After spending 3 months in a remote location doing language
learning for 2 months then work in the medical clinic for 1 month it was off to the
city for some mandatory R&R. The big
city was just that… BIG. It also had
lots of food that I didn’t have to cook from scratch on my coal stove. The first night me and a friend went shopping
and got pizza, ice cream, and chips. It was a night of food, fun, movies, and
relaxing. Friday afternoon was time for some serious shopping at the local
version of Superstore. I was able to get everything but teff flour (a staple in
Ethiopian food) which is hard to get here anyways. Not bad for all the stuff I
needed on my list. Saturday was the day to hit the local market for “new”
clothing. Shipping costs to fly goods are expensive enough that its worth
having clothing at my home location and my R&R locations. Since much of the clothing in the market comes
from used clothing stores from all over the world (mainly north America and
Europe) its interesting to see the different styles that are there.
Interestingly I found that my taste in clothing has also been somewhat altered
already. Instead of the standard casual jeans/tshirt stuff I normally go for, I
found some fancier shirts/skirts that fit the practical yet light requirement
for the heat out here. Saturday afternoon
resulted in a 1 hour walk to a different compound. Interesting enough I did
this walk two days in a row and felt just fine unlike the first time I did the
walk about a week after I arrived in Africa barely finished it the first time. I guess I’m
more in shape than I was when I arrived. I have to admit the first walk this time I did
take a taxi back as I picked up 10-15kg of stuff to bring to my fiancée. Since I
had a few extra kgs of free luggage space in my personal luggage and I knew he
had stuff he didn't have space for on his last trip home, I got some of his stuff to max out my kg
allowance. Somehow I managed to do this perfectly. I had a 40 kg allowance and
managed to have one bag at 19.7kgs and the other at 20.3kgs….. I don’t think I
could get that precise again. Then again my next flight I had a 20kg allowance
and came in at 20.05kgs…. maybe my luggage scale is helping :)
