Today we had no official tour plans so we decided to hire Alem, the tax driver who picked us up from the airport, and go around the city some more. We started the day off buying walking around the piazza and shopping. We shopped for about hour and hit about 15-20 little shops and spent about $140 dollars. We bought tons of stuff for LT and friends but really need to spend some time tonight categorizing it so we can see what we still need. I was pretty tired after just an hour of bartering with the sales people. I must admit that I like the American style of looking at a price and paying that price not trying to barter.
After shopping we went to lunch at the Zebra Grill, a non-ethiopian type of restaurant. Dan had eggs and sausage and I had Beef and french fries. The french fries were good. The cost of the meal was about $15 USD and was by far our most expensive meal so far.
Alem then took us to a music store where we bought some traditional Ethiopian music and some more modern stuff. The CD's were $2.50 a pop. Not a bad price if you ask me. I wanted to get some children's music but they didn't have it at this store. Alem said he would ask around and see if he found anything.
Our last stop of the day was to St. Mary's church. Yesterday, the last stop of the tour was going up to almost the very top of this mountain (entoto mountain) and viewing the city. It was gorgeous! The guide told us there was a church at the top of the mountain but that it wasn't part of the tour. We decided we would visit it on our own today. Alem said it would be worth it and it was. The church was circular and looked to be one of the bigger churches of the city. We were not allowed to go into this church but just walking around it was fun enough. We also paid $10 to be allowed to visit and film King Menelik (spelling) first home in Addis Ababa. If I recall correctly, he was actually the first King to move the capital go Addis Ababa. He built his home at the top of Entoto but then later decided to move closer to the city. The mountain is very steep and Alem's little car had some difficulty getting to the top and coming down his brakes got overused and we had to stop and let them cool. The house and accompanying buildings were built over 150 years ago and still were standing strong. However, they were definitely what americans would considered sub standard living for kings or presidents. Addis Ababa is about 6K feet above sea level and St. Mary's church is at about 7K. The air around St. Mary's was fresh and crisp and totally peaceful. When we walked around one of the kings buildings we were surprised by the view of the backside of the mountain. It was so green and lush and unoccupied by people and lean-to's. Just seeing that view made it worth the entrance fee.
coming down the mountain we passed out candy to lots of children. It was nice to see them smile but you could tell they weren't quite sure what to do with themselves. Some of the children tried to trick us and come back for 2nds and 3rds, Other's were a little cautious about taking things from strangers.
After St. Mary's we came home and slept some more. We thought we would just take an hour nap but it was more on the side of 6 hours. Ugh. We will never get on Ethiopian time at this rate.
So, before I close I want to write one more story. Remember yesterday I said we were approached by a kid on the streets. Well, that same kid found us again when we were stopped at the same intersection. This time we rolled down the window and gave him candy. He told Alem that he recognized us from yesterday when we were in travel company's van. You know, I understand that Dan and I stand out like sore thumbs here but I was still very impressed that this little guy recognized us remembered where he saw us. I am sure he will be on the look out for us for the next several days.
Okay a couple more random thoughts - 1) Alem said that Tadiwos name would be pronounced Ta-Dre-os too. I think there might be something to when a man pronounce his name versus a woman. Because the 2 men who have told us how to pronounce it say Ta-Dre-os and all the women say something more along the lines of Ta-day-wos. Only a couple more days till we find out on our own.
The government is giving away 10,000 condominiums right now. It is a lottery system and you have to be of a certain poverty level in order to qualify to go into the lottery. Alem said that he qualified and he should find out in the next couple of days if he was selected. He said for a 1 bedroom condominium you would have to put $7K Birr down and pay $200 (Dan's remembers 200 and I remember $400) Birr a month for 15 years. After that he would own the home. He said it was a great deal and that the government needed to do it in order to help everyone be able to afford a home. He said right now that he rented a 1 bedroom apartment for $500 a month. Not sure if I mentioned it before but $1 USD equals about $9.5 Birr. So, $500 Birr is about $50 USD. The price we are paying per hour for his service is a great deal at 65 Birr per hour and so after 7 hours of driving us around we paid him 450 Birr is service charge and 120 birr in tip, which totaled about $67 dollars in USD. Well worth the cost.
Okay, it is now time to close this post with we are doing great and enjoying the trip.
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