Addis seems to be a city of stark contrasts. On one block you see
elaborate homes behind beautiful gates and the next you see shacks
made of corrugated metal and men in suits walking by men lying in the
streets. It was heart wrenching to see children 6 or7 years old
begging for money to feed their emaciated bodies. Even more sad were
the tiny mothers begging for money to feed their tiny babies.
Today we took a tour of Addis Ababa with a driver named Teddie (he
only charges $5 per hour). He is a student at Addis Ababa University
majoring in business but he hopes to work in film. He is currently
working on a documentary on farming outside the city. It was very nice
to get the perspective of a young Ethiopian. Here are a few of our
favorite tidbits from Teddie:
1) The Ethiopian community was outraged at the Pope because he shook
hands with Beyonce' when she was here. Apparently the Pope is only
supposed to shake hands with people who have taken communion.
2) Traffic was blocked today because Condolisa Rice was in town.
3) There is a meat processing plant in town that throws the bones of
the ox in a pile. The pile is now a huge mountain that stinks horribly
(we included a picture of the pile)
4) The city used to use garbage trucks to collect trash but they could
not keep up with demand, so now you pay a boy to come and get your
trash but often they do not put it in the proper place.
5) There are no speed limit signs or traffic lights. There is a
general speed limit based on the size of the vehicle but it is not
enforced.
6) The traffic police are corrupt they will give you a ticket for
whatever they want and everyone knows that it is very time consuming
to pay them to the government so it is common practice to pay the
police officer off.
7) The government & some private builders are working toward building
condominiums to steer away from the tightly packed gated homes. This
is very evident throughout the city where construction of massive
housing Complexes can be seen everywhere.
We had a great time shopping and taking pictures of the city. We
bought traditional Ethiopian clothing and other fun stuff. Torrey
forgot his belt but couldn't find one to fit around his tummy (you
know us fat Americans). Teddie helped us to barter when we shopped but
I finally got the hang of it by the end. I wish we could barter at
Wal-Mart!
We ate lunch at a nice restaurant… about like a family dinner with
food like Applebee's. Food is so Cheap ($20 for 5 stuffed people
including tip.) Nikki was very nervous about eating food not prepared
at the guesthouse because of the prevalence of Hep A and Typhoid but
we used hand Sanitizer + avoided vegetables washed in Ethiopian water.
It was delicious.
After lunch we dropped Tom & Nikki at the guesthouse for a nap and
collected our donations for AHOPE. AHOPE is an orphanage for HIV
positive children. We delivered Christmas gifts that a fellow Ethiopia
Adopt yahoo forum member sent to us to transport to Ethiopia.
Unfortunately the children were napping so we only got to peak into
the rooms. I am glad though because seeing the little ones made me
anxious to meet our little Webitu. The tears started to form in the
corners of my eyes. Soon…
Oh yeah… Torrey was right they do have a zoo in Ethiopia but it only has lions.