Whirlwind Week

I apologize for not writing in the last week but Ari and Diana were in the house and to say that we experienced everything this country has to offer would not be an exaggeration.  To give you an appreciation for the craziness that was last week, I will go through the events of the past seven days. 

 

Tuesday (7/22) - Ari and Diana arrived at 12:50 AM.  According to Rick, only Ethiopian Air flights arrive on time/early, so Tesh and I assumed we had time to stop @ Cocoon Burger on the way to the airport @ 12:15.  One delicious beef patty later, Tesh and I walked to the airport, arriving at 1:30 only to find Ari and Dia preparing to call the Sheraton.  Whoops.  But all's well that ends well and I brought them to their cozy, albeit smelly and not too comfortable, room at the Taitu.  In the morning we had a great breakfast of scrambled eggs and then off to the mission.  I showed them wound care and gave them a tour of the compound.  Rick came for an hour or so and we watched him do his thing; then the obligatory chemaki/macchiato.  We returned to the Taitu to switch rooms, only to find that they had given away Ari and Dia's room.  I argued with the manager of the hotel and had to endure his obstinate belief that 12 AM (as written on the form as their checkout time) is noon; I kindly explained to him that in every other country in the world 12 AM is midnight and 12 PM is noon - kind of like how every other country in the world thinks it's 2008, but the Ethiopian calendar says its 2000.  After paying half the day's room rate, we retired to the Desalegn Hotel near Rick's for delightful massages and a yummy Habesha dinner @ Habesha Restaurant. 

 

Wednesday (7/23) - We flew to Gonder with Rick in the early AM.  At the airport in Gonder we met a nice taxi driver named Yohannes who ended up driving us for the next two days.  Upon passing the Dashen brewery on the road into town from the airport, we convinced Yohannes to make a stop.  After an hour of waiting in the parking lot, Asamak, a 25 year-old working in marketing, came to give us a tour of the brewery.  Dashen is the second largest brewery in Ethiopia and controls 24% of the domestic market (St. George is the largest and controls 41%).  Asamak gave a great tour and then instead of the traditional single bottle sample after the tour, he pulled out an entire crate of freshly brewed suds!  We partook 'til we could drink no more/wanted to still see the sites of Gonder, and left the brewery for Gonder proper.  We checked into our hotel then walked to Fasilada's Castle, the main site in Gonder.  The city was the capital for many of the Ethiopian kingdoms beginning in the 1600's and the compound is affectionately known as Ethiopia's Camelot.  We then walked to Debre Berihun Selassie church, famous for its angel-covered ceiling and walls filled with biblical illustrations.  The visit was overshadowed by annoying passive-aggressive American tourists, but we saw it nonetheless.  We dinnered at the hotel and passed out early.      

 

Thursday (7/24) - Sick :-(.  Diana woke me up at 8 to tell me that Ari had been sick for 2 hrs and maybe travelling to Lalibella wasn't such a hot idea.  I spent the morning caring for Ari w/Dia until I too fell ill with Gonder-bola.  Sparing the details, 'twas not fun and we slept the rest of the day away.

 

Friday (7/25) - We awoke feeling much refreshed and ready to face the day.  We walked into town and spent a while at Ethiopian Air trying to figure out how to get back to Addis in time for Shabbat.  Our only option was to get to Bahir Dar by car (180 km away) and then fly to Addis. Yohannes drove us the first 60 km until we reached "the bridge."  Don't you hate it when there is an overturned truck blocking the bridge and then it turns out that on a two-lane bridge, one entire lane has fallen 30 feet into the river below?   Hate that.  But we walked across what remained of the bridge and hailed a minibus on the other side for the 120 km to Bahir Dar.  Never a dull moment....We flew to Addis (by way of Lalibella....nothing beats going north to go south!) and made it to Rick's for Shabbat.  After dropping Ari and Dia at the Desalegn, I met up with Stu, Bella, and Naomi for some drinks @ Harlem Jazz on the Scottish girls' last night in Africa.       

 

Saturday (7/26) - We moved to the Sheraton in the morning and then went to the mission for Rick's clinic.  Interesting and diverse as usual, it was a great chance for Ari and Dia to see Rick in action; and they seemed duly impressed.  The afternoon was filled with lasagna @ Blue Tops followed by Merkkato.  Just like last year, it was overwhelming beyond but we came away with some scarves and only a few scars.  For dinner we failed to find our intended restaurant and ended up at the never-disappointing Yummy Pizza.  We capped off the night with a visit to an Asmari Beat - a bar where a guy with a one-string violin, a drummer, and a dancer or two freestyle in Amharic, making fun of each other and the patrons.  Didn't understand a word but equally fun watching the locals crack up.   

 

Sunday (7/27) - Dia took a personal day at the Sheraton while Ari, Katie, and I checked out the Ethnological Museum and then joined Rick's fam in Entoto for 90-minutes of soccer.  Our play was only interrupted by the occassional stray donkey/cow and the knee-deep ruts plowed into the field.  It began pouring as soon as our game was finished so we all returned to Bole to wait out the storm.  Ari showered @ the Sheraton and picked up his wife so we could all then go see The Dark Knight @ the movie theater in Bole.  The movie theater is totally modern and the audience was half-white/half-habesha.  We went for Chinese after dinner and then the daylight was gone and the darkness had fallen.   

 

Monday (7/28) - Souvenir shopping, visiting our patient at Black Lion and shopping/massages in Bole, it was the finale to a fun-filled, busy week here in Abyssinia.  Ari and Dia left for Dubai, and I am left with 11 days left to enjoy my time here in the motherland.  The list of things to do seems daunting (massages, horseback riding, golf, etc...) but hopefully I'll be able to fit it all in.  It was a blast being able to share this country with my siblings and I hope that they were able to see its beauty through all the craziness. 

 

Noteworthy incidences in the last two days

While playing with two adorable street children at the mission yesterday (age 4 & 2), their mother asked me to take the children. repeatedly.  I told her that this would break a number of rules and that her kids were too cute for me to claim them as my own.  Heartbreaking only begins to describe the feeling of being begged to 'rescue' these children.

 

Yesterday afternoon I went to a hip-hop dance class with Tesh.  There were ~20 excellent ethiopian dancers popping and locking like there was no tomorrow.  The teacher is a young guy with sick nasty moves and he was kind enough to teach Tesh and me two dances.  I've been running them through my head for the last 36 hrs and I think I may have them down....we'll see tomorrow if I can make it back or Sunday.  It is fun being reminded that dance is an international language (kind of like math).

 

If anyone has any requests of things they'd like from the Horn of Africa, please shoot me an email/leave a comment and I'll do my best.  Do keep in mind that stealing adorable African babies is illegal in most states and I have yet to begin a career in human trafficking.