More parting thoughts...

I knew it - as soon as I got on the plane from Frankfurt to LAX, I thought of a bunch more things to add to my 'random thoughts' list. Here they are:

• always having to make sure there was some bottled water to use for brushing my teeth, and using the peroxide the few times I forgot and used tap water to rinse
• the Adama class and their 'energizers' - jokes, exercises, clapping
• taking the anti-malarial every day - and still taking it for 5 more!
• the women doing hard manual labor in Awassa repairing sidewalks
• hearing Shania Twain being played in random places
• coffee with milk meaning a cup of steaming milk and a tiny pot of coffee on the side - perfect!
• the massage from the Spa in Awassa that included a belly massage...
• scaffolding made out of sticks (wheelbarrows, ladders, oars, etc. also made out of sticks)
• a fun time at the Post Office in Addis - having to check my camera at the guard house; being crushed by a crowd of people trying to get their mail taken care of while the postal lady was trying to count out stamps for me; the 3-person assembly line putting 4 different stamps on my letters (Amir, a postal guy and me); the guy who asked me for my phone number and business card when I said I was Canadian.
• to Pepto or not
• the students' appreciation of small things like the pens and notebooks we handed out, the class photo we had printed for everyone at the Awassa training, and the requests for things like Biohazard signs and safety manuals
• everyone, including maids, insisting on carrying everything for us - from backpacks to cups of tea
• the hot, stifling room in Adama during training week #1 (the white people are melting!)
• the yummy tea made with hot cinnamon water
• Deman looking so Ethipian everyone tried speaking to her in the local language - she had to explain so many times 'no Amharic' and that she is from Kenya
• the 'oils and greases' shop in Adama that pleased Joan so much
• the lush greenery and red soil (and poor roads) south of Awassa
• Ethipian time (6 hr earlier than 'normal time') and the Ethiopian calendar (2nd month of 2004)
• being shocked at meal prices once we got back to the Hilton in Addis
• butchershops with meat from a single animal hanging from a rack
• how much sugar the Ethiopians add to their tea and coffee - it's crazy!
• all the kids from pre-schoolers to senior high wearing school uniforms. The raspberry pants had to have been my favorite
• the women wood collectors trudging down Mt. Entoto with their huge burden of eucalyptus branches
• the Orthodox Christians fasting until their Christmas/Epiphany on Jan. 7th
• cold mornings, warm dry days and cool evenings
• the harsh reality of the Red Terror Martyrs' Museum on our last day in Addis
• being called 'Farenjii' - although not as often as I was expecting
• the amazingly good, paved roads (mostly thanks to Chinese investors)
• hyenas and the relationship the people have with them - in some places like Harar they are hand fed
• churches and mosques everywhere
• all the ladies in headscarves
• bloody nose and breathlessness from the altitude in Addis (8000 ft)
• thinking that a little could go a very long way .....