8pm, The Rodeo, Sept 20th: A fairly good day today, although very little was accomplished and I fear we may be falling behind schedule. I slept in a little later, since my watch was set to the correct time, and after breakfast and reading the last unread issue of the Monitor, I took myself for a walk up the Bole Road in a drizzling rain to find some pens and to change some 100s into 10s and 5s… since tipping is so critical here, and I certainly am not the type to give $10 tips. I did find and purchase some nice pens, and waited for a while in a bank before deciding that I had to get back to meet Shimeles … which turned out to be a mistake because he was a full hour late again, as expected. We drove to the Geophysical Station and did some work in his office, looking over topo maps, and it wasn’t long before it was lunch time. Shime drove me on a long tour all around Mercato … what Chaos!! … and I was suffering somewhat due to a very full bladder, or at least an overactive one. I’m not sure what the problem is, but I seem always to have to pee very badly the past few days, even though I don’t drink a lot. Maybe it’s the coffee? The Mercato was truly African beyond any capability I have to describe it… but the ten thousand grimy vendor windows cut into patched-together sheet iron seemed a little more marvelous than squalid and the seething (truly, TEEMING!) masses of black humans a little more incredible than horrible, and everything a little more enjoyable and less terrifying, although in the back of my mind I was thanking my lucky stars that we have nothing remotely like this in Montana. (Sweet Montana!) We visited Shimeles’ childhood home down a clapboard alley amid goat carcasses and idle humans bedraggled in the gutter… those who recognized Shimeles all came to demand some money. We ate at a really fantastic kitfo beat, though I’m not sure I could differentiate the food much from yesterday’s fabulous lunch… and I’m a little afraid that I might burn out on the delightful but HEAVY ethnic food. I concluded that Ethiopian girls are fabulously good looking as a rule, and our server made eyes at me (for a larger tip, I’m sure) but I couldn’t help watching her walk around the restaurant for the rest of the meal. She spilled orange soda all over my chair, probably on purpose. Truly, even the men are very handsome here. It’s amazing, considering the destitution in which many of the Addis Ababans live, how they can still be so eye-catchingly gorgeous. Quite a gift, when compared with the street wretches of any other country I’ve ever visited. Perhaps it’s because they are all so good natured.
I’ve become adapted to the insanity of driving in Addis. It can’t be called anything but that. It’s like the most suicidal combat car-racing video game, where you get more points the closer you come to death (yours or someone else’s) … only it’s very, very real! There’s only so much terror you can feel until you finally unclench the oh-shit handle and slump in your seat, resigned to the perfectly anarchical idiocy of traffic in the city. Back at the Geophysical station, nothing got done for several hours. Shimeles was working with a grad student of his (whom I quite like, though don’t know his name) and I quickly discovered that of all our topo maps, we can plot only 6 of our points on any of them. I am starting to get a little worried about Shimeles… I know he must be incredibly busy with a hundred different things, but we got nothing done today related to the trip, and we won’t leave tomorrow, which is when we should have been departing. I’m getting impatient, and I want to give him a kick in the pants. We didn’t get the tents, the sandbags, the dry goods, nothing… and I think maybe I should try to do as much of it on my own as I can, or it may not happen. I just hope he does the things I can’t, like call the government offices and get permission for our trip from the army. I’m very eager to leave, as the specter of failure is still hanging vividly over my head. Also, we haven’t bonded the way I think he bonded with Becky. Probably just because he’s a flirt and I’m not a cute girl. But I worry a bit: 5 weeks, and what if we totally run out of conversation on day 3? He seems a bit distant sometimes, or aloof, and it makes him a little hard to talk to… I feel like I’m always groping for questions to fill in the quite spaces. I met Shime’s sister, briefly, and after he dropped me off at the Rodeo, I enquired about upgrading to a nicer room at the front desk and ended up in a wonderful conversation with the owner of the establishment about geology and reconciliation of science with religion. Then I ended up sitting down with three DELIGHTFUL Ethiopians (well, two had spent time in the states, one was a Somali who resides in Melbourne, and all spoke English very well and were exactly the kind of people I’d like no matter who there were, and we had a very good time talking and laughing in the hotel lobby for a good two hours before we finally retired to our various undertakings, but I’m certain that this will be one of the best highlights of my trip. I plan to get my hair cut at Hewhit’s beauty salon when I’m back from the Afar… she is a wonderfully smart, insightful and funny woman. We had fun making fun of Texas and I must say it was one of the most satisfying discussions I’ve had in many months or years. Have to remember the other names: Seesigh and Rhokia. Spellings are anyone’s guess. Also on my mind: The smell here is just like the smell in Morocco… what is it? The combination of spices and raw sewage? I don’t know, but it’s interesting. Do all 3rd world countries smell like this, or is it the smell of Africa? I just hope I don’t come down with a stomach bug because I remember how much I hated the smell, lying horribly sick in my bed in Marrakesh. Right now it’s not bad. If it’s not raining in the morning, I may venture further on my walk, and check out a sporting goods store way up north on the Bole Road. I need to turn off the laptop to conserve power now. There’s no damn outlet in my room!!

P.S. I’m scared to go to the Afar… and excited. What if the Afaris are all thieves and bandits? Shimeles thinks we’ll need to travel some of the time with soldiers to guard us.