Familiar Face

Last Sunday, J and I went to Entoto mountain to see the Maryam Cathedral
and Museum as well as the old palace of Emperor Menelik. We had taken
five mini buses to get there, but the scenery was well worth it. As we
were walking around, J noticed a familiar face; it was, Getachew, one of
the instructors from the training center. The day before happened to be
the day of St. Maryam, so he was visiting the cathedral with his friend
Kasahun. We were happy to see him and meet his friend, and they offered
to give us a lift back into town since Kasahun had his own car. We
quickly took them up on the offer, and since they hadn't see the palace
yet, we walked around with them again and talked along the way.
Afterwards, the four of us piled into the car and we headed down to the
Sheraton Hotel. The Sheraton is the best hotel in Ethiopia and the
compound offers a beautiful place to take a stroll, have coffee or even
listen to piano in the lobby. I'd never been there before, and I was
impressed with the elegance of the place. No doubt it would be a
comfortable place to stay, but in creating a little paradise in the
city, it lacked the distinctive and enjoyable character of Addis Ababa.
However, the hotel is open to guests who can pay for day use of the
pool, sauna or to go to the shops and restaurants on the premises.
As we neared the late afternoon, we stopped at La Parisian, a popular
cafe downtown, to have a drink together and relax while we chatted with
Getachew and Kasahun. It was nice to get to know them better and hear
about the region they were both originally from, further north in
Ethiopia. In fact, they had known each other for nearly 20 years and
work together a bit since Kasahun owns a driving school while Getachew
is trained as an auto mechanic.
When we finished our drinks, we said thank you and went our way, but we
were both glad we were able to spend some time with people we know here
away from the office and feel a little bit at home. Our morning trip to
Entoto turned out to be a truly fun day.