Sunday, March 3, 2013

Morning Commute - Day One

I arrived to Addis late-ish Wednesday night.  Thursday morning, I woke up at 3:45, attempted to "meditate"/sleep some more, and finally got out of bed to get ready for a full day at the office at 6am.

Thursday morning, this was my morning commute.  Far cry from my 60 minute, climate-controlled drive down the highway.


11)      15 minute walk on a dirt/crumbling stone path along the main thoroughfare behind a man carrying a load of firewood.  A gaggle(?) of donkeys were being herded down one of the side streets – not sure where they were off to. 
22)      My coworker Mung San (who is also staying at Cherokee House) decided to bypass the 20 minute wait in a single-file line for the quicker mini-bus, so we hopped on one bound for a less-direct route.
33)      10 minute mini-bus ride, which was not overcrowded because apparently the drivers knew there was a traffic police stop along the way so he actually followed the rules.  We were still stuck in the back of the 12 passenger van, in the least popular seat, but the pollution wasn’t too bad yet in the morning so we cracked one of the windows and it was fine.
44)      We got out at another mini-bus stop, crossed the 2 lane traffic circle, and waited for another coworker on the other side to pick us up.
55)      10 minute ride in Desalegn’s (our finance manager) car.  Probably an early 90s Toyota Corolla?

And now I’ve had my morning coffee and am getting caught up on email on the slightly faster than dial up connection.  The sun is shining and the birds are chirping and it is really lovely here in the office!

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