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The blue booth in the middle of the picture is a phone booth. I think there were 4 public phones in it. The guys on the rail are waiting to use a phone. Waiting in lines over there was different than over here, maybe because lines don't really happen over there. You just bustle forward whenever there is an opening for most things. It was a similar feel to when I was in Russia in the mid-90's. This was a little surprising to me, because by and large, the Ethiopian people were very friendly and considerate. Very much so in fact. They just don't do lines.
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Check out the scaffolding. Would you want to be working on the 4
th or 5
th floor of this? Construction was everywhere in
Addis, which is a healthy thing I think. Most of the in-work buildings had this same kind of scaffolding. The individual poles were joined together with a combination of nails and lashings. Scaffold poles were for sale everywhere on the sides of the main roads.
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This picture is taken at our guest home shortly before we left. As a going away gesture, two of the staff (all wonderful people by the way) performed the Coffee Ceremony for us. I don't like coffee. But, I enjoyed the ceremony. Ethiopia claims to be the origin of coffee (although there may be some in South America who would beg to differ), and the ceremony has some history to it. They were honoring us by performing it for us. I really don't like coffee. The ceremony started with them burning some incense (pointy black jar in picture). Then they roasted whole coffee beans over hot coals, followed by grinding the beans and pouring them in hot water. I hate coffee. This was then served to us as a token of goodwill and friendship.
Hmmmm.... which would be worse.... turning down a special cup of coffee, or retching violently after drinking it? Did I mention that I had been up half the previous evening with a stomach bug, kneeling at the porcelain throne? I prayed and drank the coffee, in that order. And you know what? It stayed down. God blessed yet again. Coffee consumed. No mad dash from the room. No international incident. I wonder if there are any countries that have a cherry coke ceremony?
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The blue booth in the middle of the picture is a phone booth. I think there were 4 public phones in it. The guys on the rail are waiting to use a phone. Waiting in lines over there was different than over here, maybe because lines don't really happen over there. You just bustle forward whenever there is an opening for most things. It was a similar feel to when I was in Russia in the mid-90's. This was a little surprising to me, because by and large, the Ethiopian people were very friendly and considerate. Very much so in fact. They just don't do lines.
1 comment:
Here in Costa Rica living with the Indians I have had some of those pray and do it cultural moments and thankfully God has always helped me through.
I had to learn to like coffee because it is the only thing the Indians drink. They have to boil the water to drink it so I guess they think better to make it coffee and drink it so you don´t have to wait for it to cool down. Thankfully though they don´t make it strong because without cream or sugar it would be pretty hard to get it down.
Their ceremonial drink is a fermented chewed up corn drink. Now that they are Christians though the make it but don´t allow it to ferment. This one was hard to get down because it is very thick.
God has been faithful to help me through all of this without ever getting sick. I have been surprised by his care of me.
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