I just wanted to post a little about my time up in Addis. I have been to church here twice, and it has been a spiritual boost. The last two weeks on the farm we didn't have any church meetings, so it was definitely a good thing to get up here, where the church functions well, with sacrament meeting, sunday school and RS and piresthood meetings. There are two couple missionaries here, the O'Crowleys who are humanitarian missionares, and another couple I can't remember their last name. That's so typical for me. Brother O'Crowley teaches the sunday school gospel doctrine class and it has been wonderful to sit in his class and listen and participate in the old testament discussions. It has been a blessing to be there, and we will be there again on Nov. 7, the day that Morgan and Andrew fly in to Addis. the church grounds are beautiful and peaceful - I can't say that about any other place here in Addis. You can tell you are somewhere special when you are there.
Most my days here have been spent with Kate Hill, Alyssa's 18 year old sister. She is full of spirit and fun and welcomes adventure. She has done a lot while she has been here in the country. We have been out taking in the city of Addis. We went to the mercado on Saturday and we were immediately approached by a man who told us he would show us around. He obviously thought we were going to be easy prey. However, unbeknownst to him, we weren't really all that interested in buying anything, just looking. After about an hour we tried to lose him, and we did for about 5 minutes. When he found us again he was angry and said we made him tired. I told him that he didn't need to stay with us and he could leave us. He started swearing at me and angrily took off. Oh well, he just wanted a commission anyway. I did buy some necklaces after that and Kate got some beads for her hair. Oh yeah, Kate got her hair put in dread locks last week. I like them and think she looks very cool. The ladies at the hair salon didn't think she should do it, but they did it for her anyway. Then she bought a very Bob Marley type hat and she has some real cool Ethiopian color sandals, and I'm beginning to think she fits right in here. Much more than I do. It seems that when we go anywhere together she gets all these guys who want to get her phone number and talk to her, and I get young boys who want to sell me "How to Speak Amharic" books. Funny. We have also been to Piazza (an area well known for jewelry sales), the Shola market (traditional clothing and textiles mostly), and lots of souvenir type shops. We have been to some very good restaurants - Camionetta, The Beer Garden, The Olympia, Deuce, Effoi Pizza, and a lot of hamburger and pizza places.
I have to tell you about Deuce. Kate said that you could get really good American hamburgers there, but she had never been there. Marty, a guy who works here told us it was a dive, and we might not want to eat there and he told us how to get there - kind of. There are no addresses here that people use, you just have to know where to go and how to get there. So when we got our taxi driver, we called Marty and he talked to our taxi driver and explained how to get to Deuce. Well we missed it the first time around because it is in a very strange place. Then when we finally found it we walked into this place that looked like a dive, and there were a lot of people sitting around eating in a very small room. They all were startled when Kate and I walked in and I smiled at a guy and said' "We're here for hamburgers!" They just stared and after a second or two they laughed and said there were no hamburgers. They told us nextdoor there were hamburgers. It was so dark and that was the only place that had lights on, so I was feeling a little worried. We went into a really dark place that had a fire in a little front area place and then when our eyes adjusted we could see that there was a room in back. So we headed for it and ended up in a very small bar, even smaller than where we had just come from. We saw a guy who looked like the bar tender and Kate started talking in her Ethiopian accented English and said "Weee want hamburgers, TWO! He looked really bored and said, "I speak English," in a pretty good American accent. We were so relieved. We hopped up on some high stools at a very wobbly table and awaited out hamburgers, all the time laughing at what dorks we were. Also I think some of it was nerves because we were in such a scarey place, but the owner (bartender) turned out to be very nice and we even had a conversation about how he was going to add french fries to his menu, but for now it was too expensive. He had lived in Philadelphia and learned to speak better English while he was there. When the hamburgers came he apologized again that he couldn't give us french fries. The hamburgers were really good, and the best thing about them was that they didn't have that chopped salad type stuff loaded on them like most Ethiopian burgers. Also the buns were really good. Too bad about the fries and the black walls and two little Christmas lights he used for lighting. Kate said it was as good as McDonalds and he just laughed. We were really fortunate that the electricity didn't go out. It goes off on average about every other day for a few hours, if not all day. That's the hard part about Addis, not realiable public services. Same with the water - sometimes it's on and sometimes it isn't.
One day we walked into the church grounds across the street. They said we could come in but not go in the church. I think it was because we weren't wearing skirts and scarves. We did peer in the church and it had a good sized crowd and there was a lot of incense being burned inside. The chapel part was full of incense smoke. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures, in fact we were followed around by a little guard who made sure I wouldn't take any. The church name translates to John the Baptist. It is an Ethiopian Orthodox church, and it has chantings and prayers and songs going at all hours of the day and night over the loud speaker. Sometimes at night and in the early morning it drives me nuts, and I wish I had access to a gun and was a sharpshooter and I'd blast that loud speaker to kingdom come. The other night it started at 2:00 am and didn't stop all day. It must have been a holdiday. Like in Costa Rica, this country has holidays all the time and 90 percent of them are Christian religion holidays.
There are beggars on all the streets, mothers, children as young as Leah, young boys and girls, old men and women. They are so in need. Some of them have terrible physical ailments and some are just homeless children alone without parents. They may have been aboandoned or they may have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS or tuberculosis or some other disease. It is a terrible situation and the country can't even cope with it except to make ridiculous laws against begging and fine the beggars for begging. I keep wondering why there are such differences in this world. Why is everything so good in the US and everything so poor in Africa. For I know it is not just Ethiopia, but most African countries that have such economic problems. It is hard to walk by and not be compelled to do something, even if it is giving 1 birr ET.
I'm flying to the farm tomorrow. I was supposed to go on Tuesday, but the plane that was scheduled to take us was in Nairobi Kenya the night before and for some reason couldn't get clearance to get out of Kenya to fly home to Addis. So our flight has been delayed two days, and I will see Alan tomorrow after 16 days of being in Addis. The weather here is mostly perfect. The plants that grow here are amazing. It doesn't get too hot or too cold, just very rainy in July - September. Alan is worried about the no-rain situation on the farm. He was advised against planting so much grain early by Haile, but had to plant it anyway, because that's what he was told to do by others in the company. Now some of it is just sitting in dry dirt and will either not germinate or will die because it can't get enough moisture. Some of the Ethiopians are wondering why the grain doesn't grow. They were told that this Jefferson wheat would grow without any moisture. Hmmmm, how did that little idea get put in their heads? Alan has to explain that it is a drought tolerant variety not drought proof. What a disappointment this rainy season has been. No rain to speak of, I wonder if any of my flowers are going to be alive when I get back to the farm. I hope so - hope springs eternal.
Just a week and a half and then we will see faces from home. Everyone here and down at the farm are amazed, happy and excited that Morgan and her family are coming. The two little blondies are going to be loved and petted and spoiled when we get to the farm. Everyone is eagerly awaiting their arrival. My next post just might have pictures of all of that. Until next time.
