 |
| Look Mom! An Ethiopian Annunciation on our bedside lamp :) |
Toni and I travelled north from Addis early this morning, landing ourselves in Bahir Dar, a sleepy little town on the edge of Lake Tana, which happens to be one of the principle sources of the Nile. Toni's here for a conference, and I've hitched myself along because
a) 3 weeks apart when I was in Nigeria was just no fun
b) Lake Tana has a number of medieval island monasteries to explore - RAD!
In the meantime I'm writing up my report from Nigeria work - I was there hired by Save the Children to do interviews all round the country in hopes of identifying barriers to scaling up health interventions for mothers and infants, i.e. why with all the resources and potential Nigeria has are maternal and infant mortality rates so shockingly high. Leslie has kindly offered to edit this beast of a report (thanks, sis!), so if you want more information you can ask her in a couple weeks when I send it over :)
Otherwise, Toni and I explored Bahir Dar a bit today on foot, and were laughed at heartily for our "betam tinnis Amarinya." You see, very very few non-Ethiopians speak Amharic, and Ethiopians are absolutely taken aback when you can understand what they're saying about you, or ask a question/respond in Amharic. Especially outside of Addis, where there are fewer and fewer foreigners, it just becomes hilarious to people to hear us attempt the local tongue! It is admittedly quite funny because our accents are atrocious, and we're not nearly fluent enough to actually have a decent, complex conversation. The laughter is more a gesture of endearment than anything else, but still, it's a bit disconcerting to have people erupt in giggles at everything you say, no?
In other news, we're staying at this lovely little house which operates 2 rooms as a B&B. We were originally booked in for just 2 nights, and then had to go to another hotel for the rest of the week we're here because there wasn't vacancy at the B&B. We happened upon our other hotel on our walkabout, and they miraculously have NO idea what happened to our reservation, and because this massive conference going on, every other hotel in town is absolutely booked out. But alas! Ethiopian hospitality rescues us! The woman who owns the hotel has a brother who has a restaurant with rooms in the back, and they've offered us to stay there, essentially in their family home, for about $4 a night. Private room with proper bed and all. So kind! And staying with an Ethiopian family = leaps and bounds better than a boring hotel anyway. Maybe our Amharic will improve enough to where people stop mocking us... or maybe not :)
Toni and I are trekking for a month around Northern Ethiopia - will drop in with some more posts every now and then, because the history and grandeur here is out of this world. This country! I tell you. Wish you could all visit.... bewalha?
loves,
jooj.
