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Tuesday 22 October 2013

Ethiopia Twenty-sixth day - 22/10/13 otherwise known as 12/02/2006 in Ethiopia!

Lots to report since my last post, Mike was here for a week to help out and he brought along his Ukulele expertise to wow the children with. They loved it and are looking forward to a ukulele club soon! We went up to Addis Ababa to drop him off for his night flight and took in some sights for the day. First stop was Camara, the people who we prepared the computer lab for to see if we could get hold of the elusive computers the Ceiran sponsored the school with. They said we could pick up twenty P.C.'s at 2.30pm so we rocked on for breakfast - mine was a very interesting pancake with melted cheese inside and chocolate and honey on top! Dawit had an eggy toast with jam and chocolate on top which he even recreated on Monday morning at home! and Mike had a local spicy chip dish which was lovely too! After all this eating we headed to the National Museum to see if Lucy (one of the oldest skeletons on Earth) was there amongst other things! After her world tour, she was back and looking great! So was all the other stuff in the museum and gardens! Can't believe I've actually seen a 3.2 million year old skeleton and other bones which date back 5 and a half million years! The emperor's throne and memorabilia as well as some amazing art work were also great to look at. After this we only had a short time before we had to get back to Camara so we headed into the biggest open market in Africa - Merkato (I think) - It was nothing like I expected - I was imagining the one I visited in Thailand. The best way to picture it (I didn't take any pictures, it's not safe to take anything of value out of your bag there) is a large village with all streets lined with shops and stalls and every now and again a larger building with many rows of stalls inside! I was nearly tempted to buy some ebony sculptures, but decided to wait until next time I visit. My foot was killing me as I fell down the drainage hole playing football with the children on Thursday, so I was glad it was time to leave. We picked up our twenty computers and headed to another restaurant for my first Ethiopian burger - nice stuff but not like any I've tasted before - must be the spices they use. After eating our fill - I even had cake for desert (thanks Mike!), we dropped Mike off at the airport and started the long journey back to Nazret, beginning with a trip to the petrol station!  Once back we offloaded the P.C.'s and headed to bed. Early Saturday morning we went into school to start installation and were finished by 2pm with just a few finishing touches to be done on Sunday. I had my first taste of Nile Trout for lunch at the Ras hotel and then slept all afternoon. Sunday was very similar and Monday I had the pleasure of watching all the children's faces as they realised that the computer room was not empty anymore and they were going to have a proper computer lesson! You should have seen their faces! Even better is that the main server has DVD capability so the DVD player and TV plus the five old computers can be taken over to the other school where the children will have never seen either before in their lives! Can't wait for that photo! I'm not feeling too great today i think all the lifting has strained my shoulder, so I've stayed home to rest it.

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