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Ethiopia is the only country I’ve visited that goes on a completely different time-day-month-and-year. Their 1 o’clock equals our 6AM and 6PM (which makes sense for starting the morning and evening on a “1!”). Their calender is currently 6 years, 11 months, and 7 days behind the Gregorian (the difference constantly changes b/c their months and years are different lengths as well). After traveling consistently through 2009, I left Ethiopia on October 3rd, 2002… It’s like I found a time machine or entered a warp - can I go back to NY and stop the U.S. from invading Iraq, keep the world together instead of forcing it apart? Can I fix-up problems in old relationships before-it’s-too-late with all the lessons I’ve learned in 7 years? Wow, so many ways to make life better….
I wonder if I’ll come across like that blonde girl all-tired-w/backpack-covered-in-country-patches-wearing-sweatpants who I saw in the subway transfer coming from JFK last Fall when I went deep into Queens to place my early-absentee presidential ballot a week before leaving the country. I’m already feeling the jet lag as I sit in the Ataturk Airport food court after leaving Ethiopia last night at 2AM, spending $15-U.S. on some Burger King hashbrowns and a cappuccino and piece of baklava from a “Turkish Delight” stand. I’ve just got a couple of hours now before a 2-hr flight to Cairo where I hope to get through customs w/the visa when-we-were-there-3-weeks-ago, then a 12-hr layover before the 12-hr direct flight home.
I’m glad we did Ethiopia - Genet got to see what life is like there after 14 years and see how her family is doing in-person, and so I could see it all as well (with completely new eyes). I was stretching it to slap-on Mali and Ethiopia (2 of the poorest but most-culturally-interesting countries in the world) to the end of a year of travel in which I’ve been longing for home/to be in one place/solid English/consistent diet for some time now. But I made it, even if I did spend more money and had to take malaria pills.
The unique, jazzy, persistent soundtrack to Ethiopia is in my head - I still haven’t listened to other music on my ipod as I’m left craving (or needing) the electric organs and Amharic lyrics I can’t understand (much like many of the conversations I sat through but felt warmly a part of). Addis Ababa has more bars and cafes and live music and good restaurants than just about anywhere I’ve been. There’s a new generation (including Genet’s brothers) that’s living progressively and modern, riding the wave of business-housing-industry spawned by billionaire Mohammed Al Amoud. What would take me ages to get used to are the swells of poor people along the streets everywhere you go. The begging is persistent (especially for a “ferenge” (foreigner) like me), but easily-enough appeased by handing over 1 birr (approx. 5 cents) or less - it’s more a habitual duty for both the haves and have-nots to beg and to give that’s been part of the culture for ages.
I’ve been waiting for my gate to be announced, looking at all the other outgoing flights - Berlin sounds good (I could make my way around there just fine), never made it to Barcelona, and there’s always one more trip to Amsterdam where I could stay with Hans (and still have an open-ticket/free-flight home), then there’s a direct flight to NY (that would be ideal), but I’m afraid I’m stuck w/my day in Cairo…
We had our own little one-storey house in a gated mini-compound in back of Genny’s auntie’s house (not a blood relative, but since Genet is the only woman amongst 4 brothers and her father, the family has adopted a couple of maternal ‘aunties’) right-off happening Bole Rd. I got to know her younger brothers Redwon and Tito (goes by last name) pretty well, hitting-up the clubs for traditional and live music and dancing with Redwon (a singer himself) and driving all over the city and into the countryside and lakes region on a 3-day roadtrip w/Tito. Genet’s father, Berahanu, has the most character of them all - an old loving guy who’s still got his ’70s-spunk of youth-and-style. The 1st-night I met him, Berahanu took Genny and I to a little hole-in-the-wall to see traditional music performed by a drummer and guy playing masinko w/girls dancing in white Ethiopian dresses while roasting fresh coffee beans and wafting the satisfying fragrance our way while lifting us up and dancing with us with loose-shoulder groove and provocative top-to-hip shake-down-to-the-floor and up-again while Genny’s dad told the masinko player to sing for us and Genet’s homecoming and family and country and happiness….
So Genet’s got one more day in which she wants to visit as many friends and relatives as possible before she meets me back at her apartment in Upper Manhattan. I can’t imagine what it must be like to go back to one’s homeland after nearly half-a-life away, waiting for refugee-status citizenship - but “good” and “relieving” and “necessary” must be amongst the complex, lengthy description. For me, it’s only 1 year, and it’s up… I’ll be back in my homeland tomorrow.
Having lunch with Genet and her brothers at one of the many delicious restaurants in Addis. I had a lot of shiro (crushed peas - almost like baby food), and there was plenty of meat along with delicious enjura bread as usual.
Genet petting the very-friendly-kitty at the house where we stayed in Addis Ababa.
No, it’s not Milwaukee, it’s Ethiopia, where this guy’s trying to get more people into his mini-van. The blue-and-white-colored Toyotas are the most-common way of getting around the city.
The late-King Haile Selassie’s seat at the front of Trinity Cathedral, which also houses the tombs of he and his wife.
People praying inside the Christian Orthodox Trinity Cathedral.
Genet in front of the recent ‘Jim Morrison’-esque grave of Ethiopian music legend, Tilahun Gessesse, who died this past April.
“Anbassa,” one of my favorite Amharic words since going to see Tilahun Gessesse, Mahmoud Ahmed and other Ethiopian music stars play in D.C. in ‘08 and hearing their rendition of the nationalist song in which “the lion roars…” This Anbassa is the name of the city bus.
Rare Barbary Anbassa at the Lion Park in Addis Ababa. AKA “The Lion of Judah” (based on the lineage of Israeli-King Solomon & Ethiopian-Queen of Sheba), these bad boys used to roam freely throughout generations-of-kings’ palaces up-until the 1970s overthrow.
