Journaling Ethiopia

This is my 100th post

Who knew I could be so prolific? My sister is usually the talker in our family. ;-)

I have a lot to catch up on with you, dear blogreaders, and I will do my best in the midst of similar efforts to catch up on work.

I hope you all had good Thanksgivings--mine was fairly bizarre, as could be expected. I worked my butt off trying to get all the loose ends wrapped up before leaving for Cairo, and because I had a dinner party my friend S. invited me to that evening.

The party was at the Chinese Embassy, but S. didn't give me many details beyond "no jeans," so I figured it was an informal gathering, since he is buddies with a lot of the Chinese staff here, having lived in China and being fluent in Mandarin; we were going, he said, for "the best Chinese food in Africa. For free." Well, I was sold, especially since my fridge has been empty for a month due to travel and lockdown. All the Chinese staff live on the Embassy compound and fly in their own food.

As we drove into the compound I noticed there were a whole lot of cars and started to get suspicious. Upon questioning, S. finally admitted he hadn't told me the whole truth of the event because he knew I wouldn't have agreed to come if he had. Not an auspicious beginning. He pulled out an invitation he'd received, stamped with the formal seal of the People's Republic, and I opened it to read: "His High Excellency Mr. H--L invites you to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Sino-Ethiopian relations," etc. etc. Black tie. I was wearing a light cotton skirt that ended at my knees and no stockings. I was, as you can imagine, less than pleased at S.'s manipulation but upon his urgings that the food was REALLY good and there would be enough people that we would be inconspicuous, I agreed to go for a short while.

We walked in, were presented with pins with the Chinese and Ethiopian flags which were required attire, and entered a huge hall full of people. I immediately noted that not only was I the youngest person there excepting the Chinese ambassador's children, I was also wearing the shortest skirt. Men in formal military dress dotted the crowd amidst pretty much every ambassador in Ethiopia. S. turned to me and said, "I'm probably the lowest ranking person here," which didn't improve my mood because at least he has a rank--I had absolutely nothing in common with the crowd, and was feeling extremely out of place and at a loss for conversation topics. I stood awkwardly holding my plate as he chatted in Mandarin with ebullient (and/or drunk) Embassy folks, and I gained a sudden insight into the life of a foreign service worker's spouse: incredibly, incredibly dull. I was roped into trying an expensive Chinese liquor made from sorghum which tastes a bit like what you would imagine airplane fuel to taste, only it burns more going down.

posted by Margot @ 6:58 AM