Dream Year 3.0: My Habesha life so far

The first thing that struck me about Addis as I flew in on a nightflight after almost 20 hours of travelling was disorganization. Not TOO much at the airport itself, but from the skyline as we approached my new home for a few months - it was unlike any skyline I had ever seen. Usually able to tell where there are main roads and residential areas are by tracing straight lines and patches parted by fences or changes in vegetation and tarmac. But here with limited street lighting, the only thing I saw were lights speckled around like a dense starry sky inbetween areas of complete pitch blackness.

When I woke up far too early the next morning due to jetlag and the sound of morning prayer from the neighborhood mosque, I went for a stroll in the neighborhood and what surprised me the most in daylight was the amount of people and hectic, and again disorganized, traffic. Living in one of the most central areas of the city that is rapidly changing, there are countless building projects ongoing and dust everywhere!

Scaffolding and traffic

In the quieter part of my neighbourhood

Indeed, disorganization was a recurrent theme I kept on seeing the first month, until I realized if I carry on thinking like that it would only lead to more stress and worry than was necessary. Things here work, just in a different way... Things take time! Everything requires patience. Like for example when I tried to hand my clothes into a launderette and they were “kind of busy” so would it be ok to get it back in 10 days?! Suddenly washing EVERYTHING by hand, even though it easily takes 5 hours seemed like the easier option (blisters obtained on my once soft hands not taken into account). Or when the 5 hour scheduled bus trip suddenly took 7 because multiple unscheduled stops to cool down the engine or feeding the driver/passenger were made. Whereas in London I would get stressed if my computer took 3 minutes to reboot, I here cheer if I can get connected to the internet within 5 minutes, or if an internet page uploads fully without the connection timing out at home, and truly thrilled if I find a connection that lasts all day. This means challenges for everyday life, but there are ways around it and in the end I have become very familiar with the various hotels and eventually their staff members as I often have to work from them.

Horseriding in the mountains surrounding Addis

Post picnic nap in the mountains

Patience, curiosity, openmindedness, kindness and friendliness (all of which I am constantly met with from the locals here) sum up the main traits I rely on that have made me really settle in so well here. I can't imagine another place where I would get invited for lunch a few weeks after arriving and literally fed by hands from the girls working in a shop I went into (a tradition called Gursha). They even gave me an Amharic name, Tzighe, meaning rose flower. Now I have been here for 3 months and I am genuinely sad that my time here is almost up. Addis has a lot of exciting things to offer, and I thought it is time to share some of my happiest memories made so far with you now.