Food

In the evenings, we ate out at various local restaurants (initially) sampling the injera and wat and just for variety, occasionally slipped in to the local Pizza house.

One memorable trip to Elsa’s (brightly coloured traditional restaurant) resulted in Marta having her bag snatched. M suddenly leapt from her chair yelling at the top of her voice that her bag had been taken – I ran out after her and so did quite a few other customers.

M was not going to give up easily and continued the chase, yelling until another man caught him and recovered the bag intact. Back in the restaurant, M was feted by all for her bravado and for defeating the bag snatcher.

Shola Market, Addis

In Addis, a wide variety of food was on sale. In Gondar, it is very limited. Most veg stalls stock potatoes, onions, chilli peppers, garlic and white cabbage. If you look hard or shop early in the morning, you can get eggs, lettuce, spinach and carrots. In Addis you could get mangoes and water melons as well as bananas. In Gondar you get bananas. Those of you who have visited the Museum of London and observed the first Sainsbury’s shop will be able to picture the average supermarket here.

Cooking Lesson

Since arriving in Gondar, I have shopped and cooked for myself. There not being many volunteers here, I don’t have anyone to eat out with and, like London, I don’t want to sit alone. I’ve only been here a week and I’m sure I will begin to investigate further as I become more comfortable with my surroundings.