Category Archives: Addis Ababa

Could be worse

Posted on 10 Sep 2013 by lornaofarabia

Did I say something about trading up?  For the past three days our neighborhood has had no electricity. For reasons I will explain in another post, that means we also do not have running water.  This morning we used up … Continue reading →

Posted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Home life | 5 Comments

There’s no place like home

Posted on 8 Sep 2013 by lornaofarabia

Finally the blog has caught up with us in real time… we actually arrived home in Addis Ababa on August 5. For the next month I spent all my spare minutes sorting through the hundreds of photos I’d taken on … Continue reading →

Posted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Expat experience, Home life | Leave a comment

HebCeltFest

Posted on 20 Jul 2013 by lornaofarabia

I am music-deprived in Ethiopia. I long for hot summer nights on the lawn at Jacksonville’s Britt Festival. Sure, I can hear regional ethnic Ethiopian music at Dimma restaurant any night of the week. And we have some teacher friends … Continue reading →

Posted in Addis Ababa, Elsewhere, Islands, Music | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Kaldi’s

Posted on 18 Jun 2013 by lornaofarabia

Ethiopia is not only the cradle of mankind, it’s the birthplace of coffee. According to historian Antony Wild in Coffee: A Dark History, Lucy and her prehistoric friends might even have been chewing on the beans. Later, the first roasted … Continue reading →

Posted in Addis Ababa, Background, Food | 1 Comment

Moving along

Posted on 8 Jun 2013 by lornaofarabia

Just a month ago, the end of the school year seemed a point on the distant horizon. Now suddenly we have only a week left in which to accomplish what looks to be an impossibly long list of tasks. There … Continue reading →

Posted in Expat experience, Home life | Leave a comment

Put to the test

Posted on 6 Jun 2013 by lornaofarabia

The end of the academic year is upon us.  For ICS high schoolers this means what it does for students everywhere: finals. Da-da-da-DUM. ICS high school students are on a special three-day exam schedule this week. On Thursday and Friday, … Continue reading →

Posted in International Community School, Teaching | Leave a comment

The Elizabethan ruff of misery

Posted on 28 May 2013 by lornaofarabia

Our kittens Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (as Alekka finally named them, never mind that they are brother and sister) celebrated their 4-month birthday a couple of weeks ago.  Maybe “celebrated” is the wrong word, because what it meant for our kitties … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Expat experience, Home life | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The Elizabethan ruff of misery

Mushroom farmers v. 2

Posted on 26 May 2013 by lornaofarabia

Mushrooms are not a part of the traditional Ethiopian diet.  I base this assertion on 30 years’ experience eating in Ethiopian restaurants in the US; 10 months in Addis Ababa have not revealed mushrooms as a component of Ethiopian cuisine … Continue reading →

Posted in Addis Ababa, Food, Shopping | Tagged | 2 Comments

This is just to say

Posted on 23 May 2013 by lornaofarabia

This is just to say I have eaten the can of American tuna that was hidden at the back of the cupboard and which you were probably saving for lunch on a hard day. Forgive me it was delicious creamy … Continue reading →

Posted in Expat experience, Family, Food, Home life | Tagged | 4 Comments

Lucy: “I’m home!”

Posted on 22 May 2013 by lornaofarabia

Lucy’s back in town. AL 288-1, aka Lucy, was discovered in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia in 1974.  The hundreds of little pieces add up to about 40% of the skeleton of a 3.2 million year old female Australopithecus afarensis.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Addis Ababa, Background, Ethiopia | Tagged | 2 Comments