From Addis Ababa – Jan. 20, 2022
I made it here WITHOUT the extra $100 fine for overstaying my 45-day Upon Arrival Visa in Egypt. Makes up for the EXTRA $94 I spent on the Ethiopian eVisa. I asked the Immigration Officer how much it would’ve been had I done it the more drawn-out and last minute Upon Arrival way. She said, “$50.”
People here and in Egypt keep warning me to worry about Pick-Pockets here, but I’ve only had a couple of close calls. I must look pretty frightening, throwing elbows every so often, just to keep those would-be assholes from getting too close. I yelled at a dude yesterday, “Do I KNOW YOU? Why the fuck are you walking so closely behind me?” I swear, I turned and he was practically in my socks!!!
One elbow to the throat. Problem solved.
He kept walking. I didn’t actually hit him, but since him, I’ve randomly thrown left and right elbows whenever I sense anyone getting too close. They quickly move away.
Still, when taxi drivers say, “Put your window up,” at a stop light or in other heavy traffic, or others warn you about certain areas or certain times, heed their local knowledge.
Egyptians are embarrassingly kind to foreigners. Especially ‘Mericans. They are scared shitless that negative press will get out and The US will cut off whatever they’ve promised this year or upcoming years. Fady, the host at Deep South Dive Camp in Marsa Alam told me this, just the week before leaving. And, there in Hurghada, I actually went back to a fruit seller in the market one of my last days and did the math how he screwed me more than 300% for a bag of strawberries – in season as mangos are fading out. He acted like it was The Big Bang Theory of equations – simple subtraction on my phone getting ridiculous figures – and he finally gave me most of all my change back.
Most are great, though, there and here in Addis Ababa. It’s fantastic to be surrounded by deep rich yet varying tones of Blackness, all colorfully dressed, Natural and highly manicure hairstyles – I happened to land on one of their 3 major holidays: Timkat Festival – Jan. 19. Unfortunately, I landed in Addis Ababa from Cairo via Hurghada in the weeee hours of the 19th, so I missed all the parades and FINALLY slept.
Emerging some hours later to wander the streets, looking like the aftermaths of some terrible war; streets torn up, everything seemingly in a state of re-building.
In spit of all this, it feels like HOME!
Yes, but like Lini and Anisha[Emmett’s Indian wife and daughter] traveling through India, it’s refreshing to see ME reflecting back in every face, in every corner and still, most immediately identify me as “Other”. My walk, the clothing, the backpack? Dead giveaways, I suppose. One older dude guessed “Nigeria” yesterday. All I could say was, “Maybe?” Culturally bonding with one taxi-driving student, Yonas Feleke. I nearly Jumped when I’d asked, “What do you do when you’re not working?”
“Read.”
“Fantastic!! Wha do you like to read?”
“Psychology.”
Then we spiraled into a long conversation about Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy. And wouldn’t you know it, the one day I didn’t bring the book along with me, is the one day I could’ve given it to him for a couple of days to read. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have WhatsApp, and his email was not receiving the photos I sent to his email account(those same pages of Frankl’s book I’d sent you in October), but I did have his phone number. I called him up today and we hung out while he drove me to the most amazing Entoto Park, which overlooks all of Addis Ababa, and we had time for him to take photos of the booklet, and talk more about sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. So get this, he’s an Electrical Engineering major, who works with his best friends who are studying Internal Medicine and other doctors’ fields – who are going to open up their own home care company. So he occasionally gets calls from them to take his friends to emergency calls at people’s houses.
Serendipity – I often fall in with the BEST people wherever I land. Not always, but fuck – from day one in Paris and re-connecting with Jean-Marin, whom volunteered with brother Gary and I, in Nicaragua Spring 2018, to the randomest run-in with Mahija Sejdaj in Blankensee, Hamburg, Germany. I hadn’t seen her since Nov. 2011! Never got contact outside of FB and had lost contact several years ago…
Then there’s Ilia Tyvkin, the Ukranian Reporter, Activist Extraordinaire – my AirBnB host in Berlin…Dmitri [Dima] in Montenegro may be hiring me to proof-read his web pages, though I prefer getting BLattered on cookies [the same Albanian Treats we had in Athens], and his hash in Hurghada – Not a big hash fan, but when in your Russian friend’s flat in eastern Egypt do as they do?
‘nough bout me – you never sent many photos of your Christ’s Holidays with Moni and the bambinos!! Luke is so mellow – that look on his face like – “OK, I’ll smile so this dancin’ singin fool goes away.” I swear he looked like a small man processing your serenading.
Also – Joe? Lui? where the FUCK are you two these daze?
I have really great WiFi here so we should try a group call soon? I should be here in Addis for another 72 hours, after that not sure how fixed WiFi will be?
Ohhh, I’m a bit drunk – let me clarify – Egyptians are mostly Cafe Latte colored, with a huge Greek and Middle Eastern influences since Alexander the WHAAAAAA? No one axed my opinion if he was great? conquered and changed the names of shit he liked – instead of tearing it all down and building something Catholic [Coptic Christian] on top of it.
Anyway – the further south you go, into Aswan and towards the head of the Nile, into Sudan, do you find the true rulers and shakers of that country and even the continent. They BE Black. Charlie “Midnight” Murphy – “Whddit the five fingers say to the face?” They have their own food, their own language and dress and arts and crafts that the lighter Egyptians tend to dismiss. Sound familiar?
Ilia Ryvkin – not sure I sent y’all his links to some of the INSANE shit he’d protested and wrote or reported about? I sent him this piece: Hey Ilia, Happy New Year!! I hope things are going well. As you do while traveling, I’ve reconnected with with another Russian friend, Dima, and his Ukrainian and Russian friends. I met Dima in a hostel in Montenegro back in November and again in Albania in early December. Since then, Sergy, whose YT site this was filmed for, has been traveling since July 2021 with little to NO money!! I believe he started with around $100 and has been crashing on couches and getting donations from his subscribers these last 7 months!! At the end of my second month in Egypt, I stopped by Hurghada, since Dima, Anna and Sergy were there (Digital Nomads) until January 27, 2022.
https://youtu.be/PKhhURIjp7w
Hope all is well – currently visiting the oldest remains of any found skeletal bones “Lucy” and the incredibly friendly people and tasty healthy foods in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, before moving south to Kenya in about 3 weeks to do some volunteering with a couple of schools, a recycling program and perhaps some other ventures.
Bottom line, I was afraid to come here due to Tigray and wars happening there so I changed from traveling overland Egypt-Sudan-Ethiopia and was simply going to land in Nairobi five four days ago. Until….
Gerard, the Barcelonaa Science teacher who loves tribes of the world, told me, “Shit man, it’s safe in the capital and most other regions south of Tigray. Don’t believe all that shit – go, there are…then he rattled off five or seven tribes in different parts of the country that might interest me. Truly, they don’t excite me as much as they do Gerard, but I listened, took notes and will probably trip through three or more of them before all is said and done.
Kilifi, Kenya
Even Fady, the Cairoianouiouanuiaon who runs the Deep South Dive Camp in Marsa Alam was warning me NOT to listen to the propaganda from Al Jezera and others, as I checked news minutes before booking my flight to Addis Ababa instead of Nairobi. I’m so fuckin glad I ran into these Voices of Reason and re-diverted my travels back to Ethiopia. I’ve loved so much of what I’ve read and heard about this country that it would’ve been a shame to miss it due to minor fears of battles and of course the president and others’ Human Rights Violations –
***Sorry not as many photos of the amazing peps and places in Egypt – my iSE was stolen at knifepoint while hiking In Hawassa – I guess he needed it more than I. Still, I remain positive with the overall impressions of this beautifully vibrant country.
At the time of this writing, 18.9% of all people 15-40 are unemployed. The highly trained, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers can’t find work. Warring factions divide the regions of the north while an 18-month drought has killed off more than 90% of many farmers cows, goats and lambs.
Shawn L. Carson – @doepicshiiiiit4138
shawn.carson@icloud.com
Do Epic Shit 