Archived Blog
Another Weekend
On Saturday, we had the Horizon Kid’s club, which is working with some of the boys in the neighbourhood. None of them are homeless, but they don’t have much. We had them over to Bingham for a game of football, which they all love, and we also had some ex-street boys there who have become Christians, to share their testimony. They all enjoyed the football and listened intently afterwards.
Saturday evening, some of us decided to go 10-pin bowling, at the bowling alley in Addis. Bowling in Ethiopia is slightly lower tech than in the west; obviously there are no computers to keep your score, one of the employees sits and keeps it with pencil and paper. The pins are not automated, either. After you bowl, a pair of legs drops down from above the pins, carefully sets them back up (or clears away the ones you have knocked down), rolls your ball back along the chute to the ball holder, and hops back up. It means you’ve gotta be extra careful that you don’t bowl your ball too early; some of the guys were wearing black trousers that were difficult to spot on the black background. There were a few close calls!
The ceilings are sagging considerably, looking like they will fall at any minute. Brian, who is very tall, had to duck down every time he wanted to bowl. The lanes are in relatively OK condition, considering, though some sure to be gutterballs had a few last minute returns from the brink which was quite amusing. Altogether, it was a good laugh.
After the bowling, some of us went to check out one of the more respectable pool halls here in Addis. There is any number of pool halls here, but some of them look like they wouldn’t have pool tables, rather a sheet of ply-board with bricks around them. I’ve never ventured inside any of them. This place is nice, though, and even had western music playing at loud volume from the sound system, making it feel very like a western pool hall. We had a few games of pool; I played a Chinese guy a number of times which was good fun.
We drove home at midnight, which was quite interesting. One of the roads has no streetlights along it, and is having road works done on it. Road works in Addis are amusing because there are never signs put up to warn you (actually, there are never any signs for ANYTHING, let alone road works). We were driving along the dark road when Summer, who was driving, suddenly braked. Looking in front of us, it was clear why; the road literally stopped. It looked like a meteor had just landed in front of us; there was just a huge hole where the road used to be. Fortunately we saw it in time to stop, and negotiate the place where you descended into the hole. Further antics followed with a new roundabout that is being built, where we were confronted by a giant pile of rocks when trying to drive around it in the right direction. Driving in Addis continues to surprise me; it’s still amusing to see the people who drive around here who would rather have an accident with you than give way.
On Sunday we went out for a Church picnic with the evening church we’ve been going to recently. We visited a facility where they grow roses, in full production mode due to upcoming Valentines Day. Apparently they export all over Africa and even into Europe. They are doing particularly well this year, as a lot of the orders that normally come from Kenya are being sent to Ethiopia now due to Kenya’s unrest. It was interesting to see the whole operation; the facility is very modern and well equipped with modern machinery.
After our picnic, we had what is apparently the annual pancake toss race. Split into teams, we were given a frying pan and a place mat to act as a pancake. There was a short course set up that we had to run around, relay style, tossing the “pancake” as we went. The winning team’s prize was to be announced as the winners in Church, so there was a lot at stake. Unfortunately, our team didn’t win.
Last night I tried to be multi-cultural and stayed at Bingham, getting up at 2am to watch the American Football Super Bowl with all the Americans here. As much as I tried to understand the game, I couldn’t get into it, but it was good fun talking to them all about the rules, and trying to explain rugby to them. I chose to leave at half time in favour of a few more hours sleep. Apparently, the second half was much better but I don’t regret my decision! The game finished up at about 6.15am so they have all been up since 2. Not something I’d be in favour of if I’ve to teach the next day, even if it was a sport I enjoyed/understood!
I’ll finish up by listing a few more additions to the farm. Brian has bought 3 more chickens, a rooster and a rabbit.
Niall
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