Ethiopia by E-mail
Subject: Good day from Addis Ababa April 9th
On the Bole Road one of the supermarkets, Fantu has closed for remodeling
they said but they have started to tear the building down so I guess
remodeling in this case means a whole new store building. Thomas told me it
will take 2 to 3 years before it is open again. I am not sure why but a lot
of the stores have less items to sell. So I am not sure if it is just a
delay in the imported stuff getting here or what. All the stores have empty
shelves this week. We just buy what we find and can afford. So we have to
shop a few more stores to get what we need. While we were shopping today we
found out why Abrico has empty shelves, it is closed permanently. Pat was
in there yesterday and it was business as usual with a few empty shelves but
when we tried to go in today, it was closed and they were hauling things out
to the Abrico down the street so now there are two less grocery stores in
the neighborhood.
I am still going to Gemini Trust Youth Center twice a week. I enjoy it but
I am not sure how much good I am doing. The students I think are teaching
me more then I am teaching them. If we come back next year I will not
volunteer here because of the location. It is a trip and I have not found a
cheap way to get there. Jim and I have not been able to figure out the line
taxis to the place and he is not sure how safe it is for me to travel there
alone. It is not easy getting around here sometimes. So I take the
contract cab. Thomas is our main driver but has a couple of others who take
me when he is busy. It is 30 birr a trip which the students tell me is too
expensive. They come by bus and it is 50 cents a trip and cheaper because
they get student fees on week days. 30 birr is only about $3.50 but to
these students that is a lot of money. They told me some of their homes
they rent for 100 birr a month which to them is very expensive. Of course
they are like all Ethiopians and think all Americans are rich and can afford
anything. It is kind of funny because I have told them we are volunteers so
now they tell me I am not a rich American because I don't get money for
being here. I have also told them I had to buy my own airplane ticket to
come and that they did buy Jim's ticket to come and we only get the
apartment we live in for working at the University. It is better that they
think we are living not to well so I don't get asks for a lot of money. We
get a lot of people wanting us to give them money or buy stuff from them on
the street. Jim did buy a watch the other day. The man started off at 150
birr and Jim told him 25 birr and he said ok after a little haggling back
and forth. So now we have a watch. That is how he got a set of sheets too.
To get rid of the hawkers, Jim tells them that he will pay a really low
price that he does not think that they will take and that is his last offer.
Sometimes they take it like they did for the watch & sheets. In Ethiopia
there are two prices for stuff. Even at the open air market we pay more than
the locals. It is called foreignee price. I have bought a couple more
pillars from the art students and have another one ordered. They are making
me special ones that are shorter in length so they will fit in my suitcase.
I have to be careful about the weight now.
Jim has now been able to get all the students in field placements and they
are working on next year's schedule for classes. So even if the students are
not at the University he is still very busy. They are starting to review
applications for next year's group of students and plan when the test will
be. He is still trying to figure out how to make sites visits to all the
students placements. The University does not have any cars available and we
are not sure where all the sites are so he has to call them and find out what he
can arrange if he decides to go by contract cab. Where you go is how the
cab driver sets the price of the cab.
St. Matthews Church has now been rearranged to the formal setting of the
chairs and the altar. For Easter they change the way the church is set up
so now we see where the altar is supposed to be in front of a stain glass
window. We still enjoy attending and this week they had a guest speaker who
came down from the pulpit and gave a wonderful sermon with out any notes or
papers to look at. He did put his notes on the pulpit. Of course Lent and
Easter is over so a lot less people were there this week. I really like
the walk we have to get to church from the line taxi stop and the gardens we
sit in when we first get there. It is a really nice way to start the day
before church and worship with God, seeing the beauty of God's world.
We are still not sure of our plans for next year. The students have told me
that Jim has promised to come back and see them through graduation. I am
not sure he did and we will see. IFESH has sent a letter to IFESH Ethiopia
with a list of names of teachers coming back to Ethiopia and Jim's name is
on it. Jim signed a two year lease for the apartment and we will probably
come back for another year. We will make sure we leave money for the
electricity and phone so we don't have to start trying to get a phone
installed again. I have started making a list of stuff to bring back with
us. But he has not gotten an official letter from IFESH so we are waiting
to see. I know he wants to see the first class graduate but living here is
not as easy as living in the USA.
Jim & Pat
Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2005 10:17:53 +0300
From: Pat Rollin 
We are doing well. There are changes taking place in Addis. We went to the
open air market on last Saturday and shopped for fresh fruit and vegetables
and some yarn. Then on Tuesday night we went again to the same market and
half of it was bulldozed down. It was like an alley with stalls on both
sides and then behind the left side was stalls you could walk in a maze to
shop at. These stalls were all gone and the ground flattened. We were very
surprised and asks what was going on. They do not talk much English but
someone told us they are building a Japanese supermarket so we will have to
watch and see. Some of the stalls that were on the southwest side had moved
into the northeast side now and some of the stalls I had shopped at on the
southeast side are gone. We went down today and found them building
already.
The pictures we are sending show both sides of the alley. One
side is empty with construction starting and the other side is stalls like
the second close up picture we included. The stalls that were taken down
were on vacant property. All property is owned by the government and leased
by someone. Empty areas fill up with people migrating from the countryside
trying to find a better life but when someone wants to build on the area,
the government comes in and bulldozes everything down.