More of Addis..

This morning, once again, I decided that I did not want to spend my day in the hotel lazying around, so I decided to go to the zoo, actually called the Lion House.

So I jumped into a taxi and told him to take me to the Lion House, after driving around a bit, and a couple of phone calls the driver made saying …. “bla abla bal abla bal lion house blab la blab’ – I think he made about 6 of those – I couldn’t figure out what he was saying, but any fool could figure out that we were lost and he had no idea where we were.

Anyway after driving around a bit more, and a couple more phone calls, the driver goes ‘Aha Ishi’ – ‘ I know where’ (Ishi means ok and everyone says Ishi all the time!! Even if it is not Ishi). So we headed off to Siddist Kilo to the famous lion house.

The Lion House

Giant Tortoise in the Zoo

This is not any usual zoo and not any lions, but these are Abyssinian Lions which came from the West and South of Ethiopia and which are actually the descendents of Emperor Haile Salassie’s lions. The emperor used to travel around with these lions and also used to give them out as gifts to other Emperors. I had seen lions before, in a zoo in Austria and in a national park in Italy, but I had never been that close to a lion!!! They are massive and majestic! Their mouth and teeth are massive – I was amazed. If you paid 1Birr more they would allow you to go very close to the cage, though a guide is with you all the time and makes sure the lion does not extend its paw to grab you, I went at about 11am which was quite close to lunch time, so I didn’t want the lion to think I was lunch and kept my distance!!! There were lions and lionesses and cubs! Which were so cute!!! But still massive – unfortunately I could not take photos but I managed a snap shot of a lioness!!

One of Haile Sailaisse's Lionesses

The National Museum
I then headed off to the National Museum, which was about 10mins walk down the hill and which housed the famous Lucy. The museum was not as amazing as you’d imagine a National Museum to be, but it had what I wanted to see – Lucy, artifacts of the pre- Solomonic and Gonder periods, lavish royal paraphernalia and traditional Ethiopian weapons, costumes and jewelry.

For those who don’t know Lucy is the fossilized remains of a very remote human ancestor – she was found in 1974 and the most complete hominoid in the world, which dates at least 3.2million years old. A hominoid is a kind of half-human-half-ape, distinguished by her erect walk, thus proving Darwin’s theory that man’s nearest ally was the ape. Man and chimpanzees are also hominoids cause they have no tail, Lucy is not totally human because she has a small brain, nevertheless she provides the link between humans and chimpanzees.

The made up skeleton of Lucy

Lucy is only over a metre high and weighed no more than 30kgs, she had a tiny brain, yet her other features were unmistakably human such as the pelvis, legs and her V-shaped jaw. They only have 40% of the skeleton, but they managed to mirror the parts to create a whole skeleton.

I was also amazed by the royal paraphernalia, especially the crowns of the emperors which were massive with jewels embedded in them – there was the crown of Emperor Yohannes, Emperor Menelik, Emperor Haile Sailassie’s and his wives, above all there was also the grand royal chair of Emperor Haile Sailassie.

The Emperor's and Emporeses' Crowns (the one on the right is Haile's)

Haile Salaissie's Thrown - this portrait is on the left and the one of his wife is on the right

‘Maltish’ people in Ethiopia
After my nice tour of history I decided to try and find my way to the hotel on my own. As usual people were saying hello and greeting me until I met this guy who came up to me and asked me ‘Are you a volunteer?’ I was pretty surprised by this question but I quickly mumbled no, and quickened my pace as I was not in the mood of being friendly, then the other usual question came ‘Where are you from’, and I once again mumble Malta expecting to have to answer the usual question – ‘I have never heard of it, where is it?’ but the next statement was different - ‘Ahhh I have many maltish friends’ I didn’t really believe him, but I thought, ah this guy is smart – I never got that before!!!! Then his guy went on still following on my fast pace and shouted out ‘Mhux Problema’ Which means ‘no problem in Maltese – it was definitely Maltese as you could never confuse the mix of Arabic (mhux) and Italian (problema) for any other language but Maltese. And from then on he got my full attention!

This guy turns out to be a university student who is also a volunteer with a missionary, where Maltese come down to do missionary work. He is also very good friends with a well known Maltese lawyer who started a project in Ethiopia called ‘Ethiopia OK’, thus this guy comes down to Ethiopia every now and then with some Maltese to work on this project!!! I was amazed! I thought I was the only Maltese in Ethiopia (he he ironically enough, the guy told me that the lawyer also thought he was the only Maltese in Ethiopia)!!

We then went for some delicious Ethiopian Coffee and the guy told me all about the missionary work, and loads of foreigners come down as volunteers especially at this period of time, to help cure the sick and make food etc. I promised that I will help out and that I’d love to meet the Maltese lawyer – the Ethiopian guy seems very excited to introduce me to him, I had a really good time, and a really good laugh – he is a very funny guy….

So my other trip around Addis ended up once more in the making of new friends, and a promise to go and see traditional Dancing on Thursday organized by the Alliance Fraincaise!!! As well as a promise to help out voluntarily in this missionary and meet other foreigners doing the same.
Ps – I don’t think I’ll be walking around Addis anymore for the time being – those hills are killers – I can barely walk anymore, my legs are in massive pain!!