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22. Addis Ababa
3/16/2019
After leaving southern Africa, we needed a place to stay put for a while in order to get some work done and take a break from the constant traveling of the previous month. So, for a variety of reasons (including geography, and, our love of Ethiopian food!), we decided to spend a few weeks in Ethiopia on our way to Europe, the next destination on our year-long journey.
For the first two weeks, we booked an inexpensive guesthouse in the middle of a bustling neighborhood of Addis Ababa. The sights, sounds, and smells were pretty typical for a large city in the developing world and in some ways the scene was like a less chaotic version of the cities we visited in India a few years ago.
The entrance to the alley where we stayed in Addis.
The egg vendor at the entrance to our alley.
A brief walk down the alley
towards our guesthouse.
View of our guesthouse.
The balcony right outside our bedroom.
The common kitchen was clean and functional,
though in need of some repairs.
The enclosed yard of our guesthouse.
Our neighborhood was definitely not for "neat freaks" or those needing order and cleanliness. Our guesthouse, though a bit run down, was very clean and safe and the largest and most permanent structure on our alley. Right next door was a row of shacks made mostly from corrugated steel.
A side-alley off of our alley.
Our alley was off of a main road with many small shops and vendors setup in makeshift and more permanent structures. We were only a few blocks from a drainage ditch that served as dump and sewer for many in the neighborhood.
Scene along the main street near our alley.
Street vendors and customers.
Brief video of street scene.
Bagging charcoal to sell.
Goats and trash along the side of the road.
The ditch a few block from our guesthouse—
it was used for trash and sewage.
A butcher and customer along the side of the street.
We had to purchase all of our drinking water as we were told not to trust the tap water. We sampled some amazing coffee from street-side vendors, and enjoyed a few meals in the "hole in the wall" restaurants, though in the end we found better options in a slightly more upscale neighborhood not too far away.
In addition to the sights and the sounds, it's really the smells that bring alive these neighborhoods to me. Think of a blend of diesel smoke, coffee, wood/charcoal smoke, aromatic Ethiopian cooking spices, open latrines, burning plastic, and incense. At times these combine in some strange synergistic way that is uniquely Addis. Other times the combined diesel fumes and other smoke reminded me of other developing countries we've visited. And, at times the pockets of air we walked through, or, breezes that blew by were infused with the smell of Ethiopian cooking—in those moments, breathing was a wonderful and exotic treat.
Another street scene.
Incredibly tasty Ethiopian food.
Produce stand.
Our two weeks in Addis were definitely not the most relaxing of our time in Africa, but our experience there was very "real." And though we clearly weren't living like most of the residents of the local neighborhood (we weren't staying in a shack after all, and, we could afford to buy clean drinking water), we were surrounded by conditions similar to those in which much of the world's population wakes up each morning. Humbling, to say the least.
Typical scaffolding.
There is a lot of construction going on in Addis,
though progress seems very slow.
Scene along the main street.
View over the wall in our alley.
In this picture, I wanted to show the efforts to plant flowers
amidst the trash—then I noticed that one piece of trash
was a Michael Jordan basketball card.