My very first day on the job and I already feel the happiest I have been yet.
I woke up around 7 am ready for some breakfast and just the rest of the day. Hannah and I met up at 8 am to go the cafeteria. The weather for today is cool and it honestly feels like a nice fall day back home. It's really nice knowing it's not going to be 90+ degrees and sunny. They actually warned us that it may start to get a little bit more chilly as time goes on the next few months. I put on my sweatshirt and headed to breakfast. For breakfast I had a banana, a raisin muffin (which I didn't finish eating because I really do not like raisins), and pineapple juice. I think the pineapple juice was actually my favorite because it was not like a bottled juice in the states but rather simply a freshly squeezed pineapple in a glass.
After breakfast Hannah and I returned to our rooms and waited for a lady of the name, Nardos. She took us to the Washera building where her office is housed. Her english is a little rough but she is very kind and said that we are able to come to her with any questions or problems that we may have during our time here. We even have an office designated for the both of us in that building. We each have keys to the office so we are able to access that office during the 'work' week when needed. After she showed us our office she asked, "Would you like some coffee or tea?" Well, I have to say I'm usually pretty open to trying new things and I really wanted to try some tea. So of course, we had tea at the Zebu Club. All I can say is, it was AWESOME. Probably my new favorite drink here. After chatting over tea she took us to a very new building on campus, Sululta. In this building, Dr. Tadelle Dessi, Hannah's and I's supervisor, office is there.
As soon as Dr. Tadelle saw Hannah and I, he immediately stood up and greeted both of us with hugs. As from I can tell about him, he is an extremely kind man and he excited that we are here. Prior to meeting him, I was little worried that he would be stern and not very open to us 'newbies'. But rather he was very excited and wanted make sure we were happy with our projects. We sat down at some chairs around a coffee table and he asked us a little about ourselves and our backgrounds. He also said that sometime soon he will take us to his house to meet his family and have dinner in the city. He asked for our ages and compared them to one of his sons who was sixteen years and six months. I told Dr. Tadelle that in about two weeks I would be turning 19 and he immediately smiled and said, "So we must celebrate!" He promised me a good meal within the city. Across from the chairs and table there was a big table for computer work where he said that both of us will work on laptops. Hannah and I thought it was pretty awesome that we basically have two offices that we are able to use. After our chat at the coffee table he asked, "Would you like some coffee or tea?" So we both agreed to go back to the Zebu Club and this time try some cappuccino. Before leaving the building though, he gave Hannah and I some books to read about our upcoming projects. Dr. Tadelle is actually leaving to go to the Netherlands tomorrow for fieldwork (I would assume) and said he would be back friday. Which would give us enough time to read the books. As we made our way to the Zebu club, he wanted us to ask him questions now. Turns out he has been with ILRI for 13 years. After some more chatting over coffee, I think the cappuccino was very good but I think I like the tea better. We finished and Dr. Tadelle asked us to get our laptops and bring them back to Sululta to make sure they connected to the wifi.
I am currently writing from the 'open office' space of Hannah's and I's in Sululta (pictures to come). Looking back at these last couple hours I know that I will be very happy and I cannot wait to start my work. Although, the head of my project, Olivier Hanotte, is actually in London and is to return Wednesday. Hopefully, he and I can dive right in to whatever my official project may be. On Saturday night and just about all of Sunday, I was very worried that I would not like it here or be accepted. But, today I am reassured that soon all the people here will become almost like family and that coffee and tea here is very, very good. It has already been a full day and we haven't even had lunch!
Stay tuned for more updates on today!
A few pictures from today
(The keys to our office in (The coffee table with a view in Sululta)
Washera)
(The other side of our desk in Sululta again,
with a view)
UPDATE:
Lunch yesterday was quite interesting. Hannah and I ate in the cafeteria this time because it is open during the weekdays and is even a little bit cheaper than the Zebu Club. I chose the 'International Dish' of braised beef over rice with potato wedges, a tomato sauce, and of course a bread roll. It was quite good actually, I just wonder where internationally the dish had come from!
After Lunch, Hannah and I went back to Sululta to use our computers and I started into one of the books Dr. Tadelle gave me about Boran Cattle and Ethiopia. After we had finished up there we headed back to the rooms for a nap. I waited a little while and talked to my friends who were just waking up at that time. Once I had settled into being a little awake, a little asleep I had a knock on my door. Hannah said that Nardos had called her and said we needed to sign our contracts for the internship. We went to her office and she told me that I actually was not able to sign my contract because of my project change. So, hopefully we can get that arranged soon. She took us to get our official I.D. pictures for our badges that we would receive tomorrow. We began discussing paying for our meals at this time because our meal stipends had not come yet.
(The view from Sululta)
(The main area in Sululta)
The day began to slowly go down hill at this point you could say. Hannah and I told Nardos that we were able to take out birr from the atm's on campus. So, we got our cards and went to the atm's. Hannah went first. We each took out 500 birr or $21.53. Well, the only problem was that the machine did not spit my card back out. Nardos called a few people and they said to talk to the bank that owned that machine. She took us out into the city to see the supermarkets that were close to the campus. We then went to the bank that just happened to be on the second floor of a building with what seemed to be a few military men with guns and women on the balcony. The bank told us they would stop by at 9 am tomorrow to open the machine. Me, being the worry-wart, was very worried the rest of the night.
Once we had gotten back to our rooms, my nose started bleed very profusely. Just my luck, right? Bloody noses are somewhat of a repeat offender for me but this one lasted about 15 minutes. Hannah was thankfully in my room at the time and was able to hand me tissue until it had stopped. We tried to figure out the tv's in our rooms a little bit but the picture was either blurry and/or in foreign language.
Eventually we went to dinner. I was still very full from lunch so I decided to just get one of the desserts that seemed to be popular at the Zebu Club. It was called Black Forest. It was really good! It was kind of like a layered cake with different sorts of frosting between each layer and then topped of with frosting and chocolate shavings. After 'dinner', we returned to our rooms and settled in for the night. I talked to my family and friends again, ultimately I miss them very much and I love being to still contact them.
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