What have I been reading?

Before leaving for Ethiopia, I picked up several books on the country. So far I've read:

• A History of Ethiopia (Updated Edition) This was a fairly academic history. After struggling through several chapters trying to get a visual map of the different tribes and dynasties involved, the modern history was much more relatable, if not cheerier.
• The Emperor A journalist's lyrical account reconstructing the last days of the Imperial reign inside the palace in Addis Ababa. Most memorable part was looking up the journalist afterwards and seeing he'd been revealed to be a spy/collaborator with the Polish secret police.

Last weekend, I had lunch at Lime Tree, a very expat focused cafe (menu includes humus/mezza, Indian thalis, lots of sandwiches and pizza, plus they do Wok Wednesday and Tex-Mex Tuesdays/Thursdays). Afterwards, I stopped by the attached "BookWorld" and picked up some local English-language periodicals.

Having read through most of these on the trips to and from Awassa, I feel I've learned something about both 1) the local news environment and 2) current debates around the direction of Africa's economy and politics (there was a lot of Pan-Africanism talk, which links to the recent 50-year anniversary of the African Union, celebrated in Addis).

For now, though, you get the superficial descriptions I jotted down before making my way through these fine publications:

• The Reporter Motto: Free Press Free Speech Free Spirit, Logo: "Rescue Press freedom from the hangman's noose" with aforementioned hangman, noose, victim, and stool being kicked away. Nothing in here actually felt too controversial
• Ethiopian Weekly Press Digest Each section is split into "In government media" and "In private media"
• ZOMA: Addis Ababa's Monthly Magazine This glossy seems to aim for the Lifestyle Magazine segment. Cover stories include "The African Union and the Changing Faces of Security Threats in Africa" and "Hip-Hop for Social Change"
• Ethiopian Business Review Cover story : From Doom to Bloom, top bar: "The Man with 900 Million Dollar," touting an exclusive interview with the representative of the African Development Bank

For what it's worth, I've also been reading travel guides, briefing documents for work, lots of nytimes.com to feel connected, and--intermittently--Tony Judt's Thinking the Twentieth Century.

A Journey

I made my first trip out of Addis this past Monday. It was a work trip, and my most recent work trip before this was to Topeka, Kansas, so this was a little different.

I went along with a local ATA analyst to attend a "lessons learned" workshop the next day in Awassa, a regional capital 300 km south of Addis, in the Great Rift Valley, that's known for its picturesque lake and its large university. I got lucky and we largely took the "scenic route" from Addis -- a two-car wide strip of Asphalt through recently-planted fields (many of them growing maize!) and shrubby hills that can be faster than the congested "main road," which we picked up toward the end and which goes through village after village. In our time on both roads we occasionally had to slow for herds of cows and goats.

Awassa is apparently a weekend destination for Addis's middle class. We found a new, rectangular hotel near the lake, outfitted with Chinese-made modcons (the TV remote, for instance, had no English or Amharic in evidence). A brief evening walk along the lake shore -- past shacks offering pool tables and fish fries which were largely deserted on a Monday -- led to the picture below.

The next day's workshop was entirely in Amharic (which is the main official language of Ethiopia, although English is apparently a standard part of the curriculum and is the language of big business). Beyond getting to introduce myself -- Ene Max Kornblith ebalalau. Ke ATA nau yehmeh tahut ("I am Max Kornblith. I come from ATA.") -- I was fairly useless. Most of the other attendees were managers of farmers cooperative unions, and the project being discussed--which is a major one for my team--is something you can read more about here via the Huffington Post.

The trip back was uneventful -- i.e. I slept most of the 4-hour drive. Overall, I'd say it was a successful trip.

Below: Lake Awassa at sunset

Bottom: Central Hotel Awassa, location of the lessons learned workshop

In the news

So if I'd gone for my walk up North one day later, it could've been a quite different experience.

Didn't hear about this anywhere today but BBC on the hotel TV today (I'm still in something of a bubble), but the flyering I saw going on yesterday makes more sense now.

Q&A

Thanks to Sonum for the questions

1.Living: So how is your place?

I'm still in a hotel. Looking to move out in a week to fill-in in the shared house of a colleague who'll be back in the US through end of June. I've looked at a couple options after that point -- both involve taking a room in an existing set-up of development professionals. One was a quite pleasant house, the other an apartment somewhat more convenient to work. (The commute vs. quality of housing trade-off has followed me to Addis.) Both are in a price-range inaccessible to all but the most well-off Ethiopians, and comparable to what you could pay in less popular US cities.

2. Work: How are the people? Is the office space nice?
Everybody's nice so far. Obviously I still don't quite feel like I know what I'm doing. Both the locals and the foreign hires generally seem welcoming and qualified.

The office itself is perhaps surprisingly "normal." Same laptop docks, monitors, etc. as at my old job and potentially better furniture. We're on the eighth floor, have lots of light, free tea and coffee and people who clear the cups from your desk (which means no more Coke Zero can pyramids--although this is triply true here since soda comes in glass bottles and basically all the Coke is Classic).

3. Addis: What do you think of the city?

Some numbers

Estimated GDP per capita (all figures approximate and expressed in current US dollars at Purchasing Power Parity):

Ethiopia (2012): $1,200
Addis Ababa (~2010): $1,100

India (2012): $3,900
Delhi (~2010): $11,000

US in 1800: $1,600
US in 1900: $6,600
US in 2012: $50,000

Caveats: GDP is not a perfect measure of economic prosperity. Among other shortcomings, as a mean (straight average) it doesn't try to capture the "typical person's" economic situation and can be skewed upwards by inequality that benefits relatively few people. Additionally, the Delhi GDP figure sounds quite over-stated to me, possibly due to not acknowledging the lesser value of the rupee in Delhi vs. the country as a whole. (For those of you wondering, the Ethiopian currency is the birr, by the way, and currently sits at about 18.5 to the dollar).

Sourcing: Addis GDP is drawn from city reports and personal conversion. Source for all other figures is Wikipedia. Historical US data also used help of usinflationcalculator.com to take 2000 dollars to 2012. 

Some photos

Above: View to the Northwest from 10th floor window of the Hotel de Leopol International, Addis

Below: Standard Room at the de Leopol (Promotional photo. Not pictured: intermittently functioning shower, 70's-era white tiger-themed lounge bar.*)

*Also not pictured: reason for seemingly naming your hotel after one of the worst colonial madmen in African history

Coming In (Expectations)

For a while I've wanted for my first post on this blog to lay out some expectations I have for my experience in Ethiopia going in. My reasoning goes that if I come back later and say "here's what surprised me; here's what didn't," I want to have a credible record of my preconceptions. (I suppose that's the consultant and empiricist in me.)

I'll admit that I'm cheating a little in writing this, though, since not only did I receive a lot of advance guidance on what tends to strike or surprise newcomers, but I'm also actually writing this on the evening of my first day in the country.