And on the sixth day I shopped

Another take on that famous saying. I headed out Friday to a very sunny and windy day that required my taking a fleece it was that cold. I started at Bilo's, the pastry shop below Deker Inn. I wanted to find a cord today to record the sound from my digital recorder to the PC. While sipping machiato and munching on a banana bread, I noticed yet again the difference between the haves and the have-nots. I believe it is even more pronounced here than in the west. Two very high end Mercedes SUV's which must cost over 900,000 birr left while I ate. The vehicles were dressed up to the max (i.e., every possible option on the outside) and could indeed have been more than 1 million birr. From what I was told by one of the drivers I use to get to work and back, it would take him 50 years to save that kind of money and that would allow him NADA for living expenses. I was proudly wearing a MEC fleece vest with inside pockets, and pleased that my money was well concealed. I was carrying what I call my "merkato money" which is a wad of bills where only the bill that is showing is a birr, a one birr note at that. The rest of the money shows a hand with the middle finger sticking up. I hope someone steals it some day. Also, while at Bilo's, I noticed the parking ladies placing the familiar small pieces of paper on windshield wipers as people munched at Bilo's. As I recently found out, ALL property in Ethiopia belongs to the government and, if one even builds somewhere, the land stays with the feds and one pays rent. Hence, what even appeared to be "private property" at Bilo's was strewn with vehicles with these same pieces of paper on them. These parking people are very quick and sometimes as you click your remote to lock the car, the paper appears on your car. When I was at Yordanos hospital yesterday for ultrasound, Dereje the driver paid 50 birr cents to park for 30 minutes or so ... 8 cents an hour! I took the blue bus to the intersection of Gabon and Selassie, and found myself in the porcelain/ceramic section a block west of Kazanches street. Toilets, plumbing apparatus, and every other thinkable thing made from ceramic or concerned with the bathroom was in this block and then some. I cut over to Kazanches and stopped at a joint to get my hair cut. Here are the highlights of that experience: 1) She put a paper gasket around my neck, similar to what was done to me when I was very young and getting my hair cut. I call it a gasket since it provides a better seal for the gown that is wrapped around you when the haircut is done. 2) She pulled 2 small pieces of cotton batten off a large swab and stuffed them in my ears to protect me agains the sound of the clippers (I guessed :)... very thoughtful. 3) The guy beside me was getting his hair washed after his cut and helped a bit with the translation of the instructions. They wash hair here using a portable plastic sink with a hose attached to the drain, trailing into a bucket to catch the water from the sink. They use a plastic milk container to pour water over the client ... hey it works :) They also shampoo beard and mustache as well as the hair. 4) At the end of the 30 minutes or so she spent on my hair, a plate with some orange stuff on it appeared. It turned out to be warm washcloths, one which she wiped my face and neck area in preparation for the gown removal. I did not have a clue what the price would be and was shocked to be asked for 10 birr ... less than 1 dollar Canadian! I gave here 20 birr and both she and I were pleased. I saw a sweet kitchen supply store near the first Total gas station on Kazanches; it reminded me of the Great Glebe Emporium. I did walk into an electrical appliance store and asked for an alarm clock. The proprietor looked at me like I was from another planet (i.e. America) and said no. I went into a few other stores and asked for alarm clocks, all with the same inter-planetary responses. Then I figured it might be called something else here; Tagel told me to say "alarm watch" instead. Lo and behold, the next few places I tried, the clerks blurted out NO before I even finished asking :). I bought a bright orange dress shirt on Kazanches; the guy wanted 250 birr and I got it for 200. I figured, hey, when in Africa, do as the Africans do. This thing is so bright it needs a volume control. As I left the store, I spotted a man sitting on a makeshift stool with a pair of nail clippers. I wonder what a clip would cost ... perhaps a real clip joint :) I turned a corner, familiar to me as we pass it every day, and saw the Brook pharmacy which is usually getting opened as we drive by on the way to work. There must have been some structure beside Brook which I do not remember because about 10 days ago, whatever it had been was now a pile of eucalyptus branches mostly 8-10 feet long in a huge pile. Over the past few days a couple of guys with very weird (and very dull) axes, have been cutting up the wood to be sold as firewood. Tagel called to tell me a memo had arrived from Ato Mussa regarding my first of 17 money transfers for my audit work. They are transferring money in Canadian dollars not US; I will take that up with Ato Mussa on Monday. Granted, there ain't much difference between the two currencies now :). I hailed a cab to Dembel mall a few minutes later. Obviously Dembel would have what I needed in an alarm clock, excuse me, alarm watch :) I looked around and there were a few possibilities. I did round out my white jacket outfit by adding a white tie to the mix for 150 birr. I walked down Bole and the sky was clear and blue ... by the way I have written a song about Addis and that line is in the tune.  I walked to Ethio-China, looking for onesies for the wife and I. I ended close to the Yemeni restaurant I had made plans to meet the kids from work. I sat across from the restaurant for 20 minutes. People stopped steadily trying to sell me anything and everything. A guy eyed me for a while peddling some movies, but I managed to look busy and he left. Guess what was busily busily busily patrolling Ethio-China ... you guessed it, a parking control lady :) The Yemeni lunch was designed to be a farewell repast for one of the guys from Istanbul. He did not show up with the kids, so missed his goodbye lunch :) I ordered some mixed pickles, hummus, and tabbouleh. They were all great. There were cucumber slices, turnip slices, and beet slices, all a deep burgundy and nicely pickled. I had a few, then re-arranged them on the plate so the kids would suspect they just showed up before they did. They served tap water from jugs on the table which I had not seen before. I got Dereje to drive me to Yordanos for ultrasound. The guy who does it for me is very chatty. He is going to a town near Debreziet to see a grown child this weekend.  I then got Dereje to drive me to piazza to continue shopping. The section of piazza that I was about to walk was one I had driven through many times, so the walk was eagerly anticipated. I was shown 6 to 8 onesies in one store and it appeared that the guy was losing his patience with me because I did not yet commit to buyiung. Fortunately my cell rang which allowed me to walk out of the store immersed in a heavy conversation :) I would not buy something from this guy since they almost all had zippers at the bottom of the pants, meaning they could not be hemmed. I did buy a blue striped shirt at one store, then called it a day and cabbed back to Deker. For those of you who know me well, my memory can be quite a sieve. How, you may wonder, did I manage to recount my adventures with such detail some 2 days later ... ah, the wonders of modern technology; I have started carting around my digital recorder on such events for this very reason. My trip to Awassa this weekend will be documented in the morning. I also will be getting the pictures from my trip to Waluso with Tagel a few weeks ago as well as the stuff from the Awassa trip which was very very nice.