Tuesday was our last day before we got Blen. It was to be our shopping day. We went to the Merkato first. It is Africa's largest open air market and it is huge. It is criss-crossed by many streets and is an absolute madhouse with traffic and people everywhere. It is also not the safest place - especially for tourists. We hired guards and had them accompany us. Our group was the eight of us, the driver and four guards with billy clubs.
Aubrey & I bought some crazy hot spices in plastic bags. As we were walking away from that spot, some guy came walking past us shouting about us into the air. He then spit at one of the women in our group and the guard nearest him unloaded his billy club into his ribs and the guy was gone (probably with a couple of broken ribs). We then negotiated the maze of alleys and streets and shops and bought some pretty cool stuff. Nothing has a price tag and all the prices are negotiable. I'm pretty sure we all paid twice a merkato veteran would pay for anything. I'm sure the shop owners were all very happy to see Americans come by. I'm an easy mark.
We then went to a smaller market area to shop and buy more trinkets. Wendy was of course out of control, with Birr flying out of her wallet at alarming rates. While she shopped, I was going to get my shoes washed by a boy who washes shoes. There are thousands of boys who do this and because there is a lot of mud, they stay pretty busy. Anyway, as I was about to put my foot on his stool, a lady came over and kicked him in the ribs incredibly hard, I can still hear the sound. The boy took off and I never got a clear story as to why it happened. Crazy. Lots of sore ribs Tuesday night.
Later that night we went to a restaurant that had traditional Ethiopian music and dancing. Incredible dancing, very strange music with strange instruments and lots of ululations. The food was great again and Alemu got us a round of honey beer called tej. It used to be only for royal banquets but is now available in some places. It came out in an unlabeled bottle and was poured into conical shaped glasses (think high-school science class) with a narrow top. The first draw was like a punch to the face. It tasted like honey mixed with beer and a pasture, kind of like manure. Sweet manure. One woman gagged about 15 times before she could regain her gag reflex. I still found a way to finish the whole thing (you know, you don't want to insult the host) and Wendy tried to finish hers and started to laugh and had a bunch fly out of her nose. I can't imagine smelling that the rest of the night, Wendy said it was not pleasant. The ride home that night was full of bad humor and lots of laughs, that tej is pretty strong.
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