I set off from Kampala to Entebbe on Sunday afternoon on my week long round trip. I was to spend 2 full days in each office with a travel day on the Wednesday in the middle. I must confess to being rather nervous with 3 flights and 2 new countries ahead of me. But I needn't have worried everything ran very smoothly with the airport pick up in place each time and hotel accommodation all sorted out.
First stop was Addis Ababa arriving early evening on Sunday. The hotel shuttle met me in the arrivals hall and we drove right across the city as the office and hotel were on the opposite side from the airport. It was a brilliant introduction to Addis. The hotel was very nice with a comfortable room that reminded me of a travel lodge. Another bonus of Addis is that it is one of the highest capital cities in the world at 2,350 metres, so no mosquitoes, no insect repellent and no need to sleep under a mosquito net. After a good nights sleep and a good breakfast I was ready to meet the team.
The office was only a short walk from the hotel but the area is under construction so I had to pick my way over the stones in much the same way as in Kampala. Traffic is not quite as crazy as Kampala as there are good wide roads and people are a little more patient. Everywhere you look there are blue taxis, both the larger minibus taxis and small saloon car taxis.
View from the hotel window
The office team were very welcoming and we had two successful days sharing experiences and discussing the issues arising with the partners in the two offices. Several were similar but there were also different challenges. In Ethiopia the distances are huge compared with Uganda meaning that visits require a flight to the North. But in the south there are no flights so some partners are 2 travelling days away!
On the first evening we went to Yod Abyssinia, which is a cultural centre with traditional food, music and dancing. Then on the second evening we went for dinner at the Taitu Hotel. The Taitu hotel is named after the empress Taitu, who established the first guesthouse in Addis in the 1890s.
I've enjoyed discovering Ethiopian food at Fasika restaurant in Kampala but it was even better to be able to try the authentic version. I have to say I'm hooked and I was very disappointed to discover that there are so few Ethiopian restaurants in the UK and that most of them are in London. The food arrives on a large platter which is covered by an injera, a kind of savoury slightly sour pancake. The meat and sauces are served onto the injera and there are more injera around the edge of the platter. To eat you tear off a small portion of injera from in front of you and scoop up some meat and sauce in it. It makes a somewhat messy but very sociable meal. I let my colleagues order the selection of food as much of it is very spicy but we had two wonderful meals.
On Wednesday morning I had some time before my afternoon flight so the office allowed me to use the vehicle and driver and we went to the Entoto mountain. This is where the first palace in the Addis area was built by the emperor Menelik II. The story goes that his wife, the empress Taitu, found the palace too cold and damp at 3000 metres so moved down into the valley, where the emperor eventually had to follow her, founding the modern day city of Addis Ababa.
The view from the mountain over the city of Addis Ababa was quite spectacular.
Unfortunately my time in Addis was over far too soon and I had to return to the airport to fly onto Nairobi.
I had another very successful and interesting visit to the Kenya office before flying back to Entebbe at lunchtime on Saturday.
Overall a wonderful opportunity, which I hope the country teams found as interesting and as useful as I did. But I would definitely like to return to explore Ethiopia properly.
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