Awassa great weekend

So Tagel calls me late Friday afternoon and tells me he is going away to some place to work this weekend and would I like to go with him. He did mention something to me about a trip out of Addis this weekend. He had not said anything to me for a while so, along the lines of what I have said before, I did not want to ask him about it as he does so much for me. He needed to go somewhere that is 270 km from Addis, and was leaving early in the morning Saturday. I figured by early he probably meant 8 or 9AM ... no he meant 6AM. He also asked if I still wanted to go even if 2 other locals were going. I love meeting new natives, so naturally I'm in. He arrives about 6:15AM Saturday with a guy in the car whose name is Germa. We drive to the other side of Addis and stop the car. A few minutes later a guy comes out whose name turns out to be Facile (sp?). We hit the road, heading south, and I recognize the scenery from my trip to Debrezieit with Tagel in August. They speak mostly Amharic in the car but include me in the conversation often. Lots of laughter and heavy heavy Amharic banter sometimes at very loud voices. We stop at the officer's mess in Debrezeit for breakfast then head out of town a few kilometres, and turn west. We travel for about 3 hours and arrive in a town called Awassa. As it turns out, these guys are wiring a new resort for internet and satellite TV and they are going down to see the site. They have done work before for this guy before who as it turns out already owns 2 hotels and a restaurant in Awassa. We go to the resort first. It looks like it is 4-6 months away from completion. I made a post yesterday from Awassa about the resort. After inspections and discussions go on for about an hour, we go for lunch. After lunch, these 3 guys go back to the resort under construction and I end up at the place next door where I made that post. Jump ahead about 2.5 hours and the guys come trotting over. We sit on the porch of the establishment we are at (where I sat while they worked) and chat and laugh and I end up getting out the guitar. They all pose for pictures with the axe and we have a lovely time. Tagel starts giggling with a few locals on the porch and we head out about an hour or so later. Next stop is one of the resort owner's hotels. I ask Tagel if I could stay at the hotel they are staying at as it is 175 birr whereas this guy's newer hotel is 300. I mention to Tagel that I am still paying for Deker Saturday night so he arranges for me to bunk at the same hotel as them. We sit under one of the tents and gab and chat then Tagel disappears then Germa does the same. The last 2 of us sit and at some point a guy named Ileacal (sp?) joins the 2 of us and he obviously knows the gang from other meetings. As it turns out he is an economist who owns and runs the Ibex institute ... yes that same hotel management school of which I spoke in previous posts. We eventually move into the restaurant portion of the hotel and spend the better part of 2 hours there, again the 4 of them speaking Amharic mainly but breaking into English for my benefit on a more than polite/considerate interval. We try to pay for dinner only to find out it's on the house. Sweet :) The next stop is a traditional night club. Awassa has quite a large number of clubs either traditional or western-style and we opt for the former. The musician is playing an Ethiopian instrument that I have seen in the stores but its name escapes me. He makes a big fuss over ferenge, and light humour about ferenge causes the locals to break out in loud and boisterous laughter many times. A woman comes to the mic and takes over on top of the guy's music and a large African drum. There is a strain of traditional Ethiopian dancing that mainly involves the shoulders. One of the guys in our entourage is HUGE at doing this dance and from time-to-time his chest up to his neck are a blur. This was beyond fascinating and there were a few others in the joint that did the same. We leave after about an hour, and return to the Hotel Lewi, this entrepreneur's lower end hotel and we all turn in. It's a classic what-I-thought-an-Ethiopian-2-star hotel would be but it's fine. I had one of those nights where you're not really sure how much you actually slept. We all were up by 7 and off for breakfast. They ordered lamb tibs and scrambled eggs on injera, as well as what appeared to be a talapia stew, heavy on the fish. All of it was great and there was some wonderful green hot sauce smothered on everything. We then went to a park for a bit while Ileacal got ready to leave and picked him up. It was a little cramped in the car, a Toyota Corolla designed for 5 passengers but a stretch. We drove for about an hour then stopped at a resort on a lake for a while. There were some heated discussions amongst the locals and 2 servers at the spot (not an argument) about the bill and we were eventually refunded 100 birr. Then we were off again and got back towards Addis about 3:30. We stopped at a clothing outlet and Tagel and Germa bought onesies. I was so jealous! We dropped Facile at home then headed to a car wash near Deker. Germa took off then and Tagle ended up getting the car washed. We then went to a photo shop where he got the pictures from his Sony Cybershot transferred to his computer. Why Sony (Olympus and Panasonic as well!!!!) do not use a standard SD memory card is beyond comprehension. Tagel then drops me at the guest house and it all ends ... what a weekend. Two days with 3 sometimes 4 locals doing what comes naturally. I had a salad next door at Blue Drops and life goes on. Back to MoFED in the AM and looking forward to seeing Dr. Paul who returned last night from the US. He brought 8 cameras for people here and they were confiscated at the airport. Tagel told me whenever you bring anything electronic into the country in a quantity above what seems possible for personal use that it is seized. You then have to go back to the airport during business hours to pay the required duty and you get your goods back. Rumour has it that duty can be as much as 100% of the cost of the items. They are worried that you will sell the stuff in Addis and they want their cut ... hence the duty.