A man's attention turns to his _______

For those of you who know me well, you can probably fill in the blank ... what with my passion for a certain 3 eating establishments (actually 4) in Ottawa ... ST's cooking, GP, Colonnade, and Mexi's. I am almost ready to publish the top 10 (maybe 5) restaurant list in Addis.

I am winding down this whirlwind of activity in Ethiopia and still love the place and the work, but it's the support systems that drive one nuts here.

I am making plans to entertain a handful of habesha (locals) and buddies from the office on the 29th to say thanks for "looking after me" over this time since August 8 when I arrived.

I went to DHL to look into shipping some stuff back to Ottawa and they first asked how much it weighed and if I had the form yet indicating the bank had approved the shipment. So one needs approval from the bank here to ship some dirty socks and a suit out of the country? When they found out it was personal belongings, they acknowledged that the bank need not be involved. The charge for 25kg was a mere 5,000 birr or about $450USD. I am going to pay for an extra piece of luggage instead which will be about $125USD. The interesting thing about this will be that I am only allowed to take 200 birr into the airport and through the first checkpoint. The cost for the extra bag will be about 1,500 birr; how's that going to work? I will speak to Safeway Travel and see how I go about pre-purchasing a voucher for the extra bag.

I am bringing the merkato-purchased electric guitar home so that messes up my carry-on compliment and necessitates checking an extra suitcase. I do miss Ottawa and my family and i miss the cold cold weather and the snow (any there yet guys?). I paid the guest house another 12,000 birr and owe Ato Taye about 5,000 more before I leave.