Blogs from Ethiopia, Africa - page 2

Having time to relax in a city with immenities has been really pleasant. Not included in those immenities is running water. It runs for about 2 hours a day, and if you miss it, you miss it. I am going to aim for a shower sometime today (or tomorrow). I spent sometime yesterday walking around the Axum (just one of the spellings) Stelae Fields and through the local museum. The museum was actually quite amazing. It was obviously not completely 'factual', mixing in a lot of biblical evidence and Ethiopian Orthodox Church information to produce a timeline of Axum that included the Ark of the Covenant, the first baptism (which was of course an Ethiopian) and Queen Sheba, but it was nicely contrasted with archeaological evidence in the form of pottery, coins and information on the ... read more

Three full days away from computers, cellphones and other tourists (minus one, who will be described later) was really fufilling. After saying goodbye to my new friends at the "National Grocery" in Bahir Dar, I woke up at 5am to catch the public ferry that crosses lake Tana over a two day period. The most frustrating part of the trip was right at the beginning when I lost my ticket! I really thought I was doomed to have to buy another one when I was told it was "ok, only two foreigners on the boat, you don't need your ticket." I was a bit nervous that this would not in fact be true, but in the end it was. No one asked me for a ticket. Ever. The other foreigner was a guy named Will from ... read more

I woke up this morning and decided I was done with my hotel and the employment there. I realized that all I was doing was something that I hate when people do it to me! Overcharge, mildly deceive and then promote packaged tours that fail to get people out into the community. I was convinced by the my friends the night before, did I mention I have become friends with a number of the Bahir Dar University Professors?, when they started telling me stories about how the owner of the place cuts himself off from the community and how even with all his success he doesn't pay his employees well and how if they make one mistake they will be fired on the spot. On top of all that, it was overly expensive. Basically, he is ... read more

So here it is merry Christmas everybody's having fun......except that isn't quite true as due to the Ethiopian calendar it's 16/04/2005 and Christmas isn't for another 13 days. As a result we are volunteering in school for the whole of this week which, in fairness, it out of choice and better than festering in hotel lamenting the loss of turkey and associated trimmings with absolutely nothing going on in the town. We will have been at the school for a month by the end of the week and it's been a great experience which has allowed us to understand Ethiopia a little better as well as meet some very funny children and recover from the two months on the road. We are ready to roll now though and have our sights firmly set on the Kenyan ... read more

I had an Ethiopian dance party last night. I went out and enjoyed lots of different "local" bars and clubs. I was quite the attraction! I only kind of ran into one other white guy, but he had his entourage of prostitutes keeping him busy at what was more of a brothel than bar, I just kind of turned around and left. I met up with a friend I use to work with and had some coffee. She works at the UN now, another example of what you can do with an arts degree! She told me that I found sketchier parts of the city than she had! That came after I told her about chewing chat and drinking beer with some locals and then being shown (through some back alleys and pulling a secret cord) ... read more