Wots what I have been waiting for!

My last wander round the streets of Lalibella bought a few surprises. 

The first was when I stopped at a Hotel for lunch and there on the menu was ‘fired fish’ (which they assured me was fried and not fired) and chips. I mean, since this is not a food trip how could I turn down some home style goodness. And mighty good it was too. The freshest Tilapia, lightly floured and fried accompanied by crunchy golden chips and tomato sauce that was pretty close to Watties. Oh my! oh my! It was as close to perfect as it could get, even by NZ standards. I could feel dribble accumulating and I struggled to control myself and stop it spilling onto my food. 

Ethiopian coffee followed and although a great coffee nothing could detract from that fish.  I was sitting outside amongst a beautiful garden and for a moment I was home again. I snapped out of that pretty fast. 

My second find was in the shape of a hole in the wall artist’s gallery. I always try to buy something for my wall at home but everything I had seen up until then was really naff and not cheap for naff. But this guy had so many sketches or paintings I wanted it took me ages to narrow it down to the one I ended up buying.   Happy with my purchase, it was nap time. 

I should say instead that it was time for the hotel to mount the shower curtain rails in the bathrooms!!!!  They knew I wanted to sleep I am sure.  There’s not a lot of other things to do in a hotel room.  Eventually the noise stopped and I spent the best part night hanging in my room. That was apart from the brief exit to cross the road to a little place that sold coffee and little fried dough balls which she said were cookies but to me they were ‘loukoumades’ sans honey syrup. That was dinner and enough to keep me going for the night. 

The shuttle arrived for me early this morning, a young American couple already on board and a few more people were collected along the way so that the shuttle bus was crammed full. But thats ok. The young Americans were off to Naboisho in Kenya which is where I did my volunteering on a game conservancy a few years ago. It took me back to some wonderful memories. 

After an uneventful flight I arrived back at Royal Sheger Hotel to a royal welcome. Everyone was so lovely and they had kept me a room away from the dogs. Its next to a construction site but half of Addis is in that state anyway. 

I took off for lunch pretty much as soon as I got back and my lunch was so amazing I wrote about it as soon as I returned to my room and while I was still dribbling. I could still taste all the flavours and was transferring them to the page. Sadly the connection went down and I lost it all but it went something like this:

When I was researching about the food in Ethiopia everything told me that by the time I left I would have eating so much WAT (stew) that I would be sick of it. Well that hasnt happened as I have not found wat at any place I have visited. I have eaten enough tibs (braised strips of tough meat) to sink a ship, more spagetti than I would eat in Italy, more thick rubbery injera than I ever want to eat again and was totally unenthused about the food. 

I was on a mission to get back to a wonderful artisan gallery I had seen on the last stay here and happened to walk past a restaurant I had read about which apparently had excellent injera (on a par with Yod Abbysinia where I had a lovely meal when I first came or so I was told).  Im seated in a lovely large room with traditional furnitqure and decoration, a massive mural down one end and an aeroplane, complete with flashing wing tips, suspended from the ceiling. Its relevance I am not sure of. 

Anyway the extensive menu had a lamb wat!  Done, ordered with an orange juice. My table was set, my hands were washed and my meal arrived. A huge tray arrived with both light and dark injera, both tissue paper thin and alongside a ceramic burner with a bowl of thick wot. The wot was piled on top of the injera and my trip began. Best food of my trip by far. 

The injera was light as light and extra thin with just a hint of sourness, the flavours of the wot were divine. Soft tender lamb in a thick aromatic sauce that gave hints of cardamon and cinamon and a bit of a bite. With the injera wrapped around the meat and sauce it was wonder to my lips. I was salivating just at the smell but once the flavours hit my palate I was history. Heaven in a mouthful. I drooled big time. 

Lunch over it was time for coffee, bought to me with a bowl of popcorn, which of course, I devoured despite being full already. I was sad my meal was over. Had I found meals as good as this on the rest of my trip I would have enjoyed my stay even more but oh well! them’s the breaks. 

And so my stay in Ethiopia has come to an end. It was a bit of a culture shock and at times I was out of my comfort zone but it has made me realise, even more, just how much we have in our part of the world. It doesn’t necessarily make us better off or any happier and I dont want to swap but am far more aware of how hard life is for many people. Despite this many want to cling to their difficult life and are content not to bring it into the first world. I can only admire them. 

The cities are slowly becoming more modern which can only be good as long as they dont lose their identity along the way. I think in ten years time Addis Ababa will be a large and cosmopolitan place, with great roads, footpaths and a ton of tourists. I’m glad I saw it when I did. 

Having seen the people in the tribal villages I can now see what financial poverty is. They have no possessions, no clothing, no car, no electricity or running water. Their bed is a animal hide on the dirt floor in the room that houses all the family, kitchen and fireplace and in the corner sit the livestock. They don’t keep up with the Joneses, they wake at the crack of dawn and spend the day doing back breaking work and teaching their kids to do the same. The only technology they have are the cameras and phones the tourists bring to the village where they get the chance to look at themselves in a photo.  The experience was very sobering and one I am glad I participated in but I worry that we are treating them like a circus and trying to bring them into our world full of issues they currently cannot even comprehend. 

Amasagenalo Ethiopia. I’ve had a ball.