Addis, work, and bowling

Alright, back again. Given the way this past week went, Sunday afternoons may become the regular blog update time. Kept meaning to get some pictures and such up before now, but work combined with my inherent laziness and always forgetting to take my camera with me precluded this.

Since my phone takes decent pictures (and is finally working), I should have a more accessible camera now. Major props to Chris Grames on this! Not only did he give me the phone (which is an awesome Motorola Droid 2 Global), but he also called Verizon and convinced them to unlock it (which they told me 4 weeks ago that they’d already done) so I could use local service. I may or may not have promised to name my first born after him in exchange.

I wanted to take a moment to recognize the glorious weather. I hope you are all enjoying winter storm Saturn (sounds like lots of fun). Here is the Addis Ababa weather forecast for the next 4 days:

I definitely chose my location well. You’re all freezing, the rest of Africa is boiling (seriously, it’s 106 degrees Fahrenheit in Juba, South Sudan right now…and I almost moved there), and I’m perfect…have I rubbed it in enough yet…no?...good, I’ve got some more. As you can see below (thank Wikipedia), the weather here is always awesome. Monthly average highs are 64-77 during the day and the lows are 45-55 during the night. It’s pretty spectacular. Bonus points if you can figure out when the rainy season is…actually, that’s too easy, no bonus points but definite marks off if you can’t.

There is, however, a downside to Addis. Do you remember when the Olympics were in Beijing and the athletes had to wear masks because the air was so dirty? Well, I did not bring a mask, and it would be seriously useful. I’ve never missed the EPA so much. Between the cars belching smoke and all the dust in the air (end of the dry season is crazy dusty), it’s got to be at least as bad as second hand smoke (which is also everywhere in bars, restaurants, etc.). In other words, I’m unclear if the below is a non-smoker / smoker lung comparison or a before and after of someone’s lungs who lived in Addis for a year.

When you combine the smog/smoke/dust with the altitude (7,726 feet), running is very interesting. I’ll be “running” down the street when I’ll pass a window and think to myself, “Goodness gracious! Is that how slow I’m going? Can’t I walk faster than that? It does seem to be taking unusually long to pass this window.” I’m pretty sure my 2-3 mile runs aren’t supposed to end with me feeling like I smoked a pack of cigarettes (or what I imagine that feels like anyway).

Moving on…I started work on Monday, and on Tuesday night I learned that I will be working in the newly formed Special Projects area of the Agricultural Transformation Agency. Special Projects primary responsibility is to work with private sector companies, get them involved in the agriculture transformation here, and form public private partnerships between the government of Ethiopia, the private sector companies, and other stakeholders (WFP, CIDA, etc.). I’m very excited about this part of our mandate. The reason for the generic name of “Special Projects,” though, is so that we can also do all the projects that don’t fit anywhere else in the agency, too. This should also be interesting, but we have to make sure that the one-off projects don’t completely distract us from getting the private sector involved in what’s going on here.

On Thursday night, a group of us from work went bowling. It was pretty sweet. As you can see from the pictures below, the bowling alley is vintage something (we’re unclear on if it’s the ‘50s, ‘60s, or ‘70s). Only two of the lanes worked (which is in and of itself a bit of an exaggeration; we became very familiar with the reset buttons), but we had a blast. The bowling alley is in the basement of what used to be the nicest hotel in Addis but has since fallen into a bit of disrepair (though it’s still nice). The Sheraton is the current king of Addis, and probably will be for quite a while; it’s crazy nice. You can play 10 frames (1 game) and rent shoes for less than $1!

In other news, I found out that lds.org mistakenly shows only 1 branch in Addis and 2 others an hour or two of the city. I learned at church today that there are actually 2 other branches in Addis itself (for a total of 3 in the city and 2 more within a couple hours), and it sounds like one of them is much closer to where I’m currently at and will probably end up living.

That’s all for now. Per Kristi’s request, below are an inordinate number of pictures:

Here's my desk (I know that's what you all really wanted to see).

Here's the building I work in. I'm on the top floor (the 9th).

These are pictures from the roof of my building in all directions. As you can see, there's a lot of construction going on in Addis, which is pretty exciting. In fact, new buildings are being built on the east and north sides of the building I work in.

Alright, now for the bowling pictures. Sign on the road outside the hotel:

The hotel with bowling in the basement (terrible photo, I know).

Pictures at the top of the stairs, the stairs leading down to the bowling alley, and the bowling alley itself.

It's nice to know that bowling shoes are the same everywhere, though this was the largest size they had :)

Like I said, everyone here smokes (it really is like the '50s). See the vintage cigarette machine (without cigarettes) and the ashtrays:

Here's some pictures of the group. In the first picture, from left to right is Rachel, Eric, Eden, Alli, and Sarah. Eric, Alli, and Sarah are Senior Program Associates like me at ATA. Rachel is Eric's fiance and tutors locals on English at ATA. Eden is an Associate in the CEO's office at ATA. In the middle of the back of the second picture is Theo (pronounced T-oh), who is the Analyst on my team. She is looking at the camera with what I can only assume is love and respect and not loathing for taking her picture :)

Here's the awesome bowling rules that were posted in the alley. I particularly like "don't blame the equipment rather determine your faults and correct them" and how bowlers are "addressing the pins."

Here's the final scorecard (also vintage). They actually take this back and reuse the bottom of it with a different group.