Steph's Adventures in Addis: Monkey See Monkey Do...I live in a Monkey Zoo?

Outside view of the 'Villa'

WE HAVE A HOME! I am more than excited to say that Tasha have settled in a home, in what appears thus far to be a safe and accessible area of the city. I would once again like to thank the staff at OXFAM for their incredible assistance! We would never have found this place without them. There are two German exchange students who live in the same compound, they refer to our home as a “villa”. Tasha and I saw it as more of a 70’s throwback cottage, perhaps the colors of the house gave us this idea? Nonetheless it is cozy, has everything we need and already feels like home. As an added bonus not only are their cats who live in the compound, but little monkeys seem to make a regular appearance. The landlord tells us that they enjoy eating the guava fruit that grows in our trees, I will do my best to take a photo next time I see them.

My room:)

As we now have the facilities to cook, we have shifted from eating all of our meals out, which has been cheap based on the exchange rate, to slowly starting to cook. Well the ‘villa’ is equipped with everything we need to cook (minor details of getting used to a gas stove) it has more so been the purchasing of things to cook which has held us back a little… Needless to say when I asked the man at the supermarket around the corner for 12 eggs, he put them in a plastic bag for me... I stood there blankly for a minute before accepting them, thanking him and deciding if I wanted eggs for breakfast I would have to figure out a way to make this work.

On Saturday we set out to discover Addis with out German neighbors. We made a pit stop at a hotel across the road from us to get a coffee and use their Wifi before beginning our day. We were quickly made aware that the hotel is frequently used to host wedding receptions. I am not sure what I saw first, the elaborate poufy decorations in the dinning room, adjacent to where we sat in the lobby, the traditional music playing or the guest entering in their formal attire. The scene escalated as we finished our coffees, and just as we had finished paying our bill, the music changed the camera men were at the entrance filming the entire wedding party entering the lobby! Three of us managed to quickly get out of the shot, but one of our German neighbors will be eternalized in the corner of this families wedding video. They did not seem to mind…

Moving on from our wedding crashing experience we made our way to the city center or the section known as Piazza (Italian influence much?) to meet a Danish friend. From there we saw a few of the ‘must see’ churches. While St Georges Church was quite pretty, more than anything its garden proved to be a bit of a sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of the streets outside. The streets were filled with people selling things from umbrellas, to gum and phone cards; there were also shoe-shiners, beggars, construction workers, and others just trying to move through the crowds. We had planned to visit the Lion Zoo, but took too long eating and unfortunately did not make it on time, so the lions will have to wait for another day.

Old Photo of Meskel Square

While it was nice to see some of the sights on our expedition across town, more than anything I gained a bit of confidence using the public transport system of minibuses— twelve passenger vans that run a set route very similar to a subway system… just not marked with clear signs and not underground... I also feel that I am able to orient myself in most of the main areas of the city now, which is a plus. Another skill gained is how to cross the street. The best way I can explain it is like Frogger. For those of you who are not familiar with the throwback Nintendo game, it consist of a frog who is meant to pass multiple lanes of traffic which fly him in many directions and at various speeds. Meskel Square is where this theory rings true the most.

On Sunday, Tasha myself and five German girls made tracks for Entoto Hill, the site of Emperor Menelik II’s palace. This is where the Emperor resided with his wife Empress Tito prior to founding the city of Addis. The Hill overlooks the city, and on a clear day you supposedly have a great view and can pick out the main square almost like you are looking at a map. Unfortunately Sunday proved to be very foggy, I was however happy to know that this was not just smog/pollution and that there are sometimes clear days. While the cite proved to be an interesting attraction and an escape from the hustle and bustle of the city, it also reiterated to me that altitude does make a difference as we moved from Addis’ altitude of aprx 2600m to almost 3000m. Needless to say the slightest incline left me a little short of breath.

We reached the top of the mountain by a series of minibuses, lead by two of the German girls who have been in Addis since October. They are modest about their Amharic (the local language) skills, but they managed to make sure we were not ripped off, and also translate what a tour guide has to say when we were looking around the palace. It was very encouraging to see other Ferengis (foreigners) speaking the local language.