Ethiopia: The Contrasts

I'm always struck by the contrasts. Landed in Addis Ababa Friday
night, 26 hours after leaving my home. The Addis airport is quite
modern and pleasant (unlike the Frankfurt airport) and the airport
personnel were very polite and friendly (unlike the Frankfurt
personnel or my own favorites, the TSA.) Speed through passport
control, wait for my bag which did arrive, then through customs, out
to be met with a friendly face holding a Habitat sign. I love having
that happen!

Settle into the hotel quickly, then to sleep. Awake to the sounds of
the pre-dawn call to prayer (Ethiopia has a sizable Moslem contingent
as well as Orthodox Christian) and a few roosters crowing.

The day is sunny, warm (70's), and clear. Very different from cold,
cloudy Cary. Just what I needed in January!

Spent much of Saturday just taking various walks around Addis. It's a
relatively new city--established in the late 1800's--and I find it
rather charmless. Nothing particularly distinctive about it--just a
big, crowded busy city. Begging is pervasive and persistent, but I'm
pretty inured to it. Ever since my encounter with the dog-walking
prostitute in Budapest, I've become inured to ignoring anything anyone
says to me. I don't like being that way. But I find it necessary in
these circumstances.

Wimped out at lunch--went to a restaurant popular with ex-pats. Just
didn't feel like venturing out for Ethiopian food quite yet. Later,
met up with one our team members (Maria, from New Zealand) and we
decided to have dinner together. Bravely set off for an Ethiopian
restaurant from the Lonely Planet Guide. Despite map, couldn't locate
it (it's on a side street, off a main street, and streets have no
names.) Maria said "let's ask someone." We did. Of course, he
didn't know the restaurant, couldn't help us. I realized later that
statistically, it is likely he is not literate--only a minority of
adults here are. So showing him a name, or the name of a street, is
totally useless.

So we ventured back, saw another restaurant with many people, decided
to chance it. Menu in both English and Amahric. Pointed to "roast
chicken." (Still not braving it.) Plate arrived with large hunks of
very dark meat. No way that's chicken. Maybe beef, maybe mutton,
maybe....? Not bad, really, just not what I'd chosen.

More walking/wandering Sunday morning. Then, lunch at the Lucy
restaurant by the National Museum (home of the Lucy skeleton), and a
tour of the museum. Didn't find it all that interesting, but useful
probably.

This morning, we left for Debre Birhan, where we're working. About a
3 hour drive from Addis, through increasingly beautiful countryside.
On the outskirts of town, many residential buildings in various stages
of construction, all unfinished, probably caught in the economic
debacle. Then open land as we climbed to the (higher)
highlands--9,000 feet in Debre Birhan. Beautiful grazing land for
cattle and sheep, and growing land for tef, a grain that is used to
make their basic product, injera. Small compounds of houses and
outbuildings, some with thatched roofs, some with tin roofs, some with
window openings, some with windows in the openings. Beautiful
day--sunny, cool, breezy--and pastoral. Rich black soil, looks very
fertile.

Main road, built by EU funds, well-constructed and well-paved (in most
places) go cross-country. Wide broad shoulders, suitable for walking,
burros, donkeys, carts and wagons. In places, tile(!) sidewalks, just
out in the rural area, not in towns or villages. Not something you'd
see in the states.

Arrived shortly after noon, dropped our things at the hotel, went to
the build site. Greeted by about 30-40 people, all waiting for our
arrival and applauding us as we got off. Then to a large tent for
lunch prepared by the local women. Great Ethiopian food--I loved it.
And eat with our hands (well, right hand--never the left hand!) Then
coffee.

The story of coffee here is that long ago, people realized that the
goats ate berries and by the afternoon, they were quite frisky. So
people began doing so, too. Not sure how the roasting came about, but
I can speak to the "frisky" part.

The coffee ceremony is just that. Begins with roasting the beans over
an open fire, wafting the smoke to our faces, then crushing the beans,
making the coffee, serving it in little cups, with sugar. Wonderful!
Starbucks has nothing like this!

After that, a couple of hours of real work. Will write more about the
build project in a separate e-mail. Suffice it to say it's
extraordinarily well organized and extensive--340 houses already
built, land for several hundred more. So we'll be wonderfully busy.