Mmmmm, Pumpkin Bread

No canned pumpkin so I had to buy the real deal.

With the help of Kevin, we cut it in half and cleaned out the stringy stuff and seeds.

Then, we baked it (in the oven that has no temperature gauge)

The next day, Kadist and I scooped out the "meat."

Later that day, I mixed up the dough and then took it into the office in order to plug the mixer into our one power converter (since the plugs are different here).

Then, I baked it (again, in the oven with no temperature gauge)...and it turned out pretty well! And I still have enough pumpkin left over to make at least 6 more loaves. I'll have to find some other pumpkin recipes maybe.

Getting Around Addis

It seems like we write a lot about our weekend activities. That’s probably because those are more exciting experiences. Our weekdays are filled with language learning, speaking with ministries and churches, and all sorts of various tasks related to Ethiopian documentation and finding things – like a vehicle, home for the girls, office furniture, clothes hangers, and so on. In America, this is a bit easier since there are Walmarts, car lots, classified ads and nice roads leading most places. Here it’s a bit more difficult, especially in getting to places. Here are some examples…

Last Saturday we wanted to go into town to find a desk. The paved road close to our home is a four-lane road – usually two lanes going into town and two out of town. Unfortunately on Saturday, the Orthodox church down the road was celebrating a holy day so all four lanes were heading out of the city for over four hours. There was no city ordinance or police controlling traffic, everyone just thought it made sense to take up all the lanes for outgoing traffic. So that changed our plans a little.

The bank we use is very close to our house, again just across the paved road – which they are expanding to make a divided road. We’re excited for the finished product but at this time, the construction creates an obstacle. They have dug a trench that is about 8 foot wide and 10 foot deep. There are a few wooden planks and rickety “bridges” laid over the trench to cross. The locals usually direct us white people to this high quality bridge, complete with sand bags.

If we need to get somewhere specific or need to get somewhere quickly, we can hire a contract taxi. They’re these little blue Russian cars. To start them, sometimes the driver needs to hot wire the car. They aren’t the cleanest so sometimes we get little fleas biting at our ankles. All the drivers love to save gas by shifting into neutral and coasting downhill. The cars are usually running on the borderline between barely functional and breaking down. Two times, our taxi has broken down and pulled over. Once we had to sacrifice our precious water bottle so the driver could douse the engine to cool if off. No matter what the issue, we’re always assured by the driver with the phrase “chigger yellum”, which means “no problem”. With the help of Dawit our language instructor, we’ve learned to reply “chigger allah”, which means “there is a problem”. That usually gets a good chuckle.

Great Ethiopian Run, part 2

After we left Kaldi’s, rejoicing that we had gotten our camera back, we hopped on a mini-bus with Dawit (our language instructor) to go towards Meskal Square where the race would begin. As we got closer, we saw more and more people in the green race shirts we all were wearing. You had to be wearing the green race shirt in order to get the medal at the end.

We found a spot to wait in the midst of thousands of people. The atmosphere reminded me of a high school pep rally: people were dressed up, excited, taking pictures of each other, doing all sorts of silly things.

The “race” began finally began and we took off—walking. For nearly the entire race, it would have been difficult to run due to all the people. The “elite” runners were all at the beginning so they could actually run. But the rest of us were there to just enjoy the event. Along the way there were lots of entertaining things to see. For instance, we saw a rock band made up of foreigners playing along the race route and water spraying out of a fire hose to cool people down. At both of these spots, people just stopped walking/running to enjoy the entertainment. We thought of how great an example that was of the contrast between American “time-orientation” and African “event-orientation.” At most any race in America, people want to get the best time possible, even if they are beginning runners. Here, at the Great Ethiopian Run, (with the exception of the elite runners) people were there to just enjoy the event, regardless of how long it took them!
So we did our best to enjoy it as well, finishing the 6.2 miles in just under 2 hours. We had a blast!

Great Ethiopian Race, part 1

For the past nine years, Addis Ababa has held the “Great Ethiopian Run.” Kevin came across this fact before we moved here however we didn’t sign up immediately because we though a) all Ethiopians run way faster than us and b) we won’t be acclimated to the altitude to be able to run a 10K. Well, we were partially right. We aren’t in shape to run a 10K. However, we found out that not everyone runs this “race” and there are plenty of walkers. So, we signed up.

We signed up as non-residents (all the resident slots were full and officially we’re not residents) and along with paying a higher price, we were invited to a pre-race pasta party. People from all over Europe and the US were there to eat pasta and mingle with other running enthusiasts. We sat by a man from England who is an official race measurer and a doctor from Florida whose husband owns a running store.

Since moving to Ethiopia, we have learned a bit more about one world-famous runner: Haile Gebreselassie. He lives in Addis Ababa, has broken 26 world records, won many medals, and holds the record currently for the fastest marathon. We knew there was a chance he might be at this dinner and sure enough, he showed up! In addition, the world’s fastest female marathoner, Paula Radcliffe, from the UK, also had been invited. They shared a few words and we did our best to snap pictures of them. Something came over us and we decided to try to get a picture with them—and we were successful! Even though I didn’t know much about either of these athletes before that evening, we were so very excited to be able to stand next to them and have our picture taken.

After the dinner, we decided to stop by Kaldi’s (Ethiopian Starbucks) for some evening dessert and coffee before heading back home. We sat in comfy Starbucks-like chairs and reflected on our excitement from the evening. We then found a taxi home and once arriving there I reached in to my purse to find my camera (with the precious pictures on it). It wasn’t in there. Oh, no.

Our option was to race back to the Kaldi’s as fast as possible to see if the camera was still there. By now, it was around 9:30pm. We grabbed the first form of transportation we could find: a mini-bus. From the mini-bus, we took a taxi. Driving up to the Kaldi’s we could see that it was dark. Closed. We were looking in the windows to see if we could see the camera when a security guard told us to stop. The taxi driver got out and the four of us tried to communicate the issue: our camera is in there and we need it back. The guard pulled out his cell phone and gave us a number. At first we thought it was the phone number for the store, but as we were driving back in the taxi, I thought, maybe it’s the owner’s cell phone so let’s try calling it now rather than in the morning. Kevin called the number and again, with the help of the taxi driver, we communicated the issue and found out they opened at 8am the next morning so we could go by there at that time.

After an unrestful night of sleep, we prepared for the race and waited for our language instructor, Dawit, who was going with us, to arrive. When he did, we explained the issue and took a taxi back to Kaldi’s once again. The owner there greeted us and asked us what kind of camera we had left. We were so grateful for his thoroughness. He then went to the back and brought out the camera! I was sooooo relieved! Then, onto the Great Ethiopian race with camera in hand!

November Newsletter

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November Update

Paradise Special

So this Friday we decided to venture out a bit, beyond our walking radius, to a place 2 mini-bus stops away. We found a restaurant and once we confirmed that they actually had food and not just drinks, we sat down. We ordered water to drink but then were informed they were all out (all out of water???). So we ordered hot tea. We also ordered chicken pizza. No, we were informed, there is no more chicken pizza either. But, all the other kinds of pizza on the menu are available. Well, we’ll try the “Paradise Special.”

We should have known better because all the other pizzas had descriptions but this one did not. We asked our waitress about it and she said it has all kinds of things on it. We also ordered French fries as a sort of appetizer (a pretty safe menu item generally). The service was slow and also rather random. Maybe 15 minutes after we ordered, forks, knives, and napkins were brought to our table. A few minutes later, salt was dropped off. 15 minutes later, we received the French fries. A few minutes later, we got our tea. Then, finally, we received our pizza.

This pizza was definitely a cultural experience. The toppings included: typical tomato sauce and cheese, hard-boiled egg, spinach, cabbage, carrots, and lastly, and certainly our least favorite—tuna. Overall, not horrible, but I won’t be ordering a “special” pizza anytime soon. Thankfully, the entire bill was just under $5.

One Friday night

Here's a glimpse into a weekend night in Addis Ababa. After a busy week, we decided we wanted to rent a movie. There were a couple of movie-rental places nearby so we checked them both out. The first one was playing loud American pop music. This store is on a dirt/gravel street where horse-drawn “taxis” transport people up and down that way. We commented on what a mixing of worlds that store illustrated. The next rental place was just off the dirt/gravel road and along a paved road. This store has movies for rent on one wall, and computers on the other wall where people pay to get on the internet. (We used that service a couple of times before we got internet at our home). There we found a movie that looked decent and also looked like it would be in English. (Many looked like they were Chinese versions of American movies). We had to pay 5 birr (42 cents) to rent the movie and put down 50 birr (about $4) as a deposit that we will get back when the movie is returned.

(below is the first movie rental place with 2 very different, yet both commonly seen modes of transportation seen on this road)

On the way home, we bought some bread from a very friendly bread-seller for 25 cents to eat with our leftover chicken. After we ate our dinner, we popped some popcorn in a way I remember my mother doing a long time ago. We put some oil in a big covered pan, heat it up, add a few “test kernels”, and when the oil is hot enough, add the rest of the popcorn, cover, and shake over the heat until the popping slows. The end result was so tasty! Better than microwave popcorn any day!

The movie worked out well for the most part except for the audio was out of sync wit the video, making it seem like a poorly dubbed Chinese film.