Out of Africa Part I Addis Ababa

I've come back. A week in Africa does not sound like a long time, but I don't think I've ever been exposed to so much in such an intense way in my life. I'll try and give you as much as I can, but I find that the pictures don't really speak to what it like to be there. Africa is not just these sights but an experience of being embedded in a place that seems to resist being summarized easily. The smell of diesel, the noises of people, the long peaceful pauses over herb tea looking into one of the great rift valleys, of never knowing when to tip or how much, feeling lost and yet feeling a common bond, seeing great poverty, seeing people succeed with so little, smiles, angry eyes, people walking miles to sell firewood, being afraid, letting a shoeshine boy clean my tennis shoes and the excitement expressed to his friend when I obviously overpaid him, its seeing a man on the road that might have either been hit by a car or praying I couldn't tell but people were squeezing passed him in their cars and staring, or the constant yells at seeing a westerner to get your attention, it is so hard to express what it was like, but I'll try. I'll start at the beginning as that seems obvious and will help me somehow make sense of this confusion.

Addis Ababa is a city of about four million people. It is higher than Denver and is about ~7600 feet above sea level and so is cooler than most of the lowland cities in Africa. I flew on the German airline Lufthansa and we had to land in Khartoum Sudan for an hour layover. I was nervous about that because if for whatever reason we had to deplane (say they discover the engine was leaking or something) I would be in big trouble as an American. I was traveling with a guy from the UN who had lots of experience in Africa and had lived in Nigeria for several years. Which was nice. We got in late and so checked into the Axum Hotel. It was a rundown place but he preferred to the the Hilton because it was not a target for attack because few Westerners stay there. I guess a few years ago a Hotel that catered to Westerners was blown up. While we were driving back to Addis Tuesday night a car bomb was exploded between the Hilton and the Foreign Ministry. Three people were killed and maybe 20 wounded. It did not make the news in the US. I was fretting that you would all be worried, but it was just one of those third world events that don't make the US papers. When I first arrived, the Hotel seemed primitive to me. The floor was badly stained, and the room was Spartan and shabby. But after a day or two in Africa it seemed homey and comfortable.

The next day we went to a UN security briefing. Some areas of Ethiopia are at war and are very dangerous. In UN speak Addis is a Phase I area, which means there are possible dangers and they want you to check in twice a day on the satellite phone. Much of Ethiopia is in Phase III, especially on their borders with Eritrea which which they are at war, and near the Somalia and Sudan borders which are filled with a zillion Liberation Fronts. I was really glad to be there with the UN because they were constantly monitoring things and very aware of what was going on, where to go and where not to go. A few weeks previous an American Aid worker had been kidnapped from a convoy in one of these areas and the UN was the only one that could have negotiated his release. They warned that travel for Americans was especially dangerous in these areas. While the current administration claimed to make Americans safe from the world, he as made the world very unsafe for Americans. Americans are seen now by much of the world like a German would be in 1945 we really have lost any of the moral authority we once had. It is sad to say but many conversations, even in my presence were about American harms. We are seen as arrogant bullies without conscious who take what we want and leave destruction in our wake. One fellow was particularly vehement that Americans would do anything to get what they wanted--torture, drop nukes willy-nilly on the innocent (he argued that only Americans have actually used a nuclear bomb and that on civilians), attack other nations if they had oil we wanted. It was very hard to listen to. This guy was a veterinary doctor. America, as a country, was a monster he thought. Oddly, I felt welcome enough and felt no personal animosity from them. Nothing personal, but you happen to be a citizen of an evil empire.

The next day the UN guy had meetings that sounded boring so I signed up at the Hilton for a guided tour. I pictured me and a bunch of folks touring around the city while a guide gave us an explanation of this and that. Well it was sort of like that except the group of tourists turned out to be, well, . . . me. So me and the tour guide and our driver visited an old Orthodox cathedral. about 50 percent of the population is Ethiopian Orthodox and the other half is Muslim. This is one:

We visited the National Museum which houses the bones of the famous hominid Lucy. She was an ape-like woman that stood about waist high and walked completely upright like we do. She was found in Ethiopia. Of course, her real bones weren't there--they were on tour in Texas. They look like this:

This was my tour guide. He was much more funloving than this picture would indicate. He was very informative and seemed delighted to share with me the history of his city. We visited some other neat churches and museums.

These are some street scenes from Addis. Note the scaffolding on these buildings. I could not see how these frames where being held together. There is no rope no twine anything binding them as far as I could tell. Very strange.

Tomorrow I'll write about my trip to Arbemench and the Tsetse fly project. It's late and and want to get some things out. Sorry this in sounds like I'm rambling. I'm still exhausted from the trip, but at least this is a start! More tomorrow!