Saturday, October 17th - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

My alarm  woke  me at 7:15 and I quickly got up before I had time to even think about rolling over and going back to sleep.  However, I had slept soundly from the time I got into bed about 5 a.m. so that was worth something.

My flight arrived in Addis around 3:30.  By the time we got our luggage and cleared customs and immigration it was about 4:00 so reasonably quick.  I imagine the folks who stayed around to meet our late flight probably did so on overtime.  They were probably happy that we had finally arrived and happy to get us through as quickly as possible so they could go home, but they were also likely making a few extra bucks so that would help with their late night.

I went out into the parking lot, which was pretty empty and found Ketema, the driver who was taking me to the house where I will be staying.  I wandered around a bit first and didn't see him but I knew he was there somewhere.  Eventually a taxi driver, who I imagine was hoping for a fare, offered me his phone to call Ketema.  He answered right away and told me where he was.  I had walked right past the back of the van, not the front where he was expecting me to go by, but I think he was sleeping anyway so he wouldn't have seen me.  He had been waiting since just before midnight so was a bit sleepy to say the least.  Of course when he checked, the plane had left on time so he had no reason to think it would be late.  

Anyway, the drive to the house was quicker than normal because there was literally no traffic at that time of the morning.  Addis didn't appear to have changed much as we drove through, and the street leading up to the house certainly hadn't changed.  It was as rough and uneven as ever.  The guard at the gate let us in and he and Ketema carried my stuff upstairs and then they were gone.  Lynn had been awakened by my arrival so we had a few quick words of greeting and then I got ready for bed.  It was going to be a very short night so I didn't waste any time getting to bed.

Ketema decided to sleep in today so Getu was the driver who picked us up.  We drove to Kality and on the drive so much of Addis came back to my memory: dust everywhere, horse carts running along side trucks and cars, sheep and goats going down the sides of the streets (and sometimes into them), buses (really mini vans) crowding the sides of the streets picking up people, long lines of people waiting for their buses, bigger yellow and red buses on the main routes, small stores along the side of the road and even just single vendors with one product to sell, shoe shine people everywhere and always busy, and people everywhere.  It is such a busy city.

Kality is a lovely little centre, and by centre I mean a Canadian Humanitarian Education Centre.  It is totally surrounded by a high fence and a gate and there is a security guard on duty.  He is an older gentleman who takes his job seriously and looks after everyone, especially the younger children.  The centre is open seven days a week.  On school days the students come here after classes, and on the weekends they can come any time.  This was a Saturday so there were lots of children around and several guardians.  It is a safe place for everyone, which is one of its goals.  It also has study space for the children to work on their homework, an office for the administrator, a smaller meeting or storage room, a covered verandah, and a large outdoor open space.  The last time I was here this space was mainly lawn and the children had a great time in it.  Now a quarter of it is in garden with lots of healthy looking vegetables growing.  The kitchen area is at the far end - just a partially covered and partially open area.  It moved to that location when the garden came in.  Canadian Humanitarian provides one meal a day for the children - sometimes lunch to take to school and sometimes lunch or dinner at school depending on the centre.  

On the other side of the lawn is the wash area, which is a very busy area at times.  After school the students all wash and brush their teeth.  On weekends they wash their hair and that's what some of the girls were doing while we were there.  They were also braiding each other's hair, which was nice to see.  The centre provides clean safe water (safe for them, not us) and towels.  The students keep their toothbrushes and other personal items at the centre.  Many of the centres also offer other after-school-type programs.  Some of the more popular activities are dancing and gymnastics.   Typical kids, they need to burn off energy.  The children are from ages 5 to 18 or grades 1 to 12, so there is quite a variety of activities involved.

Students in the program are nominated by the local kabele or village council according to their need.  They are usually from single parent or no parent homes being raised by a grandparent(s) or other relative(s).  They are all poor but they are so happy and contented that it's really hard to think of them as poor.  They love their centre and their friends at the centre, and they really enjoy coming to the centre.  Without it they would be playing on the streets or in the poor areas where most of them live, and not have ready access to clean safe water so the centres serve a very useful purpose.

Some of the guardians were just there with their children or to visit but several were there for our presentation.  There are ten guardians who are running a cooperative business of making "twof" candles.  These are long ceremonial candles used by churches and the ladies make them as a group at the centre, and then sell them and split the profits after buying supplies for their next batch of candles.  Our goal during our session with them was to talk about business planning and goal setting and help them work better as a team.

The team work part was reasonably easy and they could each identify strengths that they or their colleagues had.   From there we built a team resume of strengths, roles and challenges and that went very well.  We then asked them if they were a good team and we had some interesting discussions there with a few communication and division of labour issues.  After that we discussed change and why people resist it, and they certainly recognized most of the reasons why people are resistant to change.  Next we discussed what changes might be on the horizon for them, how those changes might be accepted by the group and how to manage the change.  We then got into goal setting, both personal and team, but concentrated on the team.  We explained SMART goals to them and left them with a chart to fill out for their homework where they had to tell us their goals, who was responsible to ensure they were met, who the helpers were, what resources were needed, what the indicators of success were, and what the time line for the goal was.  They accepted the challenge and seemed to be excited by it, and that's where we ended our session.

The guardians are all very nice.  They greet us warmly with handshakes and kisses on the cheek.  The more they do, the better they like and respect you apparently.  Some of them are literate but most are not, and none of them speak any English.  That means that everything has to be done through an interpreter, which definitely slows things down.  Woinshet, the Centre Manager, was our interpreter and she did a great job.  She is a lovely young woman who obviously takes her job very seriously and who is well respected by the guardians, the students and other staff members.

After leaving Kality I know we went to the Hilton so I could exchange some euros into Ethiopian birr.  I assume we ate somewhere for lunch and dinner but I no longer remember where.  I also don't remember what we did all afternoon.  I know I managed to stay awake for the rest of the day and that I lasted until at least 9 p.m. but then I had to go to bed as I was getting too tired to be even a bit coherent.  And that was my first day in Ethiopia.