According
to the guidebooks, it should be fairly easy to get to the Entoto Mountains
right outside of Addis Ababa, which has a great view of the city and a market
on Saturday. It was supposed to be only
two mini-buses, but instead it took five different mini-buses to get
there. It was rather comical for three
of us trying to get on the same mini-bus. As they pull up people come out from
nowhere pushing and shoving to get on. One time, Beckie ended up being the only
one that got on and Newton and I were just standing there wondering what
happened. So Beckie had to get off
because we couldn’t get on. At each
transfer it took some time trying to figure out where to catch the next
mini-bus we needed. But we did finally make it.
We first browsed the market that was full of stalls selling traditional
clothing and scarves. Young girls would follow us and try to sell us little
decorated pots. Children just come up
and ask you for money. One girl was walking beside Newton and held his hand,
asked his name and then proceeded to ask him to buy her a scarf. There are also older handicapped men and
women who are begging for money. It is hard not to give to them some but if you
do then you are swarmed by 20 other people wanting the same thing.
The
Entoto Hills were the site of Emperor Menelik’s capital before Addis Ababa was
founded in 1887. We visited the Entoto Maryam Church where he was crowned in
1882. We also were able to walk through his palace. The mountains are full of eucalyptus trees,
which the local people sell and use as firewood. As we drove up the mountainside, we saw many
women walking down hunched over with huge piles of brush and firewood strapped
to their backs. We also saw many women
walking down the mountain with five gallon buckets on their back.
As
we ended our tour of the palace, Beckie made friends with a guy from Norway and
it ended up he was there with two other guys and they had their own car so they
offered us a ride back with them. We
were very thankful, as we were not looking forward to the five mini-buses back. When we got back to Addis, we bought them
some beers to thank them and had some time to visit. They are in Addis from Norway working on a
hydro water project. One guy is a
professional hang glider and is one of the best in Norway. He has glided up to
six hours at a time. One of the other
guys lived in Kenya for five years working on a project. It’s really cool to
meet so many interesting people. We ended our day by finding a restaurant
called New York, New York, which was a cheeseburger place. Becky and I were
craving a cheeseburger after having injera & traditional Ethiopian food
about three times this week.
