It all started with the news of my friend Dr. P S Bedi getting selected for the Al-Jabal Al-Garabi University, Libya in end part of 2009. The news was good and exciting because one of my close friends will be going abroad as an international faculty. However, I was skeptic about the living conditions in Libya. However, after 2-3 months Dr. Bedi was seems to be very happy with his new assignment. This provoked me to think about applying for job in Gulf countries. In the months of May-June there was advertisement in Times of India by Global Placement Agency, Hyderabad regarding faculty positions for Ethiopian Universities. I immediately applied for the same. Subsequently, I was invited to attend the interview in Delhi. The interview went well and I was selected for the Haramaya University as Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal & Range Sciences.   

Though I was happy that I was selected, however, I was apprehensive about the living conditions in Ethiopia. The recent disturbance in Somalia was a major cause of worry. Moreover, I have to leave my family in Mumbai and my health was another cause of worry. Anyway, I decided to accept the offer. My father, brother and my family, all encouraged me for this assignment. So the next important thing was to get myself vaccinated for ‘Yellow Fever’ which was mandatory for persons going to African countries. It took me 2-3 days to get myself vaccinated in Mumbai because of the huge rush. Then I resigned from Ipca Traditional Remedies and started preparing for the journey abroad. I got my air ticket confirmed in Ethiopian Airlines on 29th October. I was advised by the Global agency to carry some items that are not found in Ethiopia viz. pressure cooker, spices & masalas, prickles and certain other food items. As I was not having enough information about Harmaya University, I took all my notes and books. This resulted in my luggage weight crossing the permissible limit of 47 kg. At the airport I met with 15 other people like me going to Ethiopia in various universities. However, I could find no one who was going to Haramaya University. I had 23 kg extra luggage and after negotiation with the airline personals I was only charged for 10 kg. My flight was on time at 4.30 AM and I reached Addis Ababa at 7.30 AM local time after about four and half hours journey. At the Addis airport I was surprise that no one came to receive me as I was told by the Global agency. My connect flight to Dire Dawa was in the evening 4.30 PM. I had to wait the whole day at the airport. I called the Global Placement Agency and made sure that someone is coming to receive me at the Dire Dawa airport. The flight to Dire Dawa was on time and I landed there at around 5.30 PM. Outside the airport I found a person called Addis came to receive me, he than took me to a hotel called Rewda in Harar after about one hour drive. The hotel was quite decent and good. However, as I have landed on Friday evening and the Saturday being off. So I was virtually grounded at the hotel the next two days. However, on Saturday morning Prof. Kushiram Yadav from the department of Animal Sciences came to visit me in Rewda. Then he took me to his apartment nearby and made me aware about the small beautiful city of Harar and the Haramaya University. He acted as my local guardian and made my transit period smooth. Because of him I did not find any difficulty in finding a decent apartment, gas connection and many other petty things.  

Contrary to my thinking I found the place quite green and clean. The roads were very good, pollution free and the people were very helpful and had a tremendous respect for Indian people. As Harar was situated at 6000 ft above the sea level the place was quite cold. The Ethiopians had their own calendar with 13 months and time system. The local time was six hours behind the international time i.e. if it is 12 noon the local time would be 6 AM. Anyway, on 1st November, 2010 I finally joined the Haramaya University. I was really surprised to see the University, the campus was huge and there were many colleges running in the same campus. There was a huge library, shopping complex more importantly broadband Wi-Fy internet connection. The place reminded me of the Indian Veterinary Research Institute campus. The university campus was 17 km from the place I stayed in Harar; however, I had university bus service at the door steps of my apartment. 

Based on my three months experience, I would like to rate the place as follows:

The City                                  : Very Good
Pollution level                       : Very Low
The climate                           : Excellent
The people                            : Very Nice
Transportation system     : Good
Work environment             : Excellent
Crime rate                            : Very low
Law & order situation       : Very Good
Drinking water                    : Very poor
Market                                   : Ok

Pictures of Ethiopia

For More Picture of Haramaya University Campus click here.

For More Picture of Harar click here.