Final day

I can’t believe that it is finally my last day. I didn’t set my alarm so that I could catch up on sleep before the arduous journey home, but of course I woke up at 6am worried about all the things that I need to do and that now seems like it was days ago.

Yesterday 23 protestors were killed in Addis Ababa and over 100 were injured. Today I did not hear any shots fired, but according to BBC 4 people were killed in a good neighbourhood where many expats live. My room on the top floor of the Hilton gave me a great view of the deserted city. At about 11:30am I saw a groups of about 50 armored police gather in Meskel square, but fortunately I did not see any protestors.

I am writing this from the airport as I wait for my flight. It was creepy driving here from the hotel. It was my first venture out of the Hilton in over 48 hours and I am glad I didn't go to the office today as I had considered doing. There were more miltary vehicles on the roads the civilian cars, but the streets were pretty much deserted. We even passed two Hummers bristling with machine guns - and very bravely, or stupidly, the shuttle driver honked at one of them because they were driving erratically! Over 40 protestors have died since Tuesday, and everyone is saying that tomorrow will be worse now that Ramadan is over.

I am feeling very sad leaving here. It is just tragic to think of what could happen to Ethiopia. It is really a desperately poor country, but it has such incredible potential and it is right on the cusp of a major change for the better. USAID just did a 180 on their approach to Ethiopia. Previosly they had a "band aid" relief approach, distributing food aid and destroying local food markets by flooding the market with free food, causing the price of locally grown agriculture produce plummet, and removing the incentive for farmers to grow (as they were losing money by planting crops). Hence Ethiopia has relied on food aid continuously for more than 7 years. But USAID just changed to a market oriented approach focused on increasing incomes of Ethiopians by producing goods and finding markets. This will all come to nothing though if things countinue down the path in which they are heading.

On top of the domestic clashes, Ethiopia and Eritrea are building up troops on the border. Someone told me that Menles (Ethiopian President) and the President of Eritrea are cousins so whenever one of them has a domestic problem and they need a distraction, they go to war. It is just too depressing. I wander what this country will look like the next time I am here.

I think when I get home it make take me a little while to relax. This has been an intense trip. Not only has the security situation been difficult, but work has been incredibly demanding of my time. I am looking forward to getting on the plane and catch up on sleep and on my movie watching. Listening to my travel playlist on my ipod is putting me in the right mood. (It starts with "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and ends with "Homeward Bound"). I’ll write again when I get home to let you all know that I arrived safely.