Addis Fun Time with Debra and Melissa

I spent three glorious days in Addis.  In the past, I've only gone for Peace Corps business, so this was my first time to simply spend time in the city with friends. Melissa was in town for a dentist appointment, and Debra to pick her sister up from the airport to start her trip here.

The journey into Addis was a bit of an adventure. Sunday was Ethiopian Easter and I wasn't too sure if buses would run so I was at the station at 6 am.  Morning buses usually aren't interrupted, it's the mid-day ones that are, and the buses made good time due to little traffic. I was in Addis city proper by 11.

We had a grand ole time just exploring the city and having good food. We went to a Canadian place that took the theme to the extreme (the bacon cheeseburger was called Ottawa Senators), and discovered a Jamaican Grill that had the best jerk chicken I've ever tasted. We almost witnessed a drug deal, which we figured just added to the atmosphere: good food, music that reminded me of playing laser tag, and weed smoke.  Also had some really good Korean food, made double good by the fact that a Korean doctor joined in on our pre-food Uno game and then said we made excellent choices for lunch.  There was also a lot of sweets: cheesecake (twice), brownies, ice cream, and a chocolate version of Candyland Melissa got in a care package.

I loved just having the time to walk/bus around Addis, get to know it more and find things to do that weren't near the two hotels Peace Corps uses or the office. I feel more comfortable going there now, where as before I hated going into the city. But as Debra and I hopped from guest house to guest house (Melissa got put up in a hotel by Peace Corps, whose free wifi we used a couple of times) I now know several cheap places to stay, how to get there, and know what to do in the area.

It was a glorious vacation, a nice get out of Huruta trip and see friends type of deal.  I even felt good after getting to Huruta, despite it taking two hours for me to get from my hotel to the bus station and previous such journeys.

My last day in Addis

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. ^_^