Ethiopia

My time in Ethiopia was truly the experience of a lifetime. Who my age has the chance to attend a UN meeting, listening to the opinions of representatives from organizations like the African Union, and having conversations with diplomats over lunch? I feel so lucky to have had to opportunity.

I arrived in Addis Ababa exhausted after a full day of traveling, to a very comfortable hotel room. There was a sign in the lobby welcoming me and the other UN Women representatives, a little bit surreal.

The early the next morning in the pouring rain a van took me and a few other representatives to the retreat where the meeting would be taking place in Adama (aka Nazareth) two hours away. My first impression was that it was much more like Egypt than Botswana. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the way they constructed the concrete buildings, with sticks supporting it. It’s truly unique; I’ll attempt to attach a photo here.

We jumped right in to the meetings, and I was glad I had done so much research beforehand. After the welcomes and introductions, we learned about the progress of the campaign so far. There were about twenty representatives in attendance, as well as UN Women support and translators. It was a little surreal to me that when someone decided to make their speech in French or Arabic, all I had to do was put the head phones in front of me on and I could listen in English.

The work that those involved are doing is so important, although sometimes it’s hard to see how it benefits the specific women suffering from violence in Africa. I have to remind myself that it’s campaigns like these that force the laws in the member states to change, be created, or better enforced, which in turn can help to punish and prevent specific acts of violence against individual women, as one example.

The location was amazing, everything was green because of the rainy season, and the retreat was an oasis. I really would have liked to go outside of the hotel to see more of the city, but my time was so short, and almost entirely scheduled. At the meals I was able to try injera, a local yeast flat bread. It’s eaten with stew, and the grain it’s made with is specific to Ethiopia. It has a very unique taste; I would recommend you try it if you ever have the chance!

I was able to take more pictures on the way back, and me and some other representatives had fun trying to get a decent picture of a “tuktuk”, little blue three-wheeled auto rickshaws, which have recently been imported from India. One of the translators told me more about Ethiopia (like their different time system, which has the day begin at 6 am), while I couldn’t stop staring out of the windows. I saw women in neTela, the white gauzy shawls, Ethiopia orthodox churches, and men plowing the fields with oxen.

Coming from Botswana, I couldn’t get over how Green everything was. I commented that it was so beautiful, and a Kenyan representative laughed, telling me I must not have been anywhere beautiful. Since I’m from Alberta, we all know this is the opposite of true! From what I experienced, it’s a beautiful and unique country that I hope to return to one day.