June 20, 2008

I failed to mention yesterday that the full size dump truck that had
delivered sand to the construction site was unloaded by hand! I can only
assume the lift wasn't working as about four people inside the truck bed
shoveled sand out the back of the bed and two people outside the truck
shoveled the pile to keep it below the truck bed level.

Every day I can look out the windows and watch the rain coming towards the
hotel from the hills. We are getting rain daily now, mostly in the
afternoon and at night. It rained most of the night last night as I woke
up at one point to open the balcony door to get some air in the room and
it was raining hard and when woke up this morning it was still raining
although it was a much lighter rain. It is almost 3:00 in the afternoon
and I can see it heading this way.

Yesterday Ron came by with the driver from work and picked me up so we
could have lunch together. We went to the Lime Tree where Ron has now had
lunch three times. There is a real dearth of good restaurants here. Last
night we tried another restaurant. I wasn't that hungry so ordered a soup
that was quite good. Ron's meal was a wee bit strange. He ordered Tandori
chicken after his first and second requests were denied as they were out
of those dishes. Hmmmm…. So first came a chicken soup with bread. The soup
was a sort of a watery looking thing. Then came the entrée: three black
drum sticks, a pile of rice topped with French fries and pita bread!!!
How's that for four starches??? Ron said if we were at home he wouldn't
come back to this restaurant but given where we are we will probably be
back as at least the food was edible.

After dinner we decided to walk a few minutes before calling Derge, our
regular cab guy. As we were walking along a young family came up beside us
and a small girl, probably 4-5 years old extended her hand to me. At first
I thought she was begging then I realized she wanted to shake my hand. I
bent down and with a big smile and lots of enthusiasm shook her hand. She
then shook Ron's hand. It was one of those magical moments of
international travel where you have a real connection with people. Her
parents and the two of us all loved that special moment.

I consider myself somewhat of a conservationist/environmentalist. I have
many practices that I use to lighten my footprint on the planet. One of
these practices is to request that our sheets and towels only be washed
once a week when we are living in a hotel. I change sheets and towels once
a week at home so why not here, particularly when there is a shortage of
resources such as water and energy. We have discovered many hotels now
give you that option. They provide a card that you place on the bed if you
do not want your sheets washed that day as a signal to the housekeeper. If
you hang your towels up it is the sign that you do not want your towels
washed that day. Well, the Hotel de Leopol doesn't have such a policy so I
have told no fewer than six women on the staff here not to wash our linens
more than once a week. It hasn't worked. Daily our towels and sheets are
replaced unless I happen to be in the room when the housekeeper arrives. I
have given up. As a friend of mine used to say, "You can lead a horse to
water, but if you can get him to float on his back, then you have really
got something!" I think imprinting this novel concept of saving resources
is the equivalent to getting the horse to float on his back. The other
request I made was to not take the bars of soap daily and replace them
with new soap. We are given at least three bars of soap each day and they
are sizable bars that would last several days but they are replaced daily.
Some things I have no control over.

Today I hope to go to a travel agent to arrange for an excursion up north
next weekend. By Sunday we will have seen all the sights in Addis. Scary.
Tonight we are having dinner at a restaurant with performances by
traditional dancers.

Today is one of those days where I can't get online. We have brown outs
regularly here, often around 7:30 in the morning. We got on line at 6:30
this morning but not since then. We have also noticed that the lights
frequently flicker so trying to read is quite difficult. They have 40 watt
bulbs in the lamps so I will get some higher wattage bulbs so we don't
strain our eyes. I don't know if I have mentioned it but you can't drink
the water anywhere in the country. You must use bottled water. Again we
are reminded how much of everything we have at home. It is easy to take
for granted the ability to have clean water at a tap, the ability to flip
a switch and be able to have light or to be able to cook a meal. Three
times I have seen people here washing articles of clothing in the street
where there was a stream of water about an inch deep. It breaks your heart
when you realize the implications. Where does that person live and what is
his/her home like? Do they even have a home? And what about all those
beggars? Where do they reside?

Today I went back to the 'central' area to visit a travel agency. Ron and
I want to visit an area north of here that is on the historic circuit. It
is called Lalibela and is famous for its 11 rock hewn churches. I had an
absolutely delightful visit with the three young men who worked in the
tour department of the agency. We talked about politics of the US and
Ethiopia. These men were as unhappy with their current administration as
we are with ours. They hope Obama will be elected because Bush's
administration has been supportive of the current administration here and
they said it is like a dictatorship. Two off them had foremerly been
school teachers but the government insisted that teachers promote the
current administration so they quit and started working for the tour
agency. Teachers here are paid poor wages with no chance of advancement.

I was successful for the second time of not picking up any 'students'
today. Lucky me. I was able to walk to town and back without stopping to
catch my breath when climbing up the two hills in between here and town.
That's progress. I walk up the seven flights of stairs to our room at
least twice a day but can't make it without stopping at least once or
twice gasping for air. There is a team of football (soccer) players here
from West Africa (Mauritania) who will be playing on Sunday. They, like
me, live in a place that is at sea level so they also talk about how hard
it is to play at this altitude. They do like the temperature here though.
At home they said it was 40 degrees centigrade (104 F) whereas it is 13-21
degrees C here (56-70 F).

June 21, 2008

Last night we were treated to a lovely evening by one of Ron's coworkers,
Shewaye and his fiancée Elsa. We went to the Crown Hotel, about twenty
minutes south of Addis. We have a traditional meal. This consisted of a 30
inch in diameter injera (pancake made of tef, a grain more nutritious than
wheat) that was topped with about six or seven piles of food such as
salad, meat, beans, greens, etc. On the side were about five rolled up
smaller injeras, looking a lot like those hot towels they give you on the
airplane, only these are light brown in color. So you would use your right
hand only a tear off a piece of injera and use that to pick up a morsel of
food such as a piece of meat, or some of the mashed beans. I was
successful, which is a feat given that I am left handed. As we started
eating, the traditional music started. There were four musicians playing a
flute, drums and two very different stringed instruments. One was played
with a bow and the other was plucked, like a guitar. Then we were thrilled
to see at least six or seven traditional dance performances with different
costumes. There are 80 different ethnic groups in Ethiopia and they are
quite diverse so seeing some of the different dance forms and traditional
costumes was a real thrill. You would not believe the shoulder and foot
action. I found myself slack jawed several times in wonderment over these
movements that I cannot begin to describe. Very entertaining.

This morning we had planned to sleep in as we got home late from the
evening with Shewaye and Elsa but I woke up around 6 or 6:30 with the call
to prayer from our nearby Orthodox Christian church. We had coffee then
granola in the room, showered and called Derge, the cab driver to pick us
up. Ron and I were taking our umbrellas as you never know about the
weather here. Ron asked me if I would put his umbrella in my purse and I
told him I didn't want to because of the weight. I added, 'besides, it is
a good weapon in case a pick pocket tries any funny business'. We headed
for the Hilton to see if our ATM cards would work. YEAH! We now have
access to cash and are happy about that. Next we had Derge drop us off at
the Piazza. We stopped by several of the shops I had scouted out earlier
in the week and managed to buy some gifts and cool stuff for our home,
like the jug made from cow hide that was used for butter. Gross! It is
totally gronky looking and we both liked it. Ron tried on some shirts but
they didn't fit so while we perused other items in the shop, the shop
keeper ran down the street and bought some at another shop that would fit
Ron. This is how it works in this part of the world. So of course the
shirt cost more since he had paid retail. We thought we were getting a
good deal on the items until we visited the next shop and realized we have
paid double on a couple of the items. So much for being savvy!

We headed for the Hilton as we needed to replenish our cash. On the way
back, sure enough two guys tried the classic pick pocket trick: one
stepped in front of Ron to block his path. When Ron looked at him, the guy
tried to hook his leg around Ron's right leg. The second guy went for
Ron's left front pocket where he keeps his wallet. Ron smashed this guy's
shoulder with his closed umbrella! Both disappeared quickly. YEAH RON!!
Disaster avoided. We proceeded to a café near our hotel to give it a try:
anything but our hotel for dining. Fortunately it was good. We had Spanish
omelets with toast. For dessert we had coffee (espresso) and a pastry
which was totally mediocre. No problem, we will keep our weight down if
there aren't any good pastries! So our bill was $6. with the tip. Makes up
for overpaying for the souvenirs! One good leftover from the Italian
occupation is all those espresso machines. The Ethiopians created coffee
but the Italian perfected it with those machines.

Tonight we went to an Indian restaurant, our favorite cuisine after Thai.
It was recommended by one of Ron's contacts in DC who works in
international consulting. Afterwards we tried to find a shopping 'center'
she had described. Please keep in mind this is a developing country so a
shopping center is one multistoried building with a warren of small shops.
We found one but it wasn't the right one. We walked through the four
floors of shops. Each one had one shop keeper and you could view all the
merchandise through the store window, to give you a sense of how small the
shops are.

After we left the center we crossed the street so Derge, the cab driver we
use, could pick us up to take us home. The streets and sidewalks are quite
dirty here and turn to mud when it rains. Most sidewalks are non existent.
There may have been a sidewalk there at one time, but they have eroded. Or
there will be a sidewalk for part of the block and then dirt. So the
bottom line is it is quite dirty/muddy here depending on the weather.
Tonight it was muddy. No wonder there are so many shoe cleaners/shiners.
Your shoes are always dirty. So we stepped onto the sidewalk after
crossing the street and saw a 'nest' of children. There were four small
children maybe 3-6 years old, asleep and huddled next to an adult. I
wasn't sure if it was a man or woman. It looked like a dog with a litter
of puppies. It was about 8:00 or 8:30 pm. The entire family was asleep on
the sidewalk with lots of people passing by as Bole Road is one of the
three town centers. Seeing this family took my breath away. It is one of
those sights that imprints and doesn't go away. I couldn't talk for a
spell and when I did it was with a lump in my throat.

Once again we are reminded of our abundance.