By Sarah Milnes, Programme Advisor

As my first time to Africa, I was more than a little excited about heading off to Ethiopia, home to the roots of modern man! Ethiopia certainly didn’t disappoint. Despite it being the peak of the rainy season in Addis Ababa, which combined with the altitude of over 2400m, gave the capital a distinctly ‘British’ climate, the warmth and friendliness of the Ethiopian people more than made up for it.

Sami, our Ethiopian Director and his Assistant, Abe, became my guides for the week, showing me round all our various host families and placements in addition to some of the cities attractions. At first the Ethiopian capital can seem quite disorientating, with no definite ‘centre’, but once you get the hang of using the shared minibus taxis, everything soon slots into place. It is also a surprisingly safe and un-intimidating city, although being one of relatively few ‘feranjee’ (foreigners) you do stand out and attract a fair bit of attention!

View of Addis from the office

experienced Ethiopian hospitality on many occasions and was regularly ‘force-fed’ mounds of injera (the local staple –grey ‘pancake-style’ bread made from fermented grain) and tibs (fried pieces of beef) whilst visiting local host families alongside delicious coffee or macchiato. I was also fortunate to witness traditional coffee ceremonies and cultural dancing, which seems to basically involve lots of rapid shoulder movement, something which all Ethiopians seem to be able to do, but I and fellow ‘feranjee’ were hopeless at!

Ed,a volunteer, with some children

Volunteers mainly spend their time in Addis either teaching or doing care work in orphanages or drop-in centres, although there are also opportunities to do journalism for one of the private English language publications ‘The Daily Monitor’. As it was the school holidays, I visited volunteers teaching adults in small language schools, as well as working on a holiday teaching programme.

With a diverse mix of different peoples, the vast majority being either Orthodox Christian or Muslims, Ethiopia is a fascinating country. I was lucky enough after my time in Addis to spend 10 days in the South of the country, visiting the tribal peoples of the Omo valley, a truly mid-blowing trip. 80 % of the population of Ethiopia are farmers, a fact that becomes blindingly obvious when you have driven through the 10th herd of cattle or goats crossing the road in the same number of minutes! I saw some stunning and varied scenery from the mountain peaks and fertile valleys to the dry scrubland of the lowlands.

Sarah in a Mursi tribal village

It was incredible to see people ploughing the fields with oxen and living in small grass and mud huts, having to walk for miles each day to fetch water, which involved digging a hole in one the dried up river beds. Despite the economic hardships many people face, I found the Ethiopian people proud and resilient and will certainly never forget my time there.