By by el Vagabundo, TravelBlog
The following is a sad story. I enjoyed being back in Addis. People are amazing, and last year as a tourist I discovered the beauties of this culturally rich country. But there is a dark side, that not for being dark is less real.
Walking the streets of the old Addis Ababa, where I stay, is a humbling experience. Not only extreme poverty is evident, by the large numbers of beggars of all ages walking, laying, chasing you on the streets, but by the terrible conditions of many: polio, blindness, leper, amputated limbs, third degree burns, leave a sensation of impotence, of shame of how many times we complain for small things in life. Yes Lole, we are privileged.
The last night in Addis, Hilmer, the smuggler, and I went to check out the Piazza area nightlife. Hilmer asks what do I think of the girls in front of us, lying against the wall.
“They should go to bed.”
“Yeah, but with whom?”
I didn’t realize it until he said it so.
“…but they are thirteen, fourteen, no more than that…”
“But they know what they are doing.”
Hilmer approaches one of them. She seems shy, and can’t speak English, except for…’one-hundred birr’ (about eleven dollars). Two guys immediately approach, offering to translate. Later they would ask for a beer, of course.
Hilmer was able to drive down the rate to fifty birr. The he said goodbye and we continued walking…he was not going to do it, but wanted to seefor how little these little girls would go for. I was silent the whole time, ashamed of even being there.
We walk on, and a drunk guy is molesting a girl selling gum, cigarettes, candies…and condoms. Hilmer and I approach, and totally casual, I stand aside of the girl, while telling the smiling drunk that ‘she is my friend, she is with me’. The drunk desisted and left. The girl, called Salam (Peace), smiled.
When we got out of the next bar less than an hour later, Salam was outside waiting for me. She run and hugged me, and said something in Amharic. I thought she was just grateful. A twenty-something guy is with her.
“She is my sister,” he said. “She wants to go home with you.”
The guy, who turns out was not Salam’s brother, but an elementary school teacher, said that she had never been with a man, and that she would go with me for 200 birr ( about 22 bucks).
I took Salam’s hand between mine, and told her, slowly, that I was her friend, and I was not trying to help so I could sleep with her. I am not sure she got 100% of the message, but she let me go. A beer later, the German and I just left the area. I was angry and depressed.