June 23, 2008

Today we ate breakfast in the room because we had forgotten to turn on the
hot water heater during the night. Our bathroom has a five or ten gallon
hot water heater over the tub. We turn it on an hour or two before we want
to bathe but neither of us remembered to turn it on when we got up during
the night to use the toilet. In a country that is short on resources you
only use electricity when needed. So we don't turn it on when we go to bed
but rather at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. when we wake up to use the toilet.

I got out our binoculars to look at the mountains that we can see from our
room but discovered they were completely hidden behind a haze. It reminded
me of southern California. It never rained yesterday so it was actually a
bit warm today. I was a little hot in my black jeans walking to town. I
was thinking of not going to 'central' today because of the pick
pocketing incident on Saturday but then realized I didn't want to be
intimidated by it so headed out for a shop where we have seen a woven
shawl that we liked and thought would be a fun wall hanging. No incident.
So I am glad I went. I am not picking up anymore 'students' so I am
relieved about that. I continue to see very sad sights in terms of beggars
with disabilities. Today there was a man sitting on the sidewalk begging.
I looked down and saw that he was unable to extend at least one of his
legs because the upper and lower leg was webbed at the knee. I couldn't
see his other leg. When I encounter beggars who can't walk I give coins
because there is no way for them to get to the place where the meal
tickets can be exchanged for a meal. Those with leprosy usually have lost
portions of their hands and their feet, making walking impossible. Often
when I go to town I pass a man who is lying in the dirt on his stomach,
his legs useless. Today he was smoking a cigarette on my way into town and
on my way home. He has never asked for money. Like the US I also see those
who are mentally ill on the street.

By late afternoon I could see the mountains so scanned them with the
binoculars. I hope we will have time to drive into them before we leave in
July. After returning from town, I rested briefly then walked about four
blocks to the little café where we ate lunch on Saturday. I ordered the
'fasting spaghetti'. Ethiopians who are observant Orthodox Christians fast
two days a week (Wed. and Sat) and don't eat meat or dairy (I think). So
when you order a fasting dish, it doesn't contain any meat or dairy. The
spaghetti had sautéed onions, greens, tomatoes, and little strips of
potatoes. It was tasty although I had some stomach distress later. I came
back to the hotel and read then slept briefly. I got up and worked on
looking at options for our weekend outing to Lalibela.

Tonight we tried yet another restaurant, Aladdin, a Middle Eastern cuisine
and it was delicious. Yeah, another restaurant to add to our growing list:
we now have eight choices, six of which are quite good and two a little
edgy. We tried buying our tickets on Ethiopian Air on line but were unable
to so tomorrow we will go to the Hilton that has a branch office for
Ethiopian Air and try again.