An Energetic Old Friend
Returning to Addis has been like becoming reacquainted with an old friend, but something has changed and you can't quite put your finger on it. The city still looks the same (minus the rampant construction) and there are still dirt roads, beggars, and muddy sidewalks galore, but the city has an indescribable energy. I have no idea what the countryside is like and think it's an interesting policy move to export energy to Djibouti before providing energy to the country's rural populations, but I'm blindly trusting that Meles and crew thought this one through...) The changes were readily apparent the moment I stepped through immigration, looked at my phone, and found I had high-speed wifi. Whoa. I kind of looked around to make sure I was actually in Addis; in 2008, there was maybe 1 quasi-high speed internet cafe. Turns out there are a smattering of high-speed places that are a significant improvement over the dial-up days of yore. I spent most of my day in the Bole