Melkam Gena!! That’s Merry Christmas in Amharic, and today was the celebration of the Christmas day in Ethiopia. Our team started the day on a healthy note after a good night’s rest and overcoming the jet-lag. A nice heavy breakfast in the morning and we all were pumped up to take on the in-country agenda.
After finishing our breakfast, we decided to do a group review of the business plan template that we have been working on in Edmonton. Diane led our discussions and helped us get the complete picture of what we have achieved so far, capture the missing information, and formulate questions for our contact persons of our upcoming meetings. This session was very beneficial for each member of the team because now we know where we stand and what information we are trying to look for while in Addis Ababa. Since we only have 10 days here, we need to maximize our time to get reliable information to base our business plan on. After working together for 4 hours straight, we decided to have a lunch a Roomi Burger, which was about 15 minutes walk from our hotel. This restaurant serves burgers, sandwiches, pizzas and assortment of beverages (fruit juices, fruit smoothies, coffee, teas, etc) but I will recommend to try Roomi’s avocado juice because it is very tasty and avocado is not typically served as a juice in Canada, definitely worth a try.
The lunch was very filling and the walk back to hotel under the warm sun served the perfect anecdote. On returning back to our workspaces, we had our task cut out. Jodi-Ann was assigned leadership to take us through the remainder of the business plan. Jodi has this amazing zeal of a focus leader. So much that I strategically sat little behind her to avoid getting caught half asleep. Jodi ran us through a nice 3 hour session of intense brainstorming and in the end we had our work target covered. By the time it got dark, we knew where we are in terms of our business plan, what our information gaps are, and what clarifications we need to proceed ahead. It’s indeed a great feeling to have such clarity and know everyone’s role. While we retreated to our respective dens, we had our minds clear and our respective tasks set out for the rest of the trip.
The lunch was very filling and the walk back to hotel under the warm sun served the perfect anecdote. On returning back to our workspaces, we had our task cut out. Jodi-Ann was assigned leadership to take us through the remainder of the business plan. Jodi has this amazing zeal of a focus leader. So much that I strategically sat little behind her to avoid getting caught half asleep. Jodi ran us through a nice 3 hour session of intense brainstorming and in the end we had our work target covered. By the time it got dark, we knew where we are in terms of our business plan, what our information gaps are, and what clarifications we need to proceed ahead. It’s indeed a great feeling to have such clarity and know everyone’s role. While we retreated to our respective dens, we had our minds clear and our respective tasks set out for the rest of the trip.
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