In Paradise with Kiki

Day 2: Woke up to a beautiful sunrise. I made friends with Kiki today, she's Girma's dog. She sits next to me and lets me play with her fur, this wouldn't be anything spectacular if I didn't have a huge dislike for pets. Since my dog died when I was 7, I decided emotional relationships with animals only end in heart-ache so I stay away. But kiki's good people, it's great to sit in the garden and feel her fur under my palm, she likes it when I tickle her back.

Was left alone for most of the morning, well just me and the helper. Sweet old woman, the only problem was that she speaks only Italian and Ahmaric and I only speak Zulu, a bit of Xhosa and English. So Gogo (as she will be referred to going forward) and I decide to go for a walk to the shops. We eventually found a guy to translate to both of us what we wanted to say. The guy was pretty cool, he gave us a lift in his taxi to the money exchange place. On the taxi ride I met this guy from Nigeria, he immediately asked me where I'm from. Had the urge to say: 'Down the road' but I resisted it.

Gogo and I eventually reached the money exchange place, but it was lunch time and they were out. So we went back home. Trying to make sense of each others words all the way, but in the end we'd just smile to each other. Literally 2 seconds after we got inside the house, it started raining. But like seriously heavy rain. Thank God for the taxi guy who gave us a lift!


Girma took me to Yimchal for lunch. We feasted on traditional raw meat. Lots and lots of raw meat. I love the communal eating culture. 5 of us all eating from one platter. The meat was Divine! Had it with bread, spices and washed it down with traditional coffee. Awesome!

The evening was too crazy! We went out to 3 clubs, the first one had good music but no crowd. The 2nd one had tons of people but no one was dancing. And then.... We hit Platinum. Like for real, the club is called Platinum. OMW! The design is like Taboo, three levels and it's crazy fun! The DJ was on fire! We danced and danced and danced. I think we eventually got home at 3, I never imagined having such a kick-ass party nite in Addis.

Tomorrow is New Years Eve...