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.