As the plane makes a stop-over in Khartoum, a city surrounded by vast deserts, you find yourself eager to take off again and head for the vibrant city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital.
Ethiopia is well known for its coffee and its world-class athletes, and after climbing a few steps at high altitude, it soon becomes clear how the Ethiopians are in such good shape!
There was no end to the kindness of the Ethiopian people, who went out of their way to make sure everything went smoothly during our stay. Although a relatively new charity, Camara already had an impressive reputation for its work in Ethiopia. People were queuing up to try and get into the classes and we worked flat out to accommodate as many of them as possible.
Of course, as volunteers, we were allowed some time to explore by ourselves, giving us the opportunity to haggle with taxi drivers over 20c fares or race to class in a rickshaw, crashing only once or twice along the way. There was ample time allocated to discovering Ethiopia’s impressive countryside and getting close-up with crocodiles.
The food was delicious, lots of spicy foods but also pastas and pizzas for those of us who weren’t adventurous enough to sample raw meat.
Accomodation was generally extremely pleasant bar a certain dodgy hotel/brothel with holes in the ceiling for any number of creatures to crawl in under the brown sheets with you! Of course if you didn’t want to stay in your room you could always walk over to the bar for a quiet pint, provided you didn’t mind drinking in a pub with no lights and promiscuous ladies lurking in the corners.
This trip of a lifetime was an eye-opening cultural experience and well worth the time invested helping out in the charity’s workshop on Thomas Street.
Camara is a charity dedicated to improving computer literacy across Africa. For more information on them and their volunteers visit www.camara.ie.
