10-4-2010 0630 The Apartment, Bole Avenue, Addis. Yes, Bole is the name of the airport, and this is also Africa Avenue, which if you follow it leads to Kenyatta, Tito, and even Chino-Ethiopia Street (or Ave, cant recall which), The small duka where we bought khat (yes, pronounched 'chat') is just off Bole and a little South of China. The National Museum is further along, past Tito and further North than the Addis Sheraton (more about that later also) and yesterday was a day of rest from the medical work, so we went to the museum. After the walk, of course.
Yesterday began clear, and relatively smog free because of it being Sunday, and later, coming out of the National Museum, there were towering cumulus nimbus clouds off to the Southwest, real castles and dragons. But perhaps I was influenced by the museum.
Sala and I have played at assigning levels to the museums we have visited. This one was mostly level 2, but the approach to Lucy is, as you might expect, level 4, a little shopworn with use, but still definitely level 4. Not geographically; its actually in the lower floor, with all the windows sealed off and very controlled lighting, one of the attributes of many level 4 museums.
But why is the floor of art, the floor of artefacts, the floor of ancient artefacts and the exhibit of the clothes of past emperors along with a case of their swords level II? It's not level I because things are separated into floors, and into subject cases. There are no two headed calves next to the bloody smocks from past revolutions (in fact, no two headed calf at at all). But the labeling is only mildly informative, and the themes of each case seem to be things like 'anything made of wood' rather than 'the story of plowing', which you would find in a level 3 museum. The lighting is reminescent of the national museum in Hanoi...subtle aka available daylight. And the art section ranges 17th century religious wall art across the way from an exhibit of smiling contemporary women creating lovely multi colored baskets.
The two exceptions are the video crowned kiosk in the middle of the emperors-costumes-and-swords room when you come in. It concerns Homo sapiens idaltu, who is the current cantidate for immediate grandpa.
From Wikipedia:
"The fossilized remains of H. s. idaltu ('old one') were discovered at Herto Bouri in the Middle Awash site of Ethiopia's Afar Triangle in 1997 by Tim White, but were first unveiled in 2003.[1] Herto Bouri is a region of Ethiopia under volcanic layers. By using radioisotope dating, the layers date between 154,000 and 160,000 years old. Three well preserved crania are accounted for, the best preserved being from an adult male (BOU-VP-16/1) having a brain capacity of 1,450 cm3 (88 cu in). ((We average 1300...Lucy's kind were 375 to 500)) The other crania include another partial adult male and a six year old child.[1]These fossils differ from those of chronologically later forms of early H. sapiens such as Cro-Magnon found in Europe and other parts of the world in that their morphology has many archaic features not typical of H. sapiens (although modern human skulls do differ across the globe)."
The video that runs on screens at the middle of the glass walled kiosk that houses a reconstruction model of h.s.idaltu's skull is quite touching and level 5..technically flawless, informative, and emotive. After dissolving through the reconstruction of a male face, based on the skull remains, it dissolves through representatives of the usual varients of human, each view ending as a smile begins. Really well done. I think it was prepared for an international pan-africa exhibit.
The downstairs section was partly non functional (typical of level 4) but also really intersting...exhibits of models of the very fragmentary remains that take us back towards 300,000 BCE...and up to the sapiens level. I particularly liked the introduction of sharp rock tools, and, without much comment but very clearly, their refinement as the centuries rolled along. The non working parts (darn!) are videos about fossiking, about dating, and fascinating things like that.
As you turn towards Lucy, the lighting diminishes, the plywood partitions break things up into absorbable chunks,and the legends and wall charts become informative and written at a perky 8th grade level. We see how pig fossils are used as a surrogate for human dates. We learn about giant and pygmie hippos, about different fossil croc's. And, most important for me, we learn about how the rift valley was formed by the collapse of a chip off a broken continental plate, and what it might have looked like 160,000 years ago, Lucy's time. Bob says, 'It looks just like all of our idealized parks..the garden of Eden'. And in the little diorama presented, it does. The arid conditions of today are our legacy, along with the fossils, But then there were grasses, shrubs, and other evolving mammals to say nothing of tasty insects and reptiles. And then finally, around the last corner,Lucy.
Of course its actually reproductions. Next to the skeleton is a reconstruction. So little. She would be terrified by the traffic.She was about as big as the child with the face so disfigured by a healed burn that I could barely see its body, the child that came crowding up to the SUV as we got back in after a stop to buy scarves. Kevin, so pierced he really had no option, gave Direr a quite large birr bill to give the child . Of course, by the time the window was down, the child had been mobbed by older children, indeed by beggers of all ages. Aiiyiyiyi!! But begging is modern hunting and gathering, something that Lucy was probably pretty good at, already.
The clouds were boiling, the traffic was thicker, but it was still clearly Sunday and no rain yet. Kevin decided he would take us by the Addis Sheraton. He wanted to take us to dinner later, and since there are four (4) restaurants there, he wanted us to see them in advance, and decide which. And of course, see the swimming pool. If the manicured and well fenced grounds havent already told you this is something very different than your regular Kansas hotel, the entry way immediately conveys it. The security system is the equal of Washington DC federal buildings; uniformed guards, under car mirrors, open hood inspections, open all bags, and a flip up bomb proof barrier along with a steel gate. OK, enough, right? Nope, there is an additional personal security check at the door, complete with belt x ray and walk through metal detector.
The hotel is said to be the best in Africa,,,rooms over $300 for a single, and the dinner menus start at 200 birr for appetizers. We ended up selecting a buffet style venue, passing up Italianate, Indian, and jus plain posh. Stepping out of the Eastern side, we walked past tiered fountains that the designers possibly hoped would evoke Versailles, and then down a long paved walk to the pool. The overall style is Cement Realism with a touch of Early Colonial Ostentation. We were accompanied under the now blue again skies and balmy weather by two very blond and very excited children and their parents, their entire presence shrieking 'beach'. We arrived at the large, beautiful, and very posh pool with seemingly endless yellow terry cloth and wooden lounges. A gate. a gatekeeper. And were told it was for guests only. But wait, surely there must be a way. There was in Dar...you could pay for a day pass. We asked the South African parents of the excited children, and sure enough...for only $200 birr per person, you can bathe. And you know what? Remembering back to traveling in Sudan with Aminta and Tirien, and the vigor with which we used our American skin privilege to get into the pool at the embassy club, it would probably be worth it even at that price.
It was showering lightly when we returned, and I spent the afternoon doing a powerpoint for todays work session. This one is really about engineering..the scrolls and clicks that we use to assess and track student and faculty competances. Perhaps not the stuff of high level planning, but I find it comforting to make power points..and it will perhaps help .. manage anxieties while we encourage our colleagues to stay with the planning a little longer, to really sort the issues of what kind of curriculum they want. I totally appreciate the work that the Tulane team, with Kevin in the later stages, put in already. It lets us really grapple with the core issues. And yet...time runs short, and the Minister must be presented with a curriculum soon.
Back at the Sheraton for dinner, the dinner and salad bar were A+, and the little dish labeled coffee creme brulee was...well, stick with the delicious little caramel puff pastries instead, should you have the opportunity.
And at 3 am I woke with a intermittant deep definitely nagging pain in my right elbow. Dogs barking. Some stars showing through the slight haze. Rolled over. Rubbed it. Did alphabet exercises. Finally turned on the light and took two ibuprofen. Read 'Cutting..'. Went back to sleep. It's still there, the pain, of unknown origin, but very tolerable now. It reminds me of how fragile is our peace. That's aging for ya, something new every day. Or as cynthia said once, enjoy it while you can.
Have a wunnerful day. From now on, I am not certain of the agenda.But hope it will include some travel out of town, and a visit to a working healthpost and hospital.
Alan
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