Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), April 3
change of atmosphere
What up Africa! I feel the change of atmosphere upon arrival at the aircraft, where a Yemeni veiled yet adequately meets my eyes twice in a row without looking down. Overwhelmed by so much familiarity, I spoke to him. And then, frankly, she says! She comes to visit the family of his Ethiopian mother, but before finding themselves locked at home with her aunts and cousins she wants to spend a few quiet days in Addis Ababa. We're willing to share a taxi together and seek a hotel, before moving on with a tour in Addis by Night. Just arrived, she jumps back to shower and having exchanged his sinister black cape cons skirt, sequined neckline and high heels! Now I'm Ethiopian, "she said smiling, before angrily tell me how Yemeni girls are constantly threatened with shame to force them to stay fit. Then she took me to a Lebanese restaurant where officiates a dancer belly, it's almost too much. After dinner, she asks me to accompany him to the nightclub at the Hilton, which breaks the mood a little, but good. I'm such a good mood that I want an hour looking at expats in suit and tie wriggling on the Bee Gees to the artificial fountain.
Surfing sofa
The next day I moved in people met on Couchsurfing: a young Ethiopian-hungry games and an old German baba nice although a little too sly.
They live in a house soberly decorated with beautiful rattan furniture and drapes very simple local splendid. Cooking is what is spartan with just a few plates in black clay, and covered in cow horn, a pot, a stove and some vegetables. No fridge because it's bad for food, we are in a German baba. In the courtyard they share with their owners, there is a Briard that suffocates under her hair, two cats, a goat and some chickens who ransacked the plant drunk Madame, who dedicated their persistent hatred accordingly. Fortunately she is a vegetarian, bugs do not risk anything. Music always comes from the other side of the street which is a record store every morning outside its walls with the volume block.
The Ethiopians are beautiful
The following days are devoted to a visit to Addis Ababa. I find very beautiful Ethiopians. They usually have light skin, thin and elongated face with large forehead cleared, and they are not very thick. Many wear traditional dress, the gabi, a sort of robe or white shawl draped around their shoulders, sometimes accompanying a turban, the great class. Below, women in skirts or pants in Western style. They stand straight and proud, quietly supporting the gaze of men, it's nice to see. In addition, they are often very, but so very pretty. Here also their grandmother in all, I thank every day giving us such a legacy: Dinkinesh alias Lucy ...
People are educated, even the taxi drivers speak some English. Some books I mention downright geopolitics. I also met a Rasta, which nicely fitted his car.
The local language, Amharic, has its own writing, it is also serious class. "Thank you" thought "amessegenalou" for the "addition" is "ISSAP" and soon, I understand that the "farenje" is me, 'outsiders'. Besides being exotic, it sounds good. For cons, the country is very poor. When the taxi stops in front of churches, one is assailed by mothers to the baby hanging in the back, children singing outside the window of the car, which exposes their stub-legged and miserable hit by polio pleading gaze crawled on hands and a piece of good leg.
Dolce Vita
As for the city itself, it is nice but no real charm, with large well clear avenues lined by small houses and some buildings (hence the low number of pictures in this chapter). In the evening, people hang out at sidewalk cafes, drinking beer in bars, listening to reggae, hip hop, jazz and also a lot of local stew. One feels the urge to have fun despite the difficulties, there is something in the air of a Dolce Vita in Ethiopia, with distant echoes of the Italian presence in the late 30s, who left in its wake a lot of bad memories, but also pasta, cappuccino and some pretty pastel houses. There's even a coffee called Dolce. But at night, some prefer to run! If we make a little attention, one discovers a bunch of people in sweat climbing to gallop off the coast of this town perched at over 2000 meters of altitude ...
I feel comfortable
The vast majority of Ethiopians in the center and north of the country are Christians. As this is a long time that I see in the Bible a manual of etiquette embedded in strong tendency mythological narrative, I do not feel very concerned. But it is certain that this creates benchmarks that their vision of life and sense of morality are more understandable to me than Hindus or Muslims. And then people are relaxed and smiling, keep their friends through the shoulder or by hand, happy talk on the bus, kindly help foreigners. That may be because they got rid of the Italians before being actually colonized, but it seems they have no resentment vis-à-vis the West, which simplifies the report. All this makes me feel at ease quickly. Red Light District
I live in a neighborhood called Tchétchénia because it does explain is the "mess". Indeed, the great central avenue swarms of small bars with colorful garlands whores flashing until dawn, weakly illuminating the sidewalk littered with rubble on which customers they piss beer. When I get home, girls hailing me one after the other, but they make me a little scared too engaging with their smiles and their waders on white vinyl mini skirt. One evening, I drink a glass with my host Ethiopian and, frankly, the atmosphere is not terrible. Men drink, dance and laugh in the middle of the girls who waddle mechanically trying to look sexy and hang the looks, it's pathetic. I have fun more Drunken Boat, a bar frequented by a mixture of French, Francophone Africans and Ethiopians who hosts live jazz on Monday, and the traditional bars where singers in white robes embroidered improvise by making fun of the guests accompanied by a player macincot, an instrument with a rope, while people dance the "eskita," which is a curious swaying shoulders. Local Time
I also need to familiarize myself with the time measurement, which is not obvious. In Ethiopia, there is still that by the year 2000 and must be removed one week, the Orthodox Church Local not following the successive adjustments of Roman popes. The calendar has thirteen months, twelve of thirty days and a thirteenth of five or six days of the year. Above all, Ethiopia is the only country in the world to its clock from six o'clock in the morning. As my watch to ten, this is the fourth hour of the day and it is within four hours. I find the system very convenient, but it is difficult to acclimatize because the Ethiopians go continuously from one clock to another when they talk with strangers. Freedom of expression
I enjoy my quiet time to finish making day of my tale of Yemen, but can not connect to my blog. According to the owners of internet cafe is due to the government that limits freedom of expression. It must be said that the country is not very developed level democracy. Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister, has annulled the results of 2005 parliamentary elections which were unfavorable to him, bloodily suppressed several demonstrations and imprisoned the opposition leaders and journalists recalcitrant. People grind their teeth, they are forced to play it low profile.
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