My day started as last night ended. I bought a chocolate shortbread cake last night and it was that good I had to get one for breakfast. They also wrapped it up like a Xmas present which increased the appeal somewhat as it could be the only present I get this year. Today was my life maintenance day and I found and applied for my Kenyan visa with no issues at all. It takes two days to go through so I will pick it up on Monday hopefully.
After that I had the day to have a wander around and see what Addis Ababa had to offer. The answer to this is not that much other than the look of a giant building site. As I walked down Heile Gebreselassie street I had to laugh, the whole main road was dug up and filled with trucks, JCBs and pretty much every other construction vehicle you can think of. This is their equivalent to Oxford street or Hollywood boulevard and there were fancy hotels lining the bomb site. Despite it being a construction site there are no fences keeping people out though. Everybody is free to roam wherever they like, jumping over man holes, balancing along sewage pipes to get from one side of the road to the other and even timing your run so you don't get hit by a rotating digger, it was like an urban Crypton factor!
I was on the hunt for wifi which I thought should be quite easy seeing as I've stayed in some pretty grotty hotels and they've still had it and now being in the big city I should find it in most hotels. Negative soldier. I aimed high first and went straight for the Radisson Blu. They had it but I had to be staying at the ridiculously overpriced hotel that overlooked all the beautiful roadworks in order to get it.
After a few more hotels failed me I eventually found a cafe that had it and so I checked in to say I was safe and prepared some coaching notes for a little presentation I will give to the STB coaches tomorrow. I arrived back to the office in time to wander down to the fields with Jonas and watch the U15s train.
As I sat and watched them train I got talking to a lad called G. (I can't pronounce his full name so he let me call him G) G changed my perception of most the Ethiopians I've met since I crossed the border from Sudan. For the last I don't know how many days I have been convinced that there are no intelligent Ethiopians. This is not just because the majority i have come into contact with lack any sort of education but its stupid little things like the questions they've asked me and the blank looks I've received from some very simple actions. I'm also very surprised at how poor some of their English is considering English is meant to be a legitimate second language and the majority of secondary school is taught in English so I would've thought the people educated at a university level that I have met could think of something more than "are you fine?" to say to me.
Anyway, G is 20 and wants to be a computer engineer. In order to study this at university he needs at least 300 out of 700 over 7 different subjects and is currently predicted 650. G was found by STB when he was 11 and since then has clearly done very well. He told me how he recognised that computers were the growing market in his developing country so if he wanted a good job he should be a computer engineer and he liked the thought of a challenging subject to exceed in. I liked G's style, he had the same views as me and he was also a pretty skilful footballer (a bit better than myself). I hope for Ethiopia's sake that there are more than one G in Addis Ababa because if there isn't, they will develop at a pretty slow rate!
It was the U15's first training session and it was coach Grimmy's job to pick out the stronger players. Back home this is quite easy as there are not many factors that affect a players performance other than the player himself. Here it was like mission impossible, there were so many things that changed the game and the way everyone had to play. Obviously you could tell the stronger lads and the ones with a good understanding of positioning etc. However, if the kid with one boot and one sock on had a matching pair of shoes instead, would he of scored that chance? Or, is that kid surprisingly fast and its just because he's wearing trousers and flip flops that he couldn't keep up with the play?
The coaches do say if they can play on their "pitch" with their footwear or lack of, then they can play anywhere and they're not wrong. I guess the conditions are the same for all the lads and its the ones that cope better get selected.
After football I went for food in quite a busy little cafe. If all the tables are taken that doesn't mean people don't enter the cafe, they just sit down at your table. In England this is almost unthinkable as we are a very antisocial country when it comes to talking to strangers. I'm cool with it though and a couple of lads came and sat next to me as I dug into a pizza. "Do you know Wayne Rooney?" I was asked the same question that I've been asked by almost every football/England loving Ethiopian. They love the English over here and they love Wayne Rooney the most. To save the painful conversation of explaining the difference between knowing someone and knowing of someone that I endured many times in America but with David Beckham or the Queen I said "yes" he's my neighbour.
I thought this may trigger an array of questions but I just got the thumbs up and was left to eat my pizza, he obviously didn't know what "neighbour" meant.
After dinner I walked back to the office. It was dark again but I felt perfectly safe and happily settled into my nurses room for another good nights sleep.
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