This was probably my hardest week in Addis.
My first day back at the hotel, I had a few hours to kill so I sat at Lime Tree; writing, reading, and having lunch. My server was the same boy who made that comment to me about accepting the animal slaughtering as my Ethiopian culture. We spoke in English; I kind of wanted to tell him to speak to me in Amharic. I know this could be far off but I’m really trying to be Liz Gilbert in Rome. I wanted to soak everything in and just be one with my culture. I want to be conversational in Amharic. The guy brought me my food and asked me my name. Before this he had kept calling me Sister. I asked for some ketchup, I decided to stop reading and to just observe my surroundings while I could. So as he came back to my table, I was ready to say thank you for the ketchup, but instead, he handed me a piece of paper that said Hi Gelany. you were another country but your background is ethiopia so you are my sister and i am your brother. so if you have address, i will write my email"
I was a little taken back but then I felt kind of touched by his kindness. This kind of compassion is the vibe you get from most people here. It’s touching and unlike the kindness you receive in the states, at least you don’t from complete strangers.
I also felt this at my aunt’s house. Her servant was too kind. That morning when my aunt went to the gym, her servant checked on me like every hour to see if I was hungry or if she could do something for me. It was very welcoming and comforting. After she thought me how to make me enjera, she told me “E wodesh alu” which means “I like you”. The meaning of that phrase doesn’t translate perfectly but I just honestly felt touched. The morning I was getting ready to leave, she asked where I was going. My aunt told her I was going back to be with my mom and she put her hand over heart, looked at me and said “wee. “ Which is much like a sad “oh” To be honest I was sad to leave too. She came to help me with my luggage because I was struggling with it down the stairs. But instead of helping me, she picked it up with all her shorter than 5 ft might, put it over her head and carried it down the stairs. Hero.
After our first night at Nigist we moved to the Ghion Hotel. Ghion is an older hotel on a beautiful compound. My mom used to come to this hotel when she was little and play. That Sunday, my mom and I both woke up early to the prayers coming from estefanos church which is right near Ghion. It’s also the church my mom used to go to when she was little. We got dressed fast so that we could make the mass. Even though I couldn’t understand anything, it was the closest thing to a religious experience that I’ve had in awhile, it was nice.
That night I got sick for the first time while being here and it was terrible. I thought it was the worst sickness that I had ever faced from just a tummy ache that was until I got sick the second time later that week. This is part of the reason this week was so hard. The stomach pains that I felt were like by far the worst i've ever expereinced. I swore off Ethiopian food and carbed up and drank a lot of water and tea. One of the days, I just laid in bed all day and slept. Rough.
I was also starting to feel very restless. I felt like I had been doing nothing for far too long. I’m used to a go go go lifestyle and the first two weeks were fine but now I was bored. I wanted to do more than visit family, eat, drink coffee and hang out with people 40 +.
For the first time since I had gotten here, I went to the Sheraton at night and knew I had found my niche. There were young people EVERYWHERE. There was live American music, real American food and people speaking English. For a night I just felt like I was back home, which was a bit of a relief from my restlessness.
The day we spent the day getting two abesha kemises. I finally found the ones I wanted and I ended up getting two. A traditional casual dress and one for a special dinner. Ill post pictures when I get them. That night we went to this place called Yod Abysnnia and it was cool. It was a huge place, with live Ethiopian music and dancing. Several groups sat around a messob and ate dinner while being entertained by four men playing Ethiopian instruments, a variety of 3 sings and 6 people (3 boys and 3 girls) are doing different dances belonging to the different tribes in Ethiopia. It was really cool and something that I wish my friends could have seen and experienced.
Saturday!
Saturday was one of the best days I’ve had in Addis. A cousin on my mom’s side said she’d come and take me out, she was 21 and had a car, or so I thought. We started walking out of Ghion and that was when she told me we were going to take a taxi. I had secretly wanted to try taking a taxi but a bigger part of me didn’t. The taxi’s here aren’t your normal taxis. I can’t tell you how many I have seen broken down on the road full of people. They are like old 70s vw vans that are full of people. No joke, there were 17 people in my van. Being surrounded by all those people was uncomfortable to say the least but to them it’s completely normal. The van taxi’s are more like mini buses, they go in certain directions and you can just hop on at any point. They are pretty cheap too, like 50 cents. I was talking to my cousin and she was telling me that it’s too expensive to have or buy a car here so many people just take the taxis. To me, that seems like it would add a life stressor, especially with them constantly breaking down. However, it beats taking the bus because the buses are always full. Much like subways, all the seats are full and people are standing crowded.
So we took a taxi down to New York New York for lunch, it was a café/restaurant that had American food. It was really good. After that we walked down to Kaldi’s which is a coffee shop here like Starbucks. It is actually a duplicate. The places look just like Starbucks on the side, the logo is pretty much the same, their drink sizes are short and tall and their uniforms are all black with green aprons. There are about 25 of them all over Addis.
After Kaldi’s we walked down bole (main road) a bit. It was nice to finally get to walk somewhere. I was able to really see things compared to just driving by them. We walked into a few of the shopping malls, I saw the trinity cathedral (from the outside) and then we went to Edna Mall to watch a movie. This was probably the most enjoyable part of the day. I love movies, and usually the abesha movies I watch are all old and aimed to an older audience. But the one we saw was a comedy and it was actually really funny. Not corny or stupid. It was all in Amharic and I was still able to follow and enjoy it. There were a lot of younger people there, because next to the theaters is a huge arcade. It was just nice to be around a younger crowd.
Sunday was a bit of a dramatic day for me. I had a bad experience at the hair salon. By bad I mean it just was different than what I was used to. It took a lot longer and I feel like time was just being wasted. Needless to say, after I left the salon I went back to the hotel to nap. I stayed in that afternoon and then met up with my uncle for dinner. We had an amazing meal at this place called Avantis. It was nice hanging out with my uncle because it had been a long time since I had spent quality time with him. It reminded me of all the time we spent together when I was little and his family would come visit California. It was times like that, that I truly enjoyed my time in Addis. I think the dinner was a turning point of the bad week.
My first day back at the hotel, I had a few hours to kill so I sat at Lime Tree; writing, reading, and having lunch. My server was the same boy who made that comment to me about accepting the animal slaughtering as my Ethiopian culture. We spoke in English; I kind of wanted to tell him to speak to me in Amharic. I know this could be far off but I’m really trying to be Liz Gilbert in Rome. I wanted to soak everything in and just be one with my culture. I want to be conversational in Amharic. The guy brought me my food and asked me my name. Before this he had kept calling me Sister. I asked for some ketchup, I decided to stop reading and to just observe my surroundings while I could. So as he came back to my table, I was ready to say thank you for the ketchup, but instead, he handed me a piece of paper that said Hi Gelany. you were another country but your background is ethiopia so you are my sister and i am your brother. so if you have address, i will write my email"
I was a little taken back but then I felt kind of touched by his kindness. This kind of compassion is the vibe you get from most people here. It’s touching and unlike the kindness you receive in the states, at least you don’t from complete strangers.
I also felt this at my aunt’s house. Her servant was too kind. That morning when my aunt went to the gym, her servant checked on me like every hour to see if I was hungry or if she could do something for me. It was very welcoming and comforting. After she thought me how to make me enjera, she told me “E wodesh alu” which means “I like you”. The meaning of that phrase doesn’t translate perfectly but I just honestly felt touched. The morning I was getting ready to leave, she asked where I was going. My aunt told her I was going back to be with my mom and she put her hand over heart, looked at me and said “wee. “ Which is much like a sad “oh” To be honest I was sad to leave too. She came to help me with my luggage because I was struggling with it down the stairs. But instead of helping me, she picked it up with all her shorter than 5 ft might, put it over her head and carried it down the stairs. Hero.
After our first night at Nigist we moved to the Ghion Hotel. Ghion is an older hotel on a beautiful compound. My mom used to come to this hotel when she was little and play. That Sunday, my mom and I both woke up early to the prayers coming from estefanos church which is right near Ghion. It’s also the church my mom used to go to when she was little. We got dressed fast so that we could make the mass. Even though I couldn’t understand anything, it was the closest thing to a religious experience that I’ve had in awhile, it was nice.
That night I got sick for the first time while being here and it was terrible. I thought it was the worst sickness that I had ever faced from just a tummy ache that was until I got sick the second time later that week. This is part of the reason this week was so hard. The stomach pains that I felt were like by far the worst i've ever expereinced. I swore off Ethiopian food and carbed up and drank a lot of water and tea. One of the days, I just laid in bed all day and slept. Rough.
I was also starting to feel very restless. I felt like I had been doing nothing for far too long. I’m used to a go go go lifestyle and the first two weeks were fine but now I was bored. I wanted to do more than visit family, eat, drink coffee and hang out with people 40 +.
For the first time since I had gotten here, I went to the Sheraton at night and knew I had found my niche. There were young people EVERYWHERE. There was live American music, real American food and people speaking English. For a night I just felt like I was back home, which was a bit of a relief from my restlessness.
The day we spent the day getting two abesha kemises. I finally found the ones I wanted and I ended up getting two. A traditional casual dress and one for a special dinner. Ill post pictures when I get them. That night we went to this place called Yod Abysnnia and it was cool. It was a huge place, with live Ethiopian music and dancing. Several groups sat around a messob and ate dinner while being entertained by four men playing Ethiopian instruments, a variety of 3 sings and 6 people (3 boys and 3 girls) are doing different dances belonging to the different tribes in Ethiopia. It was really cool and something that I wish my friends could have seen and experienced.
Saturday!
Saturday was one of the best days I’ve had in Addis. A cousin on my mom’s side said she’d come and take me out, she was 21 and had a car, or so I thought. We started walking out of Ghion and that was when she told me we were going to take a taxi. I had secretly wanted to try taking a taxi but a bigger part of me didn’t. The taxi’s here aren’t your normal taxis. I can’t tell you how many I have seen broken down on the road full of people. They are like old 70s vw vans that are full of people. No joke, there were 17 people in my van. Being surrounded by all those people was uncomfortable to say the least but to them it’s completely normal. The van taxi’s are more like mini buses, they go in certain directions and you can just hop on at any point. They are pretty cheap too, like 50 cents. I was talking to my cousin and she was telling me that it’s too expensive to have or buy a car here so many people just take the taxis. To me, that seems like it would add a life stressor, especially with them constantly breaking down. However, it beats taking the bus because the buses are always full. Much like subways, all the seats are full and people are standing crowded.
So we took a taxi down to New York New York for lunch, it was a café/restaurant that had American food. It was really good. After that we walked down to Kaldi’s which is a coffee shop here like Starbucks. It is actually a duplicate. The places look just like Starbucks on the side, the logo is pretty much the same, their drink sizes are short and tall and their uniforms are all black with green aprons. There are about 25 of them all over Addis.
After Kaldi’s we walked down bole (main road) a bit. It was nice to finally get to walk somewhere. I was able to really see things compared to just driving by them. We walked into a few of the shopping malls, I saw the trinity cathedral (from the outside) and then we went to Edna Mall to watch a movie. This was probably the most enjoyable part of the day. I love movies, and usually the abesha movies I watch are all old and aimed to an older audience. But the one we saw was a comedy and it was actually really funny. Not corny or stupid. It was all in Amharic and I was still able to follow and enjoy it. There were a lot of younger people there, because next to the theaters is a huge arcade. It was just nice to be around a younger crowd.
Sunday was a bit of a dramatic day for me. I had a bad experience at the hair salon. By bad I mean it just was different than what I was used to. It took a lot longer and I feel like time was just being wasted. Needless to say, after I left the salon I went back to the hotel to nap. I stayed in that afternoon and then met up with my uncle for dinner. We had an amazing meal at this place called Avantis. It was nice hanging out with my uncle because it had been a long time since I had spent quality time with him. It reminded me of all the time we spent together when I was little and his family would come visit California. It was times like that, that I truly enjoyed my time in Addis. I think the dinner was a turning point of the bad week.
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