Ferenge Addis Blog

Cheap lunch, depending on how you look at it

One of my favorite things is to go out to lunch. I need to get out of the office mid-day or I go stir-crazy. It's also a great casual way to keep up with colleagues or social acquaintances. There are a few nice places within walking distance: Aladdin (middle-eastern food), Amsterdam Cafe (Italian), Bole Mini (quick sandwiches), and Lime Tree (ferenge food). Visitors from the US always remark about how reasonable these places are. You can get a really nice lunch for 50 birr, all included.

I was telling M, one of the drivers how much I like Aladdin and he asked about the cost. I replied "oh, it's cheap, you can get everything for 50 birr." He laughed out loud. (Ethiopians do this a lot at things I say. But only when I'm not trying to be funny. Hm.) He said it was expensive and I asked him to explain. He said "look, you work for an international NGO; they pay at the top of the scale. For the average person in Addis spending one birr for them is like spending one dollar for you."

And I thought about spending $50 on lunch.

Top six things about being back in Addis

(in no particular order)

1. Woinshet (my housekeeper)

2. Morning coffee in my jammies

3. The cats and dog

4. The humor of flamers on my blog

5. Red-tef injera

6. Walking to work and seeing the regulars, a smile, and a "selam."

Six great things about being in London

(in no particular order)

1. I'm just another pasty-faced white guy that nobody notices.

2. Thick dark English beer (porters, stouts, bitters, etc)

3. Moist air

4. The Tate Modern museum

5. Drinkable tap water

6. Everyone sounds like they're from a Monty Python skit, which makes me find everyone vaguely amusing.

Beggars: the "no thanks" escalation

Living in Addis, one encounters beggars every day. When I walk to lunch or walk around shopping on the weekend, people follow me down Bole Rd. When walking I will usually give some coins to old people, disabled people, or mothers with babies. I will usually not give money to young people who look like they could work. When stuck in traffic, especially by the church near Bambis, people walk between cars begging. I never give money in traffic, because I think maybe it encourages people to come out in traffic and get hit by cars. I realize there is no real logic to these strategies, so please don't ask me to defend them.

Yonas the driver taught me some Amharic that I use to refuse. In order of escalation they are Yelenyem or "no thank you," Yellem or "NO," Zorbel or "go away," and finally exavier eestalee or "God bless you" which always always works for some reason. It must mean something like "I hope God blesses you, because I won't."

Getting Married: the three-step process

Getting married in Ethiopia is an even more involved process than in the US. In some cases, the family still picks the spouse, but especially in urban areas, people mostly pick their own. The first time the woman's family meets the groom is when his family comes to meet her family to ask for her hand in marriage. Before he does this, it's assumed that he will have accumulated enough wealth to buy a house and car and other material goods deemed needed for a happy life. Assuming everyone agrees, the couple gets engaged, and he gives her an engagement ring with a stone it in.

Some time later, they get married in a civil ceremony, usually at a fancy restaurant, with a few (maybe 20) family members in attendance. They exchange wedding bands and are at that point legally married. But. They don't actually start living together as husband and wife. They maintain their previous separate lives, although I assume they're spending time together dating. Or something.

About a year after the civil ceremony they have the big wedding, spending all that the families can afford. The richest people have the wedding at the Sheraton. Just down from that is the wedding at the Hilton. Third best is the Ghion Hotel. The simplest weddings are held at home. Only after the big expensive wedding does the couple start living together like married people.

People who have been through this process please chime in.

Opinions about Americans

On busy streets, people beg from those in cars stopped at traffic lights or in jammed traffic. People also sell stuff, like CDs, DVDs, keychains, sunglasses, and kleenex. The last was especially appreciated when I had my three-week cold earlier this year. But I don't have a cold any more and don't really need Kleenex. (One guy also tried to sell me a CD of the speeches of Sayyed Nasrallah. I laughed and said "boy have you got the wrong guy." He realized the nationality of the person he was dealing with and joined me in a good laugh.)

A while ago an enterprising young man wanted to sell me a big box of Kleenex as I was stuck in the traffic in front of Dembel (big shopping mall on Bole Rd.). He greeted me with a big smile, a thrust-out box of "Kleemex" tissues (not a typo) and shouted "USA number 1!" I shook my head and say "Aye" (no). Undaunted, he said "I love USA!!" I said no again. We continued in this way for a while, with him praising the US and its inhabitants, and me declining to buy the tissues. As the traffic finally moved, I said "no" one more time and started to drive away. His face became twisted in frustration and he spat "F**k the USA!" I laughed all the way to the gym.

Money, marriage, riches, and romance

Shortly after I got here I was chatting with G, the senior guard at my house. He said he wasn't married and was sorry about it. I asked why not, allowing that he was a nice man, with a good job and a stable life. He replied "I wasted 10 years of my life as a soldier. I had no money for a wife."

A couple of months ago I was talking to a driver who had recently gotten a big raise. I asked him what he was going to do in the new millennium. "Get engaged" he replied. I asked whether he knew the woman and he said he did, but now he would be able to convince her.

A colleague who works near me also got a big raise recently. Yesterday, all smiles, he announced his engagement to his three-year girlfriend.

Recently the same guard from the first paragraph got *his* yearly raise. He also got into the final lottery for a subsidized apartment. He was naturally elated and said that now he would start looking for a wife.

When you think of the list of things we Americans have as prerequisites for getting married, money isn't usually on the list, at least not the spoken one. While the stereotypes have women more attracted to men with cash, you see lots of starving-student marriages. Here it's quite open. A very young driver recently told me: "oh no, no woman would marry me now, I don't have enough money for a house."

DV 2008

During my first trip to Bahir Dar I remember seeing lots of signs in internet cafes for Digital Video 2008, or so I thought. I figured it was some new kind of video compression and you could buy videos in that format, at those shops. When I asked Abebe whether he watched them and pointed to the "DV 2008" signs, he howled with laughter. It turns out DV 2008 stood for "Diversity Visa, 2008."

A Diversity Visa is a kind of U.S. immigration visa granted every year on a lottery basis, for no specific reason. In other words, you don't have to have an employer or a spouse or anything in the US. You can just be granted a resident visa in order to foster diversity in the U.S. You have to apply on-line, and the internet cafes charge a fee to fill out the form for you.

So now the DV 2009 lottery is open, and one of my guards wants to apply. I asked why. He looked at me like it was a stupid question. "Because in the US there is much opportunity. In Ethiopia opportunity is small. I could make a lot of money and then return to Ethiopia." It turns out the dreams of the US as the land of milk and honey are still alive, at least in Addis Ababa.

Condoms, litter, and the environment

This morning I walked to Lime Tree for my weekly plate of eggs and hot peppers. As soon as I bought the weekly Reporter and sat down, but luckily before I ordered, some workers started a compressor that sounded like a jackhammer. They were air-cleaning a food case of some kind. As I beat a hasty retreat, three waiters were having an argument with the lead workman. They were gesticulating vigorously towards the customers who were mostly packing up to leave. The work crew leader had his arms folded across his chest and his chin thrust out in an expression that said he had a job to do and was going to finish it, by God.

With growling belly I walked further down the street to Kaldi's and had a mercifully quiet breakfast of a cheese omelette and toast.

On the way back home I saw, amid the litter, the frequent sight of blue 'Sensation' and red 'Trust' condom boxes, wrappers, and the used condoms themselves. One sees these all over the back streets of my neighborhood. I didn't know how to react. As someone who works in HIV/AIDS prevention, I was happy that people are using condoms. As an environmentalist, I was sorry to see more cardboard, plastic, and latex in the soil. As a citizen of Addis Ababa, I was disgusted to see yet more litter casually thrown on our streets.

A correction: not the Pope

During my post on the Meskal holiday I mistakenly identified the pictured personage as the "Pope of Ethiopia." His correct title is

"His Holiness Abune Paulos, Fifth Patriarch and Catholicos (re-ese Liqane Papasat) of Ethiopia, Ichege of the See of St. Tekle Haymanot, Archbishop of Axum and as of 2006, one of the seven serving Presidents of the World Council of Churches."

FEB regrets this error.