As many of you know by now, my adventure in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia had to be cut short. There were several contributing factors that drove me to ultimately make this decision.

The first of these was political. I arrived in Addis about a week before the Ethiopian election. During my preparation process for this journey, I was aware of the impending election, but not some of its implications. The days leading up to the election, the tension in the city was palpable. The citizens were clearly reserved and not their usual friendly selves while the expats were on their way out of the country for this sensitive time. The most obvious sign was the increase in police and soldiers in the streets. This was due to ongoing threats of riots, protests, and attacks in the event that the election is rigged. This political factor caused a very unsettling first week alone in a foreign country.

The next contributing factor was organizational. Most of my previous experience with Women at Risk had been working with Cherry and Wonde. Cherry is the founder of Women at Risk and Wonde is a lead counselor. However, a few weeks before my expected departure to Ethiopia, I found out that Wonde was on sabbatical, indefinitely, and Cherry would be leaving Ethiopia about a week after I arrived. Wonde had worked very hard for Women at Risk for a long time and was certainly deserving of a break. Cherry was leaving Ethiopia to go to Canada for the summer and spend time with her husband’s family. Both of these circumstances were completely understandable, however had a significant impact on the amount of value I would be able to add for this organization. Their departures left a void in the organization of who I would be reporting to as well as created a significant language gap between myself and the rest of the employees at Women at Risk. This was a very unfortunate circumstance because I knew I wouldn’t be able to accomplish what I set out to do without the proper support from the organization.

The final reason for my early return was personal. Because of some last minute changes by the family that was supposed to host me, I stayed at what is referred to as a “pension”.  This is a type of room that is typically rented by the hour and was located in the red light district of Addis. Bordering this pension was an alley filled with bars. These bars were playing music very loudly from 9pm until 6 or 7am, nightly. Combine this with the jetlag that I was trying to overcome, and the mental fatigue set in, hard.

Although there were many that forced me to return, I was still able to accomplish some of what I had hoped to do while I was there. The inventory system that I had helped set up while I was there in October had been running well but hit a snag. After consulting some of my Enactus teammates back in the U.S., we were able to alleviate the inventory issues and conduct business as usual.

The other useful foundation that I was able to lay while I was there was in development of the domestic market for Ellilta Products. Originally I thought that I would be able to go in and open up distribution channels for EP by selling scarves in the local hotels and airport. However, upon arrival, I learned about how difficult a process that actually was and that, despite Ellilta’s best effort to make that happen, couldn’t happen. However, this allowed a new discussion to begin in regards to marketing. If we can’t get the products into these shops, why don’t we try to bring more tourists/consumers to Ellilta’s facility/store? This was something the sales team at Ellilta had thought about doing, but didn’t know how to go about it. I was able to help put this team in the mind of a foreigner, and where a tourist would look if they wanted to purchase traditional handmade goods in Ethiopia. This is an ongoing process that I hope to support from the U.S. for the remainder of the summer until I hand the project back over to the team at Belmont in August.

Overall, this was still an incredibly positive experience for me and I’m thankful that I was able to do it. There were some significant unforeseen obstacles that I encountered these past few weeks. I also wasn’t able to stay in Ethiopia as long as I had originally planned. However, I still able to serve this organization in some capacity and strengthen the relationship between EWAR/EP and Belmont Enactus. I also find value in the fact that upon graduation, instead of concerning myself with finding the highest salary I could and rushing into a career, I was able to do something that was important to me. Also, I was able to make a great friend while I was there, Mente Tsegaye, an accountant at Ellilta, who I hope to keep in touch with through Facebook, emails, and ongoing work with Ellilta Products.

My friend Mente