Thursday, August 12, 2010

Travel Day 3--Addis Ababa (aka July 17)

I forgot that roosters crow at daybreak…or sometimes before. That was our ‘alarm clock’ this morning. Following that was the Islamic call to prayer—there must be a mosque nearby. I had heard about the call to prayer, not the roosters. We laid around in bed for a while (Tony still sleeping, me somewhere between awake and asleep). It would be about 930pm Texas time when that rooster started crowing. The girls came and knocked on the door about 630 or so dressed and giggly…they said they’d been up since 5ish this morning. It’s now about 730 am. We’re waiting on breakfast. We asked for breakfast about 745-800am but now I’m thinking the 730-745am time would have been better. We also just realized that you have to turn on the hot water heater in the bathrooms so we’re waiting on that now so we can shower. I’ve also been thankful that there was a water boiler (this neat coffee pot looking thing that boils about 1.5 liters of water in about 2 minutes) that we used last night to fix our noodles and this morning to make instant coffee.


So our first order of business (after waiting for that hot water heater to heat up) was to call Gail with AAI to find out how to deliver those packages. It was a little odd, we can’t make calls from our room to an outside line, we had to go to reception and have the receptionist dial the number. We finally got through and found out all we need to do is drop the packages at Layla. She suggested we call Dawit, a driver, to show us around and get those things to Layla. Dawit wasn’t available today but he’s meeting us at 10am tomorrow.

We had the receptionist call a driver for us today Yonas, who took us to the National Museum and the Museum of Natural History. He then took us to the Blue Top restaurant for lunch. It seemed to be some sort of Italian/American/Worldly mix of cuisine. It was Pizza for the girls, pasta for me and some kind of pepper steak with veggies for Tony. The pepper steak was odd, but had a great spicy sauce. We then went to a shopping center where we were able to buy some ‘traditional’ Ethiopian clothing (ceremonial type) and probably paid too much for them although all in all it was much less than we’d have paid in the states. There was also a grocery store there where we were able to buy some bottled water and soda.

Points so far:

Altitude. While no one has been sick, I’m definitely exhausted. I don’t know if it’s jet lag or if it’s the altitude. I felt a little winded going up the stairs in the museum but that could just be me. I also now have a headache that is getting worse by the minute—but that could be my kids that are causing that. I’m very thankful now that the girls have another room where they hang out and we have one that is quieter where we can sleep. Right now I’d love to go lay down and rest but our room is being cleaned—hence we are all spending ‘family time’ together. That’s great in theory, but the girls haven’t caught up on sleep either so they are either giggly or at each other’s throat.

Driving. You couldn’t pay me enough to drive in this city. Few street signs, no traffic signals and it appears to be a free for all for both pedestrians and for drivers. I don’t think I’d like to cross any streets either, especially any of the big ones. I will say I feel safer in the car than I would walking on the street (for the simple fact that the pedestrians appear to be at risk of being hit by one of the drivers).

Children. Everywhere you go there are kids begging. At your car window when you slow down, especially if they are rolled down. At the entrances to the museums, stores, etc. We even encountered women begging with their small babies. You want to do something. You want to give them money but you also know that you can’t help all the kids. All the travel guides caution that giving to kids (or adults for that matter) only perpetuates the behavior of begging and urges would be ‘givers’ to use agencies or services that provide things like food and shelter to those in need. Even though I felt like I was warned about the begging children, I am still surprised at how widespread it is. I can remember being in Mexico and around the outdoor shopping areas, airports and ‘touristy’ areas, it was worse than in the indoor shopping centers and hotels. We didn’t encounter any kids asking for money (or as is more popular trying to sell you something like Kleenex or gum) once inside the gates of the museum, restaurant or inside the shopping center. While we were there, one little child, maybe 10-12, was thrown out of the shopping center for shoplifting. We had seen him outside earlier asking for money. This shopping center appeared to be a mix of shops designed for travelers and for locals. I kept wondering what hardships our daughter and her family had experienced. Had they been begging like these families, did they decide they couldn’t care for Hanna before they got that destitute? I guess with time we will know but probably not until Hanna decides to tell us.

We were finally able to lay down and take a nap after they finished cleaning our room. We ended up sleeping about 4 hours. We got up and decided to ‘order in’. When we asked for a to go menu from local restaurants, we were given a basically American menu. I am wondering if there are any Ethiopian restaurants in Ethiopia.

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