Home Sweet Home

Sounds like an embroidered wall hanging any good Kansas girl would hang in our first house in Addis, but turns out Garrett can't embroider.

The group above includes (from left to right) Tsegaye, our new gardner/guard who lives on the property; Fisseha, our house broker; Ato Taye, our landlord; and of course, Garrett.

We are quite excited to have a house in less than two weeks.  We owe a lot to Fisseha and his sidekick/taxi driver, Kassahun.

Together we drove all over Addis in Kassahun's small blue Lada seeing a total of around 20 houses.  I was not sure what to think the first day when all three of us would walk together through the houses then get back in the car and discuss our opinions of the house.  In the end, I could not imagine doing it without them!  Kassahun even called me last Saturday just to say "hi" and let me know that of all the houses we had seen he really thought this was the one for us.  Kassahun will definitely be one of our regular drivers since we have decided to hold off a bit on buying a car.

The house is technically a three bedroom house, but one is rather small so will probably be a study.  The living room is nice a light with a great fireplace, which everyone said was really nice to have during the monsoon season.

After seeing it, we called it "the house with the doors" because of this unique touch, which I am still not 100% sold on.  The built in closest are really nice though.

The kitchen is also very barebones currently.  It seems that when many of these houses were built, the kitchen in the house was not meant for actual food preparation.  Food preparation often happened in a second kitchen in a block of rooms behind the house that Fisseha often referred to as the servants quarters.  At our house, two of the rooms have been joined to make a small apartment, which I think will be more than comfortable for Joey Joe when he joins us from Swaziland!  There is also a small room and bathroom for Tsegaye, who supposedly has been with the house for over twenty years although he himself does not look much older than that.

Two of our favorite things about the house are the garden and the location.  Gardens are a hard thing to come by in Addis.  Many of the yards have been covered with concrete in order to accommodate more cars.  Considering we will probably have only one car, given how expensive they are, we preferred to have some grass.  Tsegaye has done a great job with the front lawn and I am hoping to have him help me plant some vegetables and herbs in the back of the house.

As far as location, I think we lucked out.  It is tucked back in a nice little neighborhood called Olympia.  It is walking distance to Garrett's office, a nice supermarket, and a number of restaurants.

Now we just have some furnishing to do.  Currently we have only this mattress, which was delivered to us on one of the classic blue Lada taxis.  I love these cars although it seems that the exhaust is piped directly into the back seat.

We are hoping to officially move in on Monday! 

Urban Gardening

A number of ambitious folks have taken over the land surrounding the old train tracks near our lodge and planted urban gardens.  It is the most green I have seen walking around Addis and the food looks quite tasty. 

It is a great project that I am sure provides food for many people, but sadly this is the water source.  As much as I want to support it, I do not think I will be buying much of the produce.

                                                                                                                                       

Top Ten Week One Accomplishments

Moving to a new city is always a bit mentally overwhelming.   Daily routines that normally happen without a second thought suddenly become large tasks.  Being in a large city where you don't know the local language or customs throws in another couple wrenches so Garrett and I are celebrating the small, as well as the large, accomplishments that we have made over the last week.

1. I set up our blog.  Sorry for any weird formatting. Next time will be doing that on the fast US internet before leaving.

2. We made it from the airport with all our luggage to our guest house.  We are staying at the Afro Land Lodge, which has proven to be a very comfortable place.  We have a small kitchen, living room and bedroom.    Below is the view from our window.

There does not appear to be much zoning in Addis and every where you look there is new construction.  No matter how high the concrete building is, the scaffolding looks just as rickety.

3.  Garrett has completed a week of work.  He has also officially gotten his college transcript validated by the state of Pennsylvania, the US State Department and now the US Embassy in Ethiopia so he can get his work permit.  I am still on the hunt.  I have had wonderful support from colleagues abroad who have put me in touch with a number of people here.  The local CHAI office also seems to be a place with abundant knowledge of the health care system so between all these contacts I am slowly getting a better picture of the health landscape.  

4.  I bought a SIM card for my phone.  Unfortunately, after trying to cut it to fit my iphone it no longer seems to work, so back to the telecom office for me tomorrow. 

5.  We started Amharic lessons.  Currently we are most proficient at greeting people although we have also learned a few other random words.  Ishee seems to be the most commonly spoken word.  In English, the closest seems to be OK, but used even more frequently.  I am obviously not able to follow an Ethiopian conversation (yet), but ishee seems to be thrown in as a greeting, agreement, a signal that you are listening, farewell, and many other ways I am sure we will learn.  

Today we began learning the Amharic Fidels, or characters.  We have a lot of studying to do, but are both really excited to learn.

6.  We played tennis twice.  Since week 1 accomplishments did not include making a lot of new friends (fingers crossed for week 2!), we have had to find ways to entertain ourselves.  Also, considering Addis is at 7500 feet I think this counts as an accomplishment.  Interestingly all courts here seem to be made of clay.  And it does seem that I will be able to continue my run on cheap tennis lessons since an hour here costs less than $6.  

7.  We have begun to learn our way around.  Of course the fact that one of the major roads is currently under construction has not helped.  And I do not mean one lane is closed down, they have the entire thing dug up. 

Although "closed" is not really the right word.  In this case, "closed" does not mean that cars and people do not continue to use the road.  There are really no barricades preventing anything from going through. In fact, on my second morning of exploring the streets I followed a group of locals down the road in the direction I was headed.  They decided to walk between the cab of the front-end loader (pictured below) and the  actively working front-end fork.  It seemed a little dangerous to me, but everyone else was doing it so I went for it too.  I successfully made it to the mall to buy the above mentioned SIM card. 

One of my favorite things about Addis so far is that it is a safe walking city.

8. We have become locals at a neighborhood Ethiopian restaurant.  We have now eaten there three times. The dish in front of me is called Shero, which is a bean sauce that is served boiling from a small bowl. It's delicious. The injera bread is generally ubiquitous, and also nice.

 

Today we joined them for the Ethiopia vs Zambia football game in the Africa Cup of Nations.  This is the first time in 31 years the Ethiopian team has made the Cup.  They battled bravely with only ten players, after their goalie received a red card around the 30th minute, to a 1-1 tie against the defending Cup Champions.  

9.  We are close to finding a house.  Our broker, Fisseha, and taxi driver, Kassahun, have made what could have been a very painful process almost mildly enjoyable.  They deserve their own post so I will not go into detail here.  

10. We attended our first cultural event: Timkat or Epiphany.  It is amazing to realize how old Christianity is here compared to other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.