Ughhhhh-I hate waking up with a hang-over.
How much did we drink last night? Oh that’s right a bottle of vodka between 3
of us, a few beers and 5 hours of ‘chewing’ khat! I actually didn’t feel tooooooo bad
considering all that, I think it is more lack of sleep rather than anything
else (yeah right). Breakfast was
included in my room rate and in my drunken stupor getting home last night I had
to order what I wanted and what time I wanted it. I do recall asking for the latest possible
time and was told 9am-which actually worked out well because if Zeme came as
planned at 9.30am I had to be up anyway.
Minalu checked in at 9.30am to see if I had heard from
Zeme, which I hadn’t so I phoned him and was told that he couldn’t come this
morning but this afternoon should be okay, around 3.30pm and if there was going
to be a problem with that time he would phone.
I was starting to see a pattern here, but I wasn’t going to worry just
yet that Zeme was starting to play games.
I had to keep in mind that it was a week day and people do have to go to
work. Minalu arranged to come and get me
for lunch, which again was a blessing, as I was SO tired, that after I ate
breakfast I climbed back to the third floor and my room and promptly fell
asleep for another 3 hours till my alarm went off at mid-day to get ready for
lunch. There are only 2 rooms on my
floor and there is an outdoor balcony with some chairs and a table. So I went outside with my IPod and wrote
notes for my blog while I waited for Minalu to arrive. It was a beautiful day and there seems to be
a pattern with the weather that it is quite hot during the day, an afternoon
storm blows in around 4pm-you may or may not lose power and then the nights are
cool and you need a jacket. The boys
arrived and it was decided that we would have pizza for lunch and that sounded
delicious and the perfect hang-over lunch.
The pizza was AMAZING and I picked up the bill for this after my lunch
was paid for yesterday and for 2 large pizza’s and 3 cokes it cost 170 birr
which is only 9.44AUD-not bad for a lunch for 3 people. That is one thing here in Ethiopia that is
cheap and that is the food and the drink.
I’m lucky that I have hit the guys just after tours. Besides them actually being home, they are
cashed up and they also want to chill out after being on the road for most
times, 2 weeks or longer, and they are ready to just relax. Yes this was perfect timing for me and this
afternoon mirrored what we did yesterday and even the weather also seemed like
deja’vu with a storm coming in, power going out and then heading to Crystals
for a few beers. It was nice to meet
some of Minalu’s friends as they came and went over the afternoon. They have all made me feel so welcome and I
am feeling a little bad that I may have not given Minalu and his friends enough
credit when I decided to change countries from Ethiopia to Kenya, thinking that
I would have been on my own if M wasn’t around if I had troubles. After meeting them now, I wouldn’t have any
problems calling them if I had to. Oh
well, with all that said, being in the same city as Zeme at this point was
probably still going to be too raw anyway and with a few other factors I know I
have still made the right decision in moving to Kenya, but maybe one day, in
the future, Ethiopia may still become home.
I am predicting that tourism and the country itself will come a long way
in the next few years and things will change as the economy grows and more
western influence enters the country. We
will see. I have seen a lot of change
over my 4 trips in the last 2 years and M and I stopped for a coffee today and
it was like a proper western place and M ordered a coffee and it even had a
white frothy heart-now if that isn’t westernising I don’t know what is!!!
We were watching TV in the afternoon waiting for Zeme to
phone and we watched a comedian called Russell Peters, who I have never heard
of before, but of you get a chance to download/watch anything of his-do
it. He was absolutely hilarious and
helped take my mind off that Zeme hadn’t phoned yet. 3.30pm was the expected time and when it came
to 5pm, I sent Zeme a text message asking where he was and he phoned 15 minutes
later and said he was on his way and he would be at my guesthouse at
5.30pm. So with wishes and good luck
cheers from the boys I walked back to my guesthouse to wait for Zeme to
arrive. It was only an 8 minute walk,
but as mentioned, I am not really in a tourist area of the city, so there
aren’t many farangi’s walking the street, well none today and it can be quite
daunting, but I seem to have a confidence now, maybe it has something to do
with living in Kenya now, I have a spring in my step, my head is held high and
also knowing where I was going I felt comfortable and safe. I looked a little like a fish out of
water, but a safe fish and I know that
if the guys didn’t think it safe they wouldn’t have let me go on my own. I got a few catcalls and some young teenage
boys were trying to get my attention with a few choice English words but it
felt great I do admit, if a little out of my comfort zone.
The meeting with Zeme went well. I am writing another post about that, so I
won’t double it up in this one. But All
I need to say was that I got all my things back, except for 3 Ethiopian books,
but Zeme said he will return them during the week. It was weird to see this person who I thought
I would spend the rest of my life with, some-one that had hurt me so much,
standing back in front of me again. I
didn’t have the feeling of love or hate anymore, which for me was a good sign I
was moving in the right direction. We
talked for a few hours and the thing that meant the most to me was that Zeme
apologised. He said he did the wrong
thing and he asked for my forgiveness and you know what? That was all I wanted to hear. As soon as he said that and I answered back
that I had forgiven him, it felt like a great weight had been lifted from my
shoulders. Don’t get me wrong, there
were tears, but it was what I came for, what I wanted to hear and I felt like
the trip had been justified in that exact moment. I could now leave Ethiopia with a clear mind
and a peaceful heart and know that the country Zeme showed me and the special
times we shared here will hold a special place in my heart always and I can now
focus back on the good times and just let the one bad incident (or a few
accumulated) go and left in the past to never be dredged up again. We spoke for nearly 3 hours and I finally got
the closure that I had been seeking and the whole trip had been validated. I was extremely happy with the way that we
parted ways and I don’t think we will be in touch again, which I am okay with. The healing process is now complete.
I received a phone call from my Kenyan boys today. They are staying at my place for a night or
two while I am away and apparently they have done a few jobs around the place
for me in my absence. They also found a
camera and have taken a few snaps for when I get home. Boys will be boys and it will be interesting
to see how they have left the place and see what they have done.
The evening finished off at Crystals-I can see why this
is the local drinking hole. It has great
service, there are always people in the bar, you can order food which I didn’t
tonight and got spaghetti, as we think that was part of the problem last night,
we hadn’t eaten and we decided to not go crazy tonight and just did a few beers
and a ½ bottle of vodka, listened to some tunes and we were all home at 1am. An early one considering last night’s
effort. I haven’t had a good drink and
chat, since…… well besides last week-end with my Kenyan guys-oh and New Year’s
Eve in Scotland, since Christmas when I was back in Australia. So I guess I have-but it’s nice to sit with
friends and chat and listen to music and I am loving my time here. We were calling it a celebration night as
things with Zeme went very well and I could finally close a very dear chapter
in my book with smiles and hope and not have to look back with resentment and
hate-this would have been the worst case scenario and I know that if things
didn’t go to plan that the boys would have been in and done something about
it. But we didn’t have to and I can now
enjoy my last few days knowing that what I came to Addis Ababa for has now been
accomplished.
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