So it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Mostly I’m just settling in and there’s not too much to report. I haven’t been to the field for weeks—which is definitely the more exciting information to put up, and not much is new in Addis. But, nonetheless, here’s an update.
I’m not at the Shearton anymore, but am still at the guest house that’s kind of like an executive apartment. I’m not sure when my house will be ready, but I’m guessing maybe the middle of May if I’m lucky. We’ll see. So the place I’m staying “Sidama Lodge” is pretty centrally located and I can walk to shops, restaurants, etc. It’s not bad, but it does have its drawbacks. Needless to say, when I finally do get to move into my house, it will be a good thing. I’ll post my initial description of my house separately….
Yesterday was Ethiopian Easter…for the Orthodox church it’s a full week later than in the US. So we had Friday off. It was definitely nice—but since we only work a half day on Friday it wasn’t as nice as a Monday off! So on Friday I met a friend at a local café and then we walked down the main street here, Bole Road, to the fairgrounds where they were having a small fair. It was bizarre really. There were a few things like traditional Ethiopian stools that I found interesting, but then it was kind of like a random market. Some spices, things like pasta, then housewares and carpets, and kids DVDs. It was mostly a waste, though I did buy a stool—but it did help pass the time. And when you don’t have a car, walking down to the fairgrounds and walking around for a while does help pass the day.
Saturday I slept in, read my book, and enjoyed the fact that the guys downstairs had accidently changed the tv channels to three that I actually like. Normally there are three news channels (CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera English), one French channel, skysports, an Ethiopian channel and one other English channel. Through some finagling I managed to get them to change the other English channel from the “action” channel which seemed to be comprised mostly of bad/violent movies from the 80s, to the “series” channel—which actually shows some current shows like Grey’s Anatomy or American Idol. But skysports because National Geographic and the French channel because “2” which is, I later found out, mostly bad movies—though there was one good one on. So it was a nice respite.
Sunday I treated myself to a day at the Sheraton hotel pool. It’s like an oasis. It’s beautiful, quite (from the normal Addis noise) and you can almost trick yourself to thinking you’re in a nice tropical paradise. The downside is, that despite putting on sunscreen repetitively and even sitting in the shade and covering up a good bit of the time, I still managed to get sunburned. Boo.
The major news is that they got a new shipment in at the commissary and I could buy diet coke. Yeah!! I’m so happy. I didn’t even drink that much in the US, but here it’s definitely one of my main treats!!
And lastly, I heard that Kaddafi wants to start the “United States of Africa’ and name the combined currency “The Afro”. I love it. It makes me smile every time I hear it!!
Anyway—more about the minutia of my life later….Hope you’re doing well and saving up to come visit!!
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