Aerobics Ethiopia Style

You feel more like a member of a community if you get out into it. My colleagues and I started going for early morning walks shortly after moving to Bahir Dar. People in the neighborhoods were welcoming. We felt more comfortable in our new home. 
Mulageta, who worked at the Fila, our first hotel residence, saw we were walking every morning and invited us to his aerobics club. He said walking is good, but not enough. It's true for me. Aerobics start time is 5:45 a.m. GT. That's early even for us. It's still dark.
The club had lots of benefits. Good exercise and meeting people from other walks of life than the University (e.g. the director of the local (Jimmy) Carter Center office). Even if we cannot speak Amharic, we felt welcomed and part of a group. 
Now I have added biking to my yoga/walking/aerobics routine. I sleep better. But my Amharic. I still can't count to 10.

Sometimes the aerobics club has activities outside the Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday exercise. The feast above was to celebrate the club's 10th anniversary. We met at the high school where we do our exercise. A few women cooked up a delicious dinner of tibs. Beer is a sports drink?
Below is the city wide aerobics event that happens once a month downtown. It was a blast.