TODAY IN AFRICA...April 5, 2014
I'm in Addis Ababa. It is pretty much the lap of luxury (in some ways) for Africa.
I saw a streak of red-gold out of the airplane window, looking out towards Asia as we flew into Ethiopia today. Light came slowly to the morning, as the mountain mist rose from this mountainous part of the country. Addis is at 8000 feet I think, but unlike the Sierra elevation, you get that early morning scent of burning garbage... a developing country special effect. The birds weren't bothered by that, however, and their songs are sharp, bright and melodic.
Finding my own way from the airport to the Hilton was easy and 1/6 the price quoted by my tour company for a so-called airport transfer. Hmmph! The shuttle offered at the Hilton kiosk in the airport was $6 and the driver grateful for $1 tip.
For $50 a night, I upgraded to the executive floor...which comes with 24 hour access to their top floor lounge (all the Aljazeera you can watch), two meals per breakfast buffet and happy hour buffet, and comfy reading chairs. I'm headed there shortly with one of the 5 books on Ethiopia that I brought along to read. Am already done with autobiography of Haile Sellassie, Lion of Judah, the Emperor who brought Ethiopia into modernity before he was murdered. His mythology is still strong... the military rulers who replaced him waited 25 years to hold his funeral. That was in 2000. Between the end of his monarchy and the present day came land reforms and the horrors of revolutionary days until the Workers Party government collapsed in 1990, and then the sad war with Eritrea. Ethiopia is still on the mend, but buildings are rising rapidly here in the capital city, the airport has a jetway instead of roll-up-to-the-plane steps, the potholes in the roads are not so very large, and the coffee.. oh my goodness the coffee!...is fantastic.
So life is good today.
I always feel this sense of coming home when I come to Africa.
After all, scientifically, it is the Mother of Us All. And Ethiopia is where were found the 3 million year old remains of Lucy, an upright walking woman, Australopithecus afarensis, in 1974 in the Afar desert of Eastern Ethiopia. I won't be going there on this trip, sadly...but spiritually, historically, genetically, I've been there. And so have you.
I opted to save $15 a day (that's the laugh line, so go ahead...) and take a room that looks toward the mountains and not the Ethiopian-cross shaped pool. The check in clerk said that the pricier pool-facing rooms were quieter. What he meant was that I would not get the two hours of the Moslem call to prayer several times a day...and THAT would have made me sad. So I can brew a cup of tea in my room and listen to the faithful being summoned from multiple loudspeakers on minarets I can't see but know are there in the shantytown on the mountainside. Wouldn't have wanted to miss that for the world!
This is not exactly roughing it. There are roses on the end table near the fresh fruit platter, multiple bottles of water, a Samsung TV larger than my whole desk area in San Francisco, 6 pillows on the bed and 3 housekeepers have already looked in within the 2 hours I've been here to make sure all is well.
I hope the going gets a bit rougher, or I shall be sorely disappointed. I mean, where's the STORY without that?
