excerpt of a letter

The guest house I'm staying at, "Chez Clo", is pretty good. I went to
breakfast this morning and was served fruit, an omelet and coffee and
tea along with guava juice. It was nice. We have breakfast prepared
anytime between 7:30 and 8:30 and then a car picks us up to take us to
the office. I think it was only a10 minute drive or so. I haven't had a
chance to look around the guest house much, but it looks like there are
lots of shops in the area.
Ethiopia is interesting in that it seems quite different from the rest
of Africa, or at least my image of it. I have been told this by others
and it seems true that Ethiopia is more articulate and meticulous in the
way they do things. They are pretty serious about paper work and getting
certifications for skills, etc. They also wear more earthy colors rather
than the colorful clothes that you generally see in, say, Kenya or
Ghana. Most of the guys wear button down shirts and slacks, others
trousers and t-shirts. Women wear western clothes too, although you see
some cover their heads with cloth; I'm not sure if this is related to
religion or if it's to protect themselves from the heat, or maybe since
some people do carry stuff on their heads it protects their heads?? not
sure. haha
Addis Ababa is a big city so there don't seem to be too many bugs or
creepy crawly things about, although I did see some herds of cattle and
goats in town! Even though it's a big city, people still have their
animals in the city I guess.
The native language in Ethiopia is called Amharic. Most people also
speak English though, so that's the language people use in meetings and
whatnot. But my Japanese colleagues speak in Japanese when they're
meeting with just other Japanese, and I'm included in that group, so I'm
speaking a lot of Japanese over here as well. But everyone including the
Japanese here have pretty good English and the Ehtiopian accent isn't
too hard to get used to.
The weather here is really mild, which is unique in Africa apparently.
In the daytime it is in the 70s and in the evening it drops to maybe the
50s like you said. I brought some light sweaters and one zip-up sweater
so I'm pretty much prepared for the weather here. In the morning I put
on a light sweater and in the evening I can add the heavier sweater or
just wear it as a jacket. It's not humid here at all though. I suppose
it is dry, but basically pleasant all the way around.
For dinner tonight I went with a coworker to a Korean restaurant. It's
run by a Korean lady and had really good food. There were three
different dining areas, so kind of interesting. One part of the
restaurant was indoors with tables, and another part was outdoors with
booths along a wall, but separated by walls for privacy. Then there was
another section that was also a big dining area, but different decor - I
didn't really get a good look at that room though. Anyway, apparently
there are lots of Chinese and Italian restaurants around, plus some
Turkish and Arabic food. Then of course there are the Ethiopian places.
I haven't had any Ethiopian food yet, but probably will tomorrow for
lunch. Should be interesting; I'll let you know.