Lots of Questions!!!

So I got an email today (4/9/09) from my friend Stefanie with lots of questions about daily life here. And as I was typing these up, I thought it would be smart to post them here so the rest of my "interested readers" can share in the knowledge!!

Here we go……

What types of restaurants are there? So far I know about Indian, LOTS of Italian (because the Italians have some kind of history here--not colonization but something), Korean, Thai, Chinese, some texmex, lots of coffee shops (the local version of starbucks is called Kaldi's), some other random cafes with some weird stuff. There's a good place called Limetree that has an interesting selection of sandwiches, salads, pizzas, some wraps, etc. It's good. But the Indian places are my favorite. And of course, there's Ethiopian!!

What are you eating mostly? I eat a lot of Indian, Italian and a mix when I'm in Addis. I moved into a little executive apartment type place so I can cook for myself--though getting vegetables (without a car, adventurous spirit and minimal linguistic skills) is difficult. I eat only Ethiopian when I'm in the field. Lesson learned there. Every time I got something that wasn't Ethiopian it tasted really weird. And it's usually not as described. For example, I ordered risotto at a touristy type restaurant in a fairly big city and it was a huge plate of white rice with melted cheese.

So Ethiopian for me is a lot of the same things. Mostly for breakfast I have "foul" (It’s pronounced fool) or fatira with egg. Foul is made from fava beans. Fatira is like thin thin thin tortilla strips cooked with egg and served with a bit of honey. For lunch/dinner I usually eat shiro which is made out of chickpeas mashed up to power and reconstituted with a bit of tomato, garlic, onion, berberi, (a spice that’s in EVERYTHING here) and probably some other stuff I don’t know about. You can eat that with injeera or bread. And then, there’s the "mixed" plate where you get a bunch of piles of stuff including shiro, a few types of lentils, a few types of vegetables, etc all served on injeera and with injeera which acts as your utensil. I’m coming around to injeera...it’s weird on its own but takes the flavor of whatever you’re picking up with it. And there’s A LOT of oil in everything. One of our drivers eats ground goat intestine for breakfast every day. Apparently that’s very common. EEWWW. I’m lucky because all of the Ethiopian Orthodox are fasting right now for lent. That either means that they’re not eating meat, or they’re not eating meat, fish or dairy. So the veggie option is always available. When it’s not lent, it’s a little tougher (I’m told) and they eat the "mixed" plate but which a bunch of kinds of meat in it too. Fortunately, Wednesdays and Fridays are fasting days year round so I’m covered a few days a week!

Where do locals eat? Mostly they eat at home. But if they’re going out, there are lots of cafes and restaurants serving Ethiopian food. But some of those with cash eat at the same places I do. It’s relatively inexpensive even in Addis but in the field it’s even cheaper. My foul was 8 birr (right now it’s 11 to the dollar but it was 9 when I got here) and shiro and a soda would be around 12 birr. In AA it’s a little more. Today, at the popular restaurant by my office I had a falafel burger for lunch and it was 42 birr. (The owner lived in the US for a while….falafel burgers are not common.)

What do they drink? Coffee and tea. Incessantly. But there is coke, fanta (orange), mineral water, sprite, pepsi, etc available. It’s just more expensive. The tea is really good if you get it with the spices. I think it’s cardamom boiled into the water. Mmmmm.

What are the prices like (not just for food, but in general)? So I really only know about restaurant foods for prices. Or prices for things in the field.
--My hotels in the field ranged from $4 to $30. For $30 you get a nice room with some good tv and hot water (most of the time). For $4 you get a clean and basic room. Hopefully with hot water but maybe not.
--I got some little bamboo shelves for $10—it’s kind of wobbly but good for shoes or books or something. My current apartment room doesn’t have shelves—just a hanging wardrobe—so I had to find something in a pinch!
--A one hour massage at the nice spa costs $20
--A soda is usually around 8-9 birr..sometimes more.
--A movie is $3 I think…I haven’t been but I think that’s what my friend said. And you can buy illegal copies of movies for $3 too. Not that I do, I’m just sayin’…..
--Food in the grocery store is pretty cheap. Except for cheese. That’s expensive. But my view is skewed because I also have the commissary I can use. That’s lots of "normal" food and it’s not too expensive. Sometimes it’s Costco-sized though. Like if you want ice cream you have to buy a 3-gallon container of it. That’s a real commitment. And I just learned that the refrigerated containers that the food comes in are called reefers. Hehe.

Is Diet Coke prevalent? DC is not prevalent. There seem to be imports of DC and/or Coke Zero (do we have that in the US? And if so what is it?) from either Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Sometimes you see it in a shop but it’s pretty rare. Needless to say I just ordered a ton of it for my consumables shipment!

Is there fountain soda? Sadly, no. Mainly there are bottles of soda. Sometimes you can find draft of one of the local beers, but other than that, no taps of anykind!!

What is the grocery store like? Imagine a store the size of a CVS or 7-11 and that’s probably the size. CVS for expat types and 7-11 for more local types of grocery stores. And they’ll have a lot of one thing and it will take up half of the shelf. So they’ll fill the shelves even if they only have corn flakes to put on it. I haven’t really found any familiar brands yet. Definitely not American brands. It’s too far away. I’ll see if I can take a photo or two at some point.

Are there familiar brands, and do they have Starbucks and McDonald's? There are fake versions of brands you know, but no international brands at all. It’s interesting!! There’s a Stackbucks and a McD restaurant, but don’t get your hopes up. My favorite is that there was an "Obama Change 08 restaurant" in a town I went to!!

Do people go running in the city? There are tons of people running. Including the best runners in the country. It’s very intimidating!! The problem for me is that the pollution is absolutely awful and it’s hard to get away from. There aren’t really parks that you can go to. There are gyms though so that’s the best bet for no smog. There’s a hash group too…

Pools? There are three pools. One at the Sheraton, one at the Hilton and one at a gym called Bole Rock. The bole rock gym pool is full of a lot of swimmers who don’t necessarily swim our type of lap. And there’s a question of the clorine content. As in there’s a lot but the pool is still cloudy and kind of gross. So that’s out. Then there’s the Hilton, but it’s heated by a natural spring—so for lounging, great; laps—not so much. And there’s the Sheraton. That’s the winner. I haven’t actually gone swimming yet (and I stayed there for a month!) but I’m working up to it. I just need goggles!!

Where will you get your hair cut and colored? I’m not sure. There are two options. My "sponsor"—the poor woman who was assigned to show me around and now has me at her house doing laundry every weekend—goes to a shop with a woman who used to cut hair in Georgetown. But the "spa" where you can get a massage, facial, mani/pedi, etc also has hair services. Some people like them, some don’t. For now, I’m growing it a little longer since I got it cut short before I left. As to color—no way. I’m au natural now!!

Can you buy books in English? You can, and it’s much cheaper than in Dar where my sister lives, but there’s not a huge selection. Mostly I order online. Thank goodness for the pouch!!

Are there movie theaters, and if so, do they dub the movies, or use subtitles? There’s one movie theatre here that I know about (that expats go to anyway) and I think they’re in English. The vast majority of people in Addis or in cities speak English. But I’m sure there are some in Amharic or other languages with English subtitles.

So I think that’s about it for now. If any of you have questions, let me know!!! I’m happy to answer them and it probably provides a nice change of pace from my rantings!!

More soon,
Jane