Final Week of Ethiopia

Anne:
Due to popular demand and now a feeling of guilt…we apologize for leaving you hanging and resume our blogging activities.

Our last week…..and still speaking! Hard to believe (to both), the time has flown by. Both work life and tourist life are now at a frantic pace. So much to do in a short period of time!!
At work… after 3 weeks of almost solitude…I can barely handle the attention. It does make the day go quickly though. 
Life at the Hilton consists of a schedule… Gym, food, football. There are only so many days to finish shopping, try restaurants that we wanted to try or return to favorite haunts, and catch the evening’s matches in the African Cup of football.
We have become addicted to football. The lobby bar has turned into a sports bar of sorts. Big screen TV…lots of people sitting around watching the games…lots of cheering…so very festive. That’s usually where we end up for part or all of the game. Peanuts, wine/beer and maybe a snack. We usually get the same table…the servers know us (well we were there for a month!!) …..very comfortable indeed. 
Tuesdays schedule was shopping. Back to the shops at Churchill for some bartering and rioting…dinner at Finfine (traditional). Did I mention the rioting??

Judy:
Okay, I know that was a dig at me! I told you about the learned hopelessness that I believed when the kids would ask for money. One day, I decided to give some of the kids things that they could sell (pencils, sharpeners and bracelets) when they ask me for money. So, I gave them things that they could sell…so they wouldn’t beg for money. My vision of making them entrepreneurs….it worked….kinda. Until I had a riot with the kids that gave product! Everyone wanted product! AND, fought about it with each other. I tried!
Anne:
She was “trying” all right. I am so done with shopping….need beer not bartering and tripping over yelling kids.

Anne:
Wednesday night we went to a new restaurant Sangam (Indian). We arrived at 6pm only to find out that it didn’t open until 6:30pm. So back in the cab and off we went to check out a guesthouse further down the road. I almost stayed here but CDC decided on the Hilton. Now after a brief look around the rooms, chat about the amenities, and a scan of the neighborhood …we can give our thumbs up or down to the bosses.
It’s 6:30 so back to the restaurant. Lights were off…2 people staring at us…..finally showing us to a table. Then we were ignored for another 10 minutes or so. Other diners came in and received the same welcome. We finally got menus and asked about a drink and were told “it’s locked”. No other explanation….
The other diners left and said they’d be back at 7pm. This restaurant is opened for lunch so there shouldn’t be this much confusion? We stood our ground.
After staring down the servers, cashier, host?...our order was taken. It was painful painful….little to no English versus little to no Amharic!
I can’t imagine that this is one of the higher rated eateries. Every table had a similar experience and even fight with this server.
But…the chef prevailed…and is was verrrry yummy indeed.


Thursday was my last day at work. I decided to take Friday off and have a day by the pool!! So to celebrate we went to the gym, the bar for football, then room service for the second half…and I even ordered fries and cake.  Judy was still downstairs so I could sneak this in!!!
I know it sounds like a boring way to celebrate my last day of work…but I just wasn’t up for another “episode”. The city has become really busy because of an African Union Summit…so more traffic and roads closed for passing dignitaries. It was nice to spend some time with “friends”.

Ahhhhhhhhhh………Friday. First time by the pool…how sad is that!!! Baked and broiled until early afternoon then it was off to the gym then dinner. We tried to get reservations at Castillo’s (top Italian joint) but to no avail. African presidents and prime ministers are in town so no room for mangy tourists. So we went to DonVito’s…
Traffic is a nightmare….

Judy:
Gech came over on Friday evening and came to dinner with us. I had tried to see Afamily this week, but I couldn’t reach her…maybe she was off of her guardian angel post!

And, I didn’t see Adane and Brook either ;(
Oh well….next time!

Saturday was packing day….we had to pack our stuff AND unpack and repack a large suitcase that was too heavy, from the family of our friends in Halifax!

Anne:
I knew we bought stuff but when it is shoved in the closet for weeks on end you kind of forget. You should have seen the room Saturday morning! Disaster zone!! We couldn’t get a late checkout because of the African Summit so had to be out by noon…housekeeping keeps banging on the door….wow, talk about pressure packing. And what the hell are we going to do with kilos and kilos of spice and unknown white powder which I’m hoping is flour!
When Tigest brought the suitcase on Thursday I could barely lift it off the floor…I know they weigh the bags at Bole airport so it’s time to be creative!! 
Well…she did it. Jude was an amazing packer and we were out of the room by 11:30!
Our shuttle doesn’t leave until 7pm and our flight is at 11pm, so we hunkered down for some coffee and TV at our table in the bar.
And since there was still an ounce of space left in one suitcase, we called Tesfu and went shopping. We had to buy green coffee beans and Tej for family dinner and Missy wanted stamps. It should have been a quick spree but those *#% dignitaries shut down the city for almost an hour, so we sat in the car and waited and waited until finally the road was open. Even as it was Tesfu couldn’t use the road in front of the Hilton so we had to jump out and make our way through the back gates. Actually it made us glad that we were leaving that night! Wayyyy too frustrating.
Tesfu is such a sweetie…he bought us going away presents and gave us some traditional music. Ahhhhhh….he likes us! Or he feels guilty for having to count our panties??
What we thought would be a boring day turned out to be a short breather followed by a good-bye visit by Gech followed by an earlier shuttle (worry about traffic delays) followed by some repacking at the check-in counter (*$# spice) followed by a few hours at the airport followed by a little angst at the gate (*%$#@ spice) followed by hours and hours of flying which resulted in us landing on time Sunday 11pm but our luggage not arriving until Thursday at noon!!
And we are still speaking….a few snarls along the way….but nothing a glass of wine and a nap couldn’t cure.

Judy:
And, we were so happy to see our luggage in Chicago….who knew that it takes so long to have luggage moved from Chicago to Halifax!!!!! Come on United Airways…..

And, of course the Customs officers inspected all our luggage….breaking those bags of spice and rummaging through our panties….everything was about those panties!


Square and Circle