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.