Today, the power finally came back on at the guesthouse
where I am staying. We (me and one of my colleagues who is also staying
here) came back from a day of walking around Mercato and Bole, rang the bell,
and shouted with delight when the bell actually rang back. The guard
laughed at us when he let us in. The power has been off since Thursday
night. Yesterday morning, there was enough hot water left in the water
heater that I could take a real shower; today, I took a coffee cup shower from
the sink. Fun times ;-p
Apparently this power thing hasn’t happened at this house in
the past 8 months, which is why they don’t have a generator. I hope the
new house I’m moving to has a generator!
Today, we woke up early and took a mini-bus taxi from Tor
Hiloch (where we live) to Kasanchis, where we were meeting Nadja (my
German/Ethiopian coworker friend) and Adu (her boyfriend). Adu was our
guide around Mercato. Mercato is this huge sprawling market – kind of
like the market in Fez or Marakech, where most of the stalls are
permanent. But this one has roads with cars and alleyways with donkeys
(as opposed to Fez, which is mostly alley ways and donkeys). This one is
bigger, too.
We didn’t take any bags with us, because sometimes you can
get pickpocketed or robbed. But we were fine. Because we planned
ahead and we went early and we didn’t act stupid. We had foul, Ethiopian
style, which is beans and scrambled eggs and peppers and tomatoes and garlic
and delicious for breakfast at this tiny little seriously a hole in the wall
restaurant. But it looked clean and there were lots of people
there. So far, so good stomach wise J
Then, we wandered up and down and up and down the alley ways
and roads and thoroughfares. I think the most interesting thing were
these women who had set up stalls along side a wall, on wood platforms so their
wares were at eye level. They sat with their backs against the wall in
the middle of all of these woven plastic burlap-sack-sized sacks, which were
rolled down to display their contents. Little stones that looked like
chalky quartz; shiny metal thumb-sized canister/bullet looking things; sticks
and twigs of varying lengths, widths, and colors; tiny glass jars full of other
little stones; and thick cylinders of a solid yellow chalk-like substance.
Mung San (my colleague from Burma who is interning at CCL) said you can use it
to make bombs or preserve food. Based on the other things these women
were selling, I think it was for preserving food. Most of them were tiny
and had wrinkled, wizened faces, but there was one woman in her 20s or
30s at the end of the row, on a slightly lower platform or maybe a
plastic stool. Makes you wonder how they get their position on the
platform, all these women, one after the other, selling the same thing from the
same woven plastic bags.
There were so many other things to see – lots of people
carrying impossible-looking loads on their heads. One man had a stack of
probably 15 foam mattresses on his head, each covered in a different garishly
colored fabric – bold blue, bright yellow, fire-engine red. I don’t know
how he managed to balance all of that, walking through those crowded, unevenly
paved/unpaved streets.
We went to a store where Nadja could buy sheets – I’m really
glad I brought my own!!! They are expensive and not very nice. And
the patterns are amazing. It’s like someone went into Microsoft paint and
chose all the colors and all the “insert shape” or “insert pattern”. Some
of them were reminiscent of those really terrible Powerpoint themes. I’m
also glad I brought my down duvet, as the blanket selection consists of fuzzy “
super-soft mink” fleece blankets that are brown with bright pink and red roses
or polyester quilts with sequins and shine. Kinda like Disney on LSD.
After Mercato, we took a mini-bus back to Bole (pronounced
Bo-lay), where Nadja lives with some other expats and one other guy from the
office. We ate lunch at their house – a bright, airy, peaceful spot with
three (non-rabid) dogs (Taco, Frodo, and Sam). Then we went shopping
around Bole – we stopped at a really nice handicraft shop and then we got ice
cream. It’s amazing how different these two parts of the city are.
Bole still has all the compounds, but the compounds there have bougainvillea
creeping over the sides – a riot of pinks, reds, and orange – plus countless
other flowering vines that I couldn’t identify. One person had even
created a container garden that ran the length of their wall with fuchsias,
vincas, and some other annuals. And the ice cream was delicious and there
is not as much dust in the air. But that might also be because it is a
Saturday so traffic is not as bad today.
