Wow it's been a while since I last posted. Too many things going on and an unreliable internet connection will do it to you. But, at the moment, I have free time, power, internet and a working computer. Praise God.

There's so many things I'd like to get caught up on in terms of blogging. I'll start with this. Ethiopia, Addis at least, has a very communalistic society. Very. Family, friends and relationships are VERY important, so much that they influence parts of society we, Westerners--especially us professionally hyper-active and ambitious Americans--living in comparatively individualistic societies, wouldn't think of.  Here, in terms of work, for example, having a communalistic society affects how (if) you fire someone (with utmost care and near regret), how jobs are done (more leisurely), how you initiate a project within a group (approach the "elders" ), etc. I'm curious to know if such a round-about way of doing things retards progress e.g. economic development. Maybe not.

But on a mundane level, I enjoy seeing how people interact here in such a society. Male friendships are very intimate. Very. Close guy friends will often hold hands while walking down the street. A bit of a shock to see so much of it at first (having grown up in a conservative state), but now I'm used to it. Even my male students (neigborhood kids) will sometimes grab my hand and want to walk with me down the street to the bread store. I politely let go. Good male friends will also greet each other using feminin pronouns. Very bizarre to hear. It's the equivalent of hearing "How are you doing girl?" in English. But, of course, the meaning is completely different--it's not used to start fights here.

On a somewhat related topic, you'll hardly ever see a male driving alone. People on the street here are almost always with their friends, talking. So when someone with a car goes somewhere, others jump in. It's funny sometimes to see, and I don't imagine these others care where they're going.

But then again, transportation alone is a very imporant determinant of when and where someone goes. It can take a hour to go a mile (no long, straight roads here) with public transportation. The most common form of public transportation is in privately owned blue and white vans. Each van, always crowded beyond belief, has a half mile route and makes stops whenever a passenger yells, literally, "There's a stop!". So between waiting for an empty "taxi", as they're called, making loads of stops, and needing more than one taxi to get from point A to B, it's easy to see why it can take so long to go so short of a distance. (I'll blog about what it's like to ride in one of these taxis--it's always a great experience.)

So when a friend says he has a car and is going somewhere, that car fills up with buddies. It happened to me (my school has vehicles I can drive--I'll blog about driving here) once as I went with my Ethiopian friend to check out some houses. When we stopped in the neigborhood to pick up the "real estate agent" (a guy who knows people), two of his buddies decided to come along. So there I was driving around this neighborhood with a group of strange men in my back seat. The buddies also came with us to look at the houses and reminded me how nice each one was. Good times.

And this transportation opportunity (or opportunity to just hang out and talk) isn't limited to cars. When a bulldozer or a large construction machine comes down the road, chances are very good that there'll be one or two buddies hanging on the door frame, next to the driver, laughing and talking. Even better, just the other day I saw a Caterpillar construction machine with a big front "scoop" coming down the road. And there were about a dozen men, the workers I assume, riding in this scoop. Very safe. (Street safety is another topic. Many people just don't know how to cross the road.) Great sight, too bad I didn't have my camera.  

Til next time.

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