01 January 2009

The last few days

For our last five days in Addis, we mostly stayed close to home - taking walks, playing in the garden, going out for ice cream, doing schoolwork, and just generally enjoying the sun and warmth. We picked up Poppet's transit visa from the Dutch Embassy - only to find they had given him an airport transit visa after all, not a regular transit visa. So that scuttles any plans of heading into town for the day. It will be a long nine hours in the airport...

Sunday 13 January

Today we went out for a walk about the neighbourhood , a bit further afield than before. We walked up Bole Road, turned left on one of the (major) side-streets, stopped for an ice cream cone (not at our usual haunt), and leisurely walked back.



We passed a bridge that we'd hardly noticed before, where Bole Road crosses some mostly dried up river. The gorge was fairly deep and very rocky, and heaps of garbage were scattered along the slopes. In fact, as we were looking down into the gulley, a man walked past and heaved a sheep's head - or some such piece of carcass - over the edge. Giggles was not impressed. (Neither were the rest of us.)




Tuesday 15 January

Departure day! We leave late tonight - our flight takes off at about 11:00 pm, and we need to be at the airport by about 8:00.

This afternoon we went back to the Hilton pool for another swim. Unfortunately, all the pools had been drained for maintenance. The grown-up pool was being refilled, and was not yet so deep as to be beyond the kids' depth, so we stayed and played there for an hour or two. It wasn't as hot (so not as nice!!) as the kids' pool, but we still enjoyed it.

While we were there some dark clouds formed in the sky, there was distant thunder, and it actually rained for about five minutes - the only rain we've had since the middle of December!!!

We had arranged to meet K&M (from out west) with little K at the complex. They weren't there initially, so I wondered if they'd forgotten or not been able to make it out with little K, but after a while they appeared and we sat together for ice cream and some chatting.








And then it was time to head home, finish packing the last few things, have a bite, and head off to the airport to begin the long trek home...




(Continue to 21 January: Home!!!!)

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