I had a good working morning with Getachew; put us together
and we can come up with new crazy ways to change the world! The end result is
that we agreed to work on a proposal to US AID to offer (1) one-month summer
courses in Ethiopia on Development and Management of Water Resources, Hydrogeology,
Energy Generation, and Dry-Land Agriculture; (2) workshops for Science and Math
teachers; (3) training for farmers in best practices fro organic farming and
irrigation; and (4) a workshop in provincial strategic planning and
development. It is early days yet, but we have a basic description of what we
want to do, and a rough budget. Rome
was not built in a day.
Not having much to report, let me reflect on a few key
differences between Mongolia
and Ethiopia .
First, Addis and UB are both busy cities, so there are no big differences
between them. Well, there is a crucial difference that I have become sensitive
to: In UB there are spacious gas stations everywhere, whereas Addis has very
few gas stations and they are very crowded. I need to put gas in my rental car,
but I will do it at 7 am tomorrow just so that I don’t have to fight the
crowds.
Another stark difference is in the food. Mongolian food is
hearty, but not rich in flavor. In Ethiopia , in contrast, food is
deliciously spiced, so the simplest dish is a rich symphony of flavors. Take
for example the chebcheb I had for
breakfast today: It looked like the cook had taken a piece of Arab bread, cut
it into 1-inch squares, deep-fried it, and finally passed it through a
delicious red sauce. It was heavenly. Plus they served it with a nice “salsa
verde” that had quite a bit of kick. Or the mush of chickpeas and delicious
sauce I had for lunch, served with a big fat roll of injera (a kind of very
large, thin pancake made with tef flour; tef being a grain with little
nutritional value but no gluten!). The injera is a bit rubbery, so what you do
is spread it open over a corner of your plate, spoon in over it some of the
mush, and then work your way in tearing pieces of the outside of the injera to
scoop the mush and bring it to your mouth. Messy, but very delicious.
So, tomorrow I am escaping Addis to head north. Getachew and
his wife Selama are concerned I am going for myself, but I have promised I will
call once a day to report my progress. The plan is to drive on Tuesday from
Addis to Bahir Dar, Wednesday I will visit Lalibela and Lake Tana, and will
sleep in Gondar .
Thursday I will visit Gondar , drive to and visit
Aksum , and
reach Mek’ele. Friday I would like to meet with the Dean of Science and/or the
Dean of Engineering from Mek’ele University. Saturday and Sunday are a bit
vague, but I plan to be back in Addis on Sunday night, prepared for heavy
sessions of meetings from Monday to Wednesday. Thursday I need to return the
car and somehow dispose of my brick of bills (Incidentally, I am spending money
like a drunken sailor but still seem to be making barely a dent in my fortune).
Finally, on Friday I will fly to Accra , in Ghana , for the
third leg of my trip. Now if everything develops according to plan ….
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