A(N)D DIS IS SPENCER AND MANDA'S BLOG: IT WAS ALL SO QUIET DURING THE DAY!!

Hello to all and a warm welcome to Manda and Spencer’s continuing mission to seek out new places for adventure whilst hopefully helping out the NGOs we work with and actually working quite hard in the process (believe it or not!!)

A few photos to start with of our new country

Everyday transport but just one horse to pull this load (a light one!!!)

Tea time. One hump or two?

Bird dentist's convention. Say aarr

Of course we know you’ve read every last blog, laughed at every bad joke and admired the photos but just to remind you, after a year in South Africa with WhizzKids and the teen HIV clinic, we moved to Uganda with WaterAid. At the end of the blog there are some photos of the gorillas which was our final trip in Uganda. The gorillas are brilliant to see. We had an hour with them and on the dot of 60 minutes when we were told time was up they melted into the forest and we were alone. Very mystical. Did I also mention that the supposed hours of trekking up and down through dense forest became for us a gentle 15 minute stroll to find them? Bit of a waste of a packed lunch as we were finished before 10am.

Anyway I ‘m sure you are dying to know where we are now. Of course you are. Within five weeks of being back in the UK we had an offer from The Brooke, an NGO that works worldwide and seeks to teach owners of equines (actually it’s ‘equids’ we are told, but bovvered? Of course you aren’t) i.e. donkeys, mules and horses, how to treat their animals and also persuade governments to make laws to protect the animals’ welfare. The destination -ETHIOPIA. A very safe country surrounded as it is by those jolly countries of Sudan, South Sudan Yemen and of course peace loving Somalia. Isn’t it great that my mum hasn’t got a computer so can’t read this blog.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, stuck in the middle with you

So here we are sitting in Addis Ababa with the sun shining, a pleasant 25C, at nearly 8,000 feet in Alpine Africa as the locals refer to it. Well one person did and who are we to argue.

Now you can’t say you don’t learn some vital bits of information when reading our blog so here goes:

1. 1. There are 9 million donkeys (and quite a few horses) in Ethiopia and they are the main means of transport for the majority of the 90 million people (yes 9 and 90, not misprints).

2. 2. In Ethiopia until very recently there were no veterinarian courses that included the treatment of donkeys and horses.

I was going to do a big long list but that will do for now. Suffice to say that the treatment of the animals is in many cases appalling. We were going to put up some photos of dead and dying horses that we have already seen, and who are treated by far the worst, but this is a family blog and the scenes are very distressing.

Must get my eyebrows trimmed next time!!!!!

We will report later on our work but as this blog is world renowned for its devastating wit and mad stories here is a picture above of me after I made the mistake of getting my hair cut and accidentally getting a number ‘ 0’ instead of my usual ‘1’. When he put foam on my head I thought he was going to wash my hair, not use a razor!!! Stupid me. Manda said it looked OK, whilst doing her best not to wet herself laughing. The cost - 50 Birr which is about £1.60. A bargain?

Now to the title of this blog. Okay, go back to the top if you have forgotten it already and please pay more attention next time. On arrival we were taken to a guest house which is quite pleasant but which we move from thankfully at the end of this week to an apartment in the suburbs. Yes quiet and peaceful by day and walking distance from work in town, but by night you realise you are right in the middle of the RED LIGHT DISTRICT. In just a short street next to us there are at least 40 bars (yes we were a bit bored one evening so counted them) blaring out loud music to about 5 in the morning, numerous massage parlours and quite a few ladies of the night to say the least. Even I was propositioned, which shows that business must be slow.

To sum up the area, when you go to a hotel in most places in the world you will find a BIBLE in the drawer next to the bed. In our room we found a dozen CONDOMS. No, please don’t ask how many are left, you’re better than that!!!

Sorry that we are a bit short on photos this time but we've only been here three weeks and the amazing sights of Ethiopia await us – the rock hewn churches of Lalibela and the Omo peoples of the south (plates in their lips) to name a few.

A few words about life in Addis Ababa and indeed Ethiopia. Where does he get all this rubbish from I here you say???????

Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that wasn’t colonised. The Italians had a go and were kicked out leaving pasta and pizza as their only enduring footprint in the country. Not a ‘ciao’ or ‘arrivaderci’ to be heard anywhere, even in the Italian restaurants.

Amharic is the language which is Semitic and is a bit like Arabic/Hebrew with about 225 letters of the alphabet. We are yet to learn one so as ever will have to rely on speaking slowly and loudly to the locals and wave our hands around.

To get around Addis you can forget street names (the locals have), you have to know areas.’ Bole Bole’ shouts the conductor of a taxi bus, and if you don’t take offence you will board and arrive at the airport. A very cheap and effective way of getting round as long as you keep your valuables well protected. Manda felt someone trying to get in her pocket yesterday. Even on the streets pickpocketing seems to be a national sport.

The food is unique. Injeera is the ‘bread ‘, which to many of you will be like eating a slightly sour face flannel but actually when made well is delicious. They do nice rolls too so all is not lost.

Being stuck between East Africa and the Middle East the food is eaten from a large sharing plate and of course you use your right hand. Left hand is for …….No need to elaborate.

They like their spices and chillies. Coffee was invented here and is like a religion. The coffee ceremony takes forever but you will find literally thousands of ladies sitting in and outside of shops selling ‘bhuna’ a small cup of coffee like espresso. Four cups a day is the norm. The clove spiced tea is also very nice.

Well I’m running out of steam and well done if you are still with me. A lot more to tell but just an intro this time so as promised for those who don’t use Facebook and are not Facebook friends with Manda here are the gorilla photos. Enjoy, and I promise to blog again in a suitable period of time for you to recover.

Ciao and arriverderci