Angry clouds gather in the distance, indicative of my mood these days
It's been 44 days since I last posted something on this blog, and 50 days to go until we say "so long" to Ethiopia. My heart has been holding up well for the most part since I returned to Addis Ababa አዲስ አበባ from Pretoria, though I've noticed that in times of stress my heartrate goes up noticeably. I also find myself feeling lightheaded at times, though I've at least trained myself now to take my time when getting up from the bed so as to prevent any sudden losses of consciousness. All things considered I've been very fortunate in not having to take any medication for the atrial fibrillation, nor having to make any radical adjustments in lifestyle. Recently I've resumed taking long walks around the neighborhood, though I think I'll wait until we're back in northern Virginia before I resume any cycling-related activities.
We've had a rash of Ethiopian holidays recently - April 30 was the Orthodox Good Friday (with May 2 being the Orthodox Easter); May 5 was Patriots Victory Day, celebrating Ethiopia's victory over the invading Italians at the Battle of Adwa in 1896; and May 13 saw the end of Ramadan (Eid-al-Fitr). On all of these days, we took advantage of the time off to do...virtually nothing of note. The reason for largely staying at home can best be summed up in this photograph I copied from Facebook, taken last Sunday on yet another day of celebration on the Orthodox Christian calendar (but of which I'm largely ignorant):
Being amid crowds such as this in a country where COVID-19 infection rates continue to climb is tempting fate (and fate has proven victorious time and again since the coronavirus pandemic started early last year). And if the pandemic weren't bad enough, crime rates also continue to climb. Hiking in the hills, as well as walking in local parks and gardens, is strongly discouraged after several recent violent muggings. Petty theft and street violence also seem to be on the upswing, and so we tend to keep within our relatively safe area on holidays and weekends (my wife has had a couple of incidents of street kids banging on the doors of our car demanding money while she was stopped at traffic lights).
Getting away from the capital is out of the question as fighting continues to rage in the Tigray region (here's a recent
CNN report on the current situation), and ethnic conflict is on the rise in other parts of this country of over 80 different ethnic groups. International travel is an option, and several of my work colleagues have recently traveled to places like the Seychelles and Turkey (or to the U.S.) on R&R trips. But Shu-E is leery of venturing out in these viral times, and all the countries that I would like to visit (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand) have shut their doors to tourists for the time being. And so we bide our time until that day in early July when we end what has been a tumultuous, and very unusual (to say the least), tour.
What follows are some photographs and videos taken since the last post in early April, like this short video of the embassy's two resident tortoises. I know very little about them (like their names, ages and genders), but I can make an educated guess as to what one might be trying to do with the other:
My daughter and I often go out for lunch or dessert on the weekends, but usually only to places that are only a short drive away, or can be reached on foot from our house. The Italian restaurant Coffee.com is one of our favorites:
Except for the sounds of religious services going on in nearby churches and mosques (including in the early morning hours), as well as barking dogs, our neighborhood tends to be a quiet area, with the only excitement being planes in the distance approaching Bole International Airport. A brief snippet of a typical after-midnight scene:
Enjoying a chocolate crepe at a place only the proverbial stone's throw from the EU Delegation to the African Union and the Embassy of Finland. In addition to crepes, our neighborhood is blessed (or cursed, depending on how wide your waistline is) with several doughnut and gelato establishments:
The new look of Pushkin Street is slowing emerging after months of disruptive construction work, but we probably won't be around to see the finished product:
To give you an example of how remarkably perceptive I am, after living in this area for almost two years, I only just recently noticed this eatery that resembles the Titanic, even though it sits on Pushkin Street. Which is why I never pursued a career in criminal investigations:
The two-story stone Wefa Theater dates from the 1920's. The former bar, casino, cinema and dance hall with a seedy reputation appears to be on the verge of being torn down:
Religious imagery is very common on the city's minibuses, even if it means impairing the driver's ability to see what's behind the vehicle:
A nice view from our balcony in the late afternoon:
While we don't venture out much from the immediate vicinity of our residence (work excepted, of course), one place my wife likes to go is the China market ቻይና ገበያ. The area isn't much to look at, but it does have things that Shu-E can't live without (even though the prices can be ridiculous):
One of the Chinese-owned grocery stores is home to several cats:
Shu-E shops for
zongzi 粽子 (sticky rice dumplings), even though the Dragon Boat Festival is still a month away:
Sitting down for lunch at one of the restaurants in the China market, and wondering why I was the only one at our table given silverware instead of chopsticks:
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is a
subject of controversy between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan. It's also a matter of pride for many Ethiopians as the $5 billion cost has largely been covered through internal fund raising rather than international financing:
Approaching storm clouds as seen from the shuttle on the way home from work:
An interesting-looking building, also taken from the shuttle. I should start getting more shots of Addis Ababa during the time I'm commuting to and from the embassy:
Enjoying gelato at Puroamore:
Shu-E's largely successful attempt at recreating a Taiwanese favorite, chicken and egg over rice:
The rainy season isn't due for another month, but we recently went through a stretch of rainy weather, which produced this spectacular lightning storm one evening:
The rain has turned our weekend swimming excursions to the embassy pool into something of an ordeal, as the water temperature has plummeted:
Precipitation in the front...:
…and in the back:
Chickens seemed to be a popular shopping item in the runup to Easter. I asked Amber to be discreet when taking a photograph of this shopper as we drove past. She failed:
It isn't uncommon to see cattle and goats on the city streets:
On one Saturday morning the three of us ate for the first time at what might be Addis' only Japanese restaurant, Sakura (though there appear to be several branches in town according to Google Maps). The view of the entrance from our table:
The interior:
A view of the surroundings from our patio table:
My daughter had the
oyakodon 親子丼, washed down with a matcha shake 抹茶シェーキ, while my wife had a bowl of ramen ラーメン. We all shared some
korokke コロッケ:
I had a bowl of
gyūdon 牛丼, which turned out to be somewhat tasteless. I long for those days of eating at
Matsuya 松屋 or
Yoshinoya 吉野家:
Shu-E leaving the restaurant. Our fellow diners in our section were all Chinese dressed in black:
Another day at the China market. We didn't pick up any live fish:
And you thought Kellogg's only sold breakfast cereals:
A billboard for BBC's Amharic news service:
Though we live in a landlocked country, that doesn't stop me from trying to relive those times I was in Okinawa 沖縄, Hawaii, Thailand and the Seychelles:
The embassy tortoises seem to be spending a lot of time together these days:
In Taiwan, there's
KLG. Here in Addis Ababa there's
KKFC (Kentaki Krunchy Fried Chicken!). One of these days before we depart I should stop in to see how finger-lickin' good their chicken is:
Nationwide elections are scheduled for early June*, and there are serious concerns that things could turn violent. The ruling
Prosperity Party ብልጽግና ፓርቲ (created by Prime Minister
Abiy Ahmed አብይ አህመድ አሊ to succeed the
EPRDF) is heavily favored to win:
Depending on what happens, we may be confined to our quarters during the balloting. This sign, however, was toppled by Mother Nature on a particularly windy afternoon, and not as the result of an act of vandalism by political rivals:
A look at Addis Ababa's growing skyline in the distance. The city is a massive ongoing construction project, largely funded from Chinese sources:
With the clock ticking down to our departure date, my wife has decided we should buy some traditional furniture before we leave. So yesterday (Saturday) the three of us headed out to the
St. George Gallery to do some souvenir shopping. But first we stopped in at the nearby
Sheraton Addis to have lunch. On our way to the outdoor
Breezes restaurant, we passed by a tree that appeared to be hooked up to an IV drip:
The girls have successfully adapted to early 21st-century life. Amber is still looking at her phone even though her chicken cheeseburger is sitting in front of her, waiting to be devoured, while Shu-E takes a photo of her grilled chicken lunch:
And then there's your humble scribe, making sure his fish-and-chips lunch is saved for posterity via Facebook and this blog:
After lunch we took a walk along the Sheraton's jogging path. The hotel's grounds are an oasis of flowers, trees and fresh air in a city sorely lacking in all three:
There are a lot of government buildings in the area around the Sheraton, but I'm unable to identify this one (presuming it's an official structure):
The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia's Headquarters, the tallest building in Ethiopia at 198 meters/650 feet, looms in the background:
The St. George Gallery is only 550 meters (1804 feet) on foot from the hotel, but the girls preferred to drive there. The short journey took us by the Tewfik Mosque:
We spent some time at the gallery looking at the various furniture pieces:
I would like to get some religious artwork to hang on future walls, but I didn't see anything at the gallery that caught my fancy:
Shu-E did checkout a couple of cabinets that she obviously liked, but the pieces didn't have any price tags on them and she didn't want to ask how much they were, so we left. Such is married life:
From the gallery we drove to the nearby Hilton Addis Ababa, home to several gift shops, as well as an outdoor swimming pool popular with affluent Ethiopian and resident expats. My wife still couldn't find anything she was willing to spend money on, but I ended buying a couple of things there (see below):
Passing by the above-mentioned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia HQ on the drive home:
Typical street-side scenery:
Stopping off at a grocery stand to get some mangos and strawberries:
Admiring the carved wooden statuette of an Ethiopian Orthodox priest that I purchased at one of the Hilton's gift shops. He'll be keeping our terracotta warrior figures company when they're all eventually unpacked in our future Beijing residence:
I also couldn't resist getting this book on Addis Ababa's architectural heritage:
We also bought these Ethiopian beers at the Hilton's small supermarket. Unlike the book and the figurine, these will be long gone by the time the movers come late next month:
While the coronavirus rages on here in Ethiopia, over in Taiwan things have suddenly taken a turn for the worse. After being considered one of the few success stories in keeping the virus at bay,
180 new domestic cases were reported on Saturday, followed by a
record-setting 206 cases on Sunday. Taipei 台北 and New Taipei City 新北市 have raised their COVID-19 alert levels, and entertainment and leisure venues across the country are shutting down. A year ago I got into
a testy exchange on Facebook with an American English teacher living in Taichung 台中, whom I took to task for what I felt was his taking credit for the efforts of the Taiwanese authorities and citizenry for their successes at that time in holding back the coronavirus. His argument was that he was just as much part of the fight because he pays into Taiwan's excellent national health insurance system, and therefore was paying for the masks Taiwan was donating to other countries, an act of selfless heroism that I, of course, scoffed at.
In light of what is going on in Taiwan at the moment, I feel like I should reach out to him to ask if he forgot to pay his health insurance premium for the past month.
Until next time...
*According to news reports from yesterday (Saturday), the head of Ethiopia's election board has been quoted as saying that the planned June 5 vote has been postponed due to "logistical issues". A new date has not been announced.
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