The Day I left my Camera at home....

While on my adventures discovering the never ending surprises of the winding streets of Ethiopia...... My faithful trustworthy camera was always in my bag ready to capture what I see and in a way also what I feel.

The day that turns out to be a different Saturday from the others, I left my all so faithful metal box at home. Last Saturday was New Year's Eve. All the Ethiopians I spoke to told me nothing much usually happens for New Year, so when I woke up in the morning and headed out on my weekly exploration of the Addis Streets, I didn't expect to see much.

The first shock is when I entered a small grocer on Bole to get some breakfast. I was standing at the counter ready to pay when this very old woman walks in with loads of flower stems in her hand (only very few of the stems had little yellow flowers). The cashier goes to the woman, says a couple of things to her which obviously I didn't understand, exchanged some money between them, and all of a sudden this old woman starts mumbling things in Amharic and throwing the stems all over the shop.......... I started asking the people there - 'What's happening? What's happening? What is the woman doing?', I don't think they really understood me, but probably saw the confused and bewildered look and realized... the only reply I could get was 'ceremony, ceremony'.

The same thing happened in a couple of other shops... and the only thing the people could tell me was 'ceremony, ceremony'. Other shops I entered already had loads of grass on the floor, which made it a bit weird, walking around the shop and hearing the crunch of the flower stems under your feet....after a while I actually figured out that it is a ceremony to take away the evil spirits for a fresh new year. The people also burn twigs outside their house in the night so as to send the evil spirits away.

It was also quite funny walking in the street, rather than the usual sheep eating the grass at the side of the street or on the roundabouts, now the sheep where picked up and stuffed into boots of cars....... or even in the shared taxis together with the other people!!!! I got the honor of riding next to a woman who had a live chicken in a plastic bag - I'm glad no sheep came into my taxi...... Everyone was collecting their sheep and chicken for the Sunday morning slaughter.

How I wish I could have taken a picture of this..... cause it was quite a sight.

Our New Year Celebration was done in style over an Indian Dinner, wine and Champagne at Sher and Anna's place. The dinner party consisted of an Indian/Australian, 2 Germans, a Maltese, a Dutch, an Eritrean and an Ethiopian. We enjoyed Daal and Okra and conversations that ranged from Australian Aborigines and New Zealand Maoris to Indian Movies, Bollywood and Lollywood. - He he it was funny hearing the Aussie accent again.... I missed it!!!

We also got the see some of the Sheraton fireworks while enjoying a glass of champagne on the balcony.

The night finally ended with a trip to a newly opened Bavarian Beer Garden, which claims to be the only one in East Africa. The Germans where quite amused by the contents of the menu and the clothes of the waitresses. Though Jens was extremely happy to have gotten his one liter of Mass Beer!!!!

Jens, Sjoerd & Sher enjoying their beers