Dour, 電通-controlled, family-centric Belgian Neocolonialism, enthusiastically jaded observations, support for state-owned neoliberalist media and occasional rants from the twisted mind of a privileged middle-class expatriate atheist Crypto Jew and とてもくだらないひと projecting some leftist ideals with my ridicule of Tucker Carlson, all while taking America's blood money and cashing out that pension and TSP (from The Blogs Formerly Known As Sponge Bear and Kaminoge 物語)
*see disclaimer below
Everything started off as intended on Saturday morning as I parked my car in the extremely narrow underground parking garage of the Hyatt Regency. I crossed busy Airport Road on the short walk to the Red Terror Martyrs' Memorial Museum የቀይ ሽብር መታሰቢያ ሙዚየም, a memorial to the upwards of 750,000 people who were killed during the Red Terror ቀይ ሽብር of 1976-7. After taking my time perusing the sobering yet moving displays, I would go home to pen a thoughtful blog post on the tendency of revolutionary leftist regimes to turn against themselves and, in essence, eat their young - think Stalin's Great Purge, the elimination of Kim Il-sung's rivals in North Korea during the 1950's, the Cultural Revolution 文化大革命 in China or Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge (even the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution). Ethiopia's revolution had its own sad story to tell, and I was ready to listen.
Except that COVID-19 (presumably) had other ideas. For even though I did my research online regarding the museum, with everything I checked suggesting it was open to visitors, that wasn't the case when I approached the entrance yesterday morning, only to find the way inside blocked by a locked gate. That insightful treatise on the influence of the Red Terror on modern Ethiopia will have to wait for another day, when vaccines have enabled life to resume to what used to called "normal":
This blog post may therefore be kind of pointless, but Saturday's excursion wasn't a total waste of time, however, as I treated myself to a nice splurge at the Hyatt's The Kitchen restaurant (the same place where my daughter and I sat down for a Thanksgiving dinner last year). For lunch I had "Chef Hani's mixed grill" including marinated beef and chicken shish kebab, and washed it down with a Bedele beer (plus an Americano afterward to sober me up for driving home). Meals have been lonely affairs for the past two or so months, but that doesn't mean I can't dine in nice surroundings every now and then:
But, sadly, yesterday's lunch was the highlight of the past week since my last whineblog entry. I'm counting the days until Amber and Shu-E return to Ethiopia from Taiwan - 14 days from today (and as I write this, it's been 67 days since we said our goodbyes at Dulles Airport). There really isn't much else to report on, so I might as well end this blog post at this point, and leave you with a few photographs. Until next time, when I may have something more interesting to write about...
Yet another view from my third-floor balcony:
The balcony faces southeast, and we do get some nice sunrises. On the downside, the reason for being able to see such wonderful dioramas is because I have to get up that early for work five mornings a week:
Meskel Square መስቀል አደባባይ, a large public space used for concerts and other events, is currently a giant construction site. The end result apparently will be a parking lot with spaces for 1400 cars; six LED screens; and almost 30 shops (this photo was taken from a pedestrian bridge leading to the St. Estifanos Light Rail station, much to the displeasure of a group of police officers who were standing there. I deliberately took my time taking in the view)*:
Traffic on Airport Road, outside the Hyatt Regency:
Listening to Ethiopian pop music while stuck in traffic on Fitawrari Damtew Street, close to the African Union complex:
Meanwhile, 8780 kilometers (5456 miles) away in Taiwan, the girls seem to be living more interesting lives than their husband/father, at least judging from the photos that my wife sends to me on Line. Here's my daughter enjoying a pearl milk tea 珍珠奶茶 at the Fengyuan 豐原 branch of Taichung's 台中 famous Chun Shui Tang 春水堂 teahouse:
On another occasion they visited the fish market at the Port of Taichung. In case you're wondering, the "unship" on the sign behind Amber seems to refer to an unloading area for boats:
The cap that my daughter is wearing will eventually become my Christmas present, although I have to admit it probably looks much better on her than it will on my bald pate:
Shu-E and Amber spent a couple of days last week in my wife's hometown of Xiluo 西螺 in Yunlin County 雲林縣, spending time with family and visiting a few places in the area, like this temple...this ancestral home...this place the name and location of which I forgot to ask my wife (and about which my daughter naturally had no clue when I queried her during our daily phone earlier today)**:
Until the family returns, I'm keeping myself busy with daily chores, like...washing beer bottles. Beer is usually purchased by the case in Ethiopia, and the bottles tend to collect a lot of dust while waiting for alcoholics customers to buy them. So just as vegetables need to be bleached before eating, beer bottles need to be cleansed before being put in the fridge. Life in አዲስ አበባ...:
*Read here for a critique of the numerous construction projects being carried out in Ethiopia's capital
**Turns out they were in Huwei on that day, as well. In the unlikely event you're interested, the town is also know in Taiwan for its sugar refinery, which in turn is noted for the ice cream it now sells, and which the girls didn't bother to visit or to try last week
Today is Thanksgiving, that most American of holidays where families get together and recognize those things in their lives for which they should be feeling grateful. I should be doing the same - after all, I'm healthy, as are those I love and care about. But I'm finding it hard to look on the bright side, or find silver linings or any of those other hoary clichés. For one thing, my wife and daughter are almost 5500 miles away by air, leaving me to "celebrate" the holiday alone in a country at war with itself. For another, this year has been an annus horribilis, for reasons which should be obvious to most people on this planet. In my case, 2020 began to go wrong in late February, when my father died. My trip back to Washington state for the funeral coincided with the explosion of the coronavirus in the United States, and you know the rest of the story. We ended up spending six months cooped up in a small apartment in Arlington, Virginia - had I known our departure from Ethiopia was going to last as long as it did, I would've rented an Airbnb close to my sister's home in the Seattle area, and the girls could've spent the summer in Taiwan. Speaking of summer, because of COVID-19 I had to cancel a long-planned trip to Japan, one in which I would've taken Amber around the Central Alps 中央アルプス region, starting in Nagoya 名古屋 and finishing in Kyōto 京都. And as this year is drawing to a close, I've had to deal with the uncertainty of not knowing what I'll be doing and where I'll be going after our tour in Addis Ababa አዲስ አበባ comes to an end next summer. So screw 2020, and as for Thanksgiving, the only thing I have to be grateful for is that I'm still alive. That, and still having a job. Which, then again, is something I suppose I should appreciate. OK, I'm feeling a little better...
So with a weekday off, and having spent the past 48 days either working or just walking around the neighborhood, I decided it was time to play tourist again, virus be damned (bravado aside, I wore a mask all day and made sure my hands were always clean). Parking my car at the Sheraton Addis, I walked along busy Niger Street, looking at what passes for a skyline in Ethiopia's capital, while also checking out the soon-to-be-finished Friendship Square park:
My destination was the Holy Trinity Cathedral መንበረ ጸባኦት ቅድስት ሥላሴ, the second-most important church in Ethiopia, after the Old Church of St. Mary of Zion in Aksum (now threatened by the conflict in Tigray). The cornerstone of the vaguely Arabic-looking church was laid in 1931 by Emperor Haile Selassie ቀዳማዊ ኃይለ ሥላሴ.:
I had to locate a priest to unlock one of the doors so I could see the interior:
The mural on the opposite wall depicts the emperor and British officers raising the Ethiopian flag following the defeat of the Italians in North Africa in 1941:
Haile Selassie's imperial throne:
The tombs of the emperor and his wife. Haile Selassie was overthrown and imprisoned by the Derg, the military junta which ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987, in September 1974. He died in August 1975, most likely after being strangled in his bed, and his body was buried under a concrete slab on the grounds of his imperial palace. He was eventually given a funeral by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in November 2000, and his remains (along with those of the empress) are now resting in the Trinity Cathedral:
Stained glass windows depict scenes from the Old (like this one of Solomon) and New Testaments:
In the center of the church is Afewerk Tekle's አፈወርቅ ተክሌ depiction of the Holy Trinity:
A memorial to the British forces which helped liberate Ethiopia:
Posing with the priest who guided me around the interior of the cathedral:
Admission to the Holy Trinity Cathedral also includes entry to a museum housing various ecclesiastical and imperial artefacts (photography not allowed). From there, I found myself in the company of a "guide" named Daniel whom I couldn't shake off, so I decided I would have him show me the adjoining graveyard, home to the remains of various patriots, members of the Ethiopian aristocracy and notable public figures. The most prominent resident is former prime minister Meles Zenawi መለስ ዜናዊ, whose tomb it is forbidden to photograph (the shot below comes courtesy of someone who doesn't believe in following the rules):
The circular church of Mekane Selassie, built by Menelik II ዳግማዊ ምኒልክ in 1890, making it older than the Holy Trinity Cathedral:
This stone monument is dedicated to the first victims of the Derg regime, 60 former high officials of the imperial government who were executed by firing squad without trial on November 23, 1974, an event known as "Bloody Saturday" in Ethiopia. Photography isn't allowed here due to the prime minister's compound being located behind the memorial, but the armed guard was apparently taking a break (note the vacant green chair), so Daniel encouraged me to take a photo:
For Daniel's services, I tipped him 100 birr (he asked for 200, but he didn't show me the interior of the cathedral or the museum). Along with the 200 birr entrance fee, the 20 birr I tipped the museum guide who explained the exhibits, and the 10 birr I gave to the caretaker for unlocking the gate to the museum to allow me inside (the museum was supposedly closed due to the coronavirus, according to posted signs), my visit to the Holy Trinity Cathedral came to a grand total of 330 birr, or around $8.65, the same amount as I paid for a pizza and a Pepsi at Pizza Hut the other week. On the way out of the cathedral grounds, I stopped for a look at the grave of the British suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, who was one of the few outside of Ethiopia to vociferously protest the Italian occupation in the 1930's. She moved to Addis Ababa in 1956 and died there four years later:
This memorial depicted flight attendants and airline pilots, so I assumed it was erected in the aftermath of a fatal airplane crash. It's possible it's dedicated to the victims of Ethiopian Airways Flight 302, though if that's the case, the memorial hasn't aged well:
From the cathedral I returned along Niger Street to the Sheraton, passing again by Friendship Square. Apparently the locals refer to it as "China Park", for obvious reasons:
I wasn't going to have a turkey dinner this Thanksgiving, but that didn't mean I couldn't treat myself to a decent lunch. I had Zil-Zil Tibs and an Anbessa beer at the hotel's Breezes outdoor restaurant. Could this be the start of a new tradition?:
Here's hoping Thanksgiving 2021 won't be another solo affair...
In the meantime, here are a few random photos from recent days gone by. One morning I awoke to find the air looking like this, apparently because it was a traditional day for residents to burn stuff:
This is what it normally looks like from my balcony (outside of the rainy season):
An attempt at taking a night photo from the same balcony:
The view along Roosevelt Street:
A Saturday afternoon cheeseburger and lime iced tea at Sishu:
Circling birds of prey are a common sight in my area:
Alexander Pushkin Street didn't look like this at the time we left on Authorized Departure back at the beginning of April. Now it's a challenge getting in and out of the neighborhood:
Meanwhile, back in Taiwan, the girls are doing fine. I talk to them everyday via Line, and occasionally Shu-E sends me photos of some of their activities, like when they visited a flower expo in Xīnshè 新社. Amber doesn't remember the first time she went there when she wasn't quite four years old, but I have the blog post to prove it:
They also visited a temple in Tōngxiāo 通霄, for reasons which weren't entirely clear to me, but it looks like they had a good time:
It's been 58 days since they left for Taiwan, but hopefully we'll be reunited as a family in less than a month's time. Until the next blog post, I'll leave you with a Thanksgiving song by that most English of songwriters, Ray Davies:
