It is our last day in Addis Ababa. We envision a low key day of walking around the city and letting the streets take us where they will. And I also have a plan to find some bobby pins and chapstick! Bobby pins really aren’t made to last. These are things you can’t anticipate when you pack a single backpack for a 6 month journey!
We have been enjoying traditional Ethiopian cuisine for almost every meal of the day. We love baiyenetu (AKA a veggie combo) on fasting days and shiro (a delicious spicy bean based sauce) is our favorite. Ethiopian meals are served on injera—kind of like a crepe that has a sour, tangy flavor—and are eaten with the hands.
Injera and a pot of shiro
Baiyenetu (aka a veggie combo)
We have also fallen in love with the fresh juices of Ethiopia, as we did in Egypt. But the juices in Ethiopia are better. They are simply pureed fruit with no ice or sugar, served in a tall glass mug with a long spoon and a straw (on request). Avocado is popular, but we always order a mix, which is a combination of all the fruit they have on hand, usually mango, papaya, guava, and avocado. They also serve the juices with a lemon wedge. I don’t know the reason for the lemon but I love it.
Enjoying a juice with Ras
Papaya, guava, avocado, and Mat
Papaya, guava, avocado, and me
The previous night we went to see a play on a whim! A play all in Amharic! We didn’t understand a word. It was a comedy though, so we laughed when the audience laughed and found some funny things for ourselves too.
Today we are walking through the streets and decide to stop for a juice. We find a place that looks good, but when we ask if they serve juice the waitress doesn’t understand us. Thankfully, there is a group of men sitting at a table and one of them translates for us.
We take a seat and I notice some artwork on the wall that I like. I point to a piece and one of the men says,
“I did that.”
“Really?,” I say.
And he begins to explain his process of creating the piece. We find out that he teaches an art course nearby. A conversation ensues and they invite us to join them at their table. The 3 men are a group of artists who have degrees in visual art and co-own a studio. Though we had just planned on having juice, they invite us to share their food and we accept. It is as delicious as the conversation is engaging. We talk about their lives as artists in a city like Addis Ababa and the lives of artists in NYC. We talk about cultural exchange and I tell them about my academic interests.
The best part of the conversation comes when we mention Awra Amba. Awra Amba is a completely gender equal village in Ethiopia. This may not sound like a big deal unless you understand how strict the gender roles are in most of Ethiopia. Awra Amba is also completely cooperative, they have their own textile industry and all the money is shared evenly among the villagers. We first heard of Awra Amba in September when Mat stumbled upon a documentary made about the village. He contacted the filmmakers to get the contact information of the village so that we could visit. He also found out that the filmmakers, Paulina and Serdar, were looking for a place to screen the film in NYC. Because I was working at a great little coffee shop called Gratitude Café with a projector and a space perfect for a screening, I pitched the idea of hosting the screening at the coffee shop to the owners. The owners agreed, we made fliers, and within weeks Paulina and Serdar had flown into NYC to screen their film at Gratitude Café and at the Tribeca Film Institute. The evening of the screening, the café was packed. It was a huge success and we met 3 Ethiopians who knew about Awra Amba. I told them about our trip and they filled my head with ideas and answered all of my questions about their homeland. I also grew more excited than ever to visit the village in the flesh.
Now here we are in Ethiopia enjoying conversation with these 3 artistic strangers who are quickly becoming our new friends. When we tell them that we plan on visiting Awra Amba, they light up. They tell us that they were just there a few weeks prior doing an art program with the children.
When the meal is finished, they invite us back to their studio, which is not far. The studio doubles as a gallery and one of the artists, Tamrat, is on exhibit. We take time and view the exhibition and he offers some explanations. His skill is undeniable. We are duly impressed.
Then he takes us downstairs to the studio space and we continue the conversation. The studio feels as blessed as any place of worship. We discuss how religion changes over time and the artists’ work of preserving the cultural symbols of a people. We also view photos of the art workshop they did with the children at Awra Amba. After hours of conversation, he gifts us with 2 pieces of work made on leather, one for each of us. We make plans to see each other when we return to Addis. We agree that there must be travel gods that help travelers find the people they should meet on their journeys.
The next day we leave early in the morning to go to a city called Bahir Dar, where we will be for the next few days before finally visiting Awra Amba.
When we leave, we wonder how our day unfolded so magically. How did we meet such a wonderful group of people who so graciously shared their art, food, and company with us when we only set out to find bobby pins and chapstick? The travel gods are undoubtedly at work.
The art studio and gallery
Looking at photos of the workshop at Awra Amba
Talking to our new friend, Tamrat
Tamrat holding some of his work. These pieces are etched in wood.
Later that night, Mat mentioned to Ras that he was hoping to find some vinyl records of Ethiopian music. Ras lit up. It turns out that vinyl is extremely hard to find in Ethiopia. But only earlier that day he met a man who is a huge collector of vinyl and told Ras to please give his information to anyone he meets. We immediately go to meet the man. He brings us into a space filled with original out of print vinyls of Ethiopian music. Most of the music was only available in Ethiopia up until a few years ago, but this man, had been selling these records and the tunes had been sampled, releasing the sounds on the international stage for the first time ever. This is the man responsible for Mat ever hearing Ethiopian music in the first place. Mat is in heaven. He listens and listens and makes his final choices.
Once again, we are in awe at the way our time in this strange city has unfolded. I know it sounds strange, but it’s hard not to believe that there are indeed travel gods lighting our way some days. Things magically work out, we meet just the right people, we save a few bucks, we find what we were looking for, and we are never lost for long.
The man responsible for getting Ethiopian music to the world
Making his selections
Checking out the goods
Truth And Travel 