Associate Dean Ray Jacobs continues his journey in Ethiopia.
Friday, May 30, 2014, morning
I woke up to my alarm about 20 minutes ago but have had some minor difficulty in getting the Internet connection back up and running. The city is slowly waking outside my balcony window, and I was lying in bed earlier listening to the birds and thinking it didn’t sound too much different than it does outside my bedroom window at home before sunrise. It is interesting to me that the morning sounds of this city of 3 million are so similar to our Ashland sounds. A few early cars driving by, but otherwise, the sounds of nature. It will definitely change in a short while, however, as the city wakes up and thesimilarities to Ashland diminish.
I have about two hours to get ready, and I will use some of that time to review my presentation and some other material in preparation for today’s conference. It is being held at the Elilly Hotel in Addis. They are expecting just over 100 attendees. It will begin with an opening from Teferi Bizuayehu, the vice president of Leadstar (he replaced the dean I met last year), followed by a welcoming address by Dr. Gemechis and then a short speech by his excellency Dr. Kaba Urgessa, the State Minister of Education for Ethiopia. That will be the opening act I get to follow, as I am scheduled for my talk from
9:20am – 10:00am, but if we are still on schedule by the time I begin I will be surprised. I will be followed by three other speakers before
a 45 minute “discussion/reflection” and then lunch. There are four other afternoon speakers followed by another discussion session, and
then Dr. Gemechis and I jointly give the closing remarks.
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