Final thoughts
So we are now back in Addis for a few days sorting out paperwork before we leave. We are UK bound next week. I had been pestering Jen to write a post before this on current events however for some reason she didn’t want to (I didn’t know what to write!!!!- Jen). Therefore I will run down what happened in the last month or so.
First highlight was the leaver’s conference around four weeks ago which was supposed to be about sorting paperwork, thinking about the future and doing exit visas and the like. However whenever volunteers meet up for events in Addis it certainly means week-long drunkenness. It was great to catch up with everyone and some of them for the last time. However unfortunately one of our very good friends Jeremy was attacked as he was walking home (he is an Addis volunteer) and stabbed three times, twice in the back and once in the chest. If he weren’t in the right place at the right time (after being in the wrong place at the wrong time) he would have died. The chest wound was very close to his heart.
Hospitals here are grim and several turned him away as they didn’t want the responsibility for him. Eventually a Korean Christian hospital took him in and he was looked after by a Norwegian team of doctors who saved his life. All the volunteers here rallied around him afterwards including ourselves which was great to see.
Back at home any pretence of work has finally left my job in Harar, with only a few weeks left it seemed futile to start fighting for money again and with day on/day off power cuts everyone is on half-weeks anyway. Work also did a leaving party for us, which was nice of them. I can’t say I will miss work really, but there are a few people that did make work slightly more interesting.
I did have to save a huge tortoise from a gutter in the side of the road on the way to work last week; it took two of us to lift it out and I nearly broke my back doing it. It’s not often I get to handle a giant tortoise so it certainly made my day.
We also had several leaving parties from the ex-pats living in the East. My liver has returned to university levels of damage. We will certainly miss the friends we have made here and it was a great send off. Highlights include Jen drinking ¾ of a bottle of gin and trying to dance and us holding a birtcha at our house for everyone. There are plans afoot to meet up in England as well which will be amazing.
After that we got to packing up the house and attempting to leave. The shear amount of paperwork and bureaucracy involved in exiting has been exhausting. My dreams are currently filled with official purple stamps. The fight to get our ‘certificate of good conduct’ from the police station was a fantastic way to spend our morning, honest!
Actually leaving Harar wasn’t as painful as I thought it was, I am sure to miss our friends, fresh juices, gorgeous bread, street food, khat, cheap alcohol and of course Hilda, our last chicken who is quite possibly ‘doro wat’ by now (chicken stew). However I am certainly not going to miss cooking with kerosene, injeera, day on/day off electricity, no water for a week at a time, people hassling for money and the damn mosque waking me up at five in the morning. Plus all the niggles and dramas of living in Ethiopia that means I am not too sad to leave.
So a few days in Addis saying our final final goodbyes and catching a few sights we have not done yet, plus the leftover paperwork and we are home.
See you all in a few days!