Addis Ababa

Greetings from Ethiopia!

It was a long trip, but I wanted to drop a quick note to let everyone know I made it without a hitch. Flights were on time and from Addis to Amsterdam I even had the relatively glorious experience of having two seats to myself. Woot!

Apparently, the massive dust storm out of the Sudanese plains that closed the airport in Khartoum and paralyzed air traffic across northern Ethiopia for two days had dissipated before I entered Sudanese airspace. The air was still red and very dusty in Khartoum, but visibility was good enough! (My traveling compatriot, however, wasn’t so fortunate. Nancy spent hours the day before circling northern Ethiopia looking for clear airspace; the pilot was forced to head back to Addis. Nancy finally made it to Gondar on Friday.)

Yesterday (Saturday) Tim gave me a tour of Addis Ababa—the city is very hilly, quite unlike flat Nairobi, and has a whole lot less traffic. The Addis residents, however, seem to have a penchant for grazing their herds of goats smack in the middle of the city where nary a blade of grass is to be seen. I don’t know what that’s all about but it adds a certain drama to jockeying for position at the uncontrolled intersections (stop signs and functioning traffic lights are rare.)

Addis, much like other East African cities, is a study in contrasts and remarkable compromises. This time: minarets sprouting like enormous turquoise pencils beside shops selling orthodox crosses and iconic art; the imams’ early a.m. prayer calls alternating with those of the orthodox priests; tin shanty towns butting up against the $600.oo/night Sheraton Addis; donkey carts sharing the road with Mercedes; sleek glass skyscrapers under construction using scaffolding of sticks lashed together with ropes; the most gorgeous women on the planet passing blind, maimed beggars.

I read in The Daily Monitor that Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf testified before the UN Secretary General on Friday, saying economic losses due to poor water and sanitation access cost the world $261 billion a year. These problems, she rightly says, must be taken more seriously and fixing them should be a driver of economic enhancement not excused as an outcome of poverty. 

I spent some Birr (USD 1 = 18.4 Ethiopian Birr, I like that exchange rate!) at the shop of a lovely man near Tim’s office (guinea fowl and crosses: I’ll leave it at that for curiosity sake) and then plunged into the familiar and intense street bargaining of East Africa. I had a wonderful time soaking up the 75-degree SUNSHINE and talking with Tim and Muriel about patient care, bioethics, Ethiopian culture, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and their lives here in Ethiopia and in Rwanda. Then my body led me—involuntarily—to my bed where I could not resist a nap. Doggone jet lag!

It was a very short visit to Addis as I had to leave for Gondar at 6 a.m. No sandstorms for me! A million thanks to the Teusinks! More from Gondar tomorrow.