Richard Clowes and Samson Workneh, our Country Director, at an orphanage in Addis

Our Desk officer in Mexico, Jery Lee, will be spending a month in Addis Ababa supporting our staff at one of our newest destinations, Ethiopia, where we had our first volunteers in February. She was kind enough to send along some of her initial thoughts after first few weeks there.

Well here are my first impressions……

The program is very well set up here and there are no problems with finding work for the volunteers. There are plenty of great orphanages and schools for our volunteers to work at.

Concerning the city, Addis Ababa is a great place to be. Although it is a bit polluted like most big cities, it is pleasant in general and surrounded by mountains. The view is amazing. It is very different from the other side of the world, especially Guadalajara! Volunteers will easily adapt in one week, but the beginning is a bit difficult because everyone stares at you out of curiosity and tries to speak with you which takes some getting used to for our European or North American volunteers. But as soon as you adapt there is no problem as it is a safe place and you can get around the city very easily on minibuses or public taxis that take you everywhere. You can learn the routes in a few days or so. All the people in the schools and working placements are really happy to have volunteers including the host families. The overall reaction towards us is very positive from everyone so I hope many volunteers apply to come here soon as there are lots of things to do and the people are excited to have them.

The food is spicy and very hot sometimes but good. You can also get food from all over the world as there are many restaurants and cafes with good food so volunteers can always go and have a meal out if they want a break from Ethiopian food as it won’t cost more than 3-4 dollars.

Overall, I really like the place and it will be a very good experience for the volunteers coming here. I hope many more will come here in the future!