Great days at Pearl Beach

For the second day of our 4 day outing Robert had reserved a very interesting tour. 
We set out at 07:30, with our driver Omar. We went to the south and got some more impressions of the very Liberia-look-alike landscape. Along the road there were mango- plan- tations, scattered cashewnut trees, and coconut palm plantations. 

We went to the village of Shimoni; formerly a place where slaves were being kept- in cold and wet caves, before they were shipped to Zanzibar, by Arab ( and some Portugese) slave traders.
From Shimoni we went by boat to see dolphins and after that to two different spots for snorkling and seeing the coral reef fishes- beautiful! (In the process we badly burnt the insides of our knees!) 

 After the trip we got a very very good sea-food lunch, with crab and fish and seaweed, just great. Then a short walk over the island, visit the school and a good view of the mangrove-area. 






On the way back the crew made the greatest (jazzy) music ever on old oil drum, a chest and an empty bottle, singing along, amazing!  

 At home we spotted the golden Oriole...

and Jelleke also relaxed...

The most beautiful sightings in Langano

A 4day retreat to pearl beach, south of Mombasa

Since I will get a training in Nairobi next week, for my work, and since in Ethiopia they are celebrating the Ethiopian New Year on 11th and 12 september, and since the weather in Addis Abeba is still cold and wet, we decided to go to Mombasa for 4 days. Robert will fly back to Ethiopia on Sunday afternoon and I will go to Nairobi from here. 

It is a treat to be here. As soon as we came out of Mombasa airport we were engulfed by warm and humid air; comparable to Hawaii, Liberia, Goa, all those places of which we have such good memories. 




We are staying in a beautiful and somewhat touristic  resort, which is more or less deserted, it being low season now and people being afraid of Ebola and Al Shebab. 

So we have the beach to ourselves- together with the various traders that sell lappa's, keyhangers, and traditional things. 








Like this beautiful man, whom I paid to get his photo taken. The beach sand is as white as the white sands in New Mexico

So... we relax, we have time to read and actually I am making a summary of the sign and the Seal, the book about Ethiopia by Grham Hancock. because it is very interesting, but there is so much information and it is so complex, that when you have finished the book (about 500 pages) you need to start anew because you forgot about the connections and happenings in the beginning. 

 And of course Robert is watching birds!
Not unsuccesfully - this is the woolly-necked stork! 

Jelleke at work

Just a few pictures of me conducting a workshop- you can see that I am getting older, but also that I really enjoy this work. 

I also just started up an Innovation Community on Soil fertility Managemetn in Ethiopia. want to know more? Look at 
http://apf-ethiopia.ning.com/group/soil-fertility-management

Jelleke's fieldtrip to Wukro- 13-15 August 2014

Jelleke went to the validation workshop ( august 14) of a Youth and Agriculture research project, in Wukro, near Mekelle. unexpectedly, it was wartm weather there, lovely! 

A colleague of robert picked her and her colleague Assegid up from Mekelle airport and was so friendly to drive them to Wukro. here we have a tea (and beer) in front of the hotel. 

The workshop was successful; in the evening after that we went to a Tedj-Bet, that is a House (bet) where one can drink  Tedj or honeywine ( in Dutch:  Mede)


The next day we made a very interesting excursion and saw some impressive erosion control management works- Robert's field actually :)  

The area around  Mekelle is very green and stony. Here,the houses are built from rock-hewn stone instead of mud.  

Donkeys are a very regular type of transport here. These carry a variety of saplings, plants, coming from a nursery (kwekerij)  

 Then we visited the old rock hewn church, dating back to the 8th century; the white building is 13th century, and stands in front of the real old church, halfway in the rock. 

 There are some good murals, but I found the old priest the most interesting, here writing a receipt for the 'fereignies' ( the foreigners).
 

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!