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.

June 19, 2008

How about a little background on Ethiopian history? This is paraphrased
from the Lonely Planet. I won't go back to the beginning of time, just
recent history. Emperor Menelik died in 1913 and his grandson Iyasu became
King. Continuing Menelik's reforms, he showed a modern secularist,
nonsectarian attitude. He built mosques, as well as churches, took several
Muslim and well as Christian wives and supported the empire's peripheral
populations, which had suffered under the oppressive hands of Amharic
settlers and governors. He was deposed in 1921, accused by the nobles of
'abjuring the Christian faith'. Menelik's daughter Zewditu was proclaimed
empress and Ras Tafari (son of Menelik's cousin) was proclaimed the prince
regent.

Prince Ras Tafari in an attempt to improve the country's international
image managed to abolish the Ethiopian slave trade. In 1923 he got
Ethiopia granted into the League of Nations. Continuing the tradition of
Menelik, Tafari established a modern printing press, several secondary
schools and an air force. In 1930 the last rebellious noble was defeated
and was killed in battle. A few days later the empress died. Ras Tafari
assumed the throne and was crowned Haile Selassie. The extravagant
spectacle was attended by representatives from around the globe and led
indirectly to the establishment of a new faith. Unbeknown to Ras Tafari he
gained subjects who lived far beyond his kingdom when he was crowned
Emperor Haile Selassie. In Jamaica where Marcus Garvey's 'return to Africa
movement' had been established, many saw the emperor's coronation as
fulfillment of the ancient Biblical prophesy that 'kings will come out of
Africa.' Identifying themselves passionately with Ethiopia's monarch and
the fact that Ethiopia was a free state in Africa, Garveys' followers
created a new religion. In it the emperor was accorded divinity and the
faith would bear his name. Rastafarians follow strict dietary taboos:
pork, milk and coffee are forbidden. Marijuana is held to be a sacrament.
Although embarrassed by this new religion in his honor, Haile Selassie in
1963 granted them land in Shashemene.

The year following his coronation, Ethiopia's first written constitution
was introduced. It granted the emperor absolute power, his body was even
declared sacred. Ever since the day of his regency, he had been bringing
the country under centralized rule. For the first time ever, the Ethiopia
state was unified.

In an earlier blog I briefly touched on the Italian occupation in the
1930's so won't repeat that here. During that occupation Haile Selassie
fled from Ethiopian for which some Ethiopians never forgave him. The
1940's and 50's saw much post war reconstruction. New schools were
developed and in 1950 the first institute of higher ed was established. In
1955 the Revised Constitution was introduced. The government remained
autocratic and the emperor continued to hold all power. Because of
Ethiopia's long standing independence, Addis Ababa became the headquarters
of the Organization of African Unity in 1962 and in 1958 of the UN
Economic Commission of Africa.

The pace of development was slow and dissatisfaction with the emperor's
autocratic rule grew. In 1960 while on a visit to Brazil, the emperor's
imperial body guard staged a coup d'etat. Though put down by the army and
air force it marked the beginning of the end of imperial rule in Ethiopia.
By September 1974 the emperor was deposed and taken to prison. This ended
the century old imperial dynasty. It is thought that Haile Selassie was
murdered. His body and that of his wife were later discovered in 1992
beneath the toilet in the president's office in what had been the imperial
palace. It now serves as government offices. He was given a formal burial
in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in 2000.

The Derg (Committee) took power and declared a socialist state. They
lasted until 1991. There was a transition period until 1995 when in August
of 1995 The Federal Democratic Republic was proclaimed.

That's an ever so sketchy modern history of Ethiopia but I found it useful
in understanding the country as it is today. Sorry for taking liberties
and skipping over the wars with Somalia and Eritrea.

More observations

Most women here wear head scarves. Most head scarves are made of white
gauzy cotton with a border of color on each end of the scarf. I hope to
learn more about who wears them and why. Many young women braid their hair
close to the scalp. These elaborate hair styles are quite attractive and
there are many variations on a theme. The fringe at the ends of the scarf
are tied together in clumps, and it looks very much like a jewish tallis
except for the four long strands at each corner. Some men wear them too
in a way that again looks like the way some orthodox Jews wear them draped
over their heads.

I see so many pedestrians and very few bikes and motorcycles here. There
seems to be either old cars, old buses, old mini-buses or pedestrians. I
have been astounded at the amount of construction taking place in Addis.
Everywhere I look I see high rises going up (8-11 stories). Some are mixed
use buildings: apartments, shops and offices. Some are hotels, others are
condos. The amazing thing is to watch construction here. Again we take
much for granted in the US. Today I was watching a construction crew next
to the hotel. There are carriers, both men and women. Two people carry a
stretcher like device with poles and a container between the poles that
holds sand, gravel or concrete. So there are three crews: one feeds sand,
and another feeds gravel into a mixer. The third crew waits for the mixer
to spill the concrete onto the ground. Two men shovel the concrete into
the carrier and two members haul it over to the building that is being
built. No concrete pumps here folks. It is almost all manual!

There is very little humidity here. When we first arrived it took a while
to adjust. It reminded me of being in Bend OR where your nostrils dry out.
We drink a lot of water here, all bottled. You can't brush your teeth or
drink water from the tap. I am grateful for the grocery store just down
the street and the refrigerator in our room.

June 18, 2008

What a horrid day. I walked to the Piazza area, the north end of town. I
can hardly describe some of the horrific sights I encountered. There is so
much poverty here but I am sure this is nothing compared to the rural
areas. But the numbers of people who are begging is overwhelming and the
condition of some is truly horrific. I saw several who are suffering from
what I assume was polio. The worst was a person who was literally dragging
his body along the sidewalk using his arms much like we used to do when we
played 'army' as children. Another was a woman who used to flip flops, one
on each hand, so she could propel herself along the sidewalk, her legs
curled up under her. The flip flops helped to protect her hands from the
concrete sidewalk. I saw a person lying in a town square whose legs were
the size of her body. I can't even describe how difficult it is to see so
much of this kind of need. The saddest part is many of these diseases are
treatable or preventable, particularly polio and leprosy. There seems to
be a lot of both here.

The area I was exploring today is called Piazza, more leftover signs of
the Italian occupation. It was quite congested and very seedy. I was a wee
bit concerned for my personal safety, having become somewhat paranoid from
reading the two tour books that emphasize pick pocketing and purse
snatching. I was the only non African visible and did get lots of looks.
As I mentioned Ethiopia isn't exactly high on the tourist circuit.

I visited St George's Church, an Orthodox Christian church. I arrived
around mid day and was surprised how many people were there. There are
separate entrances for men and for women. Outside the church worshipers
would touch the walls of the church and kiss the walls. Inside there was a
lot of bowing, touching doors and walls and kissing the doors and walls.
The church was hexagonal with another hexagon inside which is the Holy of
Holies and only the priests are allowed there. The only ornamentation were
numerous murals. After entering the wrong door, reserved for men, I found
the one for women and removed my shoes and entered. I tip toed around to
look at the murals. Most of the women were seated on the floor and
actively worshiping. I sat down and one of the women encouraged me to go
into another area in order to better view the murals. All this was done
without words of course since we didn't speak each other's language. I do
hope I can learn more about the religion while I am here.

After leaving the church I looked for some of the cafes and bookstores
mentioned in the tour book. One café was somewhat frightening so I crossed
it off the list. I found the bookstore and was disappointed to find they
were almost all old used technical books and some paperbacks that held no
interest. I have a feeling the Sheraton and Hilton will be the only
resource for books if I run out. Fortunately Ron and I share books so I
have one more to read if I finish the one I am currently reading.

For some reason I didn't pick up any 'students' today. One man approached
me on my way home and I simply ignored him and that stopped it right
there. I did discover another good restaurant, an Italian place that has
been here 50 years! I was delighted that they had a no smoking section.
It had great food and I blew my budget. Usually the bill includes the tip
(called service here) but this one didn't. I didn't have any change so got
up to go get change and the waiter came running after me in a panic saying
'Madam, service, service!". I told him I was going to get change and he
offered to do that. Of course he brought only large bills so I would give
more of a tip which I did. As Ron likes to say, 'it's only money'.

Sitting next to me in the restaurant was a group of three adults and a
young man, perhaps a teen. They were obviously quite wealthy, as she was
dripping in diamonds. They spoke Amharic, the predominant language (over
80 languages are spoken in Ethiopia) and English. The young man spoke
American English. At one point they were talking about movies and were
trying to remember who the actor was in Liar Liar. They grew silent as
they were trying to remember the actor's name. Being the social being that
I am, I said, 'Jim Carey'. They exclaimed 'that's it!' We all laughed. As
I was leaving the restaurant two of the adults were outside smoking and
thanked me for my input. I apologized for listening in on their
conversation. They protested and said no problem. I find Ethiopians quite
friendly and because they have never been colonized, I think there is less
awkwardness with whites. They are on an equal footing, as it were.

After returning to the hotel I scheduled a foot massage as my feet were
quite tired. I had been walking from 10:30-3:00. The foot massage was
divine: painful but divine. She worked on my feet all the way up to my
buttocks. Forty-five minutes for $10. I think I will be a regular while
here.

Tonight we took a cab, we have found a regular cab driver whom we use, to
a restaurant where I had lunch the day before called The Cottage. I had
the same waiter and I had told him he looked a lot like Morgan Freeman.
Since I had had a big lunch I ordered an omelet and Ron had a pepper
steak. We both were pleased with our meal. Derge, the driver had agreed to
loan us a SIM card for my cell phone since none are available so we paid
him for the 'rental'. Since I probably won't travel with Ron when he is
working we decided we should spend the money for the phone. We were
thankful for his help in loaning us an extra SIM card that he had. I just
realized you may not know about SIM cards. Every where we have traveled
you can buy a SIM card for about $20 and then buy minutes for phone use.
When your minutes run out you just buy more. That way we can use the phone
we bought in Sri Lanka all over the world, except in the good ole USA.

That's it from Addis Ababa for the day!

Adjusting to Addis

June 16, 2008

I woke up at 4:00 and Ron at 4:30. Yesterday we woke up at 3:30. I guess
it is getting better but we have a ways to go before we have adjusted to
the time change here. After breakfast I decided to climb stairs to extend
my exercise program as there is no gym in our hotel. I climbed two flights
and was completely winded and my heart was racing. We are at 7,000 ft.
here and let me tell you, it ain't at all like home! Later in the morning
the elevator was not working so twice I climbed to the 7th floor where our
room is. Needless to say I took several breaks, resting in between floors.
God, I feel healthy!

Today the driver from the ICMA project was supposed to pick us up at the
hotel at 8:15 because we were to attend an orientation at the US Embassy.
After several calls he arrived at 8:55. Welcome to Ethiopian time. We
decided to try again tomorrow. I wanted to explore some of the shops
mentioned in the tour book. First I walked to the Ethiopian Map Authority
to get what is considered the best map of Addis. It took me about 20
minutes to get there, walking uphill most of the way. After going through
security, I discovered they are out of the maps. Great.

Next I made my way over to what is called 'central' Addis. You should know
there is no central here as the town is quite spread out with no central
or downtown area. There are about three main commercial/shopping areas. By
this time I had 'acquired' a 'student' who followed me for the next 20
minutes. Fortunately I read the tour books before I arrived and the books
forewarned me about the so called students. These are young (20-27) year
old men who befriend you and are quite nice and follow you around making
polite conversation and at some point ask for money or ask you to buy them
something like a book for their studies or something to drink. When Ron
and I walked around on Sunday we had a fellow follow us for quite awhile.
They aren't easy to ditch. I peeled off at some point. I found the shops I
was looking for and was pleased with the quality and prices. There were
numerous street vendors who came up to me and asked me to buy their wares.
I declined. I prefer the shops where I don't have to barter. Today I was
mostly on a look and see mission.

I stopped by a place called Hope Enterprises to purchase a booklet of meal
tickets. Instead of giving beggars money, I can now give them meal
tickets. A book of eight tickets cost $0.40 so I bought five booklets.
Last of the big spenders. I went through two books pretty quickly as Addis
has many beggars: very young children, young mothers, lepers, physically
disabled, and the elderly. By now I was on my third student and he
followed me forever. As we were walking along I said "I never give
students any money" just so I was clear. Of course when I got back to the
hotel he said he had walked a long distance and was thirsty and wanted me
to buy him a drink. I reminded him of our earlier conversation and told
him I didn't ask him to go with me. It had been his choice. Needless to
say he was disappointed. I need to develop a script to discourage them
from the minute they approach me. It is tiresome. So I left at 10:30 and
got back at 4:00. Oy, my feet hurt.

Ron and I have lost weight since arriving. We have been unable to find
good restaurants. The hotel is quite mediocre. We now have breakfast in
our room every other day to break the monotony of the meal. I have
granola, coffee and juice in the room. Oddly enough the breakfast
downstairs was the best yet today. There are a lot of staff members in the
dining room. They stand around and occasionally do something, like
replenish the coffee when you tell them it is out. Today they had one
sugar bowl out for the entire room. So when you asked for sugar, one of
them would look for the sugar bowl and bring it to your table. We couldn't
figure out why they just didn't put it by the coffee pot and milk???? Ah
Americans are so efficient. The good news is I found a good restaurant at
lunch. I am so excited. Last night we tried a new place near our hotel and
it was awful. The bread (sort of like fresh pita) and the cardamom rice
were great but the mystery meat was very chewy and flavorless. We barely
touched it. The restaurant was recommended in the tour book. Because
Ethiopia isn't a hot tourist spot, the two tour books we have really cater
to back packers so the recommendations are often cheap, filling food that
isn't particularly tasty. We have totally avoided any of their
recommendations where they state "not particularly good but filling".
Spare me!

I may have mentioned that our hotel is pretty isolated so eating will
require a long walk or a taxi. We ate at the Sheraton once and it was
good. We can try the Hilton. There are supposed to be some good Indian
restaurants here. Ethiopians loved to eat raw minced meat. YUCK! We eat a
vegetarian diet mostly so you can imagine how grossed out I am about raw
meat! Anyway, this is served on injera, a large, moist sourdough pancake
made from tef, a grain that has more protein, iron, and calcium than
wheat. The Orthodox Christians here fast on Wednesdays and Fridays so no
meat on those days. Maybe we will try the traditional meals on the veggie
days.

Today on my walking to town and back, I saw many small herds of goats.
Goat is eaten here as is lamb, chicken and beef. I am not sure about pork.
Most of the women cover their head with a white cotton gauzy shawl. The
two main religions are Orthodox Christians and Muslims, 45/35%
respectively. Faith is an extremely important part of an Ethiopian's life.
Orthodox Christians bring religion into everyday conversation as much as
their Muslim counterparts. We certainly found this to be true with the
'students' we have met.

Pubic transportation: there are buses that are crammed beyond belief, and
mini buses. They are a small van with four or more rows of seats and are
everywhere. They ride down the road picking up passengers as they go. A
man leans out the window and shouts the route. They also seem to be
packed. I will walk or use cabs. I was told that petrol is $1+. a liter
here. That makes it close to US prices.

June 17, 2008
We managed to sleep until the alarm went off at 6:30. Now that is
progress. Last night we tired another recommended restaurant. We had to
take a taxi as it was too far away to walk. It was housed the fuselage of
an old plane. I ordered the 'national dish, a rich, oily tomato based
sauce with a small of chicken served on top of injera, the thin pancake.
It was quite good. Ron had roasted chicken and it was somewhat dry but at
least this meal was edible!

This morning our driver was on time and we went to the US Embassy for a
security orientation. A rather glum woman gave the orientation to the two
of us. It was really about how to avoid any problems here. There is no
violent crime to speak of here, mostly some pick pockets and purse
snatchers. She recommended staying away from the local market which is
supposed to be the largest in Africa. Our tour books said it s a prime
place for the above mentioned crimes. Natasha said the merchandise was
'crap'. Needless to say I wasn't particularly interested before but now
have no desire to go there.

First Ethiopian Post

WE'VE BEEN HAVING A DIFFICULT TIME WITH POSTING THE BLOG BECAUSE OF VERY
SLOW INTERNET ACCESS AND STRANGE STUFF WITH BLOGSPOT. WE'LL KEEP TRYING.

This is a long entry but I have divided it into specific day entries. I
cannot download the file from the hotel so Ron will do it for me from work
or we will find an Internet café. Since this isn't possible to do on a
daily basis, the entries will be less frequent but longer.

Alas we are in Ethiopia. It is pretty darn special to have a honey who
buys you a ticket to Ethiopia for your birthday. We celebrated my 63rd
birthday somewhere en route and I was presented with birthday cards on the
plane. Our journey here took 25 hours from when we left the house for the
airport on June 10th until we got through customs in Addis Ababa, the
capital of Ethiopia at 8:00 p.m. on June 11th. The journey itself was
relatively easy. We had a direct flight from Portland to Frankfurt. Then
we flew from Frankfurt to Addis. Ron's ticket cost $4100 and mine cost
$2700. His was purchased by his employer who uses a travel agent versus
mine which Ron purchased on line. We sat side by side on the plane. One
would think for the cost difference he was flying business class!

We had turbulence on both legs but coming into Addis was harrowing at
times due to the turbulence. We were supposed to fly from Frankfurt to
Khartoum, Sudan then on to Addis. However the night before there was a
terrible crash at the Khartoum airport when a plane was attempting to land
during a storm and ran off the runway. The plane burst into flames and
over 100 were killed, according to one newspaper account. Consequently as
we were boarding in Frankfurt, anyone flying to Khartoum was pulled aside
and told that the plane would not be able to land in Khartoum as the
airport was closed. Our flight from Frankfurt had lots of empty seats.
Being somewhat jet lagged by the time it dawned on us to look for seats
where we could stretch out, there were none. Many had a comfortable ride
fully stretched out over four seats. We had been too slow to grasp the
possibility and were therefore "aced out"

We had a 'first' at the airport: our luggage and carry on bags were xrayed
as we left the terminal! We were met at the airport by Antonio who had
hired Ron for this job and a driver. Antonio is a very warm man who
embraced Ron and then me. His parents were born in Lebanon but they had
immigrated to Venezuela where he was born and raised. He works for ICMA in
DC when he is not traveling to the various countries where he has current
projects. We arrived here at 8:00 p.m. Our hotel was a short drive from
the airport. We headed for our room, unpacked and hit the sack. We managed
to sleep for about 6 hours. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and Ron about 5:00. We
got up and did our morning stretches and floor exercises. There is no gym
in our hotel. ICMA booked us a suite. It has a large sitting room with a
couch, two side chairs, a small refrigerator and a sauna in the corner.
HA! Then there is a bedroom with a full bath. There is a second bath with
a sink and toilet off the living room. The hotel is funky, not elegant but
clean and certainly adequate.

We met Antonio for breakfast downstairs. There was some fresh fruit,
cheese, breads, sautéed veggies and eggs. Oh yes and Ethiopian coffee. You
may not know this but coffee was born here. It is quite strong and the
hotel's coffee almost tastes like there might be some chicory in it.

Ron and Antonio spent the morning discussing the work Ron is to do here
while I read in the other room. Later they left to meet with folks from
USAID who are funding this project. I went shopping in the grocery store
located right near the hotel. I wanted to be able to make coffee in the
room and have a few snacks. I spent $10 and was alarmed at first but then
realized I would have paid that much for coffee alone at home. Here I got
two bottles of water, crackers, juice, tissues and a pound of coffee for
that price. What often happens when I first arrive in a new country I am
unfamiliar with the new currency and have concern about what things cost
and spending too much money. Initially there are a lot of expenses but
within a few days I realize that things cost considerably less in
developing countries and my worries subside. Ron and I are frugal and
attempt to live within his per diem allowance when we travel. Added to
this concern is the fact that there is one ATM in the country that accepts
international cards. Fortunately it is in Addis! Hopefully it will accept
our card.

We had lunch at the hotel as the driver wasn't available. I prefer not to
eat here frequently because the food is pretty mediocre. We had the buffet
which is almost depleted as we arrived after a group that is meeting in
the hotel. I ate two helpings of a spaghetti casserole and a little
injera, a traditional Ethiopian pancake that tastes like sourdough. We
tried to nap after lunch but were unable to sleep so just rested. Around
3:00 Ron and Antonio left for the USAID office. In the late afternoon I
finally fell asleep for about an hour.

Facts about Ethiopia: In 1582 the Christian world switched from the
Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar but not in Ethiopia. The Julian
calendar consists of 13 months: 12 months of 30 days and one month of the
remaining five days except in leap year when there are six. So as a
consequence the year date is seven years and eight months behind what we
think of as the year. So we have now traveled back in time to 2001. One
other interesting feature here is time. A day consists of two 12 hour
periods. The first starts at 6:00 a.m. So when it is 6:00 a.m. the time is
12:00, at 7:00 it is 1:00 and so on until 6:00 p.m. when it starts all
over: 12:00, at 7:00 p.m. it is 1:00, etc. Confused? Yeah, me too!

We experienced a brown out around 6:00 p.m. that lasted about our hour. So
we sat in the dark and chatted. Because we are close to the equator, it
gets dark here around 6:00. The days and nights are evenly split like it
was in Sri Lanka: 12 hours of light with 12 hours of dark. It is hard to
believe that two north westerners would leave the cold dark grey northwest
and come to Africa during the beginning of the heavy rainy season that
lasts about eight weeks. We will be here for five of the eight. It is
supposed to rain about 39 inches in eight weeks, a bit more of what we get
each year. So yesterday it was cloudy most of the day and started raining
in the afternoon until around 7:30 or so.

Since there was a brown out Antonio suggested we go to the Sheraton for
dinner. The Sheraton is a five star world class hotel with generators as a
back up for when there are brown outs. It is quite a place. It is huge
with lots of glamour. We ate in the Italian restaurant and had a lovely
meal. The Sheraton has the only ATM in the country that will take an ATM
card from banks outside the country. Because we read that the biggest
problem in Addis is pick pockets, we emptied our wallets of everything
except some cash and put everything in the safe in our room so we didn't
get to try out the ATM because neither of us remembered to bring our
cards. We also brought travelers checks with us to Addis in case our cards
don't work in the machine and because credit cards are not accepted here
except in the large international hotels. In our hotel you are charged a
3% fee to use your credit card on top of whatever your bank charges you
for international usage, often 3%.

June 13, 2008

We met Antonio downstairs for breakfast. He was experiencing the dreaded
traveler's diarrhea. Ron started feeling badly at breakfast also but they
headed off to work anyway armed with pills. I hailed a taxi and set off to
purchase an electric kettle so I can make coffee in the room. The hotel
does not provide a coffee maker so I always travel with a cone and
filters. The taxi driver quoted me $20 to take me to the store and back as
we reached the gate of the hotel. I have learned to always ask the price
before proceeding. I shouted 'stop the car!' That was effective as he
immediately was willing to negotiate the price and lowered it $8.50 which
was still high but I hate negotiating. Off we went to a government store
where I found the needed item for $33. On the way home the driver told me
I would get a discount if I called him again. I told him I would, so took
his cell phone number. I hope to be able to establish a relationship with
one driver so I don't have to negotiate each trip. Taxis don't have meters
here and most taxis look as though they can barely make it across town.

Shortly after I came home Ron arrived looking pale. He went to bed and
slept. After a while I went downstairs to the restaurant and ordered a
vegetarian stir fried rice. We both slept in the afternoon and he is still
sleeping. He never gets sick and thinks he was just overly tired from the
trip. After sleeping all afternoon and into the evening, he awoke and
still seemed tired. We took his temperature and it was 101. So much for
not getting sick. We watched a very bad movie on TV and then went to bed.

June 14-08
Ron and I awoke about 7:00. His fever had broken and he was feeling much
better. We decided to have an outing today and visited two museums: the
National Museum and the Ethnological Museum. We took at cab to the
National. We were reminded once again of the wealth in America. Many of
the displays at the National were displayed without any lighting.
Consequently we couldn't read the explanations of what we were viewing.
The real highlight of this museum was seeing a cast of 'Lucy', a
fossilized hominid discovered in 1974. Lucy is 3.2 million years old. Gee,
do I ever feel young! As we were leaving the museum we spied a traditional
house adjacent to the grounds and wandered over to discover two men
working on building the grass exterior to the house. It is a real art form
using bound bunches of grass that are then tied to the frame of the
structure and held in place by lengths of bamboo. The house was part of a
restaurant so we decided to grab some lunch, dining al fresco. The owners
had gone to great lengths to create ambience by having various African
crafts such as woven bamboo panels, outdoor tables with bamboo umbrellas,
etc. We peeked into the interior restaurant where there were even more
African touches such as baskets, pottery and the like.
Next we walked to the Ethnological Museum, located on the Addis Ababa
University campus, foremerly Haile Selassie's palace. On the way we passed
by the Yekatit Monument. This monument recognizes the thousands of
innocent Ethiopians killed by the Italians in retaliation for the attempt
on Viceroy Graziani's life in 1937. (see below) Graphic depictions of the
three day massacre are captured in bronze. Men, women and children were
murdered and many homes were set afire. The Ethnological museum obviously
had more funding and was a much larger exhibit and better displayed.

Ethiopia Facts: Ethiopia is the only nation in Africa to have never been
colonized. However Ethiopia's location between two Italian colonies of
Somalia and Eritrea made Ethiopia an attractive morsel. In October of
1935 the Italians attacked Ethiopia and by May of 1936 Mussolini declared
"Ethiopia is Italian". Over 60,000 Italians poured into Ethiopia to work
on the infrastructure. The outbreak of the WWII, particularly Italy's
declaration of war against Britain in 1940, dramatically changed the
course of events. The Ethiopian resistance fighters assisted by Britain
were able to defeat the Italians. By May of 1941, the emperor and his men
entered Addis Ababa. Today there are many fine Italian restaurants and
espresso bars in Addis.

The big fat Greek wedding was great fun. The actual wedding took place in a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church that had brilliant stained glass windows and many icons. The groom, Tyson Wisbrock, was truly handsome and his bride, Effie, couldn’t have been lovelier. She wore a strapless cream colored gown with an overlay sheer shirt that was trimmed in taupe ribbon. There were 23 attendants so it was a big wedding. I would guess there were about 400 guests. In the Greek tradition, the couple does not exchange vows. There were at least six priests officiating at the service. Some had minor roles and other major roles. There was lovely chanting throughout the service. All parts of the service have symbolic meaning and a handout was given to each guest to explain the symbolism. All in all it was a wonderful experience.

The reception took place at a beautiful country club about 20 minutes away. Oh my goodness the food was truly incredible and oh so delicious. There were hot appetizers of spinach wrapped in filo dough, skewers of chicken and beef, stuffed cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and pea pods and a table with hot suckling pig. The meal was lemon-egg soup, salad with goat cheese, poached pear and walnuts, the entrée was surf and turf with a thick beef filet and shrimp with a twice baked potato, carrots and pea pods. Dessert was wedding cake, ice cream and chocolate sauce. Then there was this table that was the entire width of the room that was stacked with about thirty different choices of sweets: fresh strawberries the size of your fist, pineapple, watermelon, grapes, chocolate cups with fresh raspberries (my favorite), and too many pastries to describe. I used incredible restraint. After dinner a Greek band played wonderful Greek dancing music and it went nonstop until we left at 10:00. I never saw Effie and Tyson sit down. They danced the entire time. And they were dancing as we left.

We got up at 6:00 on Monday and drove to O’Hare, almost two hours away. We had plenty of time to get checked in and board so there was no stress. We were eager to be home so were grateful when we touched down in Portland and caught the shuttle as soon as we got our bags. What luck. It was a sunny, warm day when we returned. Our yard looks so lush if not overgrown. All I could see was a zillion projects but knew each would get done with time. Our first task was to sort through 82 days of mail. Yikes! The newspaper goofed and restarted the paper March 7th instead of May 7th so I had two months of the Oregonian sitting on my kitchen counters. I had food in the freezer so only needed to pick up juice for breakfast and salad greens for dinner. It is so good to be home.

Today we spent a lot of time in the office, working on bills, sorting through paperwork and getting organized. This afternoon we took a bike ride after cleaning off our bikes that had been sitting for a year and a half. Tomorrow we start our exercise program as we both put on a few pounds eating in restaurants three times a day for almost 90 days..

Thursday
Ron went to our CPA today to pick up our 2006 tax return. Fortunately we only owed a small amount. That’s always good news. We are getting back in the groove here. We get up when we wake up, a great benefit of retirement. We do stretches, exercise, shower and have breakfast. Then we start our day. We try to do a little each day in the yard as the weeds have almost taken over. We are making progress. We had massages today and Ron worked in the office all day. I made out a menu for the next few days. We are eating healthy and that feels good. I have already dropped a couple of pounds. Does that mean I can have dessert? Oh guess not…we leave on the 21st to go see Ron’s mom and back here on the 30th. Then I take off for a weekend with girlfriends on the Umpqua River. And life goes on. Our next planned trip will be to Sri Lanka in July, our final trip there unless the proposal Ron wrote comes through. We may try to go to Thailand since we will be so close. Too soon to plan. I also want to go to SC to see my family there this summer. So our travels will continue. I don’t plan to do another blog unless we go to a new place. But will notify you if I do another one. This concludes the blog. Thanks for your readership.

4-30-07

Gosh I am behinder than usual! We had a super visit with Sandi and Bill in RI. Again the weather turned sunny while we were there. Our timing has been good this trip. It poured rain the day we left but we left early so can’t complain. We took walks in the lovely town of Kingston. New England is so special for people like us who love older homes. Some in Kingston that we saw were from the early 1700’s. That’s more maintenance than I could handle but they were charming houses all the same. We went to Narragansett Beach to view the storm damage. They had part of the same sort that David and Anne had had in Maine. We also went to the historic home of Gilbert Stuart who was the portrait artist who painted the famous portrait of George Washington. Unfortunately, the museum/home was closed but we walked around the beautiful grounds and peeked in the windows where you could see the displays of colonial life. We feasted on fresh ‘lobstra’ as they say in RI and went out for Italian to celebrate Ron’s 61st birthday. Sandi and Bill had added a addition to their home about two years ago and we couldn’t believe how well it fit the house and Sandi did a stellar job with the décor. She is brilliant with color and the room was perfect in every way. It is a dining room filled with sunlight.

The train ride to Dc was a bit over six hours and the scenery was great with lots of water: ponds, bays and the coastline. New Jersey was not attractive however. I know there are pretty parts of NJ but our train didn’t go by those parts. And to our Surprise we saw dumping similar to what we experienced in Serbia and Sri Lanka. Trash dumped right down a small hill where the trash and old tires rested against a chain link fence at the bottom of the hill. Disgusting!

From Union Station we took a metro train to the last stop where Mark picked us up and drove us to Centreville VA where they live. This made for a hard day because we were schlepping one heavy suitcase each, a carry-on each and Ron had his very heavy briefcase that contains two computers and lots of paper. Ugh! In addition we had to wear our winter coats due to all we were trying to manage with the luggage along with escalators, train doors, etc. It got hot carrying luggage with winter coats on. Ron is lots stronger than I am and has a longer stride so at one point he ran to catch a train and stood in the doorway to hold the door for me. By the time I caught up with him the door had closed onto his suitcase. There was no way for me to get in and I had a vision of him leaving on the train and me waving goodbye on the platform. I whimpered “I can’t do this’. When he realized I couldn’t get on, he hopped off and we waited for the next train.

We have had a ball with Avi, our newest grandchild. He looks like a little man and could charm the horns off a billy goat. He, like his cousin Jacob, he is an easy child, always happy and a big flirt. On Friday Ron’s niece Leah came over for Shabbat dinner. On Saturday, we went to Fredericksburg, a charming historic town where many civil war battles where fought. We toured the home of Betty Washington Lewis, sister of George Washington. There was a portrait of Catherine Lewis Willis who was their great granddaughter and a distant relative of mine. What a trill and coincidence. I didn’t realize when we decided to tour this home that there was the connection with Catherine. So I wrote down all the information about her and sent it to my dear family history-loving sister. We have some book we read many years ago about Catherine. She moved to Florida with her parents after her husband’s death and her father’s financial reversal. She later married Prince Achille Murat, who was Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew. They were buried in Tallahassee FL. Once when my mother came to visit me in college I took her to the cemetery to show her their graves.

We walked around Fredericksburg for awhile after visiting Kenmore, the plantation and estate of Catherine’s forefather. On Sunday we went to DC and visited the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial. What a grand memorial. There are two statues of him. At the beginning of the memorial that is several blocks long, has a bronze statue of him in his wheelchair that he designed. It was modeled after a kitchen chair and had two sets of wheels, one made from bicycle wheels and one set of tricycle wheels. In between, there are numerous fountains and stone walls with various quotes of FDRs. There is also a statue of Eleanor Roosevelt, who was the first US delegate to the UN. The final statue of Roosevelt is larger than life. He is seated with a cape around him and it is a magnificent portrayal of him. The quotes are inspiring and are very thought provoking when read in the current context.

Today, Monday, Rachel and I went out for mani/pedicures. Rachel treated me for my birthday. After lunch we went to Babies R US and got a new car seat for Avi who has almost outgrown his first car seat. Then Ron and I came back to our motel and rested before having a dinner/movie date. Prior to leaving the US in February we saw the previews to The Namesake so finally saw it tonight. It was a great film. Of course, Ron and I are having a love affair with India so we pretty much like anything to do with India.

May 3, 2007

Tuesday Ron and I went into DC. We started the day with a tour of the Capitol, led by Ron’s niece Leah who works for Senator Lieberman (CT). It is pretty special to have your own private tour. I had never been in the Capitol but Ron had in the 60’s when he told Hubert Humphrey who was then Vice President that he would have his job in the 80’s. Life is what happens when you are making other plans! Then we headed over to the American Indian Museum and had lunch and a feast for our eyes, seeing beautiful crafts of the various tribes. There was no way we could see everything as it is a huge museum and we can only absorb so much. We enjoyed a special exhibit on Indian dress.

Then we went to the Brass Knob, an architectural savage store. Ron had bought an outdoor lamp fixture there the last time we were in town (Sept) and he had met his three criteria: big, old and heavy (cast iron). After picking it up we went to a Starbucks, read the paper and did a crossword while waiting to meet friends at an Indian restaurant for dinner. It was great to see Jon and Alice, Jon’s wife (Jon hired Ron for the SL job) and Corrine, who used to work for ICMA and now works for Montgomery County.

On Wednesday we had family portraits taken at a nearby mall then Mark dashed off to rehearsals. Rachel, Ron and I did projects. Ron put baby proof latches on all the cabinet doors in the house while Rachel and I sorted threw all the baby clothes she has, making piles of too little, too big, and just right. Afterwards, we went for a walk then Rachel had the hots for custard ice cream so at 6:00 we headed out. It was 7:00 by the time we got home so I fed Avi while Rachel took the dog out. They had an English bulldog. Then we started supper and finally ate at 9:00. By then Ron was grumpy from low blood sugar, mine on the other hand was still up from ice cream. He didn’t have any ice cream.

May 6, 2007

So we went to Chicago on Friday and stayed right downtown. Alexander Calder’s stabile “Flamingo” was right around the corner from us and Picasso’s “Baboon” was within a few blocks. What a thrill to see good art. We are here to attend the wedding of Tyson Wisbrock, son of our good friends Rollie and Dolores Wisbrock and Effie Manos. Friday night we attended the dress rehearsal dinner in Greek Town at a Greek restaurant and had a fabulous meal: appetizers, soup, salad and we opted for the spicy shrimp entrée. We met a woman at the party who grew up in Kandy Sri Lanka and now lives in Portland OR. Yes, it is a small world.

On Saturday we went to the Art Institute of Chicago. Talk about a thrill. They have a splendid collection of Impressionists paintings and they had a special exhibit: Cezanne to Picasso. Ambroise Vollard, a French art dealer had helped many modern artists so this show was featuring the works of many of those artists. It was very impressive and oh so crowded. We had to wait in line for about 40 minutes to get in and each gallery was crammed with viewers. I was in hog heaven seeing so much good art by artists that I really like. I had no idea that the Institute owned such a great collection.
Afterwards we grabbed lunch, rented a car and headed for Tinley Park, where the Greek Orthodox wedding and reception will take place. It is about 30 miles out of Chicago but we had lots of traffic (on Saturday??) to deal with so it took a while to get here. We lazed around the rest of the day and went exploring in the area that appears to be quite wealthy judging by the malls and homes. The wedding is at 3:00 today with the reception at 5:30. Not your typical 10-minute Protestant affair!

I will have one last entry to describe the wedding. We head home in the morning with about an hour’s drive with traffic to get to O’Hare airport. We arrive in Portland around noon and let me say the Bergman’s are not particularly weary so much as eager to be home in the great NW!! Ron has a gabillion projects lined up: creating box beams for the ceiling in the living and dining rooms, painting the entire downstairs and some of the outside of the house, ripping out the deck and redesigning it. Well you get the picture, we won’t get bored. I on the other had am eager to rip up the overgrown cutting garden and replant it and see what needs redoing with the rest of the landscape after having been gone for 14 months and SL then being on the roads for almost three months. It’s time to take care of the sanctuary at 112 W 28th St