It was a holiday yesterday—Labor Day. I spent my morning booking flights and applying for a visa for Tanzania in lieu of my itinerary alterations. I did a little bit of work because I’ve been assigned a new task of some data analysis and I need to learn the softwares. At noon I decided to treat the day like the holiday it was, and went out to explore the city.
There’s a restaurant nearby my home that I’ve been to a couple times before and my hunger was overpowering my desire for exploration, so I sat down for a meal. Like I said, I was hungry, so I didn’t think to take a picture of the food before I absolutely demolished it and turned my plate into these scraps of soggy injera.
After lunch I had walked around for a bit when I was overcome by a spirit of adventure and found myself in a coffee shop. In general I don’t like coffee, but so far the one cup I have had here wasn’t terrible. I also really enjoy the aesthetic of the “ceremony” that accompanies coffee, so it decided I should give it a go.
I spent near 5 hours exploring Hawassa on foot. Sidewalks don’t exist everywhere, so I was mainly walking on the street. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it yet, but in Ethiopia driving is on the right side of the road. It’s been weird to go back and forth and I’m sure my brain will be completely scrambled when I get back to Tanzania.
Around 6:00pm I settled down in this church’s compound to read my new book. Like everything else, it is under construction. However, it has lovely park grounds around it with benches and it was nice to sit for a little while.
The church isn’t too far from home, so I got back around 7:00 after having read for a bit. I was a bit disappointed to find that the water to my bathroom wasn’t operating, even though it was working in my kitchen. I was all sweaty from the day and was disappointed not being able to shower and all. And unfortunately I haven’t seen the landlady for the past two days and don’t have a way to contact her. Im not sure when I’ll see her next and be able to fix this issue. Maybe it’ll solve itself—we will see.
I watched a movie before bed—Snack Shack—and then read a little bit more. I really had trouble falling asleep because the mosquito net kept falling down. Eventually I was irritated enough to get up and try to find a solution. I am proud to say I have made the best, I think, possible setup with the net and some engineering genius. I don’t have a picture of it yet, but maybe tonight I’ll take one.