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 7th. 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:
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| I spent the day relaxing at the Sheraton on Christmas Eve, which was decorated very nicely for the holiday |
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| 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. |
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| Ready for Christmas Day mass in my Ethiopian finest |
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| 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.
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| Our first stop was a visit to another resort which overlooks Lake Bishoftu, a large crater lake. |
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| 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.
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| 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. |
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| Ready to start my safari adventure! |
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| We saw some impressively large herds of elephants |
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| The giraffes were quite exciting to see so close |
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| An very new-born baby baboon |
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| Such an impressively large tree |
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| We were very lucky to see not one, but two, of the very elusive cheetahs! |
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| 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. |
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| 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.
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| Exterior of Holy Trinity Cathedral |
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| Exterior of Holy Trinity Cathedral |
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| Interior dome of Holy Trinity Cathedral |
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| 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.
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| Me with two of my CNHDE co-workers who presented preliminary survey results at the meeting |
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| Me with the CHNDE data manager/IT person. |
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| With my PULSE manager, presenting some of my final analysis results |
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| Co-workers enjoying my results |
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| Me and two of my CNHDE co-workers |
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| 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.
