the two cities. The entire population of Rwanda is about 10 million people; the city of Addis Ababa alone has 3 million people.There's no doubt that Ethiopia has an incredible history...but it's honestly the dirtiest, smelliest and most void of humanity place we've ever seen.
Signs of polio and other diseases run rampant on the streets - people with twisted limbs, dragging body parts on the rock plagued sidewalks...we actually saw a man with a hole in his thigh the size of a grapefruit. No one even noticed this man and I could only imagine that at home dozens of people would be calling 911 or offering to help him. The disparity between the "haves" and "have nots" was unimaginable.
While stopped outside a tin-roofed shack that was an average grocery store, a woman was emptying buckets onto the edge of the street. It was on the third bucket that I realized she was dumping human waste - and this seemed pretty commonplace even in the city.
Every taxi ride began with a crazy set of arguing over the price of the ride and everyone knew someone that could take us somewhere, show us something, sell us something - egad.
We found a few shiny spots in some compassionate folks at the US Embassy, a pediatrician from Poland who examined Alliette on the spot and lovely man at our hotel who offered to drive us around the city to find some gifts.
No comments:
Post a Comment