Always a pleasure

I left work early today which is always such a treat. As I have mentioned before, most of the time I leave work and get home not long before the sun goes down. I went searching for a Fly Emirates t-shirt which I did find but they only had 1 size and it was too small for me. That is something I have noticed from time-to-time shopping in this town ... due to the size of the average native, ferenge sizes are not easy to come across.

I spent some time during a few evenings this week preparing some material for a contract I am looking into in Uganda. I had 3 long reports to plough through and I made notes as I went to be able to collect my thoughts at the end and write up some summary points worth noting. In the midst of contacting people back in Canada, I grabbed a copy of my address book from my home PC and sent updates to a handful of contacts I missed in the most recent pass.

I have noticed the drivers here getting more ignorant as I spend more time in Addis. There is a lot of needless horn honking and, sometimes in plain view of all, a horn is leaned on while the car ahead is obviously being courteous to another driver or pedestrian. I see the traffic here as the ultimate manifestation of the "me first" theory. The sight of small children standing in the back seat of the cars here is still repulsive and it's too bad nobody can wrestle with that one.

The mercury is creeping increasingly higher each day, except as said before, there is always a wind. I have no clue what angle the sun is coming in at but it must be getting closer (?) as it seems more intense when shining directly on me. Dr. Paul got a commitment from the State Minister responsible for MoFED to "see what can be done" to speed up the money transfers owing him and myself. It's been 7 weeks now for the first one and time marches on as I wait for the second.

I spoke to the Sweet Thing today and Ileana (I think) proudly announced today at work how to say Sweet Thing in Amharic. My Sweet Thing may go to Montreal later in the day to see the gang of ladies and probably stay with Helena. I will try to call the "kids" this W/E as well as my Mother. News from home is that her energy level is deteriorating as the days progress, and it is becoming more difficult to get her anywhere around the home for a walk-eleh. She hardly ever goes out of Hillel anymore. With all that said, she is still in good spirits according to Dave and the ST. I spoke to Valerie G. this week and she is progressing with the "cleanup" after her Mother's passing.

I hope we find sometime over the weekend for Micha and I to jam. He is here for another 8 days then he and Dora return to New Jersey. On Saturday the 28th, John Jeunnette and I are giving a seminar to a set of local IT professionals. It will be all morning at the MoFED auditorium. Dr. Paul set it up but found out he is leaving for the USA the day before for 2 weeks. I will give his presentation, and do one of my own. John is doing one to round out the morning. The end of the seminar will be a panel discussion with the attendees. The gentleman we met with who is organizing said there could be 50-100 attendees. It should be a Saturday well spent and we are excited to be given the opportunity.