Greetings from the Frankfurt Airport, where I am now spending 10 hours...which is nothing compared to the 16 hours I spent in Riyadh on my way back from visiting Emma & co. in October.
Let's start with the sad news. Actually, let's start with a sad tangent to the sad news. I got so far behind in blogging that I haven't told you about anything that's happened since I got back to Ethiopia. Instead of sharing happy update news from Ethiopia, I give you the depressing SPA farewell update...you're welcome.
Sushant left on October 31. Sushant came from one of the Bain India offices, started just a couple weeks before me, worked in the Soils Team, and has left to go do health-related development work in India. Sushant is one of those people who never lets things get him down and has complete patience no matter how bad things get. Sushant was also a trailblazer by somehow avoiding the Riva farewell (the typical farewell party given at the restaurant downstairs from ATA), so here's a random picture of him at the office.
Daniel left this last week while I was in the US for 3 days (more on that adventure in a future post). Daniel worked with the Wheat Team and started middle of April. Daniel, you may recall, was my travel companion in Oman. He's a cool dude (don't let the fact that he came from, and is going back to, BCG in New York fool you). As I was gone for Daniel's farewell, you'll have to settle for a picture of him at Family Restaurant for lunch that Monday. Family Restaurant: Best Mexican Food in Addis (the competition is not stiff...and potentially nonexistent).
This week on Ethiopia vs. Oman...
Villages
Ethiopia is a country of rural villages (no surprise since 80%+ of the population is involved in rural agriculture). Even climbing up to the plateaus around Lalibela, you pass little villages and homesteads (plus, there's a church at the very top).
In Oman, the plateau near Jebel Shams where everyone camps also has trails to some abandoned villages. Turns out they've only been abandoned for the last couple decades as the locals moved to the nearest town for "the easy life." In other words, if Ethiopia discovered a ton of oil right now, you might see a bunch of abandoned villages there in 20 years. The village we went to (the most visited one) is some very small stone huts literally on the side of the cliff.
It's got a heck of a view, though.
You can also climb up to the village's water source.
Animals
Ethiopia has a lot of the traditional farming animals: goats, mules, horses, cattle, sheep, and chickens.
Oman seemed to have less livestock but more turtles. That's right, Oman is a very popular turtle nesting site. We went and saw the turtles laying their eggs and some of the baby turtles hatching (no pictures) at Ras al-Jinz, which is the eastern most point of the Arabian peninsula. While interesting, the most pervasive feeling I got from the experience was "wow, we should not be here, and they should not let people do this." It feels crazy disruptive to the environment.
Ethiopia and Oman intersect with one major animal, though...the mountain goat. They're everywhere in the highlands of both countries.
Goats are literally everywhere in Ethiopia, so here's a random Ethiopian goat picture.
While climbing Jebel Shams in Oman, we even saw some both near and literally in the trees.
Random stores
I've shared many of the random stores in Ethiopia with you already, but here are two more that we saw in Lalibela.
...is run by this cool Scottish woman and her Ethiopian partner (meaning it serves a mix of Scottish and Ethiopian food)...
"Men Wearing Apparel Tailoring." Much better than the store where the tailors don't wear clothes.
You can always find "Younglife" because it's right next to "China Stars."
"Artifical Jewllery," where even the spelling is artificial. Seriously, though, we must have seen at least five different spellings of the word "jewelry."
"Artist." Is it selling the artists' work or the artists themselves?
This restaurant is brought to you by Lipton Tea.
It's alive! A living, breathing (well, actually as it's a store, neither of those descriptors is accurate), operational Borders book store! Apparently, the Borders in Oman, UAE, Malaysia, and New Zealand are owned by a different entity and, as Wikipedia puts it, "were unaffected by their store closures."
Pictures of the leader
When Prime Minister Meles passed away in August 2012, pictures of him were put up everywhere as part of the mourning of his death / celebration of his life. He was an inspirational leader who was the head of the country pretty much since his revolutionary forces overthrew the communists in the early 1990s.
In Oman, pictures of the current leader (Sultan Qaboos) are everywhere. Not sure why I find this so interesting in both countries, but I do.
Expat communities
Let's end on a note of thankfulness (seems fitting a few days after Thanksgiving). Here's to all my amazing expat friends in Addis, including the large and ever changing ATA SPA community. Additionally, a huge thank you to the LDS community in Muscat, Oman (all expats), especially Jon and Carolyn Ware and all their amazing children. Thanks for your hospitality and friendship!
So, what have we learned from this never-ending comparison: (1) Ethiopia and Oman are different but both awesome, (2) Charles didn't do either place justice, and (3) the long break in writing blog posts didn't improve the quality of Charles' writing (and yes, I'm referring to myself in the third person like a professional athlete -- side note: this is the only way Charles and a professional athlete can be accurately compared).
Let's start with the sad news. Actually, let's start with a sad tangent to the sad news. I got so far behind in blogging that I haven't told you about anything that's happened since I got back to Ethiopia. Instead of sharing happy update news from Ethiopia, I give you the depressing SPA farewell update...you're welcome.
Sushant left on October 31. Sushant came from one of the Bain India offices, started just a couple weeks before me, worked in the Soils Team, and has left to go do health-related development work in India. Sushant is one of those people who never lets things get him down and has complete patience no matter how bad things get. Sushant was also a trailblazer by somehow avoiding the Riva farewell (the typical farewell party given at the restaurant downstairs from ATA), so here's a random picture of him at the office.
Daniel left this last week while I was in the US for 3 days (more on that adventure in a future post). Daniel worked with the Wheat Team and started middle of April. Daniel, you may recall, was my travel companion in Oman. He's a cool dude (don't let the fact that he came from, and is going back to, BCG in New York fool you). As I was gone for Daniel's farewell, you'll have to settle for a picture of him at Family Restaurant for lunch that Monday. Family Restaurant: Best Mexican Food in Addis (the competition is not stiff...and potentially nonexistent).
This week on Ethiopia vs. Oman...
Villages
Ethiopia is a country of rural villages (no surprise since 80%+ of the population is involved in rural agriculture). Even climbing up to the plateaus around Lalibela, you pass little villages and homesteads (plus, there's a church at the very top).
In Oman, the plateau near Jebel Shams where everyone camps also has trails to some abandoned villages. Turns out they've only been abandoned for the last couple decades as the locals moved to the nearest town for "the easy life." In other words, if Ethiopia discovered a ton of oil right now, you might see a bunch of abandoned villages there in 20 years. The village we went to (the most visited one) is some very small stone huts literally on the side of the cliff.
It's got a heck of a view, though.
You can also climb up to the village's water source.
And into the little cave behind it.
Animals
Ethiopia has a lot of the traditional farming animals: goats, mules, horses, cattle, sheep, and chickens.
Oman seemed to have less livestock but more turtles. That's right, Oman is a very popular turtle nesting site. We went and saw the turtles laying their eggs and some of the baby turtles hatching (no pictures) at Ras al-Jinz, which is the eastern most point of the Arabian peninsula. While interesting, the most pervasive feeling I got from the experience was "wow, we should not be here, and they should not let people do this." It feels crazy disruptive to the environment.
Ethiopia and Oman intersect with one major animal, though...the mountain goat. They're everywhere in the highlands of both countries.
Goats are literally everywhere in Ethiopia, so here's a random Ethiopian goat picture.
While climbing Jebel Shams in Oman, we even saw some both near and literally in the trees.
Random stores
I've shared many of the random stores in Ethiopia with you already, but here are two more that we saw in Lalibela.
That's right! It's the Obama Gift Shop and the Again Obama Gift Shop, which you would think would be near each other but are actually on opposite sides of town.
Also in Lalibela, is maybe the coolest restaurant ever. It's the Ben Abeba Restaurant, which was designed by a couple recent architecture graduates of Addis Ababa University...
...is run by this cool Scottish woman and her Ethiopian partner (meaning it serves a mix of Scottish and Ethiopian food)...
...and it's got an incredible view (as it is built on the edge of the plateau / mountain on which Lalibela is located).
In Oman, we also saw a few interesting shops. For example, I present "Restaurant." I feel like you either have to be the best restaurant in the city or really, really average to go with that name.
"Men Wearing Apparel Tailoring." Much better than the store where the tailors don't wear clothes.
You can always find "Younglife" because it's right next to "China Stars."
"Artifical Jewllery," where even the spelling is artificial. Seriously, though, we must have seen at least five different spellings of the word "jewelry."
"Artist." Is it selling the artists' work or the artists themselves?
This restaurant is brought to you by Lipton Tea.
In case you've ever wondered how McDonald's is spelled in Arabic.
And last, but certainly not least...
It's alive! A living, breathing (well, actually as it's a store, neither of those descriptors is accurate), operational Borders book store! Apparently, the Borders in Oman, UAE, Malaysia, and New Zealand are owned by a different entity and, as Wikipedia puts it, "were unaffected by their store closures."
Pictures of the leader
When Prime Minister Meles passed away in August 2012, pictures of him were put up everywhere as part of the mourning of his death / celebration of his life. He was an inspirational leader who was the head of the country pretty much since his revolutionary forces overthrew the communists in the early 1990s.
In Oman, pictures of the current leader (Sultan Qaboos) are everywhere. Not sure why I find this so interesting in both countries, but I do.
Let's end on a note of thankfulness (seems fitting a few days after Thanksgiving). Here's to all my amazing expat friends in Addis, including the large and ever changing ATA SPA community. Additionally, a huge thank you to the LDS community in Muscat, Oman (all expats), especially Jon and Carolyn Ware and all their amazing children. Thanks for your hospitality and friendship!
So, what have we learned from this never-ending comparison: (1) Ethiopia and Oman are different but both awesome, (2) Charles didn't do either place justice, and (3) the long break in writing blog posts didn't improve the quality of Charles' writing (and yes, I'm referring to myself in the third person like a professional athlete -- side note: this is the only way Charles and a professional athlete can be accurately compared).
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