Arrived in Addis which felt like home! No temperature scanning here but plenty only hand sanitiser. Here they use a purple alcohol based hand sanitiser which smells exactly like tequila. Nearly makes me heave every time! I put it down to bad university memories, Jay, however loves the smell and puts it down to good university memories… read into that what you will!

Had a look for flight tickets at the in house office but no luck.

Got a taxi and headed to the hotel (hotel Celeste) that we had stayed in before. They were absolutely delighted to have us, explaining that we were ‘number 1 tourists’ and to express their delight they gave us a suite at a very reduced rate.

Got to our suite and discovered that we had a living/dining room, bedroom and bathroom for only $65 per night. We decided we wanted a bit of luxury after such a stressful 24 hours so we had a bath and went out to a relatively fancy Indian restaurant (The Jewel of India). The bath was lovely, but again none of the taps had labels on them, the bubbles did not appear to work and it was very difficult to change the temperature! It was roasting hot so we tried to use the shower to cool it down… the Indian restaurant was lovely but pretty empty. Jay had a south India masala dosa and I had paneer curry that got hotter with every mouthful! We then ordered cocktails which the staff did not appear to understand, despite them being on their menu! Finally Jay got a Black Russian, and I got a Black Russian doctored into a White Russian, with mixed results.

The following day we decided we needed a little more indulgence so had a huge lie in which was much needed and headed out to an Ethiopian restaurant (Frank Addis) for some injera. Found a place which had a buffet on – Jay was right at home as it was all fasting food (vegan) except fish which seems to be some sort of loophole. Had a lovely dinner and witnessed a bit of coronavirus madness with a lady trying to wash her hands with window cleaner. I presume she couldn’t read the label…

We then set off to the Hilton and had a lovely long swim in the volcanically heated pool. There were only two families in the pool area so we had loads of space. An Ethiopian family, and a french mother with her incredibly cute baby.

After a lot of splashing around the super warm water we got out and had a little sunbathe. We then got dry and went in search of a cocktail. The hotel was fairly quiet, but we managed to get a lovely cocktail on the balcony bar overlooking the pool. We had a very nice drinking our ‘honey melon cocktail’ and got absolutely pissed! It turned out to be very strong! Feeling quite woozy, we paid up and left and went to a Korean restaurant (Han Kuk Korean), which was completely empty. It had very long tables in what seemed to be a colourful warehouse, with two waitresses that actually looked a bit disgruntled that we had showed up. I think they wanted an easy night…. I ordered a a take on the bibimbap after the waitress persuaded me not to have the regular bibimbap that I was trying to order. She said the other one was better, but offered no explanation as to how or why, or what the difference was. I can only assume they didn’t have all the ingredients for the other one. Jay ordered rice and vegetables and smothered it with soy sauce, which apparently was just what he needed! The restaurant was pretty overpriced but the food was reasonable. We finished and left and made it back to the hotel.

The following day we got up earlier and went to the Zoma museum (featured in an earlier blog) as Jay had not been to it. It’s a beautiful tropical garden, school, farm and cafe that used to be a rubbish dump. Unfortunately we hadn’t thought of checking to see if it was open, so arrived after a long taxi journey to discover it had been closed since the 17th March due to coronavirus.

Rather disgruntled, we walked to an injera place that I rather enjoyed early on into my stay in Addis. The Pison Bar and Restaurant is a rather cheap and cheerful injera place that clearly never gets tourists! Jay had ‘shiro’ which is a sauce made out of chickpeas on top of injera, and I had tibs firfir. Tibs are bits of meat chopped up and firfir is injera soaked in spicy sauce, wrapped in more injera. They were both very good and exceptionally cheap. Polished mine off with pineapple Fanta (orange does not seem to be so popular, or else you just have to order Mirinda) and set off to the hospital to say hi to my colleagues.

Arrived at the hospital to be temperature gunned before being allowed in. Found my colleagues in the clinic and we settled down for a chat and tea/coffee in the staffroom. We were also taken to the staff canteen for ‘biscuits’ which are basically not very sweet donuts with some sort of seed in them. They are delicious! Ethiopians don’t really do in for sweet things, except drinks. Jay was delighted to have another cup of ‘bunna’ (coffee) and I had a little one too. I have come to the conclusion that my colleague makes the best coffee in Ethiopia, tied with the Yemeni restaurant, Bait Al Mandi.

We had a long chat with my colleagues which was lovely. I will really miss them. It wasn’t long before they turned the conversation to weddings and babies though! ‘Anna, when are you going to have a baby? When are you going to get married?’ Poor Jay…

They were both wearing masks due to coronavirus, though they said all their leprosy patients have been fine. Clearly a lot has changed in the last week though, no one was really bothered about it a week or two ago!

After spending a good while chatting and eating and drinking we headed back to the hotel for a break before going out for dinner. We had planned to go for an Ethiopian meal with some tej, traditional honey wine that we discovered a taste for in Gondor but by the time dinner time came we didn’t really fancy going out. I had been writing my blog on the roof terrace. Had a light meal in the hotel and went to bed.

The next day we decided to go to tomoca, a famous Italian cafe so Jay could buy coffee, Ghion hotel to potter around the gardens and the Ethiopian restaurant for tej. It didn’t really work out that way! We got to tomoca with no problem and bought some coffee. Jay was feeling a bit sick (I think overheated in the taxi and dehydrated) so didn’t have any coffee to drink, but bought grounds some for family etc. Whilst he was paying I decided to try a cup and was bitterly disappointed. It was really bitter like coffee in the UK and not fruity like coffee at the hospital (and everywhere else I’ve had it here!) so I only managed half a cup. I could feel the caffeine though! We went into the Ghion hotel for a potter round the garden only to discover that it was closed (coronavirus), so we went for a wander round meskel square. We stood in the shade and promptly got moved on by a policeman. Mesquel square is massive, but I always feel it’s got a bit of a dodgy edge. There are people doing their washing there, selling stuff, playing football, touting for taxis, buses and lottery tickets, running up and down the steps for exercise and I suspect selling drugs! After being moved on we decided to go to Bait Al Mandi, the Yemeni restaurant we first went to when Jay arrived. We had a lovely lunch of hummus, falafel, baba ganoush and flatbreads and their incredible freshly squeezed pineapple juice.

On our way to the taxi Jay stopped by a lime seller (referred to as lemons here) and bought a little pile of ‘lemons’. I was completely puzzled, and he said that I had once told him that in Ethiopian culture you should buy someone lemons when you are going out with them. I had completely forgotten, so was very touched!

Feeling contented we walked back home trying to buy tej (honey wine) on the way back but getting laughed out of every shop. No one could understand what we wanted initially, and then when they did they said they didn’t sell it. If you can’t buy alcohol from a liquor store or a supermarket, where can you buy it?! We are still none the wiser…

Had a little downtime at the hotel, I went to the roof terrace to write my blog and Jay had a rest in the room. We were both a bit ‘over sunned’ after the long walk back which had little in the way of shade.

Planned to go to the traditional Ethiopian restaurant but rang them up and they were going to close 4 hours early, and for a party of only two didn’t want to extend their kitchen hours. We went round the corner to an Indian restaurant instead (Sangam), who said they’d serve us if we arrived in 15 minutes. We were the only ones (again) in the restaurant and had a tasty, if extremely spicy meal. Jay’s was particularly spicy, he picked out what appeared to be very finely chopped entire chilli! Eyes streaming we went back to the hotel with decanted wine in a water bottle (we felt he staff were desperate to shut up shop) and had a relaxing evening.

Sprayed our hotel room with mozzie killer as we got woken up by dive bombing stealthy mosquitoes last night. However, now our room stinks!

Flight due tomorrow night, we keep checking for updates at Heathrow, Ethiopian airlines etc. Fingers crossed. Not looking forward to coming back to the UK to be honest, lockdown and foodless supermarkets is not my idea of fun! Plus it will be cold and I won’t even be able to see most of my friends or family. It feels like a long time since I was last in England, I feel I haven’t really started 2020, as I left mid January and in Ethiopia it’s still 2012 (their calendar is 7.5 years behind ours).

Woke up early and had breakfast outside at the hotel. Then got a lift to the airport and discovered that we were the only ones getting on the flight at Gondor! (The flight had originated in Axum, so there were a few people on the plane already, 10 to be precise). After being personally fetched from the cafe where we were enjoying a pre flight coke, the security man was astonished when he asked us if we were on our way to Addis and we said no, he then said he was very grateful as all the other tourists had left. I think parts or Ethiopia will really struggle financially, which seems doubly harsh, as they barely have any (recorded) cases of coronavirus, and they have a lot fewer safety nets than people in the UK. They are also experiencing some unrest in the south due to the election in August, and are battling the biggest plague of locusts in 25 years.

After a short and very spacious flight we arrived in Lalibella for some more temperature taking. After passing, and the staff again failing to copy down my name and telephone number down correctly, we got into the car park and got picked up. Due to the small number of people on the flight, the plane left early which meant that we got through the airport only 5 minutes after our plane was supposed to land!

Arrived at the hotel (Merkeza guest house) after a bumpy journey down some extremely unpaved roads and got shown our room. It was massive but simple, with a fantastic view. We were warned to keep the balcony doors closed when we were out so as to ‘not let the monkeys in’. We were the only people in our hotel, so the very sweet manager said we could check out and have breakfast whenever we wanted.

Had a little nap as we were both shattered and then went out for lunch followed by a visit to Lalibella’s famous dug out churches.

We went to an Ethiopian place (Kana restaurant) with an ambitiously huge coffee ceremony (probably 30 cups ready and waiting) but sadly only one other person in the restaurant. I chose an injera and Jay had a pizza. We have both had ‘tummy troubles’ so what we fancy varies enormously from day to day! However we did a bit of food swapping and Jay enjoyed some of my injera, and his pizza was delicious! We both got a mango juice, but it hadn’t been sieved so we had an episode of Anna the Vampire, part 2. And I still didn’t have dental floss in my handbag!

Pottered along to Lalibella’s churches which were carved out of the rocks in kind of pits in the 13th century. Whilst they weren’t the cathedral like structures I had naively expected them to be, they were very impressive in their own right and had a very gentle ambience about them. Their floors were covered in rugs and and lots of paintings were hung against the walls in the typical Ethiopian style – very colourful with all parties sporting enormous eyes.

The churches were very strict about accessories. We were not allowed to wear shoes, I had to cover my head with a scarf but Jay was absolutely not allowed to wear his cap. Though lots of male Ethiopians were wearing scarves or religious hats!

We also passed a few groups of males wearing white robes/scarves who were presumably praying. There was a lot of singing/chanting – it was rather nice. Some of the church goers were very keen to point out the crosses carved into the roof. They seemed very proud of them! They were nice, but no more impressive than all the windows and cornices that had been carved!

After finishing an afternoon of church visiting we headed off for a fruit juice. We were clearly one of a very small number of tourists and it was apparent that the locals were really struggling. Thus we were asked to buy pretty much everything in sight. We lost count of how many people were pretending to ‘want a chat’ but were really touting their guiding skills. One guy even pretended to be a priest and offered us ‘guiding for free’ as the ‘church looked after him’. Cheeky!

We also had a lot of people yell ‘coronavirus!’ at us. It is strongly associated with foreigners, and it’s probably not helped that people still think that I am Chinese. I tried to educate a small girl who shouted ‘coronavirus!’ at us, then immediately asked us for money after basically insulting us, then shouted ‘China!’ at me. I explained to her I was not Chinese and do not look it – Chinese people typically have black hair and dark eyes (I have blue eyes, fair hair and freckles) She then had a look of comprehension pass across her face while yelling, ‘oh yeh, with eyes like this!’ and pulled her eyes to the side… Oh dear…

We had a juice in a juice bar that appeared to have run out of most of its ingredients, and also with our presence seemed to half clear the place.

We then received a phone call from a doctor in Ethiopia reassuring us about our flights and advising us on a good restaurant to go to for dinner. With our spirits uplifted, we got a rickshaw to dinner, which was a spaceship shaped restaurant (Ben Abeba) with a tremendous view across the Lalibella countryside. Unfortunately it was also completely empty, until we were joined by a party of three. We had a lovely sunset to watch but they didn’t really have any ingredients to make cocktails, which was a bit of a shame as that was largely what we had come for. Jay had a dodgy tummy so didn’t eat, I had a massive fish cake and plate of vegetables which was very nice. The owner very sweetly gave us blankets as it had got a bit cold.

After a slightly disappointing evening we headed back to the hotel. We arrived to news that the British government had asked all brits to come home ‘asap’. Very helpful! How and when?! And are you going to pay for us to get on an earlier flight?! As they have increased 5-10 fold…

Had a chat with my sister (travel agent who booked my flights) discussing options and then with other family and friends. The mood in the UK seems to be very panicky. We decided to look at flights the next day at the airline office in lalibella and travel back to Addis rather than going to the Danakil depression in case our flight got cancelled and moved earlier. We were also slightly concerned about the reaction to us as foreigners in the Afar region. We have found that the more rural and further away from Addis the more prejudiced the reactions.

After a very unsettled sleep we woke up the next day, had a lovely breakfast of omelette and pancakes in a little tukul (traditional hut) with seats lined with animal hide, and headed off to the airline office. We explained our predicament to the hotel manager, who very sweetly said if he were in our shoes he would go back to the UK as people in Ethiopia had become prejudiced against foreigners. We thought this was extremely selfless of him as once we left the hotel he would have no customers. We headed off to the airline office and on the way Jay made friends with a very persistent, chatty school boy cum part time shoeshine boy. He had excellent English and explained that schools had closed, he had no income except shoe shining and no money for transport back to his village.

We got into the airline office to find no staff and no electricity, just one old man sat waiting. A few minutes later a member of staff appeared and listened to our request. He had a look, all flights were full but suggested looking at the airport. He explained that the routes that had been cancelled had been cancelled due to lack of passengers, but the London route was full so it was going to continue to run. This was heartening!

We moved onto the churches and saw the southeastern cluster (we had seen the northwest cluster plus St. George’s yesterday). They were also very nice, with a super cool tunnel (Jay was very excited claiming it was the best thing about the churches) that linked two of them together. It alarmingly got smaller and smaller, but at the point of feeling you might have to turn back, opened up and led us to some very steep steps with some very surprised holy men sat at the top of them. Felt like I was in Harry Potter… Fended off a few more guides, and then headed back to the hotel, bumping into the shoe shine boy again, who had his kit with him should our shoes need a clean. Jay took pity on him and had an intentionally overpriced shoe clean. We both rather felt for the poor boy, who may or may not have been telling the truth, but probably needed the money regardless.

Got a rickshaw to the airport, where we discovered that security and the boarding lounge were practically the same thing. It was full of tourists, all presumably going to Addis to fly home. Interestingly considering last night’s announcement, I think we were the only brits. There was also a very confused holy man who appeared to have never flown on a plane before. He was rather puzzled when he beeped going through security and it transpired he was wearing a gigantic silver chain round his neck. He also seemed very reluctant to put his religious beads through the scanner.

Woke up refreshed and a lot happier than the day before after a good sleep! Amare our guide told us this would be the toughest day, with a lot of up and down, including a 450m hike through a forest up to 4070m – the highest point on our trek. Jay was quite nervous about it, but I reckoned it would be ok. I thought we were probably at least average fitness, had done the previous days in reasonable times, and a hike that was too hard for everyone would not be a good business move!

We set off through yellow tufty grass and lobelia trees after breakfast (omelettes, pancakes and bread) and saw a lot of gelada baboons. They apparently have strong short fingers for hanging on to the edge of cliffs and also for foraging for roots and grass. They also seemed to groom each other a lot! We then saw a large male get chased by some smaller baboons – they chased him right out of the area with a lot of screaming. Not sure what that was about. Probably a woman…

We saw more volcanic rocks in pretty colours – looked like the Indian Holi festival and some more birds and pineapple shaped trees. Finally we came to the start of the forest which was the beginning of our steep climb. It was not actually as bad as I had thought – we did have a rest every 15 minutes though. But I think that was good – no fainting from me or Jay! We then arrived on top of a cliff with an amazing view down many hundred metres, and more baboons. Jay suddenly felt enormously hungry so we stopped early for dinner and had a little nap in the sun. We had been given vegetable sandwiches (again) and a mango. Unfortunately we had no cutlery to eat the mango with so had to eat it like an orange. I looked ‘positively vampiric’ (Jay’s words, not mine) due to all the fibres stuck in my teeth! I then had a hard time getting them out – who knew dental floss was an essential day sac ingredient?!

Then we got on our way to the highest bit of the hike – 4070 m above sea level with views over so many simien mountains below us. Cliff drops of 1200m are not uncommon, we also saw a 530m high waterfall with barely any water in it (dry season). There were dried up river beds at the bottom and in some places we couldn’t even see the bottom it was so far down (and I didn’t want to fall off the cliff).

After a long time admiring the view, we set about on our way. The next bit was going down at least 450m and it was incredibly steep! Jay and Amare leapt along like mountain goats but I had to go more slowly – I felt my knees may betray me! Opposite the mountain we were coming down was an equally steep mountain covered in little houses and bits of farming land. They were pretty far away from everything. Whilst it was hard coming down, at least we weren’t huffing and puffing. We eventually got to the bottom and then had a comparatively short walk up hill (again) to our campsite at 3600m or so.

We eventually arrived at 4pm, at least half an hour earlier than Amare had predicted! We had a little celebratory high five! Then we had the obligatory coffee, tea, biscuits and popcorn (I ate soooo much!) before going to the stream to have a little wash. The stream was a bit of a disappointment – I had imagined a fresh, clean flowing wide stream like the day before but it was tiny, barely running and full of rubbish.

We eventually went up stream a little and found a tiny bit of clean water. We had an extremely precarious wash in the freezing water – we nearly fell in several times and there was a lot of clinging on to the tree above to prevent this! However, we managed to scrub a lot of the dirt off us and I think we smelt a bit better. The dust literally gets everywhere, through my leggings, up my nose, and my t-shirt was gross. Sweat and dust do not make a happy pairing. Feeling fresh (ish) we made our way back to camp and I got my socks mucky again in the dust. We then had dinner after a short nap in a large round hut with some other tourists. Two Belgian girls had been sent home a month early from their physio elective and had squeezed in a short trek before going back. They were going to walk from 3600m-4400m in 3 hours the next day! Rather them than me!

We were once again fed until we popped with soup, pasta, little rice balls, vegetables etc and then, much to Jay’s delight, pineapple in juice. The scouts made a fire (in the hut!) and we sat around it with our hot drinks – thyme tea for me. It had a very nice atmosphere but we (the tourists) were rather struggling with streaming eyes! No one else seemed to have this problem! After a while we could bare the smoke no more and we went off to bed for the last time in our tent.

I didn’t sleep so well again, not sure why but woke up for a later breakfast and a short walk to try to see some walia ibexes (the only endemic creature we had not seen). We had a walk up from the campsite and eventually saw a couple on a rock up above us.

We had had various chats with Amare about rural culture over the last few days and I was interested as to how different it was from city/Addis culture. Amare said that in rural areas people often have arranged marriages and no one gets divorced (In like in Europe and Addis!) because they have ‘one chance in a lifetime’. He also felt that the community spirit was broken in Addis and no one knew their neighbours (not what I’ve experienced!). It was particularly interesting talking to him about the Derg, the communist dictatorship from 1974-1991. He seemed to be saying that in the rural areas Mengistu (communist dictator) was liked to an extent, and that he saw all Ethiopians as the same regardless of tribe. What I had heard from other sources (Catherine hamlin’s autobiography about setting up the fistula hospital and the red terror museum dedicated to those who died at the hands of the Derg) was that ignoring people’s tribes was resented by many, especially those not in the Amhara tribe (ruling minority). However, I had heard that he was fairly reasonable to the rural people, and there was forced ruralisation if he city dwellers, so I guess those that had done better under him would have a slightly more tolerant view.

Had a total nightmare tipping at the end of the trek. Our email from the company said we should give a lump sum for all parties to share, with another tip exclusively for our guide. But we kind of got our arms twisted into tipping everyone separately, which amounted to a lot more and we didn’t really know how much to give! Ethiopia doesn’t really have a tipping culture and we were told our staff on the trek would not expect it, but would be happy if we gave them something if service was exceptional. That was categorically not true!

We somehow offended our driver by giving him a small tip (in line with trek organiser’s guidelines!) – he drove off angrily and didn’t take it! We shall be writing to the company explaining they need to have a better policy!

Stopped in Debak for lunch and went to a fairly rubbish restaurant attached to a hotel. They appeared to have nothing on the menu, and the waiter seemed to think asking for the bill was unexpected. We then continued our drive to Gondor and got dropped off at the same hotel we had been in the night before the trek.

Had the most amazing shower and scrubbed all the dirt off myself. It took a long time! We then had a potter through Gondor to a restaurant but were too tired to actually explore or visit any churches or buildings. Went to a lovely restaurant for dinner that did Ethiopian food and Tej, honey wine. It was great! Jay had a bit of my injera and surprised himself – he liked it! He had had some on the trek and had not been keen, but I think it was over fermented.

Had a long discussion the morning of our trek as to whether to go or not, as we had received a lot of messages from worried relatives and friends regarding coronavirus and whether we would get stuck in Ethiopia for weeks/months if borders closed/flights got cancelled.

We basically discovered that our insurance company wouldn’t talk to us as they are prioritising people whose flight is in the next 3 days or has been cancelled, the British embassy didn’t say much and all the flights were full for the next 2 days anyway, and the first available cost £2500 each! So we decided to crack on with the trek.

And glad we did! We got picked up after breakfast and driven to Derbak, the base of the Simien Mountains national park and enjoyed a lovely nap in the car.

We picked up the driver and two cooks after stopping in a cafe for a juice. I made the adventurous decision to try an avocado juice. Jay said over his dead body was he going to try it. It is not something I will be ordering again! I was given a spoon not a straw to drink it, and it was a bit like eating baby food. It was slightly better with lots of like squeezed in it though. We then started our drive to the simien mountains. We were dropped off at the side of the road with our guide, Amare, and scout, Bisou (who was carrying a AK47 and wearing only jelly shoes for trekking) and started our trek to the campsite.

The mountains were incredible – sharp drops over hundreds of metres and then loads of trees clinging to the shady sides. We had been dropped off at 2800m and had to walk to 3250m where our campsite was. The altitude was a bit tricky, mainly when we were walking up hill. It was also very hot – 25 degrees and dusty. We got filthy and sweaty extremely quickly!

We managed to see some Gelada baboons which were very cute – super fluffy and sweetly grooming each other, with a few babies on backs.

We also saw lots of thick billed ravens – enormous black birds with (unsurprisingly) massively thick bills. Then when we were walking through a more tree filled area our guide spotted a cliff springer – a sort of antelope type creature. They were bravely springing along dangerously close to the edge. A little later we saw a menelik bushback, another antelopy creature, named after king menelik.

We arrived at the campsite after around 3.5 hours (we had a healthily long lunch break – our guide had a little nap against a tree) and arrived to find a little table had been set out for us with table cloth, tea, coffee, popcorn and biscuits. It was so great to sit down and have a drink and snack! We then went for a nap, but I couldn’t sleep.

Then got up for dinner which was plentiful to say the least! We are with our guide, who served us food and ignored our protests at the volume of food he was giving us! We had a vegetable soup for starters, then pasta, and 3 vegetable dishes, then fried bananas for desert followed by pineapple in syrup! All along side a little candle in a doctored plastic water bottle. It was very cute. We then had a cup of ginger tea and headed to bed.

We got settled in our tent after a visit to the long drop (which was a pretty long walk) and tried to go to sleep. Jay was out like a light but I did not sleep at all until 6am – I think it was the altitude. The stars were amazing through, super bright and we could see the Milky Way.

Next day I woke after half an hour’s sleep feeling pretty rough. Jay has slept the whole night (bastard!) and was horrified to hear I hadn’t slept at all really. I had some breakfast (baguette with chocolate spread) followed by omelette and then we set off on our trek.

We were due to climb from 3250m up to 3600m.

We wandered along more stunning cliff drops, saw more baboons and cliff springers and birds. Then we had a very steep trek up a forested section – we were panting so hard and had to stop a few times just to breathe! However, Amare (guide) didn’t seem to break a sweat! I was pleased to hear the scout was a little breathless though. Amare told us he had been a guide for 6 years, and had grown up in/near the simiens at 3750m altitude! He wants to start his own trekking company.

We then had a lunch stop next to a river we could swim in. Despite being roasting in the day time, it is freezing at night and so the temperature of the water was icy! We did manage to have a good wash though, and I went in up to my waist. Jay decided not to join me after discovering how cold it was! I tried to have a little nap on my bag after lunch but I wasn’t very good at it. It was rather uncomfortable! We then had to move to the other side of the river as there were a lot of feisty baboons above us, and apparently sometimes they throw rocks at people. Out of harms way, we had our lunch – vegetable sandwich and fruit for desert.

We hen carried on trekking and ended up walking through lots of volcanic rock sections – blue, red and purple gravel lined the paths. It was quite pretty. We then started to see a lot of trees that looked like pineapples. They are apparently called lobella trees, live for 18-20 years and only flower once in a lifetime. People used to build houses out of them using the tough, light trunks but now everything in the mountains are protected. They made a noise like water when the wind blew through them.

We were approaching camp when Jay had to stop. He looked a bit grey and was very out of breath. A few moments of having his head between his knees and some water and he looked a lot better. We then carried on to the campsite and arrived around 3pm. It was an incredibly hard trek – hot, high altitude, lots of steep up hill and I had had no sleep.

After our obligatory popcorn and tea I went to the tent and had a much needed nap for 2 hours, it was bliss!

Just before going for a nap, we saw the camp cat bolt into the roof. I have never seen a cat run so fast! I assumed it had seen a mouse, but it turned out it had seen a simien wolf. The wolf actually turned out to have a broken leg, and was pretty far away, so I think the cat was quite safe!

After a fantastic nap we had another amazing dinner of lots of different vegetable dishes (orthodox Ethiopians are fasting at the moment, which means vegan only meals (plus fish!) and only eating 2 meals a day after 3pm) and a bottle of Ethiopian wine! We then retired to bed, and I had a hay fever/sleeping pill to ensure I slept, given the difficult day we had planned the following day. I felt slightly sheepish drinking wine and taking a sleeping pill at altitude – hardly following the advice I give patients every day!

However, I had no signs of altitude sickness and slept like a baby.

Arrived in Bahir Dar to a temperature fun and hot temperatures (the weather, not us). They reckoned my temperature was 34.6 (unlikely, I did not feel I was on my way to hypothermia) and after a long wait in front of a man with a form and an inability to copy names from a passport, we were let free. By this time the entire airport was deserted! Arrived at the sparkly clean hotel (Winn hotel) enjoyed a wonderful shower and headed out for a walk by the lake.

Bahir Dar felt a lot more tropical and very hustley. Due to coronavirus lots of tourists had cancelled so we were much targeted for sales of any type. The lake was absolutely beautiful, misty in the heat and surrounded by trees and flowers with people washing in it. I had a huge urge to join them but a) they were all men, and b) I didn’t have my swim suit with me.

We wandered along, thinking how much nicer it was to be here than in coronavirus filled England! Found a restaurant (Desset lodge) on the lake side and got some food (slowly, the service wasn’t great). After we had had our fill of sun and lake, we went to find the bus station to book our bus tickets to Gondar the next day. We got totally scammed – we were told it was $30 dollars for us both as it was a minibus not a big bus, and it would be filled with tourists. We stupidly went with it, largely because we couldn’t see any other way out. The bus was a ‘Dubai company’ which was why we had to pay in dollars (and foolishly gave half up front), on the understanding we would be picked up directly from our hotel the following day. I now realise it was so that the bus mafia lord, Ibrahim, with his alarmingly cold, damp, limp handshake could sell them on the black market. The foreign currency market thrives as Ethiopians are only allowed to take $200 or so out the country when they travel abroad.

Dinner was at a nice waterfront restaurant (Kurifti spa and lodge) that was almost totally empty. We didn’t actually sit on the waterfront as it meant being dive bombed by bugs and it was so dark we couldn’t see the lake anyway. But the service, food and cocktails were great and the roof was huge and made from bamboo.

The following day we went on a boat ride to Zege Peninsula, an hour’s boat ride from our lakeside. We were the only ones on the boat! We saw a lot of birds and a few men in traditional rafia canoes, which can apparently take enormous loads and never sink. We arrived at the peninsula, where there is a monastery and decided we couldn’t face having a guide. We wandered around the incredible nature – trees, flowers, lake and all very tropical and sunny! On the way we had a hard sell from almost every stall that conveniently lined the path. We then got to the monastery, took our shoes off and had a wander in. It was beautiful- far nicer than St. George’s church in Addis. It had colourful pictures of he bible painted all over its mud walls, and roof was made of bamboo. Lots of colourful mats lined the floors and some holy men were wandering around head to toe in white, with a white sort of turban. We then briefly popped into the museum, which was ok and weirdly full of bees! (Not part of the exhibit).

Popped into the coffee ceremony stall on the way back and had possibly the best coffee we had had since arriving, whilst breathing in incense and admiring the lake.

Had another short walk in the opposite direction before getting back into the boat. By this point the heat mist had cleared and we could see better. We had a highly entertaining time with a deaf man in a canoe who throws fish to the pelicans on the lake. He had them totally in his power, a their heads following his fish! He asked for a little money due to the photos we were able to take, which we thought seemed fair.

We then stopped off for lunch in a nice cafe (Ours Cafe) and watched the world go by – we were sat on the first floor balcony. There are tons of tuktuks in Bahir Dar, many times more proportionally than in Addis. They are terrifying as they come up behind you and nearly knock you over!

Had another short walk by the lake before going back to the hotel so Ibrahim could pick us up.

Ibrahim arrived, after spotting us walking down the road (creeepy!) and ‘took us to the bus station’ by foot. Not my idea of being picked up at our hotel!

The tourists we were supposed to be travelling with had allegedly cancelled (if they even existed) due to being hungover…

we were put in a normal minibus, which made me realise the reason given about having to pay with dollars was a total lie. Our bags were put up on the top but not tied on. We then got in, paid the other half of the fee (🤦🏼‍♀️) and sat in the bus. Then Ibrahim came along and told us it was $5 each for our bags to be on the top. I said he should have told us this yesterday and this was not on. I was getting pretty cross. He said he wasn’t expecting us to have such big bags. I explained this was clearly rubbish, how many foreigners travel with a handbag across ethiopia! Jay, being a kinder soul than I agreed to pay $5 between the two of us provided there were no other charges and they took us to our hotel door. There were some mutterings about a 2-3 minute walk to the hotel, but he agreed. 30 seconds later he asked us for money to give to the bus warden, who had phoned him for us to book the bus in the first place! We literally could not believe it! I said you can pay him, he got you a job. Jay was very cross too. We did win that argument though (the only one we did win!)

The bus set off half an hour late with other people’s luggage (bags of sticks etc) that I’m sure they had not paid extra for. Admittedly travelling through rural Ethiopia for the first time was quite interesting. Lots of little mud walled dwellings and people stood around having a chat, or watching the world go by. A lot of horses and donkeys too! After about 3.5 hours we arrived in the middle of Gondor (not our hotel) and had our bags chucked into the road with the driver saying (with back up from a random man in the back of the bus who I now have a vendetta against!) he was not going to take us to the hotel as that would cost extra! How mean spirited! I was prepared to remain in the front seat and say I was not moving until he took us to the hotel, but Jay did not seem to agree! The driver hailed a tuktuk for us and attempted to charge us 100 birr for a maybe 4 minute journey. I refused – you can travel 15 minutes in a clean private taxi in Addis for that. We ended up angrily waking to the hotel in the dark (it was about 9pm) getting lost down dark streets, which was rather disconcerting! We furiously told all the people that tried to sell us trips on the way that we were really not in the mood for sales!

Arrived safely at the Inn of the four sisters hotel where a delightful man gave us a cup of tea, a clean room and bottles of water. Peace! The hotel was lovely, lots of balconies, flowers, gentle staff and a fantastic warm shower. Felt slightly less angry after that, and went to bed after a snack bar (all restaurants had closed as it was late) ready for the trek the next day.

I booked a nice hotel starting the night before Jay was due to arrive. It had a bath like a jacuzzi, but with no instructions and no markings on any of the many taps! I decided to make use of the rain shower instead and had the best shower of the last 2 months.

I went to the airport the next morning to pick him up, which resulted in a very long wait due to coronavirus checks! Finally he got out, it was so great to see him! Went back to the hotel and both had a nap, as Jay had been on a night flight and I had woken up at 3am worrying he was going to be quarantined for 2 weeks!

We then headed out to Bait al Mandi, a Yemeni restaurant that has good vegan options. Jay got his fix of hummus and we enjoyed their fresh juices and coffee ceremony afterwards! Jay fell in love with the coffee straight away.

Next came a relaxing dip in the Hilton pool- it’s a volcanically heated pool so it’s incredibly warm without being heated. We floated around for ages and then headed to Union Bar and Restaurant, a place that looks over meskel square. They do cocktails and good food, and it has a view over Addis. It was nice to go to such a ‘datey’ restaurant with a date for a change!

We then headed back to the hotel for a comfy sleep on the amazing mattress.

Next day we got up and had breakfast at the hotel (slightly odd combination of fruit, bread, pasta, vegetables and injera – we didn’t try everything!) and then headed out to the hospital to drop off presents to my colleagues. They were extremely excited to meet Jay! We planned on staying half an hour, but as it’s Ethiopia, we were plied with coffee, tea, donuts and kollo (roast barley and chickpeas – everyone’s favourite snack), so ended up leaving well over an hour later. However, it was really nice to see them all one last time, and they all seemed to like their gifts.

After a round of contact free goodbyes (coronavirus rules) we set off to the national museum to see Lucy, the 3.2 million year old first hominid found (in Ethiopia). Lucy was tiny- the size of a child but it’s thought she was a young adult. There was also an extremely old tiny child who had died millions of years ago aged 3. It was very interesting, and at 20 birr (50p) each excellent value!

We then dropped in to book our tour for the Danakil depression as it was on the way, though a rather longer and more polluted walk than I had anticipated. After that we found lunch in a nice restaurant where we saw it had started to torrentially rain, and then the power went out after a generator blew! However, we had a nice relaxing time on the restaurant sofas in the dimness.

Next came the red terror museum, after getting a taxi in the pouring rain. The police were moving everyone on making it almost impossible to stop, not helpful when you want to get in a taxi!

The red terror museum is a museum dedicated to the people that died in the Derg, when Mengistu, the communist dictator ruled for 17 years. I think he came into power after a coup which kicked out Haile Selassi. That was 1974 and he remained in power until 1991 when he got kicked out by the Ethiopians and ran away to Zimbabwe to hang out with/hide with Robert Mugabe. 100,000 people died due to his reign, there were torturings, executions, enforced moves to rural areas and a huge famine. Not a nice bloke!

The museum was quite good , but could have done with a few more explanations of some of the exhibits. If you can’t read Amharic and don’t know all the ins and outs of the Derg it was a bit tricky to follow. There was a wide variety of exhibits – paintings, photos, victim’s clothing. It was quite moving even if we didn’t understand absolutely everything.

Both exhausted, we decided to go home for a bit of a rest, and then dinner. We had a look at the hotel menu, rejected it, went to an Indian restaurant round the corner which turned out to have shut an hour before google claimed it would, decided not to walk further in the pitch black rain, and went sheepishly back to the hotel restaurant, which apart from the service, wasn’t bad.

We then had an extremely early rise (not early enough as I set my alarm an hour too late!) the next day as we flew to Bahir Dar. Luckily the hotel gave us a wake up call when we didn’t arrive and we got there on time with no problem.

So I’ve managed to miss Jay’s birthday, Valentine’s Day, and our one year anniversary by being in Ethiopia! We agreed not to do Valentine’s Day and I sent cards in the post. There is a pretty limited selection here, so some of them had random pictures and Amharic script on them! Still, it’s the thought that counts right? There are no post boxes or shops that sell stamps in Addis so you have to trek to the post office to do everything. 2 buses and a trek past a bit of a slum so I posted everybody’s card at once!

We have been planning our holiday, and desperately hoping coronavirus won’t scupper our plans.

I’ve not had particularly busy evenings or weekends recently, but have mainly been scouring google, the lonely planet and Ethiopian airways websites. I went out for lunch with one of the doctors in my last week which was lovely. She took me to a restaurant run by Syrian refugees. It was incredible, Syrian chicken and rice and flatbread and a watermelon juice. Apparently the Syrians had arrived a year ago, set up a food stall on the street 6 months ago and now have taken over two shop spaces and created a large restaurant. Impressively quick movers!

I’ve had more blunt advice from my colleague. Apparently my visits to the canteen at lunch time render me ‘lazy’ as due to the fact I am a woman, I should be cooking food and bring it in with me. All the other women who frequent the canteen were deemed lazy too, but the men weren’t!

She explained that in Ethiopia men don’t cook and she would shout at her husband if he entered her kitchen. I said in the UK we encourage men to cook, and I would expect them to do so. Also, women tend to appreciate a man who can cook! This seemed to cause a bit of an uproar with a lot of laughing and exclaiming… I said a man who can cook enables a woman to sit on the sofa and relax a bit.

Had a very frustrating taxi experience (again). I order a taxi on the app, explain where I am, he drives off in completely the wrong direction, so I cancel him (like Uber) and get another. I arrive at work 20 minutes later, sit down at my desk and start work. The phone rings – it’s the first taxi driver (that I cancelled over half an hour ago) asking where I am! I explain I cancelled him a long time ago and have arrived at work. He hangs up. 10 minutes later, the phone rings again, ‘Madame, taxi, where are you?’ I hand the phone to my colleague, who initially gets the wrong end of the stick, and thinks I want a taxi! Finally we sort it out….

The last 2 weeks have gone quickly. I finished my picture leaflets and tried them out on the patients staying in the leprosy house. They all seemed quite amused by it but said they liked the pictures, and seemed to understand what most of them meant! (Addis was translating for me). At the end of the first session with them, they gave me a round of applause! I then said thank you in Amharic, and got another round of applause! Why don’t my London patients do this…?!

There have been a couple of newcomers to the house recently. One really young boy, maybe 16 who already has a collapsed nose and short fingers. He’s pretty chirpy though. Another man who was very upset as he has a totally swollen finger with a long finger bone sticking out the end. He has been in Addis for over a week now and is running out of money. However, he looked a bit perkier in the accommodation, probably because he is being housed and fed, so money worries should have lessened a little, and he now has a medical plan. A final older man has arrived from the country side with bad feet. He often sleeps in the teaching sessions and looks like he needs a bit of TLC – a lot of flies keep landing on him, though even when they land on his face he doesn’t seem to mind.

We have a new leprosy nurse with us now, to make a permanent team of 3. She was moved from a different bit of the hospital (they rotate people every now and again). She’s feisty to say the least! But can be good fun too. Now the nurses take it in turns to teach self care in the newly opened ‘tukul’ (little hut).

I have been broaching my thoughts on self care over the last 2 weeks. I read a rather depressing medical paper set in our hospital which showed that the leprosy patients (despite frequent teaching) don’t have a good understanding of their disease, and most of them do not perform self care (soaking feet, protecting hands and eyes etc.) well at all. One day I dropped the bombshell of the research results. The poor nurses were quite shocked, as they are the ones that provide the teaching. I stressed that I wasn’t criticising the teaching, but perhaps there are other things we could do as well?

Over the last two weeks we started making changes to the teaching of the patients in the leprosy house – encouraging the patients to tell us what they know (so holes in knowledge can be addressed), using the pictures to help and finally we persuaded one quite confident man to stand up and teach his fellow leprosy sufferers! Apparently he did a good job (as usual, I couldn’t understand!).

It was really nice to see the patients embracing it, but also my nursing colleagues. I can see it could be difficult having a foreigner come in and try to change things, even though it was the hospital that requested the change. But they rose to the challenge, and there was a lot more patient interaction. I also tried to encourage the staff to critically question the patients e.g. ‘your feet look quite dry – are you having difficulty soaking/oiling them?’ It transpired that whilst it was originally assumed all patients were soaking their feet every day, only 7/17 had a bucket in which to soak them. We are now going to push for buckets to be provided for everyone so they don’t have to buy them (as they are extremely poor).

We also made a video of a nurse/social worker leading a self care teaching session with us pretending to be patients. She will be retiring soon and we wanted to capture her style! It was quite fun. I soaked my feet in a tiny bucket (the only one I could easily find) and ‘vaselined’ my feet with Cowshed moisturiser (present from a former colleague – I forgot to go and find some vaseline!)

I have also finished my health care worker leaflet which explains about leprosy. I always find with leaflets and presentations that you can whack the whole thing out in a couple of hours, but the editing, corrections and formatting take about a week! Slightly annoying!

I also had another visit to ulcer clinic with a colleague that can translate between Amharic and English excellently. I discovered so much more about the patients! How I wish I could learn a language in a week, it would make life very easy! The man that runs ulcer clinic seems to be coming round to my ideas too, which is nice, though he still doesn’t understand me very well, and I don’t think it’s as simple as a language barrier! However, he humoured me and got a bunch of patients all soaking their feet in buckets outside. I say feet, really I should say foot – they only did one each… It’s a start though!

On my last day I ended up doing 4 presentations! One about my time at the hospital, which I then had to repeat as a key person had been tied up in clinic, then one about travel medicine to a private clinic that one of the doctors works at (I also got a free fish lunch there so that was nice!) and practiced the one I will do in London on a colleague. I was all talked out by the end!

Panic set into Addis on my last day though as they got the first coronavirus case in Ethiopia. The american school decided to close for 5 weeks (for reasons that remain a mystery) and I’ve never heard so many coronavirus phone calls in 10 minutes! I’m surprised the lines didn’t jam, and that was only in the dermatology department!

On my last afternoon I went to hang out with the dermatology girls, who had very sweetly made me lunch, and tea (as they had heard I’m still not keen on coffee- probably a good thing, theirs made my sternum twitch for 8 hours last time they gave me some!). We had a delicious salad with injera and wat (spicy lentil sauce). It was pretty good, though I had already had a fish lunch at the private clinic, so this was lunch number 2! And when you are the guest you are always expected to eat the most…

In my final week I also paid a visit to the fistula hospital. There is a book about which I read when I arrived here ‘The hospital by the river’ by Catherine Hamlin. Catherine and her husband Reg were Australian Christian obs and gynae surgeons who moved to Ethiopia on a short contract (but never left) providing maternity services in Addis Ababa in 1959. They realised how many women had fistulas (obstructed labour causing holes in bladder, uterus and rectum leading to incontinence for life) and set about trying to fix them. Fast forward 60 years: they built a hospital, survived the communist regime, set up several other hospitals around the country, started a midwifery school, fixed 60,000 fistulas, Catherine wrote a book, got her name on a bank and won millions of medical awards. She still lives on site aged 96 (Reg died quite a while ago), and apparently supervised surgery until she was 92! They are much loved by Ethiopia and are/were some of the most experienced fistula surgeons in the world (its very uncommon in the west). The hospital was amazing- light, airy, clean and full of flowers and trees. Apparently this was because Catherine likes gardening, but also wanted to make it seem like a ‘home from home’ for the rural patients who are used to lots of trees. Patients get a new dress, and donated patchwork blankets from all over the world. They are the happiest looking patients I have ever seen! You should definitely read the book.

I have had many a happy moment with my closest colleagues at work – I will really miss them when I go. They have taught me about Ethiopian culture, fed me and watered me. They are all entertaining, and great nurses. We had a discussion about men on one my last days – what traits in men are considered attractive to women. One colleague said that money is considered important, it is not popular (as a woman) to have a husband who earns less than you. When I asked my colleagues what they liked in a man (both are married), one replied she likes a tall man who behaves well, and the other said she likes a man with big lips who is good at using a hoe! It took some time to get that sentence across the language barrier…

Friday is half day so I did a morning at work and then moved accommodation. I had a startling discussion with my colleague who felt my stomach and asked me if I was pregnant! That’s two people in two weeks! I said no, not pregnant, but apparently too much love for food. She then asked me if I was a virgin! The woman is extremely direct!! Culture is an amazing thing – I could not comprehend asking a colleague from overseas (or indeed any colleague) that I had known for a grand total of two weeks either of those questions! She then promised me she could get me ‘a big Ethiopian man’ if I was in fact a virgin 🤦🏼‍♀️ Sometimes I can’t figure out Ethiopian culture – on one hand everyone wants you to get married ASAP, on the other they’re offering you men with no strings attached!

After moving back into my old accommodation I decided to go shopping to the fancy supermarket in the Italian compound. It’s nice to be able to buy gluten free pasta and cheese and a few European bits and pieces! I also discovered it’s in a shopping centre so had a little look round and a cup of tea.

I treated myself to a piece of roast chicken (I don’t normally but meat here as I don’t know where to get safe meat from – most of it hangs on stalls by the road in 25 degrees covered in flies), some olives, cream cheese and fresh basil.

The next day (Saturday) I decided to go to another Yemeni restaurant recommended by the German couple I chatted to near the fountain at the Addis food festival. It was indeed great, and I had a mound of fragrant rice and lamb, with a complimentary lamb soup and lots of different sauces. However, I learnt, and asked for a doggy bag this time.

I had decided to check out the Sheraton hotel pool but when I got there I discovered it was very expensive, and as it was quite late in the day I decided to come back the next day to get my money’s worth. Instead I wandered around the rose gardens and had a drink at the bar overlooking fountains and gardens. It was very nice. There was even a man playing the grand piano non stop without music.

Sunday came and I set off to the Sheraton to get a full day’s swimming in. I also noticed they had a jogging track so I brought running clothes and trainers. However, after going through airport security to get into the hotel, and then paying to use the pool, they wouldn’t let me use the the running track as it was for ‘room guests only’. I think that’s just mean! If you’ve paid through the nose to use the pool, they could at least let you use a bit of road. So I set off running around the hotel instead, getting redirected twice by two hotel staff. It was incredibly hot (25 degrees in equatorial sun) with limited shade and high altitude (2400m above sea level), not to mention slightly irritating hotel staff, so I ran a mere 1.5 miles. Was a bit annoyed, but also covered in sweat so in a way it was nice to stop.

Had a cool down and then a lovely swim in the pool, which was the perfect temperature, and surrounded by sun loungers and trees.

I then ordered a coke, only to be told they didn’t have any, but I could have a Pepsi. I thought that was very strange – a super fancy (and massive) hotel with no coke! So I had a Pepsi. And it basically tasted the same. I know I’m going to cause controversy with hard core coke drinkers!

Lay by the pool reading and watching the world go by for the whole day, with a brief stop for lunch (Ethiopia’s answer to fish and chips haha). It was very nice though I couldn’t work out what demographic of people were staying at the hotel. It’s soooo expensive, and Addis isn’t much of a holiday destination, and when it is I think it’s generally backpackers who stay in the sort of accommodation that I do. Also there were millions of children, so they didn’t seem much like business travellers either. I suppose they could have all been doing what I was doing – just using the pool!

Monday was National Day (when the Ethiopians kicked out the Italians many years ago) but I heard it’s mostly millions of people in processions so I decided to stay in and have a cheap day. I wrote much of my blog (I was very behind) and had a chat with some of the accommodation guests. There were 3 Germans on their way to Djibouti for the end of their 1 month holiday. One of the had his head buried in a french phrase book, though he didn’t seem to be getting very far! They grew up in east Germany and told me a little about having to learn Russian at school etc.

Then I had a long chat with a girl from Canada who had just finished a year in Malawi working for an NGO. She was taking a meandering route back home via Ethiopia and Egypt, ‘to have a little look around’ – sounds like a great plan! She said how much poorer Malawi is than Ethiopia, and how many long term development workers there feel there has been no improvement in 20 years. Sad really. Whenever I talk to Ethiopian people they often ask if I have been anywhere else in Africa. When I tell them where I have been, they always assume Ethiopia is the poorest place I’ve been. They are always shocked to discover that Madagascar is much poorer!

I said good bye to my accommodation Monday morning, went to work with all my stuff and moved in to the new accommodation in the evening. I had had a look round previously and thought it looked nice – little buildings with bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms in them all set in a garden, and only a short walk to work.

The accommodation lady who showed me around had very kindly given me a room with its own bathroom, so I could ‘do my cosmetics’. I was happy to start with… things started to go slightly down hill an hour later when I couldn’t find the kitchen. When I eventually tracked it down all the lights were off and it was locked. I found the accommodation lady and the conversation went as follows:

Me: the kitchen is locked, please can you unlock it?

Lady: tomorrow. You can wait.

Me: I need to eat! I need to use it tonight!

Lady: (resignedly) Ok, I will come.

30 minutes later, no response and kitchen still locked.

Me: the kitchen is still locked. Please can you open it?

Lady: can you wait till tomorrow?

Me: NO! I need to eat!

Lady: come with me (I get taken to a different kitchen)

Me: ok, now where can I put my food?

(Lots of misunderstandings and language barriers followed before I eventually managed to get a cupboard).

Lady: what time are you going to eat tomorrow?

Me: I don’t know! Whenever I like! And I would like to use the kitchen for breakfast too please?

Lady: ok then.

Did my cooking, then transported my food 100m in the dark to my room and sat down to eat it. Then realised the bedroom was full of mosquitoes (Addis has very few mosquitoes as we are at 2400m altitude). More mosquitoes than I had seen in the last 5 weeks, to be precise, all flying around my bedroom! And the 15 spiders who had set up a home in all corners of the room were doing a rubbish job at catching them!

Later in the evening the lady from before came around with a kitchen key for me so I could use it whenever I liked. Phew!

She then came around again as she had locked herself out of her own kitchen…

Had a terrible nights’ sleep due to the extremely loud mosquitoes dive bombing me all night. I’ve never heard such a loud whine! And they were out of tune with each other. All this was after killing 10 mosquitoes with my book before going to bed. Sorry Linda Grant, who wrote the dark circle, the book you wrote is covered with mosquito insides and blood (probably mine 😞). I also discovered that no one had cleaned the bathroom, as there were skid marks in the toilet and the stuff on the wall that I had initially put down to a bad paint job was actually muck.

At work everyone was asking how was my new accommodation, so I told them. They were very sweet and concerned, and said I should talk to one of the doctors who would ‘sort it out’.

The next night was a night of more mosquito killing, spider dodging and for the first time, cockroach dodging in the kitchen. There were also tons of flies everywhere. And my next door neighbours were very loud! Lots of raucous laughter. Think I will not be staying here long!

The following two nights had the same set up, and I gave up on Thursday and decided to go back to my old accommodation. Whilst it is a taxi journey to work and a little more expensive (though not as much as I thought as the awful place is charging me extra to use the kitchen – the cheek!) it is clean, the staff are kind and helpful, there are minimal insects and I do not have to walk past girls pouring the family’s stools into the open sewer at 8am. 10 years of nursing has given me a strong stomach, but even so, I’d rather not witness that if I don’t have to.

I think one of the issues was that the area surrounding the new accommodation was very poor. A lot of the people living there are patients of the hospital. It’s a bit grim to think that that is their normal, or even better than normal – quite a lot of them don’t want to go back to the area they came from. Rather makes me feel like a picky foreigner!

Having said that, it was still wonderful to go back to my previous accommodation – clean, minimal biting insects and a kitchen with no strings attached!

All the staff found it very entertaining that I was back after such a short time, but they welcomed me with open arms! It was such a relief to be back – they even gave me my own room back!

On the Friday night I was taken to a doctors’ dinner. It is for people (doctors, nurses, midwives etc) who want to improve their medical knowledge (and also have a bit of a meet up), as I don’t think improving your knowledge through little courses etc has as much emphasis here as it does in the UK.

The doctor that set it up has Armenian ancestors so it was held in the Armenian club. The first toilet I have visited with all relevant equipment! (Seat, working flush, paper, lock, light, running water, soap and something to dry hands on). Apparently Ethiopia was very kind to the Armenians when they faced persecution about 120 years ago, and lots of them escaped Armenia to come to Ethiopia. The king even adopted 40 Armenian children!

We started to set up the projector ready for the 2 talks of the evening. There was a lot of faff with different cables and plugs etc. Then there was a lot of tooing and froing re where to put the tables and chairs. But all was settled by the time people started arriving! It was quite an international bunch – Americans, Japanese, Europeans, Ethiopians.

Whilst we were eating delicious Armenian food (little fried samosa things, yoghurt dip, kebab meat and flat bread), two of the doctors did a small lecture each. We had one by an American doctor on the coronavirus, which concluded that there was a lot we didn’t know, and one by my colleague on leprosy, which is always good. She’s an excellent speaker, even if I have heard most of it before!

Upstairs in the Armenian club there was an art gallery with loads of enormous abstract paintings with quite a bit of sparkle on them, and some beautiful (but quite pricey) leather handbags. There’s a lot of excellent leather here, one of the very odd accommodation guests runs a leather business in Kenya and he says it’s more developed here! I was very surprised. Mostly Kenya seems wealthier, with better infrastructure.

The next day I decided to check out Sana’a – a very popular Yemeni restaurant in a part of town I’d never been to before. It was heaving, apparently it’s very popular with Addis’ Muslim population (I think about 20% or so) and also Christians too. There were no tables left so they took me down a few corridors to some rooms with height-less sofas on the floor, and asked did I mind sitting on the floor. I said yes, no problem, so put my shoes in the scattered pile outside the room and sat down. I was very glad I had worn a loose skirt!

Immediately the Muslim lady next to me offered me some of her food! I declined, as I was just about to order. I got lamb and rice, which came with different sauces and a little soup that you put fresh herb/chilli mix and some dairy based sauce into. It was delicious! Easily the best food I have had since arriving, but the portion was enormous! I couldn’t finish it, and the waitress told me I had ‘barely eaten anything’. 30 seconds later, a Muslim lady on the other side of the room (she was a guest too) asked me if I was pregnant. I replied, no, just food! She then apologised profusely! I can’t win!

After Sana’a I went to unity park which I had heard was a nice spot. What I hadn’t heard, was that it is $20 to get in! It’s just been renovated and is in beautiful grounds – it was the emperor’s palace. I got an ice cream and snuck in the back for a peep before it closed. Might come back again later.

Decided to pop into the Hilton on the way back for a glass of Ethiopian wine (my first, and not necessarily my last). It was nice to sit in the shade over looking pool and flowers and not have people shout ‘China’ or ‘hey you!’ At me for a while!

On my return taxi journey home the taxi driver told me all about Teddy Afro, Ethiopia’s hottest pop star who was playing in Meskel square that night. All the roads were blocked off so we had to go a funny route. He had really good English and explained that Teddy Afro had the best voice and had been around for 15 years. He had a small backing band and sang traditional as well as modern songs, and always kept it fresh! He is now even more popular, as a couple of years ago he criticised the government and was thrown into jail for doing so. He spent 2 years in jail, got recently released and is now more popular than ever. I get the feeling this government is not particularly popular. Will be interesting to see what happens in the election in August. Fingers crossed it calms down – there are already some skirmishes down south, which are apparently election related.

The next day I went to a ‘rotary day’ in one of the schools- they were raising money for polio, but all the merchandise said ‘cancer sucks’… never got to the bottom of that! They had little stalls of information, games, food and gifts to buy, including some very reasonably priced leather. The band was starting up as I left, but I decided to go on to the Addis Ababa food fair. It was in the Ghion hotel, which is always nice (that’s the hotel everyone has their wedding photos in) and consisted of an awful lot of beer stalls and some food stalls, as well as some gifty stalls. I had some jerk chicken which nearly blew my head off and had fortunately just finished it by the time a big gust of wind blew my table over! I then pottered around the gifty stalls, and had some ice cream. One of the stall owners looked slightly affronted when I politely declined his wares. He was selling roses with inscriptions of vomit inducing expressions of love printed on the petals. What do you say when someone asks you why you don’t want one? It’s really flipping tacky?!

I then moved to a nice shaded bit with my ice cream. Unfortunately there was a very persistent man who ‘loved me’. I ignored him for a full 10 minutes before he left, only to come back and ask me for money! He was a member of staff at the event! I stalked off.

I went to sit by the fountain (free of weird lecherous men) and got chatting to a German couple who are in Addis for 6 months. We had a really long chat and they invited me for pizza, though sadly I had to decline as I was moving accommodation the following day and had to pack. Shame I didn’t get their numbers, they were so nice! They also gave me lots of tips about restaurants and other bits of Ethiopia.

The day after the scarf shopping trip I came down with an awful cold. There were a few jokes about Anna having the coronavirus and I ended up taking the Tuesday and Wednesday off work. Rubbish though it is being ill in a foreign country, recuperation was a lot more pleasant – day in the courtyard in the sun reading my book was definitely preferable to curling up in a ball in dark, cold England!

My colleagues were extremely kind, texting me and ringing me to check I was ok! One of the doctors very kindly offered to drop food round for me!

I went back to work on Thursday and spent the day drawing my self help leaflet. I have also made a leaflet for health care professionals in the rural clinics – though this has a lot more writing and a lot less pictures.

Everyone seems very intrigued by the pictures, but not everyone seems to be able to interpret them, which worries me slightly! There is no point having a pictorial leaflet if no one knows what the pictures are!

Regarding the cold, I have been given an awful lot of advice about how I got it/how to help it.

I was told in no uncertain terms I had contracted a cold because I drink too much water, someone else told me I had not got a cold because the weather is warm in Addis! And again I’ve been told to drink less! Oddly I’ve never been thirstier – normally in London I have to make myself drink 1.5 litres a day and can easily get a headache from dehydration without feeling particularly thirsty. These last few days I’ve been drinking 3.5-4 litres with ease!

Time is passing and I’m half way through my time at the hospital! The last couple of weeks have consisted of me learning more about leprosy, and now starting to plan the self care programme for the patients. I’ve learnt tons about leprosy, which has been great. My two nursing colleagues are brilliant teachers, and I have also had the opportunity to join the dermatology ward round with the lead consultant. The dermatology cases here are pretty advanced. Sadly, the range of treatments here is not as extensive as the UK, though there is still quite a lot of cross over.

Leprosy patients get completely free treatment but other patients have to pay. They get it cheaper if they have a ‘poverty card’ from the government. However, receiving free treatment still incurs other costs which can result in patients being diagnosed late with leprosy, such as payment for the very long bus journey (if travelling from a rural area), having to look after children, hotel stays whilst in Addis, and not being able earn money that day. Therefore, I suppose it is inevitable that some patients already have some disability by the time they get diagnosed.

I am trying to improve the self care programme that the hospital has for the patients who have leprosy, teaching them to look after their feet, hands and eyes. After reading a medical paper, it seems that the percentage of patients With leprosy who actually perform good self care is depressingly low. It seems to be worse in older people, and people who have had less schooling. Therefore, I decided to make a picture leaflet for the people that live in the rural areas, explaining how to look after themselves. As it is too far for them to come to Addis every month, they get the majority of their treatment in their own region. They mainly only come to our clinic once, when they get diagnosed. So the past few days I have been happily drawing people washing their feet, applying cream etc! I have found the feet the most difficult to draw… I am also going to put some English and Amharic on them, but am aiming for them to be understood by an illiterate person.

In terms of fun outside work, I discovered the Hilton hotel swimming pool last week. It is apparently on a volcano, so the water is really warm. It is the warmest water I have been in a month! Much warmer than my shower! I floated around in absolute bliss, admiring the beautiful trees all around the pool (Addis is good for trees – they put them everywhere) and then got out and had an extremely hot shower by the side of the pool. I suspected that the shower would be better than my own so had come prepared for a really good hair wash. My enthusiasm for the hot water clearly showed, the woman on the sun lounger next to me immediately said ‘I think you don’t have hot water where you are staying!’

I’m quite enjoying testing out the swimming pools, I went to one in the ghion hotel a couple of weeks ago. The hotel apparently has the nicest grounds in Addis – beautiful tropical gardens with flower beds full of succulents. However, the pool (the only Olympic sized pool in Addis!) was absolutely freezing! Though the bougainvillea were amazing.

Security was mental all across Addis on my Hilton swimming pool day, I had to go through airport security to get in and got my bag searched by the federal police at the gate. Apparently there was a big Africa UN meeting – it became apparent when I was in my taxi going home – loads of roads were blocked off and there were lots of uniformed people (more than normal!) with enormous guns. I don’t think I will ever get used to seeing people with guns! A tank rolled by through one of the busiest bits of the capital with a bunch of soldiers all with long guns lolling casually out of the tank. The soldiers looked very bored.

I am very slowly learning Amharic, but still being mistaken for being Chinese everyday. I reckon someone yells ‘Oi, China!’ At me at least 5-10 times a day! I managed to stump the poor children who live near by telling them I wasn’t Chinese. Their other guesses were Kenyan, and American and then they looked completely blank! Amharic is difficult – all the words are either long, or have difficult pronunciation. The word for thank you has 6 syllables, and the word for good morning changes dependent on whether you after addressing a man, woman or crowd.

I had a nasty incident with some coffee in the dermatology nurses’ staffroom. They very kindly invited me and my nursing colleague along for afternoon coffee (afternoons are significantly more lax than mornings) and gave me the strongest coffee I have ever had! I had a twitchy sternum for 8 hours after! And then a very unhappy stomach the next day, which may or may not have been induced by coffee… They then started to ask me about my life, the two most common questions I seem to get asked are ‘are you married?’ And ‘which religion are you?’

Unfortunately I am unable to provide the optimum answer to either of these questions! I have lost count of how many times I have been told I should ‘have children SOON’ (mainly by men, interestingly) and I’m generally met with complete bafflement when I say I’m not particularly religious. I was very sweetly informed, that the way to solve this problem is to simply ‘read the bible and love Jesus very much’.

Today I went to a market area full of stalls selling traditional Ethiopian dress and scarfs. Most are made on looms, and are mainly white with panels of embroidery. They were very nice. I struck up a conversation with two girls about what price I should pay for a scarf, and then they helped me along with some bartering. I didn’t actually end up buying anything that they had helped me with, because the stall holder refused to budge because I had ‘spoken in English’. So after an amusing session of bartering, and some discussion as to why I was not going to marry him, I left that stall empty handed. However, I had already bought 3 items from others so didn’t feel too bad. I also think I had scarf fatigue!

This evening I treated myself to a nice cafe trip. Union cafe is above Mesquel square and has views across Addis and the mountains behind it. The sun was starting to set, and I discovered that Addis has even more trees than I thought, and quite a lot of sky scrapers. One of my taxi drivers told me they are all banks. Mesquel square is the square that Mengitsu (the communist dictator) used to speak at. now it is mainly used for running practice, having a chat with your friend, playing football, drying your washing, looking lovingly into the eyes of your boyfriend etc. It is said if you run down every tier of seating you have completed a marathon! ‘Household names’ practice there every morning at 5am!

Union cafe was the most upmarket place I’ve been, and also the most expensive. It had great views, incredibly strong cocktails and a pretty good plate of nachos. All in all, a nice end to the day, marred only slightly when the taxi driver told me (after some miscommunication about where I was standing), that OF COURSE the Red Terror Museum (written all over said museum in massive letters) wasn’t called the red terror museum, but the ‘Addis Ababa museum’. Silly me.

I write this in the sun on the lawn of the ghion hotel. I am surrounded by palm trees, and a wedding party! There is a lot of dancing, drum beating and high heels. The hotel grounds are amazing, flower beds full of succulents, jacaranda trees (full of purple flowers) and the odd fountain, that only seems to be turned on when the wedding party is near it.

I came to have a sit in the cafe, and ended up sharing my table with a very interesting professor of software from Austria. She had created some sort of health app for illiterate women helping them get help surrounding childbirth. She told me all about Ethiopian weddings. Apparently they will all go to church, then make their way to the ghion hotel for photos, traditional dances and a snack. It is too expensive to eat at, so they will go elsewhere for the main wedding meal, but all the wedding photos will be at the hotel in the gardens. I realised I had seen the wedding party on my way to the hotel – a limousine came past me honking away with the bride and groom standing up through the sunroof waving. There were 4 professional cars after them!

Yesterday I went to central Addis for the first time – the piazza which is quite touristy. I had a tea in the famous coffee shop tomoko (Italian originally I think) which is some sort of institution, though they have no chairs so it’s a sort of leanfin against the bar kind of affair. I also went to the ethnological museum- reportedly Africa’s finest. It was pretty good, though the power went out so I had to see some of it by iPhone torch. It goes through the life of an Ethiopian chronologically talking about milestones in life and how they are celebrated/carried out, with emphasis on some of the more rural tribal areas.

Work is going well. I feel I am understanding how the hospital works a little better now, though I am finding Amharic very difficult to learn! I have attended some ward rounds, seeing dermatology patients who have been admitted – often for leprosy or cutaneous leishmaniasis. The pathology here is vastly different from the UK and much more advanced as patients often delay going to hospital for a variety of reasons – lack of funds, use of traditional healers, incorrect diagnoses from other places.

I am also starting to see how the leprosy patients are treated – they are seen in the ulcer clinic, some get reconstructive surgery on their hands and sadly amputations too. Lots of the leprosy patients are extremely poor, struggling with agricultural work and hand/foot disabilities or begging. Some are doing better though, and have less or no disability.

I have also spent sometime in the occupational health department, where patients are rehabilitated through exercise to enable them to eat, turn keys etc and gain strength in their hands. THey are also taught how to avoid injury to their insensitive hand and feet – the main cause of disability in leprosy. It’s very well done, they have a board of different things to practice on – different styles of key and taps etc. I saw one lady get discharged from the clinic – she was told to go home and practice in her life normally. There were a lot of smiles and kissing of hands.

I visited some of the other areas of the hospital and also a social organisation that helps with the social organisation of leprosy. I went into the neonatal intensive care unit, which was kept at a very hot temperature for all the little babies. It was lovely! Our clinic is in the shade so I get quite chilly in the mornings. Nights here are chilly: 7-12 degrees and obviously there’s no heating (partly as it’s not needed – it’s 25 degrees in the day time). The babies were extremely cute, with a pair of tiny twins who looked very underweight. Most babies there were premature of low weight apparently. One very sad case was a baby with a lot of health problems and no mother – she had died. I think the baby may die too.

I have been introduced to the hospital service buss it takes staff to and from work every day for free!! It’s so good, though I have yet to successfully catch it in the morning.

One of the doctors took me to a very fancy Italian supermarket. It looked like Waitrose had been polished for the queen! In Ethiopia they are very keen on how their produce is displayed so even on stalls which are no more than a rug on the floor, all the tomatoes etc will be placed in rows and pyramids. The supermarket was no exception – every label was exactly facing the front. It makes the whole thing look slightly fake when we are used to jars turned any which way! Anyway, I treated myself to some cheese and olives and salad.

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