Yod Abyssinia...

I was waiting outside of The Sub-Saharan Informer in downtown Addis Ababa (by the way, Ababa means "flower" in Amharic) and this young man and his flock walked by on their way to the market. What I liked best was his "goat scarf" which he had around his neck.

A couple of nights before I left, the Capital staff and Tabotu Michael took me out to Yod Abyssinia, a traditional Ethiopian restaurant so I could enjoy more delightfully tasty local foods but more importantly, so I could get a feel for Ethiopian dance, music and dress of the other regions of the country.

The dancers and their body parts moved in ways I did not know one's neck, chest, arms, shoulders and more could move.

This is our group, seated around a table and we all ate off the same tray. Teguest, the GM at Capital is to your far left; I am seated next to Tabotu, the IREX woman who kept everything working smoothly; Eniyat, third from your right is the Advertising/Marketing manager; Seble, the finance manager is next and then, Salomon, the operations manager is to your right. I am missing Groum from this photo...he is the deputy editor and a delightfully funny young man.

This is the platter that fed us all.
There are about 10 different dishes placed on this tray along with spices and the rolled up pieces are injera bread which one tears apart and unroll as you eat. Very messy. Very tasty. And very fun. Everyone just reaches in, tears a piece of bread off, dips in cheese, spices and then grabs up a tiny portion and pops the food directly into their mouth. Only I used napkins and tried to clean my fingers after each bite. They use one hand, their right, and just eat til finished. One washes one's hands both before beginning to eat and right after. Love it.

The Lions...and more

This is a photo of Haile Selassie on horseback and while the photo is awful, it reminded me of Simon Bolivar on horseback which I saw in every town throughout Colombia. Bolivar would be in the central plaza and this just made me smile. My driver said he didn't think Selassie was like this in other towns, which made me sad. Trying to find parallels amongst peoples.

This lion symbolizes Ethiopia's strength and was erected while the Lion of Judah, below, a symbol of King/Emperor Haile Selassies' reign was out of the country.

The Lion of Judah was taken to Italy during the Mussolini occupation and was returned to Ethiopia in the 1960's. Everyone asked if I had seen this statue and there was much pride in the return of this...in fact, while in the National Museum early in my stay, many of the artifacts and records had been returned to Ethiopia...apparently, much had been taken by the British and there is a movement afoot to repatriate the Ethiopian treasures.

The Dergue Monument, Ethio-Cuban Relationships

The Communist bond of years past is marked by the Dergue monument. This is Mangusto Haile Mariam leading the Ethiopian charge and interestingly, the dress and the faces of the people he is leading in this monument look quite American and don't have either Cuban or Ethiopian features.

And here is Castro leading the troops in the other direction. There was also a photo gallery of those who lost their lives during the conflict...but only the Cubans who died were memorialized.

And the center of the monument is this tower, featuring the red star, the hammer and the sickle.

Here the soldiers do reflect the ethnic features one would expect on fighters from Cuba and Ethiopia. Mussolini and the Italians occupied Ethiopia for several years and consequently, when one listens to people speaking in Amharic, one can hear Italian and Spanish words, as well as English woven into their conversations. I enjoyed that a lot because I could often get the gist of what was being said, so could ask a question and APPEAR intelligent. It upset folks to think I might be able to understand what they were saying!

King Menelik, palace and church

This is King Menelik's palace dating from 1883. The inside was moldy and they are in the process of redoing the grass roof. The compound was surprisingly small, while the church was incredibly large. There were rooms for the women to sleep apart from the men and servants slept in a totally separate hut.

This is the octaganol Orthodox church in Menelik's palace compound. Mass has just finished when we arrived but women were inside ululating and it was very beautiful to hear.

Tower next to Menelik's church. We couldn't go inside this for some reason and when I asked what was inside, the church guide said, "nothing."

Church Ragual, Ehtiopian Orthodox

This photo is very dark...or at least, very dark with the sun shining in on my computer in my garage office here in Caseville. I am hoping you can see The Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If it doesn't come through, scroll down because the others are much better. This photo was up near the ceiling about 45 feet above my head.

I visited this octaganal Orthodox Church, Church Ragual. I asked if this was Greek Orthodox and told, Ethiopian Orthodox which is a very large faith which actually practices very much like the Catholic Church. This building is 150 years old and they celebrate mass here every morning.

The inside of the church center...all eight sides were painted with a variety of saints, the Trinity, Jesus, and this charming fellow, the devil. Now, the church caretaker had to move a board so we could see this painting. He scares the children at mass and we had just arrived right after the service ended.

I found these paintings interesting for what they arent't more than what they are. Consider that these are painted in a rural community where everyone pretty much is black. None of their saints, their God, their devils or angels are of color. These could be painted in a church in Rome, Milan, Germany or the United States.

All of the conversations, and bubbles outlining what is occuring is in Amharic. The colors were brilliant and the paint laid on very thickly.



I will post some more photos of other sites shortly but did want to mention that I ate a couple of interesting things before I left Addis Ababa. I had some "Billtong" which is a dried meat served often with drinks. Much less chewy than the jerky Richard makes and the Billtong we bought was spiced with Jalapenos. And the other drinking treat was Kola, the seeds of a wheat plant...kinda like popcorn seeds. More coming.

Mercato...Ethiopian style

Note: Read or scroll to the end...best photo is down there!!
Today ended up being fun after having gotten to work at Addis Admas, only to wait for 45 minutes and then, decide that I may as well go back to the hotel and do some work. Tefera, the Finance guy, could not find, or connect with anyone by phone to see if they were coming in. Poor guy was soooo upset and I wanted to just hug him and tell him I knew it wasn't his fault. So, Tabotu and Shemelis took me shopping and I was very lucky to find some wonderful Christmas gifts.

The photo above is horrid but you can get a flavor for how jammed the market is...we were driving ahead, guys walking in front of us, trucks going both with and against us, kids and goats running in front and around us...a mess. I couldn't get out of our vehicle nor could I hang my camera outside...not a safe area for that so apologies on these photos. I was telling Tabotu that there is NO way to explain the chaos, the smells, the colors, the noises without your being there.

On the way to the market, the Orthodox church had just let out and this was the group on the street...thousands of people walking. These are not Muslims...this is traditional and the country is mostly Christian. It was the Feast of St. Michael today and on feast days, most every day, there are huge services which the women mostly attend.

And we are again in Mercato, where one can buy everything from shoes made out of tires, to the most wonderful smelling peppers and spices to rusted metal. This was a typical load seen in the market.

Here, we are on the outskirts of Mercato, which is where the average Addis Ethiopian shops. There are malls and upscale shops here...just wasn't interested in seeing those. So, like in many other countries, one sees the requisite donkeys, pack mules and more. By the way, in Rwanda, I saw many women carrying huge loads. Have not seen one woman carrying packages on her head, her back or shoulders. I was told that is a man's job...very civil.

Typical shop in Mercato...these are belts hung with plastic bags over the "metal" hooks so they don't rust.

Most everything was wrapped in plastic. It rains here a lot. I heard this morning that Addis Ababa, is the fifth highest elevation capital after Bogota, Katmandu and not sure of the others. So, it gets very chilly here...wishing I had shoes other than sandals. Today at lunch, I asked for a pool towel to wrap around me. It was sunny and nice out when I went down to the pool area to eat, but very chilly fifteen minutes later and in another fifteen, torrential downpours.

Keep scrolling down....my good friend, Ed McGraw frequently feels a creative spurt and sends these delightful pieces of art. Love them.

Seizures....

So, here I am in my second seizure inducing dress...I was training with The Reporter's staff and as you can see in the second photo, I have pen in hand as I tore up their content. There are content opportunities.

Today, I began working with the staff of Addis Admas, an Amharic newspaper. However, they were "busy" so the only ones who showed up were the Finance manager and two clerks. The clerical staff were not involved in any decisions, nor are they involved in any meetings where any planning conversations occur. So, cancelled the day but the Finance guy, Tefera, took me to lunch. Today is Friday, a fasting day. Wednesdays and Fridays in the Orthodox religion here are days without meat. We went to an Ethiopian restaurant and Tefera was quite apologetic because of the lack of meat. I ate seven different concoctions made out of various grains, spiced wonderfully and of course, like usual, scooped up with hunks of injera bread.

The Chief Editor of Addis Admas is a former convict who translated, "Gone with the Wind" into Amharic while in prison. He wrote this on the paper packaging around cigarrette packages and is quite the hero here in Addis Ababa. He apparently also translated, King Lear, and had that produced on stage at some point.

Today was an interesting day because of what wasn't...it wasn't a training day; there weren't normal flush toilets at the Addis Admas offices...we were back to squat and hose down, though, I had my trusty napkins in my briefcase. I did some report writing which was super and was able to proof a few of the business plans and send those back to the teams.

I royally screwed up though. Bruh, from The Reporter called to invite me to dinner tomorrow night at Yod Abysinnia restaurant and I knew I was going there so said, "super, what time?" He said 8 p.m. and that was later than we had planned...but oh well. Two hours later, I realized he works at The Reporter and I am going out to this same restaurant with folks from Capital tomorrow. So, had to call him back, apologize for my forgetting I had plans and thankfully, we could reschedule to Sunday. So, eating out two nights at an Ethiopian restaurant famous for its music and dancing. Should be fun. Can't wait.