A-Dis A-Dat

I had been fighting a flu all week in Adis. Sleeping marathon sessions, that I would wake up so tired from sleeping, I’d take a nap. Very fatigued, but I thought it was so incredible that the women who run the hotel brought me tea and juice, and all of my newly acquired awesome friends called to ask if everything is okay. I am still deciding if it is not directly related to the air quality here. Adis is above 7,000 ft., and coming from sea level, that is a lot less oxygen. In addition, the exhaust here is just overwhelming for me. I can almost taste this sweet sickening diesel exhaust, which makes me gag and almost vomit. I do not remember being so hyper-sensative to it, but it is a day to day reality here now. Then there are the smells of strange goat/sheep cooking, goat/sheep living, foreign spices, garbage, and that occasional feces (lets hope that it is just animal!). I just hit a breaking point as far as automobile/transportation is concerned: Humans have got to do better. We are destroying these little pink tender bodies, with hidious pollution. We might be trying to do that back in the States, but it makes no difference if it is not a global effort. Air does not use passports or stop at imaginary boundries. It is not just the automobiles either, the city has massive electricity cuts sometimes for an entire day. Therefore, almost every building and shop has a generator kicking out more fumes. Strange to imagine 5 million people with no electricity, and it is handled so casual. Can you imagine if all of Los Angeles had no electricity for a few days??? Anyways, I did get tested for malaria Saturday morning at the hospital just to be on the safe side, and thank-goodness it was a "No”. I am now back to operating speed and eating my normal “John intake”, which for many of you know that is quite a bit for a skinny guy!

Time in Ethiopia is a strange thing. First, they operate on a true Julian calendar, meaning 30 days in every month. This leaves 5 extra days at the end of the year, because the five months we assign to have 31 days. Instead, they make this a 13th month called Poaguma, only five days long. It comes just after Ethiopian New Years, which is Sept.11, which means I'll be here for it! Apparently, the business world just kind of relaxes during this time as some stores close, and people celebrate with meals and visits. They also have a different clock. 6:00 p.m. is actually midnight, so it is shifted back 6 hours. The country has such a fascinating history as well. The Ethiopian history states that the powerful and wealthy Queen of Sheba paid King Solomon a visit in Israel. King Solomon invited the Queen of Sheba to a banquet, serving spicy food to induce her thirst, and inviting her to stay in his palace overnight. The Queen asked him to swear that he would not take her by force. He accepted upon the condition that she, in turn, would not take anything from his house by force. The Queen assured that she would not, slightly offended by the implication that she, a rich and powerful monarch, would engage in stealing. However, as she woke up in the middle of the night, she was very thirsty. Just as she reached for a jar of water placed close to her bed, King Solomon appeared, warning her that she was breaking her oath, water being the most valuable of all material possessions. Thus, while quenching her thirst, she set the king free from his promise and they spent the night together. The Hebrew Bible does not acknowledge this account. It is said that their son Melenik I, was the first in a long line of Ethiopian emperors who trace their origins to King Solomon. The last being Emporer Haile Selassie, who was deposed in 1974. It is also said that many early Christian artifacts were brought to Ethiopia. Half of Jesus's cross is hidden in the northern Ethiopian city of Axum, near the border with Eritrea.
Aklilu is one of my new frineds here. He is a 42-year old shoe-shiner, welder, poet, businessman. He has a little bench that is his office on one of the Adis city streets. People stop to get their shoes shined or drop off shoes clothes for repair that he takes to people who fix them. The young kids come, and he teaches them business. In the evenings, he retreats home and diligently writes his poetry. He does not publish as he does not want recognition. This is partly because he was very active in writing critical literature against the government some years back. I was shocked that he read the entire James Michner book "Hawaii", among thousands and thousands of other books. I explained that I had good reason to read it while I was to deliver a boat to Hawaii last year, but still could not tackle that monster. I delivered him some of my friend Barry Spack's poems that Barry had just emailed me. Aklilu, sat down and so carefully read these words, and processed them all. Quite amazing. Barry- if you are reading the only word he could not quite understand was dimwit...I struggled for a good analogy. We walked through the giant Merkato, said to be Africa's largest market. So fascinating seeing and smelling all of the colors. He was one of seven children from a very poor , but shockingly intelligent family.

Another new friend is Ady. Ady is from Eritrea, the country to the north of Ethiopia, which for most of history was part of Ethiopia. It was in a brutal war with Ethiopia that finally ended in 2000. Ady is also extremely bright and gifted. Both of his parents were school teachers in Asmara (the capital) and he went to the mandatory military service after high school. Here many young Eritreans get stuck, because the government decides what you do upon your completion of service. Many times, there are no work options anyway. You just stay in the military. Last night, he told me some of his fascinating stories. He was a communication officer/ radio transmitter (the guy who carried the radio on his back for the commander). He told me about one battle his troop ended up in, in which both the Eritreans and Ethiopians ended up mixed up on a giant hot desert plain. There was so much confusion that everyone just started shooting each other. Their uniforms were similar colors, the language is virtually the same, and they look the same. Pretty chaotic I imagine. He was standing behind one of his best friends who was carrying one of those plastic backpack jugs full of water ( a very important job in the summer time in those latitudes). A bullet went right through his friend’s heart, and exploded the tanks of water on Ady behind him. He said he was so spun out he thought that all of the water on him was blood for a while, and began to feel around his body for where the “Blood” was coming from. A year later or so, he was crouched behind a trench on the frontlines of a battle. It was June 11^th, and at 7:00 that morning the two countries signed a peace accord. However, the news was a few hours late in arriving to the frontlines of the battles. His commander was trying to make a radio contact (which probably would have alerted him of the ceasefire), but could not get reception so he stood up. Ady, who was holding the pack just a meter or so away, felt a mortar land just above his head on the trench wall. The next thing he knew his commander was blown far away, and there was metal from the mortar in his hands and stomach. A devout Orthodox Christian, he feels God had other plans for him, as it is quite bizarre to be that close to a mortar, and be able to live to tell about it. I believe so too. And if you knew how gentle, soft-spoken, and generous he is, you would too. His current job is editing video, but like many of us survivors, he can do(and is good) a quite a number of things. “Always learning!” we cheer. He lives with his longtime friend/sister, Feven, who works for the US ambassador here. Family in Ethiopia can extend beyond blood, to those friends close to the family, who are involved in all of the family affairs. Once again, I believe I have found some of the best jewels that Adis has to offer as friends.

Some cheery thoughts: Coffee! Yep, it’s the best in the world. In traditional coffee ceremonies, which is pretty much just sitting around with friends, roasting the beans, boiling them in a little ceramic kettle, and talking, there is a name for each number of cup of coffee up to for:

1.Awel

2.Kal-Ay

3.Bereka

4.Dereja

5. I invented a name for this- “Bathroom!”

The blue and white converted pick-up taxi trucks that take you around town are called “Wiyiyit” which in Amheric means “Conversation”. This is because there are two benches that you cram into, and so you begin to have a conversation with everybody, since the 10 of you or so, are facing each other. So delightful. I got a real kick out of this one little shoe shine boy the other day (so many of them!!!!). He said “Shine Shoe???” in this funny accent that they have. I said “No, thank you”. He said “Yes, please.” With this serious face, without even knowing what this means in English….my shoes look great!