I am writing this while watching a literal wall of water pour down on Addis. This water has brought about one major change to our living accommodations. It has brought us ants. Thousands upon thousands of ants. Thankfully only in 1 room so we were able to contain them. Not-so-thankfull it was MY room so I will be sleeping on the couch for the night. We unfortunately have run out of bug-be-gone and it is a holiday and have no contact with anyone …. so we’ve barricaded the room and hopeful that more do not start spilling into other rooms. I can honestly say there are more than 3 thousand ants along one wall and on the ground … many of them drowning in a sea of bugspray that will helpfully do some serious damage. And tomorrow we hope that we can find a longterm solution because as much as I love nature. I’m not super down to share a bed with thousands of ants.
Now. The great flood in the title is not referring to the downpour. That would be too easy. The other day we came home to the floor of our accommodations covered in water. We found the source was the hot water tank in the kitchen … I’ve never seen an electrical outlet unplugged with a stream of water running down it. I’m not an electrician but something tells me that isn’t the way it was supposed to look. We mopped up as much as we could. Tried to shut off the water …. couldn’t. So we did the next best thing. We used pots and pans to set up a barrier to divert the water spilling out of the container so it flowed into the sink instead of onto the floor. We thought this would suffice until we could get help the next morning (have I mentioned it was another holiday so no one was around?) We woke up and were incredibly mistaken. The water had gotten worse …. we still aren’t sure how. But our driver for the day was a miracle worker. He was able to shut off the water tank and helped us clean up the water.
I’m sure one of my teammates will be writing about our experience with Ethiopian culture in the form of easter. I’ll give you a preview – it involves the slaughter of thousands of goats/oxen. The eating of raw meat. Piles of dead carcasses on the road. And … well – if you’re a vegetarian … you might want to skip that post.
Love from Addis!
Emma