I’m going to summarize my last few days in Addis as I really didn’t get up to too much, except spending time with Zeme and that at the end of the day is what my sole purpose of coming to Addis and Ethiopia was all about.
How nice is to be able to sleep in with no commitments for the day and in the arms of some-one you love. This is how I wake every morning and I am one happy lady. I have to say I don’t think the body is keeping up with this airline travel business. I am absolutely shattered. This actually works out okay as Z has to go to the office and start working on a programme (tour) for us out of Addis and also collect the car that we will have for the next few days. We are still hazy on how many days to be away and when to leave, but we are thinking of staying in Addis till the week-end and then head out on Monday. This way we get to meet some of his friends and gives us an opportunity to catch up with Minalu and Lemma from my trip last year as well. So with Zeme gone for a few hours I slept, I even tried to blog and I just couldn’t keep my mind on the job as the days slip past. I have all my notes, so I am just going to have to rely on them when I get my blog mojo back.
We had dinner with one of Zeme’s best friends on my first night, Chombe and he is one great guy. His English is pretty good and we went to a local restaurant and ate a local dish called tibs. I think this is my most favorite traditional dish here. It is meat or vegetables are sautéed. Tibs is served normal or special, "special tibs" is served on a hot dish with vegetables (salad) mixed in. Injera is served with tibs which is a large sourdough flatbread, which is about 50 centimeters in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour. Ethiopians eat with their right hands, using pieces of injera to pick up bites of entrées and side dishes. Utensils are rarely used with this dish. Injera is eaten daily in virtually every household and I am going to have to learn to make this upon my return. It is a responsibility that only a woman can do, men do not make Injerah. To eat tibs, using one's right hand, small pieces of injera are torn and used to grasp the stews and salads for eating. The injera under these stews soaks up the juices and flavors of the foods and, after the stews and salads are gone, this bread is also consumed. Injera is thus simultaneously food, eating utensil, and plate. When the entire "tablecloth" of injera is gone, the meal is over. I ate a lot if this last time I was here and it looks easy enough for me to make for dinners. I have told Zeme to be prepared for a lot of tibs dinners!!!! The total cost for dinner was 9.33AUD and this was for 6 beers and 2 serves of tibs. This place is so so cheap.
The hotel is pretty good for Ethiopian standards and it even has Wi-Fi in the rooms. It is located directly next to a primary school and our room faces onto the playground, so it was noisy at times during the day. But something needs to be said about the sound of children playing and laughing. They used the small space they had for football games and it literally was just a dust bowl of land. They would use water bottles to sprinkle on the ground reduce the amount of dust that was kicked up as they played. Wonder what Australian kids would think playing in those types of conditions?
Traffic during the day is a nightmare. I am not sure how I am going to drive in such a busy city. You have to contend with Bajaj’s (tuk tuks), local buses, and minivan taxis that are always stopping to pick up and drop off people, the big busses, tour vehicles and then normal traffic. There seems to be some sort of semblance on the roads, but only just. There are a lot of intersections that are not light controlled so it is pretty much an honor system of such. You stop let some people through and then they stop and let you through and so forth. The traffic seems to keep flowing, albeit at times slowly. You just need to be gutsy and when you make a move to be 100% committed. There are a lot of Volkswagen bugs here and I have explained to Z we call them bugs at home. I was going to explain the ‘punch bug’ game to him, but there are literally hundreds of them here and I have a feeling I would have come off second best. But I may possibly be keen to buy one as my car here when I get back. Z and I are still in talks about that. I have always been a bug lover and they are only around the 3000AUD for a good conditioned one. Something to think about anyway. The traffic at night time is busy till around 9pm and then after that it becomes a ghost town with only a handful of cars on the roads. It is such a contrast to during the day. There are sporadic street lights, so it can be quite dangerous driving at night and this could partly be the reason. Z and I are going to hire a ‘bug’ when we get back for my last 3 days and that is going to be so cool!
The food here is amazing. Whether it is the traditional or western food I am yet to have a bad meal. I met Getch the next night and we decided to have pizza. I am pretty sure this place we went to is not the usual place they would eat, possible due to the cost, but for me a pizza was 80RL which is 4AUD and the beers are 15RL which is is .75 a pop. I guess you need to put it all into perspective when the average wage is 1500RL a month (75AUD) I can see how these prices look expensive to them. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant on one of our days and the spaghetti carbonara has to be one of the best I have eaten on the whole trip so far. Who would have thought in Addis I would have amazing pasta.
Saturday came and Z and I decided to change hotels. The one I had booked was in a good location to the city, but Minalu and Chombie live a fair distance from where we currently were, so we moved house to The Baks Hotel into one of their suites for 50AUD a night. Now to be far it isn’t a suite by western standards by any means, but they had Wi-Fi and a great sitting area with 3 couches which would be awesome to entertain Minalu and Lemma that came over for the afternoon. Minalu bought a small gift of a plant called Khats. Khat consumption induces mild euphoria and excitement, similar that conferred by strong coffee. Individuals become very talkative under the influence of the plant. The effects of oral administration of cathinone occur more rapidly than the effects of amphetamine pills, roughly 15 minutes as compared to 30 minutes in amphetamine. Khat can induce manic behaviors and hyperactivity similar in effects to those produced by amphetamine. If you could have seen me eating ‘leaves’ this is what Khat is you just wouldn’t believe me. I didn’t have enough to have the above side effects but it was pretty cool to kick back with old friends all afternoon, chewing Khats and have a chin wag. I gave Minalu my old camera and he was deeply appreciative, so I am glad that it has gone to a good home. Lemma gave Zeme and me both a promise bangle each as a gift to the start of our new relationship which was really sweet. I got given 2 of these bangles on my last visit from Zeme. They are made our of used bullet casings and only come from the Hammer people in the south. They look great on and I now have 6 of them on my wrist. The other 4 I got last time have not come off my wrist since October as a reminder of Ethiopia and they also have to be pried open and closed to get them on and off your wrists. They are one thing that I haven’t taken off going through airport security and besides the security in Frankfurt they haven’t set off any machines. I love them and Zeme has one more to give me, but we need to pry it open a little more as it currently slip onto my wrist and it is a thicker one than the rest. It is awesome.
The boys also talked of Z and my upcoming road trip. Minalu is a guide for G Adventures and Lemma and Z are both drivers. So over the afternoon they out together an itinerary for us and I have to say it sounds pretty awesome. With a few phone calls to his boss as we will need the use of Z’s 4WD, we got a price and he was nice enough to give us a discount on the car for the 17 days we will have it. Z was pretty stoked about this and a very nice gesture from his boss. So thank-you.
Saturday night was party night. After spending the afternoon with Minalu and Lemma, Chombe arrived at 7.30pm and Minalu returned at 8pm and we went to a bar not far from Zeme’s work. There were some ‘western’ people there watching a football match, otherwise they were all locals and they had some 80’s and current music blaring the night away. It was an outside alfresco set up and it was nice to be in the fresh air with a St George in my hand (a local beer) and great company. We decided to eat here as well and after a burger and a few more beers we moved to a bar called the Amsterdam that was a funky bar that had 3 levels. We found some seats upstairs and Minalu ordered a half bottle of vodka, 4 glasses, an ice bucket and a popular mix is Ambro, which is like a soda water. We then proceeded to make out own drinks which was pretty cool, but we all know this can be quite dangerous as the more you consume the bigger the nips become. Minalu had 2 friends turn up just after midnight and after a few more drinks we then moved to the last club called Paris. This was a small intimate club and a full bottle of vodka was ordered this time for the 6 of us. Dangerous. Chombe was starting to flake it at 2am, so we said out goodbyes and after dropping Chombe off at home we were home by 2.30am. I am not sure that Zeme should have been driving, but we made it home safe so I am not going to think anything more on that fact.
Z and I have been talking of tattoos the last few days. I came about when I explained the one that I had on my wrist and then we both just looked at each other and said let’s get one while I am here. We told Minalu what we planned to do and after a few beers he also like the idea and on Sunday we were going to see if we could find a tattoo place open and get tat’s. I know what I wanted to get and Z had an idea on his, Minalu on the other hand was coming up with all these wacky ideas and they got funnier the more we drank on Saturday night. Stay tuned for the next development of the tattoos.
I have been getting the lay of the city and I have seen a few areas that Z and I would be looking at living. The rent here is dirt cheap and we can get either a nice apartment in a block or for not much more a villa in a security compound for around 500AUD a month. There are 3 main areas that expats and government workers live, so that is where we will be looking at. I do have a MUST no matter where we go and that will be Wi-Fi/internet connection. This is one thing that I will not be able to live without and it doesn’t seem to be a problem which will be good. It seems a little expensive at 100AUD a month, especially for Ethiopian standards, but if this is my little splurge of luxury then I can certainly justify it.
So a lot has been achieved in my first few days and I am looking forward to getting out of the city and seeing more of this magnificent country. I am yet to meet the parents, that is planned for my return back in a few weeks and Z’s dad and brother are out of town visiting relatives, so I have a small reprieve from the family meeting for now. I am nervous as hell………
I have a great vibe about the city and I am excited to call this home in August and forging new life in a new culture and a new country.
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