Arrival

This trip, contrary to others, lacks the whimsical wandering of its predecessors. Indeed, the arrival at the airport in Miami, the flight to Frankfurt, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and onto Addis Ababa was determined and driven with few interruptions. Wholly uneventful, save one particularly rambunctious and aging Norwegian man that repeatedly woke me with subtle yet unmistakably sexual caresses on the flight from Germany.

I arrived late to Addis, where most everybody speaks some English. The prevailing language is Aramaic. It is awfully difficult to learn. Even the phrase for hello is evasive with its stabbing, apostrophised syllables and seemingly unseparated consonant sounds.

I rode a small French sedan to the ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute) Compound. The gated campus is home of a significant community of agricultural researchers. Festooned with trees holding little placard name-tags, manicured houses, clay tennis courts and copses, one must work to not forget of their location. Of course, I didn't see that until this morning, for I arrived under the cover of darkness.

I awoke to the sounds of morning prayers that as the morning progressed, were blared through speakers from nearby mosques. I paced about until Andrew Simmons, the PhD candidate that will serve as my guide, woke for breakfast. Andrew, an amateur but adroit ornithology enthusiast, walked with me, circling the grounds. Ethiopia, as it happens, is one of the premier bird watching countries. Our little walk made this explicitly clear. Dozens of distinct and colorful species made their appearance. Bee-eaters, that whack the stinger from their buzzing pray on thin, protruding branches, can be seen in the photos posted above (my personal favorite being the moment captured when, choking on his breakfast, a bee eater coughed up his tasty morsel). Weaver birds, whose elaborate nests they build in hope to lure their future mate, hang abandoned in the arching boughs (also above).

I refrain from calling this magic for I inhabit an unusual sliver of this country. The rest of Ethiopia is yet to be seen, but as a palate-whetter it should certainly make do.