A Few Days in Addis

Three days in and already so much to tell...

Last time I wrote I think it was from the hotel in Philadelphia, so I'll pick up from there...

There are exactly 20 of us in our group (Peace Corps Ethiopia calls us 'G6' or group six) which is nice and small, and I feel like we've all bonded pretty well- that could either be due to the size, or due to the fact that we spent somewhere around 23 hours of quality travel time in either bus, airplane, or airport together...

So after a long plane ride to Frankfurt, Germany, followed by another long plane ride to Addis Ababa, we landed in Ethiopia at about 9:30, which is something like 3:30 in the Ethiopian time; here in Ethiopia, instead of a 12 hour clock beginning at 12 midnight, they have a 12 hour clock that begins at dawn, around what the time zone would consider 6:00 am. Also, it is now the year 2004 here :) They are not on the Gregorian calendar, nor the Julian calendar, but on, from what I've been reading, a 13 month calendar called the Ethiopic Calendar. Since I'm pretty sure I would do a lousy job describing this, here's a website I found that explains it pretty well: http://www.ethiopic.com/calendar/ethiopic.htm

Anyway, moving on. Peace Corps has put us in a great hotel for the first couple days (hence, the internet) and have slowly brought us in to Ethiopian culture and Peace Corps lifestyle with several sessions of what to expect. In fact, today was our first language lesson of Amharic, the language all Peace Corps Volunteers start out speaking, until site placement, then you might switch to a local language depending on the area of your new post. Amharic is difficult so far, mostly because it has its own alphabet- so it gets written into the Roman alphabet several different ways, which makes it a little harder to distinguish the pronunciation- but don't worry, we're only working on the basic greetings so far... 9 more weeks to go..

Being in the hotel, I'm ashamed to admit I really haven't seen that much of Addis Ababa yet! We did get to go on a bus tour of the city today though, and go to two of the National Museums here in Addis. After working at the Musee back in my old post in West Africa, I have to say I was really impressed at the quality of the museums! The first one we went to was within the campus of University of Addis in an old Palace, and was a really detailed and engaging display of the cultures, religions, and ethnic groups throughout Ethiopia, along with numerous artifacts of Ethiopian history. The second one was similar, and the home of 'Lucy' whom I was very excited to see, only to find out she's on loan to the U.S.. Figures, the 3.2 million year old discovery I've been looking forward to seeing since I knew I was coming, just happens to be in the country I just left!

I think what has surprised me most about Ethiopia so far (just through the sessions taught and the walking around), is the amount of history here; from Ras Tafari, to the Queen of Sheba, to Italian attempts of colonization, and even what is said the be the location of the Ark of the Covenant, I am completely fascinated by the histories and cultures throughout Ethiopia!

Really quick, one last thing- We are moving to our host families tomorrow, which means our days of easy internet access are most likely are over; it may be a few weeks before I get a chance to write again!