A cynic might describe our trip as no more than a very expensive geography lesson. Expensive as it may be though, it is nonetheless much more effective than watching endless documentaries on Wildebeest migrations, which my high school geography department seemed fixated with.
Flying to Addis Ababa from Dubai during the day with a window seat was a real treat. Unfortunately I was too transfixed on the scenery flying over Saudi Arabia and Yemen to take any photos until we had just crossed the Red Sea near the gulf of Aden and continued west over (presumably) Djibouti. This one below is of a very pretty lake/beach (looking north). Can anyone tell us what it is called? Unfortunately our mini atlas doesn't have the required detail. The first person to correctly answer can buy us a beer.
Addis was not what we expected. It exceeded our expectations but that's hardly surprising since our preconception consisted of a barren dust bowl strewn with bloated belly babies and maybe the odd exceptional middle and long distance runner loping by. Once again I blame my high school geography department's obsession with nature documentaries and the efficacity of World Vision's marketing department. I of course am blameless for my global ignorance.
We had a surprisingly easy time getting visas at the airport and as we emerged to the outside world there was a tangible calm which had a somewhat sedating effect, (maybe it was the altitude). Either way it was a pleasant change to the frenetic chaos of north African arivals and we had the sense that even if we hadn't been lucky enough to have Neeti Didi meet us at the airport we might have been able to make it into town without (m)any (mis)adventures.
We had an AWESOME time with Neeti Didi in Addis Ababa. It was a miracle that we managed to venture out from her coocoon of hospitality. It is so great to spend time relaxing (when Neeti finally stopped working at night:) ) and chatting with family after normally being invited into people's houses only to be sold carpets.
Neeti's place is beautiful and so relaxing - we really really hope to be back there again soon! And anyone who hasn't yet visited Neeti and Shejo in Addis Ababa should really go!!!!
Awesome place...
Relaxing at Neeti and Shejo's place, reading the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency with a St. George beer-so good!Addis has fantastic museums. Here is a photo of our cousin Lucy:
Lucy, our cousin
For the geeks and aspiring geeks out there here is an interesting explanation of how family trees within the animal kingdom can be deduced:
Addis also has excellent restaurants and Ethiopian food is delicious. We went out for a night of Injera, Tej wine (home-made honey wine), Ethiopian music and shoulder click-dancing (see video below) with Neeti Didi, Tigz and Neeti's friends at Yod Abyssinia which is a must see if you're in Addis. Tej is pretty good but there's never a reliable estimate of how strong it is. Sometimes it's like a port but at other times it's said to be strong enough to power a spacecraft. We were lucky enough to have the type that doesn't leave you on the dark side of the moon.
Injera and St George Beer at Yod Abyssinia ................................................Tej wine
The Shoulder Dance
While at the University in what was Haile Selassie's Palace we were fortunate to run into a friend of Neeti's who teaches there. She aksed if we were there to attend the Rastafarian lecture that evening. "What Rastafarian lecture? and yes" we said. Well it was quite an experience. There were 3 Rastafarians who made presentations in the interest of broadening the larger community's understanding and acceptance of them as a part of modern Ethiopia.
The oldest, bare footed one mainly presented with the aid of his striking white Fender stratocaster wandering as far as his electric lead would allow him. He was very charismatic.
The tall one presented as in a wartime presidential address from behind a large desk, with mounting fervour and frequent scripture quotations.
The Austrian one mainly presented anecdotes from her life in a whimsical manner. She had discovered that she had to wear skirts to allow positive energy to enter from the ground into her body. Equally important to her was covering her hair so that the postive energy remained trapped in her brain and didn't escape into the atmosphere.
They were all adamant that Haile Selassie was the second coming of Jesus Christ and believed strongly in the power of Reggae music. They had migrated to Ethiopia (which they considered their holy land) from Jamaica, England and Austria respectively.
I have to say they came across as very positive, likeable people. They were basically lucid and generally seemed to want people to just be happy and nice to one another.....oh and also to relax and let them smoke dope in peace.
The room full of Ethiopians (plus Renu, me and a couple of possible Spanish exchange students or itinerant travellers [young, smelly people, with outrageous hair and a smirky air of erudition]) found the Haile Selassie thing a bit of a revelation. This was especially true for the Ethiopians, many of whom had lived through part of the Emperor's reign. It prompted them to ask, if he represented the second coming, "Are we now in Heaven?" It was obvious from Rasta 1's expression during his guitar solos that he at least believed so.
When challenged over whether the Emperor could truly be considered divine given his all too human fallibility, the trio were steadfast in their claims that he had not made one mistake in his life. As members of the audience began to proffer examples, the auditorium fell victim to some sort of cosmic interference and their words didn't seem to be able to carry the 10m to the Rasta trio. The trio just kept repeating the challenge "Name one mistake" like some sort of mantra (and perhaps it was?).
However apart from the typical grating "I'm right, your wrong, he really wore a red hat and liked to be called Joe" conceit that most denominations seem to rejoice in, it was pretty hard to take issue with them and their be good/nice/happy theology.
In fact they might have had two new recruits if it weren't for two things they had in common with all religions:
1. The worthwhile portion of their doctrine comprised platitudes being largely axiomatic and already universally acknowledged, ie "it's good to be nice" and vice versa.
2. The exclusive portion of their doctrine required one to atest to something seemingly so far fetched that you would risk being consigned to the loony bin by any contemporary rationale.
So given that you didn't need to subscribe to their religion to practice what they preached, there didn't seem to be anything new and their defining quality was craziness with a capital CRAZY, we thought we'd give it a miss.
They seemed like great people to do anything except donate money to or argue with. I like them a lot. They are by far my favourite religious zealots. Oh, we also were invited to the staff caffeteria which is home of the tastiest macchiato we've had (except maybe for the island of Djerba in Tunisia). One of the few positives of fascist Italian occupation. For anyone in Addis the museum at the University (Ethnological museum) is well worth the visit. It's the old palace and they've made a bit of a shrine out of Haile Selassie's bedroom. You can even see the bullet damage to his dressing table mirror allegedly from the time of the Derg's take over. Haile was an old fashioned guy; his bathroom is completely blue and his wife's adjoining one pink. He may well have been a jealous exhibitionist too as his bathroom has conspicuously low transparent glass windows overlooking the grounds, whilst his wife's windows are opaque.
Continuing with the religous theme, we went up to Ntoto Church. Ethiopia has had a large orthodox Christian following since the year dot. It's very interesting, I won't crap on about it here but we did pass some women carrying enormous loads on their backs going up the hill:
I will never complain about my heavy pack again
Renu and I marvelled at these feats of strength and endurance by woman of all ages (none of whom seemed to be on an athletes diet). Our healthy male driver told us the loads were deceptively light. I don't think he'd ever carried one.
Apparently people go to Ntoto to try to be cured of AIDS, mental problems and other ailments. Some of these people leave their families to live here as they cannot face telling their families about their sickness. There is a belief that holy water from a nearby water body will cure them. The image outside Ntoto church was unforgettable - there were people sprawled over the large grounds generally sitting or lying down, not talking to one another.
We got to have a tour of a church up the road which has very impressive murals. Due to the power being off, we used foot long bees wax candles to light our way. It was very atmospheric and a little deflating towards the end when the electricity came on. I suppose the rest of town prefered the electricity though:):
Photo on left: Haile Selassie, a previous Emperor, painted on the right. Did everyone know that Haile Selassie is the second coming of God in the eyes of Rastafarians (Ras=King, Tafari=Haile Selassie's pre coronation name)
Orthodox Ethiopians afford Haile Selassie the status of king who became an emperor (as such he is depicted in the painting above) as opposed to the earthly incarnation of the almighty. I generally like to be anti-establishment but my money is with the orthodoxy in this case.
Did we mention Ethiopia has great food:
Dinner at The Cottage.....................................................Unjera - the delicious national staple
A hot tip from Neeti Didi sent us to Kuriftu Resort for the day. It's south of Addis and is now my favourite resort. The people were very friendly, the food was great and amazingly they had a delicous bottle of Italian Sove at a very reasonable price. They didn't mind that we had just crashed to enjoy the place for the day and given the quality of the place it wasn't very expensive to stay (about the same price as spending the night in someone's vacuum cleaner in central London).
Lunch at Kuriftu Resort - YUM.....................................Great furniture at the resort
As you can see we didn't really do anything worthy in Ethiopia. In fact we generally lived it up and had a ball in a country whose Western stereotype personifies poverty. I would come to sit in a seedy Zambian's urine later in the trip. If this was karmic retribution, then it was worth it. Ethiopia was fantastic!
Ethiopia a land of beauty and bad scaffolding:
