A friend recently made the comment that while Addis seems to have a bustling ex-pat community you rarely see them out and about. This proved true after visiting some farangi bars over the weekend and a recent visit to a relatively upscale restaurant. While wandering the city you can feel as if you are the only white person in Addis. The locals also act that way. After a while the cacophony of “Mister! Mister!”, “Hello! Hello!”, “Clean shoes?”, “Taxi ride?”, and “Money! Money!” blends into the rest of the din of Addis. It becomes not unlike the horn honking, the hawking vendors, the animal noises: it’s just something heard but not listened to.
Then you step into a certain restaurant and you realize that there are more white people in this single room than you have seen in all your wanderings. You wonder where they are all day. Do they ever leave the familiarity of western establishments; do they ever leave the security of their housing compounds? Then again, they are probably wondering the same thing about me.
2 comments:
D: you never gave a description of a farangi. It was easy to assume, but a definition might be needed for some readers. Without further ado, little fragger to the rescue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farangi
Love this nugget on that wiki page: The Ferengi are also an alien race in Star Trek.
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