Robert's field trip & our new House in Kasanches

This week was a busy week. Robert went to Nekempt and Nedjo, to the west of Addis Abeba.  A whole day's drive actually. 






It is a mountainous area, good soils, and humid. The field trip was to check on the status of the project. And yes they were carrying out erosion control measures. 

On friday I has a nice outing with two very good friends here, Anne and Petra, to the Ethiopian Ethnological museum / institute of Ethiopian studies. 

It is housed in the former palace of Haile Selassie on the - now-  Addis Abeba University compound, a beautiful place, really! It was just the time that people graduated so it was very festive, students throwing their ceremonial hats in the air. 

Below,  the palace and graduates in their attire. 

Up:  the Addis Abeba University compound. 

To my amazement there was a room that you cannot even call a library, just a room with soke old grey office chetsts. An old man sitting there, obviously a guard, opened one of the chest to show me some old bibles and other important writings, from the 14th century. 

He took out one of the books, with beautiful coloured illustrations, and showed me how the pages were not of paper but made of animal skin, though very thin. Amazing! 

 On Saturday I had invited  the (young) manager of my gym, Cheru, and a nice woman whom I met there during the work-outs adn who became my friend, Lette, for a good bye lunch/ coffee, as I wouldn't see them after we move house next week. In the picture you see why Ethiopians always depict faces with very big white and black eyes! 

I had also invited Beletech and Zedewnesh (Beletech had made fresh injera on my request) who brought their young housemaid to prepare Ethiopian buna after lunch. It was very lively as Zed appeared to know Cheru from the gym where he used to be a trainer when Zeleka and Zed went there, near to their home. to the right you see B'tech and Zed in our kitchen.

And here you see their lovely housemaid in the clothes I gave her last week, and with which she is very happy. 

Saturday 12 and Sunday 13th we already brought some plants and other stuff to our new house. Insn't it lovely? With a big garden and even a  vegetable plot in it. We will move in definitely on Saturday. 

Back in Ethiopia June-July 2014

Dear friends and family- it is rainy season now. That means that mostly it is cold - more so as we are in the mountains, 2000 m above sea level. It is often cloudy and we have heavy rain/ thunderstorms  mostly every afternoon/ early evening; sometimes in the night.  

Our house is leaking  a lot when it rains, in 7 places;  in 3 of them we have to put a bucket in order that the floor doesn't flood. Even so, our landlord told Robert on his return -June 1st -that he wanted to raise the rent from 1000 dollar a month to 2000 dollar. Ridiculous of course. Robert suggested we pay 1500,  but only after he has repaired the leaking roof AND the hot water in the bathroom downstairs  AND the leaking shower of the guest rooms. The landlord didn't reply. 

On Saturday the 14th of June I returned form the Netherlands. And sarated my full time job on monday the 16th. It is great, really my type of work:  Facilitator Linking & Learning for the Agri-Hub, a network of professionals,  all working in development of agriculture and food and value chains, including gender issues, agricultural training & education etc. In different organisation, ranging form agribusiness to NGO's. 
Check out: http://apf-ethiopia.ning.com/

This is the new coffee/lunch restaurant  

After one week (June 21st) it became  clear that going to my office in town on a daily base and spending at least one hour to et there and one hour or more to return home in heavy traffic,  was quite demanding. So - also bevause of the present landlord-leaking house- rent raise sitiuation-   Robert and I started looking around for another house, somewhere between Robert's office( MOA) and mine.  

To our surpise we quite quickly (saturday June 28) found a very nice house in Kasanches, the old centre of town. And with a very nice guy as landlord. His father built the house in Haile Selassie time and that you can see- it is well built and refined. And affordable. 

Meanwhile, our day-sebanja, the guy who watches the house and tends the garden - behaved even worse than before. He left as suited him and didn't turn up in time for his duties. When - on saturday July 5 (Robert had invited his Rotary club here) - it appeared that he had also taken away 2 taps from the servant's quarters,  we felt that was enough. So we fired him on the spot. He was surprised even! 

These paintings/ works of art are exhibited in the restaurant. they also sell leather bags. 

Anyway, having done that, and knowing that he knows the house  and that we are away most of the day, the chance of him with friends robbing the house was quite possible. So we asked the night sebanja, Habtamu,  to stay on during the day, paid of course. That he did. 


Robert went on field trip this monday july 7th ( to Nekempt and Nedjo, far west of Addis Abeba) and so on tuesday 8th I stayed home to work at home in order to give Habtamu  a day off in which he could collect some clothes and tend to his daily business of selling coffee and eggs, killing and cleaning chicken etc. 

Meanwhile we do enjoy ourselves. Every sunday morning we get  our ayurvedic massage; one sunday we had lunch with Anne and Martin Stewart, who introduced us to a new coffee/lunch restaurant in a former factory building. And one evening we had a dinner party with my Agri-Hub team in a nice Indian restaurant, so that Robert got to know them as well. 

This traditional 'storage' is made out of one piece of wood!

I also visited the Ethiopian Women's Business Association, which was facinating, about a hundred highly educated and rather well off Ethiopian women gathering to support each other.  

The weekend of July 19th (and the week before) we will move to our new home. Next blog will show you pictures of that! 

A long annual leave in May& June 2014

Robert and I went on home leave on May 30st. 
So we were in time for Meike's birthday on May 2d. 

We celebrated that in Hodeige, Belgium, where she lives with her boyfriend/partner Michael. Hanna en Jaco  and Joost and his 'woman' Emmy were there too.  We had a lovely time together! 

It was so green when we came back to the Netherlands! 


We also celebrated my mum's 92d birthday. My dad (95) invited us (me and my siblings with partners) for lunch. Even though my mum has a very advanced degree of Alzheimer, it was good to be together. After her birthday suddenly things got worse. Somehow right in time there was a vacancy in the alzheimer home near to their appartment, about half a mile. Things went fast and now she lives there since June 11th. 

Both my dad and mum are adjusting to this new course in their life now and it is not easy. I am grateful I could be there to support them during the change. My flight back to Ethiopia was on the 13th 

During the month of May we saw a lot of friends and family, which was great. Lindsay came from England for my birthday and met with Anna - we actually went belly dancing together. And they decided to come visit me in Ethiopia, together.


Also we got the chance to meet with Michael's mum, Lutgarde, and that was a feast. As if we know each other a long time already. She will also come to see us in Ethiopia, so it is going to be a wise women's journey. 




  

 Lindsay, Robert and I went to Rotterdam for my birthday. We did a tour on the river Maas into the harbours. We didn't now there were so many containers! And what did we see?  A ship from Liberia with the name of Bella Schulte - as if Rob's mum was there just to say hello

Then back to Ethiopia, where a full time job awaited me - more in next blog.