ANNA AND KRISTIN IN ETHIOPIA!

It is important to drink a lot of water when you are in Africa, right?
This is Jerusalem, Belaynesh's daughter, making us coffee:)

This is Belaynesh, my lovely housemaid! We went to her house this Saturday, and she had prepared injera and wot for us, as well as popcorn and coffee. Sooo nice!

Kristin, getting a "shoe-shine"!

Anna at Mekanissa!

Traditional Ethiopian dance at Habesha restaurant!

The girls, Kristin, Anna and Brita....

and I...

eating wot, wot, wot! Yummy!

Anna and Kristin hanging out by the tree in Awassa,

and me, sneaking in on a picture (like I normally do...!:)

Having friends visiting is always great! I’ve had to spend a significant amount of time at my office doing practically nothing, whereas Anna and Kristin have been exploring Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar. We have had lots of fun together after working hours though, so I’m not going to complain. We’ve had both rainy days and sunny days, so they got to experience different sides of life in Ethiopia. My reasons for giving so much space and attention to the roads here in Addis in this blog will now be fully recognized by both Anna and Kristin. We have taken so many taxis, “ge-ge-ge-ing” through the muddy roads with holes that are getting bigger and bigger. We have gotten our feet wet, our jeans dirty and our umbrellas destroyed. But – we have also had warm, lovely days, spent time with lovely people and had lovely food! And my friends, brave as they are, even went to Merkato all by themselves, shopping coffee cups and popcorn! They even learnt how to count to 3 and bargain in Amharic! (they got such a good price from the airport and back to my house, I have no idea how they did it!). A few more weeks, and they would’ve turned into Habesha’s:)

YUMMY!!!!!

Just had to show you this yummy strawberry juice that Kristin and I are enjoying at Purple Café. Also want to thank the person who figured out how to remove red eyes in pictures, because before I did a little editing on this picture, my eyes were looking approximately just as red as the juice!

THE LAND OF COFFEE

Coffee is Ethiopia’s number one export product, and - although being no huge coffee drinker myself - I have to say that a small cup of strong, Ethiopian coffee, made from beans that have just been ground, is really amazing!! Nobody makes coffee like the Ethiopians, they really know what they are doing. The pity is that the coffee farmers don’t get paid enough for their coffee, and this is not only an Ethiopian problem, but the core of a lot of problems in Africa, which, if changed and solved, would have given a huge number of people a better life. But it seems very difficult to change this whole trade-issue.........!

With coffee being such an important aspect of the Ethiopian society, I just had to take my friends to the place in Addis that is known for selling the best coffee in town. Tomoka café, one of the oldest cafés in Addis, is a tiny little place, but so full of soul and character. They even have a picture of two kissing mooses, which gave me a very homey feeling, having spent so many Octobers going moose-hunting in the forest at home:) They have one type of coffee called Swedish coffee, which is roasted like we, the Scandinavians, like it. And then there is Sidama type, Harar type, and others that I can’t remember the name of. You can buy the roasted beans, or you can buy the ground coffee, or you can just sit down and have a cup of macchiato, drinking from cups that are cleaned by just rinsing them in water. (that is when you just don’t want to think about the fact that you are in Addis, where there is such a high risk of getting contaminated from the water….take a pick – giardia, e-coli or ameeba…:)
Anyway, we had a nice cup of coffee there, none of us have gotten sick yet, and we had a nice chat to the man behind the counter, who was very interested in exporting coffee to thirsty Norwegians:)

Check out www.blackgoldmovie.com, and find out more about coffee in Ethiopia.

And hey, if you come to Addis, I’ll take you to Tomoka;)

WEEKEND TRIP TO AWASSA

Since I'm so lucky to have my friends Anna and Kristin visiting me these days, I decided that (to make sure they got some sun during this dreadful rainy season) we go to Awassa, which is a town situated a 5 hours drive from Addis. Kristine, who is a teacher at the Norwegian school, and her nephew, (who was also visiting from Norway) were going down the same weekend, so we got to go with their car.

We stayed at Dagrunn's place (my former neighbour), together with the monkeys:) Her garden was full of them! Despite these annoying little creatures we had a wonderful trip, exploring Awassa and the surrounding area. We went on a day trip to Yirga Alem, which is a beautiful litte town (village?), and had lunch at a very nice lodge there. After having driven in heavy rain, the clouds disappeared and the sun came out, and we really got to explore this amazing spot in the green, green landscape.

We went on a boat trip on the lake Awassa, and saw the hippos. And we spotted a bunch of hyenas on the way to the Norwegian Mission's holiday resort, which is also a really beautiful place! Anna and Kristin took a ride with the horse taxi, while I was working my way through the mud at the market, looking for hopi (passion fruit) to buy, to make jam and juice. I managed to find them, after first having been thrown carrot bits at and then getting my feet all dirty stepping in the awful mud. Oh, well, at least now I have wonderful jam in my fridge:)

It was really amazing getting out of the city and see some more of Ethiopia. It is such a beautiful country!

I need to do this more often!

Sunset at the Norwegian Mission's Holiday resort
Kristine and her nephew, Svein.

Hippos! We have renamed them river pigs, because they both look and sound like big pink pigs! Sorry, but they are really ugly.....

Dagrunn and Anna

Dagrunn's house and oh-so-lovely garden

The lady with the hen

Yirga Alem

(not sure about the spelling here)

The huts at Aragash Lodge - really nice and neat, in the middle of the jungle!

(well, not exactly in the jungle, but it felt like it!)

Solveig (or is it one of the monkeys, maybe?), in the jungle, feeling very wild.....

The rain was pouring down when we were driving to Yirga Alem. It's actually quite nice to experience the African rain, especially when you are inside a car.....

Swimming in Lake Langano on the way to Awassa

Faranjis in Awassa!:)