For the past 3 days we have been in Addis Ababa (the capital) participating in the counterpart workshops. Basically, the respective host organizations we will be working for send someone to meet us and be our counterpart. This person will help us get settled in, introduce us around the community, and basically help us with any problems we might have at our site. The workshop is the chance for us to meet our counterpart and also learn some difficulties they face in their jobs in their communities. Kim's counterpart was from the local health center and mine was from the Red Cross. Unfortunately, mine was busy in meetings the entire time and didn't come.
Apart from the workshop, these 3 days were a chance for us to hang out with the entire group of volunteers as well. Currently, during training, the volunteers are staying in 4 separate towns. It's really good because we know the other people in our town very well since it's a small group, but the people in the other towns we only see for short periods. We also were able to get some "international" food while we were in the capital. I put international in quotes because it still tastes vaguely Ethiopian.
The first night we had cheeseburgers, which were really thin and a little sweet, but overall it was better than anything we had had up to that point. Our standards are really starting to drop for various things. A favorite phrase is, "I wouldn't order it back in America, but it was pretty good." That being said, the next night we went with a group to "New York, New York", which is a pizza place. The pizza was actually really good and better than some I've had in America.
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