Tuesday in Addis Ababa

Hello from Addis - 

Today was another big holiday in Addis Ababa but this time for the muslim community.  It was the last day of Ramadan.  Alem our taxi driver said that he thought most of the stores would be closed until the afternoon so when we left at 9:00 am we were not sure what exactly the plan was going to be.  We decided to start the journey by going to this non-profit library called Shola Library (or Ethiopia Reads).  The library is supposed to help children learn to read in both amharic and english.  The directions we had were not the best and it took us about an hour of walking up and down the road just to find out that the library was closed because of Ramadan until 3:00 in the afternoon.  We didn't mind walking around because we were in the middle of a gaggle/herd/gigantic parade of people walking in one direction.  It turns out that all of the people were walking back from the last service of Ramadan, which was at sun up.  We were told that the services were held at the Mosque, the arena area (where they also hold Maskal and other holiday celebrations) and one other place.  It was amazing how many people were walking down the streets.  We had a couple of children touch us and you could tell it was because they wanted to be able to say they had touched an "american" or "white person" sometime in their life.  

Afterwards we went to Red Bean and had more coffee.  I got the chocolate Machiatto today and it was good but not as good as the honey latte.  I know better if there is a next time.  I did have this banana cream pie that was SO good.  Probably the best thing I have had while in ET, and yes, I do know that it isn't an Ethiopian traditional type of food.  We bought Alem some coffee too and in exchange he taught us how to say some amharic words that will help us communicate with our son.

After that we went back to the hotel and decided we would tackle shopping in the afternoon since a lot of the shops were still closed because of Ramadan.  I took a 2 hour nap and was a little grouchy when Dan finally woke me up at 3:10.  We said we would meet with Alem again at 3:30 and Dan didn't want to be late.   We started the afternoon off shopping and while Dan and I both wanted to go some place other than were we were yesterday to shop we couldn't really tell Alem a better place so we ended up in the same general vicinity.  We went into shops that we had not seen yesterday but that mostly had the same type of stuff.  I was very happy with everything we bought today even if on a couple of things I could have worked out a better deal.  I was still a little grouchy and the bartering was irritating me and so at the last shop I just paid for the stuff at pretty much the quoted price.  We might get to shop a little tomorrow at Debre Librano, a city we stop in on the way to the blue nile gorge, but if not I am sure we can finish up our shopping when we are with CHSFS.  

Finally, we went to the Top View, a high end restaurant, that is on the top of a mountain and overlooks the city.  I think both Dan and I would have preferred a more traditional Ethiopian restaurant but the view was very pretty and the price was reasonable.  For two cheeseburgers with fries and two cokes we paid $9.50 USD.  We saw lots of americans and non-ethiopians in the restaurant.  The only downfall of the dinner was that we think Alem, who joined us towards the end of dinner, was trying to hit us up for some type of partnership.  It sounded like he wanted us to somehow help him get more driving gigs from americans.  And, while I will definitely tell everyone how much we enjoyed his company and his driving style and helpfulness I don't have time to take on any more jobs.  The downfall wasn't so much that we had to have this conversations as much as after we had it I was ready to go and this was the only restaurant that had ice cream and Dan didn't get to have any.  Sorry Dan.  

About Alem - we found out today that his parents were Ethiopians and he was born in Ethiopia but he lived his entire live in Eritrea.  That is until 4 years ago when because he was Ethiopian he was arrested and detained for 4 months before being deported to Ethiopia.  He said it was very scary because lots of Ethiopian were killed instead of just deported.  He said that he learned how to speak English over the last 4 years.  He has a very good command of the language.

Tomorrow we are going on another tour with Getts Travel and I think Dan and I are both looking forward to it.  There is not a lot to do here besides shop at knick knack stores and eat and so while we are not bored we are definitely a little uneasy.  Dan and I are used to being on the go all the time.  Plus the fact that Lincoln Tadiwos is in this town and we are just hanging out is a little sucky...at least for me. 

We are going to take some Tylenol PM now and hit the sack.  We are determined to get on Ethiopian time today.