Living in Addis

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Clare and I moved into David and Nadia’s old house in Addis Ababa. We are both working in the capital over the summer and VSO have given us a very nice house to live in.

My summer job is working for the National Road Safety Coordination Office. The organisation of road safety in Ethiopia is excellent and they are doing much of what is recommended to improve road safety in a developing country. So far, I have been very impressed.

There are many benefits to living in Addis Ababa (or Finfinne - the Oromo name) - nice restaurants (Indian, pizza, croissants …), supermarkets that sell essential items, such as ground coffee, chocolate, cheese and imported wine, and leisure activities.

Last weekend, Clare and I spent much of the weekend shopping - buying those necessary household items, like a vegetable rack each, but today we were tourists.

The day started with a trip to check our PO Box, followed by a hot chocolate and croissant (for me) at Get Rendezvous. Then we hopped on a line taxi to go to Shiramida market, excellent for scarves (I bought yet another) and bedspreads. We had intended to have lunch at a gallery, which apparently does a vegetarian buffet, but having taken two line taxis and eventually finding it … it was closed!

Instead, we headed back to Arat Kilo for a pizza, before going to the Natural History Museum. I love Natural History museums, they often contain badly stuffed exhibits and Ethiopia’s was no exception.

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Photos

Arat Kilo
These children were desperate to have their photo taken.

Trying to find the restaurant
When we got there ... it was closed!

At the Natural History Museum
Looking at stamps again.