Things are winding down here...

Yesterday I spent my Christmas Day in Ethiopia.  Although I must say that it felt very strange having missed all of the pre-Christmas hoopla and activities at home, being away from friends and family, AND in a country where the majority of the people (Ethiopian Orthodox Christians) don’t celebrate Christmas until January 7^th. It was a most unique Christmas indeed!  Luckily, I was able to video Skype with my family and virtually join in the Christmas festivities back at home for a while.  Here are a few pictures from my celebrations here in Addis:

I spent the day relaxing at the Sheraton on Christmas Eve, which was decorated very nicely for the holiday

It was beautiful weather for a relaxing day at the pool here on Christmas Eve...enjoying some of the last of  the heat before I soon return to the winter cold back home.

Ready for Christmas Day mass in my Ethiopian finest

The crowded courtyard at the international Catholic church as the Amharic mass let out and the English mass crowd was coming in

Again, December has been another month that has flown by with lots of work to do, as my assignment nears to a close, and also filled withsome very exciting travels to make the most of my last month here in Africa! 

I spent the first weekend of December at a resort on one of the smaller lakes in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia.  The resort was owned by the same group that owned the nice hotel that we stayed at in Bahir Dar earlier, and also owns a spa and restaurant in Addis Ababa – so we knew that it would be nice.  It was only a short drive away, about an hour from our house here, and made for an excellent relaxing weekend.  Click here for more pictures of the weekend adventure.   

Our first stop was a visit to another resort which overlooks Lake Bishoftu, a large crater lake.

A nice view of the lake at the resort we stayed at from the restaurant area.

The next weekend Bridget and I departed on what was definitely an amazing experience.  We had used our Ethiopian airlines frequent flier miles that we had racked up so far, to cash-in on tickets to Tanzania where we took a brief 3-day safari.  It was an amazing experience, and we saw far more animals, and at a much closer distance, than I ever imaged would be possible.  It’s hard to put it into words, or have pictures do it justice, but it was an incredible journey there - one that I’m so glad I decided to make while I was in Africa already.  There were so many great pictures form this trip that I decided to break them out by days: Day 0, Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.

We started off the trip with an amazing (and amazingly plentiful!) Swahili food sampler at our first lodge.  The food was great and some new variety was a welcome change.

Ready to start my safari adventure!

We saw some impressively large herds of elephants

The giraffes were quite exciting to see so close

An very new-born baby baboon

Such an impressively large tree

We were very lucky to see not one, but two, of the very elusive cheetahs!

Hyenas!  The adults were really quite scary and mangy looking, but I had no idea that baby hyenas were so different looking....furry and dark.

At one of the few times we got out of the vehicle at a little rest stop area...we went to look at the adjoining lake and to our surprise saw hippos there - quite close - maybe too close for comfort - with no barriers or anything. Just the hippo eyes seem to have made it into this photo!

The third weekend in December was Bridget’s last weekend in Addis and her Birthday – so we decided to visit one last church in Addis that we had been meaning to visit, and also have some fun evening outings.  The church we visited was the Holy Trinity cathedral, also known as Kidist Selassie in Amharic, and is the highest ranking Orthodox cathedral in Addis Ababa.  Although the interior is similar to some other churches that we've seen in Ethiopia, the exterior was very ornate and different from what we had seen. The cathedral is also the final resting place of Emperor Haile Selassie and his wife.  Here are the photos from our visit to the cathedral.

Exterior of Holy Trinity Cathedral

Exterior of Holy Trinity Cathedral

Interior dome of Holy Trinity Cathedral

Final resting place of Emperor Haile Selassie

The rest of my pictures from throughout the month of December can be found here.

Last week was an exciting week at work with a workshop to attend and my final results presentation.  My group hosted a workshop at a local hotel where some of my co-workers presented the preliminary results from the survey data that I have been working on in my time here.  It was very well attended by those in government health groups, other NGO staff, and the Ethiopoian Minister of Health.  It was nice to see so much interest in the survey, the preliminary results, and the discussion that followed.  I know that the groundwork that I have been laying for more in-depth analysis will be of great interest to a similar group of people.  Some of the questions asked in the session already were getting at the more advanced analyses I have been starting to do while here.  So it was a nice precursor to my presentation of my final results at the end of last week.

I can’t believe that it’s already my last week here.  

Me with two of my CNHDE co-workers who presented preliminary survey results at the meeting

Me with the CHNDE data manager/IT person.

With my PULSE manager, presenting some of my final analysis results

Co-workers enjoying my results

Me and two of my CNHDE co-workers

Me and my PULSE manager

Although at times this experience has seemed to move quite slowly, and been filled with challenges along the way, looking back in retrospect now it really has gone by quite quickly.  I’m looking forward to a week of wrapping up my work here, and participating in hand-off meetings so that it can be continued on by other staff after I leave…and of course packing up and getting the house ready for my departure, as I’m the last of the roommates to leave.  I’m sure the time will fly by and I’m looking forward to arriving on New Year’s Eve and welcoming in 2012 back at home.  

November in a Nutshell

I know that it’s been a while since I’ve posted here, but the past month plus seems to have gone by so fast.  November started with my week-long trip home to celebrate my one-year wedding anniversary with my husband, spend some quality time with friends and family, visit my home team co-workers back at GSK, and do some shopping for things to take back with me to Ethiopia for the remainder of my time here. 

First wedding anniversary celebration dinner

With friends participating in a walk for Pancreatic Cancer on a nice, but brisk morning, it was quite chilly, especially after getting used to African weather here

Enjoying a visit with my parents

After returning to Addis Ababa, there was a lot going on, including getting fully immersed back in work and my analyses as things have really started to pick up towards the end of my time here.  Some of the other goings-on are best captured in the pictures attached here, but some of the highlights included visiting our co-worker Hiwot’s new baby boy, having visitors (my roommate Bridget’s brother and friends) here for Thanksgiving time, visiting the National Museum of Ethiopia and seeing the famous skeleton of Lucy and attending some Ethiopian Christmas bazaars and even a Christmas concert.  Enjoy the pictures!

Miscellaneous photos from November 2011

Visit to the National Museum of Ethiopia

Thanksgiving in Ethiopia

October Pictures

I've gone ahead and posted additional pictures that I've taken throughout the month here to a Picasa album if you are interested in seeing a bit more of my experience:

Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony Invite

October Randoms

Visits to the Historic Cities of Gondar and Axum

Last weekend we travelled North to visit two cities with a lot of Ethiopian history to take in.  The first city we stopped in was Gondar.  This city was founded in the 1600s when Emperor Fasilides started construction on churches and his famous castle (also known as Fasil’s castle).  The Royal Enclosure and many castles now located there was my favorite site within the city.

Me at the entrance to Fasil's castle, in front of some very tall doors!

To see more pictures of my visit to Gondar, click here.

We also stopped in the city of Axum/Aksum.  This city is well known for its distinctive giant obelisks, known as stelae, although there is no clear explanation as to how these massive structures were created, moved, and erected so long ago.  The city is also home to the remnants of Queen of Sheba’s palace and is said to house the Ark of the Covenant in the compound of the Cathedral of St Mary of Zion.

Starting off the day at the main stelae field

The rock build-up is new, but the original foundation in place below is believed to be Queen of Sheba's palace

It is the building here that is said to house the Ark...this is about as close as we got :)

To see more pictures of my visit to Axum, click here.

Ethiopia's Health Extension Program Is Making News

As I have mentioned previously, I am working on longitudinal survey data collected with respect to the implementation of the Health Extension Program (HEP) in Ethiopia (click here for details form a previous post).  Lately, there has been some increased attention paid to the program as the preliminary results of an independent survey, the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey 2011, have been shared this past month.  Key achievements in areas of family planning and child health were highlighted.  See here for the press release from the Embassy of the United States in Addis Ababa.

Also last month, preceding the above press release, the HEP was highlighted in the Embassy of the United States in Addis Ababa's Newsletter.  It's a nice article with a broad overview of the program and also highlights some personal and practical aspects of its implementation.  See here for the article.

Ethiopian Lakes and Forest Adventures

After taking advantage of my time here and visiting some of the great lakes of Ethiopia the past two weekends, this weekend has been a bit more relaxing with some downtime and a day-trip yesterday.

Two weekends ago we took a 4+ hour drive out of the city to visit some of the lakes of the Rift Valley with our final destination being Awassa.  Along the way we stopped at the Sabana Resort to see Lake Langano and grab some lunch.  One of the big attractions of this lake is that is reported to be safe for swimming, and without bilharzia (a parasite that can be found in water here).  Although it was a beautiful day, and lovely to see, I didn’t jump in. 

We continued along to our final destination of Awasa – the largest city in the Ethiopian Rift Valley – with the main attraction being its lake – which ironically is the smallest of lakes in the Ethiopian Rift Valley.  Here we were able to relax a bit at the resort, spot some wildlife (monkeys and many many birds), and take a nice boat ride out on the lake to see the sights and a local fish market.

On the way back home, we stopped at the Abiata-Shala National park.  Although we did not continue all of the way into the park to view the lakes, we took a short hike to view some animals!  Here there was also very picturesque African landscape...what had pictured before arriving, but a bit different from much of what I have experienced in Ethiopia so far.

To view more pictures of the Rift Valley Lakes trip, click here.

On a side note – it is the Rift Valley in East Africa where many very early fossils have been discovered, including perhaps the most famous "Lucy", who was discovered further North in Ethiopia.

Last weekend we flew to the city of Bahir dar, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Ethiopia with top attractions including the Blue Nile Falls and Lake Tana.  We stayed at the Kiriftu resort there, which was gorgeous and probably one of the most luxurious places to stay outside of Addis in Ethiopia – it was a special treat. 

Our first day there, we visited the Blue Nile Falls.  After a bumpy dirt road ride out to the Falls area, they are only visible by another thirty minute hike, which was a very popular route with the locals that day being market day and the weekend before the Meskel holiday.  We definitely had lots of company, besides our guide, on our walk out that way.  The Falls were a spectacular sight and apparently we went at a perfect time, it being the end of rainy season, and the Falls being very full.  There were very few other tourists that we passed along the way and we had lots of open space to enjoy the scenery.

On our second day we took a boat ride out on Lake Tana – Ethiopia’s largest lake.  This area is known for its abundance of monasteries, many on islands.  We stopped and visited both the Ura Kidane monastery on the Zege peninsula and the Entos Eyesu monastery on a very small island.  Afterwards, we continued on to the Nile Source, which is supposed to be the best place to spot hippos, although very sadly in the mid-day we did not see any.

To view more pictures of the Bahir Dar trip, click here.

Yesterday we ventured out in search of the Menagesha Forest.  In spite of it only being some 30km out of the city, due to a misunderstanding with the driver on where we were trying to go and a very long dirt road in quite poor condition and a non-4x4 vehicle…it was quite the long adventure to get there.  Although we didn’t have too much time to actually explore the forest, once we finally got there, and still have time to make it back during the daylight hours, it was still a fun trip with some beautiful scenery along the way.

To view more pictures of the Menagesha Forest, click here.