All about Addis

Addis Ababa has a population of about 4 million (although locals say it is at least 6 million). It is the third highest capital city in the world at almost 8000 feet….anyone know the two highest? The high altitude keeps the bugs at bay, but makes exercising a tad difficult. The climate is pleasant – between 70 and 75 degrees F every day. Addis is home to the UN headquarters for Africa as well as the largest open market on the continent – some say, the world! It is a very safe city, with little crime to speak of. The people are friendly and helpful. The beer is cold. Although I am told the economy is improving (there is construction everywhere), the poverty also seems to be on the rise.

Each time I leave the grounds of the Hilton, I prepare to enter another world. I am not sure how long one needs to live in such an environment to get used to it – but for me, it is still an adventure of epic proportions each time I leave the compound. It is sensory overload. And, each time I leave, I imagine what life would be like for Luke or Levi if they were left here. As orphans, who would care for them? Would they end up on the streets, like so many I see daily?

Yesterday, I pushed the boys in the chariot along broken sidewalks for 1.5 hours uphill, in air thick with car exhaust fumes, to the foot of the Entoto Mountains. We passed the museum, the university as well as the zoo - but that was not all. Also en route were dozens of cripples, a handful of lepers, countless kids wanting to touch my children, flocks of sheep holding up traffic, the usual empty hands reaching out toward my face, numerous homeless people sleeping on the street, three very shoddy construction sites and two elderly ladies who all but pushed me over in an attempt to get to my wallet. Although I am told there is a large expat community here, I have yet to find it. The stares are constant, as I am the lone white on the streets today. At the end of the adventure, I am exhausted…..partly from the workout at such high altitude, but mostly because I am emotionally drained.

To take photos of all I have seen today would be to strip dignity from the helpless souls I have encountered. Carefully, however, I managed to snap a few.













Then, as I enter the Hilton gate and go through security, I am calm. Things are peaceful. They know me by name. They don’t ask me for money, because they have already pocketed it all in exchange for my lovely suite :) In the lobby I notice a fancy celebration with seemingly wealthy men and women dressed to the hilt, hunched over a buffet that would feed all those I just passed on the street - and then some. I feel sick. I am confused. This is not right. I vow that tomorrow I will return to Hope Enterprise on Churchill Street, where I will buy food stamps and give them out on the street.