Lada's and Squat Toilets: My First Week in Ethiopia

Stepping off the plane at Bole International airport in Addis Ababa I set my feet on the ground and said to myself “so this is Africa?” yet I truly had no idea what I was in for. I met Mike, my contact and the reason why I am here, in the baggage claim area where we grabbed my baggage; yes all of it made it some how, and headed out to our cab. The cab was a 1970’s Lada painted white and blue, all the cabs are painted white and blue and nearly all of them are either Lada’s, Yugo’s or Corolla’s from the 1970’s.

I hopped in and the driver hopped out, the cab wouldn’t start under it’s own power so the driver had to push start the car, he pushed us onto a busy road in the middle of the night with no headlights on, jumped back in, got the Lada to start, we rounded a corner when Mike turned back and said to me “hold your door shut!”!! Before I could grab my door handle it swung wide open almost ejecting me into the street, as I grasped for the door handle we navigated the dark streets, avoiding potholes, piles of rubble, people and ‘Night Flowers” (hookers) all with no headlights to help, I slammed my door shut and thought to myself “no… THIS is Africa”.


To make things easier how bout some quick stats on Ethiopia:

Capital City is Addis Ababa with a population of 9 million
Ethiopia has a population on around 90 million
Ethiopia is about the 3rd poorest country in the world
The majority of people live off of less than $4 a day

For more Info check the Wikipedia page but be warned that not many of the statistics are correct.

Ethiopia is an incredibly diverse country that speaks over 80 languages, has some of the highest mountains in Africa as well as some of the lowest depressions on the Earth. The landscape resembles a mixture of African desert; Tibetan highlands, Jungle, savannah and everything in between,

the people of Ethiopia reflect this diverse landscape in themselves. Ethiopia is unlike any other nation in Africa with its blend of African, Middle Eastern and European influences. Rastafarian culture was born here, as was coffee, well when you think of it we ALL originate from Ethiopia as this was the home to the first humans to ever walk on two feet.

The traditional food of Ethiopia is called “injara” and it is a large crepe like bread that has different “wat” or stews placed on top of it. You tear off pieces of the injara with our right hand only and mop up the wat with it. Some of it tastes good and some of it not so good… My stomach is still adjusting, but there are so many cultural influences here in Addis that you could eat food from almost every culture found in the world to choose from.

Now Addis Ababa is a busy, bustling city that blends the old and new lifestyles of Ethiopia into one insane cluster-fuck of shitty cars, donkeys, goats and people all trying to go somewhere without dying. It is impossible to fully explain Ethiopia or Addis Ababa to those who haven’t experienced it for themselves but it is one of the most amazing places to visit. I love it here, despite the poverty, the garbage, slums and everything negative I could point out this place is beautiful and full of adventure. Addis Ababa is one of the safest cities in Africa, if you’re not in a car, to walk down the street, you have no worries of being mugged, assaulted or even verbally abused and this was very unexpected for me. I didn’t believe it at first when I was told by Mike, but I guess it’s a cultural/religious thing, the people have respect for everyone, they LOVE to laugh and just like to smile and say hello, if you looked around the streets you wouldn’t think that this place is full of happiness and acceptance but it is.

After a couple days in Addis We headed north to the small city of Hayke to map a fresh spring water delivery program, basically I got to go for a hike in the hills of Hayke. All I can say is BEAUTIFUL! The tasks we were there to accomplish were familiar to me, GPS waypoints, and the landscape was also something that felt familiar with: mountains, trees, streams, rivers and steep paths that I had to carefully navigate with both my hands full of $7000 worth of camera gear. In the Hills of Hayke we met with farmers, watched their children heard goats using home made whips of hand woven rope and animal bone handles, and saw farming techniques from thousands of years in the past.

This country is so diverse and so undeniably beautiful; there is magnetism to the landscape perpetuated by the warmth and acceptance of the smiles and interest of the local people.

Back in the city of Hayke we settled into our hotel where I was confronted with more “so this is Africa” moments. We first got a room with no power or running water, which wasn’t going to cut it for tech nerds who need power to do data transfers and uploads, so we argued with the staff until they moved us into another room, where we still had no water. The staff then spent the next hour banging on pipes with wrenches to no avail, so they again moved us into separate rooms where we had power and they gave us buckets of water to flush to toilets with, or so they told us, as I found out the hard way that this wasn’t true… The next night we moved to a better hotel that had both power and running water, where we were quite happy that is until it came the time where I needed to use the running water.

Now I don’t know how many of you have had to use a squat toilet but there is something just so unnatural and uncomfortable feeling about doing so, and in this uncomfort came my next big “this is Africa” moment… In the middle of the night nature called and I had to get out of bed and use the bathroom. I was using the toilet, which was right across the room from the shower, so close in fact that the edge of the toilet touched the edge of the shower basin, when out of no where the shower made a horrible noise then released about a gallon of water all at once… I was squatted over the toilet, in the middle of the night, wearing my shoes, now soaking wet, and thinking to myself “now THIS is Africa”…

On the 9 hour drive back to Addis from Hayke I got to have a fantastic 5 year old personal moment, to sum it up: silly hat, monkeys and huge cliffs. A picture tells a thousand words.

My first week came to a close with 12 hour days of work in the office, getting ready for the next week of teaching, and a dinner with all sorts of foreign government officials from places like Sweden, Germany, Canada, Australia and Korea. In these long days at the office I was able to mentally process the days past and came to terms with the fact that I will likely have many more “this is Africa” moments which will all probably put me in some amount of discomfort, and all I could think was bring it on!