Gimme 2 days...
It's Sunday morning (2 AM) and I am busy trying to tie up my loose ends here in Greensboro before heading off to Africa.
I am going to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for 5 weeks to work in the Mother Theresa Mission Clinic. Hopefully I will get to help out with caring for the patients, playing with the orphans, and whatever else the nuns need help with.
In all honesty, I have absolutely no clue what I'm getting myself into. In my mind I imagine Ethiopia to be somewhere in between the Belgian Princess's B&B lodge my family stayed in during our first night on safari in Tanzania in 2002-3, and pictures of refugee camps in Zaire (now DRC) following the Rwandan Genocide in '94. So somewhere in between these two extremes, I imagine Addis falls.
During my gap year (now two years ago, '05-06) I traveled the globe, hitting 3 continents, 5 countries, 1 ski resort, and 1 chinese lady on a moped. I lived in the Hamptons and I slept on the muddy floor of a chinese hut with 3 pigs grunting below me, hoping for the wood slats to break so they can eat me instead of white rice. I got a massage in a 5-star hotel and I relieved myself in outhouses that emptied directly into the village's main water source. Basically I saw luxury that I never knew existed within 12 months of living amongst the poorest/most underprivileged people I had ever seen. It was a year of extremes and while unsettling and disorienting at times, it gave me a greater sense of my place in the world.
I will write more tomorrow after I charge my laptop, finish my work for The Economist and begin packing.
I am going to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for 5 weeks to work in the Mother Theresa Mission Clinic. Hopefully I will get to help out with caring for the patients, playing with the orphans, and whatever else the nuns need help with.
In all honesty, I have absolutely no clue what I'm getting myself into. In my mind I imagine Ethiopia to be somewhere in between the Belgian Princess's B&B lodge my family stayed in during our first night on safari in Tanzania in 2002-3, and pictures of refugee camps in Zaire (now DRC) following the Rwandan Genocide in '94. So somewhere in between these two extremes, I imagine Addis falls.
During my gap year (now two years ago, '05-06) I traveled the globe, hitting 3 continents, 5 countries, 1 ski resort, and 1 chinese lady on a moped. I lived in the Hamptons and I slept on the muddy floor of a chinese hut with 3 pigs grunting below me, hoping for the wood slats to break so they can eat me instead of white rice. I got a massage in a 5-star hotel and I relieved myself in outhouses that emptied directly into the village's main water source. Basically I saw luxury that I never knew existed within 12 months of living amongst the poorest/most underprivileged people I had ever seen. It was a year of extremes and while unsettling and disorienting at times, it gave me a greater sense of my place in the world.
I will write more tomorrow after I charge my laptop, finish my work for The Economist and begin packing.
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