A wonderful Addis day with Alex

When I was in Uganda last year I wrote a blog post titled: "A wonderful Kampala day".  Well now its time for: "A wonderful Addis day with Alex.

 Alex arrived at SIM just before 9.30am, as planned. (Did you know that that was 3.30 Ethiopian time?) The plan was to visit his carpentry workshop and then go to a disability workshop for me to buy some gifts and cards to take home and then to be at YFC for lunch before English classes.

We began to walk.

First stop was to visit Alex's girlfriend Tsehay who is staying with her sister, Ganet. Here are the sisters at the gateway to their compound.

Ganet runs a restaurant just outside their home

 

 and we were invited to stay for breakfast.

SO good.

 

Ganet does most of the cooking herself

 but does employ a couple of young ladies to help with cooking

and washing the dishes.

I have come to know Alex quite well during my time here with YFC and it was great to meet his girlfriend

and have opportunity to get to know her just a little bit.

The next door neighbour wanted to welcome this newcomer into the compound

and gave me this cup of coffee - VERY Ethiopian and such a friendly gesture. This dear lady wasn't to know that I decided to give up coffee 35+ years ago because I didn't enjoy it. 

From here we caught a little local taxi bus to meet a real estate broker because Alex was ready to move house. We met him, walked to the house, found it had already been rented out and so walked to the next possibility. Alex took that one. We walked to the hairdressing business of the lady who owns the one room and Alex paid one month's rent.

Next stop, Alex's workshop where he employs 6 carpenters. Alex too is a carpenter.

The guys asked if we would join them for lunch. Unfortunately we had told YFC we'd be there in time for lunch and had to decline this very nice offer.

Alex had bought some soccer pads for the guy who owns the property he rents, so before we moved on he had to pass those on. Alex has a HUGE heart.

Continuing with our walk

past the local inhabitants

and market stalls

we stopped by his good friend who fixes mobile phones. Can you see all those phone parts on his chair and on the shelves? Imagine keeping track of all those phones, backs and batteries! 

Here we were invited to join them for coffee. So nice. Same reason to refuse. We were expected at YFC for lunch.

Our final stop was the Meschel Centre where people with handicaps of all sorts make craft items - woodwork, cards, table linen, furniture, bags and much more. So very clever. I was able to find some interesting gifts to take back to Australia.

Then it was time to keep our lunch date at YFC. Well, we were pretty late. Everyone else had long since eaten, but they did keep some for us. Alex and I had walked most of the time from 9.30 to 2pm and I was pretty tired, but thankful that my knees didn't give out.

Had a great day out with Alex seeing and experiencing a whole lot of things through the eyes of an Addis Ababa local.

'A wonderful Addis day with Alex'