AF Addis Ababa

This is the view of Addis from my hotel room. Because I got in late Sunday and left on Thursday morning, I was only able to take pictures  from the taxi on the way to work. They are not my best photos but show some of  city life.

Crossing the street, even in a crosswalk, was a death defying experience.

Street scene . Elegant man is yellow is actually begging.

The buses had colorful logos.

Like in many third world countries, billboards tout Western beauty and rich living

Waiting for the bus.

The morning I left, there must have been 15 - 20 army generals and colonels, all decked out in gold braids, epilets and red striped trouses.  While the uniforms struck me as colorful,  I focused on the fact they were all about 6 '2", maybe one inch below or above.  I wondered if they were all from the same tribe and that was why they were all so similar. Or is being tall part of the "right stuff"

Later at the airport, I watched teams of Ethiopian Air flight attendants go by and noticed they were all the same height or at most one inch different.  Why is that?



At the airport , I had a weird experience. I was deep into a book when they called my flight to Djibouti.  With that, everyone got up and went down the stairs to gate 7 , my boarding gate, as listed on my ticket. I was amazed that there were only white faces on the line  going to an African country. And to boot, they were all speaking German. As the airline rep came by, she told me  I was on the wrong line as that flight was going to Frankfurt. I went back upstairs to see the gate had changed to gate 8 and, just then, we all went down the same stairs as gate 7 and lined up next to the Frankfurt group  to board buses to our respective flights. Madness ,I thought. Then, our line turned around so that the end of the line became the front of the line and we went through separate doors. Whew !