Lower Omo Valley

Oh No… We’re still in Addis Ababa. However, we do hope to be taking a bus to the Kenyan border tomorrow morning. So hopefully, we will be in Nairobi by the next time we get in touch.

We spent last week down in the South of Ethiopia in the Lower Omo Valley. It was pretty rough. We hired a banged up old landcruiser that broke down at every bump on the dirt roads and on the surfaced ones even the smelliest busses overtook us as we bounced along at about 5 miles an hour.

Our 4 am starts were rewarded with amazing visits to some of the tribes of the Lower Omo Valley. We met people of the Banna, Hamar and Mursi tribes, all wonderfully colourful. Many tribesmen and women wear animal skin clothes and drip with elaborate jewellery. Exposed skin is decorated with paint and etchings. We did feel as if some of the people we met dressed and waited for tourists to earn a good living but all along the way we met very ornately dressed people just going about their days.

As always, the best times were when our landcruiser broke down. Then we had a chance to smell the trees and flowers, to admire the butterflies and to engage with the people we met along the roadside. Otherwise we spent our days like the rest of the toursists, sardines in hot 4 wheel drives, being ferried from one (slightly artificial) photo shoot to another.

We also took a boat on Lake Chamo and saw some enormous hippos and crocodiles. It was so much fun. The lake was absolutely choc o’ bloc with crocs! From our safe steel boat we also saw large flocks of pelicans, storks and flamingos, flying like pink sticks with wings.

And now we’re back in Addis, preparing for the hard five day trip to Nairobi. It’s two days on good roads to the border. The bandits of Northern seem to be less of a problem on the road to Nairobi but we will still try to join an armed convoy. From the border, it’s another three days on bumpy dirt roads to Nairobi.

Best of Luck to the Cork Hurlers!

Let us know how things are at home - send us an email or reply to a message here.

Malachy

GOAL Street Children's Project

Hello Everyone,

Hope you're all enjoying the summer. We hear the heat wave is over. Too bad! It rains in Addis Ababa every day so I have to say, I don't have too much sympathy.

This week, we visited the GOAL office in Addis. We'd heard great things about the GOAL projects in Addis so we were delighted to see the programs first hand. In Addis, GOAL operates two drop-in centres and four night shelters for street children and caters for two hundred children at any one time.

These children are fed, clothed and given a place to sleep each night. On top of that they are offered guidance and couselling, informal and formal education and when they turn sixteen they do skills training so that they can get permanent jobs when they turn 18 and have to leave the program. GOAL also tries to reunify children with their families where possible.

There was so much activity at the drop-in centre. It was great to see. Table tennis, draughts, local board games, washing, cooking, tae kwon do. Everyone seemed friendly and happy. It really was inspiring. My only wish is that GOAL could cater for even more children.

Anyway, that's all for now. Please keep in touch.

Niamh.

More About Addis

We are finally leaving Addis Ababa. We have fallen deeper and deeper in love with this city, and Ethiopia. It was tough in the beginning. Nobody in the world can be as friendly as the Sudanese, so in our eyes, the poor Ethiopian's were in their shade. But more and more, we have been shown wonderful kindness and always we catch ourselves saying, "this would never happen at home". People often buy us coffees and bus fares. They turn around on the street to show us our way.

We had a wonderful walk through the backstreets of Addis a few days ago. It was a world away from the shiny buildings which line the quickly sprouting street-sides. Men washed themselves in rivers which wind below tall trees and past shabby houses, old women wove beautiful, tightly stitched, round grass baskets, a young man wove a blanket on a makeshift loom and showed us his craft. It was fantastic. We have seen images from our childhood stories coming to life, even here in this city which puts on such a very modern show.

I hope you are all enjoying the summer in Ireland and elsewhere. We have spent the last month wearing wooly jumpers and avoiding torrential showers. The south should see us shedding a few layers once more.

Thanks for all your wonderful emails and replies.
Keep in touch,

Malachy

Addis Ababa

Hello everyone.

I'm writing from a little cafe in the centre of Addis Ababa. The internet connection is ridiculously slow - seven computers are sharing one 56K modem. It's annoying. They say it is the centre of town but it is no different from the rest of the city: it's relaxed and easy-going and is more like a village than an urban centre.

The weather today is cloudy but cool. It will rain later in the day - just like every other day. This is the only place on our route where the temperature will be below thirty. We are at such a high altitude that the temperature is lower than twenty - there are two blankets on my bed and I'm still cold at night.

I like the city. The book describes it as 'shambolic' but I don't know what they're talking about. The food, the coffee, the style. It's all great. I might even treat myself to a knock-off Gucci watch - they're on every street corner.

We're busy writing articles and updating the site. Hope you're all having fun at home. I hear the weather's pretty good. Please keep in touch. It's always great to hear the news from home.

Niamh.