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Ethiopian Diaspora Returns Home After 18 Years
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Dec 4, 2023
#addisababa #ethiopia #visitethiopia #triptoethiopia If you like our videos, pitch into our Crowdfunding efforts to grow our operations! https://ifundwomen.com/projects/sharing-empowering-unique-black-stories I left Addis Ababa back in 2001. It took me 18 years to return home for a visit. This was my short but sweet visit to Addis Ababa. Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia, a country located in Eastern Africa. The city has gone through a massive transformation in the last 20 years, doubling the population of an already busy city. _______________________________________________________________________ BlackExcellence.com is a digital platform dedicated to empowering excellence everyday through sharing thought provoking, informative, entertaining, and noteworthy stories in the global black community. Website: https://blackexcellence.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/BExcelOnline Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackexcell... FB: https://www.facebook.com/BExcelOnline/
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0:00
I left Atisalba in July 2001 on a very rainy evening
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On this rainy evening 18 years later, I'm getting ready to return to the city that raised me
0:17
To never have visited home in 18 years is almost unheard of for most Ethiopians
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But school, work, running my own business has kept me away from even a short trip to Addis
0:28
And now the time has come. In San Francisco now, going to Frankfurt next, and then off to Adi Salva. Yay
0:39
Adi Ababa. Adi Salva is the capital city of Ethiopia, a country located in eastern Africa
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In the last 20 years, the city has gone through an incredible transformation
0:50
In the year 2000, the population of Adis was estimated to be around 2.4 million
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In 2020, the population of Adi's population of the population of has risen to almost 5 million
1:03
Because I left Adis at a relatively young age, I've always had a romanticized vision of the city
1:09
I often tell friends and family that I have a desire to return there permanently
1:13
But the consistent response I received from them is that I'm too used to Western comforts
1:17
now, and I would struggle to cope with the lifestyle of a developing country
1:23
On this trip, I hope to answer the question, could I return and live here
1:28
After traveling for close to 20 hours, we finally arrived at Boli International Airport
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I'm not a Turkey. I'm here
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The city is quiet at night, but we were not ready for all the hustle and bustle that daylight brings
2:02
It's our first morning at Tisaoba. It's really exciting to be here
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It's a little kitty right here. This is our cat. It's a little talkative
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The weather is really, really nice. Mornings were my favorite part of the day in Adisawa
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And it's just so beautiful. The weather's nice and cool. It's not the rainy season and we came in the dry season
2:37
so it's really, really nice. Can't wait to go out to the city, see what's going on. Yeah
2:43
First morning. If I was to move to Adisaba temporarily or permanently
2:53
there are four things I would care the most. things I would care the most about. Lifestyle, infrastructure, work, and safety
3:01
So we're in a taxi right now. We passed Arat Kilo and everything feels so so close I guess growing up it felt like going to Arat Kilo from our neighborhood was so far Like he had to take so many different taxis or felt so far
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But no, we've only been driving around for 20 minutes, maybe, and we've been through so many different neighborhoods
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Lifestyle is one thing I thought for sure I wouldn't struggle with. That Diss I knew was a place of stress-free living, delicious food
3:32
ample family time and frequent cafe visits. Some things haven't changed. The eggs and onions might be tiny, but they're packed with flavor
3:45
Every morning we were treated to the breakfast of my childhood, something I have missed dearly
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And every afternoon? Now we are at the famous Baclava place. This is the best place to get Bunglava in the city
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and this is the oldest place in the week. This is one of my favorite place
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When you get your baklava, the bees come with it. Like seriously, the bees
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It seemed every couple of blocks there was another busy cafe, juice bar or restaurant
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What has changed dramatically though is the prices of everything. A bottle of soda that cost one bed when I was living in Addi's is now 15 bird
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A glass of juice has gone up to 30 bird. Although these prices were extremely affordable when converted to dollars, I couldn't help but wonder how locals were affording to pack every cafe we walked by in the middle of a workday
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An average net monthly income nettees is estimated to be around 4,000 to 10,000 bid for government and private workers, respectively, which is between $133 and $333
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But a one-bedroom apartment in the city can easily cost 5,000 better to rent
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And add on top of that food, transportation, clothing, and other costs, and it's a mystery how anybody can afford to live in the city that's forever growing
5:13
Today's our second day in Addisa Ababa and I'm just so, so happy to be here
5:27
I'm already starting to meet now family members, aunties, and cousins. And I think that's the biggest thing I miss is just the people
5:36
So it's so crazy to see them after so many years. How everybody's grown up and married and has kids
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And the city is just so vast now. When you're a kid, the city felt big
5:49
But now when you go and see the areas, the areas that you thought were big are small
5:54
but you see how much the, just in general, how the city. has gotten so much bigger and wider
6:00
It just feels like, you know, the country has moved on without you
6:05
It's just, I'm happy to be back. I also feel like I haven't left
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I don it just feels like I been here this whole time not that I back So it incredible It incredible Just to see the growth and see the change See the people again
6:22
It's amazing. One thing I was most concerned about going to ADIS was transportation
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Growing up, taxis were widely available. But I've heard that getting public transportation at almost any time of the day is a nightmare
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But to my surprise, various forms of transportation have filled the city
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We took the recently opened railway train, buses, ride an Uber-like ride-share service, and good old minibus taxi
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I know how good. Hello. Do you have to drive in? No
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I know. I know. That Audi's going to kill itself. At all of it
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At 5 a.m. every morning, we were woken by a church right behind our house
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Growing up, church prayers were an everyday part of life in Addisa Abba
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But to be woken by it every morning now feels so foreign
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But what wasn't foreign was losing power. Lights kept going sporadically throughout the week
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But lucky for us, the longest power outage we experienced was less than an hour long
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We are at the newly open unit park. As we went around the city, I can't
9:04
I couldn't help them be in awe with the countless businesses that keep the city in motion
9:09
Construction and small shops were the lifeblood of the city. As a filmmaker and photographer, I did pause to think that, hey, maybe I can have a business here too
9:20
And the perfect place for this business would be my old neighborhood A place that was once a quiet neighborhood ideal for raising a family has turned into a hot commercial center with a new massive
9:31
stadium being built. So this area is called Bolle. We grew up in this area and none of this was here
9:41
when we were growing up. None of this buildings were here. This area was a quieter area
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It's so amazing to see the difference in the change that's here now
9:52
This is incredible. As we walked down the busy streets of Boli, we faced our first and only attempt at pickpocketing
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The teenagers were not successful at taking anything from the group, but it left us a little shaken up
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Although we had been warned about petty theft and ad-dis, after several days of exploring the city safely, we had begun to let our guard
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down. At Disalva historically has been known as one of the safest cities in the region
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Although petty theft can happen in crowded areas, violent crime is very rare. And even in the
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midst of a political turmoil that has plagued Ethiopia for the last few years, we felt
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very safe walking around and taking public transportation almost everywhere we went
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Today is Christmas Net-Nat-Dicellabah, and the city is much, much quieter than it is usually
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And we're stuck somewhere because we're having car troubles. Almost half of our time in Adhese was spent going around visiting family and friends
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Here we're visiting one of our cousins that lives in one of the condominium units that were built and sold by the government for really affordable prices to those who are lucky enough to win them through a lottery-like program
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As our vacation ADIS came to an end, I contemplated the question again
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Could I move to ADDIS to live here? The answer? Absolutely yes
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With all the challenges and inconveniences of a developing city, Addi's is just simply magnetic
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