First Day

Arrived late last night. Today went to the neglected National Museum and the Ethnological Museum at the University of Addis where today was graduation, so there were students everywhere in gowns. Also went to a little zoo our taxi driver thought we would like. Saw some sad lions in small cages who were descendants of the ones that used to roam Emperor Haile Selassie's palace grounds, some monkeys, and some Bongos. It's very safe here, and people are exceedingly polite. Even though traffic is crazy with few (apparent) rules and no yellow lines, there are few honking horns and drivers yield easily to other cars, etc - and that translates to personal interactions, too. Heartbreaking mothers begging with children. Life is clearly very difficult here.