More wanderings in Addis

29th September

My body clock seems to have settled on a 4am – 8.30pm routine, which is fine because it gives an opportunity to catch up on the previous day’s events before launching into the next. Still can’t quite figure what day it is but I’ve worked out the time and hope the equivalent 1pm – 5.30am day doesn’t persist when I get back to NZ. Time is measured differently here. An Ethiopian day starts at 6am and ends at 6pm, the night at 6pm and 6am. The measurement of time (days and months) is unique - the start of the new millennium was celebrated on September 11th 2007 according to the calendar followed by most of the world - as is the Amharic language, which predominates in the central and northern regions.

Today’s early start gave rise to the first ‘miracle’ (Sam’s attribution, I’m not here to argue!). I was joined for breakfast by two other Lido guests I had met the day before – a conversation started because one of them has the same camera as mine. They told me their names, Israel and Samuel, that they were Ethiopian born but had moved to Israel 27 years ago. This connected with a story I have come across in a couple of places, of the descendents of an ancient ‘tribe’ of Ethiopian Jews that caught the attention of the Israeli government during the Mengistu, socialist - or to quote Bob Geldof communist dictatorship – regime and a period of severe famine in the northern highlands. Some kind of deal was done with guns, ammo and wads of cash that resulted in as many as 50,000 people (referred to as Falasha – exiles) being airlifted out of Ethiopia and resettled in Israel. Local tradition has it that this is the lost tribe of Israel descended from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba through their son Prince Menelik and still in exile after 2000 years. Although I made the connection, I was too polite to ask if this was how my sunny morning breakfast companions came to make the move. Not so for Sam, whose command of the Amharic language so impressed that they wanted to know the entire story form his brother’s birth in Dessie in Ethiopia in 1966 until the present day. We ended up showing them the video and establishing an Israeli connection for the DESTA Project. The Ethiopian born Israeli community is keen to help in any way they can but can’t always make the right connection with government or large organizations’ initiatives. A chance meeting with people who grew up in the same area as Sam and Andrew – what kind of a coincidence is that in a country of +/- 80 million people and rising – turned into the first project team meeting of a very long and productive day.


The Ethiopian diaspora is huge, like that of so many other African nations. Local news reports focus on the search for easier ways to process remitted funds that represent a significant contribution to the national economy. Major banks are making a fortune out of the commissions when clearly they need it less than the recipient individuals or nation. One work around that reflects the resourcefulness of the people is overseas purchase of local mobile phone credit that can then be used or onsold. Very simple but entirely effective in one of many countries that has leap frogged over land line communication straight into wireless, mobile and satellite for very practical reasons. Hopefully the government can negotiate a better deal that doesn’t require funds to be remitted through this perfectly legal ‘laundering’ system, which I imagine mobile phone companies will be quietly appreciating. Our new friends tell us they and thousands like them are keen to help but don’t know what they can do. Like DESTA they are not necessarily keen to pour funds into the coffers of large international bureaucracies with expensive offices, Hilton Hotel bills and fleets of four-wheel drives to service. No one denies the valid purpose of these organizations. We work at a different level is all, and not everyone chooses to contribute in that way. The small, direct contact and local collaboration approach of DESTA appeals to them and they invite us to keep them in contact with developments so they can help to muster the support that is needed. Fund raising for an ambulance for a community health centre in a remote area is our current number 1 priority.


The changes they see are worrying: a major shift of population from rural areas to the cities, the resultant loss of culture and identity, and creation of an urban unemployed poverty afflicted class. Does this sound familiar to anyone with history of the European industrial revolution on their report card? Progress is definitely happening and at a rapid pace in some quarters. However, it’s slow and painful in more traditional, rural areas. Education is considered of variable benefit for sectors of society that value children as the means to carry on subsistence farming traditions. Only weak or younger children of large families may be offered this opportunity. In today’s world where climate as well as social change mitigates against continuation of these traditions the value becomes a problem.


A lot of major building work is smartening up the capital, but no one is quite sure where the finance is coming from. Between the smart new buildings and Japanese four wheel drives there is no shortage of semi-derelict tin shacks lining pot-holed roads that are the stamping ground for fleets of Russian built blue and white Lada taxis that ceased production in 1980 and were never particularly robust to start with. The divide would seem to be widening, though experience suggests that may be temporary. Sharing these visiting emigrants’ perspectives is an unexpected privilege. An exchange of photos brings that heartening episode to a close, but only for the moment.


This morning’s new arrivals are still sleeping off the time difference and 3.30am (or 9.30pm – depending on whose clock you are reading) arrival, so Sam and I walk down to the centre to hit the internet café I spotted yesterday and to load up the local mobile phone with credit that may have originated in some far off land. But the best laid plans… it’s a public holiday for Meskel (a major Christian Orthodox celebration) today and virtually everything is closed. So no internet, but knowing what we do about remittance of funds from overseas, phone credit shouldn’t be a problem.

We park in the terrace café of the historic Ras Hotel with a refreshing Ambo Waha (mineral water) to redraw the plans. A few local calls with the remaining 15 burr balance later and important meetings have been scheduled for later in the day. A regional government official from the Degan area is on his way to Addis so can meet us for an hour today but won’t be around while we are up country. This is a blow because he is a critical factor in negotiation of the MoU around use of the ambulance the project aims to provide and is the main purpose of our trip. The upside is that he can meet another key player based in Addis and working as a consultant for various national and international government agencies. The credit runs out and Sam goes off to find more and also to embark on another of the unexpected adventures of being in the flow.

Meanwhile I pick my way through the African – English copy of The Sub-Saharan Informer to glean meaning from stories.

“Ethiopia celebrates Meskel holiday with spectacular fireworks and merriment – No unrest reported this year.”

“Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – After two years of disruption during the religious celebration of the founding of the True Cross, Meskel, Addis Ababa went into lively festivities yesterday with no incidents of rioting or troubles a sharp contrast to the experiences of the past two years.”

The story behind the event is that 4CE Queen Eleni (Saint Helena) dreamed that the smoke from a huge wood and frankincense bonfire rose into the sky then returned to earth at the exact spot where the actual cross from the crucifixion had been buried. After leaders of the main political opposition party were jailed two years ago, the Meskel celebrations became a platform for protest with violent action and response in some quarters.

Other leading stories from the Pan-African newspaper 28/09 – 5/10/2007 included:
US Congress approves controversial Ethiopian Bill – Ethiopia calls move reckless
Ethiopia warns of call off the border agreement with Eritrea
Kufuor calls on UN to prepare to step up its role in Somalia
Somalia: A nation crying for cooperative leadership
No half measures in dealing with the diaspora

Sam takes a while to return, he asked a man who offered to help and told him a story that lead down another unscheduled path. The upshot was phone credit mission accomplished through a unique encounter of the African – European kind. Next call to a kiwi lass Amanda Blewitt who came to Ethiopia with Habitat for Humanity and ended up forming an NGO called Design for Dignity – working with women leprosy sufferers to help them make a sustainable living. That sustainable word is challenger king in this rapidly changing country. She joins us for lunch – still at the Ras and I grab a cheesy 15 second exposure of the stuffed lion at the bottom of the stairway that Sam remembers from childhood.


Then its time to head back to the Lido for a string of afternoon meetings then dinner with some believers who are contacts of the practising side of the Cunningham clan.