Part II... Addis Ababa

1. Outside important museum... 1st church in Addis Ababa and Menelik's palace
2. View of the city
3. Scaffolding for building a high rise
4. City view
5. View from House of Hope

So, after we got picked up we had a 15 minute drive through Addis Ababa to get to the House of Hope. It is a pretty intense city. There are people everywhere that are homeless. They line the sidewalks in most parts of the city... just laying on the side of the road. When it rains they all pull out little pieces of plastic tarp to cover up with, so as you drive you just see little bundles of plastic everywhere. At every stop light (of which there really aren't many.... I only saw 2 in the entire city) or corner with policeman directing traffic beggars circled our car looking for open windows. There were lots of little kids, lots of people with disabilities and lots of women with babies. First, they would say they were hungry, then the kids would say that their parents were dead, then that they needed school books, and then they would sing a song. It was pretty hard, because if you gave out something to anyone the whole car would get swarmed with people... trying to open windows and doors.


The city has an interesting look, because there is no nice part of town and bad part of town. It is completely mixed up. There would be people in elegant dresses and suits walking on an unpaved road past tin shacks to get to a really fancy compound in the midst of the shacks. Everyone shops at the same stores and goes to the same markets. I don't think I've ever seen a city quite like it before.


The pollution was also quite an experience. There were clouds of smoke coming out of cars and garbage all over the place. I only saw public garbage cans once, and they were 3 huge dumpsters that had completely over flowed and had trash all around them. There were goats, cows and donkeys all over the city as well.... eating the grass in the median. The area is absolutely beautiful, as the whole city is surrounded by mountains. Unfortunately, the pollution is so bad that you really can't see them. We sneezed black gunk for the whole week we were there. We just couldn't imagine what it would do to your lungs to live there all of your life.


In spite of all of the bad things, it really was a vibrant and exciting place. The people were extravagantly friendly and welcoming, especially when we had Meron with us. People went out of their way to tell us she was beautiful and to try to make her smile. There are new buildings going up all over the place, and while the methods would make your average OSHA representative have a coronary on the spot, the finished products look amazing.
We finally drove down an incredibly rutted gravel/mud/cobblestone road. Seriously, there were potholes so big that the entire van would fit in them. We were driving about 3 miles an hour and it still difficult to stay in our seats. We pulled up to an ornate iron gate and honked, and a uniformed guard opened the gate and let us in to the House of Hope.
Merrie's waking up from her morning nap... will write more later