In country training

Today was the last day of our VSO (Volunteer Services Overseas) training. VSO is CUSO's counterpart in the UK. It was good fun. We did orientation to the city, and learned about culture, history and geopolitics of the country. There were also ten hours of Amharic language lessons, which most of us found fairly intense, but also useful. Good, local, food was provided by the staff at the Red Cross Training Institute, where the course was held.

The highlight was a cocktail reception at the British Ambassador's house. It was a lovely, historic stone place, on the largest embassy grounds in all of Africa. The grounds were a gift from Emperor Haile Selassie, we were told. Perhaps it was a thank-you for helping boot out the Italians in ?1941.

It was a great evening. The ambassador seemed quite a capital chap, although we didn't get to chat for long. The kids quite enjoyed the soda pop and hors d'oeuvres, as did we. We met a few other volunteers, interns and diplomats. Sadly we weren't supposed to take any photos of the residence for security reasons.