So I have failed to updated this in 2,5 months... mea culpa but I began having problems accessing the actual blog URL... must be what some censorship for indeed I have tried accessing other blogs to not avail... Besides there was nothing too exciting to report from Addis where I have been spending most of my time...
My time... it has been over three months since I arrived here... I am more than half way through my stay!
My impressions are better than when I was here a few months back. For one it has started raining so although the roads are muddy, nature has reacquired its "greenness" and everything is so lush its beautiful. I have been to two coffee ceremonies in Mabaan zones in the camp. Mostly attended by women and children these ceremonies serve to inform the population... Women's time is limited as they often have to do a lot of the chores the information is brought to them :) !
I figured I would share a small collage of photos I took recently ...In the photos you can see women at the coffee ceremony, refugee children playing football, fetching water, some photos of people and the tukuls (huts) you can see on the way to Sherkole from Assosa...
I've been in Sherkole since last week following up on repatriation activities as well as writing reports and more excitingly trying to generate communications materials like success stories, get photos and write an article for World Refugee Day which will take place this coming Wednesday. I am looking forward to the celebrations, there will be football matches, dramas, cultural performances, and even a place where products made by refugees will be displayed... so who knows maybe there will be some "shopping" involved (the frivolity of the activity should be lesser than in the city)!
The days here have been busy... trying to get as much as I can into my visit since I fly back to Addis on Thursday... at least in theory... IF it rains and the runway becomes too muddy I'll just have to wait until it dries up enough for the Fokker to land! [Gotta give it to the Dutch for such memorable name ;)!]
Anyways, I better get back to my report... I will try to post something else next weekend... when/if I am back home... In the meantime I will continue taking photos to share...
Cheers
