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.