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……

ETHIOPIA – WEEK 4 – ADDIS / ASSOSSA / HOMOSHA / URA

More photos from week 4 are now available at http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/ETHIOPIAWEEK4ADDISASSOSSAHOMOSHAURA

Day 22– 16th July

Monday morning and as Katherine was also feeling much better we had for the first time in 4 days a common breakfast. Good to be back as a team…. I had only tea, which is a sort of breakfast, but I try to improve my nutrition in the mornings to come.

This is the day Belaye went to London for his training – we are now closer cooperating with Samson for the next week or so. We met him in the office but unfortunately no separate room was available for us, so we sat together with 4 other WV employees in one room which made communication for us not really easy… Katherine did a very good job in further improving a draft document on the WV business development strategy which we got from Belay at our start. I was working for some time on the minutes of our last weeks meeting in Nazareth and I learned that also we took some notes something gets lost over a few days and we really need to do the minutes immediately after our meetings. But I finally managed and we both discussed the minutes and also Katherine’s improved document. Originally it was planned to have meetings with other NGO’s on their activities in the field of local market development but somehow that did not happen and we will ask Samson tomorrow morning to really take care of these meetings, as we consider them important for the project.

We finished at 6:30 pm and went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner as I wanted to still only eat some rice and that seemed the most appropriate place for that kind of dish…

I had a reasonable night and felt much better with my diet

Day 23– 17th July

Katherine was unfortunately feeling really sick again this morning (a nasty stomach bug and for Katherine that meant quite a bit of pain) and so we as a team felt responsible for her and split responsibilities – Ronaldo organized a hot water bottle, which is not as easy and quick as it sounds, Anne-Sophie supplied her drugs and me instead of going to the World Vision office I changed my ‘office’ to Katherine’s room and stayed with her for the day just in case it would get worse. It was a day off, as the internet was not working for me and Katherine slept fortunately a lot during the day, so I could do what Ulysses asks anyway – slow down and reflect….
I skipped lunch and had only dinner with Ronaldo and Anne-Sophie at 8pm when they returned from the WV office. They had worked the whole day on a presentation to be discussed with WV staff as well as with other stakeholders and produced some nice ideas and thought processes.

I hope Katherine will be fine tomorrow and can enjoy a sort of normal life…

Good night for now – it is 22:30 and I think it is time to sleep!


Day 24– 18th July

Got up at 7:15am and had breakfast at 8:30. Fortunately we were again accompanied by Katherine who we hope will now stay amongst us…

At 9:30 we had scheduled a meeting with SNV (Netherlands Development Program) who have according to their internet a lot of knowledge gained in the field of Business Development and Marketing in Ethiopia and in fact it was an excellent meeting with a ‘Marketing Facilitator’ by the name of Yohannes who told us about his last 18 months experience and the way how SNV operates in the value chain analysis and the lessons learned. It was interesting to hear, that even without a huge amount of funds and support (only € 8m over 5 years) a lot can be achieved with the right approach… The main issue here Yohannes told us is that Ethiopian people "Eat together, but don't talk". He sees SNV's role is to get people talking and sharing information.

We then went back to the World Vision office and discussed with World Vision issues from this morning as well as the presentation, which was prepared by Anne-Sophie and Ronaldo yesterday. We stayed and discussed until 7pm and left almost immediately for a restaurant called Aladin which turned out to be a farenji restaurant, at least it looked to us like one.

On my entrance I heard a guy speaking German and as I am not really shy I investigated further. It was a group of GTZ employees and interns who had a farewell party at this place. So in the spirit of getting as much contacts and information as possible I left my peers after dinner and decided to join the German group for a glass of wine …. It was an interesting discussion about the economy of Ethiopia, the shortcomings and opportunities of this country and so it was not easy for me to hear Anne-Sophie calling that a day and that our group was leaving…

Tomorrow we are off to Assosa (I saw four different spelling here in Ethiopia, so don’t be surprised if I use all four…) for 5 full days. Asosa is a small city with a population of approx 20.000. Asossa is located 680 km north-west of Addis and very close to the Sudanese border. We will be flying as the roads to Assossa are apparently too rough to drive on.

I am tired and I know I will sleep well that night !


Day 25– 19th July

As our flight was according to Samson not until 1.30pm we as a team agreed to meet at 9.30am for breakfast and to work on our journaling exercises until we had to leave for the airport at 11.30am. That was the plan.

I wanted to do some emailing before our leave so decided to be up at 7:30 and start the day early – that was a good idea as I prepared my suitcase, paid the bill and was ready for departure and went to the ‘business center’ (2 Computers), when Samson called around 9:27 and told me that the flight was 2 hours and 20 minutes earlier than expected – I immediately at 9.29 called my team mates and announced, "This is not a joke, the plane is at 11.10, we need to leave now." Ooops. Apparently, the WV communications people had not been very clear in their communications. Anne-Sophie managed quite well but Katherine and Ronaldo were running late for a 9.30 breakfast let alone an 11.10 departure. All three hurried up and raced downstairs to pay their bill - it took another 25 minutes… Each check out is the same and involves collating handwritten receipts of each laundry and meal charge, adding of totals, handwritten credit card vouchers, calls to Kenya to verify credit card charges and an excruciatingly slow printer. I have to admire the girl though; she completely kept her cool with four PwC partners and a frantic WV person breathing heavily down her neck under the very unhelpful watch of her unhelpful boss.

We piled into the car and headed towards the airport but just as we approached the entry of the airport Tesfaye took a sharp left and it was apparent we were heading to the office. What!!! Ahhh, the communications people had also not given Samson our tickets yet and Tesfaye didn't understand that he was supposed to bring them with him. At 10.50 we finally arrived at the airport and negotiated our way through the armed guards. Bags and passengers are screened and x-rayed even to walk into the airport and so as we are all lined up to get through this the ticket agent is telling us to "hurry up, we will miss the plane" . OK, I think we understood this already. Anyway, we raced through the airport and finally piled onto the plane which had apparently been kept waiting for us. Samson visibly relaxed for the first time….

The flight was 45 minutes to Jimma where we unloaded some passengers and refueled and then another 75 minutes to Asossa.

The Asosa airport was tiny and receives only a few flights a week. Guards with rifles were awaiting our arrival it appeared and photos are forbidden. I nevertheless managed to surreptitiously snap a few shots, although ended up on my butt in the mud at one point – don’t laugh !

We later found out that as Asosa is considered a border town for Sudan security in general is quite high. The luggage was unloaded onto a cart on the tarmac but we had to wait while the plane took off again. The ‘gate’ was then opened and we were free to drag our bags through the mud to the waiting obligatory Toyota 4WD. One side observation: Ethiopian society is quite strange in its approach to male/female roles. On the one hand, the women do the hard physical labour and on the other, women still are treated as much less than equal to men.

Asosa is very remote and there is still not an accessible road from Addis. The roads here are not bituminized and it was a bumpy ride into 'town". We soon arrived at the "Bamboo Paradise' Hotel. Perhaps paradise has been redefined…

As we check in the heavens open (over our paradise) and it absolutely pours! The gutters are flooded and water cascades through the various drainage moats around the rooms. We decide at 3pm that lunch is calling us and so set off on foot. Ronaldo and Anne Sophie in very sensible hiking shoes; Katherine, in completely useless mesh sneakers and me in my beautiful blue flip-flops and.

Lunch is recommended to be taken in a place which is a somewhat smelly empty restaurant. The only item in the menu today is injera. Perfect.; we all decided to go for the injera, thank you. Even better we had the shared plate on injera which means several bowls of lamb stew placed on a bed on injera that we all use our right hand to break up and sop up the lamb. Anne-Sophie, also not eating lamb normally did not show any larger concern and I don't think Ronaldo was feeling particularly enthusiastic but he seemed to enjoy the bread only for Katherine it seemed to be a home run…

The rain finally stopped and brilliant sunshine prevailed. Tesfaye, the ADP manager was busy in another meeting and so, while we waited, we strolled down the Asosa Main Street. The street comprised an interesting assortment of little shops selling shoes, ladies clothes, mixed goods and plastic buckets, and street vendors, including one man waving branches at the flies hovering over his pile of seven bananas for sale in the dirt. Donkeys waited patiently at the side of the road for their next load, shivering silently after the cold rain had soaked their thin little bodies through and through.

Katherine purchased a fabulous pair of sensible shoes in anticipation of our muddy foray into the field tomorrow. When we looked at the shoes we were not convinced these shoes are new ….

Our stroll down the street was attracting more and more tag-alongers - groups of the town's people gathering to stare at us, the farenji, and whisper behind their palms to each other on how odd we look and act. Tesfaye - the Assosa/Hoshumo ADP manager, arrived and we set off for the ADP. We met with him and his Marketing Development manager Abraham (a 6 month Econ. Grad) for several hours to talk about the intense geographic challenges faced by this ADP. Although the climate is relatively hospitable here with decent soil, good rainfall and adequate drainage, it is very difficult to link with the investors and markets given the remoteness. At one point we got quite excited thinking we had found the solution to their problems when they told us that the Sudanese demand for Ethiopian sheep was high and the prices were good. "Why not just breed sheep and forget the challenges of rotting mangoes" we asked? "It is difficult." "But, surely if demand is high and prices are good…" Eventually, - "It is illegal" Ahhhh….

At the end of our meeting we were rewarded with a magnificent sunset over view of the lush Asosa countryside, to the sounds of children singing in the next property.

Tonight we headed back to our luncheon restaurant where Samson had pre-ordered farenji-safe pasta. I can not remember having eaten so much spaghetti and bread so often in 3 weeks. It was actually quite good, especially with the addition of extra green chillies and berbere spices. We were ‘permitted’ to walk the 5 minute distance back to the hotel and enjoyed a sky sparkling with stars, including a very clear Southern Cross, which I have seen for the first time in my life !

We all said our goodnights and retired for the evening. Aaahhhh wonderful Ethiopia!


Day 26– 20th July

After yet another breakfast of omelettes and bread, at apparently the only restaurant in town that farenji can eat, we set off for our meeting with the Union manager in town. Before we tried to reschedule our Tuesday flight to Sunday but were left with little hope as the plane was apparently already fully booked. We were told to check again the next day….This took us about 45 minutes.

According to Ethiopian time management we were right on schedule, being now only an hour late… however, the manager arrived after us… zipping into the "courtyard" of the union offices on his motorbike. He looked less than happy to see us but after an hour of conversation he seemed to warm up to us. He described his very active union and the diversification of the farmers here compared to other areas of country. For instance, almost all farmers have mango growing on their land and as well as another crop, such as beans, sesame or oil seeds. Although mango is plentiful here and of good quality, the problem seems to be logistics and transportation. By the time the mango harvest reaches Addis most of it has perished. 1.000 mangos can sell for between 17 and 60 Bir (about € 1,50 to € 5). This obviously is not a viable business. The union is looking for ways to build a mango-processing plant here but the cost is prohibitive. The manager also talked at length about the challenges associated with the geographical distance, and the impact on prices and information that is shared. For instance, the local farmers recently had to kill many of their chickens as a result of bird flu scare - it later became apparent that the rest of the country knew about it and were taking appropriate steps but nobody knew in Assosa. The bamboo carpenters are also disadvantaged due to the high cost pf transporting their wares.

We then visited one of the Cooperative's, arriving into an eerily quiet village. The streets were desolate, except for a lone donkey and we were told that there was a village meeting being held elsewhere. Slowly some children began to emerge from the shadowy confines of their house and soon we were surrounded by giggling girls and boys. A couple of boys proudly showed us their three marbles and Samson and I engaged them in a game. Dressed in rags, playing with just three marbles and stick in the dirt, these little boys showed us some true joy.

We met with several members of the cooperative who told us about their progress and the challenges. The leader was a fascinating looking man; about 2 m tall, wearing blue medical garb, a white turban, leather boots about four sizes too big and lace less, a very fancy looking doubled faced watch and carrying a very precious red ghetto blaster. His face bore 3 long vertical scars down each cheek, as did several of the other men. We later heard that this was a manhood ritual for a tribe in the area and WV has been working to discourage the practice, with some success.

The cooperative deals with a huge variety of seed crops and also mango. Their ultimate goal is to buy an Isuzu truck (500,000 Birr about € 43,000) but they can't do that until they at least manage to be feeding everyone in the village. This will be an uphill battle for them. When we asked what we could do to help with their business and marketing plan, the response was not a request for money but rather a request to help them achieve food sustenance, i.e. so they can stand on their feet.

What was most clear today is that hope doesn't knock on the door here very often. Our visit caused great interest and we were viewed, I think, not with scepticism or cynicism, but with hope. Not so much hope for charity but hope for change.

We travelled later in the afternoon up a winding, very rough mountain road to see some bamboo carpenters. Children and their parents came running out to see us, waving and smiling. The way their eyes lit up when realized we were farenji was amazing and again, so touching. The views across the valleys to the mountains were awe-inspiring. I can see how God becomes much more real in a place when all you can see is what he created and man's impact is insignificant. At the bamboo group, we saw the same hope in the eyes of the local villagers; hope that perhaps we could bring something to their lives.

Late evening we walked through the streets in search of a phone to call Ronaldo's wife. We ended up at the government communication centre, again, a pre-Soviet looking building, with one phone that the operator used to dial up the requested number. Children followed us through the streets; occasionally reaching out to touch my arms and then dropping back giggling.

I then finally on my way not in a car but on foot saw a table tennis match and felt brought back in time and watched the two players in this environment playing. Soon I was spotted by a local guy and challenged by him to a match. He must have seen my eagerness in my eyes … I cheerfully accepted and soon we had drawn a crowd of spectators who were fascinated by a farenji playing on their grounds. Finally, in the growing darkness, the orange ball was lost and the match put on hold for another time… Katherine took a few pictures and the local boys were enamoured by Katherine’s camera and after each photo clambered to see the play back of themselves. Everyone had fun!

On the way "home" to Paradise, we stopped at the market to buy mosquito nets for Ronaldo and Katherine who had left theirs in Addis and then had to come up with some inventive ways to hang them. The hotel manager came in with a pair of pliers and some nails and, in typical Ethiopian style, began to randomly bang nails into the ceiling without regard to the dimensions of the net, or the damage he was doing to his ceiling (although admittedly, a few more dents and holes won't make any difference at all to the ambiance, or lack thereof, of these rooms. Some of the photos show the result.


Day 27– 21st July

The day started with omelette and bread at 8:30 and we then had another meeting with a representative of the local government regional Micro Finance Institute (Benishangul-Gumuz MFI). There is a fundamental conflict in roles with WV to extent that WV provides business inputs for free whereas the MFI would like to provide those on credit and develop a more sustainable business mindset in the community. The real challenge is, though, what you do with the poorest of the poor who don't even come close to qualifying for credit. The manager provided us willingly all answers to our questions and at the end of the day as there was no photocopier working also one page of the original of their loan and savings guidelines as this had the MFI’s objectives and vision on it….

Later we visited the local market. I will never think of farmers' markets in the same way again. This was not the Munich Viktualienmarkt or Warsaw Saturday market in any way, shape, or form. We were guided through the market, which apparently is on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Many hundreds of people, who were selling and buying all kind of vegetables, seeds and simple industrial products as well as empty tin cans, plastic bottles and empty bags.

It was hard to tell how big it was but it seemed we only touched a corner that seemed to stretch forever towards three others. At the edge were some low buildings, in the middle there were a series of stalls with thatched roves, the rest was an empty field where people congregated according to their wares for sale. At one end was the ox, cow and goat pen where the men stood around with their beasts negotiating carefully. Prices vary and the most expensive animal is an ox (around 2.500 Birr - approx. € 200). It almost could break a heart when a gout was sold and forced away from her mother or other relatives. It was often a fight which the gout could not win in the end…

The animal waste was steaming beautifully in the hot sun. Next door was the donkey yard, where the poor creatures were linked together, front legs tied down, end to end. It was a little awful to watch one donkey viciously attacking the other while a third donkey tried initially to defend the first and then gave up. Behind them sat the women and girls with their huge bundles of firewood. To the left was a grinding mill where farmers take their crops for grinding service. The lack of care in the measuring and grinding was terrible and the waste on the floor was painful to watch in such a poor community (even taking into account the amount that was scooped up from under people's feet and poured in with the cleanly ground product). Near them was the vegetable market. It appears our one and only restaurant was not quite telling the truth when they said there were no vegetables available. To the right were the various spices and chillies, taking up almost as much room as the vegetables. The vibrant colours of the women's clothes and the bright vegetables were in dramatic contrast against the mud and squalor. What was really shocking only three weeks ago - the sight of people crouched in mud, with their meagre produce piled in front them spilling into the dirt and animal waste - now seems merely to be business as usual.

We spent around 2 hours at the market, attracted many children and I was once more touched by the people I saw.

We had been hoping to fly back to Addis tomorrow Sunday given our formal work here is done. Unfortunately the flight is full (who would have thought, here….) and so we are confined here until Tuesday. Apparently everyone else wants to leave too.

Lunch was served in our usual place with the usual food. I am looking already now really forward to the Polish food with all its variety (bigos, pirogi, kielbasa, nalesniki hmmmm…)

As it very much looked like the daily rain at the end of our lunch, Katherine, Anne-Sophie and myself run to our Paradise while Ronaldo and Samson enjoyed another cup of coffee at the place. Feeling the first drops on our skin we reached the hotel ground and were safely in our rooms. Our two companions arrived approx 1 hour later…

We spent the afternoon working in the ADP. Although we accomplished a lot, it was more on an individual level and not as a team. With very short time in a formal office setting to get many things done where our time was not taken up with meetings (our first such time in 3 days) (including attempting to check emails at a rate of one per 45 minutes via ADP dial up) we managed to get through our to-do list, but perhaps not in the team and developmental way that we are supposed to be operating. We had a brief discussion in the car on the way back to the hotel but it seems also quite tough with the WV people around us all the time. I think I was not the only one frustrated tonight and hopefully we can rectify it is soon. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that we spend so much time in meetings, in transit and eating! With a set agenda and allocated time at our next opportunity to get some work done I hope we can make some progress.

At 8pm we met again for the dinner….. (for further information see yesterday and the day before yesterday) – you want to have more information and are to lazy to go back and checking- voila we enjoyed …. Yes, spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner at our restaurant (3rd dinner, 8th meal in row, but who is counting in this place….). We tried to convince Samson that we would pay the restaurant to buy some vegetables and cook them for us, but he insisted that the cooking method would not be safe. The menu for the 3 meals has been (and appears will be for another three days):
- Breakfast: - injera or omelettes and bread (not toast and no butter or accompaniments), with an endless round of Bunna (coffee) ordering with various returns of those cups containing 4 spoonfuls of sugar and requests for additional coffee to go into the cups of milk;
- Lunch- injera with lamb stew (just lamb, no vegetables), or spaghetti with sauce
- Dinner -spaghetti with meat sauce and piles of bread (no vegetables and no parmesan) and water or coke. Visions of potatoes, tomatoes and green vegetables dance before me….

We did manage to convince Samson that we would really like to go to the local church tomorrow. I am not sure he believes us but I truly do want to experience their faith and understand more about what keeps these people with so little so content with what little they have. We are now prepping ourselves for a 2 hour service (in Amharic and Omorian) tomorrow morning.

Good night !


Day 28– 22nd July

Breakfeast … and so on

Stop – there was now a change in the routine – we went to church. As it seems with all "meetings" in Ethiopia the start and end times are loosely defined. It was scheduled for 9 am we finally were picked up at 9:45 to find out that the church was only about 500m away…. We easily could have walked there in this time but that appears not to be the done thing. All four as a team for the first time to a Ethiopian mass (congregation: Assossa full Gospel Believers Church) together with the Word Vision staff Samson, Tesfaye and Abraham. To follow the service or to have something to read…our WV Homosha contact Abraham kindly presented us with our very own copies of New Testament (conveniently translated in English, German and French). It would be hard to miss the church- the loudspeaker out the front of the church pulsating with gospel music was a dead giveaway. We made our way inside and sat somewhat discretely in a pew at the back. The service started with gospel singing which lasted about 45 minutes. The emotion conveyed in the singing, handclapping and vocal calling (a little like battle cries) was palpable. Then the sermon started with one priest speaking in Amharic and another simultaneously translating into Omara; It was like watching one of those Christian revival shows, in duplicate. The sermon lasted a full 90 minutes. I immersed myself into my bible and read more of it than I have since a long time…. Just when we thought it was never going to end, people started to randomly get up and leave - with the priestly duo still ranting and raving. It is still not clear to me how the whole thing ends.

It was quite an experience as the two main impressions which left with me are the emotions, which people showed during the mass and the volume of the loudspeaker at the sermon…. we left half deaf, as the volume was insane; louder than most rock concerts. Our ears are still ringing.

We came back to our special Paradise and there we noticed for the 3rd time a strange thing – our waste, which we had collected the day before in our trash-bin was in front of our rooms in the garden… in my case that was only 5 airline baggage stickers and a plastic bag but as the Ethiopians don’t put there used toilet papers into the toilet and flush it (pipes are to narrow) we also found those things in front of our rooms – Ahhhh my dear Ethiopia – there I see room for improvement!

Lunch…. as usual

At the outskirts of town high up, a crop of rocks perch perilously on the hills. We spent a very pleasant couple of hours clambering up and around the rocks and taking in the amazing views of Asosa towards Sudan. We passed by a wedding. The bride was splendid in a huge white meringue dress and the bridesmaids in brilliant purple and red gowns. A group of ragamuffin boys quickly spotted us and followed us up

Dinner…. – no comments

ETHIOPIA – WEEK 3 – ADDIS / ADAMA / NAZARETH

ETHIOPIA SPECIAL...

After 2 weeks in Ethiopia I believe it is time to share some ‘insights’ and ‘good to know’s’ about this fascinating country - something which might be new for the readers of this blog
1) Ethiopia advertises with ‘come to the country with 13 months sunshine’. That is no joke , the Ethiopian calendar has 12 month with 30 days and a tiny little month with less than ten days, that is there 13th month…
2) to arrange for meetings you should better know, that for Ethiopians the day starts at 6am our time, i.e. 7 am our time is 1 am Ethiopian time…
3) if an Ethiopian bumps into you with his right shoulder, that is a nice gesture and absolutely fine – that is exactly the way they greet themselves…
4) Ethiopians do know things like fork and knife, but they definitely prefer to eat with their fingers and you are most welcome to do the same… best if you ate from the same plate !
5) the most important tool for a car is its horn – it is the gentle way of reminding other participants that there is something coming, which is faster then their donkey-carts and horse-carts…


Day 15– 9th July

Today we spent at the WVE office working on our notes and preparing for our visit to the Adama Program Office and ADP this week. We also managed to find very interesting web-pages about business and marketing in Ethiopia especially from other NGO’s who have apparently already some experience in this field. We will continue to explore further tomorrow

Tonight we went to dinner at Castelli, an Italian restaurant off the Piazza and. It is interesting driving around Addis. Street signs are apparently a relatively new addition to the city, but the English translations are often not spelt quite right and they are certainly not placed in the easiest spots to see. The Piazza looked like quite a hot spot with many shops, bars and restaurants. It was buzzing with people and we plan to visit there during the day another time to check out the shopping.


Day 16– 10th July


The night before we feasted on Antipasto and I enjoyed ravioli with mushroom sauce – maybe it was all a bit much, and with the addition of being back at an altitude of 8000ft, I was suffering from the effects this morning. I did not have breakfast…

Today consisted of another day in the World Vision office. We spent some time on the internet and found some very interesting information around organizations like SNV, GTZ and the EBDSN that we think will be quite useful in developing our recommendations at the end of the project.

We also met with Joseph from WV Australia. Joseph acts as the liaison between the "sponsor" office and the local office, in this case WV Ethiopia and several other African countries. Joseph grew up in Uganda but now lives in Melbourne, Australia. Joseph shared his perspective on Ethiopia's, and indeed Africa's, issues with business and marketing development. His view is perhaps more of a hard realistic view than the mainstream WV one. He described the role of cooperatives in Zimbabwe and the how they fell apart when the white farmers were ejected and the land was given to the poor black farmers who didn't have sufficient farming experience or education. He described the challenges associated with developing countries and the lack of awareness. His mother, he told us, plants seeds for vegetables but doesn't understand or appreciate the relevance/importance of planting in rows and or equal spaces. He described his concerns with the WV model of ADP's and WV efforts to review their appropriateness and the alternatives.

Unfortunately as I was still feeling unwell we decided to return to hotel for a quiet night. Katherine had just yesterday mentioned that all was well and that we could be grateful none of us been sick, particularly given the horrendous hygiene conditions we have been living in for the last few weeks… -


Day 17– 11th July

Today, Wednesday, I am thankfully feeling a little better and we departed for Nazareth, a large city (1m people) 100 km southeast of Addis on the road to Djibuti. It took about 2 hours through fairly intense truck and donkey traffic. We arrived at the Rift Valley Hotel, a dubious establishment on the main highway on the outside which turned out to be OK on the inside. Again, cleanish toilets count for a lot. Even a general malodour is acceptable at this point. We had lunch at the café next store and learned that the trucks thundering past on the way to Addis would indeed continue through the night. Fabulous news for the next three to five nights!

I met up with even more Germans lunching at the same place. The country is full of them! I was not fully aware that the country of my origin played such a philanthropic role in Ethiopia and am positively impressed. The Germans came to this place through GTZ (Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit) and had lived in Africa in different places over many years and had been in Ethiopia for about four years teaching people construction and furniture making skills. The state of construction here is shocking. Buildings that barely have a concrete foundation already look decades old. The newly completed buildings look like bomb shelters. They shared with me their deeply rooted frustrations with Ethiopian society and the generally lackadaisical approach to responsibility or entrepreneurship and the cultural resistance to constructive criticism. It is very important for us to get different perspectives on the local history, culture and potential for change. The challenge will be not to become disillusioned or cynical in the process.

After lunch we went to the Adama Program Office and met with Ashefani, the PrO deputy and his business and marketing officer Mulatwa. They spent a few hour talking to us about there experiences locally. Due to the proximity of Adama to Addis their challenge is not so much with awareness (they see the trucks thundering by on the highway laden with produce) but more associated with the variable environmental conditions (basically drought or flood). It became even clearer that we need the WV HO folks to share their background with us when we learned for the first time that they had received training 3 months back from USAID on marketing! They also reinforced how important the governmental relationships on a very local community level are in Africa. Much of WV efforts are around facilitating those relationships. Tomorrow we visit the Adama ADP and will learn more about their work around marketing of vegetables, in specific onions, tomatoes and green pepper.

We took a short drive through the "city" and found newly bituminized roads and tree seedlings planted in the median strips and evidence of the government's commitment to the city. Tesfeye drove us through a crowded street with market stalls lining the alleyways to the side. It would have been great to get out and explore but Samson was adamant that this was a bad idea and that we, as farenji, would be soon chased down the streets by the locals attempting to sell something to the farenji. It will difficult to avoid temptation and explore this without bodyguards (although naturally without money or other valuables). Katherine is, sadly, now feeling sick too and has a wretched sore throat and associated aches and pains.

I went to bed and had once more a fight with the mosquito-net, which was not really big enough to cover the whole bed, so it was all over my body and face – not very pleasant but necessary in this area and I finally fell asleep.


Day 18– 12th July

After a hot night under this mosquito net we had breakfast at 8 and had to learn that Katherine was still feeling quite sick and her sore throat had got worse. So we wished her well and left for the Adama ADP, which was only about 15 km from the hotel.

We met Berhanu – the ADP Manager, who has been with this ADP for 4 years. This ADP is apparently one of the oldest ADP’s in Ethiopia and was founded 1991 (European time…)

We learned a lot about their field of intervention. In BD and Marketing this is around organizing trainings in both agriculture and economics, organizing interest groups which could form a co-op and act with more selling power on any market etc.
We were again informed, that know-how, training and market access are considered main issues from the ADP point of view. I am not sure if that is all and if those are really the major ones but it is such a complex area and the background of the country with only little stability over the last 3-4 generations makes any change certainly not easier.

We then visited the vegetable co-op which only acts on the production site as a group with common interest (all members use the electrical pumps owned by the co-op for watering their fields). Harvest is three times a year and each farmer sells his products on a one by one basis as the co-op does not have storage facilities. We interviewed a group of co-op members and asked them, what they thought was most important to change in order to get the co-op up and running properly. They mentioned more than once that a storage facility would make the difference but they have no plan how to achieve that.

Our last meeting for today was with the governmental administration body responsible for the set up and ‘well being’ of co-operations. The government has a huge interest that the co-op’s can survive and get stronger but acts unfortunately only with a limited budget and man-power. They very much depend on NGO’s like World Vision to help them with their job, and for this ADP the co-operation between government and WV apparently works quite well.

At dinner we got Katherine to eat with us but she was not really recovered- we hope she will be better very soon - poor thing.


Day 19– 13th July

As we were very diligent the day before and concluded all our planned meetings we had the day for us and went in the morning in quite hot weather to visit some hot springs outside of Nazareth to enjoy a big swimming-pool with hot water. There is also a small pool only used from Monday to Wednesday, where as the water in this big pool is only there from Thursday to Sunday and then renewed. So we had the second day of this week for the big pool.. Apparently there are many weekend traveler to come to this place and I was glad that I did not face this hygienic challenge… I also went at this place for a massage which was o.k but not as relaxing as I hoped.

The only downside of this trip to the hot springs was, that Katherine has taken some drugs but was still feeling quite sick and she had to decide to stay in the hot hotel… - I can imagine that was the saddest day so far for her. As we did not want her to stay alone for a very long time we came back for lunch and then set of for Addis.

I was not feeling to well (again) and was not hungry at all so decided to do something for my diary and blog and went on my own to the Hilton to feed my blog. In the business center I was finally approached by a young Ethiopian woman, who misunderstood obviously my presence and instead anted to convince me to have (again) a massage. I had a feeling it would have been a different one from that I enjoyed yesterday and denied friendly but firmly….

I then went home by taxi and this driver by the name of Goncho was very business oriented and gave me this mobile number and offered his service throughout my stay in Addis.


Day 20– 14th July

I slept long and arrived at breakfast at 9:25 missing the agreed time by 25 minutes. Katherine was sadly still in her room not well enough to join us for a trip to the Piazza and the marketplace called Merkato. Apparently the two most lively places in Addis where the only concern normally should be to avoid being pick-pocketed...
So the three of us went there by taxi and left the car in the minute it started to rain. Not really surprising as it is the middle of the rainy season but I had my rain jacket forgotten in the hotel and needed to react… I have hardly seen such a massive wall of rain drops an we in the middle, so my first bargain for 30 Birr (2.5 Euro) was an umbrella and it was well invested money I can assure you. We tried to stay under arcades but it was not always possible and our feet and other parts of the body got their share of water. We went to different shops to help Ronaldo to buy a shirt of the Ethiopian football national team for his son but after about 9 attempts we stopped. I this huge market you can buy shirts of any European team and any size but not of the national team of the country you are in…

We had then a stop at a shop which sold Ethiopian hand made shawls and table cloths so I managed to find a nice piece and negotiated with the owner. He started at a price of 350 Birr which was much to high for me so I wanted to leave but he asked me to stay and taught me, that if he says a price like that I should of course never agree and pay this but place a counter-offer instead. That is how negotiation in Addis works he explained… I think I understood the lesson and left the shop paying only 150 Birr (EUR 12) for that beautiful hand made table cloth….

Finally we left the Merkato had lunch at the Piazza in the Italian restaurant Castelli (raviolini with mushroom sauce) and went back to the hotel, where we then had a team meeting (including Katherine who felt slightly better) discussing the first 3 weeks and agreeing on some routines going forward.

My stomach got worse over time and I for the first time took Immodium against diarrhoea…


Day 21– 15th July

Today is Sunday and due to my stomach issues I was not able to join Ronaldo and Anne-Sophie for their museum tour so I decided to write this part of the blog between my visits of the bathroom….

Not much really to tell you about this day in the bed. But I try to: I experienced an extremely unstable wireless internet connection, which gave me a lesson in patience I learned that 3 minutes to Germany cost USD 10 over the hotel phone but the connection is not worth USD 2. I realised, that placing an order for a huge pot of tee to be delivered to the room is not common here hence I did not get it…

more photos are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/ETHIOPIAWEEK3ADDISADAMANAZARETH

ETHIOPIA – WEEK 2 – KOCHORE / ARBA MINCH / CHENCA / SHASHEMENE

Day 8– 2nd July

Got up at 6:15 and we again left at 7am. There was an electricity blackout, so no power, and torrential rains. We arrived in Dilla a small village about 480 km south-west of Addis a little after 10am and stopped for breakfast. This time the "bathrooms" were unusable – that was at least true for the ladies in our team as they told me – Katherine said: “When you can't walk up the stairs to the bathroom without gagging and your feet are squelching in the sodden mat on the floor, it is not a good sign.” So Tesfeye drove them up to a pension where apparently the squelching still occurred but the gagging was minimized.

We arrived at the Kochore ADP around 11am and were very impressed by the lushness of the vegetation and friendliness of the people. The ADP manager by the name of Grima spent several hours with us explaining the history of the coffee cooperatives and the current struggles they face. Especially a lack of appropriate market access and obsolete machinery are apparently the main issues of these co-operatives.

We then started our short trip to the coffee processing area and when I sat in the Landcruiser (the 3 other farenjis were in the second car) and started to talk I realised that all other passengers were bowing their heads and were quiet. I then asked Grima what that meant and he explained that they were praying for a safe journey before starting it – he called it ‘one for the road’ and told me that a couple of years before these words had a different meaning to him….

At the coffee processing area we learned, that last year they managed to process about 200,000 kg of coffee. They have enough beans to produce 1 million kg but don't have sufficient machinery nor capital to process it! That is exactly part of our mission to help with this issue.

The trip back to the ADP center was an amazing experience. This is, apparently, the densest area in all of Africa (430 people per km2) and, as we drove by, the children and the families came pouring out of their houses to smile wave and yell ("you, you, you") to us. To see these incredibly poor children with rags for clothes, no shoes, and mud huts for houses, to be so joyous in greeting us (and expecting nothing than a smile in return) was touching beyond belief.

Girma told us how he had left his wife and 3 children under 12 living in Addis while he worked on the ADP. He explained how he thought that the experience was "transforming" him and how all these children in the ADP (5000+) were "his children too". The way he explained this was incredibly sincere and very touching. So often we think of "our family" or "their family" but rarely that their family is our family too. I am struggling with my view of whether it is more right to leave your "own" family to serve "another" but it is something for me to think about.

Dinner tonight was at the ADP. They shared so openly with us it was embarrassing. Sharing in this sense includes also eating from the same plate and I get more and more used to it. Belay always wants to give us the best of the food which I very much appreciate

Our hotel is interesting. Belay presented us with our choice of bedrooms. My pick was based on the one that had a light in the bathroom. The bedrooms were across the way from the "disco" with an assortment of locals in non-local dress. The disco closed at midnight – please note it happens all on a Monday.


Day 9– 3rd July

We returned to the Kochore ADP this morning this finish up our field work there. If my goal on this trip was to learn about the local culture, people and at the same time enjoying the journey then Ethiopia and its people are doing their best to help me. Each meal is at a minimum of an hour and a half. It is a continuous negotiation process with people offering food from their plate and then insisting that you take more food from the serving dishes the minute your plate even begins to look diminished. The food at the ADP’s is very simple and based primarily on local produce. Breakfast is scrambled eggs and bread (often from the day before). Coke is served at every meal. Coffee is often not served until the end. TV is usually on at full volume and thus meal time is a strange combination of socializing and staring at the TV. This morning we did not get out of breakfast until after 10am, by which time we were all anxious to get to work.

We spent the morning sharing the information gathered from the last few days, typing up notes and brainstorming. Less than an hour into it, concerned Ethiopian heads poked around the door asking if we were doing OK and could they bring in coffee. Another hour later and we had to go to lunch and an hour and after later we were back at work. Shortly thereafter we needed to leave to get on the road. It is hard to work hard here. And it is hard to work hard at not working hard. Clear….?

Every time we entered or departed the ADP children would line up at the fences smiling, waving and shouting "you, you, you". Based on their reactions to us, it was clear that we, the farenji, are extreme rarities. According to the ADP manager, typically only one or two white people visit here a year. One of the strict rules at World Vision is that you are not allowed to speak directly with the children or touch them without direct permission. We got permission to at least take a few photographs….

On the way to our stop for the night we stopped at one of the children selling pineapple. Within heartbeats the car was surrounded by children all with pineapple to sell. Belay and Tesfeye rolled down the windows to negotiate on the quality of the produce and the price. Discussions got quite heated and I think for the first time we saw angry words and gestures exchanged between Ethiopian people. Belay, Tesfeye and Samson all got out of the car and calmed things down. We drove further down the road and stopped by some girls: the energy level of the sellers was the same but with less aggression. We purchased our pineapples, about $1 for a bunch of 6. Using my trusty knife, Tesfeye sliced up the pineapples. We were attracting a growing crowd of children and Belay asked one of them to go and get a knife for themselves and he gave one of the pineapples. Soon we were all eating pineapple, passing on the extra pieces, that Belay and Samson were insisting we eat, to the children next to us, and making great play of throwing the skin into the trees next to us. Smiles abounded.

On our way to Shona we also overtook a truck with camels – that was after Beijing and the camel at the great wall the second time I saw camels in an unexpected place – on a truck…

After four hours of travelling down bumpy, winding roads we arrived at the Shona ADP where we were to stay the night. Samson told us that Belay was actually the ADP manager there for three years until last November; it was clear that Belay was very proud to show us ‘his’ ADP - at 15 years one of the oldest ADP’s in Ethiopia.

When we arrived at the ADP gates we saw a crowd gathered around what looked like grain sacks. They moved out of the way so we could drive through and Belay leapt out of the car to be embraced by the hugs of his ADP colleagues. Once we arrived at the ADP’s main room the agricultural head told us, that they had hosted an HIV/AIDS training session that night and that the food was given out later for the afflicted and their families.

One of the biggest issues facing the Shona ADP is polygamy. Most families have only 0.5 hectare to farm on. Many of the Muslim families here have one husband and four or five wives and an exponential number of children. This poses obvious challenges in terms on generating sufficient food for the family, not even to speak of the HIV horror. While World Vision professes to not to try to convert people to Christianity, they do want to improve the quality of lives in their areas and regard polygamy as a key issue.

The ADP people again very generously shared their dinner with us and then showed us our rooms. Only one bedroom had a bathroom attached (actually Belay's old room) and the others had access to an external combined bathroom and toilet. The photos only tell half the story of the senses that were challenged…


Day 10– 4th July

This morning we set off for Arba Minch located in south western Ethiopia. The roads pass through some of the most fertile land in Ethiopia and were jammed with people offering their produce for sale (pineapple, mango, bananas, lemons, potato) or herding their goats, sheep and cows. A few people were riding bikes; bikes are required to be registered and each carries a license plate with a 30 Birrr a year license fee. Belay explained that the license system is partly to stop theft and partly to generate revenue. A bike costs approximately 800 Birrr (a donkey or horse can cost around 1000-1200 Birrr) - this is clearly a lot of money for people, many of who earn only 1 Birrr a day.

The roads were really rough and it was very wet. Many of the people walking along the side of the road were using enset banana leaves as umbrellas. We passed through many rain sodden areas including a very muddy water fall flowing freely into the banana plantations.

Our hotel in Arba Minch is very pleasant (read: clean toilets) and we would be happy to stay here a few days. We went to lunch at a "café" (another hour and a half affair) and at the end Katherine and I asked if we could go back to the hotel (and catch up on things like writing this blog) while the others went for coffee at another place. Every time I have suggested walking so far I have been met with strong resistance. I think Belay partly is concerned for our safety and partly thinks walking or exercise is a little crazy. We agreed that Tesfeye would drive Katherine and me back to the hotel and the others would wait to be taken to coffee and later be picked up by Tesfeye. Katherine and I got in the car and quickly realized Tesfeye was taking us a different way, although he assured us this was the way to the hotel. When we arrived, it was clear that Tesfeye thought we did not want to walk but wanted to be driven to the coffee place. It was quite funny that Katherine and I were the only ones that wanted to get moving and not to sit around again having coffee and yet we were the ones delivered most expediently to the coffee place! The view from the coffee place (another hotel) however, was amazing. On one side is a fresh water lake, in the middle a piece of land called Bridge of the Gods (where some native Ethiopian tribes live including the ones who grow plates/rings into their lips) and on the other a salt water lake flowing from the ocean. It was truly beautiful and so perhaps there was motive or blessing in the mistaken kidnapping of us to have coffee there.


Day 11– 5th July

After a healthy breakfast we set out for the ADP in Chenca – what I did not take into account was the altitude of that ADP – almost 3,000m above sea level and I only read during our drive the World Vision yearly plan for this ADP where the environment is extensively described as it plays a major role in the thought and decision process of World Vision. This paper then informed me that temperature around 1 C are common the average is 8 C and the highest is approx.14 C during the whole year. As said I had not taken that into account and hence I was only wearing a t-shirt with long sleeves and had a rain coat with me – it proved not to be enough….

It was an hour and a half ride up through a muddy, winding road. There were many, many women trudging on foot up the road, carrying huge bundles of branches on their backs. At times the car got seriously off track and Tesfeye did a fine job getting us up the mountain. I have to confess that the Toyota was the appropriate car and my Skoda Octavia would have not survived in this area …

We were friendly welcomed and after a first introduction by the ADP manager Lemmo to the projects of this ADP went to see an apple tree nursery run by World Vision. This ADP has been officially in existence since 1996 but is in one of the most difficult areas of Ethiopia – as the topography does not allow for many other agricultural products about 10 years ago a German called Ralph Wiegand who set out after his agricultural studies in Germany to this country together with his wife Development helped this community to establish a co-operative and showed them how to grow this highland fruit ; impressive what we saw and learned at this place how this organisation helps the people and the community to find a sustainable solution for the future of the people there.

We also met with the "secretary" of the Highland ADP apple cooperative. We arrived in an entry area that was at least a foot deep in mud. After our driver backed up several times to try and find a place where we could potentially get out relatively mud free we gave up. We walked through a couple of buildings and slip slided through the mud to finally end up in the Secretary's office. It consisted of a desk, a red phone connected by a very obvious phone wire dangling form the ceiling, a book case with several obviously important files and a plastic tarpaulin spread on the back floor that clearly was the repository for the source documents. The secretary was clearly very knowledgeable about his business, the environment and the market forces facing him and his cooperative. We somewhat struggle with our relevance in this.

We had another site scheduled but as we spent several hours too long at the apple coop we did not get to the weaving site

On the way back we passed through Dorza. Several 4WD were parked out front and Belay ascertained that it was therefore of some ‘farenji’ importance and so we stopped. As it turned out it was quite interesting with a traditional Dorza house in the shape of an elephant to memorialize the elephants which were lost to Kenya or the Omo valley.

At Belay's urging and Tesfeye's silent pleading we got in the car to head back down the mountain and began to drive through groups of children doing the "dance". Individually or alone they were standing in the middle of the road and upon sight of a car, starting to swing their hips and butts to the sound of their own drums. We watched them and their happy dance and I must say i was quite an experience.

We arrived in Arba Minch and stayed at the same hotel as the night before and were quite happy as there was some even warm water and a relatively clean bathroom…


Day 12– 6th July

We were meeting at 8am today and I believe I soon have to start to do some exercise to keep some sort of balance with the long, long meals and many hours in the car travelling each day. In addition, we are without power again. The next challenge of the day was that Anne-Sophie believed she had lost her bag containing her passport, credit cards and money. The last time she remembered seeing it was on the dinner table last night in the garden area of the hotel. There was much frenetic searching and running around by distressed hotel staff when after a tense 45 minutes she found it at the bottom of her backpack. What a relief! For everyone! It is tough to keep track of everything when we are moving places every day.

I then called Ralph Wiegand, (the guy who’s name was mentioned yesterday who helped the Chenca co-op and who still lived in the area) and asked if we could stop by. I talked to his wife Monika and she offered to come although they had only arrived from a weeks traveling the night before. We spent a very interesting few hours with him and his wife talking about their work here and their view of Ethiopia and business development. They came here together with a Christian organization from Germany straight out of college after studying agricultural science. Now 12 years later with 3 children, they have made their home here in Arba Minch and spend their time trying to improve the opportunities available to the local people. They were quite inspiring. Their point of view is a little different from World Visions in terms of how to help people out of poverty and perhaps more western focused on the psychology of motivation. One of the important issues the raised was the current market distortions occurring at the nursery level at the ADP. The ADP sells the baby seedlings to the farmers at 6 Birr. The idea is that the farmers hold the seedlings and once they have grown they sell them back to the cooperative at 40 Birr. The cooperative then resells at 43 Birr. The problem is that many of the farmers buy at 6 and immediately resell at 40, creating a market distortion and contributing to the problem of getting the farmers motivated to create sustainable value.

Later we stopped at a Crocodile farm. It was a man made thing and not too inspiring and actually sad to see these concrete enclosures (which look like empty swimming pools) filled with baby crocodiles and larger ones as well.

Running quite behind schedule now, we set off at 1.30 for Shashemene which would be our stop for the evening. After stopping for lunch at 4.30pm for one hour, we arrived at about 8pm at the "Majestic Rift Valley Hotel". Shashemene is the home of Haile Selassie and the Rastafarian capital. At Ethiopian millennium (11 September 2007) there are approx 30 000 Jamaicans expected to come to this place and actually was expecting to see Rasta's everywhere and reggae music to be blasting from the street corners. But no, it was actually very much like the other towns we have seen. We spotted one set of dreadlocks in the hotel restaurant and that was it.


Day 13– 7th July

This Saturday morning we started out in Awassa at the lake where Belay took us to see the local fishermen bringing in their catch. Dozens of boats were pulled up to the shore with young boys unloading the catch and unraveling the nets. The "beach" was covered in guts and gore and you can imagine the intoxicating aroma. As soon as the locals spotted the farenji we were accosting by boys pointing to the huge and quite unattractive Birds (which I believe were Maribu) and the Pelicans and throwing fish at them. The idea is that we would watch the fish eating and then pay the boys for the entertainment. We had soon had our fill although I am sure the Birds had not. We then took a little cruise on Lake Awassa and enjoyed the morning.

We then worked ….and met with the Awassa Program Office deputy manager for a few hours to talk about the business and marketing activities of the Awassa area and their 13 ADP’s. It is clear that this is a very new area for them and they are just getting their arms around what is currently happening on that front. There is a huge variety of products currently being produced in the area and for the first time the government is focused on helping the local communities determine how to market their products. They actually place television advertisements stating the current prices of various products like potato, carrot, tef, apples etc. to help people determine how much to buy/sell for. The prices are suggested but not mandated.

Notwithstanding this, there is very little other assistance being provided and the ADP's have a huge burden ahead of them to get this right. The cultural issues associated with driving an attitudinal change in the local people can't be underestimated and one of our challenges will be to help them figure out ways to do this. Ethiopian business hours include Saturdays and on some cases Sundays and so it was nothing unusual for them to be in the office on Saturday. The office is a two year old building that looks like a left over from Russia 50 years ago. Nothing is "finished"; there is concrete dust all over and due to the quality of the building products as well as the poor workmanship everything is falling apart already.
After lunch we visited some hot springs outside of Shashemene and enjoyed a "shower" in the very hot water. The source further up the mountain is apparently 85 Celsius….


Day 14– 8th July A Sunday and a travel day today - from Shashemene back to Addis Ababa. 250km through relatively clear roads; a mere 5 hours, with a 30 minute coffee break. We arrived back at the Hotel Leopol which we knew from our first stay in Addis. The same hotel but i looks positively exquisite and very luxurious after our first week in the field. We spent the afternoon at the Hilton business centre working on our notes from the field and our blogs. As you can see I was somewhat successful After finishing up at the business centre we went to the bar to watch the Wimbledon Cup final (Federer/Nadal). I know we could have been anywhere in the world but Addis, except for the fact that we had a Ethiopian beer and for the lady of the night next to us attempting to entice me... We finished up with a "team" discussion over pizza and went "home" for a good night's sleep.

more photos are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/ETHIOPIAWEEK2KOCHOREARBAMINCHCHENCASHASHEMENE

ETHIOPIA – WEEK 1 – ADDIS ABABA / GURAGHE / AWASSA

more photos are available at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/ETHIOPIAWEEK1ADDISABABAGURAGHEAWASSA

Day 1 – 25th June

Monday 25th June morning we landed almost on time in Addis Ababa at 7am after nearly 14 hours flight. Flying low over the country I could see the immense challenges faced by the Ethiopian people. It is rainy season here and so quite green, but the terrain is very mountainous, with cliffs and valleys and extremely uneven and unstable terrain. There were no visible roads until we were almost landing and even that appeared to be a muddy winding path.

I very quickly arranged for my visa at the airport and we got our baggage and entered the arrival hall. There we were – 4 PwC Partners willing to spend the next 8-10 weeks in this country and eager to help! But – there was nobody who wanted our help at the airport…. Although we were told, that a World Vision Ethiopia representative would pick us up at the airport there was none…

As our project partners were not at the airport to meet us we spent a couple of hours sitting in the airport, drinking coffee and having a sandwich for breakfast. The coffee served as a cup full of steamed milk and separate cup of espresso to share amongst the group. It was very tasty and perked us all up.

Thankfully the driver finally showed up and escorted us to the van. We experienced our first interaction with locals who insisted on putting the bags in the van for us and then insisted on payment and went as far as grabbing the money from the hands of Katherine who at this point was the only person who had USD in change. Finally we negotiated 4 USD and I think that was a fair price and 4 US dollars will go a long way here. So we were on our way to our first accommodation.

On the drive into Addis we passed through some very poor areas. Each time the van stopped in traffic we were surrounded by children pressing their hands and faces to the windows, asking for money and singing. The people, dressed in very colourful clothing, many in long skirts and head dress and flowing turbans, were gathered along the roads, often crouching at the side in the gutter or standing outside the small store fronts in tin sheds selling everything from bridal gowns, to corn husks, to toilet bases.

We turned off the main road and all of sudden the car stopped and here we were at the Hotel Leopol. As agreed before this was not the Hilton or another international high quality hotel but it is referred to as a "standard" hotel. So far I gather that "standard" means that it ascribes to some standard as opposed to no standard (which in Ethiopia is a good thing). I got a room on the 7th floor and had a good overview over the nearby buildings and environment (I have attached a few pictures). The hotel is surrounded by slums. Inside it is relatively clean but very basic. The bathroom looks like it has seen better days, but apparently is just a few years old. It has its very own water heater with instructions probably in Amharic, concrete mess, assorted flying and crawling insects and interesting lighting. It is nevertheless, a bathroom and I am sure in the coming days I will think back on this with fondness. As I checked the bathroom further I found the flush not working so I myself fixed the toilet flush in this standard hotel…

After a short rest we got again picked up by a driver who helped us buying those things which in the course of our first week we realized we had forgotten. We also had lunch and I immediately tried one of the Ethiopian national dishes – injera (made out of the Ethiopian cereal 'tef') for me it tasted interesting and according to a travel guide an experience never to be forgotten – we shall see… and you may ask me once I am back ...

Our "driver" Bekele is quite a character. His English is quite good and he went out of his way to make us feel welcome. He took us to the Central bank first. It was an interesting building with gold bars outside. All entrants are body searched and our cameras were stored away. The money exchange took about an hour, a detailed process where each note provided is tracked by serial numbers by hand written records. There are 9 Birr to a dollar and so we walked out of the building with huge wads of cash - an interesting way to feel rich.
We invited Bekele to have lunch with us and Katherine and I took lessons from him on how to eat Injera…… which is an Ethiopian traditional dish only to be eaten with the right hand and the left hand below the table. It was very tasty, even though they modified the spiciness for wimpy westerners.

Than we got a short insight into Ethiopian culture and tradition - Bekele explained that he doesn't have a servant because he has a wife that stays home and does all of the housework, cooks all of his meals and that he goes home at night and sits on the couch watching DVDs. He explained that men could potentially do some work in the house "out of love" if they really wanted to….. It is certainly going to be interesting working in this culture for a few months.

We then went to a supermarket near the hotel and stocked up on bottled water and shavers - all the essentials.

The city is heavily under construction. It is unclear how much of it is in progress and how much is abandoned. There is the smell of damp concrete everywhere. The feel of the city is surreal -

We had dinner in our hotel on the 11th floor overseeing the city at night and I went to bed around 10:30 pm totally tired / jet laged

Day 2 – 26th June

Hard to believe this is already the Day 10 out of home, it feels so much longer on one hand, and like the end is near of the other hand. I checked the gym this morning but was informed that all the machines were broken….

This morning we met with Yigazu Sedi (who is one of the two Deputy National Directors of World Vision Ethiopia) and his team. We were introduced to the World Vision theme which is valid for the whole organisation all over the world:
---- “Our vision for every child
---- Life in all its fullness
---- Our prayer for every heart
---- The wish to make it so”
What a powerful vision !!

In German it reads:
---- „Unsere Vision für jedes Kind:
---- Leben in Fülle
---- Unser Gebet für jedes Herz:
---- Tatkraft und Wille“

Yigazu and his team spent several hours with us in their office and provided some valuable insights into the workings of WVE and the immense difficulties faced by the Ethiopian people in their day to day existence. We have a lot of work to do, even recognizing we have a limited time here. As Katherine is the only native English speaker in our team and in the WVE group here she has become the interpreter and English teacher. We are certainly using our "listening skills" and we try to understand each other using effectively different languages and coming from different perspectives. The challenge is to be patient.

At our way to the hotel we got more impressions about the traffic in Addis and the way how people quite often move – with so called ordinary taxis- -blue/white mini vans which are very effective. We stopped for some other small purchases and were approached our car by two Ethiopians who sold books - some of them were English on the street – we did not really know what to do in this case but in the end bought nothing.

At Tuesday night we had dinner with some friends of close friends (Peter and Robyn) of Katherine’s parents. Peter is engaged in an oil exploration company here - PexCo and he and his wife Robyn split there time between Addis and Perth. We had dinner at a restaurant called the Phoenix. It was run by an interesting Libanese/Greek man who is clearly living a challenging life running a restaurant in Addis Ababa. Anne Sophie almost fainted at one point - an effect of the altitude, but I think is feeling better now. It was a reminder to the rest of us to be careful.

Day 3 – 27th June

This morning we met with the National Director of WVE. She gave us a comprehensive presentation on the structure and environment of WVE. Belaye, our project partner, then gave us a presentation on his proposal of our project. He has refined it significantly since our original discussions and we are feeling much more comfortable with it. The project is, broadly, to assist WVE in its Business and Market Development program. This is a new program for them under their Quality and Development Division.

WVE has 7 Program Offices throughout the country and a total of 64 Area Development Programs ("ADP's) run by those Program Offices. We will be assisting them in linking the farmers and non-farmer producers with the markets in a more efficient manner; basically local market development. We have refined the scope such that we are focused on developing processes and procedures for the ADP's to start now and also to use in the future on a more sustainable basis.

This afternoon we developed the schedule for the next 8 weeks. We will be travelling every week except the last 10 days. On Sunday (1 July) we will head south Awassa and visit a couple of different ADP offices in this region. We will be staying in WV camps and meeting with the local ADP representatives and potentially some of the community service people and farmers.

I am already trying to pick up some Amharic! Very difficult I can tell you – ‘thank you’ is in Amharic the unpronounceable word of ‘amasygenello’…. and coffee with milk something which reads like 'wat ek buna'

The dinner we went to a restaurant called Serenade which we found in the Lonely Planet Guide. It was very difficult to find, tucked into an alleyway off a one way street which wound between two major streets. The roads were really rough (a combination of dirt and rocks), narrow, with store fronts lining either side and people and animals all over the road. It is amazing we haven't seen more pedestrians being run over; there are very few street lights at night, there are no sidewalks and thus the people walk in the streets. Serenade had a beautiful ambiance - an odd combination of Greek, French and Ethiopian. Beautiful decor, soft exotic music and lovely lighting. We enjoyed a bottle of Ethiopian red wine - (I believe it was called somthing like: 'Goida'), which was quite drinkable. The food at Serenade was just ok, but the company and the ambience more than made up for it.


Day 4 – 28th June

Today we spent more time working on the draft business plan for the Business and Marketing Department and brainstorming the issues and our questions for the people in the field. Belay surprised us again with another change in plan, in that instead of having the day today to prepare for our 6 weeks in the field, we had this morning only and would be visiting the Wisdom Microfinance organization this afternoon and going straight to the field tomorrow! Yikes, nothing like having deadlines moved up :-)

We met with the General Manager of the Wisdom Microfinance Institution today - a man by the name of Worku. Worku was very helpful in explaining Wisdom's role, their plans for expansion and how we can assist the local people in improving their market access and knowledge. Most of these people live on less than $1 per day. A milk farmer for instance typically has no means transport and thus can only sell as much as he or a member of his family can personally carry to a buyer, sometimes 7 miles each way. In addition, they usually do not have any means to store the milk and thus even if they had transport, they could not store anything. If they had transport, to buy a machine that converts the milk into cream is about $300 - clearly out of the realm of possibility of most people.

We are visiting an ADP called Guraghe tomorrow which is 200km west of Addis. It will be a six hour round trip over interesting roads with our team of 4 plus 2 WVE people piled into a Land Rover. Even more interesting will be Sunday when we leave for the south with 7 people and luggage in the same car - I think it will be a good exercise in teaming up ....!

I am not sure when I will have access to the internet again as we will not be back in the WVE offices for almost 6 weeks. So, if I don't post for a while, please do not worry. It is then due to the ethiopian I also try to upload some Ethiopian photos as soon as I can!

Day 5– 29th June

Today, Friday, we spent 4 and half hours each way travelling to Guraghe. It was an eye-opening trip. The road was busy with car traffic heading out of Addis Ababa, but reasonably quickly we were in the country side. It is very green at the moment with the rainy season and was surprisingly beautiful. The main highway wound through flatlands with mountains far to the North and South.

The number of people walking on the road was incredible. Many young boys (some that looked barely old enough to walk, i.e. around 5 years old….) were herding their oxen, cows, goats and sheep to who knows where. Many men were herding their donkeys, burdened with hay. The women do the labour here and were carrying what appeared to be very heavy burdens of inset (a forced banana plant that does not bear fruit), the stems of which are eaten and the by-products of leaves and roots used for building housing and making things.

We soon saw the traditional Ethiopian housing which covers the country side. Gojo are basic round huts with clay sides and hay and enset roofs. They have no electricity or running water. Often the Gojo is one room for the whole family and their livestock. Some wealthier people have a wall running around the inside of the house which separates the livestock and the people. As many as 18 people can live in one of these. Other very wealthy people have a small rectangular building made out of mud but with a corrugated iron roof.

After about 3 hours we stopped at lodge (Belay's choice in order to provide us with a clean toilet…) and sat outside and drank coffee. The lodge was previously owned by the government but is now in the hands of an Ethiopian individual who is renovating it. Apparently it attracts both wealthy Ethiopians on vacation as well as farenji (the Ethiopian word for ‘foreigner/stranger’), like us. The grounds were very pleasant and we had our first meeting with an Ethiopian monkey…

We hit the road again and passed through two small towns, again with the streets lined with small shop fronts selling everything imaginable (and some things not imaginable) and people, dogs, goats, sheep, cows and donkeys all over the place. Ethiopian drivers have to be extremely vigilant in order not to hit someone and are constantly communicating by horn (can I pass you? - yes, get out of the way, etc.). Our driver today Tesfeye, did a fine job. That we are travelling within the rainy season we could easily see as we passed a few rivers which we normally would probably not have noticed but now they were full with red/brown troubled water.

We soon entered a rough road and climbed higher towards the ADP. Here the land was even lasher and the gojo were more dense. Many, many children were playing along the side of the road. We first visited a centre built by World Vision to house an association of women who make handbags out of inset. The association started about 2 years ago and now has about 20 women involved. They come for several (unclear how many) hours per day, drink vast quantities of coffee, socialize and make the handbags. Each bag takes about 15 days to make and sells for about 45 Birr (roughly $5). They currently sell the bags to some individuals who act as traders and on-sell them in the market. The supply however is uneven and the demand is unknown. (Hence the reason we are here).
Belay explained that one of Ethiopia's great challenges is that people do not work very hard. This is partly due to their religious devotion and the many days that they can not work for religious reasons, but also because they do not value hard work. This indeed adds another element to the business and marketing development program, if people are not greatly motivated by hard work, money or production beyond sustenance. We all left with one of the handicraft products, mine is a lovely set for tea cups

We then visited the ADP itself and were welcomed most impressively with welcome signs, fresh flowers and a feast that I am very sure they do not eat every day. At the ADP they grow apples, mangos, inset and coffee. The also use the inset to make the handcrafts as well as carpets.

On the way home, we stopped in Woklite at one of the markets. It was shocking to see dead dogs on the side of the road and these very poor people literally crouched in mud and animal waste with their seeds, potatoes and onions etc, spread out before them in the dirt. We caused quite a stir and did not stay long.
On our way home we passed an area where a slaughterhouse is present – it smelled like I have never smelled before and neither have my mates obviously (see pictures below…)

Before we came back to our hotel we went through a traffic which I can not describe to you, you have to experience it – I tried to capture it with the camera and I can tell you this is not a parking space…

Day 6– 1st July

Today Belay graciously invited us to his home for lunch. He walked an hour and a half to the hotel to pick us up and then we caught an "ordinary" taxi. We brought flowers and some sweet for him and his wife.
We then went with what was a little 6 seater bus (which usually has 10 to 12 people inside). It was an experience beyond explanation….
Belay owns his own house, something to be very proud of (even more of an accomplishment than it is in Munich I think). It was a couple of rooms, with the kitchen and toilet outside and a small paved courtyard.

All up there were 3 adults and 3 children living there. Belay is married, with two beautiful daughters aged 5 and 7 and a son aged 4 months. They were all dressed up in their best traditional Ethiopian clothes for us! His wife did not speak English, but the little girls did, as did Belay's sister in law (who lives with them). They had gone to far too much trouble to create an amazing lunch (injera - of course, as well as salad, spaghetti lasagne and even coleslaw!). The table was set for four and it became quickly apparent that we were the honoured guests and the family would not eat with us.
It was quite embarrassing but we had to respect their wishes. Belaye did eat too but would not sit at the table with us.

After lunch we took part in the coffee ceremony which his sister in law spent several hours preparing and serving. Here in Ethiopia it is impolite to take anything less than three cups... My head is still rushing with caffeine! It was a fascinating afternoon and I very grateful to Belay for sharing his home with us.
At this day I also learned more about the first names in Ethiopia – they typically have a very special meaning and are somehow related to the bible. Belay’s children are called - and I translate now from Amharic - ‘From Heaven’; ‘From God’ and the youngest child, the son is called ‘Blessing’. I find this such a good way to express the joy and it looked like that to me! I am sure I will tell some more name-stories later throughout the journey

Day 7– 2nd July

Today, Sunday, we left at 7am for the field visits. We will be travelling for two weeks in the villages in the south of Ethiopia. We had warned Belay that we would each have a large suitcase but even so, when it came time to pack up the Toyota Landcruiser, it quickly became apparent that we were about to spend two weeks at very close quarters… We have seven people (Tesfeye, our driver for this trip and Belaye and Samson from WVE and the four of us), plus luggage for all seven. We have a roof rack but no means to tie anything on or protect it from the rain. The PwC team is sitting four to the back and we well advised to becoming close friends…. :-) The seating is the ladies inside and Ronaldo and myself outside

After 4 hours we stopped at a lodge in the Rift Valley called Langano. It is based on a lake and is apparently a popular place to spend a weekend. There were many Ethiopian families lunching and picnicking there. The sands were white and inviting, but the water was a murky brown colour. All of us including myself! were a little bit suffering from upset stomachs and so at lunch opted for spaghetti and sauce. It is indeed a sad state of affairs when we are all eating farenji food (food for strangers) while our Ethiopian team mates are enjoying enjera. Before we headed off I visited the bathroom …. - As Anne-Sophie and Katherine also followed the call of the nature the rest of us waited a good 20 minutes - they then claimed, that there were two Ethiopian girls to extricate themselves from the bathroom where they were discussing make up, hair and boys. I did not tell them but I am not sure if this was not Anne-Sophie and Katherine, who had these discussions…. We rated the bathrooms 1 star out of 5, but it is all relative and I think we will need to re-establish the scale. Filthy floors, no paper, no ventilation and no flushing are not a happy experience, but not the end… .

We arrived in Awasa at about 4pm. Awasa is a very different city to Addis. It is quite green but not muddy and almost has sidewalks. We checked into the Lewi hotel and spent an hour resting. Late afternoon we headed to a lodge run by the government overlooking Lake Awasa. It was a gorgeous spot. The Awasan young crowd was gathered there for Sunday afternoon drinks and there was quite a festive atmosphere. The local monkeys and ducks provided entertainment – some of the entertainment was rated only for adults…. We enjoyed sodas and cokes and took a short (approx 10 min - at a cost of approx 2USD) row boat ride on the lake at sunset time, which was beautiful; I enjoyed it immensely.

When it was time for the mosquitoes to come out we said good-bye to this lovely place and went to dinner at the Lewi Café (owned by the same man that runs our hotel). The café garden restaurant area was also very happening for a Sunday night, although we had to sit inside (to avoid the potentially malaria ridden mosquitoes). We spent some time with Belay talking about the beggars and how to handle it here. Belaye has a very tough view of the world and told us several stories about the style and habits of beggars of Ethiopia. The worst of these was that bad people sometimes steal children from the villages, gouge out their eyes and then put them on the streets of Addis to beg for them. As a group we were very quiet for a while thinking about this. Belay strongly counselled against ever giving money but suggested that bread and fruit were better gifts.

I am learning that being in Ethiopia is in itself a lesson in patient. Nothing happens quickly. Our restaurant bill took 50!! minutes to arrive. We did however, collect a whole grocery bag of bread to give out tomorrow. The hotel was interesting. It had glass doors to the rooms which were slightly frosted but enabled anyone standing outside to look directly in...

more photos are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/ETHIOPIAWEEK1ADDISABABAGURAGHEAWASSA

7th day – 24 June

The last day as a group together and my first day I skipped the Yoga lesson :-( in the morning as I still was not packed and some administration needed to be done.

After our Check-In every team presented (non competition …) their team story and it was amazing to see how much we had absorbed in this week e.g in respect of dialogue architecture. Very interesting thoughts were presented and I could get a sense how much individual teams have already identified themselves with their teams and even more so with their projects in the field. This of course is also the case with us and so we presented our story in four chapters and each of us had his/her go including the individual aspirations in respect of the very individual and personal leadership vision which we shared with the rest of the group.

Finally we saw the Ulysses-Story-Movie again with this wonderful music from Enigma and said good-bye to each other in a final circle. I felt very honoured to be part of the program. From the organizations team we received their best wishes and a golf-ball signed by each of the coaches and the Ulysses team as a symbol. This referred back to the movie-trailer which we had discussed earlier during the week where a golf pro who had lost his confidence and also his swing with the help of a coach finally found his field and the perfect swing – It is all about leadership we were told and were asked to now go out into the field and to practice our ‘swing’….

I would never have believed that 19 people could bond so quickly, be so open and trusting, and share so much. It really has been a quite extraordinary week which I have also fed back to Ralf.

Then immediately after very brief lunch we headed to Beijing, had a brief tour to the Forbidden City where fortunately the old customs to behead every person on the spot who is not from the emperor’s family has come out of fashion so we moved on ….

Due to a sand storm combined with some rain in Beijing we were advised to early go to the airport and so followed that advice which we did at the cost of the Tienamen-Square

We boarded at 9pm Beijing time and flew with one stop in Dehli to Addis Ababa where we landed at 7 am local time (CET +1) – We were very much looking forward to being in Ethiopia and getting started on our project.

Here ends this story - the story of the Ulysses foundation week – but … the Ethiopian one only now begins! - stay with me !

more photos are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/7thDay24June

6th day – 23 June

Yoga in the morning as usual and again very good and pleasant.

Today was the first day we spent as a full team working on the project itself. We spent time deciding on the identity of the team, the task - what we are doing, where we are doing it and when (we will be travelling to a different part of Ethiopia each week, what our roles will be within the team, how we will work together, and what our rituals, ground rules and practices will be. We also worked on our personal visions. Mine is "to be more about the journey and less about the destination". It was interesting to manage myself in adjusting to the others in terms of pace and also process.

Tonight the Leadership Dialogue was held with three alumni of the program. Our team, i.e. the Ethiopian team interviewed them and asked them questions about their individual experiences. Their stories were overwhelmingly positive, quite inspiring and very honest about the challenges that lie ahead.

more photos are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/6thDay23June

5th day – 22 June

Yoga at 6 – that is a challenge but I managed as I was the evening before the only one volunteering and so I had to…. There were not many who took the challenge…

From 8 am we had a long class with Fons Trompenaars about Diversity – he just came over to Beijing literally for 5 hours to talk to us before he had to head back to Europe – he indeed is an exceptional presenter (which made me forget the early wakening…) and he initiated a very fruitful and lively discussion at our table and this time about corporate cultures and all aspects of diversity and the dilemmas we therefore often face. A lot in this class was about reconciliation of those dilemmas. The key information in terms of this program can be summarized in the following statement which we discussed at length –

Leaders recognise, respect and reconcile differences !

At lunch we met for the first time the representative of our partner organisation – World Vision Ethiopia. His name is Belay and we immediately connected with him. We then spent the afternoon in our coaching classes which in my case were always with my team and the Mexican team, i.e. 7 people in total.

Our tonights Leadership Dialog was with Grace the Asia7 HR leader and Andrew Hollas, a Partner who spent 27 years in Africa many of them in Nairobi and he served from 1996 until 2006 as Senior Partner for Africa Central. He now leads the PwC Global Talent program Genesis Park in Berlin, which has been opened recently.
For the Leadership Dialogue we then met again with Belay and spent the whole evening including dinner together with him. I very much like his subtle sense of humour and his personality. He explained us a lot about the culture of Ethiopia and the do’s and don’t’s. Very interesting I can tell to hear about such a proud and old nation.

more photos are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/5thDay22June

4th Day – 21 June

Yoga in the morning is becoming a very pleasant ritual – and more and more enjoy it and try some even on their way to Yoga as Ajay and John…. And I believe this was the first day where we saw the sun in the morning, and the Great Wall looked so mysterious in the distance in the morning light!

Today we started the morning session with a discussion of "transitions". For example, what happens when we are in the field, what are potential trigger points that may cause anxiety or stress for each of us when we are in the field facing uncertainty and discomfort. For some it is possibly a situation where there is no defined plan or goal and/or where we do not operate to a schedule. There were also concerns around food, water, climate, team relationships and whether we have the skills to survive successfully.

Another big discussion surrounded sustainability and the impact of business on the world in our current environment of public mistrust and climate change. We discussed the dilemmas of multiple stakeholders, the triple bottom line of 'people, planet and profit' and how should we think about who we are as a firm and how do we compete at the brand level. We also used some time to discuss the new PwC branding concept -

We then spent two hours talking about poverty, our roles in the field and how we need to be prepared for the emotional struggle of being dropped into areas of poverty and feeling guilty for being privileged and inadequate for the limitations of our impact. We were given some information around poverty and listened to a song ‘I hope you dance’, where I have attached the words below – the pictures, numbers and music really touched a lot of us. There were very sad statistical numbers such as e.g that 1 child living in poverty dies every 3 seconds around the world. Anna (our team's coach) shared her experience in Sri Lanka at the time of the Tsunami and a 2 year girl she found who had lost her twin brother and continued for months to save half of every meagre meal for her brother. In the moment, and after several days of introspection, it brought up very powerful emotions and many of us cried.

The afternoon was at our disposal and I used it to climb the Great Wall from a different point and had compared to my first experience a wonderful view, which I share with you in my pictures. Please especially note the camel under a sign – not a lucky hero until one reaches the great wall …

Tonight the Leadership Dialog was with Rick Millen who leads PwC's approach Community Service Responsibility. He described the firm's work on "Global Communities". It was set up about 12 months ago with the goal of aligning PwC's efforts around community efforts to achieve consistency and ensure we are using our size to optimize our contributions. There is a lot of thinking happening looking at how we can get more focused on e.g climate change.

Tonight I also said good-bye to Mike Mueller, the Global PCS leader who officially retires on 1 July 2007 from PwC. Mike - thanks a lot for your advice and even more for your friendship! I wish you and your family all the best for your new chapter you are hopefully enjoying from this July

more photos are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/4thDay21June

I hope you dance

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat, but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
Your God forbid love ever leave you empty handed

Chorus: I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance,
I hope you dance, I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances, but they're worth taking
Loving might be a mistake but it's worth making
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out, reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance,
I hope you dance (time is a wheel in constant motion always)
I hope you dance (rolling us along)
I hope you dance (tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder)
I hope you dance (where those years have gone)

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance,

dance, I hope you dance,
I hope you dance (time is a wheel in constant motion always)
I hope you dance (rolling us along)
I hope you dance (tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder)
I hope you dance (where those years have gone)
(tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder)
(where those years have gone)

Tia Sillers and Mark D. Sanders

B – FIELD PROJECT – July/August 2007

To start with some facts about Ethiopia for those who do not want to look into their Encyclopaedias to check on some basics about this interesting country in East-Africa here you are:
- One of the oldest nations of the world (3.5 million years)– never colonised
- The bordering countries are Eritrea/north, Djibouti and Somalia/west, Somalia and Kenya/south and Sudan/east
- The economic system is dependent on agriculture: 85% of the labour force; 42% of the GDB and 85 % of the export
- With a land area of 1.098.000 sq km Ethiopia measures over 3.5 times the size of Germany and five times the size of Britain.
- Its topography is remarkably diverse ranging from 20 mountain over 4.000 m up to 4.600 m to one of the lowest points on our earth – the Denakil depression with lies almost 120 m below sea level - due to this Ethiopia makes up for 3 climate zones
- The population is over 75 million people (fast growing at 2.9 % p.a.) estimated population at 2025: 120 million
- More than 80 languages spoken – the official one being Amharic
- It is one of the poorest country in the world with for almost 25% of the population an average available amount of less than 1 USD per day

But now about the journey

Ethiopia - Addis Ababa – week 1

Monday 25th June morning we landed almost on time in Addis Ababa at 7am after nearly 14 hours flight. Flying low over the country I could see the immense challenges faced by the Ethiopian people. It is rainy season here and so quite green, but the terrain is very mountainous, with cliffs and valleys and extremely uneven and unstable terrain. There were no visible roads until we were almost landing and even that appeared to be a muddy winding path.

I very quickly arranged for my visa at the airport and we got our baggage and entered the arrival hall. There we were – 4 PwC Partners willing to spend the next 8-10 weeks in this country and eager to help! But – there was nobody who wanted our help at the airport. Although we were told, that a World Vision Ethiopia representative would pick us up at the airport there was none… As our project partners were not at the airport to meet us we spent a couple of hours sitting in the airport, drinking coffee. The coffee served as a cup full of steamed milk and separate cup of espresso to share amongst the group. It was very tasty and perked us all up.

Thankfully the driver finally showed up and escorted us to the van. We experienced our first interaction with locals who insisted on putting the bags in the van for us and then insisted on payment and went as far as grabbing the money from the hands of Katherine who at this point was the only person who had USD in change. Finally we negotiated four USD and I think that was a fair price and four US dollars will go a long way here. So we were on our way to our first accommodation.

On the drive into Addis we passed through some very poor areas. Each time the van stopped in traffic we were surrounded by children pressing their hands and faces to the windows, asking for money and singing. The people, dressed in very colourful clothing, many in long skirts and head dress and flowing turbans, were gathered along the roads, often crouching at the side in the gutter or standing outside the small store fronts in tin sheds selling everything from bridal gowns, to corn husks, to toilet bases.

We turned off the main road and all of sudden the car stopped and here we were at the Hotel Leopol. As agreed before this was not the Hilton or another international high quality hotel but It is referred to as a "standard" hotel. So far I gather that "standard" means that it ascribes to some standard as opposed to no standard (which in Ethiopia is a good thing). The hotel is surrounded by slums. Inside it is relatively clean but very basic. The bathroom looks like it has seen better days, but apparently is just a few years old. It has its very own water heater with Hindi instructions, concrete mess, assorted flying and crawling insects and interesting lighting. It is nevertheless, a bathroom and I am sure in the coming days I will think back on this with fondness. As I checked the bathroom further I found the flush not working so I myself fixed the toilet flush in this standard hotel…

After a short rest we got again picked up by a driver who helped us buying those things which in the course of our first week we realized we had forgotten. We also had lunch and I immediately tried one of the Ethiopian national dishes – injera (made out of the Ethiopian cereal tef) for me it tasted interesting and according to a travel guide an experience never to be forgotten – we shall see… and you may ask me once I am back

We have been assigned a driver from World Vision and our driver Bekele is quite a character. His English is quite good and he went out of his way to make us feel welcome. He took us to the Central bank first. It was an interesting building with gold bars outside. All entrants are body searched and our cameras were stored away. The money exchange took about an hour, a detailed process where each note provided is tracked by serial numbers by hand written records. There are 9 Birr to a dollar and so we walked out of the building with huge wads of cash - an interesting way to feel rich.

We invited Bekele to have lunch with us and Katherine and I took lessons from him on how to eat Injera…… which is an Ethiopian traditional dish only to be eaten with the right hand and the left hand below the table. It was very tasty, even though they modified the spiciness for wimpy westerners.

Than we got a short insight into Ethiopian culture and tradition - Bekele explained that he doesn't have a servant because he has a wife that stays home and does all of the housework, cooks all of his meals and that he goes home at night and sits on the couch watching DVDs. He explained that men could potentially do some work in the house "out of love" if they really wanted to….. It is certainly going to be interesting working in this culture for a few months.

We then went to a supermarket near the hotel and stocked up on bottled water and shavers - all the essentials.

The city is heavily under construction. It is unclear how much of it is in progress and how much is abandoned. There is the smell of damp concrete everywhere. The feel of the city is surreal.

3d day – 20June

We started the day again with a 7am Yoga class. Not easy to get up as I still felt the jet lag somehow but I managed. After that as usual short breakfast and a shower before we stated the check in session – I have attached pictures about how this Check-In circle looks, when its full and when nobody is around…

And then were confronted with Otto Scharman’s Theory of the blind spot of leadership and what actually is very often missing in our day to day world – listening. He however used and explained listening in a new way and we learned about the 4 levels of listening – the one we knew and then one about listening with open minds, with open hearts and with open will – yes, I understand, there is something to explain about it but it is probably too difficult to explain here in this blog what this is all about… If you really want to know I can recommend his the book he wrote, where you can read the whole story (Theory U) or you just wait until I will be back ….

It is incredible how open the participants are being. We also undertook what was called a sculpture challenge today. It involved getting into teams of two and using a piece of clay to create an object that represented who we are individually today and who we wish to be become. They gave us a series of questions to ask the other person about the sculpture designed to dig up the real meaning behind the sculpture For some it was the challenge to achieve personal/professional balance, for others to be confident and yet others, how to deal with pressure/stress more effectively.

Tonight the Leadership Dialogue was again with Rich Baird and additionally with Mike Mueller, the Canadian Partner heading up the Global PCS initiative and a friend of mine. They shared their insights into the future of the firm and gave us some pearls of wisdom on how to grow us as leaders. At dinner we talked about the firm's education/development program and the view of leadership about the success of the programs. It is reassuring to see that a truly long term view is being taken on developing our people.
more photos are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/3dDay20June

2nd day – 19 June

As we learned the day before each day starts at 7am with an hour of yoga. Giving the very tight timeframe that gives me a 30 minute break to shower and grab breakfast and then be at the second steady point in our agenda, the so called "Check in" session, where we as a group started the day together with a short meditation ( - and yes, I can already now tell you that I managed always to be on time!).

We were introduced to the leadership topic by Ralf Schneider and had the first grasp of what the story and our journey might be all about … - more extensively to be discussed over the next days.

After a long day of classes and coaching sessions, where we learned about shadow coaching, applying the GROW model and the Hearon model, we set off late afternoon to the city of Beijing for a dinner at the Beijing Duck restaurant (we are told - the best in Beijing). It was an hour and half journey into the city; the first piece with amazing views of the country side and the Great Wall. The trip was punctuated by a "race car" driver who greatly enjoyed getting the bus sideways around hair pin mountain curves, at 65 in a 40 zone and then crawling Beijing peak hour traffic, including road workers freely wandering about on foot in freeway traffic lanes.

The dinner was with the Chinese partners, including the brand new admits this year. They gave us a presentation concerning the massive growth of the firm there and the fact that the China firm was awarded the role of official Accounting Services provider to the 2008 Olympic Games. So for all who are interested in going to Beijing next year for the Olympics I have the contact…

We there at the restaurant had for the first time the so called Leadership Dialogue, where one team (for this evening it was team Uganda) of us was asked to interview a special guest – in this case it was Rich Baird from PricewaterhouseCoopers US the Global Managing Partner – People. Apart from the food and the experience of a real Beijing Duck (see picture) this was a very valuable session and we returned about 11pm to the commune where I immediately fell asleep, still somehow troubled with the jet-lag

more photos are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/2ndDay19June

1st day – 18 June

It all started Monday morning with coming together in a circle and listening to the few thousand year old story of Ulysses and his long journey told by the Ralf Schneider (head of Global Talent Management), who mainly designed and developed the Ulysses program.

It really was exciting to put myself back in time and think about this famous king from Ithaca who set sails going to help Agamemnon in his battle about Troja probably believing he would be back in a few month or so and finally found himself in a journey which lasted over 20 years and took almost all his life – and I realized, that I found the name of the program very well chosen…

The overriding theme of the following week is first slowing down from the work experience and creating an environment of openness, sharing, and trust to encourage and enable us to change and grow as leaders.

We then were introduced to the program coaches and our team will work together with Anna from Sri Lanka who will coach us on the foundation and review week as well as during the field work Ethiopia, where she will be coming over to approx at the end of July for 3 days

Dialogarchitecture
At this first day Wwe were introduced in a ‘thing’ called Dialogarchitecture, which we then were using throughout the whole week – So what is Dialogarchitecture ???
Broadly speaking, it is an alternative our well known Word-Documents and Powerpoint presentations for communications and involves drawing symbols, bubbles, arrows etc and key words to communicate more clearly. You can see the results in some of these photos. I have also attached above the drawing of the story board, which Hans-Jürgen, the expert in this field, has drawn for me based on the notes which Anna (who will work as both our team and also my individual coach for this period ) took during our initial discussion. I had this discussion with Anna via telephone about 2 weeks before I started the program and I found it indeed impressive, how much more a drawing could tell than just a few words only...

As he did for me Hans-Jürgen has created a story board for each of the other 18 participants based on notes taken by our coaches during the individual phone based coaching session. The story boards reflected our core strengths and values and areas we wish to develop. We were all given 5 minutes each to talk to the group and tell our personal story and what our view of leadership is. I was not feeling too good and much rather have been giving a IAS 39 presentation than talking about myself. At the conclusion of each story, everyone posted a sticky note on the person's story board providing a supportive comment or wish. We learned a lot from each other; in particular that even though we have all come from very different places and cultures, we do have some commonality in wanting to become better people and grow both personally and professionally.

Just after the classe finished I climbed with Frank (you remember – the German guy) the wall - How amazing to be able to walk 15 minutes from your hotel room and be standing on top of THE WALL - which at its best time was over 10.000 km long …. This particular piece of the wall is "private" as it is on the hotel grounds and the piece is significantly eroded but, at the same time very quiet and peaceful without the hordes of tourists and hawkers.

more photos are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/1stDay18June

A - FOUNDATION WEEK – BEIJING – June 2007

Welcome again on this page – This is all about me and us as a team starting the JOURNEY,

Apologies first of all - I actually had lots of difficulties in accessing the page that’s why it took a little bit longer than expected to put on the next posts –

A – ULYSSES FOUNDATION WEEK 17- 24 June

Flight to Beijing and arriving at the site – 16/17 June 2007

I was really proud of myself because I managed to get ready with all administration and necessary shopping about 4 hours before I finally set off :-) – I left Poland at about 5:30 pm and including the 9 hour flight from Vienna which I took as a connecting airport coming from Warsaw it is altogether a 12 hours trip to Beijing. I arrived quite tired at 11:20 local time (6 hours time difference) but realized that it was quite amazing to really now be in Beijing at the beginning of my big adventure.

The first thing I saw was still from the plane smog and the second when entering the arrival hall the green advertising of Starbucks Coffee – two visual impressions I had not really expected but if I had read carefully books about China and the recent development I could have probably guessed …..

At the airport a taxi was already waiting - It was an absolutely ‘interesting’ taxi drive and I suggest you don’t complain ever about any driving style in any other city before you have used a Chinese taxi …. Maybe you get a sort of a feeling from my picture but probably you will have to try yourself for the real kick - maybe next year for the Olympics

It took me another 2 hours to get to our place which should be our home for the next week - a place called ‘Commune by the Great Wall’ a very special place with different buildings in the Bauhaus style and apparently designed by famous architects. It was originally developed as part of an architectural competition with the goal of selling the houses for profit individually after the competition. Communism at its best…. Given the remoteness of the location from Beijing, the houses did not sell as hoped and so the Chinese government bought the houses and engaged the Kempinski group to run it as a hotel. Each team Ulysses team is staying in a separate house (we are roommates already!) – you see me in front of our team house (name: Cantilever 2) and we meet in the living room for the team coaching sessions. The group sessions are held on the spa's rooftop deck or down in the Commune Club hall.
If you want to check the place in the internet - http://www.commune.com.cn/en/

As Katherine, one of the team already arrived one day earlier she had arranged an hour for me at the Commune's spa , so I decided to spend a blissful 1 ½ hours enjoying a Balinese massage. So far the Ulysses journey is not too tough I thought to myself…!

In this beautiful environment, which for me was like a link between the old and the new world we started officially the Ulysses program with a common dinner!

It was very exciting to for the first time meet the program organisation-team and all other 18 Ulysses 2007 participants at the dinner but even more exciting to meet amongst them the three Partners who were going to spend the next 2 ½ months with me in Ethiopia.
At this post you will find the picture of the four of us – it is from left to right Ronaldo, myself, Anne-Sophie and Katherine
My concerns about how our team would connect have been greatly alleviated. Katherine (from Australia, living in San Franisco) is quick, fully motivated, funny and caring. Anne Sophie (from France, living in Luxembourg) is very thoughtful, sharing and sweet. Ronaldo (from Rio de Janeiro/Brazil) is inquisitive and has a fabulous, slightly warped sense of humour that I enjoy.
All together the 19 participants are:
Ricardo - Houston,
Robert - Netherlands,
Vanessa - Taiwan,
Debbie - Australia,
Frank - Germany,
Ajay - India,
Francoise - France,
John - Canada,
Mihaela - Romania,
Yanto - Indonesia,
Lena - Sweden,
Octavio - Mexico,
Benjamin - China,
Kevin - US-San Francisco,
Darren - US-San Francisco,
Katherine – US-San Francisco oland,
Ronaldo - Brazil,
Anne Sophie - Luxembourg,
and me.

I shall soon let you know more about this interesting week - just visit this blog

Welcome to Günter@Ethiopia

As I have already told most of you this year I have been fortunate enough to be nominated and will be participating in a program developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is called "Ulysses ".

Just as a first thought : I am very exited about this privilege having the opportunity of participating in this great program and experiencing this new part of the world!

As promised, have set up this blog to share information and experiences with family, friends, clients and colleagues.

About the PricewaterhouseCoopers Ulysses Program

over the last six years PricewaterhouseCoopers has been running a global project called “Ulysses” where Partners from different offices around the world are selected to work in teams with various NGO's on community projects in under-developed countries.

What is the Ulysses Program?
Ulysses is a truly global Cross Line of Service firm-wide leadership development program. The program was launched by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2000 as a response to three strategic challenges:
Building Leaders - Building Business
How do we create a strong pipeline of quality next generation leaders able and committed to shaping the future of the firm and leading it within an increasingly complex global stakeholder environment?
Unlocking Performance - Embracing Diversity
How can we tap into the full potential of our diverse network and unleash the true competitive force of our firm, by building a diverse pool of future leaders connected across organizational and national boundaries?
Building Our Brand - Building a Sustainable Business
How can we build a truly differentiated sustainable brand that is based on more than short-term profitability that is recognized for its responsible leadership in the way we lead with our clients, our people and the communities within which we operate?

The Ulysses Objectives
The Firm has committed a tremendous amount of thought, planning and resources to the Ulysses Program, and has identified the following key objectives:
- To identify and develop a network of future leaders of
PricewaterhouseCoopers who will be able to take on senior
leadership responsibilities at territorial and international levels;
- To prepare participants to be aware, capable, and willing to lead our firm in tomorrow’s global world of ambiguity and tension between diverse interests and stakeholder groups, urging the
business sector to move towards a more responsible, and sustainable business model.
- To foster business to civil society partnerships by strengthening the
personal involvement of PricewaterhouseCoopers in local communities by building effective global networks with external stakeholders

Here is a link to a description of the program: http://www.pwc.com/ulysses

What specifically does the Ulysses Program do in 2007?
This year, 19 partners from around the world will participate. The program consists of several parts, with the core being an 8-week field experience working with a non-profit organization in a developing country. This year's locations and projects + non for profit Organisation in brackets are:
- Ethiopia - Local Market Development (World Vision Ethiopia)
- Uganda - Mental Health and Development (Basic Needs)
- China– HIV/AIDS (Save the Children)
- India - Water and Sanitation (Gram Vikas)
- Mexico - Environmental Conservation (Sierra Gorda)
- Laos - Rural Electrification (Sunlabob)

My Project in Ethiopia
Our team has been assigned the project in Ethiopia – There we will be working with World Vision Ethiopia (WVE see also http://www.devinet.org/wve/ and http://www.wvi.org/wvi/country_profile/profiles/ethiopia.htm ). The overall goal of WVE is to enhance livelihood security at a household level. A key part of ensuring livelihood security is adding value to production systems of smallholder farmers and craftsmen by accessing markets for their products, as this helps communities to derive improved livelihoods from their production and goes a long way towards tackling poverty on a sustainable basis.

Creating market access for smallholder farmers and other small scale businesses is the key area of interest of all development agencies in the country, including the UN agencies such as UNDP, multilateral organizations such World Bank, as well as the government and all the NGO sector. So far although there are many encouraging signs in very limited areas, the great majority needs hard work to develop viable market infrastructure and local and international trading systems to enable the economy to sustain the livelihoods of the fragile rural and urban communities.

We will be to required assist WVE staff to formulate a draft strategy for local market development. Elements of such a strategy may include establishing market information systems and market analysis in order to enable smallholder farmers and other local business opportunities to add value to their production. The team will also be required to build the capacity of the WVE staff in data collection, testing, business development and promotion to enable them to help farmers to establish mechanisms of compatibility between their products and the customer’s needs, through logistical and commercially viable market linkages.

We will spend a couple of weeks in the capital - Addis Ababa and the rest in various villages around the country.

Photos which I have received so far from our World Vision team are set out at the top.

Our Team
I will be traveling and working together with three other Partners from our Luxembourg (Anne-Sophie), San Francisco (Katherine) and Rio de Janeiro (Ronaldo) office. It is a true international and diverse team as
- we all speak different languages,
- we have lived for a longer period in 8 countries on 4 continents
- we work in three different service lines
- we live in 3 different time zones
- we are of different gender (2 female, 2 male)
I shall be looking forward to working in this team

The Ulysses project timeline
My last day in Poland will be June 15. The following week (June 16 - 24), I will be attending a Ulysses foundation and preparation course in Beijing and the next week (June 24) I will be departing for Ethiopia for the field work. I will be in Ethiopia until the end of August and then attending the wrap up training in New York, September 2 to 8 and will be back in Warsaw on 9th September - However I am aware, that the real journey will begin only upon my return ….

My objective and point of view
In the last few week I have read a lot about Africa, probably more than in the last 40 years together… We then only recently had the G8 in Germany who talked also a lot about our responsibility especially for Africa and its countries and I have thought a lot over the last weeks about what I hope to contribute and to gain from the experience.

On the professional side, it has always been important to me to be part of an organization that
- is committed to quality, growth and diversity of experience, and
- is acting responsible towards its environment and its stakeholders,
- tries to involve and contributes to our communities
- is valuing responsible leadership
My hope is that this experience will further enhance my ability to work towards those objectives both to add value to the firm and to create interesting and challenging career development opportunities for our team members. The fact that our firm is committed to such a program is another reason I am so proud to be part of PricewaterhouseCoopers

On the personal side, based on my discussions with alumni of the program, I understand it is an amazing experience, which will be both extremely challenging and extremely energizing. I am looking forward to the journey ahead and the life-time (and life changing) experience.

I understand that I will have very limited access to our office system while I am gone, and no blackberry coverage at all, but hope to have some internet access from time to time where I will feed my blog as it seems to be hungry :-)
Phone access will also likely be tough, especially in the villages. Apparently my cell phone will work but coverage may be limited.

THANKS
Sincere thanks to my Partner colleagues and to all of you, who have agreed to support me with this project! I deeply appreciate everybody’s support and I hope that I have the chance to return the favour in some way –

I am sure I will have lots of stories and experiences to share with you on my return.

And so it begins...