Addis Ababa, A Retrospective II

Welcome once again to Hilton Diaries,
or the misadventures of an ex-pat in Ethiopia.
About the Lobby Bar...
It's motto is "the place where Addis comes to meet." The hotel is
not lying. Every night here between 5:30 - 8:00 is a mix of
cocktail party banter, collegiate drinking and joking, and
Cheers-like acknowledgement of the regulars when they arrive.

From diplomats to NGO workers, private enterprises and the UN --
they're all here. Italians, Germans, Brits, Americans, Ethiopians,
and assorted others come to the Hilton bar even when they don't
stay at the Hotel. Last night, for example, I met Karl, a guy I knew
in Glasgow, when I was there for training this summer,
but whom I haven't spoken to since then.
He walked up to me and said, "Hey, I know you!"

It's that kind of place.

Earlier this week the Ethiopioan wife of an Israeli diplomat asked me
to write an article for the magazine that she edits that is found in
all majour hotels in Addis. The subject? The Lobby Bar. When it's finished,
I'll send it to you.

The hotel also has the best pool in the city, fed by underground hot springs. So
weekends there are a combination of Lobby Bar, kindergarten and family reunion.
Little children are everywhere, the bar regulars are here with their families,
and the pool is alive with colours of light and dark skin offset by bright
reds and that particular highland blue that the sky becomes during the dry
season. Like Caribbean seas traded places with the sky. The only problem with the
pool is that it shares a similar physical property with crack -- it's addictive.
Not because the pool is so nice that is creates physical addiction, but because
the air here is cool and breezy, while the pool is very warm. When you exit the
pool's waters, prepare for goosebump inducing, maddening winds that seem to know
to increase their power in that critical ten second period between pool and chair
for maximum frigidity.

We've had Oktoberfest here last month, complete with Bavarian band and jumbo-sized
beer mugs. This month we had the Miss World Ethiopia, the manager's cocktail party,and a small Halloween party the night before Halloween. [Pics below] Next month is Thanksgiving, which should be funny, because the parties are excuses to get together, not really celebrate whatever the event at hand really is.

Addis life generally...
Not bad, actually. sometimes, even quite good. Once you know people and places,
then it becomes less the city of unpaved streets and random donkeys and cows on
the highway, and more the city of memories associated with people and events
you were a part of. It's still architecturally depressing and the nightlife
revolves around only a handful of places, but during the season of winds the sky
and the temperature would make even Californians jealous. A few restaraunts exist
serving foreign food, and I found a golf club that seems to be somewhere not
in the middle of the African highlands, with mountains on all sides, the city's
slums hidden by trees and air that smells fresh, free of exhaust fumes.

Temper these comments with the beggars, the dust, the unseen -- but smelled --
fires that burn just behind the compund's walls, the flies, the angry, crack-
addicted flies that don't understand the concept of glass, the random, aggressive
shouts that you can't understand, and you get a fairly well-rounded picture of
life here.

Since last weekend, when I played golf for the first time, I have been itching to
do it again. It never seemed interesting to me before, but since there is little
to do here on the weekends, I decided to try it. The first swing of the golf club
felt stiff, like Mr Bean dancing. But when I stepped onto the tee off point, placed the ball onto the little yellow thing with shaking hands, and pulled back the club, I connected with a solid, straight drive. My golf companion was shocked (Dismayed, more likely. I think he was looking forward to a nice game of self-congratulation). In any case, I am not the White Tiger [Woods], and I did hit a ball that hit a tree and bounced backwards with a ferocious energy, but all in all it was much more fun than the hushed tv pictures make it out to be.