Getting to know Addis Ababa

  Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Saturday, February 24, 2007

I've spent longer than intended in Addis, but have no regrets whatsoever, having fallen completely in love with this city. The prolonged stay is a result of having had to wait for my bag to arrive, but this has been a blessing in disguise. My instinct, when traveling, is to get out of a capital city almost straight away as they inevitably represent all that is ugly and unpleasant about a country.

On Thursday morning I changed hotel to one across the road, which is supposed to be better for meeting fellow travelers. This was a success, as within an hour I had befriended a lovely French guy, Yann, who has traveled overland from France, passing through the former Yugoslav countries, the Middle East, Egypt and Sudan. We set off together in search of an ATM, and I was somewhat relieved not to have to walk the streets of Addis on my own for the first time.

All in all, the city is not exactly what I had expected. I had envisioned an overpopulated, dirty place with cracked pavements and potholed streets, with lots of hassle and a fear of being robbed or worse. In fact, for the most part, the place seems (at a first glance, at least), to be quite well maintained. The streets are clean, the roads are wide and well paved, and there is little if any hassle apart from the usual boys selling weed and would-be guides approaching you. Shiny jeeps zip by, carrying locals, as well as the distinctive blue and white taxis and minibuses.

Later in my stay I began to see past this somewhat deceptive veneer of cleanliness and relative affluence. If you wander away from the central streets or leafy suburbs you begin to notice the shocking poverty that is all around you. There are beggars on most streets, either actively begging or lying pitifully on the pavement, ragged and starved, often with babies. Cripples and filthy children beg to cars stopped at traffic lights, and on patches of shaded grass you see people lying, often with children who have flies crawling on their eyes and lips.

But I feel I paint too bleak a picture. Addis is a vibrant place, where smiling people walk around joking with each other, looking curiously at the faranji who is exploring their city. There are shops selling anything and everything - Yann and I spent a morning exploring Mercado, which is reputedly the biggest market in Africa. The market is a vast grid of streets, with each street selling one type of thing only, vegetables, fruit, clothes, shoes, bags, electronics, music, books, chairs, and some things I do not even know a name for. The friendly attitude of the locals I encountered in the Piazza area (where I'm staying) and more affluent areas was unfortunately not mirrored among the people at the market. Perhaps it was just in my head, but I felt somewhat unwelcome, intruding in this entirely different world. Smiles were not returned, and I was sometimes shouted at by youths, but I never felt unsafe.

Random Addis Street photo 1

I visited two interesting museums here. One, the Natural History Museum had fossils of some of the earliest human skulls, dating back as far as hour million years ago - all found in the Afar region of North-Eastern Ethiopia. Although I had always been aware of how long ago our earliest ancestors walked the earth, it was not until I looked them "in the eye" that it really hit me how long we have been on this planet for, in comparison to the brief volume of history that we have collected.

Another museum, the Ethnological Museum, in Addis Ababa University's campus, had fascinating cultural displays - of particular interest to me were those about the tribes of the Lower Omo Valley, which is where I leave for tomorrow. The campus of the University was lovely, the shabbiness of the sixties-style buildings was masked by the lush green grounds, littered with colourful flower beds, with leafy trees providing shade to the students who chatted and studied underneath them.

Last night I went out to a local nightclub with five friends I've made. The club was essentially of a European style, with cheesy European music played in there. The entrance was free though, and beers were about a dollar a pop, so I dropped my usually picky standards on what clubs I go to! Nearly all the clientele were Ethiopians, about half of whom were women, of whom all were prostitutes (or so I was told by a local man I spoke to there). Fortunately half of our group was girls so we didn't get unwanted attention on that front. We stayed dancing until the wee hours, enjoying the music which became more African as the night went on. I have never been so conscious of how little (if any!) rhythm I have when I dance, but I was enjoying myself too much to care.

As part of this trip I want to visit some NGOs, as I'm interested in working for one later in my life. Any efforts at finding a contact here have been completely fruitless. I sent several emails to offices in Addis before leaving, but none replied. Here I've tried to look up their addresses online, but every single one has a PO box listed as their address. Phone calls made have been unanswered, engaged, or have led to a puzzled housewife wondering why I'm calling her at home. As I'm heading south with a group I think I'll have to leave this pursuit until Kenya, as it would be impractical (if nearly impossible) to search further given the circumstances.

Random Addis Street photo 2

So all in all I have loved this city, talking to locals, and making friends at the start of what has the makings of a great trip. My Amharic has improved to the point that I can cod a local into thinking I have a basic fluency so that they start speaking away to me in it before I have to stop them. At the airport yesterday I spoke with a man who flat out didn't believe that I could speak so much after only two days in the country - and promptly invited me to go to a nightclub with him so he could show his friends this funny little Irishman!

Tomorrow morning I leave with Yann, Kevin (another frog), an Israeli girl whose name I've forgotten, and an Ethiopian guide/driver/cook for the lower Omo Valley. We have rented a 4x4, as the roads are terrible there apparently and buses will only bring you so far. For ten days we will visit villages where African tribal customs have been preserved like nowhere else in the continent. We're talking nakedness, beads, clothes made from leopard skins, crazy hairstyles, scarification, body paint, lip plates and unusual piercings. It should be interesting, and an adventure in itself!