Weather.. Food… Culture

Weather.
The Ethiopian weather is the funniest weather I have ever experienced – and after Belgium I thought nothing would be more weird! The temperature ranges between 16 to 25 degrees Celsius all year round! I got to experience the rainy season, which is sort of equivalent to our winter. It is not that cold but you still need a jacket.

The weather changes every 5mins. You’ll have the sun shining, then all of a sudden there will be a big gust of wind – you realize cause your papers fly all over the office… then it starts thundering very hard, and 2mins later it will rain extremely hard with thunder and lightning. Then after an hour the rain and thunder stops and the sun comes out again!!! So strange! And this would happen on average once or twice a day!

The poorer people seem to be very happy with the rain cause like that they get some water, you see people washing in the puddles or in the streams very often some would also be washing their clothes in the puddles in the street.

The bad thing is that as the roads and pavedments are not very good the streets are very muddy and very often very flooded!

Food
I finally plucked up my courage to try the Ethiopian food! Last night a colleague and I decided to go out for dinner in a typical Ethiopian restaurant with Ethiopian traditional dancing! You get to sit on these low chairs. One of the waitresses comes with a kettle and a basin to wash your hands. Then you have this sort of table made out of woven cane where they put this massive metal plate covered injera which is grey bread with a spongy texture, sort of the texture of the sponges you use to wash yourself with, and a very sour taste, almost like soap. The food is very often meat in sauces. I tried to get the less spicy variation of Ethiopian food…… alas! I don’t think non-spicy exists in the Ethiopian dictionary! The food was mega spicy! So you have this basket looking table with a massive plate of injera on infront of you, and I thought that you would get plates with the food you ordered and cut of the bread to dip into the food, but this is not so. The food is scooped out of these bowls and placed on the bread. So you have the massive bread with scoops of the different food that everyone around the table ordered. You are supposed to cut out pieces of bread from the edges, scoop up the sauces with the bread than fold the bread with the sauce inside and put it into your mouth!!! Cutlery doesn’t exist and having your own plate does not exist!!! It was a very interesting concept! Something I still really need to get used to. After the spicy food and the experience of eating with your hands, the woman comes again with a kettle, basin and soap and you wash your hand.

We then thought that maybe we should get more into the Ethiopian experience, and decided to order an Ethiopian drink…. Whatever it was I wouldn’t want to try it again! We thought that it was some sort of soft drink, but we ended up getting these little shot glasses with this spirit drink!! I had one made out of honey and my colleage had one made out of some funny tree seeds! Ahh you should have seen our faces after tasting the drink, if the glass was any bigger we would have started dancing and singing with the entertainers!!!

Culture
This weekend I decided to experience more of the Ethiopian culture, so once again I pulled on my boots and my umbrella and headed out down town. And typical me I decided to explore the shops and the art!! The art is beautiful, the jewelry is mostly silver with nice designes, and the most popular ones are things make out of silver and giraffe tail interwined to make up a bracelet or a pendant! Very beautiful. I was also amazed by the jewelry made out of horn or bones! The craft is also very beautiful! The shops were full of my favorite stick men made out of ebony, and carvings of elephants, lions and giraffes, African tribes and masks! All very beautiful! I could have bought a whole shop to decorate my future house if I could! But unfortunately my budget and luggage space do not allow this, so I just stuck to a few wooden masks, a drum made out of cow skin, and some of my favorite stick men!

The dancing is also quite interesting. Unlike the Egyptian belly dancers which dance with their hips and have jingling belts around their wastes, the Ethipians or rather Africans dance with their shoulders and heads and their buts! Instead of jingling belts they would have loads of metal necklaces around the necks which would make the desired noise as they dance!!

My only regret is that I forgot my camera at home otherwise I’d fill this posting with loads of photos!! Well an excuse to go again I guess – when I’m ready for the spice again!

I also got to see an Ethiopian wedding…. Keeping to my tradition of gate crashing, after the Ethiopian dinner, we headed back to the hotel, my colleage went to bed, and as I headed off to my place, I bumped into an Israeli guy whoses acquaintance I had made a couple of days ago while waiting for my driver to pick me up! We sat and had a couple of beers and chatted about Israel and Malta, we then heard music in the distance and decided to go and explore, in the hotel there was a wedding going on, so we decided to go in and have a look!! Ethiopian weddings are not too different from the Egyptian ones I have seen. Loads of people, loads of loud music, video cameras and lights, and loads of food, all over the place, and just like the Egyptians in the middle there would be the bride and the groom dancing with all the guests squashing them and dancing around them! It was also very interesting to see! We sat at a table, was offered some drink and cake and enjoyed the show!!

The language – the language is also one of the weird things here. The language is not only strange but the writing is also something I had never seen!! This is the first time I’m living in a country where I cannot figure out anything about the language!!! When in Belgium I could understand French and it was very easy for me to learn Dutch (Flemish), when it comes to Egypt that was also easy peasy! Due to the Arabic roots in the Maltese language! But Amharic is nothing close to any of the languages I had ever heard or spoken! I am trying really hard to learn at least good morning, and thankyou, but although my work mates try and try I think they have given up now!!! This is what the alphabet looks like! don't try to understand!

The weekend is now over, and I have to get ready to another week of hard work! I am planning to maybe go out of addis on one of the next weekends. Somewhere very interesting and not too far so I can just spend a weekend is lake langano where there would be camps called tuluks made out of straw and where you can swim and also go hippo spotting!!!! So when I’ll figure out how to get there you be hearing about the hippos and the Ethiopian nature!

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!!

A Morning round Addis…

After three weeks in Addis, practically stuck in the hotel going mad, I decided to venture out into the city and find out what Addis is all about.

After pulling on my hiking boots, my rucksack and camera, I head out into the unknown. As I headed out of the gates of the Hilton, and stood admiring the Menelik II palace, a young guy approached me saying ‘Hello’….. usually, after getting this 101 times in Egypt and finding out that they are uncover tourist guides or sleazy guys, I ignore the person, or say ‘Hi’ and walk off. This time, its another country, so different people which I haven’t experienced yet, so I decided to be friendly and chat with the person, who turned out to be a nice University IT students, who actually turned out to be my guide for the day.

The day was great, we walked through the busy, hilly and green streets of Addis. We walked up Churchill road, found out where the souvenir shops are, where the hospital is, where the theatres are…. The streets were busy with people doing their shopping, or heading to the big commercial buildings, I didn’t really see any tourists around but I did not feel uneasy, or afraid, cause I was accompanied by someone who knew his way.

The streets were also populated with beggars, most of the beggars were children, or handicapped, and very often the whole family would be begging altogether. Another thing I was amazed about was the large amount of shoe shiners in the street who are always shining away.

Churchill Road and shoe shiners

We walked on and almost reached the Piazza….. almost cause I could not climb the hill anymore, I gave up on the last part so we turn round another street and headed to the famous Merkato, which is apparently the biggest market place in Africa, or East Africa… which after spending one hour walking around I would believe.

The streets are narrow, some paved some not, all hustling and bustling selling everything – and I really mean everything. We walked past the black market which sold everything from electronics, to currency, to weapons, we walked past the spare parts section which sold all the spare parts you can imagine or cars, household electronics etc etc. Finally we walked past the souvenirs area which sold jewelry, wooden craft, paintings and much more.

The infamous Merkato

People were also selling Chad, which is a leaf you chew, and apparently makes you high as far as I was told, whole huts were cutting off the leaves and storing them. I was also amazed by the ‘toothbrushes’ sold by the people in the street. These toothbrushes turned out to be little sticks which the seller carves into a pencil shape and which you use to clean your tooth – I was told it was the cologate of Ethiopia, I was also told that some tasted minty!!!!!

I was mesmerized by the greatness of this market, we totally go lost walking through the narrow streets, looking left and right except for straight ahead which turned out to be dangerous. The streets were narrow full of people and donkeys, yes donkeys, which turned out to be more dangerous than the pickpockets and rushing people in the street. I crashed into many a donkey running down the street, as though they too are rushing around running their errands for the day.

The big yellow and orange busses crowding the streets

I was exhausted from all the walking and the climbing, so Gael – (my faithful guide) and I headed off to a traditional house where they danced to traditional music and served the traditional Tej. So we jumped on one of the blue and white microbuses (the cheap taxis – also a cool experience for me) and headed off to Bole Road. We headed on to a villa, where these university girls community organize events to collect money for the poor, the people afflicted with HIV/AIDS etc.

The girls dancing to traditional music

We sat on a nice comfy sofa (just what I needed after walking for 4hours) and watched the girls dance while we sipped on our Tej – which is a bright yellow drink, totally homemade made out of honey. The drink is fermented underground for 6months and is apparently non-alcoholic, but it has the same effect of an alcoholic drink. In my opinion it tasted more like wine, after a bottle of Tej, I was not feeling quite myself, a bit dizzy and drowsy, so after some socializing and exchanging of numbers with the girls I headed back home and collapsed on my bed.

I don’t know if it was the effect of that drink or of the walking, but I know that I slept for 2hrs straight and woke up with hiccups!!!!

The day was great, the people were great and Addis is great! I am getting closer to getting the real African experience.

The girls promised me that they’ll take me clubbing next weekend – can’t wait for that!!!

Back in the Hilton…….

Last Saturday, the Ethiopians decided they have had enough of the Merkato area and decided to attack the area I live in, not because it’s a nice quiet area, but because it housed of the office of the opposition (which I was not aware of) and they decided to lock the opposition leaders in their office. Consequently the roads surrounding my guesthouse were blocked, with violence in the streets, army police all over the place.

My boss, decided that he could not let me stay there, and dragged me out of the guesthouse into the safety and luxury of the Hilton. Thank God I am not stuck in a little room, but I got an apartment… which is great and quite comfortable.

I really do miss the guesthouse and the people, though if you are locked in a place and not able to go out I’d rather be locked in the Hilton, at least there I can enjoy some time at the gym or next to the pool with my book!! L

Things have calmed around here and are back to normal. 500+ taxis lost their license last week for not obeying the government and going on strike, so the streets are less packed with blue and white taxis. People are still on the alert though, especially once the 8th of July starts approaching, the date the official results come out!!!

I found my embassy – as an EU citizen I can register with any embassy that belongs to an EU country – though our Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested the British one!!

An interesting place with interesting people…

When coming to Ethiopia - an interesting country which is not exactly the world’s favorite traveling destination – I expected to meet and have opportunity to speak to interesting people.

Thus one of the best descisions I made was to move from the Ericsson crowd situated in the luxury of the Hilton to a guest house in a part of Addis. The disadvantage is that I don’t get the luxury of the Hilton, I don’t get the nice restaurants, and the swimming pool, the sauna and the jaucuzzi……. But on the other hand I get interesting people who are not rich aristocrats who live in luxury, or rich executives on business trips, but people who are here for a longer time, who are here to experience Ethiopia and who have something to talk about that is not business or economics.

Thus one of the most interesting persons I’ve met so far is a person from Guyana, this is the first time I had ever heard about the country, let alone met someone from there. For those who don’t know, apparently it is a small country north of Brazil, and bordering with Venezuela with a population of 700,000 a little bigger than Malta, and just like Malta was a British Colony.

She is here on a business trip, she is working with this international NGO that helps street children and children that are sold for prostitution and affected with HIV/AIDS.

Ethiopia is extremely heavily struck with HIV/AIDS and prostitution. A big belief, as I explained before is that AIDS was brought to Africa through an experiment by white men. The white men want it spread around Africa to exterminate the Africans!! Never heard of that before. South Africa is the 1st highest and Ethiopia they say is the 2nd!!

Also, something I didn’t know, is that South America is the 2nd continent with the highest percentage of people struck by AIDS, she also told me that Guyana is actually the 2nd highest after what she thinks is Jamaica.

We then spoke about Rastafarians, and discussed the fact that although Ethiopia is thought of as the ‘heaven’ of the Rastafarians, there aren’t too many around. (though I have seen a couple around my neighbourhood, but I don’t know if they were right expat Ethiopians trying to make a fashion statement with dreadlocks, or actually Rastafarians)

Apparently she says (Tom read) the Rastafarians are not very good. In Jamaica they cause the most violence mostly due to the effect of the drug on the brain. And in Ethiopia they are very much influenced by the Ethiopians, and although live in a community of their own outside of Addis they don’t like the same way they do in Jamaica and they don’t really believe that Sailasse is their God.

I think this is one of the best conversations I’ve had so far in this country. We planned to go on a trip around Addis this weekend if all is stable.

The people who live in the house all work in NGOs, these group of Japanese and a South African are working with an NGO trying to foster more education in the rural communities. We all leave for work at the same time, and in this guesthouse they offer breakfast where everyone sits on one table, so its nice a nice family environment.


The receptionist of the Guesthouse also invited me to her house on Sunday which should be interesting to see a real Ethiopian house. Though lets hope all is stable so I could do all I want and go wherever I want!!!

3 days of unrest in Addis…

These past three days have been quite eventful. Though I must say that today has been the worst till now.

On Monday – the day the official results of the elections was meant to come University students protested because the elections were run unfairly.

‘The opposition and ruling parties have alleged that gunmen intimidated voter, people were forced to vote for certain parties, ballot boxes were stuffed or disappeared, and the number of ballots in some constituencies exceeded the number of registered voters.’

Thus last Monday 370 students had been arrested in Addis and 150 elsewhere in the country.

Today the protesting went out of hand, notwithstanding the President’s Ban on demonstrations (how can someone ban demonstrations????, I don’t think its something somebody can control!)

It started off by a strike of taxi drivers and bus drivers…. And went on with demonstrations at the Merkato (apparently the biggest market place in East Africa)…..

“There had been an attempt by a group of people to break and look shops. Roadblocks had been set up and stones thrown by the people. In the ensuing conflict, some eight lives have been lost, which the government regrets very much,”

Though the final count according to my sources is now 20.

The people living in the house I’m living in were told not to go to work today, while I ventured bravely to work, hoping not to be shot or stonned on the way.

Nothing really happened in the area where I am living, or the office area… though loads of troubles happened around our Base Stations in Addis, some of the Employees told me that they heard shooting, not further than 50mtrs from where they were, and somewhere else they were burning busses, I got all these first hand accounts from all the employees I was trying to contact to make sure they are safe!!!!

I also spent a whole day trying to figure out an evacuation plan for the expats!! (who can imagine I would be doing this! I was terrified!!) as well as trying to figure out which embassy is going to take care of me!!! As obviously there are no Maltese Embassies in Ethiopia!!! Nevertheless I have a good contact with the Swedish Embassy, who is meant to take care of me!!!

I am usually calm in these circumstances and I don’t worry too much, such as in the Egyptian bombings (no bombing here thank God), though in this case I have no embassy to run to!

Till now I’m quite fine! And enjoyed going home early (I sent everyone home early just in case something comes up) – though I hope things settle…. Otherwise I’ll have to rush to the Merkato and buy myself a Kalashnikov (the lonely planet says they sell from Kalashnikovs to Camels to expensive incenses) to keep in my handbag!!!

He he something I found a big funny is the fact that the reporters say that at the Merkato they were not sure if the Police or the Security or the Army or the Public was shooting and throwing tear gas!!! - I hope they did not destroy a lot of the African souvenirs and craft I wanted to buy before I leave!!!

Anyways – I’m safe, and I’ve contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Malta who is trying to figure out who will take care of me!! :D Besides I’ve almost perfected an evacuation plan!!! So I’ll be the first to put it in practice!!!!!

The Vengeance of Ethiopian Women…….

Yesterday, to my surprised, our Country Manager announced an Alert. He apparently got a phone call from an Ambassador telling him to alert all his employees about a group of Ethiopian women who are out to get Europeans.

Apparently a group of Ethiopian women, all contaminated by HIV/AIDs, are offering their services for free to European men. The reasoning is that these women think that the diseases came from Europe and they want to send it back to Europe, and their strategy is to contaminate as many Europeans as possible so as to send the disease where it came from.

Apparently one of the Ambassdors (country undisclosed for obvious reasons) killed himself a few days ago because he got contaminated in this way!!!!!

Strange!!!! I felt relieved that I’m a woman and do not have do worry as much…. Though you might never know the tendancies these women might have, and they might attack me in my sleep…. Unless they inspire a group of men out to get European Women….

Finally Pictures…..

Due to the super poor internet connection at work, and the super expensive semi fast internet connection at the Sheraton I was unable to post these earlier!!! So here you go, enjoy…….

Also, unfortunately due to the mega work-overload (everything seemed to be piling up for 6monhts waiting for me….) I was unable to take too many interesting pictures… but here are a few of the view from my balcony in the hotel and from my little walk in the Piazza… where I ventured to last Saturday… much to my colleagues surprise…. They were pretty shocked when I told them that I ventured out of the Hotel – Office, Office-Hotel route. It was not as bad as I expected… the Ethiopians are pretty friendly. As any other 3rd world country you find beggars on the street and little children pulling at you for money… The good thing though that there are police around, and if the children annoy you too much the police or even the passer bys shout at them to leave you alone. I obviously got many stares due to the fact that I was a foreigner, and the only white person walking in the streets. Though people were extremely friendly and whenever I looked lost – which was practically all the time - they were willing to help me in their very broken English. The taxi drivers – when they can speak English - are soooo friendly, in a non-sleazy way, which is quite comforting.
So here come the pictures:

The View from my Balcony of shacks, mountain, and sky scrapers

View outside the Sheraton, the Irony of the city is the Community of iron shacks in between the luxurious hotels and sky scrapers

Metal Shacks – Most of the Ethiopians are either rich Expats that live in nice villas outside the city or poor people that live in these houses

Next to the Piazza – Addis is soooo green and peaceful

Closer view

More of them between the Sheraton and the Hilton

The beautiful view of the mountains around Addis Ababa