Taxi initiation rights

Three months or so since I first got to Addis. I have probably taken 30-40 cab rides since I got here. I was at Dr. Paul's for dinner last night. Normally, I hoof it down the hill beside his house to a busier street and flag a taxi. If none is to be found, I walk a few hundred metres up a hill and get one close to Adam's pavilion where they seem to hang out at night. Not ferenge in crutches you say ... Micha went and got the taxi and brought it back to the house and we left from there. So we leave the house and the driver immediately takes a wrong turn. He asks us if he is going the right way and ends up verifying with someone on the street. The journey begins and the car stalls as soon as we get half way up the hill towards where the cabs collect. He has ran out of gas. He begs us to be patient, grabs what looks like an empty orange juice container, and stops the first cab he sees in his quest for gas. Why stick around one may say? We are not going far since ferenge is in crutches so we might as well stay put and chat for the 10 (ya right!!) minutes the driver is gone. Lo and behold, about 12 minutes later he returns, Like Mel Gibson in the Road Warrior, we can see his silhouette in the lights thrown by businesses and cars at the top of the hill. He pumps the gas peddle with the force one would expect to snap the throttle cable, and the engine eventually springs to life. Off we went to Deker Inn, using I might say the route through Mexico and Meskel which is not the best way to go; spoken by an ex-taxi driver, that means something. The MAAR (Michael Abbey Approved Route) is Ethio-China to Bolé then cut over using the Mike Leyland extension to Gambia where the inn resides. I went to St. Gabriel hospital Sunday afternoon to ask them to remove a wart from the middle finger on my left hand. The proper doctor would not be in until 9AM today so I will be going there first thing instead of work. This thing was looked at by my doctor when I was home in September and she was not worried about it, referring me to a plastic surgeon in January.