Oh, the things you will see!

The trips back and forth to work with the university driver are, as were my commute trips in Kampala, a wonderful way to see this city close up and without seeming to stare. So, completely at random, here are a few more things:

Look! It is an interchange!

This is a big deal in Addis, as it would be in Kampala. Not just a paved road, which would be amazing on its own, but here, courtesy of the Chinese, who are big spenders on infrastructure here, there is a brand-new interchange in the heart of Addis. It connects two major roads with the whole deal -- cloverleaf exits and entrances, on overpass, and even overhead signs. (“People have been confused,” a local friend said. “Ethiopians are not used to signage.” No kidding! Maybe if they had a few signs they would not be confused.) In any case, this interchange is a thing of beauty. The roads are smooth (at least until the next rainy season, some say cynically), multi-laned and wide, and traffic zips along.

But wait – what is that, there in the median on the flyover … and down there on the lane going under us … and over there right in the middle of the exit ramp. Why, it is a steady stream of pedestrian traffic!

Yes indeed. You may be able to bring in all your machinery, and your foreign experts with their money, and build something that looks like a modern highway, but don’t count on the locals abandoning the most common form of travel: walking. People swarm over the new interchange, wandering happily through its cloverleafs, jumping nimbly over its little barrier fences, moving in and out of the traffic as if this were just one more footpath, just a smoother one than usual. In fact, on some of the underpass lanes there are even specially marked areas on the side that look to be pedestrian walkways – not that anybody sticks to them; they just walk in the main lane. It is one more proof that the more things change, the more they remain the same. I mean, one of the local newspapers was horrified this was happening, ran a couple of photos and some scathing words about the behavior of the pedestrians, but what did they really expect??? Having lived in Uganda, and knowing what we do about people’s lives, and how they function, this was no surprise to me at all.

Um, will this taxi make it home?

Blue and white is evidently the color of everyday public transportation here. It’s the color of the little 12-passenger minibuses, known as matatus in Kampala and here, nicknamed wuyiyits, which means “discussion,” after the way their seats are arranged, jamming the passengers right up against each other. (I rode on two of them the other day, covering quite a bit of distance in a cross-town ride, for a total fare of approximately 22 cents.)

And it is also the color of the most common taxis in Addis. They are funny little things – short, squat, square vehicles. They may have parts dangling, and occasionally you will see someone pushing one to give it a jump start. And no wonder! These taxis – or at least the large majority of them – are Russian-built Ladas, relics of the 1970s and ‘80s when Ethiopia was governed by the Derg, a socialist regime, and was caught up in Cold War politics, aligning with the Soviet Union more than the U.S. liked. (Which led to some political moves by America that have left at least some Ethiopians saying Jimmy Carter’s name only with disgust, but that is another story.)

Old, clunky or not, the taxis are everywhere, and in my only attempt so far, one of them did indeed get me home safely, so more power to them!

On a more somber note ...

“Ethiopia does not take good care of the elderly,” Tenaw said one day on our drive home. He is the assistant dean of the journalism graduate school here, rides home with me sometimes, and is a helpful interpreter of what we see. That day, we were stuck in traffic, and over there lying on the sidewalk was what looked almost like a bundle of rags, except it had a wizened grey head sticking out of it. Indeed, you do see a painfully large number of elderly people among the fairly numerous beggars and street people of Addis. They may be walking with a wood stick, or simply hobbling along, wrapped in blankets, or sitting or lying prone on the sidewalk. They are a sign, Tenaw said, that the worsening economy of Ethiopia is overcoming the ability of families to care for their own as they once were able to do.

This is Africa

Another difference in Addis compared to Kampala is how many livestock animals you see in the streets of this large, and in some ways cosmopolitan, city. Goats everywhere: people herding small herds or individual animals along the road, or very large numbers of them at the feed troughs in the goat market we pass coming home from work every day. Mules or donkeys, two or three at a time, some of them straining under piled-up bales of hay or other heavy loads. A boy leading a monkey on a chain. (Okay, that’s not livestock, but still…) Cows with tall narrow humps behind their shoulders; sometimes in groups as large as 20, more often one or two. A more ordinary cow, standing alone by a kiosk as if picking up some bananas. Once I came upon a cow, untended and quite confused, in the middle of an intersection. Another time two men were frantically chasing after two cattle that had gotten away and were running in and out through the congested rush-hour traffic.

When you first see them, you feel amazement and perhaps amusement at the scene. Then you may feel sorry for the poor animals, which always look underfed, and often terrified. Then, perhaps, you may feel sorry for the people who must subsist on these poor scrawny beasts, “range fed” along the sides of dirty streets, breathing the diesel exhaust, eating the road-side chemicals. Then after all that, you may feel sorry for, or angry about, or discouraged by, the state of our world, and our disparities.

It is one piece of what is contained in the popular phrase: “This is Africa.” And it is a big piece of why not many people, relatively speaking, want to travel here.

Philip Briggs, who wrote the excellent Bradt guidebook to Ethiopia (and also the Uganda guidebook that was our great helper while we lived there), addresses a bit of this in a chapter called “Bridging the Cultural Gap.” He brings strong expertise to the job: raised in South Africa, he has traveled roughly half of each year in East Africa since 1986.

“To someone raised in the West,” Briggs writes, “first exposure to the developing world is always something of a shock. However concerned you may be about the inequality of global wealth distribution, and however much you may have read and thought about the issues, confronting the reality is something entirely different from dealing with it in the abstract. And most of us, to some extent, respond with a feeling of guilt.”

He goes on: “I have long held doubts about my work. I have been torn between the feeling that it is useful and constructive to be writing books that might encourage tourism to little-visited countries, the fear that tourism might in some way damage the country, and an anger at the way that some tourists, most especially budget travelers, ride roughshod over Africa.” In the end – and acknowledging honestly that he is, after all, a guidebook writer! – he concludes that sensitive travel, learning about new cultures and simultaneously spending money in places that desperately need it, is “a far more appropriate response than to travel only in developed countries and pretend the inequality doesn’t exist.”

Theresa and I talked about it many times in Uganda. With all the trials and tribulations, the frustrations and the sadness for the hard life all around us, we felt so enriched. We wished more Americans could travel here. It can be hard – it often IS hard -- but more than that, it is enlightening, and rewarding. This, too, is Africa.

Yes, a river DOES run through it

Considering how high up Addis is, and in such a mountainous region, I haven’t had that much sensation of being in the mountains so far. Maybe that’s because the rainy season is starting, and the clouds are often hanging low. Maybe it’s because we’re already at such an elevation that the nearby mountains don’t seem so huge. But you do get glimpses of it. From my living room balcony in the evening, I see the sun setting behind mountains that are, according to my trusty map, nearly 11,000 feet tall. And the city of Addis itself definitely has a slope to it: elevations within the city apper to range from roughly 6,700 feet to 7,800 feet (again based on a quick review of trusty map).

All of which explains why a river does indeed run through Addis. It races on a steep serpentine course through the city, in fact, cutting a sharp urban gorge and requiring many many bridges. What a nice infusion of nature into a sprawling metropolis! And indeed, that’s just how it looks, if you look at it from a distance, and just can see the lush greens alongside the rushing water.

But of course a closer look tells another story. Environmental controls have not exactly caught on here yet. The air seems more polluted than Kampala, doubtless due to the trapping effect of the surrounding mountains. And you don’t want to look too closely at the river, filled with suds in one spot, with garbage in another, and certainly with worse.

It’s too bad, said an Ethiopian friend. Where the river starts, not far away up in the Entoto Mountains (the original home of the capital city), this is a lovely, clear mountain stream. I’m hoping to go visit and see.

Stay tuned for more, on donkeys and cloverleafs and who knows what in this crazy city.

Bill is in Ethiopia!

No, we are not Under the Uganda Sun any more; in fact sadly it is not “we” at all this time, because I am alone here in Ethiopia, on a one-month teaching assignment at Addis Ababa University that did not pay nearly enough for us to cover Theresa’s airfare. That’s not a good thing from my point of view, since I feel like I am missing a very important part of myself without my partner-in-adventure along. But it is just a month, and we shall survive.

So. Ethiopia – first impressions after just a couple days in the country (but some good exploring, including a lonnnng walk, may be 3 ½ hours and 5 miles or so, through the heart of Addis Ababa … which means up some pretty steep hills, in this mountain town! (I was glad to note that despite the roughly 7,300-foot elevation here, the walk, including the big uphill part, didn’t affect me more than such a walk would anywhere else.)

Since this has previously been mostly a Uganda blog, maybe it makes sense to frame what I’ve seen so far in comparison to the country where we have now spent nearly a year in two trips over the past couple years. Below is just a sampler of Ethiopia compared to Uganda, first impressions.

SIMILARITIES

• VERY similar street scenes: people walking, walking, walking; kiosks selling everything from melons to flip-flops; kids in school uniforms; roadside nurseries with potted trees, and roadside furniture makers with piles of wooden chairs; guys herding goats down the street; lots surrounded by corrugated metal fences; wood-pole scaffolding, and on and on.


• Jarring juxtapositions of lovely smells from nature (flowers; and here, especially, eucalyptus trees) competing with nasty smells from humanity (diesel exhaust; drainage ditches emanating odors of human waste; meat-processing places).


• Jarring juxtapositions of class: ramshackle tin-walled shacks immediately adjacent to razor-wire-topped walled compounds of mansions with satellite dishes and gilded gates.


• At least at first experience, similar resignation to a government that, in both countries, has moved away from its early (and liberating) democratic promise to an increasing inclination to hang onto power by whatever means. (And this is demonstrably more serious in Ethiopia than in Uganda.)


• Hand labor. Truthfully, I have seen more heavy machinery at work here than in Uganda. But so much is still done by hand – from ditch-digging to all manner of construction. At one site I saw two women mixing cement with shovels then loading it onto a wood-frame stretcher-like conveyance to carry it to the job site. Just down the road came two more women carrying one of those stretcher things with two large boulders on it.
• Apartment furniture. Clearly they shopped at the same warehouse that the owners of Salama Springs used – the very same cherry-colored cabinets, hard-cushioned bed, etc. Made me feel at home when I walked in. But at Salama Springs the water worked (it is sporadic here, as is the electricity – currently off – and no generator). See photo of me to get an idea of the apartment complex - my room is on the 4th floor, two balconies.

DIFFERENCES

• Almost no bicycles – I’ve only seen one so far, and they were everywhere in Uganda, often mainly used as wheelbarrows to transport stuff.


• Christian slogans. Uganda is full of them – “God is the Hero” on the back of a matatu minivan; “God is Able Restaurant and Takeaway, Also Fruit Salads.” Haven’t seen one yet – probably because Christianity, though very well entrenched here, is of the orthodox, traditional nature, not evangelical.


• Shoe-cleaner guys. There are a LOT of them here – cleaning shoes, polishing them, all along the sidewalks in different neighborhoods. And they seem to get good business, especially after a rain turns part of the sidewalks to mud.


• Potholes: There are a lot fewer of them in Ethiopia, at least in the roads – I have actually seen more in sidewalks. (“Well,” I can hear Theresa muttering, “at least they HAVE sidewalks there.” True. They are far from universal – I have spent plenty of time walking in the streets or in muddy, rocky shoulder areas – but there are more of them in Addis than Kampala.)


• Monkeys! No sightings so far and I don’t really expect any in Addis. I miss the monkey tribe from Salama Springs!


• Mosquitoes! No sightings of them, either, and that’s a treat. We are too high for them, which means no slathering with Deet every evening, and no problem with leaving windows and balcony doors open.


• Beggars. Sadly, many many more here than in Kampala, where they are actually pretty rare. Swarms of urchins, and older kids/young adults who sidle up and just walk alongside you for blocks, first maybe chatting, then getting to the point.