Final Presentation

Today is my last in Addis Ababa and I made the final presentation of my report at the Beshale Hotel to the Directors of the Ministry of Mines Petroleum and Natural Gas. It was not an in-depth analysis of all the revenue issues; but was well received by the audience and provoked some lively discussion. I am happy with the result of my assignment.

My Protegees

As part of my assignment I have been working with two local consultants: Manalebih Mequanint and Yidenek Debele. They did the investigative work on our assignment while I supervised and taught them how to think like a consultant.  

At the start of the assignment they had problems understanding  what I was saying, and what I needed them to do. Data collection, trend analysis, best practices, gap analysis did not translate well into Amharic. But we persevered and tomorrow we present our joint reports to the director of the Ministry.

Breakfast of Champions

One of the great things about staying at ILRI is the breakfasts that they serve.
Every morning I get a custom made omelette made by one of the talented chefs. It sets me up for the day!

Sam at the African Union

I met with a young man today who works at the African Union and he offered to give me a tour of the building. Well its more like a campus really - many buildings and even a hotel.
He took this picture of me outside the Nelson Mandela Plenary Hall in front of the dazzling symbol.
This truly is the Capital of Africa.

Holy Trinity Cathedral

I toured the Holy Trinity Cathedral here today in Addis. I was given a personal tour, where I learned how Emperor Haile Selassie had laid the
cornerstone for the Cathedral and how he and his wife are buried there.

What happened to the Lada?

You might well ask. Well, there sure are a lot of them being used as taxis in Addis Ababa. Not sure how old this one is; but its obviously stll running and the way its painted designates it as a taxi here.
The Soviet Union has a big influence on Ethiopia for several years, not all of it detrimental.

When it rains ...

This is the rainy season in Addis Ababa and they are not joking. Its rained every day I've been here and often so hard, that you think you're going to drown. When we left on this trip, I didn't even wear my coat - half an hour later we're struggling to see through the deluge and this car is suddenly in four inched of water.

The Birds of Ethiopia.

There are so many birds here. The trees are full of singing as I go for my walk around the campus. I don't know what this but its wingspan is almost 4 feet.

Many of the smaller birds are really bright yellow and red colours. I wish that I could identify some of them.

Iconic African scene

This tree and the red earth could be a lot of places in Africa; but actually it is on the ILRI campus where I am staying. There is a 2.8 km walking track around the campus and even though we are in the middle of a city of 4 million, it feels like the countryside.

Meeting Lucy

Ethiopia is the cradle of humanity. Today we went to the National Museum to meet "Lucy"

According to Wikipedia: Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, several hundred pieces of bone fossils representing 40 percent of the skeleton of a female of the hominin species. She was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia, near the village Hadar,  and is dated to about 3.2 million years ago. 

"Lucy" acquired her name from the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by The Beatles, which was played loudly and repeatedly in the expedition camp all evening after the excavation team's first day of work on the recovery site.

Shown here with John,so that you can get a idea of scale. She's not very tall

Peace agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea

Today is a very special day here in Addis Ababa.
The president of Eritrea is visiting. The two countries were at war in the 1990’s and the border has been closed since 2000. Many families have been separated for these years. This is the equivalent of North and South Korea getting together and a huge step forward, politically and economically for the two countries.
We are going to the City Centre in a few minutes and hope to catch the celebrations.

Thursday - Jazz club

There is a lively night scene in downtown Addis.
Isabeau took me and two other Canadians that are working with his project down to the Lush Jazz club at the Monarch Hotel.
Great music and really packed out for a Thursday night.
With all the different nationalitoes here, no wonder why Addis is considered the capital of Africa!

Construction in Addis Ababa

Wow – there’s a lot of construction going on here; but you don’t see any cranes. The normal construction method for high rises is wooden scaffolding and concrete presumably with rebar; although we could see any. One of the characteristics is that the shells of building are built and then finished later, Sometimes it takes several years.