The Transition Artist

After the longest flight of my life (literally the longest I’ve sat in one seat in my life), I finally made it to Africa. Of course I started making friends as soon as possible, and sat next to two extremely friendly Ethiopian men (now living in America) on the plane who told me the ins and outs of their home country. They tried to teach me some Amharic (the national language – which sounds to me a little like a blend of Arabic, some Latin, and English), but after a few hopelessly failed attempts at pronunciation on my part, settled for giggling and chatting with me in English. They made sure to turn to the sky map on their seat-back TVs to point out some of the most striking natural features of their homeland, counting down the hours until arrival, explaining that the scenery was something they missed most. As we broke through the clouds on our final decent, I pressed my face up against the windows and understood exactly what they meant. The sun came up above the clouds just as we slipped underneath them, and beautiful mountains, plateaus, and valleys, visibly more natural and uninhabited than any I’ve seen before, rose up and dipped down into deep crevices below us. Ethiopia was breathtakingly beautiful before I even touched the ground.
After landing, my coworker Tammy and I (traveling together as the last two to arrive) hustled through the visa line, anxious to get through customs so that we could go out and explore. As we stepped outside the airport terminal and into the waiting hotel shuttle, I could stop commenting on how blown away I was. Even around the airport, pedestrians lined the streets and roamed like a lost herd of cattle, almost getting run over at every turn (this only intensified as we drove further into the city). The city itself, though, is exquisite. Just driving around felt somehow so natural and made me so happy. I looked around at the buildings, looking so modern in style, but covered in “scaffolding” that literally looks like a series of sticks stacked upon one another haphazardly (all I could picture was how skinny and agile the person they send up there must be). The scenery was surreal, with breathtaking mountain views as the backdrop to first a bustling city center, alleyways filled with slum-like shacks, and then young boys herding goats down main public roads like it was casual (and to them it very much was).

We made it to the hotel around 8:30am, and I went down to relieve myself of my sluggish jet lag with the best coffee I’ve ever had (hands down). I chatted with the other team members who had arrived yesterday, and then we all hopped into a waiting van to visit a nearby market comprised entirely of goods made by non-profit organizations. For those of you who understand my deep, undying love for everything tribal, you should know that I looked like a little kid in a candy store. I stopped at looked at each figurine and beautifully decorated pot like it was the last one I’d see in the world. Everything was incredibly cheaply priced (the exchange rate is killer – about 20 Ethiopian burr to the dollar), but I eventually decided to save my money so that I didn’t blow it all on the first day, even though I could’ve easily bought the whole market..

Afterwards we returned to the hotel, where I indulged in a second cup of the fantastic coffee, wiping every hint of sleepiness from my memory. We then met up with some friends of Emily’s named Aman and Blaine. They were two of the friendliest and kindest-hearted people I’ve ever met. The two took us to a little open air food market called “A Taste of Addis,” which featured food from every culture you can imagine. I had so much fun I didn’t even realize how long we stayed. I wound up getting a smoothie and some Caribbean jerk chicken with rice and beans and the best coleslaw I’ve ever tasted. I chatted with some teenagers manning the booth with this hilariously pimped out older rasta dude (literally looked like their sketchy crazy uncle) who, when I asked what they were selling, offered me a tray of Jell-O shots. I laughed and pointed to one girl’s plate and said, “No! I mean what is that?!” And she promptly stood up and offered me a bite. I laughed again, thinking it was both sweet and maybe a little strange that the girl was so willing to share her fork with a total stranger, but told her I trusted her and just went ahead and ordered a plate. The group ended up inviting me to some sort of “rasta every night dance club” and told me to “come by the house…preferably at night.. ;)” at which point I got lightly weirded out by the group vibes and thanked them for my food and left.

We spent the rest of our time at the food vendor fair chatting with our new Ethiopian friends Blaine and Aman, and met many of their friends as well. The conversation felt so easy and endless, I could’ve stayed all day. Eventually, though, the time came for us to leave and we hopped back in the van to return home. In a bout of bravery, a few of us decided to try and make it to the national museum to see Lucy (the first human discovered – remember your ancient history class?), but got there right as it closed.

We returned to the hotel and ended the evening with Blaine, her adorable son David, and Aman. Blaine and her husband are about to open a gelato shop here, so she brought us a few pints of her homemade gelato to try. It was absolute heaven. All of us sat around speechless as we devoured the icy, creamy goodness and finally allowed ourselves to feel tired. We stayed glued to those same seats until a traditional African wedding procession came through the front doors of the hotel, complete with a sax player accompanying the bride, clapping, and chanting and singing. It was so cool I decided I wanted to have a traditional African wedding too…

The wedding is still going full swing downstairs on the third floor (with no doors to go close, mind you), and I can hear the loud singing and instruments from my sixth floor room. This was all cute and dandy until my jet lag hit me with some real gusto and I nearly passed out halfway through typing this. I’m so pooped I can honestly probably sleep through it, but I can assure you I’ll have some real vivid, trumpet and drum-filled dreams tonight. I’m already looking forward to tomorrow, so I guess sleep is pretty important at this point and I’ll head that way pretty soon.

To close I just want to say this: to anyone who has never been to Africa, I can assure you it is an experience of a lifetime. My first day is just barely coming to a close, but I already know I won’t want to leave when the time comes.