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Mmmm Breakfast Samosa
(Photo by Nora Lietzmann)Last week, I officially decided not to extend my stay here in Ethiopia beyond 6months; this was not a decision that came easily. I truly rocked the forenji diet of pasta, pizza, knock-off Nutella and burgers for a month as I considered my options, but one sunny morning, I was bouncing through Gergi in a minibus thinking about home and smiling -- that did it. Since booking my return flight, I have been walking around with that full body feeling of excited anticipation, the kind that precedes only those big moments in life, those moments where you change course. Having said that, I have also just passed two of the most fun weekends and one of the most challenging, energizing, and productive workweeks of the last 5 months which makes my impending departure all the more bittersweet.
I don’t speak much about my work in this blog for confidentiality reasons. We are currently nearing the end of the planning stage for a food security program in Benishangul-Gumuz (BSG) on which we are working with 6 other organizations. Anyone who has working in a consortium of comparable size before with overlapping roles and a shared budget will know how complicated it
can be to build a sense of group synergy and to work collectively and efficiently towards a common goal. But, it’s coming together. Compromises are being made, tasks delegated, and priorities set. These next few weeks mark the culmination of 3years of preparation on the parts of the Canadian agencies involved, CIDA, the Ethiopian government, and a variety of in-country partners and we are all eager to see it go into the implementation stage in BSG.
May 14 was the closing night at Harlem Jazz. It seemed as if anyone who had ever been there or knew somebody who had been there turned out to see local talent, Kenny Allen and his band pump Marley covers one last time. The festivities carried on into the morning; I personally slept for about 2 hours which felt more like 2minutes before the whole crew that had signed up for an overnight trip to Lake Langano (about a 3.5hr drive south of Addis Ababa) turned up at my front gate. (Un)fortunately, half of our transportation turned up over an hour late which meant that we missed some good daylight on the beach but also that we had time to scarf down a
few delicious samosas before hitting the road.
The drive as I mentioned above should take about 3.5hours - it took us nearly 6 and through no fault of the driver, the road conditions, or even the minibus itself. You see, back home I am sort of known for making Jell-O shooters to mark special events or occasions such as graduation, bachelorettes etc. It’s a truly specialized vocation that one of my housemates from my second year of university introduced me to been continuing my education on ever since. We had hoped that the jelly would make it to the beach, but the Equatorial sun was quite obviously getting the better of it. Thus, we made a roadside stop, waved down the other bus, and invited them to join us for ‘lunch’. Just a few kilometers down the road, we stopped again in a town which we affectionately nicknamed “pee town”… yet another case of the outdoors being better than the actual toilet facilities.
Finally, at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon we arrived at our bungalows Bekele Molla where we immediately threw on our swimsuits and headed down to the beach. Were somebody to show you pictures of
Langano
Exiled to the "you are going to cause a rucous" section of the beach 5 different bodies of water, you would be able to recognize Lake Langano instantly by the opaque red colour of the water, a result of abnormally high levels of iron which makes your skin feel as if you’ve just been swimming in a pool of baby oil. It is the only lake in Ethiopia that you can swim in which does not contain dangerous bacteria, crocodiles, or any one of a number of threats which I am sure that I am much happier remaining ignorant of. The water was chilly at first touch, but in no time at all it felt more like our Canadian lakes do in early August.
A few stayed in the water for some time, others fired up the shisha, some ordered food to the beach, one or two took a nap, and the rest of us started up a game of beach volleyball (with a deflated plastic soccer ball). We started out as just 3 and ended up playing a full set with 4-on-4. And not that it’s important, but Esben and my team won. Two games straight. =P A side note for my beach vball team back home: Ethiopians also find my serve
Beach Volleyball
Photo by Parag Kamble - Skills done by Esben and I. hahaha odd and distracting.
We all had mediocre meals of spaghetti, fish, or stir-fried veggies and rice - then the mayhem commenced. From sundown to nearly sunrise we were on the beach under the stars along with 4-5 other sizeable groups who had turned up for a bonfire (over which, thanks for the foresight of one brilliant girl, we roasted marshmallows she had purchased at the airport in Istanbul on a recent return flight to Addis). The mood was only interrupted by 2 things: 1 very upset and hot-tempered girl and a sneaky army of MASSIVE night critters. Not one of us could tell you what sparked the violent bottle-smashing rage of the girl one group over, but we can ALL tell you what caused Bart to swing a plastic bottle furiously at his own leg and me to loose my pants. In Bart’s case it was a hard shelled, shiny black, hairy red-tipped legged thing with 1.5in long antennae; in mine it was a faceless critter about the size of 5stacked Canadian nickels that somehow made it up my pants to my right thigh and that, once discovered, latched onto my skin. Ergo, the violent bottle swinging and pant
removal followed by 2+ uncomfortable hours of jumping and swatting at every tiny touch or sensation that felt remotely bug-like.
Those two cases were not the only bug-related incidents of the evening. Back up at the bungalow where we were grabbing some warm clothes and other supplies, we were perplexed by the number of large white-winged flies buzzing around the room and a strange rapping on the window. We opened the curtains to reveal a scene comparable to one from The Birds. There were hundreds and hundreds of these things flapping about on the porch. The boys, having had SO much fun swatting the ones that had risen from the mud and snuck under our door, decided to remove their shoes, cover their heads, turn off the inside light, and run out the door swinging furiously. They whacked dozens of these things out of the air but it hardly made a dent. When we eventually left to go back to the beach, we turned off the outdoor light, waited for a few minutes, then ducked and ran.
Then of course there was the guy with the screw driver in the bathroom and the
heavily armed security guard who teamed up with Nora and myself in a certain plot which did not pan out that I will not divulge the details of at this time because we are hoping to have a second opportunity to carry it out in a few weeks from now. Muahaha.
The next day Nora, Parag, Esben and I had to leave by 1:30pm at the latest having things to do, places to go and people to see back in Addis, but we were up in time enough to have breakfast, play table tennis, get in a workout in the playground, splash around some more, and to fail repeatedly at the cliché group-jumping-freely-on-a-beach picture! It was brief, but felt like a real vacation and like any real vacation we were absolutely exhausted when it was over. There were 4 benches in the minibus, and 4 of us -- you do the math. We all woke up about an hour south of Addis when the driver hurled some heavy sacs of coal onto the roof. The other bus left a few hours behind us but arrived many many hours after us having gotten 2 flat tires en route.
That
night I got to share some Effoi pizza, Addis’ best, with a friend from the Simien trek who was passing through town on his way to the Bale Mountains in the south. The following week was a blur. I spent two full days at the Red Cross training centre for a workshop and a few nights of the week kicking my own butt at the gym trying to work off the collateral damage from my month of contemplation (to extend or not to extend). I also contracted yet another bacterial infection, likely from a lunch I’d had earlier in the week or some suspicious injera with berber I had nibbled on one night that took two rounds of cipro to beat.
During the two weeks straddling the Langano trip, aside from a brief visit with my friend and another from my roommate’s brother who was in Addis for 2days before meeting the other brother to travel in the north, I had the house to myself! I was thinking about how to word that sentence: “had the house to myself” or “was in the house all alone;” I can tell you that at some moments, the latter wording would have
been a more indicative description of how I actually felt about it. Generally, it was quite alright, but I had recently watched Paranormal Activity so was a bit more susceptible to seeing things out of the corner of my eye and being startled by sudden noises. There was one 24hour period in particular that I was quite disturbed. I was packing up my bag one night when this big black butterfly with eye spots on its wings burst out from the side of the drawer and started flapping around my head. I BOLTED from my room, heart pounding. Then, I got creative. I decided that it since it was obviously attracted to light I could lure it out with the hall light. I switched everything else off except for that light. I then went into my room where I could see its outline resting on my ceiling light. I grabbed my PJ t-shirt from my bed and I WHIPPED it at the ceiling and again, BOLTED from my room. When I came back in and switched on the light it was nowhere to be found. I couldn’t find it in the rest of the house either so I convinced myself
that it MUST have flown out the open bathroom window. This was not the case. When I woke the next morning it was on my closet door, eyespots staring at me. That night I asked a friend of mine to fulfill his stereotypical male obligation and remove the butterfly from my room. He captured it and released it outside. I kid you not, I found it on my kitchen ceiling the next morning.
This last weekend was another fun one! On Thursday night, Marina and I went to the reopening of Alize at its new location to listen to some truly smooth jazz music performed by a local band. Friday night we ended up at Illusion where the DJ was not on his game but the burgers were top-notch as usual. I shared mine with two nice homeless guys with impressive English who, because of their physical disabilities most likely caused by a genetic condition compounded by severe malnutrition, were shorter than me even sitting on the curb.
On Saturday, a few friends, my roommate’s other brother and I took 5minibuses to Entoto just beyond the Shiro Meda scarf market out the outskirts of Addis. This was where
what is now called “Addis Ababa” began, where the first settlements were established. It is now a relatively isolated and fairly self-sustaining cluster of villages surrounded by fertile agricultural land and full eucalyptus forests. Our goal was to reach the hyena grounds, but the trek was longer than we had anticipated and we wanted to be out of the forest well before nightfall. So instead of carrying on too far, we sat and relaxed on a hillside under the watchful eye of a hilarious young boy who stopped staring at us only long enough to race a donkey into the valley to herd a stray cow… while singing. With tired feet we walked back from Mesqel square to Gati Thai for a good meal (I recommend the red curry) before saying goodnight. Though Xavier and I were both half-in-the-bag, we decided that it was his last night in Ethiopia and that he therefore ought to make the most of it. We ended up watching the European football championship match at Addis Live, joining up with a few others at The Black Rose and then going back to one of their homes for a bit.
The next morning, I had
Last Leg of the Minibus Trip to Entoto
How many people do you think can fit in the back cabin of this taxi?
14 was tight. a message on my phone from two friends asking if I wanted to join for breakfast. I asked: “do they have omelets?” ½ an hour later I was there, enjoying my omelet when they received a response from another friend: “do they have omelets?” haha Great minds think alike! Plus, omelets are about as close as you can get in this city to a classic diner breakfast!
I am living by the motto: “work hard, play hard” right now. As I was telling somebody on the weekend, I can’t actually recall the last time or foresee the next time that I had or will get more than 6hours of sleep in a night unless I opt to be a terrible recluse back in Canada. Haha
Just a quick last note: national elections were held this last Sunday. After the omelets, we walked around a little bit to see if there was any activity going on. There wasn’t. It was raining quite heavily most of the afternoon which I’m sure played a significant role in keeping people indoors and off the streets. There is currently widespread confusion about when the results are supposed to be tallied and released. Originally,
the deadline was set for June 21, then tomorrow, then June 13, and now it’s back to tomorrow again. That seems like awfully quick turnaround to me considering the fact that votes will need to be tallied from regions that are well over 500km from the city, have no means of communication and are inaccessible by any other mode of transportation than by foot. The leader of the leading opposition party remains in prison and travel of expats, NGO workers, diplomats etc. has been restricted to the 13th of June (permission required from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). This is largely due to the vastly held belief that IF any political unrest occurs, it will happen when the results come out. Today in fact, there is a rally in Mesqel Square. I know this because I received a text message last night that had been forwarded through a forenji network which stated: “demonstration called by EPRDF in Mesqel Square tomorrow morning starting at 7, avoid the area!” This morning a convoy of busses and trucks full of people blaring music, singing, and waving Ethiopian flags passed through my kebele presumably headed for the demonstration. The vehicles were wrapped in posters
displaying the message: “Respect our decision, respect our choice.” At this point, continued peace in the electoral process is fragile but expected to continue.
AMHARIC WORDS
Laflafa - Shhhh!
Tegabe - Move over
Katata - Straight
Left - Gra
Right - Tikikil
Tafash - “it’s been a long time” (F)
YOU KNOW YOU’RE IN ETHIOPIA WHEN…
...Everyday at 5:15 you see a mother with her two children sitting on the sidewalk doing homework.
...There is one of the most adorable puppies ever born sleeping under the sheepskin hut next to your office but you wouldn't dare pick it up and snuggle it.
Loves and Misses,
Troy
PS At time of posting: I just got word that the demonstration wrapped up around 10:30 without incident
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