Goodbye Leishmans, a major athlete, and SPA farewell #3

Last Sunday was the last Sunday in Ethiopia for the Leishman family. For the last couple years, there have been three main ex-pat families in Addis that have all worked for the US Embassy. In the past month and a half, all three have left. Two of them were in the Beklobet Branch. The Seiberts had been here for 1.5-2 years. He worked in IT for the US Embassy, and they left about a month ago. They'll be in South Africa next. Brother Leishman had been the Branch President in the Beklobet Branch until about 6 months ago when President Berhane was called. Since then, President Leishman has been the Elders' Quorum President. He's done a lot of good here; hopefully, Church attendance won't dip significantly with his departure (some people are really afraid this will happen). Sister Leishman taught in the Primary and was the Branch pianist, so we're definitely going to need some other people to step up, which is fine because that's how the Church works. President Leishman was the regional legal advisor for USAID, they'd been here for 3 years, and they're going to Jordan next.

In the first picture, you have the Leishmans with Teshome and Sister Winshet. I really like the second picture of President Berhane and President Leishman.

ATA has what is called the "Speaker Series," where outstanding people come and share their experiences with us. This last Tuesday was an especially cool one as ኃይሌ ገብረ ሥላሴ came and spoke to us...oh, I'm sorry, do you not recognize that name? Really? Yeah, me either. In the Latin alphabet then: Haile Gebrselassie. Really, still no dice? He's a crazy successful Ethiopian athlete. Can you guess the sport? Remember he's a world famous ETHIOPIAN athlete...okay, so he's a championship long-distance runner (mainly 10,000 meters and marathons) who set 27 different world records. He's super popular here. Even though he's 40 now, he won the Dubai Marathon in 2010 and finished 4th in the Tokyo Marathon last year. I'm pretty sure I'd die running a half-marathon, so I'm impressed. Interestingly enough the major things he talked about weren't sports related. He discussed faith, being a good person to those around us, never giving up, and family. In the picture below, Haile is in the blue suit. The bald guy in between the camera and Haile is Khalid Bomba, ATA's CEO (formerly at JP Morgan and the Gates Foundation).

Check out the following clip at about 1:00 in. "If you have a problem at home, you have a problem at work...If it's a problem at home, it's a problem everywhere." (TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. I'll try to upload it again at work.)

The season of SPA departures has begun again. This time Caitlin Roman is leaving us. Caitlin was my buddy when I started, and I'm replacing her on the Input & Output (I/O) Systems Team (smallholder financing, input distribution, output aggregation/storage/sales, etc.). Caitlin was previously with McKinsey in New York and is leaving to go to Harvard Business School. At her farewell, she told me as her replacement in I/O, it was my responsibility to take a lot of pictures...but not awkward pictures. I immediately took several pictures in a row as Caitlin got self-conscious, then embarrassed, then let's go with "slightly perturbed." I may or may not have threatened to post all of these pictures, but as I would prefer Caitlin not hate me forever, I will exercise some self-control...man, this is hard...fine, just one then. I really like this one (somewhere in between embarrassed and angry) as the quintessential "seriously, come on" picture. Clearly, Omondi (on the right) is enjoying the photo shoot.

On a more serious note, you could tell the impact Caitlin has had on the organization as so many people got up to say something. First Nega (the I/O Director), then Zelalem (one of the I/O Analysts), then Ewenetu (the other I/O Analyst), then Sarah (the Gender SPA), then Omondi (the Wheat SPA), then Khalid (the CEO). That's pretty impressive!

A few more pictures (non-awkward, I promise). (1) Caitlin listening to Zelalem. (2) Caitlin and Nega hugging. (3) Caitlin showing off one of her gifts, a dress (she also got a beautiful bag and scarf). (4) Caitlin giving her farewell speech. (5) Alli, Sarah, Caitlin, Nicky, and Catherine. We'll miss you Caitlin.

One final note: Jeremy Hassler, I don't know who you are, but this is a public renunciation of you. Stop commenting on my blog with nonsensical information about AD (my new abbreviation for where Emma lives as I assume you are a web bot and found my blog by searching for that location name). Providing nonsensical information is my purview on this blog, not yours!