I spent five days in Síle's new home town of Mettu. I would have spent longer but, even though it is only 600km from Addis Ababa, it takes two days to get to Mettu from the capital. But while the bus and the road to Mettu aren't great, on the plus side I saw lots of monkeys hanging out in the roadside trees (Síle has had a hard time convincing people here that in some countries, like Ireland, there are no monkeys).
While in the town a bajaj can be used,
to get to and from the Teacher Training College 3km out of town where Síle lives and works the options are to take a horse-drawn gari or to walk. 
Since Síle is one of only a very small number of foreigners living in Mettu and few, if any, tourists come there, we always recieved a lot of attention when we walked down this road. This mainly involved people shouting "you, you, you, you" as a way of saying hello or kids running up to us to shake our hands. I shook a lot of hands in Ethiopia, and it is something that they do very well and with much variation. To show respect, like when the children came up to us, you hold your upper right arm with your left hand while shaking with the right hand. But my favourite was the shoulder bump - as a sign of friendship you bump each others shoulders while shaking hands, usually three times.Much of my time in Mettu was happily spent shadowing Síle through her daily life. So I hung out in the college, where I went to Síle's classroom and relaxed with her colleagues in the staff lounge, I helped out by getting the water (doing this once for the photo was enough for me!),
and I went into town to go to the market and the post office, where Síle is well-known. There I got to see the joy of the arrival of a package from home. 
I also partook in two important ceremonies while in Mettu. Firstly, one of Síle's colleagues performed a coffee ceremony for us. Ethiopia is one of the world's biggest coffee producers and coffee is a big part of life here, so it was great to be in someone's house and be part of a coffee ceremony (who knew that popcorn and coffee go so well together).Secondly Síle and I joined the colourful street procession to celebrate Timkat, the important Ethiopian Epiphany festival - an interesting experience.
I really enjoyed my week in Mettu, especially because thanks to Síle I got to meet so many locals. Too often when you travel you only meet other travellers, so it was great to interact with so many Ethiopians (who generally were friendly and welcoming).I was greatly impressed and proud of how Síle has settled and created a life for herself in Mettu. Keep up the good work!
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