Shopping

On Saturday K’s boss took us to the Merkato, which is touted as the world’s largest open-air market. It’s actually an enormous collection of stores, none of which appeared to be open-air. But it was awesome, especially with someone to negotiate for us in Amharic. I was looking at crosses, and one had a particularly prominent figure of Jesus. I was trying to think of the best way to describe my thoughts on it, and all I could come up with was, “It has too much…[long pause]… Christ.” It has too much Christ. Oy vey.

We met K’s boss’s adorable two-year-old son after. It’s customary to fake-kiss people on the cheeks to say hello or goodbye, but the baby full-on smooched my cheeks to say goodbye. I melted.

This morning a white woman who was obviously a tourist walked into the office and approached my desk as though she had a question. I am not the person that people typically choose to ask for assistance when they walk in the office, so I just stared at her confusedly. Then she asked me where she could buy tampons. I’m not sure if she sought me out because I am white and thus probably speak English or if she sought me out because I am white and thus… an expert in the procurement of feminine hygiene products? Either way, I didn’t understand why she had wandered into the Ministry of Health to get this information. Turned out she had brought some medical equipment with her from Canada while on a trip to visit her friend’s family here and was trying to figure out how to donate it to hospitals. Aha, that’s why she was in the Ministry of Health. On a side note, I felt pretty badass when she asked skeptically if I worked here and I got to say yes. Even though that’s kind of false.