July 7 2008
Man oh man, we woke up this morning and thought we were back in the
"Greyt" NW! It was dark, and gloomy with heavy clouds and a constant
rain. This was a first here. Usually we wake up to sunshine and as the
day progresses we get some rain. Then it clears up. But July is the heavy
rain month so I think we will see something different this month.
Ethiopia's travel motto is '13 months of sunshine'. Ethiopia uses the
Julian calendar which has 12 months of 30 days and one month of five
days. The rest of the Christian world switched to the Gregorian calendar
in 1582. So even during the heavy rain season there will be some sun.
Sure enough, I left the hotel at 11:30 and the sun was out. It is now
3:00 and the rain is coming this way.

When I was out today getting worm pills, that's right, worm pills, I was
approached by many who asked for money. My favorite experience was a
little boy probably 4-5 years old who was selling boxes of tissues. I told
him I already had some in my room but he persisted. Finally he said "how
come you won't buy? You have baby?" I laughed and said "I have
grandchildren". That did it; he turned on his heel and went away. I guess
grandmothers are notorious for being stingy. Okay about those worm pills.
If you eat any fresh vegetables in this part of the world you need to
de-worm yourself after you leave the country. This requires going to a
pharmacy and asking for tablets and taking them for 1-3 days depending on
the manufacturer. It is a painless process and there are no side effects.

Today I discovered yet another decent restaurant that I can walk to. It is
located on the top floor of the Dembel Shopping center and serves lunch
and dinner. We are now up to 11 restaurants. I must admit as a person who
generally loves various ethnic foods, Ethiopian is not my favorite. I have
one dish I like, chicken stew that is in a heavy red sauce and have eaten
it twice since being here. This is week four.

Tonight we tried a Thai restaurant we discovered via an ad in a monthly
brochure that highlights events in Addis. The tom yum soup was quite good
but I didn't much care for the tofu stir fry. The veggies were okay but
the tofu wasn't that great. Ron, aka dragon mouth, smothered his dinner in
crushed red pepper flakes and was quite content. Our favorite cuisines are
Thai and Indian so we are happy to have yet another choice here. That
brings us up to 12 restaurants.

July 8 2008
Tomorrow we leave for Jijiga near the Somalia border and on Thursday we
fly to Dire Dawa, both are east of Addis. These are two of the four cities
Ron is working with and we will have Shawalye, the program coordinator,
Elsa his fiancée and another consultant from here with us. We are hopeful
that there will be time to explore the city of Harar, known for its
ancient walled city and famous for its coffee. We will not have access to
the Internet so will post again on the weekend most likely. We return
Friday and may travel to Awassa, south of Addis, to see more of the Rift
Valley if we can hire a car and driver.

I will pack up our room today to store our luggage while we are gone, and
I am getting a pedicure. The spa/salon I am going to is owned by an
Ethiopian who owned a high end salon in Boston. He decided to return to
his homeland and opened a high end salon here. There offer manicures,
pedicures, massage and hair services. It is the only place like it in
Addis and looks very western. The major difference is price: manicure is
about $4.00 and a pedicure I think is $8.00. They have these fancy comfy
chairs that have a foot tub in them so you can soak your feet in hot water
as prep for the procedure. Since we are going to hot weather country
tomorrow requiring sandals, I thought I'd treat my toes to a pedicure.

On my walk to the post office I spied three donkey trotting along the
street. When they got to the major intersection they managed to stop three
lanes of traffic with their owner in hot pursuit. No injuries reported. On
my way back at the same intersection there was a man holding his sheep by
their tails to prevent a similar situation. Unfortunately he had three
sheep and the two he was holding wanted to be with the one that was free.
Although there were no injuries the sheep did manage to stop a vehicle or
two. When's the last time you saw sheep and donkeys in the