My Mentabet at my Bet

"My bedroom at my House".

This is my twin-size bed covered with the Gator-theme blanket. I also have the Gator flag hanging from the closet. GO GATORS!!!

Riding in a Mini Bus

Here I was riding on a mini bus on my way to Mercato. I was sitting next to an Ethiopian lady when Mery, my landlord's daughter, took this picture. Mery took me to Mercato to buy some stuff that my fellow PCI interns needed. It was a new experience. Mery almost got robbed; a boy stuck his hand through the window and tried to steal her purse. Thankfully, we were alert and stopped him.

Baltena Shop at Mercato

A Baltena shop is where you can find different food spices and condiments. We saw lots and lots of colorful spices at this baltena shop. Too bad I won't be trying any of this stuff. As you may know, I don't like spicy food. As my Ethiopian friends would say, it's my loss. They love spices here in Ethiopia.

Yageilebese

Three ladies tending their Baltena Shop at Mercato. At their shop, you can find spices, grains, and all kind of peppers. They were wearing Yageilebese clothes which is a traditional outfit in Ethiopia.

Enkuan-dehna Metachu to Mercato

"Welcome to Mercato"

Mercato is the largest open market in Africa. It is an over-whelming and a very impressive place. There are a lot of people walking back and forth throughout the market. Things are very cheap in the Mercato. You can find ANYTHING here. I went there to buy some pillows and blankets for my fellow PCI volunteers who are coming next week to Addis Ababa. Our landlord owns three shops in the Mercato. His sons and daughter help him to run the different shops.

PCI Volunteer Ideal Palace

Project Concern International Volunteer Ideal Palace.

I just made up that acronym. This is the house (bet, in Amharic) where we are staying. It is a beautiful three-story, four-bedroom house and the best part is that we found wonderful landlords. They have been extremely helpful and friendly. It is an ideal place because it is very secure and it takes no more than ten minutes to walk from the house to the PCI office.

Sost Serategnuch and Zebegna

"Three Maids and a GateKeeper"
Standing from left to right: Asnaku, Banta Gize, Asnaku, and sitting: Weinishet. The three girls are the maids of the house and Banta Gize is the guard.

Working Hard for Homemade Bread

Asnaku and Asnaku (yeap, they both have the same name) are two of the three maids at the house. They are smashing the wheat to remove the bran (outer covering of the wheat seed). They will later take it to the mill where they will grind it into flour which will be used to make bread.

Food Poisoning Day

It started as a normal day. I already had my episodes of traveler’s diarrhea which is common. But that was nothing like the experience I had on Wednesday night. Kurt, Janine and I headed to the office around 8:00am. They had scheduled some meetings in the PCI offices during the morning and a visit to PACT and the souvenir shops in the afternoon. Janine invited Kurt and me to lunch at a restaurant nearby. Janine and I ordered pizza and Kurt ordered some meat with rice and vegetables. The pizza was good but I couldn’t finish it. It was too much food. But right after eating the pizza, I started to feel tired. It was a pretty weird feeling.

Later in the afternoon, Baheru, PCI’s driver took us to PACT. Baheru and I would wait in the car because the meeting will not last for more than thirty minutes. But we decided to go to Kaldi’s coffee shop. Interestingly, the coffee shop has a similar logo to the one of Starbucks coffee. At Kaldi’s they serve coffee, tea, ice-cream, pastries, sodas, and hamburgers. We got some ice cream and headed back to the PACT offices and wait for Kurt and Janice. Soon after, they came out and we were on our way to Churchill Avenue to the souvenir shops. We spent around two hours looking around for interesting pieces. I was feeling tired all this time. Then, I had a light headache. I bought a medium-size Ethiopian flag (~USD 3.50) but didn’t buy anything else. While we were shopping, we say a little girl selling tissue paper. She was very cute and we decided to take pictures of her. She smiled to the camera and she was constantly trying to sell the tissue paper to us. We gave her 3 ETB (USD 0.33). As soon as she got the money, she ran to an old lady (maybe her mother) and gave her the money.

It was late and Baheru had to go to school to take a mid-term exam on Entrepreneurship. We left him at his college and headed back to the office. We cleaned our desks and went back to the house. I had a big headache by then. I ate a little bit and took a shower. I had some Tylenol in my First Aid Kit so I took two of them. It was 8pm and I went to bed early. I didn’t have a stomach ache but I didn’t feel well.

The show started at 2:00 am. I woke up with extreme pain. My headache was gone but my stomach was hell. I felt miserable. By 4:00 am I was headed to the toilet! I have never experience some acute diarrhea like this one. After that, I went back to my room and started to feel vomit-like symptoms. I couldn’t believe it. As soon as my stomach felt better, this comes up! But I managed to control it. But something was mounting in my stomach again! By 6:30 am I was back to the toilet. Incredible! I also started to have acid-reflux. I was a mess!

I went to the kitchen where Kurt and the kids where having breakfast and told them about my miserable night. I was almost 8:00 am and no signs of Janine. Soon after, Janine came down. And amazingly enough, she was suffering from the same symptoms. Conclusion: Food Poisoning! Our faces looked miserable. We weren’t feeling well. We were up all night and there was no sign of improvement. Kurt decided to worked from home and take care of us. We had to cancel a meeting with Saba Har, the company that buys raw silk from farmers and process it into scarves and other products. By 9:00 am the liquids were going out through both ends: extreme diarrhea and vomiting. It was quite a scene.

Kurt told me that it is very common to get food poisoning in this country because they have a lot of food hygiene issues. We were trying to figure out what could have caused the poisoning. We simply don’t know. I went to my room around 11:00 am and tried to sleep. Fortunately, I could sleep and I rested for a few hours. Marcia cooked a soup with rice and vegetables for us. I had a little bit and some water. The only positive thing that I could take from this is that I have come up to speed with my blog! I hope these unpleasant events will not be of common occurrence.

Cute little girl

While we were shopping at the souvenir place, we found a little girl selling tissue paper. She was very cute and we decided to take pictures of her. She smiled to the camera and she was constantly trying to sell the tissue paper to us. We gave her 3 ETB (~USD 0.33). As soon as she got the money, she ran to an old lady (maybe her mother) and gave her the money.

Streets of Addis

I took this picture while Janine, Kurt, Baheru and I were at the souvenir shops looking for some gifts. I bought an Ethiopian flag (~USD 3.30) with the Lion of Juda inserted on the middle of it.

Mixed neighborhoods

Ethiopian kids playing in front of Kurt's House. There is an interesting phenomenon in the neighborhoods of Addis. In any given neighborhood you can find very nice houses next to very underprivileged houses. Kids usually come out to play on the streets in the afternoon.

Saturday School

Saturdays after lunch, Kurt's house becomes a school. Marcia, Kurt's wife, has hired four teachers that come every Saturday and teach to more than 100 Ethiopian kids and teenagers who live around the neighborhood. I was very impressed with this family because they work everyday from Monday to Friday in an NGO helping extremely poor people improve their lives and still have time and energy to engage in these types of activities. Tea and bread are part of a small snack served after class. They also play games afterwards. The students are grouped according to their age. They have four groups and they learn social values among other things. They are also preparing a big party where they will perform some traditional Ethiopian dances and songs.

Confusion Junction

Confusion Junction: The name says it all. Sometimes a police officer will try to ease the traffic jam. To make matters worse, there's also a railroad crossing at the junction.

Preparations for Trip to Addis

I am doing a lot of last minute shopping at the same time I am trying to

think what would I need to take to Ethiopia. Some of my friends ask me

how I feel about the trip and all. I am not worried about the trip and

about the fact that I've never been to Africa.

I would say I feel very anxious about the trip and, more than anything,

excited about the opportunity I will have this Summer!