Sunday 2nd February 2003
I've arrived at last! Sitting here in the sunshine of Addis Ababa I feel that the dream I had three or four years ago is finally coming to fruition. At the moment it all still feels rather dream like, sitting here at my laptop typing in my first diary entry. Pretty soon the reality will return and hopefully over the next few weeks and beyond I will begin some serious work and start to be of value to VSO. Who knows what will happen? Snow
 | | No snow in Addis |
It was a pretty horrendous journey. The snow at Heathrow caused major disruption to services. I was fortunate enough to meet two other volunteers and had lots of good company at the airport. We queued for three hours to check in and then almost missed our flight. We were busy chatting and drinking coffee and didn’t realise that our flight was ready for take off. Thankfully we made it and I’m quite proud of being the last passenger to board with seconds to go. We arrived at three on Sunday morning. The airport at Addis is a spectacular and really beautiful building. We are not allowed to take photographs of it but it is an elegant white building with beautiful lighting and fabulous angular lines. Lost Luggage
Now for the interesting bit... I waited and I waited BUT none of my luggage turned up. I am assured it will and will just have to be patient and wait and see. I’m currently on my first day of in-country training. There are 14 other volunteers with me and the trainers are giving us a slow relaxed day today. Tomorrow we start the language training and look at other aspects of the culture. Local delicacies
 | | Local Market |
The food so far has been really good. There is a delicacy called Injera which is a large pancake type thing made from fermented dough. It looks like a piece of foam rubber. I am going to try some for tea tonight. I’m told the black variety is rich in iron. I hope I’m pleasantly surprised because if appearance is anything to go by it will taste disgusting. Apparently someone has written a book entitled 100 things to do with Injera and not one makes reference to eating it. As a bit of a prelim to my current state you may wish to know that I had some pretty emotional moments prior to leaving England. I spent most of my last day rushing around here there and everywhere and didn’t spend nearly as much time with my family as I should have. So longs and fairwells
Goodbyes are always sad but the ones that I said to my dear, dear family were particularly poignant. Poor old Nic (my daughter) was getting a bout of flu and was very run down. She got so upset and I began to feel really selfish about leaving. I tried to keep myself together and I am hoping that she is feeling better now and that she is not quite so sad at me going. Hayley (my daughter and Nic’s twin sister) was much calmer. I know that she was sad too but I asked her to help Nic get over her sadness. Anthony (my son) has always been laid back about the whole thing and I reckon he wishes he were here too. He’d love it. I’ve got millions of photographs of all of them and am expecting loads more as I get my internet and e-mail connections sorted. It all takes time but communication does make the world a smaller place doesn’t it? Pass your best wishes and advice on to Lin here.
Photos by Liba Taylor/VSO | 
