{"id":50,"date":"2013-10-18T08:48:34","date_gmt":"2013-10-18T08:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mjsilver.co.uk\/blog\/?p=50"},"modified":"2013-10-18T08:48:34","modified_gmt":"2013-10-18T08:48:34","slug":"adola-town-of-a-thousand-donkeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mjsilver.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/10\/adola-town-of-a-thousand-donkeys\/","title":{"rendered":"Adola: Town of a thousand donkeys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eager anticipation glints in my eyes, there is almost an air of excitement.\u00a0 Before me lies my destiny, my future:\u00a0 Adola College of Teacher Education.\u00a0 The place that is to be my home for the next two years.\u00a0 Gates bar the way, but they are opened as I approach and I am welcomed across the threshold by the gentlemen whose job it is to guard the entrance to the college. \u00a0The barbed wire atop the fence creates a slight sense of incarceration, but I bat this back as I walk the path to my new home.\u00a0 The Dean and Vice-Dean are here to welcome me, although they seem a little surprised \u2013 \u201cWe didn\u2019t expect you until tomorrow\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the welcome is warm and even extends to the Dean offering me one of his jerry cans of water as I have none at home, nor do I know how to get it.\u00a0 I put this high on my list of things to find out \u2013 water is important.<\/p>\n

Lack of water is not my only problem, I also have no food.\u00a0 This is initially solved by an invitation from the Dean and Vice-Dean to dinner at the finest hotel in town- the Abera Hotel.\u00a0 It might even by so classy an establishment to have been listed with a star, but I doubt it.\u00a0 Still, it is the best Adola has to offer and I am clearly to be treated.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The main road through town.<\/p><\/div>\n

The first impressions of a town stick with you and if I am to be brutally honest (unlike me I know) Adola has little to offer to please the eye, nor to entertain the mind.\u00a0 It is in essence a road with buildings either side.\u00a0 It is true that some dirt tracks head off from the main sealed, but mud bedecked road, but there seems to be little to appeal to the casual visitor.\u00a0 However, I would focus on what it does have.\u00a0 There is a bank, a post office, a number of small shops, selling a passable range of usable products a few churches and mosques and a bus station.\u00a0 Oh and the Abera Hotel\u2026 I have come to believe that this is the town\u2019s best attraction, but there are more buildings and there could be some serious competition for this place soon (by which I mean the next 10-15 years).<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A side street<\/p><\/div>\n

What Adola lacks in charm and entertainment it makes up for in donkeys and people.\u00a0 The former of which there are a plentiful supply, the latter are friendly and helpful and certainly a combination of interesting characters.<\/p>\n

My first stroll into town was accompanied by frequent curious glances and shouts of children calling out \u201cYou! You! You!\u201d to gain my attention.\u00a0 On one or two occasions this was followed by a very half-hearted \u201cmoney!\u201d As if they already knew the futility of it and it certainly lacked the persistence and hassle that I have previously experienced in Addis or Hawassa.<\/p>\n

Now, nearly three weeks after arriving here I have noticed a decided drop in the attention I am receiving here.\u00a0 I have walked into the town enough to be an increasingly familiar sight.\u00a0 I reckon in a few months that they won\u2019t even be able to distinguish me from a local\u2026 once I get a handle on the local language that is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eager anticipation glints in my eyes, there is almost an air of excitement.\u00a0 Before me lies my destiny, my future:\u00a0 Adola College of Teacher Education.\u00a0 The place that is to be my home for the next two years.\u00a0 Gates bar … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mjsilver.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mjsilver.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mjsilver.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjsilver.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjsilver.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjsilver.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjsilver.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mjsilver.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjsilver.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjsilver.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}