Amazing!!

This has really been quite the eventful week! I'm writing at an Internet cafe (much much faster than in Wolisso) in Bahir Dar. I've just come from seeing the source of the Blue Nile. And a hippo. Amazing!

 

So yes, I got my site assignment on Tuesday, afeter much anticipation and nervousness. I'll be living in Bahir Dar, in the Northern part of Ethiopia, on the shores of Lake Tana, the largest lake in Ethiopia. It's a pretty tropical town, with lots of flowers and palm trees (and hippos!). The town seems fabulous, as does my counterpart, who works for the international organization ITECH (International Training and Education Center for HIV), which does hospital based technical assistance. I'll be working on linkages and referrals here in Bahir Dar.

 

I'm feeling really good, and very excited about being here.

 

One strange thing: the evening after site announcements I got bitten by a cat in a freak accident (I stepped on its tail answering a call from my parents, whoops), and had to have two very painful shots. One involved a special trip to Addis Ababa (5 hours round trip!) just for the shot. But now I at least won't die of rabies. I guess that's fair.

 

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner at our Country Director's beautiful home on Friday. Included: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie and chocolate chip mint ice cream imported from the States. It was truly an extravaganza, and will tide me over for a number of months to come.

 

The trip to Bahir Dar was, well, a trip. We arrived late at the bus station with tons of luggage (there are four of us travelling together; theree in B.D and one about an hour away), including 4 metal safes weighing at least 40 or 50 pounds a piece. We got to the bus station a little late, and amid the chaos (the place was literally teeming with people), it seemed that there would be no tickets to Bahir Dar that day. But we finagled some at last (through a middleman), and loaded the luggage (paying 50% of the ticket price as a luggage fee!), and finally took off. We all thought we would get to B.D. in a single day, but nooooo, 12 hours later, we stopped in a small town along the way and spent the night in a room which cost 25 birr ($2.50) for the night, and took off again at 5 this morning. It was a loooong, hot, dusty ride, part of which went through the Blue Nile gorge, which was beautiful (and scary steep in a big bus....). Kind of torturesome.

 

I've been told to write more about day to day details. I'll do some of that soon. There're folks waiting on the computer. One more detail: we had a roll stolen from our table by a MONKEY on Wednesday night. I'm truly in Africa. The Nile, hippos, and monkey theives. My oh my. More soon.