We took a 5 hour tour with another family of Addis squeezed into the back of an '81 Toyota. The taxi driver, Sisay, was our tour guide. The city of Addis has thousands of people walking around.
Children are playing by the side of the road where vehicles have no driving rules to follow. Horns blare, pedestrians cross, cars zip by one another. It is so different from America.
The poverty is everywhere and overwhelming to see. I knew we would witness the poverty and despair, I just didn't realize it was EVERYWHERE. I suppose I expected to be in certain parts of the city instead.
Sisay drove us up out of the city into the countryside to a place called Entoto. Ladies carried large bundles of sticks on their back up and down the large hill. People walked 2.5 miles just to get to a water source.
People lived in dilapidated shacks, and children roamed the streets. The kids are not afraid to come up to us.
Our tour also consisted of a couple of museums including the University and the home of the "Lucy" remains. Very little security for one of the oldest archaeological finds.
We then did some shopping and bartering.
The tour was a wonderful experience yet at the same time extremely difficult. Beggars would tap on the window of the car and just stand there asking for money. It is illegal to give them anything. Every now and then, I noticed our taxi driver quickly giving someone money.
Sisay also took us to a famous coffee shop and we tasted extremely strong coffee.
Even with such despair everywhere I noticed that most people in the city had cell phones. It was bizarre to see someone driving a rickshaw pulled by donkeys and see them talking on an iphone.
Of course we spent some special time with our girl that morning too. It was a good day filled with lots of smiles.
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