Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Ethiopia… how can I explain what I see? How can I describe a place which is so different from anywhere else I’ve ever been? Maybe I’ll just narrate our arrival and first day in Addis…

We flew from Egypt to Ethiopia on Egypt Air (a solid airline, by the way). We arrived in Addis at around 3 a.m. The airport is surprisingly nice, modern, with large glass windows. After standing in line for about half an hour to get Kimmie’s visa (Americans can buy their visa at their airport; as a Guatemalan, I had to get mine beforehand), we finally walked out into the African night. A person from our hotel received us.

I don’t think of myself as someone who is easily frightened, but I must recognize that I was uneasy on our way to the hotel. The hotel was like 20 minutes from the airport, and as we got farther and farther away from the airport, the street became smaller and darker. Eventually, it became a dirt road, flanked by little tin shacks on both sides. To set the context: I had arranged everything for the hotel online, without directly speaking to anyone. With this in mind, as we drove further and further into what at times seemed like the slums of Guatemala, I began imagining the worse. What if it was all a setup to rip us off or rob us?

But luckily, as you guys might imagine, nothing happened and we eventually arrived at our hotel. With this story in the background I want to underscore something both Kimmie and I have come to realize about Ethiopia: it is very, very safe. This country defies all hypotheses relating poverty – and this country is poor – and crime. We have never been in a situation – barring the hotel drive I just described – in which we felt the least concerned about our safety. And it’s not that we’ve just sat in our hotel rooms all day. On the contrary, we’ve walked everywhere, taken public transportation, crossed a lake on a boat. And Ethiopians are so friendly and welcoming. Even though many of them do not speak English, they’re always willing to engage in sign language to communicate.

We only spent one day in Addis. It’s a large city, with a growing population. The most interesting part of our day was the visit to the National Museum. That’s where Lucy is kept – she’s the first human ancestor to walk on two legs (3 million years ago!). Salem is also there – he’s a “kid” whose remains are even older that Lucy’s. In general, the museum, especially its first floor, which traces human development from its ancestors, is beautiful. They have the entire line of human evolution, with Ethiopian fossils for each different species.



The museum also houses some artifacts from Ethiopia’s rich modern history. There are crowns and thrones of the different Abyssinian (Solomonic) emperors. For example, we saw some of Menelik II’s belongings. He was the emperor who defeated the Italians in the late 19th century. Just a reminder: Ethiopia is the only African country never to have been colonized by a European power, despite the Italians’ many attempts. As such, Ethiopian stands as a symbol of independence in Africa.

But returning to the museum, we also saw some pictures and belongings of Haile Salessie, emperor from 1930 to 1974 and founder (or at least he inspired it) of the Rastafari religion (his title, before becoming emperor, was Ras Tafari). Salessie’s rule came to an end when a Communist revolution (it wasn’t communist at first, but it became radicalized with time) toppled him (the new regime was known as the Derg… it lasted until 1991). One last thing about Salessie: he’s identical to Edelberto!



From the museum, we walked to an Ethiopian restaurant. The food was delicious, although the spice used to cook it kind of upset our stomachs. Still, a little upset stomach hasn’t kept us from having a lot more. And it’s so cheap! A dish for two cost us less that $2. It included steak, lamb, and their special bread, injera (a cross between tortillas and pancakes made of a grain called tef).