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<\/a><\/p>\nAt the end of the session I break the news to the class.\u00a0 The counterpart is gone by this point.\u00a0 All credit to him, he actually came to this session though.\u00a0 Presumably to ruin my course planning further!\u00a0 There is some unhappiness as they realise that this could mean the course will end later.<\/p>\n
In spite of the initial disappointment I quickly sought to turn the whole thing to my advantage.\u00a0 I had intended a trip to a different part of Ethiopia anyway during the fast approaching semester break and I recalled that the Dean had told me he was going up to Addis with college car that coming Monday.\u00a0 Re-working my planning and tackling the Dean on Sunday at the wedding of the daughter of one of the Admin staff (ceremonies like this here are wide-reaching affairs) I made my request.\u00a0 Even though this was the day before it wasn\u2019t a problem.\u00a0 This is just one of the many fantastic things about this country- because everything is so last minute these things are often possibilities and a car ride to Addis was not to be sniffed at.\u00a0 Not only would it save on the price of a bus it would also be a lot more comfortable.\u00a0 We were to leave early-ish, about 8am, the next morning.<\/p>\n
Monday I was packed and ready to go and a little worried that I was 2 minutes late heading out of my little home here.\u00a0 Silly me.\u00a0 This is Ethiopia.\u00a0 To cut a long story short and after several random trips around the town (I had got into the car thinking we were about to leave), including collecting three additional passengers, we started on our journey around 11 o\u2019clock.\u00a0 With the extra cargo it was pretty cramped and perhaps not a lot <\/i>more comfortable than the public transport option.<\/p>\n A strange discovery<\/p><\/div>\n Feeling guilty that the cramped conditions were down to my late request, my fears were silenced when it turned out that the town administrator had requested the dean to take these three extra passengers Monday morning.\u00a0 My request was positively in advance by comparison.\u00a0 Since the car was overcrowded two of the other passengers actually got off at Bore (avid readers will know this town well \u2013 it\u2019s the breakfast town for the busses that travel between Hawassa and Adola).\u00a0 Comfort levels back up to an acceptable standard we continued our journey, stopping for lunch in the Rasta town of Shashemene (although they didn\u2019t particularly make their presence felt) which involved my hunting for a bank to get some money.\u00a0 It had all been so last minute I hadn\u2019t had a chance to get any and had only about 30 birr on me (about \u00a31) I mentioned to the dean that lunch might be on him and he facilitated my finding some money! \u00a0(I don\u2019t remember who paid for lunch in the end.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t me though)<\/p>\n Our fellow passenger was an American Pasteur who was pursuing a business enterprise involving a new vehicle to replace the Bajaj.\u00a0 There seems to be some dealing going on with the family of the town administrator.\u00a0 Needless to say we heard all about this wonderful vehicle and the wonderful man who had the wonderful idea \u2013 my last mention of the matter will be to suggest that perhaps modesty was not one of his stronger attributes.<\/p>\n One of my favourite place names in Ethiopia is Mojo.\u00a0 It is town, about an hour outside of Addis and I am now familiar with this place because that\u2019s as far as we got Monday.\u00a0 Even though the dean was going to Addis on the Monday he wasn\u2019t arriving until the Tuesday.\u00a0 This was always the plan ( I just didn\u2019t know it) and the reason for this is quite simple.\u00a0 The dean was going to Addis on business with the Ministry of Education.\u00a0 For this the Ministry pays a per diem, which is lovely.\u00a0 It is meant to cover the cost of accommodation and food for the period in the capital.\u00a0 Unfortunately it is not even enough to cover the hotel costs and so many people choose to overnight outside the capital (at about 1\/5 of the cost) and continue the journey in the morning. \u00a0So, I had the pleasure of adding an additional stop on my trip up North.<\/p>\n I didn’t have any pictures from this part of the trip so the ones included here are “teasers” for the next entries!<\/p>\n Next time:\u00a0 Escape from Addis<\/p>\n \u201cIn HDP next week\u2026\u201d I begin, continuing into description of the several activities that are going to take place and detailing what the course participants need to do to prepare.\u00a0 I then set the next task and they start to … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"