Ethiopia - Part Three

Alright, so I'm almost done talking about my trip.

On Thursday, our last day Ryan and I decided to head over to the National Museum in the morning. We tried to walk there but couldn't find it so finally we hailed a taxi to take us there. The main attraction at the museum were the fossils of "Lucy" the oldest known homonid (3.2mil yrs). So technically she was the first human, although a very funny looking one. She was only 1.1meters tall and hairy, thank the lord for evolution. I actually got a picture with "her", so I have know officially "hung out" with the first known "human". There was also impressive modern art, mainly paintings by Ethiopian artists in the museum which was quite cool to check out. Other than that the museum had some fossils from ancient creatures which existed in Ethiopia and some modern relics from everyday life in the 19th-20th c. From the museum Ryan and I took a taxi to a hotel which had a spa. Unfortunately, they were all booked so massages, which we had really been looking forward to. From the hotel we walked back to the hotel, quite a distance and just took in Addis before we left in the morning. In the late afternoon it started to rain so we ended up hanging out at the hotel the rest of the night with our traveling friends. A new girl named Lisa was hanging out with us from the U.S., Colorado to be more specific. She went to Denver University and had graduated in 2006, so I randomly asked her if she knew Lami Harmon, a kid I grew up, went to school and played soccer with, and wouldn't you know, her best friend had dated him in college. Now that is the definition of a small world. I am studying in Yemen and came to Ethiopia for the week. She graduated and is traveling through Africa, we randomly bump into each other and both happen to know a childhood friend of mine from Delaware.

Anyway, I headed to bed around midnight after saying goodbye to our friends. The next morning we got up at 5am, got a taxi right outside our hotel (the guy was just sleeping in his cab), and got to the airport by 6am, checked in no problem, hopped on the plane and by 9am we were back in good ole Sana'a arguing in Arabic with cab drivers over the price of a ride to the Baab al Yemen. Amazing how you can just skip from one continent to another in a couple of hours and resume life like nothing ever happened.

After taking a much needed nap, being the trooper that I am, I met up with Danny and we headed over to Al-Ahli and played soccer. We were the only two students who went, so we teamed up with some nasty Yemeni's, who were all playing barefoot and dominated the small sided game for a couple hours. Then the Ministry of Sports (I know we are big time), asked us to play a scrimmage on the big field. We got fluorescent Yellow jerseys and our team consisted of mainly guys we play with on the concrete every weekend. Although our team wasn't bad, all the guys on the team would run up to the front when we had a chance to score and then never come back to help on defense. So during the course of the game I changed my position from striker (where they had assigned) me, to left back, because we had no one back there. The other team was also much more organized and ended up beating us 4-0, although two of their goals were crap. In the end I was happy I went to play b/c it was one of the most enjoyable football "days" I've had in probably a month. No fistfights, yelling or tae kwon do tournaments, sorry Kevin D. We did lose our rubber ball we had bought before heading over, which is hard to do b/c the Yemenis will do anything to get a ball back. I've watched them literally climb up the bars that are over the windows of houses about 20ft high and then carefully hop over a wall with shards of glass on top, all to recover a rubber soccer ball. I'll take some pictures to give you a picture of the amazing/dangerous ball recovering missions I've witnessed.

Now to answer my Father's questions about Ethiopia. We weren't looking for a specific gun, although it would have been nice to find some AK 47's that we could've taken pictures with. We just wanted to find the "gun section" of the market, because Lonely Planet said there was one, so it must be true.

I didn't see a football stadium on the main campus where we were. I have no clue if they organized sports and if so who the hell they compete against.

Yes, many people speak at least a little broken English. I found that almost all the people I met that worked in stores or restaurants were able to speak at least enough conversational English to get by, if not more. Way more people speak English in Addis than in Sana'a. The people were also very friendly, but most weren't as surprised to see tourists like in Sana'a. There were a lot more beggars in Addis too, and it seemed like there was a larger gap between the classes. For instance, you had all these homeless beggars on the street and then the rest of the population was very Westernized, wearing jeans and t-shirts, etc. like anyone in America. Where as in Yemen, the society still maintains a lot of its customs and traditions. Plus, it seems like in Sana'a, most of the people have a generally low standard of living, except for the really rich folks who live out by Hadda Street in the New city.

While I was there I heard no talk about the disruption in Somalia or the troubles in Southern Sudan.

The plane trip was great, especially the one there. On the arriving flight, only half the plane was full, so I sat next to the emergency exit, which had extra leg room. Then on the return flight, my actual seat was next to the emergency exit again, so once again I flew in comfort. The flight itself was only 1.5 hr, calm and we even got served breakfast, consisting of about 5 types of bread.

Also, I heard they do have big celebrations for Easter, but no chocolate bunnies or colored eggs. What are these people thinking, Easter isn't about the resurrection of Jesus! It's all about the candy, egg hunts and good food, to help one get over the fact that the NCAA tournament has come/is coming to an end. These devout Christians obviously don't know how to celebrate a religious holiday. I'll have to tell them that is all about material good and aesthetics.

Now that I'm all caught up, hopefully I'll get back to posting about my daily life in Sana'a this weekend. If you have any questions about Addis please just post them on the comment board and I will respond ASAP.

Adios,

Rich