Travel and Arrival

Not looking forward to such a long journey, I was pleasantly surprised. We stopped in Amman where over half the passengers (mainly Americans) disembarked leaving a lot more space to stretch our legs. We arrived at Addis at 3am and to the hotel at 5am. The journey was full of life – brightly coloured bars and people everywhere.

I thought perhaps this was because is was Sat night/Sun morning but later realised that like London, the streets of Addis never sleep.

The hotel, which initially felt like a tawdry B & B became my palace for the next two weeks. I had my own flushing toilet and shower – luxury. From 2pm on the Sunday, we embarked on two weeks of intensive training including 2 hours language daily with the immensely patient and good humoured Mossamo.

My hotel in the background - to left of my head

Each morning, a bus collected us from the hotel and deposited us at the Ethiopian Management Training Institute, travelling through roads clogged with line taxis, people, donkeys, goats…… and sadly, heavy pollution. As well as language, a lot of the training focussed on the geo/historial/political/economic situation delivered mainly through lectures - many of them of excellent quality