Long Live The Sar

Nearly every day someone asks me if I'm sad to be leaving Addis in 4 days, and I always have mixed feelings. One month was a perfect introduction time for getting acquainted with the city. My hesitation lies in the fact that I'm not sure how much of my love for the place is for the place itself, and how much of it is for the mystery that is Ethiopia. It is not easy for a culture to seem as disjointed, inefficient, and quasi-modern and so trying to figure out how it got this way, and how it works at all, is a daily fascination. I have loved my last 4 weeks here but even now, I am unsure how much of it is my love for the city and how much of it is my love for the adventure and the mystery of Ethiopia. I am excited to get home and spend some time just sitting and relaxing and relfecting (and not having to deal with beggars every 10 seconds), but I will miss it here. The pace of life, the kindness of the people, the friends I've made, the exchange rate, and my friends at...

The Jewish Federation mission trip arrived in Ethiopia yesterday. I was lucky enough to be invited to have dinner with them @ the Sheraton Hotel - delcious - and got to reunite with some greensboro folks. Great evening. Also got to tag along while Rick gave a tour of the JDC clinic in Addis; it was my first visit to that clinic. It is a small, well-staffed, clean clinic that is definitely one of the nicer medical facilities I've seen here. They are in a tough spot right now because they are charged with medically evaluating and treating anyone who has an open immigration file with the Israeli Embassy; all of the Falash Mura in Addis have been denied immigration by Israel. But the clinic still treats them and their role in the future is hazy as to whether or not they'll continue to see these people or how they will transition to their new role. It was also interesting to watch the 50+ gathered Ethiopians play their political games - they were all wearing their kippahs when the ...