Hi Friends!
The team here at Ethiopia is having a great time. We arrived on the 30th of April after leaving on the 28th : it was a long 2 days of travel for all three of us. We were greeted by our hosts and taken to our accommodations. I’ve talked to a few other groups and I’m pretty sure we have the best ones by far. They provided us with a VIP guest house on a compound on the outskirts of the city. The boys share a room and a washroom while I (the only female) get to enjoy my own space. We also have a living room and a kitchen that the university stocked with cooking utensils. It’s been an incredible place to stay and are incredibly thankful to have such wonderful hosts.
So far we’ve met some amazing people and experienced some pretty wild things. Right now is Easter in Ethiopia and we’ve seen a lot of goats and chickens hanging around the city … like flocks of goats. We learned from our driver (who speaks limited English) that all of the goats we see are going to be slaughtered on Sunday for Easter to break the fast they’ve had for the past 55 days. We got all that from some super sweet hand motions and the word “Jesus” – consider us experts at managing the language barrier.
We’ve also met with different professors around the university. Yesterday we were able to sit in on a lecture – they were talking all about feasibility studies and ROI … it’s crazy to think that we’re learning the exact same concepts all the way in Canada at Ivey. Definitely gave me some global perspective.
Now … as a coffee addict (I can thank Ivey’s 48s for this addiction) I was incredibly excited to go to a country known for its coffee. I have NOT been disappointed. Yesterday I had the greatest cup of coffee I have ever had. So strong. So sweet. So delicious. It was very different from Canadian coffee … and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to handle Starbucks now that I’ve had this. And have I mentioned that my cup of coffee was less that 25 Canadian Cents? Yeah. Bye bye 5 dollar lattes. Hello full pocketbook and satisfied coffee craving. 5 weeks of absolute bliss. Anyways. More to come once we have more adventures …. no sign of Simba yet so I’m still scoping the country. I’ve been told most of the lions have moved south because of construction … but I will not lose hope.
Until Next Time.
Emma – Team Ethiopia