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!