Addis Ababa bazaar

My sweet husband hit the ground running this morning even after just 3 hours of sleep from all his travels.  The girls couldn't possibly let him sleep any longer this morning and had to tackle him with kisses.  No only did he bring me home some awesome anniversary presents (I'll save them from another post), he had treats for the girls.  My favorite is this Knitter Critter.  All the yarn is hand dyed and knitted by local women.  This is the kind of thing some fancy pants kids boutique in New York would import.  Only we have one straight from the source! Ash is a lucky girl!

I love the neat things we've accumulated in our travels.  It makes all my Target "treasures" seems so boring (I love Target, don't get me wrong-it's just mass produced blah).

Speaking of treasures, we went to the NGO bazaar today.  It's the last Saturday of every month and all sorts of vendors are selling their goods to the expats in Addis Ababa. Including us! We picked up a few pounds of gorgeous huge apples.  I've never seen apples this nice at any store in Addis.

Pottery is a big deal in Ethiopia and pottery hens of all sizes are a traditional souvenir to collect from Ethiopia.  Who am I to break tradition.  I started our collection with a few of the most traditional black and white painted hens in multiple sizes.  When the largest hen is $8 and the smallest $1 this is a collection that won't break the bank.  Let's put it this way. Anyone who comes to Ethiopia shouldn't go home without spending $20 on an Ethiopian pottery hen collection.  Fact. My Mom is going to freak when she sees these.

Plenty of scarves and colorful baskets, hats, and rugs are sold at the bazaar.  

I really like the animals.  The girls brought home a giraffe and horse from the last bazaar we attended.  I kind of want one of each for myself they are so cute.  

The girls are starving, ALL OF THE TIME.  So we nabbed some delicious lentil samosas for practically free and munched on those for a snack.  OK, I admit, I was crazy hungry too.  No photos.  We ate them all!

Justin happened upon two beer mugs that are hand etched with the logos of two popular Ethiopian beers.  The Hakim Stout from Harar Brewery is my favorite.  It's dark and robust and brewed in the Harar region.  All the beer of Ethiopia is really good.  St. George's is the beer of the nation.  It's dirt cheap (6 birr/bottle) and sold everywhere.  It's a decent light beer.  If you want Hakim you have to go to special restaurants.  We found a place that has it on tap and it's pretty comparable to something you would find at a microbrewery in Virginia (notice I didn't say comparable to microbrew in Oregon.  Nothing is comparable to that sweet nectar of the Gods).

So the bazaar is fun.  If you come visit pick a week at the end of the month-any month.