There’s a funny thing about being in Ethiopia with an Ethiopian baby. The whole community notices you. And in a way, feels that they know your baby. Sometimes the attention is really nice, like when people compliment your baby, or say nice things. Then again, sometimes it’s just weird, like when people (total strangers) tell you how to hold your baby, or that you need to feed him so that he will stop crying (even though he just had a bottle 20 minutes ago). Hey, thanks for the tip!
So after 10 minutes of trying to calm Melese down outside the museum, attracting the security guards, cashier, and an American doctor (ya, this boy can scream), we gave up and headed back to the guest house. Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as we sat in the car Melese mysteriously stopped crying. Go figure!
This afternoon we headed out to the Post Office, a touristy shopping spot, to pick up some souvenirs. Beautiful carvings, hand woven scarves, clothing, jewelry, artwork. Anything you can imagine, it’s all there. And the bargaining is kinda fun too. We even picked up a couple future birthday presents for Melese and Mamenesh.
Afterwards we hit up a coffee shop, and bought some fresh roasted beans to take home with us. The shops here roast their own beans, which we heard takes around 3 days to do. The shops are a little smoky inside, from all the roasting, but they smell wonderful. Can’t wait to try that stuff!
Later, we headed out for dinner with the other families from the guest house to Fasika, a traditional Ethiopian restaurant in town. The restaurant was beautiful. The music was thumpin. The dancers were stompin. And the food… oh! Awesome. Just look at this beautiful plate of food.
I think my favorite part of the evening was the dancers. They performed the whole evening, doing dances from each of the cultural regions of Ethiopia. It’s amazing how different each region is. And all so beautiful. One set included the dancers wearing giant fluffy wigs made of monkey hair. But we particularly enjoyed the region our babies came from —Gamo Goffa, shown here.
At one point, the dancers split up and went to tables to involve the crowd. I was lucky enough to be chosen to dance, and I did my best—though my classic dance moves didn’t quite fit the bill. Lots of shoulder action on this one. And I swear this guy was looking just below my shoulders the whole time. Maybe that’s part of the dance… or maybe he was just a perv. I dunno.
Anyway, it was an awesome night. It was great to spend one last night with our fellow guest-housers, and the entertainment was amazing. Oh, and can you believe, all of this only cost around 100 birr/person? That’s about $10 USD, including tip. Pretty amazing.
2 comments:
I love to hear about your journey! When you have time, I have many questions about the guest house and more. I will post them on our Yahoo group so everyone can benefit from them.
I have n't read that you were sick, that is good.
Holly, I love reading about your journey.. is your house open to guests? can I come by some day this week during the day? maybe Erin and Amelia would like to come as well. let me know and just call when you think it's a good time.. we're flexible.
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