So I realize I left kind of a terrible cliff-hanger in terms of my trip and should probably wrap up the story. After I left off we decided to pay the taxes on half the equipment to finally get some equipment into Ethiopia. The following week was spent 9-5 at customs filling out paperwork and explaining our situation about 500 times to people who couldn’t really understand what I was saying. I became such a fixture in the office that they brought me morning tea and a croissant when the officials were served! Finally, they released the equipment and that day we picked it up, drove to the field and installed the first meteorological station in Gudedo.

The next two weeks were super busy because our professor decided he wanted us to get the other half of the equipment in so I had to repeat that process, we had to install the other meteorological station and two soil moisture stations. To do all of this we needed to get equipment every once and awhile which inevitably meant going to 10 stores on completely different sides of the the city. We never did find a compass. It doesnt help that Ethiopians do not work Monday mornings, Friday afternoons, weekends, or 11:30 - 2pm on weekdays. The other huge pain was that our country contact decided to disappear to another job for these three weeks, great. Oh and also our Professor came to visit for a day which was tense to say the least. To add to it, we somehow lost access to the project budget for 5 days and had no money! haha!

The hardest part was negotiating with the guards at each of the sites to get their asking price down. It didnt help that we didnt speak the same language, they assumed we were made of money, and the project budget was almost dry. But eventually we came to an agreement of sorts. In some ways I felt silly arguing about $10-$20 a month, but its not my money and you have to use the standard of the country you are in. You have to think about $10 as 170 birr and in reference to what everything else costs in birr.

So the project was a success in that we got all of the equipment installed and running, but since our prof. fired our contact with 5 days to go in our trip we have a rather shaky replacement. This guy has the huge responsibility of collecting the data and I dont trust him at all, but hey its not my problem anymore.

Through all this stress we decided we needed a vacation and so we drove up to the Bale Mountains and they were glorious. The environment was lush and we went on a walking safari! We just hiked around and pretty often would happen on a Nyala (caribou-like), or a baboon, or a warthog, or a Ethiopian wolf (only 500 in the world and all are in Ethiopia), or a monkey! We also climbed a peak over 14,000ft, one of the 10 tallest mountains in Africa. On our way back we stopped at some beautiful lakes and in all had a wonderful vacation.

I would go back to Ethiopia for vacation, but never for business. Our first thought when we landed in Frankfurt from Addis: look at all the Caucasians!

Love,

Lauren

07/04/2011

Happy 4^th of July!!! After a rather lazy start, we decided to celebrate with chocolate glazed donuts in Arat Killo (the best in the city we have found so far, but don’t worry we will continue the research).  We took a different minibus route so that we know multiple ways to get back to the hotel since it seems like you can never catch a bus that goes a route you recognize. I grabbed some postcards after our treat at a stationary shop, which is important to remember because we haven’t seen them being sold anywhere else, except for in museums. We decided to walk off the donut on the way back (about 3mi) and stopped to get some veggies and some guava, which neither of us had ever had whole. They are a bit smaller than tennis balls with leathery skin. When you split one, it looks like a light pink watermelon and the fruit is grainy and sour.

When we got back, I tentatively opened the shades all the way. Our windows go floor to ceiling and I only just realized that they are tinted so you can’t see in from outside. Otherwise we are only on the second floor and everyone across the street would be able to see us. I found it strangely comforting to be able to observe the outside world without being a spectacle myself, without having to participate. When I’m outside, I feel like I need to be always moving and never look anyone in the eye.  You miss stuff that way. Yet, it feels unfair too that I have the privilege of this tinted window. I think that says a lot about how much of an opportunity it is to travel.

We finished our celebration with dinner at Pizza Hut, but you wouldn’t recognize it. This Pizza Hut was a huge 3^rd floor restaurant with fancy table clothes, napkins and a complimentary salad bar. Their prices were still pretty cheap and we had been told they had the best lasagna in the city, which I had been craving. They were playing American pop music which made me feel more at home. Alex pointed out though that they tend to bring food out when it is ready and not when all the dishes are ready. She had finished her pizza before I even got my food! I’ve seen/read about this elsewhere and I don’t think it’s so uncommon, but not American custom. The food was good though.

As we walked back in the dark we were completing our first night excursion. All the shops were still open with little light bulbs and there were dim street lamps. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. I think because since we were always in at night, I unconsciously assumed everyone else was too. Unfortunately, we hadn’t gone one block before out section of the city lost power (not uncommon) and everything was pitch black. We stumbled along ok with the help of car lights, but I almost stepped on someone sitting on the sidewalk. Everyone seemed unperturbed though so we got less nervous and got back absolutely fine. It turns out the 4th is also a holiday here, Holy Savior Day and everyone goes to church (if you are Orthodox Christian of course).

Overdue Appreciation goes to…

                Lawn mowers:  even push mowers are better than cutting grass by with a scythe which is what we saw a woman toiling at on the median of Bole Rd.

                Manikin skin color: In the US they are almost all white and that’s true here too? In both cases it’s a bit strange because it does not reflect the skin colors of the population, but it’s more obvious here. Practically it doesn’t make sense,  how will you know if that dress will look good with your skin tone?

                Electricity, ‘nough said.

                Variety in commercials: we can now recite all the ads on the Discovery Channel

Love even in the dark,

Lauren

07/03/2011

On Sunday, we decided to take a day off (we really had no choice) and finally track down the Ethnological Museum (as it is only known by in the guide book). I woke up first as I always do and decided to get some exercise in, but I had to drink a lot of water because I would quickly get light-headed. Even though I get light-headed at home, I get it a lot more here and I get winded after two flights of stairs. This is most definitely the altitude since we are at 2400ft!

When we finally got going, we took the bus to Arat Killo and walked up the main street until we found the main section of Addis Ababa University. The grounds were beautiful and lush; a huge contrast to the chunks of concrete outside the gates. There were wonderful flower beds, and though it looked, perhaps, like any garden, I didn’t recognize almost any of the flowers, bushes or trees. We wandered a bit and stumbled upon this nice, dried up fountain, which happened to be in front of this ornate building with a guard. Guards are the most trustworthy for directions (if they speak English or effective international charades) so we asked him where the museum was, and we had found it.

And what a spectacular museum it was. The displays were organized as a walk through life, starting at birth and ending in the afterlife. There are so many different tribes in Ethiopia that selected one tribe for each section of their timeline. I was really surprised at how similar some of the traditions were to those of the Maasai tribe we stayed with in Tanzania since that is so far away! But both are East African cow- herders for the most part so that might have something to do with it. For birth, they talked about the tradition of specific diets for pregnant women, rubbing butter on the belly during labor and burying the placenta afterwards. In childhood, they had fables and a board that looked like it was for mancala (they had this in Tz too! And it is way more complicated than mancala). In the coming of age section, they had a lot about distinctive clothing and focused on a tradition of cow jumping. In one tribe, young men must run across the backs of 15-30 cows (held together by the rest of the men) and they must do it 3 times without falling off to transition to manhood.

Then we inspected displays of pottery, baskets, cloth, jewelry, tef (the wheat for injera), chat, fishing and hunting. I thought the jewelry was particularly interesting, as self-modification is always a little strange no matter who you are. On top of beaded necklaces, they described purposeful scaring in patterns of dots and lines (with precautions for infection!) and I’ve seen people around Addis with similar marks. They are often attached to specific groups or tribes or families. There is also tattooing which is also everywhere today in Addis in little crosses on women’s necks and cheeks. Finally the stretching of ears and the bottom lip with circular and rectangular plates up to 4in across!

And then down the hall it turns out the museum used to be the Emperor’s palace! So we got to walk through the Emperor and Empress’s bedrooms and huge bathrooms (strangely).  Upstairs they had a beautiful collection of musical instruments and apparently the largest collection of iconic pictures in Ethiopia! What was cool was that they explained how they analyzed the paintings and how each of the colors were made, which I’ve never seen in a museum before.

Finally, we finished and went to get postcards which were a little expensive, but hey it was for the museum and they clearly need the money because the computer broke while they were trying to ring up the postcards so that failed. So we consoled ourselves with a mixed juice and caught a lucky minibus right back to the front of our hotel (we usually have to walk for 15 min). We finished our day watching the Nadal v. Djokovic match, go Djokovic!!!

Breakfast Menu: We pretty much cycle through these complimentary choices, but it beats continental breakfasts by a mile.

                French Toast and Eggs

                Special Omelet  (with beef)

                Oatmeal (really good, “it’s a kind of native flavoring”, name that play)

                Egg Sandwich (you get two with Cajun mayonnaise)

Love,

Lauren

07/02/2011

On Saturday we set out to search for batteries for Solomon’s light traps. Because all of our equipment is in customs we figured taking only some of the data would not be useful, but our professor thinks it will be. Solomon has some old mosquito light traps that we could use to start getting mosquito counts and has the standard dippers for taking samples of puddles and counting mosquito larvae. The light traps just needed batteries and ours, if they ever get out of customs, would need them too because lead acid batteries are not currently permitted on flights.

Solomon directed us to Kera a new burrough of the city and so we jumped on a few minibuses, made some good guess off our mini map and finally made it. As we rode up Bole Rd. (4 lanes with a divider and perpetual traffic), I couldn’t believe that the chain “guardrail” protecting the median strip had metal roses, painted red, with whimsical metal vines in all different directions. It seemed such a curious detail to preserve while the sidewalks are crumbling, but that is classic Addis. Roses are really big here and we passed a flower shop with humongous bouquets of roses, which in the US would be unaffordable, but here many people must buy them. There are also a curious plethora of Valentine’s Day shops and paraphernalia.

When we finally got to Kera, we realized why Solomon had sent us there. Just about every other shop was a Trading Place, or automotive parts shop. Unfortunately for us, they were pretty much all for cars and we need something more like a motorcycle battery, after trying 7-8 shops and walking up and down this section of street we found a motorcycle shop, but they were out of the batteries we needed! Someone said there was a shop down the street (where? Far away, take a taxi, you can’t walk) so we crossed our fingers and jumped in a minibus. Thanks to Alex’s sharp eye we found Menlik Trading co./Yokomoto Batteries and they had every type of battery you could want. After getting them filled with acid (yes that’s someone’s job, gross), we celebrated with a donut and a Fanta (Alex had tonic which is here called Ambo) in a café where we were, as always the only women. Then with my backpack full of 30lbs of batteries and acid we found our way back to the hotel.

What’s Hot, What’s Not: Addis Addition

Gardens are big here, or at least I’m guessing they are, as there are large nurseries in the middle of the city and on the side of the highway.

Bikes are not, which is probably a safety thing. We did see a DHL guy on an official DHL bycicle, which I thought was a hilarious down grade, he probably doesn’t think it’s so funny.

Short guys are big here…wait. No but really, Alex and I are realatively tall compared to most of the population. I only realized this when a 6’2’’ Ethiopian guy walked by and I thought he must be 7ft tall.

                Women in cafes just don’t happen here unless you are a waitress or a foreigner. My theory: the women are working and don’t have time for an afternoon coffee.

                Fanta vs. Miranda? The jury is still out, but I secretly don’t think there is a difference. (Both are orange soda.)

Love,

Lauren

07/1/2011

Happy 1^st of July! (It took me half the day to realize this). No news really except we met with Solomon to discuss how there is no news. We tried a restaurant besides our hotel to my relief. The food is very good and they have both Ethiopian and American food (though their “steak” is more like spiced jerky), but we eat there almost every night. We decided to try the famed Zebra Grill we keep hearing about. Apparently Zebra Grill 2 has an excellent view of the city, but we didn’t go there. The Grill had a weird safari motif and the meat was grilled in the dining area. I got Jamaican Fish, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It looked like it was fried bits of skin and it didn’t taste like much and the fries were kinda bland too. Oh well, all the other food we have had is good.

Over lunch we got into more of a political/health aid conversation about HIV and other diseases rampant in Ethiopia, but what I found most interesting was when we got accosted by smoke from a group of Asian men sitting at the next table. Solomon got really mad and once they left said no one is so indecent to smoke in a restaurant. He said all the “Chinese” in Ethiopia are really ill behaved and no one wants to rent them space because they are such a mess! I couldn’t believe it. I had never heard someone so soundly bash an entire race. I was blessed to never have been confronted with such prejudice or maybe just such a clash of cultures.

Sites You See:

Kids chase you around and try to sell you gum, ok, and tissues!?!? Why tissues? I’m not quite sure, but I think it might serve as pocket toilet paper because none of the restaurant bathrooms have any.

Men selling sticks. I think they are willow and used to clean the teeth, though something tells me they are a stimulant as well.

That’s all for now,

Lauren

06/30/2011

Thursday we mostly bummed as we were still waiting for the Minister of Health and did not want to bother our other options just yet. I finished my book though, and it made me cry. I’ll say I cry pretty easily at books, but this one had a really good/sad ending. When we finally decided the couches were about to swallow us whole, we headed out for a walk in a half attempt to find limes for guacamole.

On our way out we ran into this Belgian gentleman who I had helped get on the internet. He works for a Belgian adoption agency with an associated orphanage in Addis. He offered to show us the orphanage and as we walked he explained that he is currently here with 7 families picking up their children. But it’s not that simple. A family has to come to Ethiopia twice, first to get a permit and become official guardians and then a month later to pick up their child and get a visa for the child. Unfortunately, if you are British, the only consulate that offers visas in Northern Africa is in Kenya so you have to go there too. He said that each host country has their own organization and they only see each other in passing. I thought they would do more collaboration, but I guess there are plenty of host families and kids. The reason it takes 1 year to adopt is the bureaucracy in both the host and adoption countries. We just got to peek in the gate, but the lines and lines of onesies and baby blankets were sure evidence.

Then I actually really wanted limes because avocado by itself is not quite guacamole, but it took us 5 fruit stands before we found them. We had a pleasant walk back though. Unfortunately, when I finally sat down to make guacamole, the avocado wasn’t ripe. Will it ripen once opened?

Oh well,

Lauren

06/28/2011 and 06/29/2011

Yesterday and today have pretty much been spent waiting on the Minister of Health. He is our best lead to help us get our equipment out of customs. Yesterday, we split the monotony by heading out to Bole Rd. one of the few main streets we haven’t traversed yet. We were told there were good supermarkets there, but after walking for 1.5 hrs and traversing the whole thing, we didn’t see any. We did see and In N’ Out Burger though! Native to California and thought only to exist there, this wild burger joint was way out of its normal habitat! Bole ends in Meskal Sq. which is basically a huge intersection with an even bigger outdoor amphitheater, we’re talking 300m across! Apparently, the steps are used by serious Ethiopian runners as part of their workout, but we didn’t see anyone. Actually I haven’t seen anyone running or working out.

On our walk back I noticed we were starting to assimilate in at least one small way, our gait. Ethiopians…plod along. They clearly are going somewhere, it’s just they don’t really care to get there immediately, they will get there when they get there.  Usually, we bustle past everyone on the street, not that we have such a dire purpose (probably less than those around us), but MIT trains you to keep moving quickly and that transport time is wasted time. I heard once that if you are walking a long distance it is best to walk slowly so you don’t wear out too quickly. It seems like even in the city people have long journeys ahead of them.

We stopped at a supermarket on our way and we sampled more bread. There are bakeries everywhere once we started looking and they all have this strange barren appearance. There is a large foyer and 20ft long counter between the customer and a few unfilled shelves of bread. The bread is like French bread or egg bread (the yellowy kind) and comes in mini rolls, burger rolls, short baguettes, knots and swirls.  As far as we can tell it all taste the same. I managed to get something different this time, it was particularly hard on the outside and shaped like a huge samosa. Inside the dough had been mixed with curry seasonings and the whole thing wrapped in a banana leaf.

Unfortunately, once we emerge from the grocery it had started raining so we jumped in a minibus and took it as close to our hotel as possible (still 20min away). When we jumped out it was still really coming down so we took refuge with a few guys in the stairwell of a building which was a little warmer and dry. We have gotten caught twice now, but people are very nice about sharing their hiding places. This time an old man even offered us some cardboard so we wouldn’t have to sit on the cold, cement steps. I don’t really mind the rain, but we are worried about the research because we need to measure the baseline in the dry season to use the model (that we are testing to see if it works in Ethiopia). Even after the downpour turns to a drizzle, the clouds still grumble loudly and the lightening is spectacular in the daylight. My favorite part is when it thunders so loud it sets off car alarms! If anyone knows Dane Cook’s car alarm skit that is exactly what they sound like here.

Today was even lazier as we waited for more news. We finally had to get out of the hotel so we walked to the many clothing stores on our street and asked for prices for the beautiful dresses in the window. There is a ton of American style clothing (the streets are like a continuous outdoor mall), but some of the stores display these beautiful white gowns of gauzy silk with intricate embroidered patterns at the hems. This is the same cloth and pattern we see many women wearing in scarves to cover their heads. Alas, the dresses are custom made and pretty expensive.

On our way we met up with a Belgian guy staying at our hotel and he gave us a mini tour of the streets near our hotel (apparently Pizza Hut has the best lasangna). He is an official for a Belgian orphanage in Addis Ababa, but he works in the Belgium office and helps shuffle families to Addis to deal with paperwork and picking up their child. Interestingly, he said Britain makes it hard for British families to adopt. I wonder what the Ethiopians at the hotel think about adoption. I mean it is a wonderful thing because otherwise these kids would have nowhere to go and would not have a loving family, but it is terrible that their own countrymen and women are not so able to care for them and adopt them, I guess that they are in this position in the first place.

On our way back we grabbed a mixed drink and some cookies that we keep seeing at all the cafes, they are pretty good and remind me of cookie press cookies all in the spiral shape. No other news except Dr. Eltahir wants us to email him daily even though nothing has happened, but I understand the need to at least hear that.

Cultural Note:

                Ethiopians use a little gasp in conversation to mean “ok, go on” like our “uh huh.” They are not taken aback (necessarily) by what you are saying.

Love,

Lauren

06/27/2011

It’s Monday and time to make something happen! Well that is what we had hoped. With customs open and other officials available we had hoped to get some help from people today with getting our equipment, but all we got were a lot of “we’ll see.” At least we now have some new leads. While Solomon visited the Minister of Health, Alex and I visited Solomon’s old colleague at IWMI who said he might be able to help. He imports a lot of similar equipment through the ILRI and they get it tax free so maybe they could collect our equipment for us. We headed off to a new part of the city to find his office, but jumped off the minibus a little early so we had to walk along a highway for a while. It was not pleasant, but there was a side walk and plenty of company.

Several times on this trip we have needed to ask for directions or just looked lost and have been offered help. I’ve found I feel most comfortable when I walk up to someone and ask for specific help from a guard or parking agent, someone in uniform. Why am I so nervous when someone on the street comes up offering help? For the most part they are just trying to be friendly, but we always quicken our step and often just shake our heads and don’t respond. I know this seems really rude, but I do not feel comfortable engaging them, and I think this is why. We have targets written on our faces and we know we are sesame seeds on a pumpernickel bagel. It doesn’t help that as soon as you step on the street little kids start yelling “pharenge!” (foreigner!) and the teenage boys on all the stoops call out to us “hallo sista, how are you?” But it’s worse when someone offers help because they probably truly want to help, but then I start wondering if I will have to pay them and I certainly do not trust anything they say, because what if they have ulterior motives?  I feel myself becoming more comfortable, but then I get nervous again because I know nothing has changed. There is no such thing as us ever blending in better and becoming less of a target. Every time we step outside, now or in two months, it will be like we just stepped off the plane and we will be just as much outsiders. So there will be no getting more comfortable, bummer.

When we finally got to the IWMI it was like we had walked back to the US. The guard met us at the guard station and already knew who we were. When we arrived at the actual buildings, set way back from the guard station and the main road, we were in a green Eden, worlds away from the concrete debris and mud of the main streets. Another guard met us at the door and brought us to Dr. McCartney’s secretary who told us to take a seat while she announced our presence. What organized bureaucracy! Dr. McCartney is a Caucasian South African and could relate to our customs plight. He led us downstairs to his friend Dr. Kebede who has friends at customs and, after an explanation and exchange of documents, Dr. Kebede said he would talk to his friends for us. No promises though.

We had done what we could and decided to reward ourselves with a stop at the nearest Kaldi’s Coffee on the way home. I laugh as I write this because of the uncanny similarity between Kaldi’s and Starbucks. They have practically the same symbol in the same forest green. Unlike any of the other cafés, Kaldi’s is big inside with menus on the tables and coffee served to-go in the same Starbucks cups. They offer the same crazy variety of sugary coffees with some Ethiopian twists. Alex got a frappachino, which was basically a delicious coffee milkshake, and I got a Mixed Juice. As we finished, we saw that the prices were just as exorbitant as Starbucks! Oh well, we kind of expected it.

Back at the hotel we just chilled and waited to hear from Solomon, with a quick trip to the supermarket for some spices and ramen. My last attempt at boiling vegetables was a fail so I think we will try steaming and adding some spices. We met up with Solomon for dinner and he filled us in. He needs a letter from the University to bring our case to the Minister of Health and hopefully he would be able to get the letter to the Minister tomorrow. This is our best lead for now so hopefully we will get this cleared up this week.

Your key to Ethiopian Beverages:

                Macchiato – Shot of expresso with foamed milk and dots of coffee on top, mix to get the fancy swirls you see on advertisements. Ethiopian macchiatos have more milk than in other countries.

                Tea (with or without foamed milk)- served as hot water with tea spices and then you are given a tea bag of Addis Tea. Tastes the same as Tanzanian tea if you minus the spices.

                St. George’s Beer – Local light amber beer which I tried once, but I don’t think women drink in public here.

                Tej (honey wine)- can’t wait to try it, this is an Ethiopian specialty!

                Cappuccino – twice the size of a macchiato this has more milk foam on top with a powdering of cocoa powder to top it off.

                Coffee-tea – a mixture of expresso and tea spices with tea bag on the side.

                Enjoy all of these with copious amounts of sugar!

Love,

Lauren

06/26/2011

On Sunday we decided to head up to Entoto, which is at the peak of the mountain near Addis Ababa. Addis is already higher than Mt. Washington, but we adjusted fine to the altitude. It took us a walk and 4 minibuses to get there, but finally we were rising into the forest of Eucalyptus trees. They are weirdly spread out, but as the kids walked home from school they took these bucolic erosion paths.

When the bus dropped us off at the top, we faced the green, yellow and red painted Entoto Miryam Church. We visited the museum which held more crowns, royal dress and church artifacts. We decided to just walk around the church and ended up getting a personal tour from one of the guards of Emperor Menelik’s Palace which was behind the church. The Palace was two wood, leather and mud buildings with grass roofs larger than any I had ever seen. Inside there was nothing but wood floors and in the pantry several horns sticking out of the walls as hooks, but it was kinda cool to imagine the emperor and empress eating dinner there. The first church ever built in Addis is also there though it looks just like the thatched houses that surround it. Again, you are supposed to tip the guide/guard but we never know how much since they seem to expect more than the entrance fee, hopefully we did not offend him. Oh and about the entrance fee, there is now an official decree in Ethiopia that all touristy sites have a tourist price, up to twice the local price! This is officially declared at the entrance to every touristy place we have gone so far!

We decided to walk back down because the woods and mountains were such a beautiful green compared to the dusty tan that covers all of the farm land below. Some kids passed us with orange lollypops, but on closer inspection I think they were frozen Fanta pops, I want one!

For the next leg, we crowded into a minibus and headed back down to Shiro meda which is a little town on the main road, but they had stalls and stalls of souvenirs and cloth so we will definitely have to go back to do some shopping. Another bus and we were back in Arat killo and ready for our afternoon refreshments. We had seen pictures of these layered juice drinks so we set off in search. After trying four cafes we finally found them inside this mini supermarket/café and they were spectacular. The drink (called Mixed Juice) is made up of several layers of fruit juice. How does it keep from mixing you ask? Well because it’s not really juice, but think fruit puree, I don’t think they add any juice or sugar so it’s actually like eating a kilo of fruit. This one was particularly good because it had so many layers: mango, pineapple, strawberry, avocado and chocolate! Mango, pineapple and avocado are the mainstays we have seen elsewhere and the avocado isn’t my favorite, but it goes surprisingly well when you mix them all together. Also in Arat killo we had seen these incredible donuts, so we grabbed two to eat at the hotel. In contrast to the juice, these donuts are deadly. The size of two donuts stack on top of each other, the mound of dough is topped with a chocolate glaze and they did not skimp on any of those fats that Americans are afraid of. On the minibus back we were pleasantly surprised to hear American pop music and I really wanted to rock out, but there was no room (and I would have embarrassed Alex, if only I could dance like Allin). Just as we were jumping of “These are my confessions” came on and I missed everyone on Burton 1! I hope your summers are going well! When we got back to the hotel we switched on the Discovery channel and I missed Burton 1 even more because there is this commercial with the same background music as the Inception trailer. Every time I hear it, I do the acapella version in my head and hear Anisha come in at the BWAHHHHHH.

I’ve been reading a lot and generally lazing about, but we have to be careful because being lazy makes you more tired and your butt hurt. I am currently in the middle of Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese and it’s eerily accurate. The book is about a family in Addis Ababa and many of the books observations and locations, I see every day! So it’s a pretty cool to read at the moment and the book is really well written I would highly recommend it.

Language lesson:

Worajale -stop! Let me out of the minibus!

I learned numbers too so I can buy things totally in Amharic, but you probably don’t care

Be safe and Love,

Lauren

6/25/2011

On Saturday customs is closed so we had free range to explore the city and get impatient. In the morning we met with Solomon to assemble our plan of action, which mostly relies on him talking to the Minister of Health. Hope is never lost as long as there is a higher boss. We decided to explore the Piazza (said Piassa) and St. George Cathedral in the afternoon.

The walk to Piazza was not that great, mostly on highways and by lots of homeless people. At one point, I actually got a little scared (and it was the middle of the day) because this one guy grabbed my arm and the other tried to reach in my pocket. They didn’t get anything, though, suckers!!! I’m never walking there alone though, at any time of day and always keeping stuff in my inner pockets!

Churchill street (on the way to Piazza) was supposed to be this haven of souvenirs (you can only take 500birr worth out though, about $30), but though there were lots of souvenir shops, it was far from being a haven. I felt more like I was walking past Borgin & Burke’s on Knockturn Alley. Regardless, it’s on this huge hill, but at the top there is this explosion of shops and people EVERYWHERE. Feeling the hour long walk, we stopped in a café for a drink and sampled there cake. Cake, and pastries in general, are big here and sold in every café. The most popular are versions of Tiramisu (Italian influence?), layered icing and cake which together is all pretty soggy (mine was completed with a wall of soggy cookies surrounding the cake and it was all tied together with ribbon). Alex liked it, but it was not my favorite.

Rejuvenated we moved on to St. George Cathedral, the most famous church in the city. The gates were wide open and we walked by many praying people and begging people into the inner courtyard. There we found a nice garden with benches populated with people chatting and all surrounding the steps that led up to a platform that surrounded the church. The church was surprisingly small, only 200ft across, and seemingly very closed. As we watched, adults and children would walk up to one of the 3 doors and kiss the door frame, cross themselves twice with a bend in-between and then kneel and kiss the ground and cross themselves a third time. This of course made us a little uncomfortable because we were unfamiliar with their rituals, but sensitive to the weight of religion. There was a little museum off to the side where we met one of the old Deacons who, for a fee, kindly gave us a tour of the church and the museum.

As we entered the church, we were told to take off our shoes and leave them at the door (we already had our heads covered with scarves). The church is octagonal and has three concentric sections (outer for praying, next for communion, and inner for the replica of the Ark of the covenant (original is said to be in Axum in Northern Ethiopia) and this part is only for deacons and bishops). The outer section is again split into three for women, men, and religious authorities. The Deacon showed us the religious tools they use to pray, a metal rattle, a huge drum (only for priests), and a staff (to lean on because praying can take 6-8 hours, 18 on Easter).

What I found really interesting was the paintings on the outside of the inner chamber. Though one side had religious pictures of Jesus’s life, death, and rising, the others were more historical accounts of events in the last 100 years. The Deacon explained that the church as we saw it was actually pretty young, rebuilt to celebrate Ethiopian freedom from the Italians in 1896. Don’t worry the Italians weren’t here for very long, but they killed a lot of Ethiopians during the occupation. The church was strangely designed by Greek, Armenian, and Indian architects and the paintings are mostly European in style, but many are by Ethiopia’s most famous artist (and millionaire) Afewerk Tekle. There were also pictures of Emperor Selassie asking for protection from the Axis at the meeting of Nations during WWII, unique. The coronation for the next set of monarchs (Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Zewditu) occurred here and we saw crowns, vestments and gold religious items in the museum. I really liked seeing the bibles and hymnals. The paper is made out of goat skin and the black and red (for emphasis) ink was made from native Ethiopian plants. In the end, it was pretty cool, but keep in mind, if anyone gives you a tour, you are expected to pay (more than the entrance fee!) so that was a nice little finishing surprise!

On our way to one of the few bus stops we know we got caught in the rain and got pretty muddy, but hey it’s just water (and I now know, very predictable).

Lessons learned:

Don’t wear a white skirt and flip flops in Addis in the rainy season.

But if you do, hope you have some Dr. Broners and a bathtub wherever you are headed.

Love,

Lauren