Daily Life in Hawassa

So life here is pretty simple. Weekdays are long work days and weekends are spent socializing and doing chores. Sure do miss automated laundry machines. Scrubbed off a few layers on my knuckles doing my washing. Cooking as well is a little less fancy than back home as you can see from the picture below. Single burner hotplate = simple meals. I don't have a fridge and as a result it is actually cheaper to eat out at a restaurant. It's about $1.50 for a decent meal. A can of beans costs about 27 birr (Ethiopian money) and a full plate of the local fare costs about 24 birr. I think it's about 18 birr to the Canadian dollar right now. I have visited a few schools so far and all of the schools have an English Language Improvement Centre (ELIC) which is the focus of my work here. The streets are lined with family owned shops which is nice to see. It is a stark contrast to the large super-mega-"everything you could ever need is here" stores that we have in Canada. There has not been an infiltration of McDonald's, Starbucks, Costco etc. here yet and as a result there is a real community feel to the place. There is an enormous market where you can buy everything from garlic, coffee beans, cows, donkeys, pots, pillows, and bundles of sticks. The rainy season is just breathing its last gasps and as a result everything is green and animal life abounds. There are enormous storks that nest in the smallest of trees. It's always a bit worrying walking under a tree here because it would be a terrible mess if one of those behemoths unloaded its bowels on you. Well, that's life in Ethiopia in a nutshell.

 

Oh, and these little fellas are around.