Seems Legit

Today was the last day in Addis, before heading to Lalibela tomorrow. We knew we wanted to visit a couple museums, and Kat had picked some possible art gallery spaces, but we didn’t have a formal itinerary.

The day kicked off with a trek for breakfast. It’s always tough to want to go out for breakfast when your hotel has a fantastic (and included) breakfast buffet, but there was a particular dish we’d heard about but hadn’t had – genfo. Kat loves any porridge, and genfo is a very thick barley-based “porridge” topped with spice infused clarified butter. It was definitely a must-try. Not many restaurants serve it, but we found a place called Mitmita not too far from the hotel that seemed like a likely candidate. A couple of folks from Kat’s workshop joined us for the walk.

We got not only genfo, but also some lovely fuul and bula, a sticky dish made from “false banana”. We loved it all, though you’d have to be seriously dedicated to finish an entire bowl of genfo. It’s a “stick to your ribs” kind of dish.

After breakfast, we took a RIDE (the local uber) up to the National Museum to visit some of the ancestors. Kat had already been, but I wanted to check it out. The most famous fossil found in Ethiopia is Lucy, the first of the Australopithecus afarensis species. (The real Lucy is currently visiting the UAE, so we just saw the casts.) What I loved about the museum is how much they highlighted the teamwork involved in archaeology, and it did a good job dispelling myths about evolution.

From the National Museum, we walked a little ways to the Ethnographic museum, which is housed in the former palace of Emperor Haile Selassie (now part of the campus of Addis Ababa University). At the entrance to the campus, we got chatting with Sintayehu and Fitsum, a couple guys who were also on their way in. It turns out, they’re artists who were on their way to measure for a mural that was commissioned by the US embassy. We got their WhatsApp info and promised to connect later on.

The Ethnographic museum is a bit threadbare (ok, a lot threadbare) but the upper floor has some really well done didactics explaining the different ethnic communities of Ethiopia, along with many of their traditions. You can also tour Haile Selassie’s bathroom.

By the time we left the museum it was the afternoon, so we popped into a cafe for some food and coffee. As we were hanging out, the afternoon storms rolled through – especially strong today. As we waited out the storm, we were able to coordinate meeting up with our artist friends – one of them had a studio and apartment not far from where we were. We made our way through some backstreets and eventually came to Sintayehu’s studio. He works in a bunch of different mediums – lately a lot of work based on found objects, but also acrylics, pastels, pencil, sewing, and so on.

Much of his work focuses on the changes taking place in Addis – the construction, the demolition, the displacement. We of course had to buy a piece, which then meant figuring out how to pay him. The biggest bill in circulation in Ethiopia is equivalent to about $1.25, and ATMs don’t love to give out more than about $25 worth. We were able to find a local bank that would swipe a credit card, then turn that into a pile of birr, which Sintayehu could then immediately redeposit in his account. Like much of Africa, no local actually bothers with cash – they all use mobile payments (telebirr). Unfortunately those systems aren’t readily available to tourists. Sintayehu and Fitsum just kept laughing and saying “this is Africa” as we tried to sort it out.

We wrapped the day with a group dinner with a few of Kat’s colleagues at a restaurant just around the corner. We got a shared “fasting” platter – perfect for a big group.

Tomorrow, we’ll head to Lalibela which is really exciting. Even though it wasn’t originally in the plans, it’s been fun to explore Addis more fully, and I’ll look forward to a return visit.