in Lalibela was initially set up to help orphans in the town who previously were abandoned on the streets. It is a fledgling organization and has no established source of finance. There are so many people in need here; it is very hard to know where to start. Antonio himself donates 25 Birr (2€) a month and there are some sponsors who give 50 Birr (4 €) and the wealthy ones give 100 Birr (8 €) per month. Great to see the care for the orphans. I have also discussed this with Antonio and he gave me all the details of the instituion

Next stop, Gonder.

We arrived in Gonder after spending 4 hours at the Lalibela airport. This is Ethiopia…. Gonder is the third largest city in Ethiopia with 270,000 inhabitants. The ride in from airport passed the military barracks, a university and the brewery! A stark contrast the undeveloped beauty of Lalibela. The Goha hotel is another Ghion (government) hotel (Mekele and Lalibela were too) and so we knew exactly what to expect- from the architecture to the bedspreads to the size of the soap bar. We engaged another guide at the hotel by the name of Nega. Nega was very business like (and appears to be quite successful based given he owns his own car) but not as passionate about his profession as Antonio from Lalibela was. His explanation of the 17th century castles of Gonder and the kings baths of Gonder was efficient but without any emotion or passion.

We came back to the hotel late in the afternoon and I tried to hook my laptop on to access the internet – the lady responsible for the technical device however could not really help and was difficult to communicate with so I tried the old and weary computer and had to bring a lot of patience and time….

When I passed on the computer access to Katherine and she answered her emails suddenly she heard - "Fancy seeing you here". It was Richard, our English chap from the romantic candle restaurant we had met briefly last night at dinner and then again at the airport. We exchanged our reasoning for being here and found out he is a brand value consultant, living in Barcelona and doing some pro-bono work in Ethiopia for a few days. Our flight today had been a leg on the daily round trip flight from Addis to Lalibela to Gonder to Bahir Dar to Addis. We got off at Gonder and most of the passengers continued on and so was Richard. At least that was their plan…. He explained that after taking off three times, flying for 20 minutes and returning back to Gonder three times the pilot gave up and the passengers were let go to spend the night in Gonder at the Goha. Many, many disgruntled faces followed Richard's through the door, including a group of three cousins (two Americans, one Ethiopian) who seem to have followed us from Axum to Lalibela to Gonder. Katherine invited Richard to dinner and we heard all about the trials of 5 hours on the Gonder tarmac and joy of being set free – this is Ethiopia……