THIS IS HOW WE ROLL IN ADDIS ABABA

Minalu was coming to get me from the airport this morning and it was a little strange that Zeme wasn’t going to be there.  It was my first time back to the country since Zeme and I had separated and to not have him there was a timely reminder on why I was here.  It was great to see Minalu and I knew I was in safe hands during my stay here.  Minalu was my tour guide of my Ethiopia trip back in October 2011 and for each visit I have been back we have always caught up and become steady friends.  When I saw his smiling face I just knew I was going to have a good trip no matter what the outcome of anything else. 

The great thing on where the airport is located in Addis Ababa is that isn’t very far from town or closer suburbs.  Minalu had booked me into a guesthouse that wasn’t far from his place and once we got there I can see why he lives in the area.  Everything he needed was walking distance.  The bars, restaurants, his friends also lived close by and right in amongst all that was my guesthouse.  Awesome.  I have always stayed at a hotel called Baks which is further down the same road, but not really walking distance, and I also didn’t want to be in the hotel where Zeme and I had stayed on numerous occasions, so this was perfect all round.  So we checked me into the Yaat Guesthouse and after dropping my bags off to my room we decided to head out and get some breakfast.  The guesthouse is really sweet and is brand new.  There are only 5 rooms with a living room and dining room on the ground floor.  There is also Wi-Fi on all floors and it is supposed to also work in my room which was a great plus and I knew I was going to like it here. 

After breakfast we walked to a small phone shop to get an Ethiopian sim card so that we could make the call to Zeme to set up a time for him to drop off my stuff.  It is really easy to get a sim here but you do need 2 passport photos along with photo ID that you have to have photocopied as the little phone man generally won’t have a photocopier.  Minalu walked to the internet guy to get a photocopy and for 30birr (2.50AUD) I was now back in communication-land.  The phone man didn’t have any credit and Minalu’s old office was just down the road, so we walked there and it happened that his boss Steve was in, so I met him for the first time and we all had a chat for around 15 minutes.  We got 100 birr of credit which should last a while as an international text was 6 birr (33c) and any phone calls was 12 birr (66c) a minute and then made our way back to my guesthouse.  There aren’t a lot of Farangi’s in the area, especially with my size, so I did get a lot of stares while we were out, but they aren’t hostile stares, I feel safe, they are just curious stares and probably wondering why I am in that area, as it is not very touristy.  We stopped for a quick tea at a local café so that I could make the phone call to Zeme.  He was out of the city today, but tomorrow morning at 9.30am he should be able to stop in and see me.  If he couldn’t, he would call and let me know tomorrow.  So it was good to get that all done and I could relax a little that he was actually here in Addis and still saying that he had my things.  So with me safely back at my guesthouse, Minalu was going to be back at 1pm to pick me up for lunch.  This was a perfect plan as I was now a little tired and I used the 3 hours to have a mid- morning nap and catch some sleep to give me juice to get through the afternoon.  

Surprise, surprise, lunch was walking distance and I met a bunch of Minalu’s friends, who most of them all are tour guides and speak English.  They would lapse into Amharic at times, which I have never minded and then someone would realise and then translate for me what the conversation was about.  Lunch was a local affair with tibs and fir fir all served with the staple food of Ethiopia called injera.  Meat along with vegetables are sautéed to make tibs and can be served in a variety of manners and can range from hot to mild or contain little to no vegetables. There are many variations of tibs, depending on type and size or shape of the cuts of meat used.  This is my favourite dish of Ethiopia.  Fir-fir is made from shredded injera, stir-fried with spices or wat and is a common breakfast dish as well.  Ethiopian cuisine characteristically consists of vegetables and often very spicy meat dishes, usually in the form of wat (also w'et or wot), a thick stew, served atop injera, a large sourdough flatbread which is about 50 centimetres in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour.  They also share their meals which we did today and the meal was eaten between 4 of us.  Ethiopians eat exclusively with their right hands, using pieces of injera to pick up bites of entrées and side dishes and utensils are rarely used with Ethiopian cuisine.  I am glad that I knew the etiquette with so many people staring at me I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing.  To wash it all down and another thing that is only Ethiopian is Ambo Mineral Water or Ambo which is a bottled carbonated mineral water, sourced from the springs in Ambo Senkele near the town of Ambo.  It comes in a natural flavour and a few fruity flavours and it is my most favourite Ethiopian beverage.  The guys were very sweet and picked up the lunch bill and then we had the afternoon free.  To really get me immersed back into the ‘Ethiopian’ way of life we stopped at a small stall that sold Khat, picked up a supply and headed back to Eric’s place to settle in for the afternoon.

So what is Khat?  It is a flowering plant native to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Among communities from these areas, khat chewing has a long history as a social custom dating back thousands of years.  Khat contains a monoamine alkaloid called cathinone, an amphetamine-like stimulant, which is said to cause excitement, loss of appetite and euphoria. In 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified it as a drug of abuse that can produce mild to moderate psychological dependence (less than tobacco or alcohol), although the WHO does not consider khat to be seriously addictive.  The plant has been targeted by anti-drug organizations such as the DEA. It is a controlled substance in some countries, such as the United States, Canada and Germany, while its production, sale and consumption are legal in other nations, including Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen.  Khat's exact place of origin is uncertain.  One argument is that it was first grown in Ethiopia, with the explorer Sir Richard Burton suggesting that the plant was later introduced to Yemen from Ethiopia in the 15th century.  He specifically mentions the eastern city of Harar as the birthplace of the plant.

So how do you eat it?  Well you strip the leaves off the stem of the plant and basically you just chew the leaves to release the natural chemicals of the plant in your mouth.  You don’t chew to swallow like you would normal food, you suck and chew to release the compounds, eventually swallowing the mushed goop (for want of a better word) to make room for more.  You generally always have a constant supply of leaves in your mouth and this is done for hours.  The leaves or the soft part of the stem can be chewed with either chewing gum or fried peanuts to make it easier to chew and depending on the quality of the khat, there sometimes can be a bitter taste and the peanuts help ease that taste.  It takes nearly seven to eight years for the Khat plant to reach its full height. Other than access to sun and water, Khat requires little maintenance. Ground water is often pumped from deep wells by diesel engines to irrigate the crops, or brought in by water trucks. The plants are watered heavily starting around a month before they are harvested to make the leaves and stems soft and moist. A good Khat plant can be harvested four times a year, providing a year-long source of income for the farmer.

Khat consumption induces mild euphoria and excitement, similar to that conferred by strong coffee.  Individuals become very talkative under the influence of the plant.  Long-term use can precipitate the following effects: negative impact on liver function, permanent tooth darkening (of a greenish tinge), susceptibility to ulcers, and diminished sex drive.  An estimated 10 million people globally use khat on a daily basis but as this was not first time ‘chewing’ I knew that I don’t get any of the mentioned side effects-oh except the mild euphoria.  I have never done drugs, so I can’t really compare it to that, but it is like a mild buzz and after all the times I have ‘chewed’ mostly with Zeme this was the first time that I got that ‘buzz’ for the first time.  Even though it is a legal to chew in Ethiopia, it is not entirely socially acceptable and not many people chew in public, well in the cities anyway.  It certainly is a lot more acceptable in villages and depending on the person, they don’t want people to know that they are chewing.  The khat is disguised in plastic bags when bought and even some of the hotels I have stayed in have in their hotel rules that khat is not to be consumed in the rooms.  We didn’t have that problem as we were in a private residence where we stayed and watched TV all afternoon, talking-until the power went out and then we kept talking till it got dark and the candles came out till the khat was finished and then we decided to go to Crystals-Minalu’s local bar-where we continued to talk and drink the night away. 

The bar was cool.  There was an outdoor section under a marque and then inside consisted of around 8 round tables with stools and a small area that had 4 single couches and we were lucky we were early enough to score them when we arrived.  There are a few ways that you can get drinks here.  It is all run on a tab service (which I was wary of after last week’s episode in Nairobi when they tried to charge us for 45 beers when we had only consumed 34).  But after a few beers to start we then decided to kick onto the vodka and as we were all drinking that we decided to buy a half bottle and then you buy your mix and they provide you with an ice bucket stocked with ice and the glasses and then you just tend to your own drinks which can get dangerous as the night progresses the vodka nips get bigger and it can all go pear shaped very quickly if not careful.  The music was a mix of western and local tunes and before you knew it, it was 2am in the morning.  I LOVE this not having to get up and wait at the bar thing-it is awesome to have people get your drinks for you, but the downside is unless you need to go to the toilet, you don’t move all night and when you do get up-hello-you’re a little drunk!!!  This system is also done in Kenya and have I mentioned that I LOVE it.  We did finish that first half bottle of vodka and probably with that first bottle talking we purchased a second half bottle (that we didn’t need) and just managed to finish that before we knew that we should go home.  Even though it was a Tuesday night it was busy enough to give the small cosy place atmosphere and it was a great way to finish off what was a very long day for me.  So with all that consumption of alcohol the final bill only came to 600birr (33AUD) which is not a bad night for 3 people for 6 hours of drinking-yes not bad at all and that included the tip for the guy that kept getting our drinks all night.

I am back in Ethiopia and it feels great.  Tomorrow will be a challenging day when I finally see Zeme again for the first time since our break-up and I am hoping it will all be amicable and I can finally get some closure.  Wish me luck!