London 2012

I love the olympics. I especially love the summer olympics. And I am very sad that I will be missing them this year due to my lack of a TV. :( Luckily, however, a British girl whom I met last weekend at the hash, was kind enough to invite me for the viewing of the opening ceremonies at the pub in the British Embassy. It was quite an ordeal to actually enter the embassy, but once inside I was amused to find nothing British in the pub. It was quite a disappointment...no imported beer or snacks...only Meta, St. George, and a basket of Twix on the bar. They projected the ceremony onto the wall and it was the first time I had watched the ceremony with such attention and on a big screen. It was quite impressive. Because of the time difference, it didn't start until 11pm, so we left halfway into the parade of athletes, but I was able to absorb some of the olympic spirit which will hopefully carry me through the remainder of the games, as I read stories about the events (rather than watch them).

Carnivore Addis

I rarely consume meat in Ethiopia. I don't cook it at home because it's too complicated to manage storing and cooking meat in my miniscule kitchen. In addition, I don't have hot water and antibacterial soap...so cleanup would make me feel a bit wary. I also rarely eat it out since it is often chewy (i.e. the cows are actual adults when butchered) and there are a lot of veggie options. :) This has resulted in a bit of meat withdrawal, especially a processed meat withdrawal (I love me some deli turkey). You can buy processed meats here but they are so expensive that I have so far gone without (except for one splurge on frozen viennas this past weekend...don't judge me...they are 100% beef and were the most economical processed meat option).

Thus, when making last night's dinner location selection with a friend, Carnivore Addis seemed like a great selection. Ultimately I ate more bread/vegetables than meat, but I thoroughly enjoyed my meal. I feel like I have discovered a gem in the heart of Addis. These are the reasons that I will definitely go back to this restaurant (and I should note that this is the first time I have felt this way about a restaurant in Addis).                                                                             

1. It's relatively close to my house -- on the second floor of a large building on one of the main streets in the center of town, just south of the UN compound. 
2. It has a great atmosphere and the interior is warm and cozy.
3. The bread is moist and delicious.
4. The croutons are AMAZING.
5. They have a free salad/soup bar.
6. They put as much bread as you want in a take away container...for free.

So, while I ordered beef gordon bleu with mashed potatoes which was good but not amazing, the other features of this restaurant definitely make it worth a second visit. My meal last night cost 69 birr ($4), but I would pay that much just for the bread/croutons/soup/salad. Finally, I have found both an enjoyable and affordable restaurant.

Water Bottle Blues

It's not advised to drink the tap water, especially during the rainy season when sewage can easily seep into the water supply. This is the result. I now buy the largest bottle available so I don't have to buy as many but I still feel incredibly guilty about all the bottles I am using. Fortunately, I think that they are reused after they leave my house. It's not a formal process, but they are collected and used to hold a variety of things, from tap water to locally brewed beer. Please, Addis municipality, improve the cleanliness of your water supply system so people can stop buying this ish. 

Saturday is a Hashing Day

On Saturday, I joined an out-of-town hash. We traveled south of Addis (details to follow since I can't seem to remember the name of the place we went), and did a leisurely walk by a river. The walk itself was quite lovely and the least strenuous of all the hashes I have been to so far, but I can't speak so highly of the trip there and back. The scheduled departure time was 8am, but didn't leave until almost 10am. This meant that we cancelled the en route breakfast (luckily I had brought peanuts), and headed straight there. I would speculate that the bus didn't move faster than 25mph the entire trip. I could be exaggerating, but for the majority of the trip (2.5 hours each way) there was so much traffic or the road was in such poor condition that it was not possible for the bus to move faster.

The scenery along the drive was quite beautiful, and luckily I was sitting next to a couple of lovely ladies with whom I had some great conversation. I brought Stefanie to the hash for the first time. She is an intern at the US Embassy with the State Department. I met Louise on Saturday. She is from the UK and works for PricewaterhouseCoopers with the Environmental Protection Agency on Ethiopia's Climate-Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) initiative. I had a very interesting conversation with her about her work and efforts to track climate finance within Ethiopia. 

After the painful bus ride (quite literally...i have bruises on my knees from the lack of leg room :) ), we were given some red t-shirts to commemorate the hash. I was expecting a tough hike, but it turned out to be a very leisurely walk. I was able to take pictures of the river, birds, crocodiles, and the sea of hashers in red making their way around the countryside of Ethiopia. Upon our return, we were served some almost cold beer and some injera mixed with some kind of sauces/meat. It was rather delicious. We chatted, drank beer, and watched the traditional hash rituals before heading back to Addis. On the way back, the bus ride was quite rambunctious with both young and old who had enjoyed the libations a bit too much. In the back of the bus was a rowdy game of truth and dare (unfortunately i was the victim of a kissing dare), and in the front of the bus there were a couple of older men who refused to sit down and kept drinking beer all the way to Addis.

All in all, it was a great day. It was wonderful to enjoy some sunshine (even if it means that my skin is a tad bit red...in my defense, it was overcast when we started the walk), and breathe some fresh air. AND, the trip (including the bus, food, and drinks) cost me 100 birr (or $6). 

Rain, Refuge, and Ravioli

Fridays at the UN are rather unproductive days. The work day ends at 2pm, and many jet out before that (after having arrived at 10am). However, this past Friday, I was tasked with working on a Powerpoint for a presentation that is happening tomorrow in Naivasha, Kenya at the Inter-Cluster Coordination Meeting, which means that I didn't leave work until 3pm. Unfortunately, this meant that I got caught in a torrential downpour as I attempted to make my way for some hot and sour soup at the Sichuan Chinese restaurant. It was raining when I left the office, but I had no idea that I wouldn't make it to my destination without becoming absolutely soaked with cold rain water...only to discover that the restaurant is closed between lunch and dinner.

However, this sudden explosion from the clouds did provide me with an opportunity to experience some true hospitality and kindness. After discovering that the restaurant was closed, I returned to the entryway of the building. I stared out the window contemplating my next move. There is a small shop right inside the building and the shopkeeper told me that I must stay inside. Then, the security guard stood up from his chair and offered it to me. I initially declined, but he insisted. And so, I sat for almost an hour as the rain pummelled the city. The streets in front of the building became a river, and many people were welcomed into the building and given a dry place to wait out the storm. It was quite amusing to watch the cars negotiate the roads, and to see the occasional person with their cheap Chinese umbrella attempting (but failing) to stay dry as they hurriedly rushed to their destination.

Eventually, the rain subsided enough for me to run next door to the Lime Tree restaurant where I enjoyed some warm coffee and delicious ravioli. When the rain stopped and the rivers disappeared, the streets were again filled with people negotiating the fresh mud and enlarged puddles/lakes. I decided to make my usual walk home, but was determined not to let the afternoon/daylight be wasted. Thus, I decided to go to the Dembel Shopping Center to look for some earrings to replace the one that I lost :( a couple of weeks ago. If only I had a picture of the walk from the road (where there is massive construction) to the front of the shopping center. People negotiate it as if they are walking on concrete and there isn't an incredibly deep ravine on one side that you could fall into with one wrong step or slide on the mud. I made it to the shopping center but didn't find any earrings, and so I negotiated my way back to the road. I continued my trek to another shopping center, where I ultimately purchased some earrings, after crossing another ravine on a wooden plank (very slowly with all around watching as though I was going to fall). Mission accomplished, I made my way home, where I placed my very muddy pants in the basket for washing.

Trash Ain't Pretty

Visiting a developing country always forces me to think about trash. You see it everywhere -- on the street, in the rivers, outside people's homes. It's all around you, and very difficult to ignore. Living in the U.S., the trash collection system is so organized that it is easy to forget that all the trash you produce has to go somewhere. In Addis, the trash situation is...well, unfortunate. On a couple of occasions, I have seen Addis' version of a garbage truck. It consists of several very strong men pushing and pulling a large cart up and down the streets. The people in the neighborhood pay them to pick up their trash. I'm still not sure where it goes. But can you imagine collecting everyone's trash and using your physical strength to push it around the city?

A couple of weeks ago, I was waiting with a couple of colleagues to go to lunch. We were sitting in a car in the parking lot of the UN, and one of the girls in the car took out a piece of plastic that used to hold pills from her purse. She looked at it and threw it out the window. She appeared to be cleaning the trash from her purse and this was a logical way to dispose of it. This complete disregard for disposing of this item on the ground has stuck in my mind for the past couple of weeks.

Clearly, improving sanitation is a goal in most developing countries, but as with so many things, how do you change people's attitudes toward something as simple as disposal of trash? How do people change from casually tossing their telephone cards on the ground to putting them in their pockets so that they can be disposed of properly? With many issues, I wouldn't assume that making changes to align with my Western experience makes sense or is appropriate. However, I would imagine that most Ethiopians would like to improve the sanitation and cleanliness in their country. But where do you start? Perhaps if the city had a better sanitation infrastructure (i.e. actual garbage trucks), then people would be incentivized to dispose of trash properly? However, generally these services cost money, so how do you provide these services for those that cannot afford to pay?

I'm sure that there are some really smart people that have pondered these questions and come up with some interesting answers. Perhaps I will attempt to explore this, but for now, the presence of trash on the streets of Addis continues to remind me that all the trash I produce must go somewhere, and that there is still much work which needs to be done to improve sanitation in many parts of the world (which of course has important health implications!).

Where is all the juicy, interesting stuff?

Good question. I know that many will read my posts and wonder, why isn't she telling us all about Ethiopian culture and history and stuff? Well, that's because mostly, I'm just living and working. Of course, I plan to spend some time exploring some historical/cultural sites inside and outside of Addis (so stay tuned if this is what you want to hear about), but right now, I wake up, force myself out of my sort of warm bed into the freezing cold air, take a shower, and rush out the door (never having time to eat breakfast before I leave). I walk to a colleague's house for a ride to work, spend the hours between 8:30 and 5:30 eating my breakfast/working/blogging/praying the sun comes out), and then I walk home. Once home, I cook dinner, peruse the internet, attempt to stay warm (and fail), and go to bed. Occasionally I attempt to spend time working on all the academic work I need to produce as part of this internship, but generally, the cold makes it incredibly difficult to concentrate.

What I find juicy and interesting is sitting in a cafe and watching people walk up and down the street, or simply walking around Addis. There is so much that can be learned about day to day life by simply making yourself a part of life in the city. I walk pretty much everywhere, which can be pleasant and obnoxious at the same time. I used to respond to hellos/his/how are yous but have slowly started to ignore them. There are so many that making a pleasant reply to each one can be tiring. After being followed/harassed by multiple young Ethiopian men, I have developed a strategy to quickly get rid of them beyond the questions of how are you/where are you from/where do you live/how do you like Addis. There has been only one occassion where I had to become rude and forceful to get rid of someone. :(

On the subject of getting around Addis, I have decided that I will make every attempt to take a minibus before taking a taxi. While I have become quite skilled at negotiating lower fares from taxi drivers who attempt to charge exorbitant prices, I hate the negotiating process. In addition, I have found that people are quite helpful in assisting me to figure out where the minibuses are going and where I need to get off. While they are not always the most convenient because they drive certain routes, it's worth a bit of inconvenience to avoid haggling with taxi drivers (and to pay less than 1/10 the cost of a taxi ride).

Okay, so maybe this is not that juicy, but it's life in Addis! :)

Fizzy Lifting Drinks

Some may think this is sad, but let's be honest, I can't live without some kind of fizzy drink, preferably my beloved Diet Pepsi. Most places that I have traveled have had Coke Light readily available. However, finding this beverage in Addis can be a challenge. Thus, I have to make adjustments. Pictured here is my newfound solution to this problem (thanks to my colleague, Mahelet, for the introduction). It makes me think I am drinking diet pop without it being diet. I mix 50% soda with 50% sparkling water. It still has sugar but at least it doesn't feel like it is rotting my teeth. I did make an attempt today to drink the sparkling water without any pop, and while I was able to swallow it (unlike my first experience with sparkling water when it was poured from a pitcher into my glass at age 13 in the Czech Republic), I'm not sure if I will ever be able to drink it and enjoy it.

Side note: After I wrote this post, I noticed that I had used the word "soda" instead of "pop" which is clearly problematic. It's pop, not soda! So, I have adjusted accordingly so as not to offend soda or pop drinkers.

Did You Know?

At the hash, I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of different people, and this week I went to dinner with a woman I met there a couple of weeks ago, Tania. We met at the Jewel of India restaurant, which is quite near my house. I tried to give her directions, but it was a bit like the blind leading the blind (she has only been here 3 months). Strangely, she got lost with my fabulous directions. While she rerouted, I had a beer at the bar, Meta Premium, and was served a delicious complimentary chickpea salad.

Once she arrived, we chatted for a while before perusing the extensive menu. I have no idea what we ordered (a chicken dish, one with veggies and cheese, some amazing rice, and of course aloo paratha), but it was absolutely delicious. More important than the food though was the very interesting conversation that we had about our work and the challenges we have encountered negotiating Addis. It was a great evening, and it reminded me how much fun it is to meet new people and learn about something that you know absolutely nothing about. It's fun to discuss the things I love and know well, but I think that it's more fun to learn about something completely new. 

Currently, Tania is the purchasing manager at an airline catering company in Addis. She used to be a chef in first class. Wait, did you know that there used to be chefs on planes in first class? Well, that is definitely not something that I would know given I have NEVER flown in first class. But, interesting nonetheless. She is originally from Australia, but hasn't lived there in quite some time. She has spent time living in Oman, and from what I gather, other parts of the Middle East as well. I think she also spent some time working as a lecturer. In her current position, she is responsible for purchasing all of the food/stuff that is required for multiple airlines that fly out of Addis. They also provide food/stuff to private flights. She told me about how the operation works, the challenges they ecounter meeting the wants of high profile clients (like when they get requests for Haagen Dazs), and the stress that sometimes comes with schedule changes and the difficulty of getting many things in Addis.

It was fascinating, and actually sounds like a very dynamic and rewarding job. I can imagine that each day brings something new, and that it is rarely boring (can't say the same for my job here at the UN). It also got me thinking again about something one of my professors said this semester. It was something along the lines of ...you should be honest about what your passion is and if you love to cook and want to be a chef, you should be a chef and you shouldn't be in policy school. When he said that, there was a brief moment when I thought maybe I should walk out of the room and quit school. But, luckily I have multiple passions, and hopefully I can one day combine them. Maybe I will open a pastry shop with all the money I'm going to make working in development. 

Bottom line: It's fun to learn new stuff and I love to bake.

Rainy Days

I haven't felt inspired to write in the past few days. Perhaps I have the "it's cloudy or raining all the time and i miss the sun blues." Today was an especially lovely morning as I woke up and didn't have electricity. I peeked outside to see if any of the staff were awake, but none were, so I braved a cold shower. I only managed for about a minute. 50 degree temperatures plus ice cold water is not so enjoyable. When I lived in Namibia, we used to save money by not turning on the hot water heater. I have no idea how I took cold showers there where it was much colder. Today it was almost impossible, and after doing so and shivering for the next hour, I decided never again. I will just go to work dirty.

Let's just be honest...the weather in Addis right now is terrible. But it will surely make the 100+ temperatures much more bearable when I return to Austin. Ethiopians seem to manage just fine in the cold. They wear a light sweater or a light jacket, and often wear a gabi (which is kind of like a large scarf) to cover their upper body. I have been looking for a jacket/sweaters but the lovely Chinese imports are just a bit too pricey for my budget. I don't want to spend 600 birr ($35) for a cheaply made sweater. On the positive side, the rain is great for farmers outside the city, and I will try to keep them in mind when I am next caught in a torrential downpour with my $5 umbrella.