Another blablabla...

Time is just flying by... I end up being quite busy. I work from 8.30 till 5.30 or 6. Last week, every day after work, I have been wandering around, taking a big street and following it until my legs could not continue. Then back home which sometimes can be complicated as i take public transport. Mainly, this is small buses called taxis, white and blue, which stop in ununderstandable places and go to area with unintelligible names, shouted very fast and very strangely ‘’Bassabassa mezkomezko (meaning Mexico!), bolbolbolbolbol (meaning Boley area)’’. It is tricky to manage to get the right one, especially when you don’t really know the name of the area where you live and want to go! I get used to it fast though.
This is another problem of Addis. They don’t really use streets name. The system has been introduced only less than ten years ago (even less the five i think). So Ethiopian people don’t refer to this system to find their way...I haven’t figured out which system they use... They have area names that are usually too long to be remembered (some manage, but not me yet). Moreover, if you want to use the good old system (that we Westerners actually find useful), this is not as easy. The ones who got the contract to make the signs of the street of Addis are....guess who.... the Chinese! Bad luck? A bit, as the Chinese people and the English language make twenty. So almost all the signs have spelling mistakes which doesn’t motivate locals to use them (nor us indeed).
Anyways...it makes busy weeks and I don’t see the time going on. When I am walking around or just hanging around with Ethiopians, i always think about the things I want to write to you. Some funny some not. The things I see in the street or what people tell you. But when I am in front of my computer, it is a bit hard to remember them all and gather them in a readable text! (Sorry, i am not really organized, this blog is becoming a mess!).
For example I visited houses for my boss who wants to move, which allowed me to get inside many compounds of middle high class people. Very interesting. I saw a dead dog in a pile of trash. I found the coolest bookshop in the street, with only books from the 30’s till the 60’s.. great fun! We drink lots of excellent Macchiato and we eat lots of different kind of food from Chinese to Lebanese, from Ethiopian to Italian. There are slums and business buildings, small houses and mud houses. It is rainy but still quite warm. We play badminton, volleyball in the courtyard of the house which is really cool. What else...? the smiles of Ethiopian, how helpful and nice they are. The beggars in the street, all the blind people (water problems), the awful smells when you cross a bridge on top of the garbage river (not as bad as in Kathmandu though!) ...The heavy pollution that squashes down the city .Just billions of small things that are so hard to describe and hard to remember. Observations, thoughts, feelings...
Another example. Giving your telephone number. Yeah, lots of nice Ethiopian who you meet in the street for small talks want to be able to meet you again, or keep contact. As naive as I am, I undoubtedly will leave my phone number. What harm could it do? Um... I start o understand that I should not do that too much! While I was going to look for bamboo furnitures for my room (cheap and best), I have been helped by this adorable Taricu, who barely speaks English but has been really helpful. I gave him my number. Next day: seven missed calls! Ok, he calls once again, I hang up. ”Alice? When you go Bambis?(the supermarket where i met him)”. ” Hum i don’t know ”. ” What time? Tell me”. ” Hum i don’t know, later...” And he calls every day now to ask me when i am at Bambis.... heartbreaking but i can’t go to Bambis all the time and anyways our conversation are sooo limited as his English is really basic (or less). What to do? Haha and thy are also giving my number to their friends,,, haaa!!!