Endemn Adderu!
A day late and a dollar short (many) we arrived in Addis Ababa, after a major London adventure. Mechanical problems kept our plane from taking off.
Imagine this: 60 Ethiopians and 10 non-Ethiopians trapsing around Heathrow airport twice(including immigration and long scanning lines) behind an Air Ethiopian rep with his hand in the air, yelling--'' 'follow me!'' By the time we were on the plane the next evening, we were all fast friends, and had a lovely plane party.
We are here at the end of the dry season--the season of weddings-- and we have observed many, sitting in the park on Sunday-- celebrated in groups. Ethiopia uses the Julian calendar- so it is 1999, and there are signs all over looking forward to the 2000 millenial celebrations.
Our conference is 3 days- called tomorrow after tomorrow in many parts of the world-- the 6th AnnualAfrican Child Abuse and Neglect-- with about 500 Africans from all of the continent. We appear to be the only Americans, and in the minority in many other ways. We present today on our Developing Families work, paired with a presentation on child mothers.
E-mail has been beyond difficult. The only way I got to do this blog finally is that we dragged ourselves in to the UN (site of the conference) extra early. While the UN server in NYC is quiet-- while you sleep, the server is relieved of stress and can communicate.
Will write from Limpopo next week, after arriving in Jo'Burg this Thursday.
Dehnahunu my friends!
Va
A place to share experiences with you during my two months in South Africa as but one member of the Developing Families Project (DFP). The Blog name is taken from a DFP group that gave themselves this name, which in Sotho means--"We are NOW awake." Keep in touch! Virginia
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Books on South Africa that may be of interest
- Sizwe's Test- Jonny Steinberg- USA- Simon and Schuster
- The Virus, Vitamins and Vegetables: The South African HIV/AIDS Mystery (Cullinan and Thom Eds). Jacana Press
Hello Virgina,
ReplyDeleteParts of your blog are poetry. And the moments you share capture a feel of what you are experiencing. Not sure if it is part of your research or part of your blogging, but I'm looking forward to hearing stories or moments from training in your words and the words of participants (translated of course). And to noodles when you are home. Love, Amy