Even better than the “ancient” forest, was the stop at the Meta Brewery on the way back to Addis. We had heard that they had decent food and cold drafts, so it sounded like the perfect lunch break. Little did we know that this was one of the most popular places for Ethiopians to spend a Sunday afternoon. The place was slammed, and why wouldn’t it be? There is a giant swimming pool, and huge outdoor seating area with a gorgeous view of the mountains. You pay four birr (25 cents) for entry, then your first 24-ounze beer is ten Ethiopian cents. That’s right, .006 cents, officially the cheapest beer I have ever had…and enjoyed. Not a bad way to end a good weekend. AH!

*Andrea and Gabe are the other Jeremy and Kim. No really, it’s creepy. They met in the Peace Corps in Lesotho, lived together while they each finished graduate school, got married, and lived in Washington DC before they moved to Ethiopia for Gabe’s job. Andrea spent four months looking for work before she wound up at the International Rescue Committee, managing refugee-related grants (which is my job except I manage the non-refugee-related grants). See- creepy.

Put on your bell-bottoms and platform shoes folks ‘cause we are rocking back to the seventies to go bowling in Addis. Okay, maybeit’s more like the fifties or sixties, but whatever decade, this alley takes you way back! And let me tell you that I am an amazing retro bowler…if I do say so myself. Perhaps it’s the uneven floorboards or the rickety pins, but I bowl strike after strike at this alley (compared to my normal “hooray it’s not a gutter ball!” mentality at any modern place).

Uneven floorboards and undulating ceiling!

The biggest disadvantage of the retro bowling alley is the low ceiling. Especially after a few cold beers, you have to watch that you don’t slam your forehead during an overly enthusiastic roll. Then you watch as the pins go falling down because the transition is the best part of the retro bowling experience. No electronic pick up machines, it’s all manual: you get a guy swinging down from above to pick up and re-set the pins by hand.  And, yes, he expects a tip at the end of the game.

 

Jeremy trying to gage the playing field while using the ceiling for leverage.

 

 

The bowling balls have been corked and re-drilled a few too many times.

 

 

If you look closely you can just see the pin setter! He was tipped well at the end of the game.

Inspiration!

 

COSTCO. I should have known I would miss giant bottles of decent wine, huge slabs of salmon, and buying goat cheese by the pound.

Parking lots. I suppose this is one of those “you don’t appreciate them until they’re gone” kind of things. Having a designated area to park is quite useful. They are also good for practicing driving a stick shift.

Happy hour.  Jeremy and I are senior citizens trapped in 30-year-old bodies. Thus, we love the early social gathering. Fun with friends, home by nine, that’s my kind of night.

Radio. There is one English radio channel in Addis. Yesterday it played a mix of Michael Bolton and old school rap blends. Not that I don’t love my old school rap, but I miss NPR and choosing stations with particular musical themes based on my mood.

Coffee-on-the-go. In a country known for coffee, I am shocked to discover that I miss coffee of any kind. Ethiopians know how to thrown down a delicious double macchiato. Now we just need to put that in a paper cup with a lid. Coffee shouldn’t always constitute a thirty minute break.

Our couch. It was so comfy.

At the same time, I have been surprised to discover that there are things I thought I would miss, that I do not pine over at all…

Blackberries. I DO miss the fruit. I DO NOT miss the communication devices.

Television. Every once in awhile a friend comes through and mentions Project Runway or the last season of Lost and I feel a tiny pang of “Oh, I miss watching petty fights between wannabe designers!.” But for the most part, I do not miss American TV at all. We get our small doses through series on DVD (How I Met Your Mother is our current favourite, followed by The Wire), and that is satisfying and time-bound.

Shopping for clothes. Once a year in the U.S. is plenty of shopping for me. It’s really nice not to worry about it during the remaining 11 months of the year.

Internet. We have it, but we cannot sit on it all day. It’s easier than I thought to prioritize what we need from the internet, then leave the rest to conversation or mystery.

I spent the past week traveling for work* in southern Ethiopia, specifically in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR). My colleagues and I were conducting a post-project assessment of a water, sanitation, and hygiene program. The idea was to visit project sites to see how the constructed water systems were holding up and if the local communities had retained some of the good hygiene behaviors promoted by

the project. What we spent a lot of time doing was getting stuck in the mud. I tried to explain to my Ethiopian co-travelers that in the southern areas of the U.S. we actually do this for fun. “It’s called ‘muddin’’ and I suppose it makes more sense when you’re not really trying to get anywhere.”

After loosing control of the truck and sliding into a donkey cart, waiting for two guys with axes to chop up a tree that had fallen into the road, and watching my male colleagues try their best to keep their shoes clean while pushing the car out of a giant mud pit (there are some advantages to being the only woman in the group), we finally made it to our sites. It was pretty amazing to see the work that our staff had done, and talk to communities that for the first time had access to clean water.

I think I’m going to like this job!

*It’s true. I’m officially, permanently, ecstatically, employed. I am the program officer for the host community projects at the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

Ever since I arrived I have been dreading the rainy season. Anyone who knows me knows that a daily dose of sunshine and heat is a very necessary mood medicine. But what has been a nice surprise is that after the twelve hours of wet, we almost always get a day of gorgeous. At least once a week I wake up to the kind of sunny morning that forces me to take my coffee outside and spend the morning touring facebook on the patio in my sunglasses. It is a pleasant seventy degrees and I bust out my skirt for work. I may get muddy feet, but it’s so nice out I spend my lunch hour walking around. At least I can remember those little pieces of sunny as I watch another wall of cloud make its way towards us that afternoon!

Rules of the Road in Ethiopia:

(1) Sometimes traffic police will be standing in or near the road. When they are present they are the rule of law and all shall do as instructed by them. Otherwise, there are no rules.

(2) Stop lights and stop signs are extremely rare (functioning ones are even rarer).  When coming upon an unregulated intersection, look in every direction (not just left and right) for other vehicles also coming to the intersection. Continue moving into the intersection eyeing all vehicles; signal the direction you intend to go. Slow down slightly, but DO NOT come to a stop.  Begin to move in the direction you signaled, blocking traffic if necessary. If other vehicles are not slowing down, then they have the right-of-way. Keep moving in your intended direction until other cars stop to let you go through the intersection or you have inched your way into the intersection to block enough traffic to finish the turn. 

(3) Lanes are meaningless and you should not feel confined to their limited perspective. Feel free to occupy any portion of the road not already occupied by another vehicle. If a vehicle wants to pass, but you have not given them sufficient space on your left or right, they will honk and possibly flash their lights at you to request your cooperation. 

(4) Checking blind spots is considered a waste of time.  Vehicles will move to the left or right at will.  If you happen to be in their blind spot then you should give a few short honks to let them know you are there.

(5) Just because the roads authority has put in a turn lane does not mean the vehicle in front of you will move into the turn lane. Cars do not feel the need to wait their turn to make a turn. They will pull up alongside one or two other cars into the middle of the road, piling three deep until they inch out enough to make the turn all three at once.

(6) In Addis Ababa, it is “illegal” to talk on a cell phone while driving or to give money to beggars while stopped at an intersection (See rule number 1).

(7) Drivers who hit and kill a pedestrian will serve a minimum of 2 years in prison (See pedestrian rules below.)

(8) Pedestrians never have the right of way and are at the mercy of drivers to let them cross the street (see rule number 1). The chances of vehicles allowing pedestrians to cross the street are only slightly increased if they are trying to use the crosswalk (see rule number 9).
 
(9) Although the vast majority of pedestrians never use a crosswalk, it is “illegal” for pedestrians to cross the street outside of the crosswalk.

(10) Although cars will happily “bump” into pedestrians as they pull off the street into a “parking lot”/sidewalk, they barely blink an eye if a car happens to stop in the middle of the road to unload passengers, or say hello to a friend, or take a smoke break, they simply go around or come to a stop and wait.

(11) The speed limit is determined only by your ability to dodge donkeys, people, carts, and other cars in the road.

On that note, I owe you an apology for the long delay. But do not fret: I’m back and I promise more consistent updates.