Africa for Christmas

 Trip to Africa Photo Dump and Commentary: Jan 2023

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. HQ of the African Union is here, and Ethiopia is usually viewed as the most important African nation, so lots of money and diplomats flow through here. Which makes the airport quite schwanky and modern.

Thumbs up at the Ren/Constables in Addis. They are here for four years, then hoping to go back to Asia. She's Chinese and he's German, but they both desperately want the next assignment to be Asia. It is where they met.

Berkata, their cook, preps a traditional Ethiopian Jebena coffee ceremony for us on the balcony.

Occasionally there are sidewalks in Addis, but most people just walk in the street anyway.

We checked out the German Embassy and Sil's office. 

That our kids would have a life track that included playing tennis on Embassy grounds in an African country is still a head-shaker for me.

Driving up the hill to Sil and Coco's house. Moving obstacles everywhere. This is why they have a full time driver.

Jod Abyssinia, traditional restaurant serving big plates of local specialities and the famous Ingera bread. Before dinner this guy comes round and washes your hands into a basin.

After dinner you drink more coffee. And popcorn!

All of the scaffolding is out of wood shafts, there is no pipe scaffolding here. These are just lashed together.

Road construction. Lots of pressure on Addis as the refugees pour in from the north to escape the fighting.

Fly to Zanzibar. Tropical heat.

Hunt for your name!

Our villa is a little out of hand, but it was cheap for as huge as it was.

Here is the porch for our room

Fishing boats bobbing picturesquely offshore.

Sil and Coco, Paje Beach on the east side of the island.

Zanzibar is 95% Muslim, so lots of striking headscarves and hijabs everywhere.

Big outing: take a small boat an hour to Mnemba Island where you can snorkel the reefs and play around on the sand bars at low tide.

Afternoon chill stop after the snorkel boat ride. 

African junkyard near to a sea turtle sanctuary.

The Slave Market in Stone Town, Zanzibar. A church was built over the actual market in the early 1800's.

Underneath the church the Slave Dungeon still survives. In this tiny room 50+ women and children were held for up to three days before they went on the auction block. The stories our guide told about what happened down here blew the kids' minds. Just look at their faces.

Stone Town walk. I love the mysterious nature of the black-robed women walking around with their hijabs. 

Stone Town open food market and park on the shore. Big gathering place. Jasper bought his Tanzania soccer trikot here, getting a good introduction to haggling.

Woodworker workshop fitting together a frame for us with the local wood.

Remains of the Arab fort, which was Portuguese at one point, then Arab again. Today the grounds are used for vendor markets and tourist stuff.

Muslim girls keeping tabs on us whitey Europeans!

Kids got some additional haggling practice in this shop. Best thing is to simply walk away as the price always comes down.

Rock Icon Freddie Mercury was born in Zanzibar. He lived here for nine years until the family moved to the UK. When we were in Goa in June we stayed in an old Portuguese house owned by a family of a doctor who had lived in Zanzibar. This doctor (the father of the current owners) had delivered Freddie Mercury. The parlor of the Goa house had various trinkets from the dad's medical office on Zanzibar like a medicine scale, microscope. It was a strange connection to be wandering around Zanzibar then turn a corner and boom here's Freddie's house!

Hotel Sirena new year's party. Big buffet on the deck next to their pool. Entertainment was local dancers spiralling and whipping around. Earlier there was a fashion show. In the dark shallow waters just over the railing from our table night fishermen waded through the surf with flashlights and hand nets to grab curious fish.

Cassandra and Coco raise the glasses.

The Ren-Constables

Later on, back at our Villa AirBnB, we all made it to midnight.

Dinghy trails behind a Dhow, one of the traditional fishing boats here.

Snorkel trip to a lagoon with many cool coral shapes popping out of it.

It is pretty shallow around Zanzibar and the tides are massive, so at low tide you get little sandbars popping out of the ocean like temporary desert isles. Which the locals will be glad to take you to visit.

Our Dhow! We love our Dhow. And the water.

Hakuna Matata to Zanzibar: You were a fascinating place.

Back to Ethiopia. We went up into the mountains that ring the city to a nature park for an overnight "glamping" stay. On the road we meet the wood-gatherer women, who haul these huge loads down from the Eucalyptus forests to the city to sell as firewood. Truly unbelievable. No men do this wood gathering.

Salt and Pepper shakers from wine bottle necks.

Addis Ababa is high, around 2500 meters, and in the hills above it you will be very chilly. No heating in this restaurant in the park.

Food symbol of Ethiopia: Ingera Bread. You rip off a piece and use it to pinch up a bite of whatever the main dish is. 

Jasper Glamps.

They had electric heater pads in the beds. OMG were those beds cozy to crawl into!

You drink coffee constantly here. It is just the right thing to do.

Coco in the heart.

Entoto park overlook of Addis.

Logs that are used for scaffolding.

The Lion Of Judah statue in Addis. In honor of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, who is also revered as the figurehead of the Rastafarian religion in Jamaica. How? Apparently his visit to Jamaica coincided with the end of a five year drought. Boom! Bob Marley and Statue to follow.

Cafe Dumerso, Addis.

Balcony visitor on our last day.

Improbably, we took a kick boxing class from Coco's instructor. We all loved it!

Put the cows in the back, she said.

Farewells in the parking lot after dinner on our last night. From Berlin to Addis and next...we aren't sure but they are very keyed to get back to Asia and are requesting a posting in Bangkok or Singapore. Until then (2025) they'll be kicking it diplomat style in Addis.

Back in Freiburg. Seeing the wealth and ease of life through totally new eyes!