To start the day off, we took our FIRST TAXI!!! (yes, this is a selfie in a taxi. I REALLLY wanted to take a picture but I REALLY didn’t want to look like a tourist, but then I realized that people could tell I was a tourist by looking at me, and I’d rather remember my first Ethiopian taxi than care about the impression people get of me in a 20 minute taxi ride. So we took a picture). At first I thought Brittany and I would be able to figure out the taxi system to get places by ourselves…. Most definitely not. To catch the taxi, you stand on the side of the road and wait for one to pull up. You have to push past all the other people who are standing next to you in order to get INTO the taxi, and then you crawl in the van that seats 12 but holds 20. There’s a guy who “operates” the door, and the taxi starts moving as he hops in, and you’re usually up to a decent speed before he closes the door. Then he starts collecting $$ from everyone as they tell him where they want to go. We definitely would have gotten ripped off if Meti weren’t with us, so she was the “forengie protector” of the day. Most people were REALLY nice, and they laughed at me when I tried to speak Amheric. One guy even gave me lessons during one of our taxi rides! We ended up taking about 10 taxi’s that day – because they’re “group taxi’s”, each one only goes between a couple locations. So it’s kind of like a mini-bus system, but you get to tell the driver where to stop in between the locations. Apparently a “private” taxi is 300 birr/ride: we made a maximum of 6 birr/person. P.s. “Sost sou” means “we are 3” (that’s what you tell the $$ collector when you pay in order to pay for 3 people).
Stop #2 was at the lion zoo! Meti asked last weekend what my
expectations of Africa were, and I told her I didn’t have any. Except when I picture Africa I don’t picture
cities, I picture safari land and lions.
Somehow we got across that I’d never seen a lion (I forgot about the ones
at the Atlanta zoo), but she got really excited and said she would take me the
Lion Zoo! It’s exactly what it sounds like – a zoo with the main attractions of
lions. And then about 10 monkeys, and
this old man bird (his hair is graying and everything). I told him he was ugly and I think he got
offended because he squaked at me, so I took his picture to make him feel better. The zoo here was a LOT different than the
Atlanta zoo (go figure). We walked
around this one in 20 minutes max, and there was zero effort to even make it
look like the animals were in their natural habitats. The lions just sat in cages all day with a
little room to pace – some of the monkeys had a tree to climb on, but that’s about
it. If I were an animal, I would
DEFINITELY rather be American.
Stop #3: Addis Ababa University! We couldn’t go in because
we didn’t have student badges, but this is the Technology part! It’s almost
like the entrance to GT…
Stop #4: LUNCH!!! We stopped at a restaurant across from the
university, and it might have been my favorite part of the day. Mainly because
I felt like a local because it’s where a lot of the college students eat! And we
got to eat lunch traditional style (aka with our hands and all off the same
plate). It was a lot of fun. Weirdest thing ever happened to me – I was
CRAVING Shiro (mashed up beans). Like,
that’s all I wanted to eat. I think
Ethiopianization is happening faster than I thought.
Stop #5: Mt. Entoto! Some Americans I met at the
international school told me a lot of people go running/walking on Mt. Entoto,
and Meti had never been before, so we decided to give it a try. It was kind of a bust. I don’t know what she was expecting, but she’s
definitely not a hiker. It took us 4
taxi’s just to get up the mountain, and then when we got to the top it was just
a little country town in the mountains.
I LOVED it, and I hope I’ll get some time to come back and bring a book
and just walk around/sit on top of the mountain and read. The view must have been beautiful, but I
think I was the only one who wanted to hike to find it, so we kind of just
walked around for a bit and then went back down the mountain. It was really cool to see the rural community
that was just functioning by itself.
There was a beautiful Orthodox church on top of the hill, so Brittany and
I might try to go back one day and explore a bit.
Stop #5.5 Sugar cane! On the way home we passed somebody
selling sugar cane, so we decided to try it.
I’ve seen a lot of kids eating it, but it’s WAY harder than they make it
look! You have to rip off the skin with your teeth, and I couldn’t even bite
into it! We got lots of funny stares and chuckles when people saw forengies
trying it in the middle of the street… whoops.
Overall it was an AMAZING day. I loved getting to know Meti better and was
so thankful for the way she just laid aside her day so that she could show us
around the city. It was really good to
get out and feel like we were taking advantage of Ethiopia, and I loved getting
to see things from a local’s perspective.
p.s. random thought #2 – we’re trying to start small groups
in the youth program, and trial #1 was yesterday. Deep relationships aren’t really valued here,
so it’s a pretty new concept that not a lot of them are used to. Usually I would be against trying to “change
a culture”, but I’ve seen SO much come from the ability to be vulnerable with
my friends, so I actually think if we can model how to open up to each other,
it could be something really cool for their community. Yesterday we lead Zenebech, Gamede, Liquitu,
Simbo, Bontu, Abezu, Sena, and Lensa.
Prayers for openness/fellowship/our ability to be open and vulnerable
with each other would be greatly appreciated!
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