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Wow, been a while, huh?
I was recently standing outside a friend's gate, waiting for her or her guard to let me in. She hadn't heard me knocking, so I ended up waiting for a few minutes. In that time, a couple of people walked by and probably looked at me a bit funny because I was a firenge (foreigner) on a bicycle (somewhat rare in town).
After a while, I started contemplating climbing over the gate to get in and make sure my friend was alright. As I thought about it, I wondered if her neighbors would have done anything. Would they just think 'she should have put up razor wire'? I have difficulting imagining anyone in Addis coming to the aid of a neighbor in that situation. They tend to keep to themselves. Or do they?
The bulk of firenge (and most Ethiopians wealthy enough to do so) in Addis live in walled compounds with a locked gate at the front. If they own a car, their feet rarely if ever see their own street close up. Some of it's a security thing, some of it is convenience, but the fact remains that people voluntarily cut themselves off from their neighbors. It feels like everyone is saying 'you take care of yourself and I'll be responsible only for what is inside my walled compound.'
Standing outside my friend's gate, I wondered if this was the case before the expats moved to Addis. Living in a new place can make people paranoid, particularly about security. I haven't found anyone to ask about what life in Addis was like before the famine in the '80s (that's when the expat aid population here exploded), but I like to think there was more trust within communities at that point. Perhaps a bit less fear. Personally, I have trouble imagining it, but maybe that's because I'm not part of a community here... I'm part of the walled-compound culture (even though I live in an apartment).
p.s. - I ended up calling my friend and she let me in, so I didn't have to scale the wall. :-) On to the photos!
Field trip
The Workshop
Random Addis things
On the way
For Father's Day and my brother's birthday, I took my family on a motorcycle ride into the mountains.
At work, we've been partnering with a Stanford University course for the last few years. This year, their presentations happened to fall during the time that I was in the US, so I went out to Palo Alto, California to see them and meet with the students.
THE REAL REASON FOR MY TRIP
Frustrations...
By the time I got back to Addis, it had been almost six months since my bike had been out of Ethiopia. That meant it was time for another run for the border. This time Jason wasn't able to come with, so our friend Jon joined me on Jason's bike. WARNING...LOTS OF GRATUITOUS MOTORCYCLE PHOTOS AHEAD!
A bit more motorcycling...
Parting shot...
For more updates go here.
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