Wrapping it Up...

It’s about 6:30 in Nairobi at the airport as I write this and we’re off for home. I slept like a rock last night as the previous two nights I got a combined 8 hours of sleep (4 each night). Apparently we felt as though we had to maximize our last few days in Addis but we had fun. We fly back to Nairobi, then to Amsterdam and then home to Minneapolis. With layovers and flights it will be about 30 hours when its all said and done. It’s the last morning in Ethiopia and our trip has come to an end. While there have been a number of challenges this has been an amazing experience and one that I will keep with me for years to come. I look forward to answering questions and sharing with anyone who is interested my experience here and do hope that others can learn about it and use it to help plan their experiences in Africa. So …I wanted to share a few more take-a-ways from the final days in Addis.

Culture: Culture is so different everywhere you go. The U.S. is different from Europe than from SE Asia than from Africa. Uganda and Ethiopia are no different. Most of you reading this already know but make sure you make a point to refer to each individual country in Africa when talking about it. While you might make assumptions that Uganda and Ethiopia are so close and have many similarities and would be like Minnesota and Kansas you would be wrong. As Americans we so often refer to “Africa” Different complex and unique histories have made the countries distinctly unique and even though I have not traveled elsewhere in Africa this is going to generally be the case.

My Team: We have commented numerous times that we have the best GSE team ever. While of course every team will say this about themselves we count ourselves very fortunate to be on this team. We each bring something unique and we are all very flexible and adaptable people which has proven to be essential. After meeting with our Swedish counterparts and hearing about some of their struggles as a team we’re pretty happy we were able to go 30+ days seeing each other day in and day out and still live in peace. This trip will indeed have honed my “team dynamic” skills.

What I will bring back (among many other things) : Traveling to East Africa is not easy, the roads are bad, the airports are OK, public transport is tough, it’s hot and dirty but if you are up for the challenge it is worth it. The uniqueness in culture and the challenges these countries are facing and the opportunities that could be there are great to see. I hope to bring my exp back and help others interested in going.

The Rotary Family: I had a unique experience this week that just reinforced the “one big happy family” that Rotary is. I am at the conference here in Addis Ababa and meet a man, his wife and their friends all from Duluth, MN and now are living in Seattle. They were at the conference as they have been doing projects in Eth and Kenya. Within 5 minutes of talking with this man I had an open invite to come to Seattle with Mary, visit the city and stay in their home. This guy went entirely on the fact that was associated with Rotary and opened his home up. Pretty cool. Seems like anywhere you go around the world if you find Rotarians you find family.

Setting off for home…