Quick Notes

Not sure how regular the blog entries are going to be now that I am
traveling. Not sure how regular they were in the first place.

My parents got here the other day, and despite the eight time zones
they crossed, we did more in their first day in Addis than I did in my
first month.

We are in Lalibela now. It is pretty amazing. We aren't going to be
here for Ethiopian Christmas, but that's okay. Christmas was never
really a big deal for me anyway. Had Hanukah with kids from another
orphanage, not sure if Jewish indoctrination that they don't
understand is any better than Christian, there were potato pancakes
though..

It was sad to say goodbye to the AHOPE kids.

Next up is Gonder and the Simien Mountains for New Year's and then on
to Tanzania. Not a lot of internet connections I imagine, but I don't
think that will ruin it. Have taken some amazing (in my humble
opinion) pictures, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to upload.

Happy Holidays.

Basketball

Soccer is clearly the most popular sport here. As I have mentioned
before, not having a favorite English Premier League club results in
social awkwardness from time to time. The kids even play in an orphan
soccer league, and they are actually pretty good (they pass and
everything). However someone went to the effort of putting a
basketball hoop up at AHOPE and I think it is my duty to make sure it
is put to good use.

There is not a lot of basketball in Ethiopia. I'm told, in some
African countries (where the populace is a little taller on average no
doubt) such as Angola and Senegal there is a fair amount of basketball
played. However in Ethiopia just the fact that there is a reasonable
facsimile of a backboard is quite an achievement. The one at AHOPE was
clearly fabricated by some local welder, one wonders if he had any
idea what he was making. The rim and net I'm told were brought into
the country in someone's checked luggage. Regardless, though it is
about 9 and a half feet off the ground, it is very functional.

The most common use for it unfortunately is a game where kids take
turns trying to kick a soccer ball through the 8-inch space between it
and a wall. Now I am by no means a stellar basketball player by
American standards (or even European standards these days), but in
Ethiopia I can hold my own, and serendipitously one of the
tutor/teachers is supposedly on the Ethiopian basketball B-team
(though I'm not sure if this means anything, or is even true), Him and
I fostering the nascent growth of basketball at AHOPE. And we are
succeeding, not that we have brought down soccer or anything (not
that I would want to), but the cumulative field goal percentage as
well as total shot attempts have both increased significantly since my
arrival. Even my skills are a little sharper, though when I get home,
all of my shots will probably be 6inches short (same as it ever was).

When I say goodbye to the kids of AHOPE at the end of this week I'm
not sure how much lasting impact I will have. The kids may forget
their English lessons and their multiplication tables, but I will be
happy if a few more jump shots are going through the net.

Foods I Eat

Injera
I don't really understand people who say they don't like injera. I
agree it doesn't really taste very good by itself, but you don't eat
it plain. I think people who say they don't like injera just aren't
putting enough spicy food on it. It really goes well with spicy food.

Sambusas
I have been eating a lot of sambusas recently. People sometimes get
sambusas confused with samosas (or even with samusas for all the Burma
Superstar fans), because they are fried triangles of goodness, but
sambusas are clearly the best. I prefer the lentil ones, though I'm
told the meat ones are quite good as well (thankfully the lentil ones
are more prevelent here). They have protein and are delicious and are
the perfect 10cent snack.

Bananas
Bananas here are much tougher their del monte cousins. They can have
quite a few black marks on the outside and the inside remains
unscathed. They are a little daunting at first, because they look a
little beat up, but they are basically good normal (aren't I
enthocentric) bananas once you get past the lack of aesthetics.

Good Restaurants
I have been eating at quite a few good restaurants recently. I am
really realizing my time in Addis is wrapping up, and I am trying to
get everything in. Therefore I have splurged at little recently.
Eating at classy restaurants in the developing is still a good deal
comparatively, dropping 20 dollars gets you a five star meal. This one
restaurant, Castelli's, is evidently Bradgelia's and Bill Clintons
favorite restaurant in town, and I would tend to agree (though a
couple places I have been to have really good homemade pasta). However
the next day I am defintely an easy target for the beggars as it's
hard not to feel guilty for spending what people make in a month on
one meal.

Doctor Rick's

Although I am about to leave Addis, I feel like I have settled into
the ex-pat scene here, confirmed by my visit to Dr. Rick's house. I
did not visit this doctor because I had any rare disease (that would
truly cement my local status). Rather, I went to one of his regular
Friday night dinners, that evidently are a staple of ex-pat life in
Addis Ababa.

Dr. Rick is an MD from Long Island, who came to Ethiopia twenty years
ago, and basically never left. He works as a doctor doing various
incredible things including rounds at Mother Teresa's clinic,
traveling to surrounding countries and performing miracles (on Friday
he had just flew in from Rwanda where he is helping to start an
orphanage for 500 kids who lost their parents to the genocide), he
also raises thousands of dollars to send kids with a rare spinal
disorder to a specialist in Ghana for surgery, and he's taken in
around 20 orphans (most of them were around for dinner, all had
excellent manners). If you are interested in more details, I'm sure
you can google him (I'm told there was a recent reader's digest
article about him). He is a pretty mild mannered guy, the first thing
he asked me about was where I went to college, and weirdly enough he
also is a Middlebury alum, he even sent one of his sons out to photo
copy an article about Tanzania he had for me.

Anyway, every Friday he has dinner at his house that anyone is welcome
to come to (somewhat shabbat related). The food was great (all
vegetarian), and the crowd was classic. Apart from his bakers dozen of
boys, there was a medical student from Chicago, his volunteer
assistant from Michigan, a few Israelis, and an motley crew
representing your typical faranjosh (white people) in Addis. I ended
up talking with this one guy from LA that escorted a kid back to
Ethiopia who had surgery in America. He seemed like your normal
traveler working for some foundation, talking about buying
handicrafts, selling them in the States and giving all the profits
back to an NGO here, etc.

Only after we left did I find out, that the person I was talking was
not just your average faranji. He was Mel Gibson's Son! He said he was
raised outside LA and didn't seem to have too much direction in his
life, but he didn't talk like William Wallace or anything.
This is Addis.

Weekend Warrior

So I've been going on weekend trips, getting out of the city, fresh
air, wildlife, etc. And they have been really great. It feels like
Africa.

They have definitely lived up to expectations. This weekend we went to
Awash National Park. 3+ hours from Addis out in the bush. There was a
hot spring oasis, a volcano, local tribesmen with AK47s, oryx's, and
hotel from 1907 when the French built the railroad, everything you'd
want.

We hired a driver in Addis, recommended from another driver. He had to
borrow a Land Cruiser, but we figured it would be fine, his job was
"driver".

However the reason Ethiopians are such nice drivers in general is
because there are so few of them. The Majority of Habesha cannot
drive, and the one's that do have a lot less time behind the wheel
than your average Californian..

Our driver had never driven off of a paved road before, which made the
rutted roads of the park quite an experience for him, not to mention
us. He seemed more like a guy wealthy enough to own a car making money
on the side, then a driver (he took more pictures than we did). But
the kicker was that the battery connection in the Land Crusier was so
corroded that the car would rarely start the first time one turned the
key. Not to discount the ingenuity of the men of the developing world
in general (Max you can tell them about Rurrenbaque to La Paz), it was
temporarily fixed a few times by hammering a screw between the clamp
and the battery with a rock so the connection could be made, 30K from
a road. And it worked every time, sometimes with a few sparks and a
little smoke, but it eventually worked every time, until we were on
the way home, stopping for dinner in Nazeret one of Ethiopia's bigger
towns. It died completely. We (the four of us, along with a half dozen
other guys who were around) tried everything from pushing the car to
get it moving(as buses passed us on the right), to holding the battery
cable with pliers (not something I was willing to do). But by 8:30 it
was still not working, and as the last mini-buses were passing us
heading to Addis, we were a little worried.

Eventually a "mechanic" arrived on the scene, and with a little copper
wire, the day (or the night) was saved. After a prolonged argument
about how much the driver should give the crowd of people who helped
us, we were off again with no more turning off the engine (even to get
gas) all the way home..

Food

Because Karlita asked:

If you are familiar with Ethiopian restaurants in America you might
think that Ethiopia would be a great place for a vegetarian. Many
ethiopian spots back home (at least in such concentrated vegetarian
capitals such as Berkeley/Oakland) seem to market themselves to the
vegi crowd. However in Ethiopia it is a different story.

While there is a wide variety of vegetarian items endemic to the
traditional food, anyone who can afford it, will eat meat with every
meal. So that means the restaurants are a little meat heavy. The
exception to this is Wednesdays and Fridays which are traditional
Orthodox fasting days. On these days the full range of vegi options
are usually available.

On fasting days, I can go anywhere and get a big plate of assorted
piles of vegetable mush on injera for two or three dollars, and as I
think I've mentioned before, it is far superior to what you'd get
abroad. However on the other five days on the week I am constantly
searching for good places to eat, and I have found quite a few, but it
is not assured that I can eat well on a Tuesday night.

I am not starving. There is almost always shiro, and I like shiro. And
I have great lunches at work everyday that always include vegetable
options. Plus, there are many restaurants around that serve reasonable
facsimiles of western food (I think there is an aphorism: no matter
where you go, there is always pizza. Although one interesting twist on
that, often the vegi-pizza in ethiopia comes sans cheese and I have
had some difficulty communicating that I actually want vegetables AND
cheese.

to be continued..

Christianity

To say that Ethiopia is a religious country is an understatement. The
first night I arrived I was awoken at 4am (I went to bed an hour
earlier after getting in at 2:30) by chanting. It sounded to me like
it was the proletariat ready for the revolution, but it actually was
just the average night chanting from the local Orthodox Church.

They say there is a big Muslim population as well, but I would
estimate it in Addis Ababa at about 10%, everyone else seems to be
some form of Christian. The Westerners too, the place is like
Christian Disney Land to American evangelicals. Probably the majority
of the tourists are organized Christian tour groups. There is
everything they want in a vacation, from the amazing rock hewn
churches to plenty of poor Christians to have mercy for.

AHOPE is supposedly not religious. However everyone who works there
is, and the kids are definitely indoctrinated. Groups frequently stop
by to sing religious songs with the kids and give them candy. I think
the kids are starting to associate sugar with God. I definitely cringe
a little, but there's not much I can do (other than set an example).
The AHOPE staff definitely have a skewed idea of what America is like,
due to their contact with mostly Americans who are seriously
religious. I was asked the other day about home-schooling being normal
in America… I worry a little about the kids who get adopted by
heathens and how they will react to their parents' views.

Every Ethiopian I know here is very religious, and they might be a
little appalled by me. I try to be non-judgmental (at least outwardly)
but stay true to what I believe without being too offensive. At first
the questions would stop when I told them I was Jewish, they at least
had heard of Judaism, so it made sense to them. But we have definitely
gotten into some sensitive territory, ie the frequency of my church
attendance, stances on gay marriage and abortion, etc. I'm sure, just
like in the US not everyone is quite as religious as they say. Half
the office is in their mid to late 20's and is supposedly waiting
until marriage, while prostitution and AIDS is unfortunately rampant.

I always was interested in religion, studied it in college, etc., and
I guess immersion is always the best way to learn. Hopefully my
presence as an apostate but also as a good person might open some
peoples eyes as well. Anyways I am thinking of starting to tell people
I am a 7th Day Adventist to explain the vegetarianism..