Ethiopia Runs

On Saturday we visited the University and Markets, hosted by Daniel who had gone with the DireDawa Group. We then met with the 'Ethiopia Lives' team , a local group that CAFOD had trained to be photographers (thier work is on the web page) - all was now gearing up for the Great Ethiopia Run on Sunday.

Before I came I had assumed I would not be part of the run, just walking found as a spectator. However I discovered that I had been entered with all the local CAFOD staff. So as the day approached I decided to set myself a target time of 2 hours (walking around the watersheds had kept me fairly fit!)

I walked with Jackie, s a friend of Bev, who also had set herself a 2 hour target. The atmosphere was fantastic. 25000 people in the same green teeshirts. The noise was incredible, mostly from the runners (the spectators were remarkably quiet) and mostly when we passed Government offices!

As we passed each kilo marker Jackie and I reduced our target; by 8K we set ourselves 1 hour 4o minutes. In the end we finished at 10.35 - less than 1 hour 35 minutes as we didn't pass the start line on the dot of 9.00. A great experience; the others will be sharing their experiences on the blog .

We rested in the afternoon and had a party at the house of Bev and Jannie, her husband and job sharer incharge of the CAFOD/Trocaire office in the evening - they did us proud.

And so now we have some final sightseeing to do and quite a lot of work to write up our experiences and plan what we are going to do on our return.

We arrive home on Wenesday evening - this will be my last blog from here. There will be many more in the days after we return on subjects like: Eritrea, HIV/Aids, the political situation and, of course, all the people, sights and projects we have seen.

I'm glad of these few days in Addis - not just because of the run which was unmissable but to allow a gradual re-entry from the stark but beautiful world of Tigray back to the affluence we enjoy in the UK.

See you soon.

Mike