ETHIOPIA – WEEK 8 – ADDIS
http://picasaweb.google.com/Guenter.Blog/ETHIOPIAWEEK8ADDIS
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
No comments:
Post a Comment