Time for an update.
Tim’s been here in Ethiopia for six and a half months. Today I have been here for five months exactly. I believe Tim came at the beginning of October and I followed after finishing my exams midway through November.
The first few months in Ethiopia for me were pretty full on. Tim’s job required him largely to be in the field. This is on the border of Sudan, in the west of Ethiopia; the nearest town is called Asosa, if you want to googlemaps it. It’s about an hour flight from Addis. Since I didn’t know anyone here I got stuck in making friends and doing fun stuff to keep myself busy and to learn as much about this place as I possibly could. It was mostly fun but naturally overwhelming at times. These first two months were spent shuffling around various hotels and guesthouses which was also a pain because I felt like I wasn’t settled. Finally in January we found and moved into a nice house about a twenty minute drive across town from Tim’s office. It’s good having a base. I spent a few weeks of those first two months with a friend called Chus; we met through the Couch Surfing website and helped each other get by in this, at times, crazy country. I saw so little of Tim in this time that I began to refer to her as my surrogate boyfriend! In addition to seeing the sights in Addis, we made a trip to the South of Ethiopia. Travelling by bus only, it was at times a little trying! Most people in the South also don’t speak English very well. Sometimes they don’t speak Amharic either, rather a dialect of their own (there are eighty-something tribes in Ethiopia), so the phrase books were no help! The highlight was a boat trip we took on Lake Chamo with some Rastas, where we saw a crocodile market and a bunch of hippos.
After Chus returned to Spain, Janke arrived from Amsterdam, where she lives with Tim’s friend Richard, who was contracting for Tim’s company. The four of us spent a very quiet 25th of December together – Ethiopian Christmas is not until early January. The boys returned to the field, so Janke and I travelled to the east of Ethiopia and then to the North. We fed hyenas in Harar, visited a livestock market in Jijiga trekked in Lalibela, briefly visited Bahir Dar and Gonder and took a day trip to Debre Zeit which is about forty five minutes south of Addis.
After Janke and Richard returned to Amsterdam, it was just me in Addis when Tim went to the field. I used this time to play home maker, until I got bored and begged Tim to get some time off. We made a trip to Bahir Dar where we saw the Blue Nile Falls and hippos on Lake Chamo. We also visited Debre Libanos one weekend and in early March we enjoyed a weekend away in Diani, Kenya, where we got to swim in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.
At the end of March, I met Tash in Dubai and then she came to stay with us in Addis for a bit. While Tim was back in the field we took a trip to Egypt, where we visited Cairo to see the pyramids and the Nile, and Sharm El Sheikh to go diving in the Red Sea.
This brings us through to just now. Tash left Addis yesterday and I’m weighing up my options. I need to find a new hobby or a project, or something to do for the next wee while. I feel like I know Addis pretty well now, and I’ve just had a big bout of travelling to other countries, so I’ll need to think of something new to amuse myself with my time here…
Tim, in the meantime is working in the field for one week, followed by a week in Addis. We’re planning a trip back to NZ in June for some R and R.
adventuresinthehorn 