May 5, 2009

Well, we were awakened at 3:00 a.m. by the yelping and barking of the pack of dogs that roams the college campus. At one point they were right outside our patio door. They must have spotted a hyena in the neighbouring property. Then, at 6:00 a.m., the priest began his mass over the loudspeaker. So, it was time to get up. Today is a national holiday, celebrating the defeat of the Italians by the Ethiopian army in the late 19th century. So, with the college being closed, we hired a taxi driver, Daniel, and headed for Addis Ababa. We left Isaac behind because he had been sick during the night (he of course being the child who refused to take the Dukoral medication for travel sickness because he didn’t like the taste of it – I of course took the opportunity to remind him of this as he was sitting on the toilet with the runs and vomiting at the same time).

Debre Zeit is about an hour away from Addis. The highway is full of taxis and transport trucks, most of them belching out blue or black smoke. Once we arrived in the city, it was no different. I probably inhaled more exhaust fumes today than I have in my entire life.

Our first stop was on Bole Road, where there are all sorts of fairly trendy stores and restaurants. We ate at a restaurant called the New Yorker. We ate our fill of hamburgers and shakes and then continued on through the city. We drove down some of the major roads and saw the palace now used by the government and the Sheraton and Hilton Hotels. I was unable to take any photographs of the palace due to the signs prohibiting this posted all over the street.

We were hoping to visit the National Museum, but it was closed due to the holiday. So, we drove up to the top of the Entoto Hills with a spectacular view of the city and visited the Entoto Maryam Church and palace built by Emperor Menelik II in the 19th century. It was a good introduction to the more recent history of the country, although the palace was nothing more than a few small buildings – not what I imagined even for Ethiopia. When Menelik built the palace in 1887 the city of Addis did not exist. The area was not rich in firewood, so the emperor had eucalyptus seedlings imported from Australia and planted all over the hills to provide fast growing firewood. This allowed people to settle in the area down below the hill in what is now Addis, where the emperor’s wife had asked to have a palace built close to a hot spring she favoured. And thus was born what is now one of the largest cities in Africa.

The most interesting thing about the drive up and down the hill was the site of women carrying huge bundles of eucalyptus branches down the road. We since learned that thousands of women in Addis make their living cutting down branches and carrying them down the hills to the markets to sell for fuel. These women looked to be quite old, and we observed several young girls “in training” doing the same thing. I have no idea how heavy these bundles are, but by the stooped backs of the women I’m guessing they are quite heavy!

After a trip to the grocery store we were on our way back home.