Hyena Territory

12/6/2007

Mamush is a shy little boy, probably 8 years old, who hangs around outside Make's video shop everyday with his shoe polishing kit. There is a speaker outside the shop door that blasts music all day, so Beline and I are often found dancing in the store. Whenever Mamush passes by, he flashes his huge BRIGHT smile and shyly does his own little dance moves by the street, though never comes over to talk with us. Today we found out that he doesn't speak Amharic, but is from a village north of Addis. He is living here in the city with four other young boys from the village. The 5 of them split rent, each paying $30 birr/month and spend their days cleaning and polishing people's shoes on the street. They charge 20 cents per cleaning. They are an urban version of the shepherd boys I met last month. These boys are on their own in the city, taking care of each other by working and not going to school, and their families all live in the villages many miles away. I don't know if he'll see his family again.

At grandma's house, there are two girls that live with us and take care of all the cooking and cleaning. Genet is 19 and Mulu is in her 30s. They occasionally have a day off to visit their families, but otherwise we are their family day in and day out. The family interacts very formally with the girls, so life at the house can be very dull for them. Beline and I have spiced up their lives. We love coming home late, after the family has been served dinner because we sneak into Mulu's kitchen, sit on the floor, and eat dinner with her and Genet. THey love making fun of Beline and me and we give it back to them. Sometimes we'll surprise them with snacks from the city.Yesterday Beline and I stayed home and shared in the daily chores. We walked about 2 miles to pick up pastries and onions for Mulu at the nearest little store. There is no running water at the house, so we bathed and washed clothes in the outside sink with water collected in buckets. It's a busy life, hardly a moment to rest with all the food preparations and water hauling to do throughout the day. There are also no street names or house numbers in most of Addis. Grandma's house is in one of the only housing developments that actually has addresses. The street signs are funded by Pepsi Corporation, so our "street address" is PEPSI zone 8 road 3.

Condaleeza Rice was in town yesterday. The United States is funding Ethiopian troops to do peace-keeping in Somalia, as Somalia faces the possibility of becoming an extremist Islamic State. According to President Bush, the "Peace-Keeping" is to prevent Somalia from becoming a "heaven for Al-Quaida." Beline's uncle Behare is a major in the military and is headed to Somalia soon as a peacekeeper. He invited us to visit his residence at the Ethiopian military base outside of ADdis earlier this week. We met the head-honcho of the base, Lietenant Colonel Baya, and had a good laugh in his office as he joked around with us. I was surprised by the friendliness of all the military personnel that we met, especially Behare who gave up his only day off in two months of peacekeeping training to show us around. Behare took us to the stables at the base where Ethiopia's race and show horses are housed. They compete worldwide and the museum at the base is full of their trophies. Just the sight and size of the horses was impressive! On the way to the stables, we witnessed a THREE YEAR OLD boy named Abush round up four goats that had gotten out of the stables. Using a clot of dirt and a random stick he found, Abush succeeded effortlessly to get the goats where they needed to go...and he was THREE YEARS OLD! I was impressed. Abush's older brother was riding one of the horses and kindly let me have a go. I rode an Arabian horse by the name of Netche (white). She was quite fiesty!! I was surprised to find out during our visit that there are Somalians in the Ethiopian military. They serve as translators.

Grandma's house is in hyena territory....right at the base of a mountain. One week left to see or even HEAR a hyena!!!
take care,
Hana T.