Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - I am weak...

Ethiopian man in the Simiens (Mulee, Ethiopia) circa 2007.

My heart wasn't into climbing on another bus for 12 hrs. Unfortunately, reception didn't understand my instructions and woke me up at 0430 because they called for a taxi. I kindly declined the taxi service. Then at 0530, the reception guy knocked at my door again. Apparently the cab was still waiting for me. I had to politely send him away again. These guys were killing me with kindness.

Something pleasant happened today. I bumped into my Polish friend, Anthony, here at the Taitu Hotel (remember, I met him in Lalibela). I opened the French doors of my room to let in some fresh air and saw Anthony walking down the driveway. He's been here for the last 2 weeks! Some of his pictures are going to be published (well, at least someone is interested in hiring him to shoot photographs for a coffee table book commemorating the Ethiopian celebrations). I knew he had good stuff.

I told Anthony about my plans to visit Harrar. He has one of his "NGO's" in Harrar. In fact, the "NGO" in Harrar was his first. Walking along the streets of Harrar, he could not help but notice the destitute street boys camped along the side of the streets. He decided to take one of them under his wing (turned out to be the poorest of poor - tattered clothes, shoeless). His philosophy was not to give a handout (in the most traditional sense of the word) but to set up a business for the "NGO" child (in this case selling kleenex, candy, cigarettes, etc...) AND, this is a big "and", find a local person to act as a mentor to help monitor the child's progress. He asked me if I could check up on the NGO. Should be interesting... BTW, when I first met Anthony in Lalibela, he was setting up a shoeshine business for another NGO boy.

Out of Canuckistan: A travel blog, Apr 26/07
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