One of the things I enjoyed the most in Ethiopia was the food. Now that I am back in Spain I can really appreciate how amazing my experience was. Food is very different there. Tasty, with different textures, colors and combinations.

We could taste so many fresh salads in the lodge... The cooks cooked really well. They prepared for us every day a different menu. Here you are some examples:

The one you can see on above these lines is a fresh salad made of tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, beetroot and beans.
 

 
Fresh salad with egg, potatoes, onion, carrots and tomatoes.

 
This dish is called schich kebab, typical in Ethiopia. It's a brochette with veal meat, onions and tomatoes, with some rice with tomatoe sauce.

 
Some handmade biscuits with chocolate.

Fresh salad with lettuce, beetroot, onion and tomatoes.

Ada Pérez.

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I remember with a big smile on my face the first day the staff saw us with our NH Hoteles T shirt. They were really surprised because they thought NH was a fashionable brand in Europe!

When we explained to them that it was the chain of hotels we work at, we told them that we have more than 400 hotels around the world, more than 17000 employees, all of them said that they want to work for NH Hotels, so….. Who knows?

Ada Pérez.

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This morning Asmara came to the hotel at 07.00 to pick me up to show me around  Addis Abeba. What a chaotic city! There were only a few traffic lights, there are no traffic signals. I don’t know how they can drive without crashing. The seat of the car was not fixed well to the car and I felt as if I was on a roller coaster.

I could see many churches, we could see one where they were “singing”, Asmara sang me a religious song. There were hundreds of people walking down the street. They were going to either school or to work. I could see many people carrying heavy packages, pieces of wood, kilos and kilos of fruits on their head…, as in the rest of the country.

As I have not had much time to visit the city I’ll do it when I come back.

Ada Pérez.

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What a hard day. Today it was my last morning at the lodge. Hellen and Tirhas were finishing some kunanos they didn’t finished yesterday because they didn’t have rubber bands.

It’s time to say goodbye. I could not contain my tears. Everybody told me that they feel very lucky to have met Giovanni and I, and to have received our training. I think that we, Giovanni and I, are luckier than them. We have spent one wonderful month with all the staff. They are very professional. Their enthusiasm and their desire to improve made us work even harder.

 I’ve seen a very big change from the beginning until now and I feel so happy. I think we’ve done a good job, and the best, we have many new Ethiopian FRIENDS. I will come back to visit them, for sure. I promised them. After saying goodbye I went to Mekelle with Teresa, Chapela and the manager. They came with me to the airport to tell me goodbye. No more tears ;)

I spent the night in Addis Abeba, where a taxi driver called Asmara, recommended by Teresa, dropped me off to do the last Christmas purchases in Ethiopia.

Ada Pérez.

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Today I’ve been working with Desta the manager to check again all the procedures I’ve been teaching him during this month. Now I think Desta is very well prepared to manage the hotel. He has received training during one month in administration and in service quality and he knows exactly what to do in every moment.

I’ve finished my training with the manager. We have had a meeting with Teresa, Desta the manager and I to explain to him the shifts for the staff. Teresa and I organized the shifts for all the departments regarding the schedules for the different services offered by the lodge (breakfast, lunch, dinner and bar) for all the departments. We had  to organize a method of transport for all the staff because the lodge is located 5 km from the city Adigrat, and it’s very dangerous for the staff, mostly girls, to go on foot from the city to the lodge. Finally Teresa and I were happy with the shifts and when we explained it to Desta he also agreed, so…fantastic!!

As we had some free time before lunch, some of the staff decided to give me some kunanos (braids). We had a great time, with 7 or 8 girls surrounding me and touching my head and my hair….wow, so relaxing!!! They explained to me that I was like a bride before getting married. In the rural zones, like in Adigrat when a girl is going to get married, all her friends braid the brides hair.  
In the evening we had a meeting with ADCS in order to inform them about the real situation of the lodge. In my opinion the lodge can open once they have solved some maintenance issues they still have. Regarding the staff, they are very well trained, they are motivated, and they want to start as soon as possible. They have a lot of excitement and they can offer a very high quality of service. Desta, the manager, is very well prepared also and he can manage the hotel with very high quality.

Ada Pérez.

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Today, Teresa, Chapela and I, visited two Rock Hewn Churches.  Desta, the accountant, came with us because the driver is deaf and he only speaks tigriña, so we need someone to help us with the communication. It was really interesting to imagine how the people could build that constructions.

The first one we visited was called Saint Mary of Sion, in Wukro, a city located approx 40 km far away from our lodge.  We had to take off our shoes before go into the church as a respect symbol. Teresa of Manos Unidas recommended that I should not leave my socks because there were millions of flews jumping around.

The priest, very peculiar, showed us the church, he explained that it was “built” in the IV century and we could see that it had been burned under Queen Judith’s order under the orders of Queen Judith in the Middle Ages. All the Rock Hewn Churches in the area, more than one hundred were burned by Queen Judith. He showed also an instrument similar to our bells.
 

After that visit we went to a Lodge situated one hour from Adigrat to have lunch and we came back to the Agoro lodge. We could see little groups of houses made of “stone blocks”, lots of animals eating grass, and we could also see fantastic landscapes with big rock mountains.

Ada Pérez.

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Yesterday Giovanni left the Lodge. After 22 days together, waking him up every morning, knocking at his door at 7.30, today I’ve knocked and no one answered. I miss you, Gio. We have had a really nice experience with all the staff from the Lodge, the colleagues from Manos unidas and Chapelas, Teresa’s friend. We will not forget this month in Ethiopia. I’m so sure!

I start my countdown. I leave on Wedenesday… In the morning, a few minutes before Giovani left the hotel, we could take a picture with almost all the staff (some waitresses, cleaners, receptionists, cooks) Gio, Chapela, Teresa and me. Could you recognize us?? ;))

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Today I’ve visited a new pottery market in Idaga Hamus. I’ve gone with Chapela and Desta, the accountant. Teresa could not come with us because we were expecting a visit from some new plumbers. After waiting for them for 5 days, they decided to come just today!
 
The market was smaller than the one we visited in Selkelka last weekend. There was an area with pottery sellers, an area with plastic shoes, an area with spices, an area with clothes and an area where we could find millions of typical foulards.
 
Chapela and I were the only white people in the market. Children followed us and people asked us for money. Sellers and buyers of the market watched us with curiosity. I liked the market we visited last weekend much more because today the local people tried to sell us their products at a higher price. Desta the accountant helped us to communicate with the sellers, because they only speak tigriña, the language of the region.

Ada Pérez

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Ethiopia is the only country in the world where they use a different calendar. They use the Giuliani calendar instead of the Gregorian, which is the one used in the rest of the world. They have 12 months of 30 days and 1 month with 5 or 6 days (every 4 years) which is called pagumen.

Today I’ve gone to the bank with Teresa to change some money and I could see that in Ethiopia yesterday it was the 6th of April 2004!! They also have different time. When for us it’s 6.00 AM for them it's 12.00 AM. When for us it’s 07.00 AM for them it's 13.00AM…..Really it seems as if I have travelled in time. The markets are as the ones from the Middle ages, people walking everywhere, goats and cows eating grass in the middle of the street, horse drawn carriages…. Ethiopia is really different. And I like it!!!

 
Last Wednesday the staff decided to give us a surprise. After our lunch in the restaurant they prepared for us a new coffee ceremony on the terrace of the lodge. As usual they prepared the ceremony on some leaves. We could eat some popcorn, oranges, biscuits,  there was incense, the coffee pot... during the ceremony we danced Spanish and tigriña songs –typical songs of the Tigray’s region.  We laughed a lot. They dance moving their shoulders. Really fun!

Ada Pérez

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Here you see the kitchen and the staff working there. Timnit is the chef, who cooks very well, and the other 2 cooks are Alemash and Hiwot. The first week was very stressful because their working rhythm was very different from ours in Europe. But after a few days, they started to work in a more European style; that is, a bit quicker. They can understand the precooking concept to offer a quick service. I’m really happy to work with them. I can see Timnit has been working in a kitchen.

“Mise en place” is the most important task in the kitchen because it helps you to give a good service. The first day they were not thoroughly acquainted about the precooking and about the service. They, overall Timnit, know only cooking. Nowadays they are learning what precooking means and the reason for it. We practise it every day, but we can only practise it for 6 people. I can see their improvement because in only two weeks they have reduced sharply the time needed to serve a full meal: starter, main course and dessert.

Last Monday I went with Ada, Chapela and Timnit to the Mercato. Apart from buying some vegetables, we bought a chicken….alive!!!!! It was really funny to transport the chicken in the car. We could hear it cooooc coc coc cooc. When I arrived to the lodge it was not funny anymore because they told me that I had to kill the chicken (in Ethiopia only men can kill animals, and after women clean them…..). I was not able no kill it, so finally Desta the accountat did it. Poor chicken, so beautiful. in the picture you can see Timnit preparing the chicken. We ate chicken soup, pasta with chicken and chicken pizza.

Giovanni Arrigoni

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Tere, Penny, Chapela, Giovanni and I spent the whole weekend in Axum.  Axum is a historical city 2.30 hours from the lodge, to the west. We woke up on Saturday at 5.30 and we started our trip. The first stop was in Adwa. After a delicious breakfast we went to Selkelka (it's pronounced Selekeleka) where we visited a typical pottery market.

We bought many items there in order to decorate the lodge. It was a little bit stressful because lots of people surrounded us and it was not easy to walk around. When we put away everything we bought at the market, there were at least 50 people surrounding the car. But the market was really interesting and we could experience a local market for local people, not for tourists. In fact, it seemed as if they were the tourists because they where the ones taking pictures of us.

After visiting that market, we went to Axum to visit another market to buy some typical baskets for the lodge. The baskets made in Axum are very colourful and they are really nice. We spent only one hour there because all the sellers followed us trying to sell us all the things they had to sell.

After the purchases we went to the Yeha hotel, located in the historical part of Axum, next to the “baths of Queen Sabbah”, and near the Stellae, which are very important in the country. The Stellae are obelisks that were used as burial memorials. After visiting that we bought some souvenirs for our friends and families. On Sunday after having breakfast in the hotel we made the last visit and the last purchases in Axum and we came back to Adigrat.

When we arrived to Adigrat, we received a phone call from Yiabi, the head of the housekeepers. She would like to invite us to her house to have a coffee ceremony. Wow, a coffee ceremony with local people! When we arrived to her house, we found Hellen, one of the receptionists, and Tirhas, the head of the Waitresses. They prepared the coffee ceremony for us. We could see some popcorn, oranges and bananas to eat, the coffee pot, incense, leaves….and they began to prepare it. We spent two very fun hours there talking and laughing.

Ada Pérez

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Giovanni goes every 3 days to the Mercato, the local market of Adigrat, with Timnit, the chef. He is very surprised because the Mercato in Addigrat reminds him of an old market from the Middle Ages. It is a very peculiar place, shops in the market are a bit odd and it's really caotic over there but also very fun.

For instance, you can see horses peeng beside the place where you buy the eggs. On top of this, yesterday we had no water and that means no shower or cleaning, but luckily we have bottles of mineral water for drinking.

Tomorrow we are going on a day trip to Axum... so exciting!!!

Ada Pérez

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Today we have been working a lot. In the morning I was teaching Desta & Desta (manager and accountant) about the administration of the lodge. It’s very satisfactory to see that they understand what I explain to them. While they were practising many exercises, I helped (with the help of Penny)  the receptionists to do some more exercises regarding the meals and the communication with the restaurant and kitchen depts. The front desk department is learning so much. It seems they enjoy learning and I am very happy to know that the knowledge is increasing every day.

We had a fantastic lunch in the restaurant served by Letteabreham. We are so happy because the service was really good and there was nothing that needed changing about the service of the waitresses. In the afternoon I continued teaching Desta the accountant about the inventory system. He understood everything in the application, so today it has been a great day.

Giovanni has been cooking with the cooks and has been practising the precooking process. It’s difficult for them to understand how to prepare all the ingredients to offer a quick service because during the meal they don’t have much time to prepare the dishes. They have difficulty in understanding that they have to leave the ingredients half cooked.

Ada Pérez

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Today, Decembre the 6th, we started the day with a meeting with all the staff, Desta the manager, Giovanni and I. Then reception has been practising bookings, check-ins and check-outs on the computer, and many complaints as real situations.

Tirhas, the head of the waitresses, served us lunch very efficiently, Yiabi, the head of the housekeepers organized very well her department, giving them the information to clean the rooms and the common areas and to clean the the clients' dirty clothes.

Giovanni was not very happy with the kitchen department because it seems they have not understood the precooking process. Tomorrow he will teach again the organization for precooking.

Ada Pérez

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Today it has been a fantastic day. We had a wonderful hike to see the marvellous views from Adigrat. We had a sunny day. We walked for 6 hours, we reached up to 3000 metres altitude, we have seen orthodox churches,  people separating the wheat from the chaff, children with their goats, sweet little donkeys, sheep and cows, a real insight into Ethiopian rural life.

When we arrived back to Adigrat, our friendly guide Kiros invited us to visit his house. It was just one room about 2x2 meters. He offered us some of the local food, injera with spicy sauce but we thought it was better to decline. Afterwards we went to an underground cafe (actually behind a curtain) where we enjoyed the coffee ceremony and ate popcorn which is very typical.

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Today it has been a hard day. I’ve been training the housekeepers. After explaining to them the scope of the work, some of them seems really upset, they discussed in Tigriña, the local language, and I didn’t understand anything but the body language was quite clear.

When they translated to me what they were talking about I realized they have not understood my explanations. They thought they had to clean the entire lodge every day all of them. When I told them that they had to divide the job, the faces changed.

Then Penny, my lovely colleague from Manos Unidas who’s helping me a lot, showed the ladies how to clean a room, how to make a bed, how to clean the common areas, and they seemed more relaxed at the end of the training.

Teresa is ill. She has the flu and this afternoon after the doctor came to visit her some of us accompanied him to buy the medicines she needed. Hopefully she will be better soon. Tonight the lights went out all over Adigrat, also in the Lodge  and we had a romantic dinner by candle light.

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I have finished the training with the recepcionists. We have practised with the booking system, check in and check out, and after that we have made many rol plays. Some of that were for example check in and check outs, mixed with customer complains management. We have been laughing a lot.

They are very shy but very positives. They want to learn and they want to do a good job. I really love them. I’m so happy…

After the training, a big smile for all of you. Just enjoy 

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We woke as usual at 07.30 to go down to breakfast in Adigrat as always. We went up fast to work at the hotel. Today I started teaching the reservation system to the receptionists. It's a bit difficult because they are very shy and ashamed to practice. After several attempts they got the hang of it and now they know how to enter reservations in the system which is a big improvement.

Today we ate at the Lodge. Some people went down to get some pizzas and we ate them on the wonderful terrace at the Lodge. After lunch, I immediately went with Penny to enter reservations  and I began to explain the check-in system. However, there was a little error so we have only been able to explain how to do a check-in. Hopefully we will carry on with the rest of system tomorrow.

We have washed our clothes so we finally have clean clothes! As the hotel is not still opened, there are no lines installed yet so we have used some chairs to put our clothes to dry under the shinny sun. Nice!

Today we are having lunch at the hotel. Giovanni’s cooking!

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We woke at 07.30 as usual because they come to pick us up at 08.00. Without water and light. 3rd day without showering . We went for breakfast at Johannes IV, black coffee, delicious brioche and orange juice. After breakfast we reached the hotel and we set out to work with our teams respectively. The director started to explain the business plan, and Giovanni has continued organizing and cleaning the kitchen, he has brought the material (pots, pans, knives, potato peeler, spoons...).

We went down to meet the people, at the ethnic restaurant Geza Gerelase where there was a large table for tourists and we could see the coffee ceremony at the forefront. The coffee ceremony consists of preparing the coffee on the ground of a hideous brightmulti-colored robe, and a box with several cups and saucers on top. There is also a kind of hearth where they roast raw coffee over beans. The girl is dressed in an Ethiopian costume. White with bright colors. After roasting the coffee, I smell it and then they take him to grind it and he brings it ready in a dark ceramic jar. To serve in the cups they do it from high up,as if they were pouring cider, but with coffee.

We were also able to visit the local market, what an experience. It is so different.

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We arrived 2 days ago and we are really impressed with the landscapes we see from the Lodge. We are 5 km far away from Adigrat, a city situated 2500 m altitude, amazing views! Our new colleagues here are really fun and all the staff is very happy to have us in the hotel.

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