June 25, 2008

This morning as I left the hotel I looked across the street where Derge
parks his cab when he doesn't have a fare. He saw me so I pointed to my
shirt, the one he gave me last night and gave him the thumbs up. He
grinned from ear to ear!

Today I decided to head off in another direction. We had been told of a
shopping center on Bole Road which is behind the hotel about a quarter of
a mile or so and is a major shopping area for locals. Derge pointed it
out to us a couple of nights ago. So off I went on foot. I need the
exercise and am too frugal (cheap) to pay for the taxi. It turned out to
be closer than town which is a 40-45 minute walk each way. I still have
trouble breathing here. When I try to take in air, it just doesn't seem
possible to get a good breath. Did I mention that we are at 7900 feet!!!
This weekend we will be at an even higher altitude.

So I found the shopping center easily and was pleasantly surprised at the
number of stores and quality of merchandize, not that I need anything
other than a few gifts. But there are toiletries that we sometimes need
like hand lotion or astringent so I was pleased to find some name brands I
recognized. We heard of this place from the woman who recommended a couple
of good restaurants and who works here sometimes. She had bought a leather
jacket in this center for $100. I found the leather stores and sure enough
there were jackets for $110. I also found a shop that was selling export
quality handbags for women. They were works of art and sold for $100-$250.
Again these stores are quite small by our standards but the quality was
quite good. I started at the basement and worked my way up to the top
floor where I saw several stores that carried traditional Ethiopian
crafts. I asked about a jug I saw that was just like one we had bought on
Saturday. It was half what we paid. On-ward.

I bought a birthday card for my sister and headed out in search of lunch.
I found Rico's just down the street about three or four blocks. We ate
there a week or so ago. Ron had a horrid meal but I liked the minestrone
soup so I ordered it again as I have discovered it is quite difficult to
find a soup here that isn't cream based and I am lactose intolerant. So I
had soup, dry bread and water for a grand total of $2.80. Cheapskate rides
again. As I sat outside dining, I saw many vendors who walk the streets in
hopes of making a sale. One man was carrying a stack of books from his
waist to his chin, trying to sell paperbacks while he carried more in his
backpack. How many books can you walk around with all day? Oy! There were
others who were selling belts and sunglasses and one selling pirated CDs.
Young children often sell chewing gum carrying around four to eight small
packs in a little cardboard tray. My favorite is little stands like a TV
tray where the vendor is selling a portion of a roll of toilet paper,
enough for one use I would guess. I also have seen children selling pocket
size packets of tissues. I wonder how much money they can make in a day???

I realized I might as well mail my sister's card so headed back to the
shopping center. Ron once called it Dumbell because its name is Dembel.
There was a small postal station there and since it is quite a bit closer
than the main post office I was glad to back track before heading home. I
was approached as usual by beggars. One elderly woman, all bent over, held
out her hand and I brought coins out of my pocket. She kept rattling on
about something like she wanted more or ?? So I put the money away and
kept walking. I encountered her again when I went back to Dembel to mail
my card and this time she took the money. There are many young women with
small children often tied on their backs with a cloth who beg. Today I
encountered one who refused the meal ticket offered her. Her choice.

It has grown quite dark in the room as a big dark cloud covered the sun.
It must be time for a tropical rain storm.

A dear friend asked me via email today if I was glad we weren't going to
be here for six month now that I have been here a while. (We were
originally scheduled to be here for six months). If I were here for six
months instead of five weeks, my life would be quite different I think.
For one thing, we would live in an apartment, not a hotel. There I would
cook meals instead of going out to eat every night and I would do laundry
that the hotel staff now does because there is no iron, washing machine,
etc. available to me. I would attempt to make more friends and have them
over for dinner. I'd ask those three Ethiopian men at the travel agency
over so I could learn more about Ethiopia. I would volunteer for an agency
that could use some help. Five weeks just doesn't seem like a realistic
time frame to volunteer.

My attitude with this kind of travel is we are on an adventure and that
sometimes means being inconvenienced or uncomfortable but it also means we
experience things we would never experience at home. I personally think it
is healthy for us to have to be flexible at this point in our lives, to be
inconvenienced, to be humbled. It is too easy to get set in our ways at
this stage of life and traveling in developing countries certainly gives
us a perspective we wouldn't have otherwise. So I am grateful for these
experiences and I hope I don't sound like I am whining or being judgmental
when I write about our experience here (beggars, food, shopping,
restaurants, etc.). I am attempting to paint a picture of what life is
like in this part of the world. Your feedback is welcomed as I can easily
lose my perspective.

We are pretty much out of new places to try for meals so went back to the
Indian place we like and had a feast of curried veggies and a chicken
curry along with four kinds of bread and water for a grand total of
$11.00. Obviously we will have an adjustment period when we return home.
We call it sticker shock!

We are glad that we were able to arrange our hotel booking, airport
transport in Lalibela and a professional guide service all by the
Internet. We leave at 0 dark hundred on Saturday. That would be 5:00 a.m.
We were surprised to discover that we had to be at the airport two hours
before departure for a domestic flight. Bummer.