I've arrived!

We arrived an hour late at 4am. I was a lovely time to arrive as we escaped the normal hustle and bustle of the city and were able to head quickly to our destination. We are staying at the red cross training centre in Addis for the next 10 days while we have our in country training. By the time we arrived at the centre (5am)  a nearby church was calling people to prayer (in the same way mosques do). By the time we got into our beds it seemed the city was just waking with all sorts of interesting sounds. I soon drifted off though. I was the first volunteer to breakfast in the morning (this probably comes as no surprise). We have no organised activities until the afternoon but I want to get my body clock used to Ethiopian time as soon as possible. Most of the other volunteers seem to have stayed in bed. Good for me as I get uninterupted access to the internet.    We have arrived in Addis just at the end of the rainy season and are lucky to be welcomed by clear blue skies and a warm but not hot breeze. Perfect weather. It has been sunny for the last few days so we might be lucky and miss the rainy season entirely. The red cross training centre is really lovely. I'll try and get a photo posted later. The rooms are clean and the beds really comfy. We arrived last night to find our information packs on our beds along with a single rose and a box of condoms. How romantic! I'm sharing with a Dutch girl called Aefia while we are here.       I think I got my first pang of nerves about 30 mins before landing when it actually hit me that I'll be here for two years. However... it has quickly been replaced by excitement again and I'm really looking forward to this week of training and in particular the language sessions we will have each morning. Last night as we were loading the buses and it didn't look like all our stuff would fit I had a real moment of joy when I was able to just about follow a conversation using just the 50 words I learnt before I came out. They were talking about putting the extra suitcases in the car and wondering if they needed a 3rd bus. It felt so good to be able to recognise some words!