Jan 24th, 2008 (Thurs)

Tuesday was our first day settling into a routine, with Marc heading out for a jog at 6AM while Shuwen practiced a little yoga. Farnoz came at 7:15AM with our breakfast (a tasty pancake-crepe hybrid, and a flask full of hot chai). Marc headed out around 7:50AM to ENTRO, and Shuwen stayed in to get some work done while her mind was still fresh in the morning.

Shuwen went down into the Piazza in the afternoon, taking a break from work, in search for some easy to slip-on shoes and to get some buna (coffee). She had worn her hiking boots for the trip, which while great for the dusty and dirty roads, was a real pain when it came to ease of wear. Most of the goods sold in the local stalls (from shoes, bags, housewares and electronics, etc) are all made in China, which is rather ironic, but logical when one considers the lack of infrastructure and industry in this country.

On Wednesday, we verified that the baggage were now at the airport and went to get it later in the morning. It is nice to finally have our things, mostly because it meant that we didn’t have to go clothes shopping again – an exercise we both do not enjoy. The driver who took us to the airport and then dropped Shuwen off at the guesthouse was surprised that we were not staying downtown in a fancy hotel and asked Marc how we even learned about this place (the internet! – where else when Shuwen is the one doing the research?) Marc asked him about the autobus system and routes and how best to get to ENTRO and back. He was amused that Marc would do that, but gladly educated him on how things worked. The autobuses are actually minivans distinguished by their blue and white color, and the assistant driver typically would have half his body out of the bus, shouting out the destination of the bus as the goes along. These autobuses have set routes but pick up and drop off passengers anywhere along the way (i.e., there are no real bus-stops except for main junctions or squares where many of the autobuses stop to allow for easy transfers). Marc proceeded to take the autobus home from ENTRO Wednesday evening and then we both jumped on one to get dinner.

Now that we have our trusty Bradt guidebook, we can now venture to check out various neighborhoods, restaurants and make connections about things that were previously unclear to us. For example, we learned that the nearby Yekatit Square is better known by locals as Siddist Kilo (6 km from city center), and that the scrambled eggs breakfast we had this morning is called inkolala tibs with onion (skinkuts) and green pepper (karia). We also learned that our neighborhood once had a significant Armenian community and still has a number of old Armenian-styled houses.

We both went to the old Hippodrome (where we had gone with Tedesi to catch the Epiphany celebrations) for a run this morning. This was the first time running in Addis for Shuwen after finally getting her running shoes. It was not easy in the higher elevation, and she struggled quite a bit, but it was good to get moving again. There were already a good number of people running around the perimeter of the Hippodrome at 6:20am, a number of whom looked like professionals based on their gait and attire. Marc had a good run, and even got a “Good job!” from the women’s world record holder for the 5000m.

For lunch, Shuwen decided to check out the nearby Armenian Club which was supposed to have a restaurant and learned that it is only open for dinners. So, she continued towards Piazza road and had a siga (meat) burger and a delicious glass of espris (multi-layered pureed fruit juice – guava, mango & avocado). Shuwen got more work done in the afternoon and chatted with Kibrum for a while, getting information about how to get SIM cards and good restaurants to check out. Then, she found a nearby internet café with a reasonable rate and will likely frequent it over the next few weeks.

Marc gave a presentation at ENTRO on his research plans and interest, which appeared well received. The main person he will work with at ENTRO, Mohammed, actually did his PhD dissertation on the issue of climate change and the Nile basin, but did not publish anything (but presented in lots of conferences). However, with Marc’s interest, he seems very keen on getting a number of publications out together, which bodes well.

We had arranged to meet up at Tomoca Café, a pretty well-known coffee roasting company and café. Shuwen got there first and chatted with the store-owner, Akalu, who seemed interested in finding a way for his coffee to make it onto the Singapore market. Shuwen had a smooth cup of expresso coffee that was so aromatic it tasted like there was alcohol in it, and Marc enjoyed his frothy macchiato. We plan return to the US with some coffee beans from here – mmmm…

There was a weeklong training session at the Nile Basin Office (which ENTRO is part of) and a dinner had been organized for its participants. Even though Marc was not involved in that, he was extended an invitation and so we went to Elfigne Restaurant in the Bole neighborhood for that. It was a fun evening chatting with the various attendees from Egypt, Sudan, South Africa, and also locals. There were live performances of song and dance, and it was great to see people get so into the music and get onto the dance floor. The food was also wonderful, with a wide selection of wats (stews), tibs (bite size pieces of meat), and firfirs (torn up pieces of injera). Shuwen in particular enjoyed the gomen wat and doro wat, and Marc tried raw spiced ground beef (terea kitfo) for the first time, which he quite liked.

We do not seem to be able to access our blogspot website to view our posted blogs. Hopefully it is not a website issue and rather due to censorship by the Ethiopian communications ministry. Most things are regulated here, so this is not surprising. Hopefully folks in the rest of the world are able to view this easily enough.

Amharic phrases:
Where is this bus going? – Awtobus yimihedow?
How much is the bill? – Hisap sint no?

Amharic numbers:
One – And
Two – Hulet
Three – Sost
Four – Arat
Five – Amist
Six – Siddist
Seven – Sebat
Eight – Semmint
Nine – Zetegn
Ten – Asser


Jan 26th, 2008 (Sat)

It’s already been a week since we arrived! We are pretty well adjusted and feel pretty comfortable with things. Probably the one thing that annoys me more than anything else is how everyone points, stares and finds it necessary to say (and often shout) something to/at me. Usually I get “China”, and “you, you, you, you”, and once in a while I get “fuck you”, “I love you” and “want sex”. I ignore most of this since I know responding will only make me more annoyed. Once in a while I start feeling like I am one of those Abyssinian lions in the Lion Zoo on display, with the crowds shouting at it, prodding it and trying to get its attention for a photograph with the kids. It is a frustrating thing to deal with on a daily basis.

I wanted to find another place where I can work during the day in order to have a bit of a change every few days. Even though the apartment is nice and has lots of good daylight, after a while, it gets a little stale. So on Friday, I went to the Addis Ababa University to check out the library. It was amazingly packed with folks reading and studying, so it was almost impossible to find a spot to sit. I am not sure if it would be a good place to work since it would be hard to find a spot and I would feel very self-conscious about the only one with a laptop. The up-side though, is that since it’s the library, no one can overtly hassle me. The campus has quite a lot of greenery and appears to have a large student population. I found a post office (good to know) and walked by the track. With the sun beating down on me I did not last long outside before I decided it was time to head back to the guesthouse and get some work done.

~ Shuwen

We spent the day today on an excursion from Addis with the local Hash House Harriers chapter, which was celebrating its 26th anniversary with an all day event. We gathered early at the Hilton this morning – 8 am – although we did not actually get going until after 9 am. I am not sure what the big deal was in getting us there so early, but perhaps it had something to do with the fact that this chapter’s events are mostly attended by locals. In Mali, by contrast, the HHH runs were almost exclusively ex-pat events, and always felt a little odd because of that…imagine a troop of thirty plus white people running through rural West African villages.

For this important celebration, we went out to Mt. Yerer, a dormant volcano some 30 km east of Addis, near the town of Dukem. The trip there was fairly long, owing to the fact that a significant part of the road was unpaved. We were in this rickety old bus that had an interesting way of fueling up (from inside the bus). Marc was very impressed by the driver’s ability to maneuver that vehicle on really bad roads and around slow-moving traffic. Shuwen just laughed at the fact that we spent a large amount of time in the lane that was supposed to be occupied by oncoming traffic.

The hike / run up Mount Yerer (3,100 meters above sea level) was quite a challenge. The start was from about 2,300 masl. Marc made it up first, to an intermediate point roughly 5k up the trail, in just over 30 minutes. The climb was extremely steep. From that point on, it was pretty much impossible to run, and so Marc waited for the second runner (Dave), and the two continued together to the top, where 2 cold beers were conveniently waiting. They then sat and enjoyed the view of the crater lakes on the plateau below. Off in the distance, in a cloud of dark haze, was Addis. The wonderful scent of thyme (or perhaps tarragon) surrounded us and it stuck us how quiet it was up on this mountain – if no one spoke, all you would hear would be the bees bussing by and the occasional bird that would glide by.

A number of others also made it up (some of whom claimed they saw monkeys) before the leaders decided it was time to return to the intermediate point. On the way down, Marc and Shuwen crossed paths, as Shuwen had chosen to walk the trail (she’s a lot smarter than Marc). She nearly reached the top, but decided to turn back since nobody else was climbing anymore (plus she was starving and there were rumors of bananas down at the intermediate point).

On the way down (19 minutes by Marc’s watch), the scenic views continued, but the path was steep and we spent most of the time watching our feet rather than looking at the gorgeous views. Then, at the bottom, the HHH rituals commenced…a lot of beer drinking, singing, embarrassment for virgins (i.e. newcomers to the Addis Hash), and of course crass and crude jokes. The chapter in Bamako was much more tame. Since this was an anniversary event, we also had a picnic of injera and firfir, and then drove back to the capital to have a dinner at Tesfaye’s (one of the members of the aptly-named Mismanagement Committee) house. We returned to our place exhausted and ready for a shower before the water got cut off at 9pm.


Jan 27th, 2008 (Sun)

We learned from someone we met at yesterday’s hash that there is an Anglican church called St. Matthew’s with services in English not too far from where we are staying. So, this morning, after some yoga together (we took turns to lead the practice), we went to check it out.

St. Matthew is a lovely brick church, very much like modest churches you would find in the UK or the US, with a beautifully manicured garden area. It was hard to miss because its architecture is just so different from everything else around it (concrete and zinc homes and shops). The congregation for the family service was probably about 200 people, and consisted of both expats and locals. The pastor there, Father Michael provided a nice outline about the origin of Christianity in Ethiopia and its development since then.

We went for lunch not too far from the church, at a place called Marseilles (although they didn’t serve any French food there except for some pastry). The pizzas there are pretty good (the best pizza crust here so far) but we should remember that the toppings are not always as they advertise, as ours did not have the eggplant and spinach as listed, but somehow had french fries (hmm… perhaps this is the French connection?) as a topping – strange, but we ate it anyway. Apparently the mille-feuille is good here too, but we were too full to try it.

We spent the afternoon in, working, reading, and doing some laundry. We had hoped to try some “Gelatopia” at a nearby café, but were disappointed to learn that they were out of it and settled with a chocolate donut (not very good alternative) as an afternoon snack before Marc went on his run for the day. One thing we have picked up on since coming here is that coffee/tea breaks are integral parts of people’s day. Addis has cafes and pastry shops everywhere. While the coffees and fruit drinks are mostly very good, the same cannot be said about the majority of the cakes and pastries, which are often too dry, too greasy, or worse, both (as was that chocolate donut).

Not soon after Marc got back from his run, the power went out in the entire neighborhood. Fortunately we had some candles and flashlights handy, and we have a gas-stove, so we simply had a romantic candlelit dinner that Shuwen had cooked. While we were eating, we heard lots of cheering come from the university area, at first we thought perhaps a big bunch of people were watching one of the African League football matches and got very excited, but then when we looked outside the window, there was no power over in that area either. This puzzled us for a while, but in about 10 minutes, lights flickered back on and the cheering broke into thunderous hooting and yelling. We figured that the crowd was probably cheering on the team fixing the power outage and broke out in jubilation when it was done. This was simply a wonderful thing to witness to us and it makes us realize how things we usually take for granted can be a cause for such joy for others.