Today we toured Addis with our guide Abraham who was recommended by the adoption community in Seattle. He is indeed a treasure.
He took us up to Mount Entoto where King Melelik, the founder of Addis, lived.
The palace was very modest, built the traditional way with adobe (mud and straw) although the building was quite large.
There were also two Eastern Orthodox churches and many nuns sitting around the periphery. We only knew they were nuns because of Abraham....they were dressed like Mary, but not in a uniform.
We toured the museum which contained Melelik crowns, thrones, old bibles in Amharic, and so on.
Abraham took us shopping to the fabric market and helped us negotiate a few purchases, and to a pottery shop run by former Ethiopian Jews.
Apparently these folks were descendents of the original Jew, but have since converted to Ethiopian Orthodox.
We each bought a few pieces of pottery.
The Ethopian National Museum (??) was very interesting with an exhibit showing Lucy and the There were also tribal costumes and Haile Salassie's throne.
Our final stop on this day was a visit to the Sod Abyssinia nightclub where the food was fabulous and the entertainment even better .... a dance and music group demonstrated many traditional Ethiopian dances.
One of the most interesting aspects was that the customers were mostly Ethiopian with a few Chinese, European and of course Americans. Makes you feel more like you're having an authentic experience!
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