Meeting New Friends...And Marriage Proposals!  

The second day with Alem he said his friend was going to join us. I'm thinking OK, I like meeting new people. Let's see who shows up..

Sarena does not speak much English, but has a big smile on her face. I had the postcards in my hand to mail out. She looks thru them and comments on them. We head over to the post office to mail them.

We are in the taxi about 5 minutes on the way to the post office, Sarena is in the back seat. She says something to Alem, who proceeds to bust up laughing.

ME: What did she say?
ALEM: She says she is going to marry YOU!

Hold that thought and flashback a day with me...

When I first got to Addis Guest House, remember Elham, the receptionist?

When she was showing me the room I was going to stay in we were talking...

ME: Elham, have you ever been to New York?
ELHAM: No.
ME: You should go, you would like it.
ELHAM: Well if you sent me a green card I could go.

In case you didn't realize, the only way to get a green card if you are not already related, get married.

At that moment I thought it was a chick in a half empty hotel flirting with the American to get a sale and I laughed. Elham you are funny! You got jokes...

But now I know. It was way more serious than joke!

Back to Sarena, she spent the whole day with us. We did a tour in Toto, another historical Christian church on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.



We had a lunch of enjera, which is the national dish in Ethiopia. It is a large, flat 'pancake' made of cornmeal, flour that is about the size of large pizza pie. On top you have beef, chicken, lamb, goat. You eat with your hands. No knives, spoons or forks. You pull a piece of the enjera and then grab a piece of meat with the enjera and then pop it in your mouth. Very good and quite filling.


Later that night Alem takes Sarena (oh yeah, she's still with me) and I to a traditional Ethiopian cultural restaurant.


They serve enjera and perform traditional Ethiopian dances and plays. The place was packed on a Friday night and we had a great time eating and watching the performance. You don't always understand what's going on, but you can appreciate the passion they bring every time the performers retell stories of their culture.


Alem dropped myself and Sarena home. And tomorrow a whole new person would shape my time in Addis...