Today is my last day at work and I am actually rather sad to be leaving tomorrow evening. Yesterday evening I met the the two Jill’s in the Hilton bar as I was watching the semi-final match between Cameroon and Ghana. Every Thursday evening they and two friendly taxis organise a meal and water run for the homeless poor sleeping rough in Addis. With money raised by contributions the taxi driver’s family cook 300 meals of injeera and sauce in plastic bags. I went with them. There are some harrowing sights of mainly middle-aged and young men with absolutely nothing. There are also some women sleeping with children in their arms on the pavement. Many sleep outside churches and some seem very weak from continuous street life and bad living. Without fail they are all humble, kind and friendly. There was never any real aggression, just in the case of one young man desperate about his life. Another checkup is to look out for serious medical conditions. One man had malaria, and Jill determined to revisit tomorrow with Malarone treatment. Last week they found a TB sufferer , but unfortunately he died this week as it was too late too treat him.On a much brighter topic – Friday evening Taye and Merete took me out to dinner and we ended up at the Harlem Jazz club near the airport. There was a really good band playing a mixture of blues and jazz, which reminded me of how bands used to perform in the past before the big money. A very nice evening before bed at 1am. Today Kaleb took me to Piazza to buy some last minute presents and then I crashed out at the pool. Finally a last drink in the bar of the Hilton. My pet EU funding project is to build a Lion park and rescue those poor 15 lions in the central zoo in Addis. I am sure it would be a huge success. Acquire some land on the outskirts of Addis and make some nice enclosures where the lions have room to live. Probably not that expensive to give these animals their rightful pride.I am writing this at the airport waiting to fly out. I am sad to leave. Ethiopia is a beautiful country with a magic history and lovely people.
