A short story. Ethiopia is a developing nation. Not perfect. Not western. Beautiful. It's the not western part that sometimes surprises us. We stayed at a hotel in Soddo. While thankful for flushable toilets and clean towels (even if they were only hand towels) and the many other amenities that most Ethiopians have never seen, it wasn't the Hilton. Before I share the story, I want you to know that I'm not putting down Ethiopia or Soddo or the hotel. Not one bit. Just wanting to share a story of how you know you're in a developing nation.
While at the hotel, we had many funny and not so funny moments. It mostly was related to the water issue. It started with a leaky toilet in our hotel room and a few other similar situations. It may have been cold but at least we had water. It may have leaked but at least the toilet flushed. Until one day. A leaky pipe on Sunday was being fixed. When it was time to go home, they left the water off, packed up, and went home. After holding "it" all day, one team member rushed into the hotel, dropped her bag and ran upstairs. Upon flushing, she found that the stink didn't go down. The front desk was called for help. She, embarrassed, left the hotel room. Her amazing roommate paid the guy 5 birr for plunging the toilet. After that, it was referred to as a 5 birr poop. Maybe you had to be there to find it as funny as I do.
The rest of that story played out the next morning. When us Americans complained about the water (she wasn't the only one with a 5BP waiting), the staff had the water turned back on. Apparently they should have communicated that the water needed to be left off until the pipe. But it wasn't. The water was turned back on for us. By the next morning the 4th floor was flooded. Maybe the 3rd floor too. I don't remember how many floors were flooded because we were soon distracted with the water fall coming down the marble staircase. We couldn't believe it. Then again, we didn't know anything about the pipe problem from the day before. People lifted up their bags onto their beds, wrung their clothes out and headed to Shanto.
The next day, more and more people were complaining about their mosquito bites. One look from the amazingly talented vet and it was determined that they were flea bites, not mosquito bites. Flea bites? Seriously? It was Ryan's guess that somehow the flooded floors caused the fleas to come out of their hiding places and onto the beds of several of our team. Yuck. It makes my sin crawl thinking about it. Who knows where they actually came from.
Needless to say, the pool air mattress I'd taken stayed on my bed but could have been used for rafting. Shoot, it may have even protected me from the fleas. Am I complaining? No. Even with those little issues, we were still living it up compared to many people in Southern Ethiopia. I am so, so thankful for the many ways we were spoiled on that trip.
So, that's the short story of bugs, floods and 5 birr poops.
I think we stayed at that same hotel in Soddo! The marble staircase and the hand towels gave it away. :) We had many of the same issues. I think they hated us. :)
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