A fun Wednesday night

We made plans to go to Yod Abyssinia, a cultural restaurant, for music and food. I knew there are two locations in Addis, one near Dr. Paul and the other near me. Once I ascertained that their 3 year old was not coming, I lobbied successfully for the one near me. It's on Cape Verde, right around the corner from where I live, the street being an extension of Mike Leyland as it crosses Cameroon. Lina was working late, and Micha et wife were going to get there on their own, not needing a ride from work.

That's when the fun started; it was one of the bigger debacles of the stay so far. We trundled off to Dr. Paul's house using the usually travelled route and ran into some major congestion just off Meskel square. There is some big-time construction there and it took us 70 minutes to move about half a kilometre. There was one period of 25 minutes where we did not move an inch. Once the traffic sort of started moving, Dereje (under Dr. Paul's coaxing) went down a lane that looked like a promising route away from the mess ... DEAD END! Turning around and getting back onto the main drag (now I know why they call it a "main drag" cause it was such a drag :)) was a treat in itself. We finally made it to Dr. Paul's about 90 minutes after leaving work ... less than 2 miles away.

We departed the Dulcian compound about 7:15, heading for Yod on Cape Verde ... uh oh, not on the street we expected. We did find 2000 Habesha, a similar establishment but there was no sign of Micha and Dora. As this was going down, Lina was coming with another driver who did not know where Yod was. I descended the few stairs into the new-found restaurant and eventually was informed we were going to Yod after all. It was near Edna mall, so off we went in one vehicle. We picked up a gentleman named Parminder at the World Bank building, and arrived at Yod about 10 minutes later. What a journey; as well Micha, who has only been in Addis 10 days had no problem finding the place but we did :).

The music had already started ... a quartet with washent (a flute made from bamboo), drums, and 2 stringed instruments. The volume was acceptable, unlike the traditional club I was in in Awassa a few weeks back. There were 6 dancers who kept coming up on stage in different costumes and performing some heavy aerobic maneuvers that tired me out. Paul and I tried to figure out the timing for the music, and it appeared to be either 4/4 or 2/4, but one in a while there seemed to be an extra beat thrown in. It was fascinating. At one point they dragged a few people up on stage (where is the Sweet Thing when you need her). We ate traditional food with injera and it was yummy. The evening ended about 10PM which was late for this ferenge to be out.

I have been practicing getting up to and down from my room at Deker with no assistance. That has been going well, so I will not be straying far with the cast on, but need not be a hermit.