Get Me Outta Here!

While Mark has seemingly made a miraculous recovery from food poisoning, I have remained on a steady diet of toast and rice that I only occasionally manage to keep down.  This condition has left me confined to a 400 sq ft prison cell better known as a Hilton hotel room. Before you roll your eyes, allow me to explain.

This is not your standard US Hilton with posh lighting and down comforters.  No no.
This Hilton was decorated on a motel budget in 1972.
There is black mold in the bathroom.
The sink is cracked.
The coverlet bedding comes complete with someone else's hair.
It is dark. damp. and due to our two cats, also smells like litter.

Alas, there is hope.

On December 2nd, we are getting kicked out the Hilton.
Why? Good question.
There's this ICASA event and thousands are coming to town.
There's no room at the inn.
So they are moving us into an apartment across town!!
Not just any apartment, but one with a door to the bedroom.
For peaceful sleep without cats. Or mold.

BUT! It gets better.
Before arriving we were told a new home was 2 months away.
Then it was three months.
Now it looks like we may have a place to hang our hats before Christmas.

It won't be my happy colonial, tucked up on a hill:

but it won't be a Hilton hotel room, either.

In even MORE exciting news. I'm half way through my pregnancy (20 weeks!!) and my preggo belly has finally gone from awkward triangular mountain to a typical rounded tummy.  I can also FEEL him KICK! He usually does so when I roll over onto my stomach "hey! hey! I'm upside down!!" 20 weeks gestation and he's already got an attitude. This is my child after all. I'll be posting tummy pics tomorrow.

REVISION: I spoke too soon. Mark isn't doing much better than I. It was a temporary high.

Turkey Tumble

It was a matter of time.  We're told it happens to everyone at least once.  Still, I never anticipated reenacting the food poisoning scene from Bridemaids with my husband (if you have seen the movie, you're laughing/throwing up in your mouth a little.  If you haven't seen the movie you should.)

Thanksgiving was great. We had a nice dinner at the Ambassadors house with about 12 other guests.  We then departed for round two at our friend's home for the large young-dip crowd Thanksgiving where I discovered that my sweet potato souffle (read Miller's - thanks for the recipe!) and green bean casserole had been fully consumed.  We stayed late and enjoyed time with new friends, laughing and eating dessert.

Ambassador Booth

Saturday we went to the NGO Bazaar (it occurs once per month) and the German Christmas Bazaar.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Once a year, the German community in Addis puts on a bazaar where delicious German treats are sold alongside handmade crafts for Christmas such as advent wreaths and ornaments.  We were surprised at both events by the quality and craftsmanship of each item sold.  By the time we left the NGO Bazaar, every family member's birthday gift had been determined for the year. Later that evening, we returned to our friend's home to finish off the Thanksgiving leftovers from the party.

Proof that the event really does occur.

Then Saturday night arrived...

From 2am to 2pm, Mark and I were mindblowingly ill.  Around 1pm, I had been trying to get liquids inside of me for hours with no success.  I would sip, throw up, sip, throw up... you get the picture. We called the after hours nurse at the Embassy, who asked us to rotate sips of apple juice and water and try to get in a few crackers.  Mark had only vomited once, so this was a plausible request. For me, not so much.  By 2:30PM, we were at the Embassy clinic. It's the closest thing we have to a hospital here.  The nurse practitioner met us there. She gave Mark oral hydration packets and hooked me into an IV. She then took our vitals.  Both of us were running a fever and had low blood pressure.  My heart rate was significantly elevated as well.  We looked terrible and felt worse. I stopped and thought about taking a picture of how miserable we appeared, and then thought better of it. I hadn't been able to urinate since 5AM so I warned the nurse that this was going to take a while.  And it did. We went through 3 bags of fluid before I was "functioning" again.  By the time we left the Embassy at 6:30 we were beginning to feel better and could walk without fear of passing out. 

We returned to the hotel, giant bag of meds in hand, and asked for a linen change in our room. This was the highlight of our day.  Not only did we desperately need clean towels and a fresh bed, but we also had the chance to meet Hannah, the after-hours housekeeper on premise.  She's (a) a nurse (b) 9 weeks preggo and (c) an angel.  She came over and wiped me down with a cold compress, cleaned up the room, made sure that room service was bringing us toast and water, and called later just to check on us. For all of the many shortcomings that Ethiopia has to offer, it's people are not it.  They know of few boundaries, embrace everyone as their own, and are so quick to offer support, advice and a warm hug.

We survived our Bridesmaids moment and are able to laugh about it. If you found this post to be a little TMI, you should know that I've spared you 99% of the embarrassing and hilarious details.

We awoke this morning hungry.  That's a good sign.  Mark is going to work for a half-day and I'm continuing to rest and drink fluids.  Hopefully we'll be as good as new by tomorrow.
What about y'all? Any interesting post-Thanksgiving tummy tumbles? No? Hmm. How was Thanksgiving football? We missed that. Black Friday deals?

Week #1, post 2

Last night we dressed up and attended the annual Marine Corp Ball.  The event was a lot of fun with dancing and great food.  There were a lot of important Ethiopians at the event, alongside Americans, and also a few representatives from European countries.  We enjoyed our evening, but the glamour of the event was quickly overshadowed by the other side of Addis that we were humbled to see today. 

This morning Mark and I met up with two other couples and a driver and went to a few unique spots in the city.  The first was a shoemaker that creates ballet flats from scrap fabric and uses inner tubes for soles.  The company is called Extra Seeds.  I picked out a fabric that I liked and had him custom cut a pair for me that will be ready tomorrow.  The "factory" is actually a store front in the slums that consists of a single room.  In it there are stacks of fabric and two men cutting and making shoes.  The room has no ventilation and the fumes of contact cement were overwhelming.  The store exists in a line up of storefronts that primarily sell cheap Chinese goods such as clothing, flip flops and plastic bowls.  After visiting Extra Seeds we went to a co-op of women potters who have HIV.  Their "kiln" was a shack with small fires inside that they set the pottery next to.  They pack eucalyptus leaves to the outside of the pottery to give it unique brown patterns.  The pottery is beautiful and we are certainly excited to stock our home, once we get one, with salad bowls, chimineas (sp?), pots, and decor from the co-op. We then headed over to a part of town that in Amharic is called "Giraffe" as that is where giraffes once roamed outside the city.  It's a large part of town that is, at best, slums. Sewage runs through the streets, children run barefoot, old women hobble on impossibly rocky terrain uphill, homes are made of tarps and scrap metal and nothing goes to waste.  There we saw a man who finds rusty and worn metal goods such as hinges and knives and uses a wheel to sharpen them back to life.  We also met a man who tans his own leather (a very cheap commodity here) and hand sews soccer balls. They are excellent quality and about $6.50 USD a piece.  It takes him one day to make one and his shop employs two others.  I bought a traditional shawl made by the women in the slums that is white gauze trimmed in red fabric.  Mark and I have been disappointed that much of the Embassy and NGO staff we have met don't spend any time at all in these parts of town. In fact, many we know have never been to these parts of the city ... and they find Addis frustrating for its inconveniences.  Visiting these parts of town is both humbling and a noteworthy reminder of the comforts that we still have as wealthy Westerners and should not take for granted.  At 12Stone, PK spoke about how people who are comfortable rarely feel compelled to help.  We are officially uncomfortable and we're excited to get involved in an overwhelming and huge problem.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing at the Hilton pool - it has an annual membership fee so many locals use it as a country club of sorts - and played in the pool with two really adorable Sudanese kids.  I'm pretty sure I could make a fortune training wealthy Ethiopian children how to swim.  They all want to know how to swim (they live in a land-locked country with only a few pools) and have no fear of water. My lifeguard senses were on high alert the entire time as I watched people literally bounce off the bottom of the pool in the deep end to "swim" across. After the pool we went to a traditional Ethiopian restaurant with traditional shoulder dancers from the Tigere region of the country (Youtube search "shoulder dancing"...it's insane). From there we went to a gathering at a new friend's house for an evening around a fire pit.  Now it's 12AM and we're headed to bed.  Tomorrow we are attending church at 9am and will then participate in a brunch at 11.  

If you want to talk, please set up a Google Voice account (it's free) and give yourself a phone number on GVoice with a 202 area code and have it set to forward to your cell phone. Once you have done that, email me your 202 phone number and I can call you for free.  It's otherwise about $12/min so basically, I love you all but that isn't happening.  We're also on Skype - our username is Markle.Harlan but we don't really sit by the computer so email us if you want to Skype rather than phone and we can coordinate a time.

Week #1

Written via email to family on November 11, 2011: 


Our first day was great, but we were SO tired! I struggled to stay awake until 6pm last night and slept until 6am this morning. Apparently it's not uncommon to be exceptionally tired your first two weeks because of the altitude adjustment.  Basically you fall asleep and your breathing slows to a rest pace, but it's not enough oxygen so you jolt awake thinking that your suffocating. The altitude has impacted us in other ways. We both sound like smokers and it's embarrassing to watch us walk up a flight of stairs. We are told it takes a while to acclimate and to just be patient.  In the meantime, we have to drink a ton of water.  I drank about 2.5 gallons yesterday and I still had a dry mouth the whole time. 

All I've seen of the city is the stretch between the Hilton and the US Embassy, about a 15 minute drive.  Yesterday after Mark went into the office I unpacked and organized the room.  Then the office driver, Girum (pronounced Groom - he's very nice) picked me up and took me to the Embassy. There we met with the Regional Medical Officer to talk about emergency medi-vac procedures for me in the event of pre-term labor or any other incident.  She's very nice. I will medi-vac out of Addis to Atlanta during my 34th week, no earlier (unless it's an emergency, they won't pay for earlier) and no later (they don't allow that either). Which means, as predicted, you can expect me sometime around March 8. After meeting with the RMO we went to lunch at the Embassy cafeteria which was surprisingly good and then took care of some entry paperwork.  We will be doing a lot more of that on Monday and Tuesday.  After that, I was introduced to everyone in Mark's office and together we sat down with his boss to discuss Mark's plan of work, how I can help, and what to anticipate. He's a very nice, family-oriented guy that carries that reputation with him so we're both pretty excited about that.  Around 3:30 Girum picked us up and drove us to a grocery store to purchase more water (it's very expensive at the Hilton) and a few other goods.  Western food is very expensive here and dining out is exceptionally affordable so I imagine we'll be doing a lot of the later during these next two months. 

The streets of Addis are teeming with people everywhere - on the sidewalks, in the streets, etc. - they have little regard for oncoming cars and, in fact, the pedestrian is always right.  Mark and I were both a little surprised by the lack of destitution.  People may not have much, but there is little homelessness and few shack-like homes here.  Addis is a pretty wealthy city by Ethiopian standards and the rest of the country is apparently much worse off.  We both feel as though the homeless rate in this city is comparable to DC.  The driving here is crazy! There are more accidents in Addis each year than there are in any other city in the world. I believe it, too. Fortunately, no one ever moves fast enough to cause serious injury. Ethiopia's status as a Police State is evidenced by the excessive paranoia and presence of troops everywhere.  It looks as though any minute the President will walk through the door - except he doesn't - it's just normal to have so many cops and troops around.  That will take some getting used to, but it's easy to see why Addis is so safe. 

We were able to acquire two Ethiopian cell phones yesterday but since Ethiopia has Skype blocked, we can't login to our account until Monday at the Embassy to set up routing.  Having cell phones will help tremendously not only talking to y'all, but coordinating travel around the city with a private driver until we are able to acquire cars.  Mark's car isn't done being made in Japan and we are just beginning the process of looking for a car for me.  There is a lot of red tape to acquiring a second car as a family and we've been told to anticipate that the project will take us a few months. The Embassy is closed today due to Veteran's Day and tonight is the Marine Corp Ball. It's conveniently at our hotel.  Today I am going to Boston Day Spa with a girl, Lauren, who works at the Embassy in customs.  She is the resident "spa guru" in Addis and we're getting mani/pedis for tonight for the equivalent of $4 USD. We're still working on finding a converter that will work for our US style plugs - it's not as easy as you might think without a way to leave the hotel. Now that we have phones, we can call a driver (once Meg at the office sends us his number) and ask him to pick us up.  Once we have a converter, we'll be able to charge our laptop and at least Skype via that.  I'll also have a way to use a curling iron, which will be great for tonight. 

Mark loves his new job and is happy to be here.  We've got a packed social calendar this weekend.  The Marine Corp ball tonight, a grill out on Saturday night (a couple at the Embassy just got their fire pit in and want to break it in), church Sunday (we're starting out by trying the International Evangelical Church - your only options are the Mormon church, the Orthodox church and the Evangelical church...we obviously fit into the last more than either of the prior as the Orthodox service last 4 or more hours and we want to find a church community that Ryan will be able to fit into...4 hour services won't be it!) and then a brunch on Sunday in our honor.  Monday we have a health checkup and some paperwork to do to delcare ourselves to the Ethiopian government and Tuesday we have a tour of the Embassy (it's HUGE and looks like a prison from the outside) and a bunch of meetings with people like the Community Liaison Officer.