For the second half of the day, we broke
into groups and explored Addis with our LCFs as guides. LCFs are
language and culture facilitators, they mostly live in Addis but will be
in our host family cities with us to teach us language and culture for
the next two months.
Exploring
Addis just made me more ready to leave the city. It's too busy and
dirty and large for me. I knew my way around Wellington after about a
week of living there, but I can't do that here. Maybe it's the lack of
posted street signs, or large landmarks that can be seen for a ways. I
don't think I'll ever be comfortable embarking out into the city on my
own.
As
a group we saw the Emperor's Palace. While Ethiopia is currently a
democracy, it wasn't until 1991. It was a military dictatorship before
that, a regime called the Derg, from 1974 - 91. But for all other times
of Ethiopia, which records going back to Ancient Egypt (but are truly
solid starting 1150) Ethiopia was a kingdom.
Unfortunately,
all we could see of the Palace was the gate. It, and several other
compounds in the area, are used by government officials and we weren't
even allowed to walk on the same side of the street as them.We also
tried to get in to see an Orthodox church, but they wanted an admission
price of 50 bir, at which our LCFs balked at. While it's common here
for prices to be higher for ferengi, 50 bir was the local price.
 |
| While
I thought this was a seagull, it's probably a dove instead as there's
one on either side of the gate to the house the head of the Orthodox
church lives in. |
Instead, we
headed to the national museum. (admission only 10 bir for us ^_^). It
was a small museum, but had a range of stuff. Artifacts from multiple
emperors, art work, and the whole basement was dedicated to evolution.
I think the best part of the day was
simply walking around the streets however, seeing the city at the ground
level and looking at some of the bazaar stands. I tried a bit of honey
wine, which is nothing like the mead of the States. It's got a strange
aftertaste, slightly bitter, and is stronger than what I'm used to wine
being.
Tomorrow morning, I'll be getting a
taste of a different city. I'll be moving to Eteya, a town 30 km north
of Assella to live with my host family. While Eteya does have a post
office, it does not have a Internet access. I will however, have a
running shower. ^_^
2 comments:
Given the choice between a shower and internet, I know what I'd chose! You've got the right side of the deal :-)
I assume that means no updates?
Not regular updates, but Assella has an an Internet cafe that I'll try to get to once in a while.
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